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.

Recognize That Sound

Song 383: This week on the playlist you can find I Hear You Knocking by Fats Domino, written by Dave Bartholomew, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. This week's playlist pick pays tribute to another 1950s RnR icon who died recently, in late October. Up to and through my HS years I knew almost nothing about the 1950s rockers, believing that the Fab 4 had invented the form. Not long after I began my college career, the early 1970s brought a revival of that first generation music, including this cut, which got my attention. While I soon came to understand how Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Little Richard and others had figured into the picture, I didn't know how big a role Fats had played until near the end of the decade, when my Oakland housemate Doug filled me in on Mr. Domino, thereby vastly increasing my appreciation of his contributions. On a strange side note, I only learned today that Fats had lived in New Orleans at the time Hurricane Katrina hit back in August of 2005, and, as I'm currently working on a studio version of Blackwater Boys, I now realize that he may have been one of those I was addressing when I wrote about when that rising water came so fast you couldn't get away you climbed up on your roof and then you had to wait. You can check out a rough cut YouTube video of Blackwater Boys just by clicking on the title. Fats died on October 24 from natural causes at the age of 89, and may his musical soul rest in peace, knowing he left behind a generous helping of his creativity.

The Place to Shop

Song 382: This week’s playlist track is Downtown by Petula Clark, written by Tony Hatch, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. On the week that includes the biggest retail day of the year, AKA Black Friday, this 1960s shopping anthem seems fitting. When the single came along at the beginning of my teenage years, people usually went Downtown to do their shopping, although perhaps a modernized version would carry the title At (or To) the Mall. When I heard it back then, I knew exactly which 3-block stretch to picture, and I certainly would have enjoyed the chance to Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty (or at least once were). I didn’t often get the opportunity to listen to the music of the traffic in the city, though, or take in all the noise and the hurry, because I didn’t have much change in my pocket, and my family couldn’t contribute much either, so even if Petula had graced the scene, she probably wouldn’t have seen me there, but yet, listening to her singing could, at that moment, help me to forget all my cares, and it sometimes still can.

Helping Each Other

Song 381: Seven weeks after my last personal friend song post, this week on the playlist you can hear Life is Hard Enough by my good friend Terry Kitchen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. The video features a live performance of a cut from his 2006 CD Heaven Here on Earth, and I will admit that I don't recall hearing it before today. Terry sent me a message about a new YT video where he covers an old favorite called Nature's Way (originally done by Spirit, and sure to be featured on this playlist one day soon). After enjoying that video, I clicked on the link to this one, and I really liked what I heard. While the song has been around for over a decade, it seems to fit the present moment quite well. The currently-ascendent conservative political narrative emphasizes selfishness, competitiveness, and a supposedly-innate war-like characteristic of our species, but a more scientific analysis of human nature and history comes to a completely opposite conclusion that humans largely have succeeded through cooperation, or, as Terry would put it, We are all strong enough to help each other through. Today you might need me, tomorrow I'll need you.

Fond Romantic Memories

Song 380: This week’s spot on the playlist goes to Yankee Lady by Jesse Winchester, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. At the turn of the 1970s, the solo singer/songwriter era unfolded, with acoustic-guitar-wielding types like James Taylor, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell getting a lot of attention. Jesse Winchester, with an eponymous debut LP produced by The Band's Robbie Robertson, might have had a similar shot at the spotlight, but perhaps because of his inability to tour the U.S. due to his status as a Vietnam War draft dodger residing in Canada, he never got the acclaim that those other artists did. I liked what I heard from that first album, though, and I made sure to add it to my collection, soon learning to play this tune, as well as a couple of other cuts from the record. Like Jesse, I too have taken An autumn walk on a country road With a million flaming trees and these days, I understand feeling a little uneasy when there's a winter chill in the breeze, which I have felt once or twice lately. I will also confess to finding inspiration in Jesse's last verse here, where he speaks of seeing himself as a stranger by his birth. I used that as the basis for the lyric of my song Waylaid the Stranger, and you can find a rough cut YT video of that by clicking on the title.

Teaching the Players

Song 379: This week the playlist comes around to Learning the Game by Buddy Holly, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. From the moment the Beatles rocked my world in February of 1964, I believed the Fab Four had invented RnR, and I knew almost nothing about the 1950s pioneers until I began my college era in the fall of 1969. Not long after, a 1950s revival began on the radio, and that, along with a subscription to Rolling Stone, quickly acquainted me with some very significant talents, including this guy in the glasses. By the time The Buddy Holly Story hit the screen in 1978, I had come to understand what the music world had lost to a plane crash on The Day the Music Died in February of 1959, though at the time it happened, I had no idea what had occurred. I added a BH compilation LP to my collection in the mid-1970s, and it truly impressed me to recognize how much good music Buddy had laid down in such a short career. If the comment on the linked YT video is correct, this track (which did not appear on my BH album) was actually the last one Holly did. I wouldn't even know about the tune until later, in the 1980s, when one of my Berkeley musician friends taught it to me, and we then regularly played and sang it together. During that stretch, learning the song, I felt like I was also learning the game, but when I found that I was not the one she's thinking of, I couldn't really blame her, because she had never said I was the only one she'll ever love.

Scary Season

Song 378: This week on the playlist is time for Season of the Witch by Donovan, written by Donovan and Shawn Phillips, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. With Halloween a little more than a week away, it seems like a good time to post this track. I must have had a friend who owned Sunshine Superman because I did know the record during my HS years, but I didn't hear it that often, so I didn't get to know it well until I started my own LP collection when I began my college era. Once I had the disc, it became a regular spinner on my turntable, and while I enjoyed side 1, I preferred side 2, starting as it did with this cut, followed by The Trip (Song 270). I quickly figured out how to play the tune, and would sometimes share it with fellow players in guitar circles at parties and campfire gatherings. Looking back, I can now see how this song and The Trip both influenced my composition Under the Table (and you can find a lyric video of that on YouTube by clicking on the title). During my time in Oakland, CA, my housemate Doug told me a story about how another musician claimed that Sunshine Superman's producer Mickie Most stole Season of the Witch from him and gave it to Donovan, but at this point, I don't remember any of the details, such as who that other songwriter might have been, or if there might have been any reason to believe the story, so while this track reminds us that we've got to pick up every stitch, I don't think I could say who that other cat looking over his shoulder at me might be.