Sunday, September 29, 2013

Another Song of the Week time has arrived

Another song that has a lot of personal meaning for me, related to a particular time in my life and one very good friend who helped me survive, Jackson Browne's "That Girl Could Sing":

"She was a friend to me when I needed one
Wasn't for her I don't know what I'd done
She gave me back something that was missing in me
She could of turned out to be almost anyone
Almost anyone--
With the possible exception
Of who I wanted her to be..."

(Video here.)

Turns out you can fall in love with someone for the wrong reasons, and come out on the other side with a friend for life, if you're lucky.

Once again, it's the best song on a very fine album, Hold On, Hold Out"Hold Out" is a fine some  ("Baby I guess you know my story/ Baby I guess you know my side/ It seems I've traded love for glory/ But I'm still not satisfied" is how it opens); as is "Boulevard" ('Nobody rides for free/ Nobody gets it like they want it to be/ Nobody hands you any guarantee/ Nobody").  "Call It A Loan" ("Oh.../can we call it a loan/ And a debt that I owe/ On a bet that I lost ")...and the others.  This is an album about realizing what you've lost, and why you've lost it--why you have lost it, not alibis. 

 A little more from "That Girl Could Sing":

"Stumblin' into the lights of the city
And then back in the shadows again
Hanging onto the laughter
That each of us hid our unhappiness in.."

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Song of the Day (or Week, or Month, Depending on How Often I Get Around to It)

Looks like weekly for the time being.

I think this is a brilliant song, if only for this:

...Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac.
A little voice inside my head said "Don't look back, you can never look back..."


The Boys of Summer.

This song was on Building the Perfect Beast (1984), and came out at a time of a little turmoil in my life.  Somehow, it helped (and the MTV video was awesome).  The whole album is pretty damned good, especially the title song, and "All She Wants To Do Is Dance," "Sunset Grill" ("You see a lot more meanness in the city/ It's the kind that eats you up inside/ Hard to come away with anything that feels like dignity/ Hard to get home with any pride"), and "Driving With Your Eyes Closed" ("I met a Frenchman in a field last night/ He was out there with an easel painting carnival light/ He said, "I used to paint the princess, I used to paint the frogs/ Now I paint mustaches on dangerous dogs").

I always thought that "Dangerous Dog"s would be a good name for a band.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Song of the Day (or Week, or Month, Depending on How Often I Get Around to It)

When you're 65 and a half years old, the lyrics have a somewhat different meaning than they had when you were 25 and a half...

Neil Young's "Heart of Gold."

"I want to live,
I want to give
I've been a miner
for a heart of gold.
It's these expressions
I never give
That keep me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old.
Keeps me searching
for a heart of gold
And I'm getting old."