Moving Along

Song 386: This week’s playlist pick is Truckin' by the Grateful Dead, written by Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Bob Weir and Robert Hunter, and you can find a YouTube video of it here. Back in the early 1970s, if you listened to any rock FM radio station long enough, you would surely hear this cut. I picked up on it pretty quickly, though it took me a while to warm up to the rest of American Beauty. The LP did eventually become a regular spinner on my turntable, as I grew to appreciate it more than I had initially, but this closing track remained the highlight of the record. For a while, I struggled to decipher some of the lines, though I soon understood that Houston was too close to New Orleans and that New York had the ways and means. At that point in my life, I was indeed sick of hanging around and really thought I'd like to travel, so I hit the road when I could, though I surely wasn't Truckin' nearly as much as this band. On a side note, earlier today I uploaded a new song on YouTube called Wheel - a Reinvention that includes, in the first verse, a sly reference to this classic, which, as I just found out from doing the research tonight, was recognized by the United States Library of Congress in 1997 as a national treasure. I sure would like to have my reinvention of the wheel achieve that status someday!

Can’t Quite Keep It Together

Song 385: This week on the playlist you will find I Fall to Pieces by Patsy Cline, written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. Though this single topped the country charts in August of 1961, I first heard it the following summer, as our family visits to OH relatives changed from yearly trips in the 1950s to even-numbered-year excursions in the 1960s. Aunt Mary and Uncle Dick had an extensive country music stockpile, and during our stays I had total access to it. This track graced a greatest hits collection that soon became a favorite, so that by the time we headed back towards the east, I had it memorized. On our repeat journeys 2, 4, and 6 years later, I often had the LP spinning on the turntable while I sang along. Sadly, I did not know that between the time I first enjoyed this cut and my further enjoyment 2 years later, Patsy had actually literally fallen to pieces in an unfortunate airplane crash, though if I had known that, it would have only increased my appreciation of her recordings. On a side note, the songwriter name Harlan Howard has appeared on this list a couple of times before (Don't Tell Me What to Do by Pam Tillis as Song 210 and Why Not Me by The Judds as Song 287) and will surely appear again, when I get around to posting Johnny Cash's Busted, Buck Owens' Tiger By The Tail and a few others. He earned my respect as a songwriter a long time ago, and the more I learn about his career, the bigger the nod I'd like to give him.

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.