Feline Vines

 Song 665: This week the playlist features Pussywillows, Cat-Tails by Gordon Lightfoot, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. At the start of my sophomore college year in the fall of 1970, I slowly expanded my LP collection of fellow singer/songwriter types. I had essentially evolved my own personal creative musical style during that summer, and along the school year stretch, I got to hear and know a lot more about some leading folkies. After I added the Did She Mention My Name? disc to my batch, I gave it plenty of spins on the turntable, and the Gordon guy probably influenced my sounding direction the most, although a certain Zimmerman person also played a major role in it as well. Over the frigid Chicago-area winter months, I got shivering and quivering a few times, but I also began an unexpected romance when my lips touched the soft lips of someone who I had been just friends with previously. Then, as the warm breath of spring started to come along, the fling surprisingly ended, but despite that sad development, I would continue remembering the promise of spring. Now, 5 decades later, I can still appreciate the inspiration coming from melodic fingertips resting in my soul. On a side note, this marks the second appearance of a Did She Mention My Name? gem in this bunch - I highlighted Boss Man as Song 614 back in early May of last year.

Bright Firebolt

 Song 664: This week the playlist recognizes White Lightning by George Jones, written by J. P. Richardson, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. During the 1960s, as I went through my second decade, my family would regularly visit the Ohio relatives every other summer, and on our sojourns to Bowling Green, I would get to listen to some of country music's most popular songs from that era, including this striking shiner. I knew that the lyrics on this wild ride referred to an illegal form of alcohol, and my fundamentalist parents and grandparents would have morally disapproved of such a beverage, but when the tune came along in the middle of a bunch of other ones, I soon figured out that if I didn't draw attention to the piece's subject matter, my folks would probably never notice it. I had not known until I researched the history of the hit that its writer had used the name The Big Bopper as a performer, and that he did not get to know about Mr. Jones' success with the number because he had died a few days before GJ's record got released. This particular jaunt inspired a ramble that I wrote in my twenties, back in the 1970s, that I titled Moonshine Man, and you can hear a rough cut video of that song on YouTube by clicking on the title. I personally have never felt a desire to taste that powerful stuff, though I understand why some people do, but in my case, I'd rather not have my eyes bugged out and my face turned blue.

Basically West Coast Lodging

Song 663: This week the playlist comes around to Hotel California by Charles Berthoud, written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glen Frey, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When, a few weeks ago, I discovered on a FaceBook post this remarkable FRETLESS BASS version of The Eagles' hit that I featured here last week, I realized that I hadn't yet added the original to the collection, so last Sunday I set the stage for this UNREAL-sounding followup. As someone who has routinely played a fretted bass, both onstage and in a studio, but has rarely had hands on a fretless one, I can truly appreciate the soaring directions that the player takes the song's melody in here. When the first rendition of the west coast resort anthem arrived, I had plans to head that way, but could not do so for about a year and a half, due to unresolved dental problems. Soon after I did get to the East Bay in 1978, I met a singer/songwriter colleague named Bob Nichols who would become a close friend. Then, three years later I would get to move into the Berkeley home that he managed, and I resided there for the remaining seven years of my CA decade. Bob played bass for his band, and spending as much time around him as I did, I soon learned THE BASSICS myself. I would figure out the bass parts for my own songs, and I would also have a unique experience as a bass player in a country band during my final CA year - a tale which I plan to at some point share in amusing short-story form. Having played plenty of bass myself, I know just how UNREAL this recording sounds - this could be Heaven as well. 

Sunshine State Resort

 Song 662: This week the playlist puts the spotlight on Hotel California by The Eagles, written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glen Frey, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. About a year before this hitch arrived in the winter of 1977, I had decided I'd like to leave the Chicago area and head towards the West Coast soon, but then some dental problems grabbed me and I understood that I had to get them resolved before I could hit the road. When The Eagles promise of the Sunshine State climbed the charts, I already looked forward to the moderate climate there, especially during the Windy City frigid months, but I knew I'd have to endure one more freezing season there before I could make my move, so I relished the lyrical vision conveyed by this spin, in addition to its engaging musical dives. When the summer of 1978 rolled around, I pointed my thumb westward and got some good rides, but I don't recall whether any of the desert highway lifts happened in the dark. I do know, though, that I didn't have to stop for the night. When I reached San Francisco, it felt like such a lovely place that I was thinking to myself, "This could be Heaven." Never once, during the decade I resided there, did it ever occur to me that "this could be Hell" - it definitely was not!

Vessel Within a Jar

 Song 661: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's sailing ride Ship in a Bottle comes from one of my closest Fast Folk buddies Keith Kelly, and oddly enough, this marks his first inclusion in this collection. You can find a YouTube video of the song by clicking on the title. Soon after I moved to Brooklyn in September of 1988, I got introduced to the FF singer/songwriter circle, and the weekly fresh tune gathering at Jack Hardy's apartment on Houston Street in Manhattan quickly became part of my schedule. I befriended a bunch of my fellow melodic crafters, and I soon found out that Keith had a song with the same title that I did. When I got to hear it, I noticed that he took the lyrical idea in a direction similar to the one I had chosen, and I appreciated his handling of the concept. In the early 1990s we did at least one appearance where we travelled together up to a New England night club and we each did a solo set on stage. Later in that decade, I asked him to make a visit to my family's upstate home, which is where I currently reside, and I have remained in contact with him, unlike so many of my other FF colleagues who I have lost touch with over the years. Along these oceans of memories and the seas of the world, I can recall that the nights were for loving and singing our songs, and fortunately, some of us are still voicing our stories. On a side note, you can hear and see a YouTube lyric video of my Ship in a Bottle by clicking on the title here.