Mouth Your Passion

 Song 644: This week the playlist applauds Say You Love Me by Fleetwood Mac, written by Christine McVie, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. I saw a TV segment featuring Fleetwood Mac in 1974 and while it didn't excite me, I had this impression that the group did have major potential, and when the Buckingham/Nicks duo joined the ensemble the following year, the band hit a whole new level, and justifiably so. I really relished the album they released that year, which included this gem, and as I acquired the 33 and paid more attention to the quintet, I also increased my appreciation of keyboard player Christine. This marks her third appearance among this collection as the singer and songwriter of prominent Fleetwood Mac tunes, with Over My Head being Song 341 and Songbird being Song 413. I decided to once again highlight the woman who had had a Perfect last name before marrying the band's bassist, mainly because of the sad news about her demise a few days ago. Evidently she was getting weaker, weaker every day, and she was not as strong as she used to be, but I doubt it was someone using her again that was the end of her.

Unrestrained Fowl

 Song 643: This week the playlist recognizes Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd, written by Allen Collins and Ronnie Van Zant, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. When this anthem started riding the air waves in the winter of 1975, I had just found an available room in an apartment on the south end of the Chicago-area locality where I had spent most of the preceding 4 years, so I personally did not feel like the Free Bird that had relaxed in the Atlanta, GA, region the previous spring, but I did appreciate having a warm space to rest. As much as I initially enjoyed listening to the signature song of this septet, which marks their premier appearance among this collection, I would eventually, over the next decade, get tired of hearing other performers do their own versions of it. By the time the 1980s arrived, whenever I attended a night club show, whether by a low-level musician or a prominent star, if the singer gave the audience a chance to make a request, I always heard at least one person - and often many more - shout out Free Bird, to the point where it became rare NOT to hear that. This phenomenon continued well into the 1990s, and may even still happen these days, because, after all, this bird you cannot change.

Vibrate Your Income Source

 Song 642: This week the playlist comes around to Shake Your Moneymaker by Elmore James, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. In researching last week's Doors trailblazer Break on Through I learned that guitarist Robby Krieger has credited Paul Butterfield's version of this EJ hit as the inspiration for the riff that he used to drive the Doors' first album opener, so this seemed like an appropriate moment to feature Mr. James' rendition of the tune which he gets recognition for as the songwriter. This marks Elmore's second appearance in this group, with Dust My Broom being Song 307. When this shaker arrived in 1961, a few years before the Beatles rocked my world, I had no knowledge of such earlier heavy movers, and during my HS stretch I still found out very little about them, but as the 1970s unfolded and I had, as a young adult, the freedom to explore musical pathways that interested me, a 1950s RnR revival hit the Chicago radio waves and I got to hear many classics that had never previously crossed my ears, some of which I highly appreciated, such as this stunning rocker. As a male, I can certainly enjoy watching a woman shake her moneymaker and roll her activator, but it doesn't surprise me when she won't do a thing I tell her to do.

Fracture Barriers to Reach Opposite Conclusions

 Song 641: This week on the playlist you can hear Break on Through (To the Other Side) by the Doors, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. As the summer of 1967 arrived, some of us RnR fans scratched our heads when the Fab Four took on a very different Lonely Hearts Club appearance and sound, but around that time, a new L.A. quartet got everyone's attention with their fiery hit, and soon enough, plenty of my friends had a copy of their premier 33, so I thereby got to hear it frequently. During my final 2 HS years that disc got a lot of spins on the turntable that adorned the classroom where my colleagues and I put together the monthly student newspaper, to the point that when I remember those journalistic exercises, The Doors LP is the main - and sometimes the only - one that I associate with those gatherings, with this sizzling rocker being the opening lift on that enlivening jaunt. Last month I had the pleasure of meeting realist artist Susan Kapilow and getting to enjoy perusing the drawings she did of Jim Morrison. Not long after she received an award for a sculpture she did of his head, one day he appeared on her Manhattan doorstep, and she then had the opportunity that afternoon to sketch him as he hung out with her. Whether someone examining those images found an island in his arms and/or country in his eyes, I would say Susan's illustrations definitely made the scene!

Avoiding Discussions About Labor

 Song 640: Seven weeks after my previous personal friend song post, this week's enlivening ramble I Don't Want to Talk About Work comes from one of my Fast Folk buddies Jim Allen, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I hung out with the FF gang of Manhattan and regularly attended the weekly gathering at Jack Hardy's apartment, Jim soon earned a reputation as one of the standout songwriters of the group, and this jaunt arrived during that stretch, later becoming part of the FF Volume 8 Issue 7 disc that I did the cover for in 1996. I myself sure do understand a certain kind of sadness that has been driven from the door of the rich to the poor, and as the situation keeps getting worse, it's a funny kind of strange, how the weather won't change, but like Jim, I still will send my good wishes for the sucker washing dishes and one more for the drugstore clerk.

Do What? Did He?

 Song 639: This week the playlist comes around to Do Wah Diddy Diddy by Manfred Mann, written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Two weeks ago I featured a Mann ensemble in this collection for the first time, highlighting a melodic ride that his Earth Band did, and since I have planned for years to add to the list this particular enlivening ramble, I figured I might as well get around to that too. I don't recall whether I heard this hit as it climbed the charts in the summer following the icier season when the Fab Four first rocked my world, but I do remember my neighbor buddy from across the street mouthing the words one afternoon during that sunny stretch, and I soon joined him, at least in part motivated by a lyrical simplicity that didn't take long to grasp. He was just walkin' down the street singin' "Do wah diddy, diddy, dum diddy do" while snappin' his fingers and shufflin' his feet. Perhaps it was a good thing that we did not know at the time that the same condition which led to Woody Guthrie's demise also lurked inside his system, all too soon haunting his entire existence and bringing him to his final chapter. I share a few of the details of his Huntington's Disease story in my book Expecting the Broken Brain to Do Mental Pushups, and I intend to have an updated second edition of that paperback available in a few months.

The Conflict Scam

 Song 638: This week on the playlist you’ll find The War Racket by Buffy Sainte-Marie, who also wrote the song, and you can find a YouTube video of it by clicking on the title. Over the last decade, I've learned a lot about WW1 hero Smedley Butler who wrote a book in the late 1930s letting us all know that War is a Racket, and that volume probably provided some inspiration for the lyrical direction here. Back in 2018, Buffy released the album that uses this anthem as its title track. I just found out about the song a week ago, thanks to a cool FaceBook post, and it really grabbed me the first time I heard it. This actually marks the premier appearance of Ms. Sainte-Marie among this collection. I became aware of her in the early 1970s as I got around to crafting my own personal singer/songwriter style, influenced by fellow folkies like her, Donovan, that Bob Zimmerman guy, etc., and Buffy's hit Universal Soldier soon got my attention, so this recent ride adds another layer to the foundation she set 6 decades ago. Back in the 1980s, I wrote a song called Getting Dark which will appear on my upcoming release Rock Ave. and which expressed my concern about U.S. leaders trying to move the nation in the direction of endless war. As the New American Century began, the Bushes and billionaire bullies started to put war on the masses so they could clean out the purse, and the D.C. leaders have continued to increase the numbers of the dead and impoverished by playing their little patriot game. On a side note, I have a lyric video for my Elder Statesman song New American Century Part 1 which illustrates what I have to say about how this murderous racket unfolded 2 decades ago, and you can check that out by clicking on the title.