A Song With a Muscular Subject

Song 388: The Butt Song by The Fast Folk Ensemble, written by John Gorka, seems like a fun way to start out the new year, featuring a live ensemble from 25 years ago. 7 weeks after my last personal friend song post, the performers here include some old friends, 3 of whom - vocalists Wendy Beckerman, Kelly Flint and Richard Julian - have appeared on this list before. I played a role in Fast Folk during this era, though I didn't actually make this particular show in February of 1993, but my name appears on the masthead (under GENERAL STAFF) of the FF 702 print issue that accompanied the CD, as does the moniker of my recording partner David Seitz (under RECORDING ENGINEERS). A friend had told me a few years earlier about watching the writer John Gorka perform this opus, and in describing the lyrics a certain way, he conveyed a sense that the piece didn't impress him, but I suspected that I would like it, and when I got to hear it, within moments it had me smiling. I also found it particularly inspiring because it didn't actually go the way I had pictured from my friend's description, so I ended up crafting the jewel that would eventually shine on The But Single CD a few years later (and my website daveelder.com contains some hidden gems in the form of newsletters about that record, on the Stuff page). If you're curious, you can find the video for my But But But recording by clicking on the title. David Hamburger, who played pedal steel guitar with the Fast Folk Ensemble on The Butt Song, later added his golden tones to As Long as Merle is Still Haggard and you can likewise hear that by clicking on the title. Happy New Year! May the wisdom of 25 years ago bring you a smile today: “Some butts wind up as presidents who wish they could be kings.” Enjoy! Laughter is the best remedy!

A Very Different Leader of the Pack

Song 387: This week on the  playlist you’ll find Leroy The Redneck Reindeer by Joe Diffie, written by Stacey Slate, Joe Diffie and Steve Pippin, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I only recently discovered this cut a couple of years ago, though it dates from the middle of the 1990s, but I find it a highly-entertaining take on the flying reindeer tale, and a welcome alternative to the ever-present repetitive background music you'll get in the stores at this time of the year. Personally, I'd much rather catch Joe blabbing about Leroy leading the pack than Gene crooning about Rudolf, but it hasn't happened yet. Even though that down home party animal Leroy might have made history that night, perhaps not enough people know About that crazy Christmas That the North Pole can't forget. On a side note, this track is a first sly reference to the third (and final) verse of my own song As Long as Merle is Still Haggard. Leaving aside the first 3 references in it, the middle of the third verse begins with the line and would Joe know the Diffie, and you can find the Merle video by clicking on the title.

Moving Along

Song 386: This week’s playlist pick is Truckin' by the Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Robert Hunter, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. Back in the early 1970s, if you listened to any rock FM radio station long enough, you would surely hear this cut. I picked up on it pretty quickly, though it took me a while to warm up to the rest of American Beauty. The LP did eventually become a regular spinner on my turntable, as I grew to appreciate it more than I had initially, but this closing track remained the highlight of the record. For a while, I struggled to decipher some of the lines, though I soon understood that Houston was too close to New Orleans and that New York had the ways and means. At that point in my life, I was indeed sick of hanging around and really thought I'd like to travel, so I hit the road when I could, though I surely wasn't Truckin' nearly as much as this band. On a side note, earlier today I uploaded a new song on YouTube called Wheel - a Reinvention that includes, in the first verse, a sly reference to this classic, which, as I just found out from doing the research tonight, was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure. I sure would like to have my reinvention of the wheel achieve that status someday!

Can’t Quite Keep It Together

Song 385: This week on the playlist you will find I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline, written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. Though this single topped the country charts in August of 1961, I first heard it the following summer, as our family visits to OH relatives changed from yearly trips in the 1950s to even-numbered-year excursions in the 1960s. Aunt Mary and Uncle Dick had an extensive country music stockpile, and during our stays I had total access to it. This track graced a greatest hits collection that soon became a favorite, so that by the time we headed back towards the east, I had it memorized. On our repeat journeys 2, 4, and 6 years later, I often had the LP spinning on the turntable while I sang along. Sadly, I did not know that between the time I first enjoyed this cut and my further enjoyment 2 years later, Patsy had actually literally fallen to pieces in an unfortunate airplane crash, though if I had known that, it would have only increased my appreciation of her recordings. On a side note, the songwriter name Harlan Howard has appeared on this list a couple of times before (Don't Tell Me What to Do by Pam Tillis as Song 210 and Why Not Me by The Judds as Song 287) and will surely appear again, when I get around to posting Johnny Cash's Busted, Buck Owens' Tiger By The Tail and a few others. He earned my respect as a songwriter a long time ago, and the more I learn about his career, the bigger the nod I'd like to give him.

Picking Up a Hitcher

Song 384: This week on the playlist you can hear Coyote by Joni Mitchell, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. I became a big Joni Mitchell fan around the time For the Roses came along in 1972, to such an extent that I titled one of my tunes For the Flowers thanks to her inspiration, and by the time Hejira came along 4 years later, I quickly added it to my collection, which already included all of her other LPs. On this cut, which opens the album, she identifies herself as a prisoner of the white line on the freeway and a hitcher, which exactly matched my own songwriting lyrical self-image, so she had me hooked with this one before she got to the end of it. I could easily imagine the two of us riding thumb together, and I even wrote a love song to her (maybe more on that one day), but of course, if we had hitched as a couple, a Coyote driving by probably wouldn't have stopped to pick anyone up. On a random side note, this lyric was the first I had ever heard about the Bay of Fundy, and in that long-ago era before the internet, I don't recall how I did the research on it, but in doing so, I learned that it has the highest tidal range in the world, so listening to Joni widened my knowledge of the world as well as resonating with my traveling spirit.