A Light Touch of Romance

Song 457: This week the playlist comes around to Peaceful Easy Feeling by The Eagles, written by Jack Tempshin, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Hearing the Eagles' debut single take over the airwaves while driving cross-country in the early summer of 1972, I didn't get too excited by the tune, though I did like its country-rock tonality. However, not long after, I starting hearing this cut, which I liked a lot better. I soon learned to play and sing this piece, and it became a regular number that I often shared during music circle gatherings and exchanges. In that era, being in my twenties, I had already learned what a woman can do to your soul, so now and then, I might meet a female and get this feeling that I could know her as a lover and a friend, while also having this voice keep whispering in my other ear, telling me I might never see her again. As a young man, I truly relished the musical Peaceful Easy Feeling of simply following a romantic road wherever it might lead, whether up or down.

An Adventure He Didn’t Ask For

Song 456: This week’s playlist track is Big Time in the Jungle by Old Crow Medicine Show, written by Critter Fuqua, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Back in 2017, when I started a Spotify playlist called Dave Elder's Favorite Anti-war Songs (which you can hear by clicking on the title), I mainly wanted to showcase If I Was You, but soon, a couple of interesting suggestions came my way, this being one. After a single viewing of the YT video, I not only decided to add the tune to the Spotify playlist, but I also added the video to my short list of favorite anti-war song videos. Today I finally got around to creating a YT playlist of that group, calling it Dave Elder's Favorite Anti-war Song Videos (and you can watch that bunch by clicking on the title). That collection now includes a couple of recent recommendations from Facebook queries and replies, as well as this cut. I have seen the story in these lyrics repeated far too many times over the decades - a young man got his life turned upside down and his smile turned into a frown as the bombs started fallin' and they pounded his brain. He didn't ask for a fight or a rumble, but the army man showed up, got him signed up, and then surprised him with a Big Time in the Jungle that he didn't really want or need.

The Bad Guy Wanting Your Respect

Song 455: This week on the playlist you can hear Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones, written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Not long after I began my freshman year at NU in the fall of 1969, I began to hear a lot more of The Rolling Stones than I had previously, thanks, primarily, to Hank Neuberger, who lived across the hall from me at Bobb Hall. Hank had a state-of-the-art stereo system, and an extensive LP collection. During that stretch, a large share of fans considered either The Beatles or The Rolling Stones to be at the top of the rock. In that discussion, Hank and I disagreed, and he even said to me at one point that the reason I put The Beatles at #1 was because I hadn't heard as much of the Stones' music as I had of the Fab Four. Over time, with him introducing me to so many truly impressive cuts, including this one (and all the rest of Beggars Banquet), he did succeed, by the end of our freshman year, in bringing me over to his side. Looking back, I would say that Mick and Co. were at the top of their game then, and John, Paul, George and Ringo weren't, but both bands deserved all the attention they got, regardless of which one the listener might rank as #1. The words on this track certainly do resonate today as much as they did 5 decades ago, introducing a man of wealth and taste who has been around for a long, long year and stole many a man's soul and faith - I think I recognize that face, and those horns.

A Lovely Lover's Name

Song 454: This week the playlist applauds Peggy Sue by Buddy Holly, written by Buddy Holly, Jerry Allison and Norman Petty. I first heard this hit on a night in the late summer of 1965, camping out with a friend on his front lawn and listening to his transistor radio. I know the time frame because of the other cuts we heard during that escapade - particularly Eve of Destruction (Song 146), which sounded scary, mainly because it seemed to quite accurately depict the then-current moment. That night, I did not know this piece was a golden oldie, but I really liked it a lot. When the early 1970s rolled around, and a 1950s RnR revival widened my knowledge and appreciation of the first generation rockers, I came to admire and respect Buddy Holly, especially for the impressive number of excellent recordings that he created in a very short career that ended with his sudden death at the age of 22. I acquired at least one LP of Holly hits, which of course included this classic. I also still clearly recall the lively scene in The Buddy Holly Story that features this tune - it's a spinner so rare and true that still, well over six decades after its release, how my heart yearns, and I want you, Peggy Sue.