Category: News
For the first time in the lives of millions of Americans, there is no Paul Harvey to bring us his news and commentary.
Harvey died February 28 in a Phoenix hospital. The cause of death was not immediately known.
Paul Harvey was 90 and leaves behind family, friends, and generations raised on his radio show.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Escaping Slavery
Category: 50 Songs to Hear
SONG: Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home
ARTIST: Long Ryders
SONGWRITER: Sid Griffin
ALBUM: Two Fisted Tales
YEAR/LABEL: 1987; Island
Look at me. I'm an eighth generation Kentuckian, and yet I hated country and western as a tyke.
(Sid Griffin)
One of the best-kept secrets of the "roots rock" movement of the mid-1980s was the Long Ryders. The band released a number of critically-acclaimed albums but never managed to break free of that dreaded "cult band" status. The band broke up and lead singer/songwriter Sid Griffin moved to England, where he solidified his reputation as one of the leading experts on the late country-rock icon Gram Parsons and formed another band, the Coal Porters.
Nestled amid the Long Ryders' too-few releases is "Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home," a brilliant number about escaping slavery and referencing the Underground Railroad leader. The song is performed from the woman's point of view, although sung by a man (which is not unusual: check out Andy Pratt's "Avenging Annie" in rock or the Louvin Brothers' rendition of "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" in country).
The song is in a minor key and features prominent mandolin playing by Griffin. The song references several historical persons in addition to the title character (Frederick Douglas, Dred Scott). While the song has its roots in history, the song can easily be about breaking free of anything from the slavery of a record label to a burdensome relationship. It follows the pattern of numerous spirituals, where the title is repeated after each line in the verses ("They ain't got their freedom but they got their pride, Harriet Tubman's gonna carry me home, and there's more of them as there's more of me, Harriet Tubman's gonna carry me home"). When the song finishes the listener feels as liberated as the protagonist.
While a song from Two Fisted Tales, "I Want You Bad," generated some airplay thanks to a video (that featured, as Griffin joked in concert, guitarist/vocalist Stephen McCarthy looking way too much like Jackson Browne), this album was their last before disbanding. The Long Ryders have occasionally reunited for some shows despite their newer ventures (Griffin with the Coal Porters and a documentary on his idol, Gram Parsons; McCarthy as a touring member of the Jayhawks). Their legacy as one of the important American roots rock bands is solidified thanks to this marvelous song.
OTHER LONG RYDERS MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire State of Our Union album -- the title song presents all the speech ("if I start slowing down and I throw in too many you all's for you all") and lifestyle ("cornbread, stock cars, minor league baseball too") stereotypes unashamedly with a rocking beat that will make Yankees want to move, and the other marvelous tunes on the album ("You Just Can't Ride the Boxcars Anymore," "Looking for Lewis and Clark," "Capturing the Flag") will give them something to crank up as they make the journey south.
"(Sweet) Mental Revenge" (from 10-5-60) -- a classic country song penned by Mel Tillis and made famous by Waylon Jennings given a good treatment.
"Run Dusty Run" (from 10-5-60) -- think of taking the horse race line in the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek" and making an entire song around it while driving around a NASCAR track and you can hear this song.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
I Lost Today
Fingerprints
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Entella Hotel
Desperados Under the Eaves
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
SONG: Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home
ARTIST: Long Ryders
SONGWRITER: Sid Griffin
ALBUM: Two Fisted Tales
YEAR/LABEL: 1987; Island
Look at me. I'm an eighth generation Kentuckian, and yet I hated country and western as a tyke.
(Sid Griffin)
One of the best-kept secrets of the "roots rock" movement of the mid-1980s was the Long Ryders. The band released a number of critically-acclaimed albums but never managed to break free of that dreaded "cult band" status. The band broke up and lead singer/songwriter Sid Griffin moved to England, where he solidified his reputation as one of the leading experts on the late country-rock icon Gram Parsons and formed another band, the Coal Porters.
Nestled amid the Long Ryders' too-few releases is "Harriet Tubman's Gonna Carry Me Home," a brilliant number about escaping slavery and referencing the Underground Railroad leader. The song is performed from the woman's point of view, although sung by a man (which is not unusual: check out Andy Pratt's "Avenging Annie" in rock or the Louvin Brothers' rendition of "I'll Be All Smiles Tonight" in country).
The song is in a minor key and features prominent mandolin playing by Griffin. The song references several historical persons in addition to the title character (Frederick Douglas, Dred Scott). While the song has its roots in history, the song can easily be about breaking free of anything from the slavery of a record label to a burdensome relationship. It follows the pattern of numerous spirituals, where the title is repeated after each line in the verses ("They ain't got their freedom but they got their pride, Harriet Tubman's gonna carry me home, and there's more of them as there's more of me, Harriet Tubman's gonna carry me home"). When the song finishes the listener feels as liberated as the protagonist.
While a song from Two Fisted Tales, "I Want You Bad," generated some airplay thanks to a video (that featured, as Griffin joked in concert, guitarist/vocalist Stephen McCarthy looking way too much like Jackson Browne), this album was their last before disbanding. The Long Ryders have occasionally reunited for some shows despite their newer ventures (Griffin with the Coal Porters and a documentary on his idol, Gram Parsons; McCarthy as a touring member of the Jayhawks). Their legacy as one of the important American roots rock bands is solidified thanks to this marvelous song.
OTHER LONG RYDERS MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire State of Our Union album -- the title song presents all the speech ("if I start slowing down and I throw in too many you all's for you all") and lifestyle ("cornbread, stock cars, minor league baseball too") stereotypes unashamedly with a rocking beat that will make Yankees want to move, and the other marvelous tunes on the album ("You Just Can't Ride the Boxcars Anymore," "Looking for Lewis and Clark," "Capturing the Flag") will give them something to crank up as they make the journey south.
"(Sweet) Mental Revenge" (from 10-5-60) -- a classic country song penned by Mel Tillis and made famous by Waylon Jennings given a good treatment.
"Run Dusty Run" (from 10-5-60) -- think of taking the horse race line in the Band's "Up on Cripple Creek" and making an entire song around it while driving around a NASCAR track and you can hear this song.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
I Lost Today
Fingerprints
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Entella Hotel
Desperados Under the Eaves
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
Monday, February 23, 2009
A Visual Song for the Video Generation
Category: 50 Songs to Hear
SONG: Entella Hotel
ARTIST: Peter Case
SONGWRITER: Peter Case
ALBUM: The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar
YEAR/LABEL: 1988; Geffen
The whole trick to songwriting is to say as much as you can with the least amount. It's almost like sending a telegram.
(Peter Case)
The advent of MTV seems to have made songwriters lazy. So many songs sound as though they were written for background music for a video, or they're so convoluted that they need a video to explain them.
Enter Peter Case. He had already produced an exceptional debut (his 1986 self-titled album) after a hiatus following the break-up of the Plimsouls. His second solo album, The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (a title that sounds as though he stole it out of Joe Walsh's garbage can -- he has another album like that, Peter Case Sings Like Hell), broke the so-called "sophomore curse" that so many greats of the 80s suffered from (e.g., the BoDeans, Marshall Crenshaw), and, in fact, was a better album than Peter Case -- which is saying something.
Highlights abound on Blue Guitar, but without question the most exceptional song is the movie disguised as a five-minute song, "Entella Hotel." Forget a video, because this song is so explicitly detailed that a video would only distract from the lyrics. Case takes us through this seedy hotel and the strip bar, the Garden of Earthly Delights, with such clarity that one can almost smell those "old men laying in hallways" and hear the shatter as "the mirror falls with a roar."
Case bombards his listener with great line after great line in this song, including two back-to-back. Describing the day, he sings, "The afternoon seems to go on forever like some drunken bum till the sun finally drowns 'neath the bridge and the night has begun." He allows no time to recover from that exceptional piece of visual reporting, for the next verse begins, "Down by the bay the ships' horns are blasting the fog, and we stumble and mutter and run through the gutter like dogs." By the time Case finishes assaulting your senses in this song, you're looking for Nicole's phone number to offer to help her recover from the "terrible fight" she and her boss had down at the Garden of Earthly Delights -- or you're wanting a shower because the grunge of the hotel and its denizens has rubbed off on you.
Sadly, Blue Guitar is not currently in print, although it has been issued on CD in the past. The song is also available on Thank You St. Jude, an album of re-recorded versions of Case's most requested material from his days on Geffen. Whatever it takes, get this song.
OTHER PETER CASE MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar album -- it is no exaggeration to say this is one of the best albums, not only of the 1980s, but of the last 30 years.
"Steel Strings" (from Peter Case) -- a classic song from Case's first album about the ups and downs (mostly downs) of life as a musician.
"Rose Conolly" (from Peter Case Sings Like Hell) -- better known as "Down in the Willow Garden" when Charlie Monroe & the Kentucky Partners recorded it in 1946, this old murder ballad gets a fresh reading from Case.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Fingerprints
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Desperados Under the Eaves
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
SONG: Entella Hotel
ARTIST: Peter Case
SONGWRITER: Peter Case
ALBUM: The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar
YEAR/LABEL: 1988; Geffen
The whole trick to songwriting is to say as much as you can with the least amount. It's almost like sending a telegram.
(Peter Case)
The advent of MTV seems to have made songwriters lazy. So many songs sound as though they were written for background music for a video, or they're so convoluted that they need a video to explain them.
Enter Peter Case. He had already produced an exceptional debut (his 1986 self-titled album) after a hiatus following the break-up of the Plimsouls. His second solo album, The Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (a title that sounds as though he stole it out of Joe Walsh's garbage can -- he has another album like that, Peter Case Sings Like Hell), broke the so-called "sophomore curse" that so many greats of the 80s suffered from (e.g., the BoDeans, Marshall Crenshaw), and, in fact, was a better album than Peter Case -- which is saying something.
Highlights abound on Blue Guitar, but without question the most exceptional song is the movie disguised as a five-minute song, "Entella Hotel." Forget a video, because this song is so explicitly detailed that a video would only distract from the lyrics. Case takes us through this seedy hotel and the strip bar, the Garden of Earthly Delights, with such clarity that one can almost smell those "old men laying in hallways" and hear the shatter as "the mirror falls with a roar."
Case bombards his listener with great line after great line in this song, including two back-to-back. Describing the day, he sings, "The afternoon seems to go on forever like some drunken bum till the sun finally drowns 'neath the bridge and the night has begun." He allows no time to recover from that exceptional piece of visual reporting, for the next verse begins, "Down by the bay the ships' horns are blasting the fog, and we stumble and mutter and run through the gutter like dogs." By the time Case finishes assaulting your senses in this song, you're looking for Nicole's phone number to offer to help her recover from the "terrible fight" she and her boss had down at the Garden of Earthly Delights -- or you're wanting a shower because the grunge of the hotel and its denizens has rubbed off on you.
Sadly, Blue Guitar is not currently in print, although it has been issued on CD in the past. The song is also available on Thank You St. Jude, an album of re-recorded versions of Case's most requested material from his days on Geffen. Whatever it takes, get this song.
OTHER PETER CASE MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Man With the Blue Post Modern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar album -- it is no exaggeration to say this is one of the best albums, not only of the 1980s, but of the last 30 years.
"Steel Strings" (from Peter Case) -- a classic song from Case's first album about the ups and downs (mostly downs) of life as a musician.
"Rose Conolly" (from Peter Case Sings Like Hell) -- better known as "Down in the Willow Garden" when Charlie Monroe & the Kentucky Partners recorded it in 1946, this old murder ballad gets a fresh reading from Case.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Fingerprints
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Desperados Under the Eaves
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Update: Gerry Rafferty Found Alive
Category: News
Singer Gerry Rafferty, best-known for his 1978 smash "Baker Street" and album City to City, has been found alive and well. He has been in his home in Tuscany since he checked himself out of a hospital in August.
Rafferty is writing and recording songs, according to a press release provided by Rafferty's solicitors.
Fans and friends became concerned when Rafferty disappeared without a trace after being admitted to a London hospital in August 2008 for liver problems and alcohol issues. After a few days in the hospital, Rafferty checked himself out, leaving his personal effects behind in the hospital.
Singer Gerry Rafferty, best-known for his 1978 smash "Baker Street" and album City to City, has been found alive and well. He has been in his home in Tuscany since he checked himself out of a hospital in August.
Rafferty is writing and recording songs, according to a press release provided by Rafferty's solicitors.
Fans and friends became concerned when Rafferty disappeared without a trace after being admitted to a London hospital in August 2008 for liver problems and alcohol issues. After a few days in the hospital, Rafferty checked himself out, leaving his personal effects behind in the hospital.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
World's Greatest Air Conditioner
Category: 50 Songs to Hear
Another one of the four songs that grabbed me and refused to let go the first time I heard it.
SONG: Desperados Under the Eaves
ARTIST: Warren Zevon
SONGWRITER: Warren Zevon
ALBUM: Warren Zevon
YEAR/LABEL: 1976, Asylum
Sometimes he came on like a cynic, but he wasn't. He was essentially very spiritual.
(Jon Landau, credited with "shadowboxing" on Warren Zevon)
Most people can tell you two things about Warren Zevon: he made a record right before he died (2003's The Wind, winner of two "sorry-you-died-here-have-a-sympathy-Grammy" awards) and he did "Werewolves of London." If you're lucky, someone might know he wrote Linda Ronstadt's 1978 hit "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." That is truly as pitiful as the character in the song Ronstadt covered, for there was so much more to Zevon's career than a howl-along and a farewell.
In fact, one of the greatest highlights of his career came early in his "well-known" career (he had released an album in 1969 that generated next to no publicity, although one song from the album, "She Quit Me," ended up on the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy). In 1976 Zevon released his first album thanks to the production and intervention with the record label by his dear friend Jackson Browne. The album was hailed as a masterpiece for any album, let alone a debut. A number of snogs from the album were covered by Ronstadt (including "Hasten Down the Wind," the title track of one of her albums), and "Carmelita" has seen covers by artists as diverse as Flaco Jimenez and Dwight Yoakam to Willy DeVille.
The star of the album, however, is the last track, "Desperados Under the Eaves." The song stands as a testimony to Zevon's varying songwriting styles. The song is funny, sad, desperate, cynical, and philosophical -- all in one neat five-minute package. In the process, Zevon created a crowning moment not only of his career but for all of the 1970s.
The song begins with an orchestrated version of the opening music of the album's first song, "Frank and Jesse James" (a song as much about the Everly Brothers as the two outlaws). This time, however, Zevon is not "on a small Missouri farm" but in "the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel." He begins with a threat and a promise: "all the salty margaritas in Los Angeles, I'm gonna drink 'em up."
Zevon's next line is one for the ages: "And if California slides into the ocean like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this hotel will be standing until I pay my bill." There are comedians who cannot write a line that funny, and there are philosophers who cannot utter something that profound. Zevon managed to do both without blinking.
The marvelous lines didn't end there, however, because in the next verse Zevon declared, "Except in dreams you're never really free," yet more words of wisdom from a man who, at the time, was just 28 years old. His search for "a girl who understands me" will go on, but as he continues he is back at the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel where he began. This time, instead of "staring in my empty coffee cup" as he was at the song's beginning, it is the hum of the air conditioner that has him captivated.
The conclusion of the song transfers the sound the air conditioner is making out of Zevon's head and into our ears, and the results are stunning. "It went, mmm, mmm, mmm," Zevon sang, putting a lovely melody to the hum. As the song continues, the air conditioner's noise increases in beauty, complete with orchestration and backing vocals. Finally something in the machine is telling us to "look away down Gower Avenue" while the air conditioner continues to sing. It will make you laugh if you think about how overblown the hum of the air conditioner is presented. If not, just enjoy some of the most incredible music put on record. Zevon wanted to write a symphony, and this is an indication of what may have been.
The follow-up album, Excitable Boy, was Zevon's biggest selling album (eventually selling over a million copies). Unfortunately, despite a number of outstanding albums and glowing reviews, Zevon never had another successful album until his swan song, The Wind, released just twelve days before mesothelioma claimed his life at the age of 56. The music he left behind stands the test of time, with this gem ranking high on the list of his greatest accomplishments.
OTHER WARREN ZEVON MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Life'll Kill Ya album -- sounding almost prophetic in hindsight, this album that was released two years before Zevon's diagnosis of terminal cancer featured some of his greatest work.
The entire Mr. Bad Example album -- an album that ran the gamut from Zevon's stab at polka (the title track) to country ("Heartache Spoken Here," with background vocals by Dwight Yoakam), and featuring "Searching for a Heart," which contains David Letterman's favorite line: "they say love conquers all, you can't start it like a car, you can't stop it with a gun."
"Accidentally Like a Martyr" (from Excitable Boy) -- a song written about his estrangement from wife Crystal (author of the Zevon biography) that was the highlight of Zevon's best-selling album.
"Bed of Coals" (from Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School) -- a great ballad co-written with T-Bone Burnett (yes, the producer) that contains one of Zevon's best lines: "I'm too old to die young and too young to die now."
"Detox Mansion" (from Sentimental Hygiene) -- Zevon had the ability to laugh at the most serious things, including his own bouts with the bottle. Here he talks about "raking leaves with Liza" while he receives "therapy and lectures" while arranging for the afternoon golf outing.
"The Hula Hula Boys" (from The Envoy) -- infidelity in Maui that will leave you laughing.
"Charlie's Medicine" (from The Envoy) -- one of Zevon's most powerful songs about a drug dealer who meets his end at the hands of "some respectible doctor from Beverly Hills."
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
Another one of the four songs that grabbed me and refused to let go the first time I heard it.
SONG: Desperados Under the Eaves
ARTIST: Warren Zevon
SONGWRITER: Warren Zevon
ALBUM: Warren Zevon
YEAR/LABEL: 1976, Asylum
Sometimes he came on like a cynic, but he wasn't. He was essentially very spiritual.
(Jon Landau, credited with "shadowboxing" on Warren Zevon)
Most people can tell you two things about Warren Zevon: he made a record right before he died (2003's The Wind, winner of two "sorry-you-died-here-have-a-sympathy-Grammy" awards) and he did "Werewolves of London." If you're lucky, someone might know he wrote Linda Ronstadt's 1978 hit "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." That is truly as pitiful as the character in the song Ronstadt covered, for there was so much more to Zevon's career than a howl-along and a farewell.
In fact, one of the greatest highlights of his career came early in his "well-known" career (he had released an album in 1969 that generated next to no publicity, although one song from the album, "She Quit Me," ended up on the soundtrack to Midnight Cowboy). In 1976 Zevon released his first album thanks to the production and intervention with the record label by his dear friend Jackson Browne. The album was hailed as a masterpiece for any album, let alone a debut. A number of snogs from the album were covered by Ronstadt (including "Hasten Down the Wind," the title track of one of her albums), and "Carmelita" has seen covers by artists as diverse as Flaco Jimenez and Dwight Yoakam to Willy DeVille.
The star of the album, however, is the last track, "Desperados Under the Eaves." The song stands as a testimony to Zevon's varying songwriting styles. The song is funny, sad, desperate, cynical, and philosophical -- all in one neat five-minute package. In the process, Zevon created a crowning moment not only of his career but for all of the 1970s.
The song begins with an orchestrated version of the opening music of the album's first song, "Frank and Jesse James" (a song as much about the Everly Brothers as the two outlaws). This time, however, Zevon is not "on a small Missouri farm" but in "the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel." He begins with a threat and a promise: "all the salty margaritas in Los Angeles, I'm gonna drink 'em up."
Zevon's next line is one for the ages: "And if California slides into the ocean like the mystics and statistics say it will, I predict this hotel will be standing until I pay my bill." There are comedians who cannot write a line that funny, and there are philosophers who cannot utter something that profound. Zevon managed to do both without blinking.
The marvelous lines didn't end there, however, because in the next verse Zevon declared, "Except in dreams you're never really free," yet more words of wisdom from a man who, at the time, was just 28 years old. His search for "a girl who understands me" will go on, but as he continues he is back at the Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel where he began. This time, instead of "staring in my empty coffee cup" as he was at the song's beginning, it is the hum of the air conditioner that has him captivated.
The conclusion of the song transfers the sound the air conditioner is making out of Zevon's head and into our ears, and the results are stunning. "It went, mmm, mmm, mmm," Zevon sang, putting a lovely melody to the hum. As the song continues, the air conditioner's noise increases in beauty, complete with orchestration and backing vocals. Finally something in the machine is telling us to "look away down Gower Avenue" while the air conditioner continues to sing. It will make you laugh if you think about how overblown the hum of the air conditioner is presented. If not, just enjoy some of the most incredible music put on record. Zevon wanted to write a symphony, and this is an indication of what may have been.
The follow-up album, Excitable Boy, was Zevon's biggest selling album (eventually selling over a million copies). Unfortunately, despite a number of outstanding albums and glowing reviews, Zevon never had another successful album until his swan song, The Wind, released just twelve days before mesothelioma claimed his life at the age of 56. The music he left behind stands the test of time, with this gem ranking high on the list of his greatest accomplishments.
OTHER WARREN ZEVON MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Life'll Kill Ya album -- sounding almost prophetic in hindsight, this album that was released two years before Zevon's diagnosis of terminal cancer featured some of his greatest work.
The entire Mr. Bad Example album -- an album that ran the gamut from Zevon's stab at polka (the title track) to country ("Heartache Spoken Here," with background vocals by Dwight Yoakam), and featuring "Searching for a Heart," which contains David Letterman's favorite line: "they say love conquers all, you can't start it like a car, you can't stop it with a gun."
"Accidentally Like a Martyr" (from Excitable Boy) -- a song written about his estrangement from wife Crystal (author of the Zevon biography) that was the highlight of Zevon's best-selling album.
"Bed of Coals" (from Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School) -- a great ballad co-written with T-Bone Burnett (yes, the producer) that contains one of Zevon's best lines: "I'm too old to die young and too young to die now."
"Detox Mansion" (from Sentimental Hygiene) -- Zevon had the ability to laugh at the most serious things, including his own bouts with the bottle. Here he talks about "raking leaves with Liza" while he receives "therapy and lectures" while arranging for the afternoon golf outing.
"The Hula Hula Boys" (from The Envoy) -- infidelity in Maui that will leave you laughing.
"Charlie's Medicine" (from The Envoy) -- one of Zevon's most powerful songs about a drug dealer who meets his end at the hands of "some respectible doctor from Beverly Hills."
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Down to the River to Pray
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Crossing Muddy Waters
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Pain to the Nth Degree
Category: 50 Songs to Hear
In my 35 years of listening to rock and roll, I have only had four songs literally knock me on my rear end the first time I heard them. All but one of those songs ("Sam Stone" by John Prine, which is just too painful for me to listen to) appear in the "50 songs" project. This song is one of the four.
SONG: Crossing Muddy Waters
ARTIST: John Hiatt
SONGWRITER: John Hiatt
ALBUM: Crossing Muddy Waters
YEAR/LABEL: 2000, Vanguard
I could never have dreamed of being where I am.
(John Hiatt)
John Hiatt is a survivor in many ways. He lives a clean and sober life today after many years of intentional self-destruction. He has done what many great songwriters have done over the years: taken the lessons learned from many years of hard knocks and put them to music, often with excellent results. Hiatt released a trilogy of autobiographical albums between 1987 and 1990 (Bring the Family, Slow Turning, and Stolen Moments) that dealt with the pain of his past, including his alcoholism ("I used to drink a lot in those days, you see," he admitted in the title track, and in "The Back of My Mind" he sang, "I took to a bottle of wine").
Suicide is another pain in Hiatt's past: his brother took his own life, and his estranged wife died in 1985 while Hiatt was completing work on his album Warming Up to the Ice Age and shortly after the birth of their daughter. As with his alcoholism, Hiatt has been forthcoming about that subject as well, dealing with it in the Stolen Moments gem "Thirty Years of Tears." That pain also comes to the foreground in one of the greatest songs, not only of Hiatt's career, but of the new century, the title track from his Grammy-nominated 2000 acoustic album Crossing Muddy Waters.
Hiatt wrote the song with incredible symbolism and in such a manner that one unfamiliar with his personal history could interpret the song as about a runaway mother instead of a deceased one. However, it is obvious that something is amiss in the story with the opening line, "Baby's gone and I don't know why." The chorus emphasizes this fact: the woman who has gone has "left me in my tears to drown, she left a baby daughter." The concluding verse tells of a woman seemingly leaving against her will ("crying for her baby child, crying for her husband, crying for that river's wild to take her from her loved ones") instead of choosing to end her life.
Throughout the song Hiatt does not seek to blame the departed soul nor himself for what has happened. Instead, he is looking at the shattered pieces of life around him amid the rotting tobacco in the field and trying to heal the "bitter heart" of the second verse.
For the past 23 years Hiatt and wife Nancy have enjoyed domestic bliss (as evident by the fact that Hiatt once said, "Every love song is for my wife"). His decision to revisit one of the most horrible moments of his life must have been a painful one, but the exorcism of a demon of his past resulted in an exceptional masterpiece. If you only listen to one song on the rock list, make it this one.
OTHER JOHN HIATT MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Stolen Moments album -- the third album of his autobiographical trilogy deals deeper with the pains of the past (the death of his brother and father in "Seven Little Indians") than the other two albums, but still celebrates the joy of married life ("you know it's a dirty job but we're still living it and loving it" he sings in "One Kiss") and sobriety (as he proclaims in the title song, "These days the only bar I ever see has got lettuce and tomatoes").
"Lipstick Sunset" (from Bring the Family) -- a beautiful song with a lovely visual opening ("there's a lipstick sunset smeared across the August sky") that is one of the many highlights from the Bring the Family album.
"Tennessee Plates" (from Slow Turning) -- showing off his great sense of humor, Hiatt weaves a tale of a man and his girlfriend who go on a cross-country crime spree in order to steal a Cadillac from Graceland.
"The Night That Kenny Died" (from Slug Line) -- Hiatt has more in common with the late Warren Zevon than an escape from the bottle: he also shares Zevon's wickedly morbid sense of humor. That is on display in this great rocker about a booger-picking nerd who becomes a hero after his death in a motorcycle accident reveals another life that his high school classmates knew nothing of.
"Something Broken" (from The Tiki Bar is Open) -- a goregous lost-love song that conveys the pain of separation so realistically that Hiatt said fans were asking him if his marriage was on the rocks.
"Perfectly Good Guitar" (from Perfectly Good Guitar) -- Hiatt stands up to the guitar-smashing rock (and country) musicians in this song that says any performer who destroys his axe should be locked up "with no chance of early parole, you don't get out until you get some soul." You go, John.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
In my 35 years of listening to rock and roll, I have only had four songs literally knock me on my rear end the first time I heard them. All but one of those songs ("Sam Stone" by John Prine, which is just too painful for me to listen to) appear in the "50 songs" project. This song is one of the four.
SONG: Crossing Muddy Waters
ARTIST: John Hiatt
SONGWRITER: John Hiatt
ALBUM: Crossing Muddy Waters
YEAR/LABEL: 2000, Vanguard
I could never have dreamed of being where I am.
(John Hiatt)
John Hiatt is a survivor in many ways. He lives a clean and sober life today after many years of intentional self-destruction. He has done what many great songwriters have done over the years: taken the lessons learned from many years of hard knocks and put them to music, often with excellent results. Hiatt released a trilogy of autobiographical albums between 1987 and 1990 (Bring the Family, Slow Turning, and Stolen Moments) that dealt with the pain of his past, including his alcoholism ("I used to drink a lot in those days, you see," he admitted in the title track, and in "The Back of My Mind" he sang, "I took to a bottle of wine").
Suicide is another pain in Hiatt's past: his brother took his own life, and his estranged wife died in 1985 while Hiatt was completing work on his album Warming Up to the Ice Age and shortly after the birth of their daughter. As with his alcoholism, Hiatt has been forthcoming about that subject as well, dealing with it in the Stolen Moments gem "Thirty Years of Tears." That pain also comes to the foreground in one of the greatest songs, not only of Hiatt's career, but of the new century, the title track from his Grammy-nominated 2000 acoustic album Crossing Muddy Waters.
Hiatt wrote the song with incredible symbolism and in such a manner that one unfamiliar with his personal history could interpret the song as about a runaway mother instead of a deceased one. However, it is obvious that something is amiss in the story with the opening line, "Baby's gone and I don't know why." The chorus emphasizes this fact: the woman who has gone has "left me in my tears to drown, she left a baby daughter." The concluding verse tells of a woman seemingly leaving against her will ("crying for her baby child, crying for her husband, crying for that river's wild to take her from her loved ones") instead of choosing to end her life.
Throughout the song Hiatt does not seek to blame the departed soul nor himself for what has happened. Instead, he is looking at the shattered pieces of life around him amid the rotting tobacco in the field and trying to heal the "bitter heart" of the second verse.
For the past 23 years Hiatt and wife Nancy have enjoyed domestic bliss (as evident by the fact that Hiatt once said, "Every love song is for my wife"). His decision to revisit one of the most horrible moments of his life must have been a painful one, but the exorcism of a demon of his past resulted in an exceptional masterpiece. If you only listen to one song on the rock list, make it this one.
OTHER JOHN HIATT MUSIC TO INVESTIGATE:
The entire Stolen Moments album -- the third album of his autobiographical trilogy deals deeper with the pains of the past (the death of his brother and father in "Seven Little Indians") than the other two albums, but still celebrates the joy of married life ("you know it's a dirty job but we're still living it and loving it" he sings in "One Kiss") and sobriety (as he proclaims in the title song, "These days the only bar I ever see has got lettuce and tomatoes").
"Lipstick Sunset" (from Bring the Family) -- a beautiful song with a lovely visual opening ("there's a lipstick sunset smeared across the August sky") that is one of the many highlights from the Bring the Family album.
"Tennessee Plates" (from Slow Turning) -- showing off his great sense of humor, Hiatt weaves a tale of a man and his girlfriend who go on a cross-country crime spree in order to steal a Cadillac from Graceland.
"The Night That Kenny Died" (from Slug Line) -- Hiatt has more in common with the late Warren Zevon than an escape from the bottle: he also shares Zevon's wickedly morbid sense of humor. That is on display in this great rocker about a booger-picking nerd who becomes a hero after his death in a motorcycle accident reveals another life that his high school classmates knew nothing of.
"Something Broken" (from The Tiki Bar is Open) -- a goregous lost-love song that conveys the pain of separation so realistically that Hiatt said fans were asking him if his marriage was on the rocks.
"Perfectly Good Guitar" (from Perfectly Good Guitar) -- Hiatt stands up to the guitar-smashing rock (and country) musicians in this song that says any performer who destroys his axe should be locked up "with no chance of early parole, you don't get out until you get some soul." You go, John.
PREVIOUS SONGS:
(Country)
Don't Let the Stars Get in Your Eyeballs
A Death in the Family
Dark as a Dungeon
Bottomless Well
(Rock)
Cliffs of Dooneen
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)
Baby Mine
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