Elevated Observation Point

 Song 747: This week the playlist applauds All Along the Watchtower by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, written by Bob Dylan, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this wild story came along during the cold months of my HS junior year, back in early 1968, I listened to the TOP 40 as often as I could, and I especially liked hearing Mr. Hendrix's newest hit. Already being a songwriter myself, I paid attention to who wrote the songs I enjoyed, and this quickly became the third Dylan tune I really appreciated. Peter, Paul and Mary had introduced me to Blowin' in the Wind and I met Mr. Tambourine Man by riding along with the Byrds, so Jimi gave me an even bigger reason to find out more about the Bob guy. Of course, at the time I didn't know anyone who thought life is but a joke, and I wondered if when I became an adult a couple of years later, I might actually get to do a visit all along the watchtower and to hang out while all the women came and went. I did not know then that I would spend most of the next decade living in the Chicago area, where, around this time of year, I would often hear when the wind began to howl.

Late Fall Downpour

 Song 746: This week the playlist recognizes November Rain by Guns N' Roses, written by Axl Rose, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I had moved from California to Brooklyn a few years before this snappy forecast came along and I hung out with the Fast Folk bunch a lot, but I also still listened to the radio and got moved by some of the more magnetic chart toppers. This piece actually became the longest song ever to reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 at the time in early 1992 and would hold that distinction for a number of years. Of course, nothing lasts forever and over time, hearts can change. Meanwhile, given the weather forecast in my area, I'm not looking forward to it, but it seems quite likely that at least once or twice this week I'll have the privilege of walkin' in the cold November rain.

Lacking Favorable Fortune

 Song 745: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's roaming ballad Out of Luck comes from another one of my Fast Folk colleagues Ilene Weiss, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In the summer of 1987 I did a trip to NYC, intending to move there the following year, and during that visit, I got to see Ilene do a set at Folk City which quickly turned me into an IW fan. Not long after I moved to Brooklyn in September of 1988, I joined the Manhattan Fast Folk circle and soon had a copy of Ms. Weiss's Nine Songs Basically cassette, which included this moving excursion, and which got a lot of spins on my player. It didn't take long to understand how it might feel if I made a crazy deal but I also figured out that after my loss of innocence, I would want to say la la la la la la la a lot!

Harvest Season Foliage

 Song 744: This week the playlist features Autumn Leaves by Roger Williams, written by Joseph Kosma, and you can find a cool YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Anyone living in the northeast area of the U.S., or somewhere else with a similar climate, can understand the implications of this tune's title, and has probably seen plenty of examples of the term in the last few weeks, as I have. The YouTube video here comes from an appearance by Roger Williams on the Ed Sullivan Show on January 1, 1956. At some point in that era, my folks got our family's first TV, and very soon, we got to see the Ed Sullivan Show regularly, so it's possible that we might have witnessed that appearance. However, I'm not sure if we even had the tube when Mr. Williams appeared on the show on the first day of 1956. The descending piano riffs he features in the piece do sound quite familiar, so it is possible that I did get to see and hear that segment, though I also might have experienced a rerun of the sequence on a later date. My family at the time had an upright piano sitting next to the TV back then, and even before we got the tube, I had spent some time pounding my fingers on that keyboard, so it's possible that I might have figured out those descending riffs myself and given my own family a musical sense of autumn leaves.