"Teddy Bears' Picnic" Jerry Garcia & David Grisman-Not For Kids Only

I bet you never knew Jerry Garcia released a children's album. It must be hard to sell a children's album when your entire personality revolves around hard acid and heroin, tie that in with the fact that you look like a child molesting-Santa Claus and Jerry Garcia had a lot to contend with when he released this album; not for the people who really knew him. Captain Trips was less free-baser backstage than a hyper-intelligent-down home shaman of pure Americana. Vastly more proficient at banjo and acoustic guitar than anything he put out on stage electrically; he was a total enigma operating in realms in which the only traits that carried him through were a passionate lust for music and inhuman proficiency on every instrument he touched.

Because of this it was no surprise to me when this album was released, it was also of no surprise when after hearing it I fell in love instantly. Only someone as gifted as Jerry could make a 250lb hockey player take breaks from lifting, drinking and dipping to figure out the solos on a children's album. The wholehearted giddiness exuded reminds one of Blake's "Songs of Innocence and Experience" This song is "The Tyger" and "The Chimney Sweeper" it is what we lose when we grow pubes and get jobs.

Forgetting about the meanings and 18th century poetry implications for a moment: Listen to the clarinet weave in and out of the banjo and trombone as a child running through fields of lilies naked, hear Jerry's voice fragile, raspy with Marlboro Reds, the strange Uncle whom everyone adores and always has chocolate in his pocket, feel Grisman's mandolin skipping into the forefront during the solo over chalk murals on the sidewalk under a azure summer sky. In this frame of reference you can picture Jerry and Mr. Rogers jamming on his front porch with cardigans on, Big Bird bobbing his head up and down in the background.

It is a terribly cute song and for those who don't know Jerry it is an introduction to why so many people loved him like a father. Don't write me off as naive, but for most Deadheads it wasn't the drugs and the scene they loved about the man, it was the purity in his soul which held such attraction. Like everyman he had his faults, like all great men he kept them inside and smiled as much as humanly possible never letting the world know. For a few days those demons chasing Jerry took a break and let the man revert back to childhood dreams and pleasures, they were probably even swaying their heads back and forth, watching with smiles on their faces over his shoulder.

"She Thinks I Still Care" Elvis Presley-Moody Blue

Elvis Presley, the world knows the name. There was the young sex symbol, the cheesy movies, the Army, the over the top suits, the drugs, strange sexual and emotional problems...we think we all know the man and everything about him. Below those various facades there is a much more accomplished and multi-faceted individual than the world could ever comprehend and it is evident in this Dickey Lee cover which was made famous by George Jones, recorded on Elvis's final studio album

Elvis's voice is probably one of the most amazing gifts ever bestowed on someone in the history of music. Defying classification, his voice was both a baritone and a tenor, it covered an astounding two octaves and a third, it was almost two separate voices kept in reserve when he needed them. Elvis could hit full high G's and A's in a simple ballad, a range that is usually reserved for opera singers. He was also described as having perfect pitch, as well as the ability to hear a song once and play it flawlessly on piano.

Being from Tennessee his first love was Gospel and Country music and I believe he is at his finest in performing the genres. "You Gave Me a Mountain", "Kentucky Rain", "You Don't Know Me" and "How Great Thou Art" provide one with bone chilling high notes and intensity that sweats out his pores and onto the stage. In these songs it isn't just the voice that comes to the surface, it is the young man who grew up in a 12x12 house in the antiquated south, every man who had a story to tell but not the pipes to tell it with. It is the voice of a man who throughout the course of his life had extreme difficulty forming and keeping intimate relationships and that of one of the few people in history vast fame isolated into a sad and lonely world. He was no different than Jesus or Roman Emperors, he was truly so successful and so famous that it remained impossible for him to possess even the simplest pleasures the common man enjoys on his worst days. Luckily for him and for us is that when his times were darkest he reverted back to music to bathe in their heeling waters.

"She Thinks I Still Care" along with "I Wish I Was Blind" is the saddest love song you could ever hear on a jukebox at two in the morning. It is the saddest song you could ever hear on the radio in your car, in bed, in the shower...it is sadder than the long walk to the electric chair. Check out the bridge at 1:45 into the song:

Well if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
Oh how could she ever be so foolish
Tell me where would she get Lord such an idea

With Blues and Soul steroids the King knocks these softball lines out of the park, beyond the bleachers and into the streets leaving fans fighting for remnants of the twisted Latin alphabet. Every step Priscilla took leaving Graceland is evident in those notes, they're alive on his sash, lighting up the rhinestones on his white jumpsuit.

In today's world we love to be different for different's sake, something always has to be new, edgy...hipsters base their entire lives on such a premise. In this world it is easy to overlook the basics, to opt for the American-Fusion instead of the porterhouse, the apple-tini over the scotch and to pass over Elvis because we picture him dancing in front of a cheap screen on the beach in G.I. Blues. Make no mistake about it, Elvis and this song are the bedrock that every musician laid their foundations atop of to build their own structures.

If you ever visit Graceland and stroll through the racquetball courts you'll see the upright piano he played on hours before his death, people say the last song he played was "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" which is also on this album. I bet the King knew it was time to take care of business and give those pipes back to his creator.

"I'm Still Waiting" Bob Marley and the Wailers-Various

When writing a blog about songs that aren't well know it is somewhat difficult to do something on Bob Marley, the man who brought Reggae to everyone's attention. However his work went far beyond the pot-smoking-pseudo-rasta-college loser's collection. Bob laid down some slow grooves that are just too perfect for words, including this three minute track which would fit seamlessly into Sinatra's or The Beach Boys's repertoire.

Marvin Gaye has become the defacto, go to guy when people think of intimate music to come together to...but come on, maybe for your first time. In such a circumstance I really don't need lyrics to tell me EXACTLY what and how I am supposed to engage myself. Marvin Gaye is the hardcore porn of music, this song is a Playboy spread done by Helmut Newton; it is what is not said that makes it sexy.

And from two overplayed men with overplayed ideas this song comes as a fresh lover, one who doesn't dress as suggestively but nonetheless when the clothes come off is sexier than you have ever imagined. The reverb on the vocals sound as though Bob is singing during a humid rain, the tight trumpets barely audible in the background provide the pulse of a heart gearing up in anticipation for something special while the background harmonies carry you off to a bed of clouds and roses. This song is the little black dress of sensuality.

It encapsulates the simple beauty and sexual tension which comprised many songs of the 50's and 60's when we were too shy to come out and say exactly what we were speaking about or the language of the blues which when translated could make 2 Live Crew blush. In this song Bob breaks the mold of himself and produces something (thankfully) that few have grabbed onto and made popular. Excuse me, but after listening to this song while writing I'm lighting the candles and making a phone call...

"Innocent When You Dream" Elvis Costell-Kojak Variety

Besides for Bob Dylan there probably hasn't been a more original artist in 20th century music than Tom Waits. His work has ranged from simply arranged piano and guitar ballads, to jungle beats, lullaby and German brass orchestrations. "Innocent When You Dream" appeared on the album Franks Wild Years, much of that music also appearing in a play of the same name in the late 80's. The sound produced on this album, this song in particular, stumbles out as though it is being played through an old Victrola, the instruments used are mind numbing and probably lead to 100% employment in the session musician's union, from the liner notes: drums, conga, percussion, maracas, marimba, orchestra bells, glockenspiel, sax, baritone horn, violin, tenor sax, piano, pump organ, accordion, Leslie bass pedals, cocktail piano, Optigan, guitar, rooster, piano, Farfisa, Mellotron, drums, conga and tambourine. Yup, one song. Waits's orginal version is brutal and harsh, it is twenty drunks shouting in a bar at three in the morning, a constant tension between chalkboard and fingernail. Because of this the beauty of the lyrics can get lost in a voice you can see with vapors and cigarette smoke.

Similarly Elvis Costello is quite unique, he set the cornerstone for the 80's sound, penned symphonies and has worked with people from Roy Orbison and Burt Bacharach to Emmylou Harris and his wife Diana Krall. I suggest purchasing the "Piano Jazz" album with Marian Mcpartland to comprehend fully the amount of knowledge and thought that goes into this man's work and the depth of his musical skill.

So it was no surprise when Costello donned his iconoclast hat again and headed down to Barbados to record a cover album of his favorite songs. On this album named after the convenience store across the street from the studio there is Grateful Dead, Springsteen, Little Richard, Howlin' Wolf, Randy Newman and Peggy Lee to name a few. In such a vast field of talented songwriters Waits's lyrics hold their own in a way rarely realized when he is singing them personally, maybe even more than "San Diego Serenade" his most poignant. In addition this song appears on the second disc which to me has always been much more interesting than the first. The reason being songs two through eleven were all arranged and sung as in the style of George Jones. I have never heard of a musician consciously attempting this and certainly never using George Jones as a template, but more should.

Unlike Waits's barroom sound, when sung by Costello the song takes on a whole different personality. A treaty has been signed in the cold war between voice and piano; the complexities erased with Bauhaus clarity and simplicity. In its new format of simple guitar and piano one can focus on the poetic lyricism and beautiful harmony of Costello and possibly himself as an overdub on another track. I say that because the best part of this song outside of the lyrics is the melodic background sung by someone who remains nameless in every edition of the liner notes.

Do not the four words Innocent when you dream hold so much promise, a terrible amount of forgiveness and childhood purity? What about the refrain?

And it’s such a sad old feeling
All of the fields are soft and green
And it’s memories that I’m stealing
But you're innocent when you dream, when you dream
You are innocent when you dream

It overpowers the three short verses that comprise the remainder of the song, there is no solo, there is no outro. The song is cathartic by default, a guilt enema, most of our dreams have died and sometimes we find ourselves too misanthropic for the long mind sex of bringing new ones to life; this song is a pheromone for new ones and the foreplay for their creation. Many people have a strong distaste for Costello's voice and singing style, I put money on those people recusing themselves from his trial after this gem.

"I Get Along Without You Very Well" Chet Baker-The Last Great Concert, My Favorite Songs Vol. 1&2

Chet Baker was the poster boy for the West Coast Jazz movement in the 50's, his devastatingly handsome good looks and overwhelmingly melodic smooth sound made him an easy target for such a title. In the truest sense of the word he was a musician, his skill at the ivories was only surpassed by his brass work and intimate voice, all of which one can hear on any of the over two hundred albums he produced. If you are asking why he produced so many albums, the reason is the junk. Half of Chet's life was everything one could ask for, the other half was a heroin infused hell that led him to prison sentences in Italy and being expelled from West Germany and England.

Later in life his good looks declined, giving him a cartoon-like living ghost appearance and after a savage beating at the hands of drug dealers he was left toothless which lead him to develop a new embouchure due to his dentures. The story is debated and some even say that there was no beating to begin with, his teeth simply fell out from all the heroin. Regardless, his life was in shambles while his playing and quality of music declined from otherworldly to downright poor.

In the mid seventies he staged an impressive comeback both as a vocalist and a trumpeteer. He spent most of his time in Europe playing with such greats as Jim Hall, Phil Markowitz, Jean-Louis Rassinfosse and Stan Getz the man whom he started his career and often times had a tumultuous relationship with. He would work with Elvis Costello on "Shipbuilding", Costello stating that Baker's "The Thrill is Gone" being the inspiration for his own work. For a while it appeared as if he was back and ready to regain his title.

At about 3:00 am on May 13, 1988, Baker was found dead on the street below his second-story room at the Prins Hendrik Hotel in Amsterdam, Netherlands, with serious wounds to his head. Heroin and cocaine were found in his hotel room and in his body. The death was ruled an accident and a sad finish to an absolute force in the Jazz world.

This song and this concert was one of his last and is not the best example of his work, it is a departure from my values to actually like it. The song possesses qualities I usually despise in Jazz, the biggest being STRINGS. I can't count the amount of albums these blasted things have ruined in the past. On Sinatra's albums alone the body count is far too high to speak of; and then the flutes......

But here, for this time and for this concert it works tremendously well. This song is a sad, beautiful epilogue to a war scarred life lived without apologies. Baker's voice sounds as if it is falling out of the second story window constantly, the strings and orchestra behind him provide the safety net that repeatedly keeps him from spiraling out into the abyss. At 4:24 after a piano and string interlude the trumpet reaches in and grabs your heart straight out of your body, you can forgive a man for crying to this.

"A man can be destroyed but not defeated." Few personified this line better than Chet Baker. While this final song caps an impressive, creative career it is not his best. It is not the stripped-down pure cool jazz he made in his prime and that is why it is so poignant and beautiful. When you listen to this song contemplate a wide-eyed boy from Yale, Oklahoma setting off for the West Coast with promise radiating from his pores, a meeting with Black Harry, various prisons, physical and professional ruin and yet he's still here playing with false teeth and leather skin. What is encompassed in this song is a life, for better or worse, lived, and lived without reservation nor hesitation. This song is resplendent in its sadness, I challenge one to have the courage to press play to it after a breakup. Do yourself a service and get into this man, if China White is better than this then there is no room left for heaven.

"Goin Down Slow" Duane Allman-Duane Allman: An Anthology

Like many of the greats Duane Allman died before his time in a freak accident, crushed by a lumber truck (not a peach truck as many believed, the "Eat a Peach" album by the Allmans in 1972 was not a reference to his death but merely one of Duane's quotes about Georgia and peace). Like those before him what he accomplished in his short years is much more impressive than the tragic way he died.

When you listen to Layla and hear that memorable opening riff...that was Duane Allman. Eric Clapton originally penned the song as a ballad until Duane stepped in and laid it down for the bloke. After hearing Duane provide lead guitar as a session musician Clapton was quoted as saying: "I remember hearing Wilson Pickett's 'Hey Jude' and just being astounded by the lead break at the end. ... I had to know who that was immediately — right now." I write this because as soon as one hears the name Allman their mind shifts into a world of hippies, bikers and the circus that the band has become in the last twenty years. If Duane was still around you can rest assured that this never would have happened, it would have remained true and uncompromising.

"Goin Down Slow" has been covered by everyone. Everyone. I would imagine that there is a version of Barry Manilow's floating around somewhere in the vaults. It has been done funky, fast and acoustic but like a cigar and scotch this song is never better than when it is done slow. Once Duane's version was recorded they should have ripped up the music and erased every musician's memory of how to play it. Everything else is just fluff and shit, worthless spittle thrown into the ether by mindless drones attempting to recreate a blues Pieta.

And there are so many reasons why. Could be the opening rambling piano lead-in setting up in minor the explosion of emotion and soul that could change James Brown's name to Tom. Maybe it is Duane's almost falsetto voice meandering through the terse lyrics of retrospection of a man on his deathbed. Others would say it is the brushes and slow high hat; bouncing, holding the guitar in check. But in reality it is the Les Paul that will leave you bleedin on the ground, raped by the blues.

There are two solos in this song including the outro, each of which hold their own validity and intensity, they build and destroy themselves during each interlude. The first one is very Garcia-like in the beginning, it rambles slowly, the important notes are the ones not being played. Duane had the skill to set Stevie Ray's fingers on fire but the soul and sense of timing to frame each note of this simple pentatonic scale in ways rarely exploited. The rambling ceases with some quick riffs and begins again until 3:49 when with a triple string-single fret tap and a few huge, holding, bends the intensity builds to stop. It is a massive solo and had it not been for the second, probably some of the most simply-complex blues every played.

In reality the second solo begins at 6:47 with Duane mouthing sounds "hmmmmm hmmm hmmm hmmmm hmmmmmmmmm" while bends break through in the background until 7:43 where Les Paul takes over again showing the power of six strings over two human vocal cords; the piano flutters and that slow, soft bouncer of the drums turns into an aboriginal head shrinking chant caught up in the voodoo beating out of Duane's fingers.

I think that this might be the best blues song ever written. It captures the desperation of staring the reaper in the face after a life not spent in a confessional. It is the moaning of the slaves in the field, the boss man staring you down through aviators and the cologne that is not yours on your woman's blouse. "Goin Down Slow" is everything you could ever ask for in a blues song and I'm not the only one who thinks so, who do you think made that lumber truck stop in the middle of its turn, leaving Duane dead at 25?

"Crazy as a Loon" John Prine-Fair and Square

I think we are all a sucker for one-liners whether they be a joke, a quote from a movie or a song. With music they can be so powerful they stamp an image in one's mind that can never be changed. Some of my favorites:

-"Lying out there like a killer in the sun, and I know it's late but we can make it if we run"
-"All it takes one itchy trigger, one more widow, one less white nigger",
-"Waking in the morning, to the feeling of your fingers on my skin, wiping out the traces of the people and the places that I've been"
-"I'll miss those nights in the bar with the girls all loaded like freights, and the pain in the morning comes as easy as it goes"

There's a myriad of them I sing to myself throughout the day, probably the coolest I've heard in a long time is:

"Back before I was a movie star, straight off of the farm, I had a picture of another man's wife tattooed on my arm"

Today tattoos are accessories, like women with dogs, Louie bags and belt buckles. It's a shame because tattoos are nothing to be proud of, nothing to show off. I often think that if you have a tattoo you don't regret then it wasn't administered in the proper setting nor with the proper mindset. Let me make it clear, they are not body art, they are not something you show off like art. Art is for walls, canvases, sculpture, video and song. Tatts should be Sailor Jerry style or prison-esque, they should be a woman's name, a drunk night or something similar. It is the fact that they are not cool which makes them cool. The next time I see some hipster with a star tattoo or a sparrow (look up their meaning if you don't know) I'm gonna rip the fucking thing off their pale, hairless, skinny arm.

And with that tatt line I introduce John Prine just in case you never heard of him. You might know the song "Angel from Montgomery" which was covered by Bonnie Rait and my favorite, Elaine Petty down at the Florabama out on Perdido Key. John came to fame back in the early 70's with his first album entitled "John Prine" after which Kris Kristofferson said "He writes songs so good we'll have to break his thumbs". The music was a mix of country and folk and like so many before him he was declared the next Bob Dylan. Later Dylan was quoted (in pure Dylan mindfuck) as saying:

"Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs. I remember when Kris Kristofferson first brought him on the scene. All that stuff about "Sam Stone," the soldier junkie daddy, and "Donald and Lydia," where people make love from ten miles away. Nobody but Prine could write like that."

"Crazy as a Loon" is somewhat of a departure from his usual writing, because it is some of his latest work there is much more experience and wisdom in his lyrics and melodies. It is a retrospective piece, not necessarily autobiographical, where the voice recalls his prior lives much like (albeit much cheesier) Buffett's "Last Mango in Paris" about Captain Tony and his saloon in Key West. The syllables don't match but the lyrics are almost haiku in their purity and simplicity.

"So I gathered up my savy, bought myself a business suit,
headed up to New York City where a man can make some loot,
I got hired Monday morning, downsized that afternoon,
Overcome with grief that evening, now I'm crazy as a loon."

After lives in LA, Nashville and Manhattan the narrator comes to the conclusion of moving up to Canada and living off the land with nature. It is every working stiffs dream, the ultimate middle finger to the straight world and a final goodbye to the bullshit, stress and craziness that we deal with everyday.

When I come home after a long day in the rat race, a bad night with the woman and nothing is flowing I might do an hour of yoga, maybe a glass of cab or a stiff scotch. In reality, nothing loosens up those knots in my neck more than settling up to the old wooden mistress for my own personal set list which always includes this gem from Illinois's finest. If you're ever in Gulfport, Florida, roam around the bars of St. Pete Beach where he does pop in sets at a local bar, you just might see the man in the flesh with ten of your new best friends.

"If I say I Love You" Loston Harris-Timeless

There's a lot of negatives that come with living in Manhattan, yesterday I went to the store to pick up a can of Pledge, six Calla Lilies and a two litre of Pepsi for 58 dollars. Every morning I wake up to traffic, jackhammers and horns, every night I rarely see a sunset; the weather is terrible, %75 of the year it's either too hot or too cold. But the positives outweigh all of that, fashion, culture, beautiful (although somewhat combative) women, museums and some of the best restaurants in the world. To tip the scale further in the positive direction is the fact that when I am finished writing this I can walk ten blocks north (which I will) and see Loston Harris live in a space more intimate than most of my neighbor's bathrooms.

In looking at my latest couple songs I feel a need to chill out a bit and throw in something a little more mellow, this is the song. This song is happy, jazzy, shallow and sans gravitas (can you mix languages like that? I don't think you can). Loston's voice is terribly chill and mellow, it is as if he's talking to the microphone. The song swings a bit, the piano is sublime but the real star on this track in my mind is the trumpet that fills in the gaps. At 1:14 into the solo starts off in full with Marcus Parsley and Loston trading off grove until the vocals slide back into the fold like a pair of velvet tux shoes.

You can find the album on Loston's website: http://www.lostonharris.com/music/. The price of $21 is a little steep for a CD but between this song and the sultry "Anytime, Anyday. Anywhere" is well worth the admission. Or think of it this way, to see him live there is a $25 cover and the martini (you can never have just one) will set you back another $20. Granted you don't get the atmosphere which is usually a mixture of UES skeletons, a few tourist who have no business there and the obligatory Russian Pro at the bar alone, but Loston is probably not leaving his venue anytime soon for a significant period so it'll just have to do until you head uptown for a sniff.

"Sniper" Harry Chapin-Sniper and Other Love Songs

On August 1, 1966 at 11:48 in the morning Charles Whitman took his first shot from The University of Texas at Austin Clocktower. Earlier in the morning he murdered his mother and wife leaving a note that read:

"I imagine it appears that I brutally killed both of my loved ones. I was only trying to do a quick thorough job...If my life insurance policy is valid please pay off my debts...donate the rest anonymously to a mental health foundation. Maybe research can prevent further tragedies of this type"

Charles would eventually murder 14 people and injure 32 more before his life was taken by Sheriffs. His entire life was marked by mental problems, addiction and abuse.

Usually when musicians and artists indulge in political dialogue and encompass it into their work it reeks of stupidity and hypocrisy. I love CSN but in their political ramblings I always think of a fat, gluttonous, heroin addicted David Crosby sailing on his restored wooden yacht through the waters of Mexico. The only person who is and never was inflicted by this disease was Harry Chapin, who was not only a brilliant songwriter but a humanitarian. Harry gave everything away, one third of his concert proceeds went to charities, and even though he married a New York socialite, upon his death they were close to penniless; his widow saying:

"Harry was supporting 17 relatives, 14 associations, seven foundations and 82 charities. Harry wasn't interested in saving money. He always said, 'Money is for people,' so he gave it away."

Harry didn't die choking on his own vomit or OD'ing on junk, booze or crank; he wasn't shot by a jaded lover nor falling out of a hotel window after ripping walls apart. He was crushed and burned to death in his 1975 Volkswagen Rabbit on the FDR by a tractor trailer at age 38.

The music he left behind is a testament to emotional songwriting "Cats in the Cradle" and "Taxi" possess a sensitivity and Epictetus-like stoicism. In "Sniper" those traits are evident but they are combined with a rage rarely seen before in his performances. In this ten minute long song comprised of no less than twelve different chord progressions Harry lets loose the rage and horror of a man who senselessly murdered people in cold blood. I have always thought of it as two songs combined into one, there is the chronological narrative about the events of the day mixed in between introspective thoughts of the Sniper and those who he has known throughout his life. The narrative voice builds in intensity during those ten minutes while the thoughts serve as a conduit for reigning the escalation back into control.

The song is blunt and straightforward in its ugliness, verses such as:

"The first words he spoke took the town by surprise.
One got Mrs. Gibbons above her right eye.
It blew her through the window wedged her against the door.
Reality poured from her face, staining the floor"

Convey a true sense of not only the horror of the day but through their simplicity give a lucid display of what exactly happens when one is shot. The bullet destroys everything in its path.

This song is not a top down drive into the sun tune, nor a gin swizzling sitting at the bar night of misery anthem. This song is Dostoevsky or Bolano, you have to give it the respect and attention it deserves; if you engage it the piece will reward you in ways you never thought music could. So throw it on, it will be ten minutes of contemplation you'll thank yourself for, when it's over, throw on "Taxi" again as an aperitif to a Thomas Keller-like music experience.

"Bring it on Home to Me" Van Morrison-It's Too Late to Stop Now: Live

I was a little hesitant to post this one because if you don't know this Sam Cooke song then there is absolutely no hope for you in regards to music, you can bet some 'ole Sam is going to be on this page very soon. Also, no matter how great of a job Van does here on this track it can never compare to Sam's entrancing version. BUT Van comes pretty close in this song just under five minutes long, I would say he lays it down as his life depends on it but it is obvious that music is much more important than life itself.

People think they know Van Morrison, they know the big ones: "Moondance", Brown-eyed Girl", and probably know "Into the Mystic" because it has been whored out to every Julia Roberts-type romantic film in the past two decades. Bullshit. Here's the real Van:

Born in Northern Ireland digging old Blues, Soul and Skiffle, did Them, did Brown-eyed Girl, moved to Boston and lost everything, spent his time playing small gigs, discovered again by Warner Brothers...Astral Weeks, Moondance, Tupelo Honey, Saint Dominic's Preview and legend status. Not bad for a drunk kid from Northern Ireland with stage fright (seriously, which is why he sings live most of the time with his eyes closed) even though he is the master of probably every instrument that can be played. If you don't believe me check out the liner notes to one of his albums. Van Morrison: Lead Vocals, Guitar, Piano, Saxophone....endless.

Van's songwriting ability is on par with the greats but just as some of the Dead's best songs are Dylan covers, it is in "Bring it on Home to Me" that we can really hear the voracious growl alive in that fat four hundred pound frame of his. There really is no way to describe in words how powerful, fuck you inyourface his sound is while still keeping an intimate, shallow persona somewhere under all that diesel. Van's voice isn't a Chevelle with straight pipes, nor a locomotive running through West Texas or the Concorde scraping the sky. It is all those things at the same time.

The song itself is bare bones, no need for ketchup when you have fillet, fuck Phil Spector, who is he? Some asshole who should be in prison. There is a John Platania guitar behind the beef, quick riffs filling in the gaps, there's a fantastic Jack Schroer sax solo...how do I know it's Schroer? Because right before he begins Van wakes him up by screaming "JACK!" Combine that with a fluttery piano background that sounds as if it was coming out of an old Western Saloon and you have the melody.

The Voice, well there's Van playing with words like he has been known to do on stage:

"I gave you all themoneyIhadinthebank"
"If you ever change your mindwa"
"Leavin-a me behinda"

But more importantly like many in the Blues and Soul genres, each song is a oration by a preacher. It begins almost spoken until it becomes time to testify and testify comes a happening bringing down all the fire and brimstone-soul fused groove down from the Gods. Van is a fucking God, there is no doubt since "and if you EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVER CHAAAAAANGGGGE YOUR MIIIIIINNNNNNDDA" could never come out of a mortal's voice box. In those words there's the hurt of every blown relationship in the world and the desperation of those whose lives have been destroyed by someone, there's Van passed out in a turkey bar up in Southie and Sam Cooke dead on the floor of the Hacienda Motel.

If you're one of the above mentioned, put the picture of that lost one in a place you can stare at it for awhile and throw this song on repeat, Go ahead and sing the song, no wait, scream this song just as Van has been doing for decades and dig down deep to find it. Down there is where that hurt is living and tearing away at your soul, once you let that sonofabitch out and into the ether it will be gone forever, Van is a modern day exorcist and that baritone has cured more than any crucifix or holy water ever has; he's four hundred pounds of sweaty, boozed soaked musical piety and his temple is open each and every day, "Bring it on Home to Me" is the Ave Maria of the cannon.

"Femme Fatale" Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground-1969: The Velvet Underground Live

Wouldn't it be wonderful to go to a party and see Jay-Z in the corner talking to Damien Hirst who just finished with Lindsey Lohan in the bathroom while Ryan Adams was furious over it all talking to Cormac Mccarthy? ...Well maybe not those people, but more so wouldn't it be great if the arts still came together and fed off of each other leading to marvelous books, paintings and music? In today's world where studios, auction houses and multi-national corporations make stars such a scene is impossible, the last we saw of it in its truest form was probably Studio 54 and that's a stretch. The Waverley Inn and The Ivy just don't cut it in my mind, the fact that they have let me in at times is enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

But there was a time when all this was the norm, there was a time when Andy Warhol and Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and Truman Capote were all tied together in art, sexual trysts, and fueled each other with their passions. One thing that tied many of them together was Edie Sedgwick. Edie's seventh-great grandfather was the first Major General of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, other great grandfather(s) held such positions as: Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Civil War Colonel, CEO of the Southern Pacific Railroad, owners of Clipper ships and founder of Central Park in New York City. Edie continued the tradition of important American contributors with her involvement in the Pop Art movement as a regular visitor to The Factory. "Poor Little Rich Girl" and "Beauty No. 2" she's the one.

She was also one of Bob Dylan's muses until his marriage to Sara Lownds drove her insane and into the arms of his most trusted companion at the time, Bob Neuwirth. Famous for writing "Mercedes Benz" and basically being friends with Bob. Edie, with all her family background and artistic endeavors was probably best known for her erratic behavior, drug abuse and hospitalization in the psychiatric ward of Cottage Hospital. Compelled by her behavior Andy Warhol asked Lou Reed to write a song about her which eventually was titled "Femme Fatale".

While the studio version is typical studio (overproduced, lacking in emotion) on the live 1969 album Lou Reed digs down into the trenches of cool and brings up a mellow Fender sound combined his famous understated singing voice. Lou was the original heroin-chic-anti-star, there's not much else to say but Damn...that dude is so fuckin cooool.

One of these days there will be a time when music and art comes together so seamlessly, but until that time rolls around we'll just have to revert back to this album and song again and again. Maybe it'll happen when Armani, Gucci and Louis Vuitton move out of SoHo, maybe it'll just pop up somewhere else, and possibly soon now that the whole models and bottles scene has died down. I hope so, there'd be nothing better than to walk through Lower Manhattan again and feel like you don't belong, and not because you don't have a Centurion Card.

"Tiny Tears" Tindersticks -Tindersticks 2

When I close my eyes and listen to this song I think of a emaciated man prostrated in his bathroom doing heroin in slow motion. The early minutes of the song begin slow he's wrapping surgical hose around his arm, on the counter is some cooked up junk and a yellow-faded hypo, he eyes it and then throws a glance out into the bedroom where he sees the tatts that cover the back of his woman lying in a messed up bed With the first refrain the background instrumental kicks in closeup of a track-riddled pale, hairless inner elbow and the vein bulging, upper arm wrapping around the black hose The next verse and the scaling back into the drawn out organ still view of the needle and a hand that moves slowly to lift it off the counter Until right when the refrain begins again the needle pierces his skin, his head falls back against the white tile walls and eyes wander to the rear of the head The solo explodes tears fall down his face and his whole body relaxes to slump on the throne, the needle falls to the ground slowly and bounces on the floor As the viewer pulls away the final verse progresses and he sees the scene of the tattooed woman on the bed passed out and beyond the man on the toilet still, needle on the ground and a pale light flickering above mixing with the nearly exhausted candles all over the room.

I don't know what your personal perceptions of this song are but Tindersticks always provide a cinematic depth to their songs, draw your own conclusions and your own hell or heaven from them. They are a constant well to draw water from for your imaginative soul.

"Spirit of America" The Beach Boys

In 1962 Craig Breedlove became the first man to break 400 mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Twenty five years later I would be in my childhood home taking a bath listening to the dual-cassette player that was on the shelf. The cassette on the right side was a live Rodney Dangerfield album and on the left was "Spirit of America" by the Beach Boys, I listened to its title track incessantly risking electrocution on a nightly basis.

Little did I know, whether because of the poor acoustics or just because I was transfixed with harmonies, that this song was not about baseball, apple pie and girls in bikinis. The song was composed about Craig and the car with a J-47 (same engine housed in the MIG killing Saberliner F-86) engine straight down the centerline. The fact that Craig and his buddies built "The Spirit of America" in his garage, or that it almost took his life is besides the point. The Beach Boys are notorious for writing songs so pure and lovely...love songs that aren't about women. The list of this genre of car songs is long and topped in my mind with two that are heads and tails above the rest. "Don't Worry Baby"..."Baby when you race today just taAAAAke aloong my love with you" and "Racing in the Streets", (Springsteen) that begins with a poetic line of numerical alliteration: "I got a sixty-nine Chevy with a 396 Fuelie heads and a Hurst on the floor, She's waiting tonight down in the parking lot, Outside the Seven-Eleven store." But in a distant third is this complex harmonial mixture of sax, and vocals that makes you wanna slide down in the tub and throw your own vocals down.

So many times The Beach Boys are written off as guys who didn't surf, who diluted the Southern California lifestyle and were basic lollipop-gumball-cheesiness. Little do people know that they are probably one of the most influential artist of the past century. If you have any question just see what Alice Cooper says about them; and if you think they were a bunch of squares think about Brian Wilson laying in his bed challenging Clapton for how many drugs one could do in a year without leaving it.

And that is all for the curious to look up and hopefully experience, but first put this song on and transfer yourself back to more innocent days. If you are not compelled to sing along with this beautiful melodic piece of American history I feel for you and your sad plight in life, it is just as perfect in the shower as it is driving across the vast expanse of the endless beauty of the American West.

"Marie" Townes Van Zandt

There is not a more depressing-scary-horrible beautiful song than "Marie". If you have no idea who Townes Van Zandt was here's a quick bio: Born to a wealthy Texas family, left it to pursue music, had electro-shock treatment, fell off a roof, lived in a trailer and died of alcoholism, in between all of which he made a reputation for himself as the greatest songwriter of all time. Seriously, above Dylan in a lot of people's minds. Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Guy Clark...all of that music movement would be nothing without Townes's tutorship.

And Marie is a perfect example of the beautiful brutality of his music. Played in a minor key with a great base line run, the melody can be played by most anyone who has ever spent minimal time on the axe. Somewhat like a Dylan song the iceberg below the waterline is the ingredient that makes it so powerful. True artistry is doing so much with so little words and three chords. First verse:

"I stood in line and left my name
took about six hours or so
Well, the man just grinned like it was all a game
said they'd let me know
I put in my time till the Pocono line
shut down two years ago
I was staying at the mission till I met Marie
now I can't stay there no more"

The narrative continues with its voice running from place to place looking for a job and some money with Marie, mostly living under a bridge as a homeless couple. It has a Steinbeck-ian feel to it throughout the entire song, the only difference is that it is present day and this man is not any Oakie, the Joads have been long gone by the time Townes penned this piece.

And early on during the song it appears to NOT be that depressing and not really much of anything, just some guy mumbling about his problems but the height of the tension climaxes when Marie becomes pregnant, winter time has come and they still have nowhere to live. Unemployment checks have run out, welfare is unavailable and the only thing the narrator can think of doing is hopping a train and heading south except for the fact his wife is incapacitated by her pregnancy. The last verse:

"Marie she didn't wake up this morning
she didn't even try
she just rolled over and went to heaven
my little boy safe inside
I laid them in the sun where somebody'd find them
caught a Chesapeak on the fly
Marie will know I'm headed south
so's to meet me by and by"

It is hard to get the feel from these lyrics that one will get when listening to the horribly tragic guitar and Townes's low, rambling, understated voice. It is not happy like Woody Guthrie nor Ramblin' Jack Elliot's. It is sad, sad like a divorce and a death on the same day, the kinda sadness that leads one to drink. For Townes there is no question he had much more of this bottled up inside of him and no question to why he slowly killed himself with poison for forty years.

"Our Love is Here to Stay" Bobby Short-Late Night at the Cafe Carlyle

People love to talk about MLK and all the civil rights activists but in my mind the people who really changed things in their own way were the musicians. There was Sinatra stating he would not play if Sammy had to walk in the back door, there was Elvis taking black music and showing it to the world. Bobby Short was another man who never made speeches, nor protested anything on the streets; rather his protest was to play music to people who would never let him serve dinner in their homes. His charm, polite manners, amazing showman and musicianship converted high society and won them over. His love of Cabaret music, impeccable style and soft somewhat feminine voice left many to question his sexuality. But Bobby pulled some serious women in his day and was always seen with very desirous candy on his arm, including Gloria Vanerbilt. He was the first black man to be listed on the Social Register and an absolute icon who played for presidents and heads of states.

But he was most famous for his wonderful shows at The Cafe Carlyle, until his later years twice a night, almost everyday of the week. I first saw him there, barely old enough to drink while I sat at the bar alone, it opened up my mind to a world of music that people reserve only for those over seventy. Throughout the years it became a family event to see him around Christmas and are some of the greatest holiday memories I possess.

And he was humble, he would talk to you if you could hang with his wit. One night I called The Carlyle to see if I could get his set list, they didn't have it but gave me his agent's number. I was looking for the name of a song and the only thing I remembered was the opening lines. I called the agent and they gave me another number to call, called that and another run around. After about six numbers I called the last one, a 212 area code and a man answered the phone. I explained I was looking for Bobby Short's set list that he was currently working. The reply was "Well this is Mr. Short, who is this?" I stated my name, he replied "Yes, but who are you?" That admittedly snooty remark turned into an hour long conversation in which he explained every song on his setlist and why he played them, but the title of my song just wasn't clicking so I sang it to him over the line. To my surprise he started singing alone and told me the whole history of why he loved it. Amazingly, it was home number and I probably called twice a year until his death just to hear his answering service, the message of which was just as elegant as the man.

"Our Love is Here to Stay" is a song you probably have heard before instrumentally in movies or maybe a Nora Jones cover but this version is the way George and Ida Gershwin had intended it to be played. There is nothing but piano, brushes on the drums if you listen closely and Beverly Peer on the Bass Fiddle. It is simple, beautiful and reminds you of everything that love is supposed to be: deep, undying and epic. I am not saying it is, and for most it never will be and that is why this song is so important. Spend the .99 on it and if you like it the entire album, put aside your cynical ways, macho mentality and homophobia about Cabaret music and give it a chance. Everyone needs one day to grab your lover and slow dance around the living room whispering this song in her ear, if you do it right she'll relax in your arms and remember once again why she puts up with you in the first place. And in today's world where sexual roles in society are so confused and switched you'll feel like a man again taking charge and being a strong romantic, she'll feel like a woman and placate you in every way you've imagined.

"Indian Girl" Rolling Stones-Emotional Rescue

The follow up to some girls was just as strong and just as varied as its predecessor. "All About You" showcases Keif's beautiful, slow ballad voice, "She's So Cold" is typical Mick Jagger sex filled rock and "Dance Pt. 1" picks up right where "Miss You" left off. However the best song on the album, one of the most overlooked Stones songs of which there are a myriad is: "Indian Girl". This song has a Mick vocal, some horns, a great acoustic guitar rhythm. Listen to it when you are about to fall asleep so your selective hearing kicks in and you can actually hear the tracks laid down upon each other, beautifully relaxing. In that semi-conscious state your mind will drift to banana republics, oppressive heat and humidity, mirror sunglasses and fatigues on men with belts of bullets running through the jungle and starving children in the streets. "Indian Girl" addresses the typical life of a peasant in a South American dictatorship, the lyrics start with a simple question:

"Indian Girl, where is your mama?
Indian Girl, where is your papa?
He's fighting the war in the streets of Masaya."

and continue with the line:

"Lesson number one that you learn while you're young,
Life just goes on and on getting harder and harder."

The theme itself is simple, make no mistake this isn't a Dylan epic or even a Springsteen anti-rock, soul searching track. In reality this song doesn't really have much to it that is extraordinary with the exception of the last spoken verse that is mouthed in typical Mick accented' vernacular. Here it is:

"Mr. Gringo, my father he ain't no Che Guevara
And he's fighting the war on the streets of Masaya
Little Indian girl where is your father?
Little Indian girl where is your momma?
They're fighting for Mr. Castro in the streets of Angola.

And here's the way it sounds:

"Mr. Ginnngo-a, myfatherheain'tnoCheee Guevaraaaaa
He's fighting the war onthe streets of Masayaaaa
LittleIndian Girl whereisyour faatheerrr?
LittleIndian Girl whereisyour maaamaaa?
They'refightingforMr.Castro inthestreetsofAAAAAngoooooola.
LaLaLaLa LaLaLa LaLaLaLa LaLaLa.

It's awesome, Mick is on such a different level that he can pronounce any word in any way he wants. He can read the word "Cat" and make is sound like "Dog" but he can do that because he is Mick Jagger. Mick, the man who in his sixties is still rocking hard and working out for two hours before a show. Mick the man who had to sleep with David Bowie because he has already slept with every woman on the planet so he figured he'd pick a guy that every woman wants to sleep with. Mick, a man who in a perfect world would be wearing a beret, green fatigues and mirror sunglasses as a dictator in a Latin American country. Refugees from around the world would be lining up to give away their freedom without question, come to think of it I've done that every time I've dropped four grand for a Stones ticket and never thought twice about it.

"Quizás, Quizás, Quizás" Arielle Dombasle and Julio Iglesias

I am not a gay man but I feel confident enough in my sexuality to say that if I was Julio Iglesias in his prime is the man I'd want to brush up against in the morning. But I am a straight man, in turn Arielle Dombasle in her prime is who I want to be spooning with in the morning after a bottle or two of Bordeaux and a set of dirty white sheets. Born in Connecticut and raised in Mexico of French decent, currently the wife of Bernard-Henri Lévy, this woman is more sophisticated than BMW's iDrive. Julio, born in Madrid, law student, soccer player and guilty of causing more women to slide out of their seats this side of Tom Jones. Together they take the Cuban born Osvaldo Farrés's song to level of sexual tension and longing not seen since I walked by the red light district windows in Amsterdam when I was fourteen.

The song itself is simple (Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps) and has been covered by a plethora of people including such undersiables as (I shutter to think) two of the Spice Girls and The Pussycat Dolls. Under Arielle and Julio the song sheds the chez of the former mentioned and the Nat King Cole-Norman Rockwell-type bubble gum sweetness which corrupts it totally. No this version from Dombasle's "Amor" album, is just under three minutes for a reason, because that's how long it is going to take once you shed those clothes of hers off, but like the act you are ready to hit the replay button time and time again until exhaustion.

The song retains its Cuban feel and sound, with little overproduction. Arielle's voice purrs during her first part until Julio comes in deep and low with a hint of sheepish longing. They continue stabbing back and forth throughout the remainder of the song ramping up the sexual tension until the end where the question remains answered only with the word Perhaps three times over. The lyrics are terribly simple and straight forward, six verses comprised of four lines with little more than fix or six words per line. Their meaning? Just as simple, it is someone asking "Yes?" and always getting a reply of "Maybe."

Probably the majority of songs in the world are written about love or sex, out of those a majority are about unrequited love and this song is no different. It is an example of an age old problem that has started wars, been the cause of murders and countless restless nights alone. It is what strip clubs and the prostitution business base their livelihoods on and for women the reason why they'll pass on the entree and walk around in crippling heels every evening. Everything in our lives eventually comes down to these emotions and even these two sex icons have felt it, they must have or else they couldn't sing about it with such convincing sincerity.

"One For Daddy-O" Miles Davis-Ballad and Blues

"Autumn Leaves" is probably the best known song on this album which is straight out of grammar school music class (or maybe high school for you public school kids), "It Never Entered My Mind" is a classic as well, Jane Monheit does an excellent version on "Live From the Rainbow Room" Anyway, I feel that this is a well known song but every time I mention it in a conversation the person looks at me as if I am speaking in Latin.

So, One For Daddy-O, eight and a half minutes of pure jazz bliss. Miles's second solo starts off with a loooong held note, in it he is telling you he is the coolest, blackest motherfucker on the planet and everyone else is a high school algebra teacher who drives a K car from his parents house to class everyday. This song is everything jazz should be, it is edgy, it is cool (the word cool in the way we use it today was invented by jazz musicians as a description of this type of music in opposition to Bird and Dizzy or Ellington type bop and swing). The song is women in black dresses sipping gimlets, men who wear hats and are not afraid to smoke. It is about stockings and affairs...everything you pictured (or at least I did) adults doing before you became one. And while all that was happening in the white section of town, up in Harlem, downstairs in a small club it was blacks drinking gin, sweating through the smoke and the stench of too much cologne watching some of their own prove that indeed they are not equal to the whites, here they are the superior race.

So if you're missing a little romance in your life and you feel about as cool as the first time you tried to take a bra off in your teens throw this song on and down a martini...not today's definition of one either. Pour a half a bottle of Gin over ice and wave a bottle of vermouth in front of the mixer (that's enough) pour it into a nice big glass, throw a black suit on and a crisp white shirt, leave the top three buttons undone; select this song on your iPod and put it on repeat. That broad across the way you've been thinking about having a drink with? Mix another one for her and give a knock on the door, Miles has your back, just make sure you have that bra removal step down because you'll be putting those skills to work in about ten minutes.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find (Pittsburg)" / "Shut out the Light"

In my mind it is almost impossible to separate these two songs so I am throwing them in as one post. If you want a perfect representation of the song writer that Springsteen is, not the cheese-dick pop hero he has become of recent years; no the gritty, pensive, man who can write two minutes of music that will stop your heart....this is the proof.

I searched for a while to figure out when "A Good Man is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)" was written since it appeared on "Tracks" which was released in 1998. I am sure I am just missing it but if I had to guess it fits in with "The River" album and some of those beauties such as "Stolen Car" and "Wreck on the Highway" That album was released in 1980 which would make sense because I am fucking confident that while writing both these songs he HAD to be watching "The Deer Hunter" which was released two years earlier, it is widely known that cinema is a huge influence on his music. Also, I always think of the classic movie "Big Wednesday" when Jack Barlow comes back from Vietnam...that's a whole different blog but it you have never seen that movie it is a masterpiece.

The meat of the song.

The first verse is an electric guitar fingerpicked while Bruce sings in a very fragile, raspy voice, he's singing this about a woman he knew or loved and it hurts him to think of her this way:
"It's cloudy out in Pittsburgh, It's raining in Saigon, snows falling all across the Michigan line."
A woman is sitting by a Christmas tree listening to a radio by herself.

The second park kicks off with that typical Jersey Shore sound and Bruce digresses into what this woman's plight is currently. What always sends spears into my heart about Bruce and this song in particular are the two or three words that take it to another level.

"Once she had a feller, once she was somebody's girl and she gave all she had that one last time"

Now he could have just said she was married, that would have been enough knowing (you know the guy is gone, I'm not giving it away here, you had to know) how hard it is to lose someone. But Bruce takes it up a step and let's you know that she's been around, she's known many men and none of them worked out, just when she was about to quit she found him. This skill, in my mind, is the difference between your standard successful song writer and men like Bruce, Dylan and Van Zandt.

The bridge is my favorite:

"Well the picturesss on the table by her bed, him in dress greens and her in her wedding whites, she remembers how the world was the day he left and now how that world is dead. And a good man is so hard to find"

Out of the over 58,000 men who died in Vietnam many of their wives possessed these same sentiments. A lot of men left and a lot of them never came back. Ever. There would be no more Christmases, no more picnics on those long summer days. The last thing these men saw was a shitty jungle in a shitty country that they were in for a shitty cause, mismanaged by shitty politicians.

So now in the song we have a woman without a husband on Christmas and his daughter asleep while she sits up and thinks about how her life has been stolen from her, with that Jersey Shore sound-Italian Accordion style music progressing in the background. The juxtaposition is chilling, happy, joyous sounds, sounds that one pictures hearing on the boardwalk eating cotton candy playing while the listener is dealing with the thought of a gaping chest wound that leaves a man's organs on the jungle grass; tie that in with the dreadful loneliness of her solitude and the dreary hard winter that exists in Pittsburgh and it is one of the most powerful images Springsteen has ever painted.

I always picture this woman as Adrienne from Rocky, someone who was misunderstood most of her life, someone the world has taken advantage of in many ways. I think what trips that thought in my head is the verse:

"She got time now for Casanovas, Yeah those days are gone. She don't want that anymore, she's made up her mind, just somebody told her, As the nights get on
When a good man is so hard to find."

I see those guys on the corner from Rocky singing around the fire in the oil drum. In my mind Philly is just as bad as Pittsburgh, and in the winter they are just so dark and cold it leaves one dead inside. I also see those single mothers with the weight of the world on their shoulders trying to find someone else and how close to impossible it is for them to have someone.

The song ends just as it began with her alone, she is in bed now and thinks about it all. The entire Vietnam War can be summed up in the last lines:

"Well she thinks how it was all so wasted and how expendable their dreams all were
When a good man was so hard to find. Well it's cloudy out in Pittsburgh"


Shut out the Light

Another Vietnam song and another one that takes its theme (almost exactly this time) from "The Deer Hunter" This one though has none of that Jersey Shore Sound, it has more of that driving tempo that was evident in the song "Devils and Dust" years later. This song was the B side to the single Born in the USA.

There is a scene in "The Deer Hunter" when Meryl Streep is getting ready for the boys to come home from 'Nam...if you remember that scene and the ten minutes or so that it encompasses you have the first verse to that song. I've been away for long periods of time in the Military and regardless of the action you saw or hadn't seen when you come home things are never as good as you hoped them to be. With a woman there is always a terrible tension and with the rest of the world it scares you to think that everyone was going about their daily lives while you were in a very bad place. The second half of the first verse represents that and just how hard it can be to come back home again.

"Well she called up her mama to make sure the kids were out of the house
She checked herself out in the dining room mirror
And undid an extra button on her blouse
He felt her lying next to him, the clock said 4:00 am
He was staring at the ceiling
He couldn't move his hands"

It is also terribly sweet and always hit me right in the heart. You know she's looking in the mirror, trying to look perfect, and you know what? She probably isn't the type of woman to dress flashy but this guy has been away for a long time and, yup he deserves it, undoes an extra button on her blouse. The thing is it doesn't matter if it was Sasha Grey waiting for him dripping wet naked on the front porch, nothing is gonna happen because even pussy isn't going to get a man's mind off the fact that he played Russian Roulette with his buddy in a POW camp and watched pieces of his head stick to the ceiling.

The next verse is a Chevy commercial, well back when Chevy actually was worth something. In America, Bruce's America the only thing that is second to a woman is a car. A car defines you, but in this light it isn't a douche bag pulling up to the club in a yellow Ferrari. This car is a piece of steel that he has worked on, that has taken him to and back from the factory, the car where he probably lost his virginity. A car back then for the working class was an heirloom, it was freedom and it was something that men took very seriously, they were chariots and they were emperors in their own lives no matter how insignificant they appeared to the outside world. If you offered a guy like this a Prius they would never stop laughing at you.

"Well deep in a dark forest, a forest filled with rain
Beyond a stretch of Maryland pines there's a river without a name
In the cold black water Johnson Lineir stands
He stares across the lights of the city and dreams of where he's been"

The above last verse is where the song goes from basic story telling into a little more poetic, non literal storytelling. Springsteen has always done a fine job of producing an unusual cadence in his music the second line sounds more like: "BeyondthestretchofMarylandPines there's ariiiiivvverwithoutanaaaaama" It works every time he does it, it just adds a lot of spice to a song that is very simple. I don't know if he is standing in that river, if it is literal. Often times I think the river flowing around him is his civilian life he has returned to and regardless of how many lights his loved ones put on for him, or how many bright lights of the city there are, for Johnson there will always be blackness flowing around him; even in his sleep his dreams will be filled with the horror he was witnessed.


In these two songs any notion of Springsteen you have acquired over the years, his "image" should be washed away. It drives me INSANE when people describe him as a Mellencamp (who has zero talent) when he is an ocean compared to that shallow puddle. What's left is the real Boss who elevated rock music out of the disco age and into the limelight where it belongs. It also drew serious attention to the Vietnam Veteran's life back in the United States and the horrors they had to deal with, all in all you are a slightly more complete person for having these two on your ipod.

"Never Knew How Much (I Needed You)"

I'll say it first and straight that the album version of this song is totally over-produced and downright terrible, however as bad as it is on the album the live version from the video "Brothers of the Road", a live concert from Gainsville, Florida shot in the 70's is amazing. It is somewhat of a difficult DVD to find but in well worth the trek, every song is well done and it is a beautiful sight to see Greg in leather pants, thin, lean and healthy.

But why this song?

The first time I heard this song was in college sitting in a room with a bunch of guys who were, much like myself, a little outside the norm in our music tastes. After the viewing was over we were trying to capture what this song was, what emotion it was trying to explain, and more so what would you be doing cinematically while it was playing in the background. The 3/4 of a bottle of Cutty Sark which was flowing throughout my veins at the time gave me an idea:

You are driving through the desert, possibly route 50, into the sunset westbound in a black Cadillac convertible. On the passenger seat is a bottle of tequila and an 8x10 picture frame holding a black and white of your ex girl, a girl you loved intensely and terrible hard. The glass in the frame has spider cracks but is still intact and you look at it every ten seconds or so against the white leather seats while your shoulder length hair flies in the wind. You have a frilled white tuxedo shit on and a pair dark, heavily starched blue jeans and a pair of black cowboy boots with yellow piping. This song is being played on an eight track cassette, a box filled of them is laying on the floor in the back and while you have a bunch of great tunes you just keep replaying this over and over again. On the backseat is an old green military sea bag with your name stenciled on the side and a nylon string guitar that you bought in an old pawnshop in Juarez. You don't really know where you are driving to, but it is out to Cali somewhere because that is where all dreams start and you have no idea how you are going to make money but you always have in the past so it is of no concern. All you know is that right now the only thing that is keeping you from pulling that .38 out of the glove compartment and ending that terrible hollowness and longing is Greg raspy, from deep down in the heart singing the last verse and refrain:

Today I watched the sunset on the freeway,
strangled on the poisoned air.
But miles behind on the other end,
I know you'll always be waiting there.
Girl you treat me with your kindest hand,
you're in my heart, in my mind and I'm so glad...

I never knew how much a man needed of woman,
I never knew how much a boy needed a girl,
I never knew how much I needed you....

You can purchase the video on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Allman-Brothers-Band-Road/dp/6305130930