the
Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
the
Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms, yearning to breathe free.
Sometimes I think it's a sin, when I feel like I'm winning, when I'm losing again. Those words from Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot have run up and down the staircase of my mind many times. Just when I think I've got it, it turns out I don't. His win/lose lyric has several cousins: Springsteen's one step up and two steps…
"It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day…" I sing in the car. This is about as far as I get before my sweet hubby groans, "Okay, THAT'S enough." He knows what's coming next: the entire five verses of Bobbie Gentry's Southern gothic hit, "Ode to Billie Joe." Yep, I've known the lyrics to that moody little song frontwards and backwards since Daddy first brought home the single in July 1967. The beautiful Bobbie is 70 years old today, and I want to thank her for inspiring me at a young age to write about my life and my observations.
Okay, rock fans of the '60s and '70s, it's time to get brutally honest and swallow your hipster pride. Can you please admit you've heard of country singer Tammy Wynette? And, if you know the name, are you self-assured enough to admit you've heard, or even enjoyed, her 1968 chart-topping single, "D.I.V.O.R.C.E."? C'mon, fess up! It tells the syrupy story of a couple on the verge of splitsville, who spell out the "D word" so little J.O.E. won't understand. This tune was just begging to be spoofed! And the first one to do it was Billy Connelly - a wild and woolly guy with a funny accent who lived far across the pond in Scotland.
In 1968, The Band sang about pulling into Nazareth, "feelin' 'bout half past dead." Robbie Robertson wrote that lyric for The Band's most enduring song, "The Weight," but he wasn't referring to the Holy Land. Rather, he was paying homage to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, home of guitar maker C.F. Martin & Company. Well, maybe it's a holy place, after all - at least to musicians.
With the publication of Willie Nelson's new memoir - "Roll Me up and Smoke Me When I Die: Musings From the Road," I present some of my favorite past quotes from the great, grizzled 79-year-old singer/songwriter/picker…and tireless marijuana legalization promoter.