Touch Lips With a Saintly Soul

 Song 544: This week the playlist comes around to Kiss an Angel Good Mornin' by Charley Pride, written by Ben Peters, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I don't remember if I heard this hit when it first came out in late 1971, or if I got to know it later in the decade, but at some point it became quite familiar, and it pleased me to learn that the performer had the distinction of being the most prominent African-American country singer, given that there aren't very many black members of the country club. I decided to add a Pride cut to the list this week because, sadly, he left the land of the living earlier this month, on 12/12/20. Back in the 1990s, I included him in my song As Long as Merle is Still Haggard - the second line of the chorus is As long as Charley still has his Pride, and you can hear that tune and check out the YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Many people may try to guess the secret of happiness but some of them never learn it's a simple thing, though during a pandemic scenario, it might not seem so simple, but it still sounds like fine advice to, if you can, kiss an angel good mornin' and love her like a devil when you get back home.

Merry Merry Happy Happy

 Song 543: This week on the playlist you can hear Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by John Lennon, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. 40 years ago, in early December of 1980, a murderer who claimed to have been a John Lennon fan shot and killed him. At the time, my good friend and singer/songwriter colleague Jeff Larson still lived with his parents in Fremont, CA, while I resided in Oakland, and I would regularly take the BART train down to his neighborhood so we could share our fresh musical ideas. On the early evening of 12/8/80, when he picked me up at the station, he told me the tragic news about Lennon. A recent reminder of that sad memory made it seem appropriate to feature this particular cut as the SotW for Christmas week this year. And so Happy Christmas for black and for white, for yellow and red ones, let's stop all the fight. John's surviving widow Yoko recently tweeted that if we truly want war to be over, we should all toss our pebbles in that direction, and if enough of us do, a large-enough wave could end the fight. A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Let's hope it's a good one without any fear. I will admit that John’s holiday opus played a role in convincing me that I needed to also craft one of my own, and when Jeff did his Yuletide anthem Home for the Holidays, it really moved me to put all the pieces together for Commoner’s Carole, which appears on my Holiday Card CD, and you can check out the lyric video of that by clicking on the title. 

An Uprooted Evergreen

 Song 542: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's holiday gift Tree comes from my Brooklyn folkie colleague Ilene Weiss, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. One night in 1987, on a brief visit to NYC while I still resided in CA, I saw her do a set at Folk City, and I instantly became an IW fan. About a year later, I moved to Brooklyn and soon joined the local singer/songwriter circle that included her. I recently discovered this shining 1990s ornament that tells a very typical December green tree story - if they could talk to us, this is probably what most of them would say. Interestingly enough, in January of this year I learned that evidently trees do talk to each other, though they don't talk to us. Regardless of how the evergreens feel about our treatment of them, I basically agree with the assertion that real Christmas trees are better for the environment than artificial ones (real vs. artificial trees). Ah, but what's that I hear? You knocked me down, then you dressed me up for the pictures that you posed me in and you looked at me so adoringly 'til you knocked me down again.

Linked Gathering of Clowns

 Song 541: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin, written by Don Covay, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. This hit arrived around this time of the year back in 1967, shortly before the Christmas break in my junior year of HS, and I felt like I also had become a link in a particular young woman's Chain of Fools, so I quickly felt I could sing along and I knew exactly what Aretha meant when she gave voice to these pointed sentiments. In fact, it felt like I had gotten an early gift on the airwaves without having to write a letter to Santa, receiving a musical reward for being a good boy, though of course, at the time I would have preferred a romantic present, but that did not come my way. Currently, with big question marks hanging in the air, it does seem like one of these mornings the chain is gonna break but up until the day I’m gonna take all I can take, knowing that every chain has got a weak link, and you never know what might give you strength.