Sounds For Sanity; Part One
This is new to me, new to you. So Welcome you, welcome me to whatever this new posts will be.
On March something, I took a poll asking whether or not my followers would be interested in a Top 10 Playlist of mine. Songs I either think should be heard, or ones that stood out this week to me. Along with the overwhelming approval of the idea, I submitted another poll asking whether or not these Top 10s should be Themed based or just a hodgepodge of music recommendations. You voted for random - now that doesn't mean some of these won't have a theme to them. Perhaps later down the road I'll ask for suggest themes, or ask for you to guess the theme. We'll work it out, we'll collaborate maybe with The New York Times Crossword puzzle maker. But for now we'll just talk music.
I have shortened it to only 5 songs per week, as I am still in classes. Please do not crucify me or shake a fist in my direction. As always leave a comment. Let me know your thoughts on the songs.
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This week was a Rubik's Cube of emotions. When I thought I had my life figured out, a color or side remained unsolved. At times I felt a mixture of abstract cubism work, as fury, grief, and hope danced in my mind toying with every twist my cube would make. The songs I have selected are ones that fore fronted these emotions during the week. They might be songs that were simply stuck in my head and were unshakable, or they might be ones that reoccured in my life bringing along with it a past I thought I had left behind - both good and bad.
- Sweet Blindness- Laura Nyro
- Some Other Time, Some Other Place -Peter Wolf and Will Jennings
- Cry Me A River - Hamilton Arthur covered by Joe Cocker
- Which Way Are You Going? - Jim Croce
- Old Dirt Road - John Lennon and Harry Nilsson
1. Sweet Blindness - Laura Nyro
I fell in love with Laura Nyro the first time I heard Blood, Sweat, and Tears. The band released a track entitled "And When I Die" (1968) which captivated me. It buried me. And when I am actually lowed six feet into that ground, I'll still be rolling due to the upbeat gravitation the song continuously pulls on me and my limbs.
This week however, I'm highlighting "Sweet Blindness" written and sung by Laura Nyro. Who wrote, you guessed it, "And When I Die" for BST. In fact Nyro was thought of as a replacement lead singer after the original lead, Al Kooper, had left the band- perhaps that's a story for when BST becomes a song choice.
My reasoning for this song is its ability to sneak into my mind and live like a Jack-in-the-box. When I think I'm safe from it, "Pop! Goes the weasel", and Nyro is in my head again with her Daddy's wine.
The song, simply, is a drinking song, maybe one of desire and lust, aswell. There's not much of a deeper way to analyze it- which may I point out is the beauty of some songs and something we, as listeners, need to accept. Some songs should just be taken at face value and not tried to be read into or made to be manipulated into something else. Something, perhaps to fit our own imaginations. However, with that said, take lyrics and melodies as you need them at the time.
For the song, I admire how she shys away from the typical drinking song. The ones of romancing a liquor in an alcoholic way or one of nursing a wound; perhaps even the over stimulating party anthems about being drunk. Nyro here, writes of a narrator with an innocent voice. One of youth looking to sneak booze;
"Let's go down by the grapevine / drink my daddy's wine get happy"
"Please don't tell my mother / I'm a saloon and a moonshine lover"
However, perhaps at closer examination the song isn't simply just a drinking song, but one much more promiscuous. With a different lens, one might read the song as one of sex.
"Come on baby do a slow float / you're a good lookin riverboat / and ain't the sweet eyed blindness good to me"
"Wonder / a little magic / a little kindness / oh sweet blindness/ all over me"
The song was made popular by 5th Dimension who also covered Nyro's "Wedding Bell Blues". 5th Dimension's version offers more of the drinking spirit. A communal drinking, whereas I find Nyro's captivating vocals, as well as excitement towards being stealthy, a level of playful sex.
The song can be found on Eli and the Thirteenth Confession, Nyro's second album.
2. Some Other Time, Some Other Place
There are a lot of songs Wolf has produced or been part of recreating that have meant a lot to me at one point or another. This probably means Peter Wolf and The J. Geils Band will be making a few of these list. However, years ago my opinion wouldn't have been the same.
As little back as July 2017, I had no interest in Peter Wolf or the J. Geils Band. I had only known them from what the radios played and that was "Nah Nah / Nah Nah Nah Nah" "Centerfold", mainstream styled music that couldn't hook me in - reel me in sure. I admit, I do like those songs every now and again, but before they catch me, the hook tore loose and I'm swimming free. My notebooks at this time were smeared with Bob Dylan lyrics and filled with rewrites of Chuck Berry songs working my own life into them. I wasn't for much of what I heard from The J Geils Band.
When I received my tickets for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers 40th Anniversary Tour, I brushed off the opening act - Peter Wolf and The Midnight Travelers. Then mid July came around, I drove up from the Cape to Boston for the shows. A little after 7pm leaning towards 7:30, a kick of the drum, flash of the lights and a man in black sequin marches onto the stage. It was over. I took the bait and floundered for my life. Peter Wolf didn't sing any of that FM Radio, "Love Stinks" stuff.
Not even three full months went by and Tom Petty passed away. I rocketed into a deeper depression. At the time I was dealing with my own health issues, my dad had just come home from 10 days in ICU with congested heart failure, and I had to move off the Cape, back to a nowhere town, with no job. No school in sight either. I began to try to puzzle in pieces of my soul and heart, that fit like Petty in hope to help mend the hurt. Peter Wolf came back into my mind at this point and I began listening to him more and more. Trying to understand him as a writer, a singer, and a fan of the craft. Tom wasn't replaced, and never could be, but I found something that reminded me of warmer days.
This song was one of the first Peter Wolf songs that really got me. I hadn't heard it in a longtime. This week, as I was driving my dog to the vets, it came on and I started reminiscing about a lot. About Tom Petty shows, about how far I've come in school, and about the my concert friends, mainly The WolfPac.
For me its the story of being hopeful. Loosing someone but recognizing "we'll meet again". Whether "we" being a lost love or "we" being that of what is lost in general; the concept of love. From the start of the song the narrator is depressed. It's reflected not only in recalling how they begged their significant other to stay, but the weather;
"Rain woke me up / and I watched it all day"
The song is also relevant without trying to be;
"The Beach is all empty/ and shops all closed down"
Hello, Covid.
The song can be found on Wolf's eighth studio album, A Cure For Loneliness (2016). It was written with Song Writer Hall of Famer, Will Jennings whom Wolf has worked with on multiple tracks. NPRs Music Critic, Ken Tucker described the album as being, "It's an album that carries an undercurrent of melancholy of a man now in his early 70s looking back." (linked interview with NPRs Terry Gross here).
3. Cry Me A River (Live)
Joe Cocker comes into my life randomly. Years ago when I was running thirteen miles a day, my warm-up was Joe Cocker. Two summers ago a co-worker picked me up Mad Dogs and Englishmen CD. Man, I cruised everywhere in my town with that. When I'd water plants at a five o'clock in the morning shift at Home Depot, his cover of Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On" oxidized my blood. This week "Cry Me A River" was my cardio. Catch me at a Red light with this on and you'll experience second hand embarrassment and that alright (uh-huh).
The song was originally published by Hamilton Arthur in 1953. John Berlau of The Wall Street Journal quoted Arthur saying,
The song was originally published by Hamilton Arthur in 1953. John Berlau of The Wall Street Journal quoted Arthur saying,
"I had never heard the phrase. I just liked the combination of words... Instead of 'Eat your heart out' or 'I'll get even with you,' it sounded like a good, smart retort to somebody who had hurt your feelings or broken your heart." (link here).
4. Which Way Are You Going - Jim Croce
My first time hearing this song I was on a walk. It was over the summer, and like most new Croce songs with me, I paused in my tracks. I couldn't believe how relevant it was.
"Say you love the baby/ then they crucify the man".
Croce might have wrote the song about different themes, but history is funny in how we fix one problem but amplify another. This line, currently stands out to me as all the injustice seen in just the past year. It reminds me much of the moral question, "Would you kill baby Hitler?". When we look at a baby, it is hard to think of the possibility of them being bad. They are innocent and new to the world; meaning new to violence as well as love. As a grown man or woman, we then look at this figure as one who has done heinous acts. This goes for both those who do the shameful and indisputable acts, such as Hitler, and to those who are treated poorly and blamed poorly when they're as innocent as a new born baby. This is seen today through stereotypes. Today we like to blame every single Asian for the pandemic that we are in. We profile. And I use "we" as a blanket term for the human race, not all of us (CLEARLY). But Jack Kerouac once offered the idea that he felt guilty for even being part of the human race. John Lennon claims we're "victims of the insane" as humans. We treat our neighboring communities with the same hatred as we do those whom kill our own. I just don't understand it.
The line, to me, refers to growth. We love the innocent, until they're proven guilty. The line also offers the ideas of anti-abortion but then rallying for the death penalty. Given the time period, capital punishment halted around 1972 (reinstated in 1976) and abortions in the 1960s as well as early 70s were popular but risky. Also illegal in most states - as well as for race and social classes.
The whole song in fact plays with this ping-pong idea of one says black the other says white. A constant force against each other. Which perhaps is why, "all your olive branches turn to guns".
The song was released in 1975, two years after the artists untimely death in 1973. It is for this reason that there is not much archived or written about the history of the song. One source I found (linked here) referenced the song being written during the Vietnam War, begging the American citizens to contemplate the lives lost, the war being fought, and the situations they were facing on a day to day basis.
5. Old Dirt Road
Start with the basic, what is a Dirt Road? I grew up in New England where dirt roads aren't as common as the days of horse in buggy, but still relevant as its rich history. Are cars are built to sustain rocks, mud, and our governors are built to ignore request to fill potholes. A dirt road is stable. We recognize it as a bit bumper, perhaps drive with a little more caution, but a dirt road is just a road - "Take Dearborn Road', might be paved, might be gravel.
The only difference is, a dirt road is much like us as human beings. We are not always stable, though we might appear to be. We flood with emotions, sorrow, anger, love. Much like dirt puddles in rain fall. We transform and shift, by moving where we live or expressing ourselves with hobbies; like dirt is subjected to mudslides. When John Lennon sings "Old Dirt Road" I hear it as instability. A look back, maybe a cross road between hope or desires and needs.
"Tarred and feathered on the old dirt road/ Trying to shovel smoke with a pitchfork in the wind"
The first half of that line offers humility and suffering humans go through the second the unattainable dreams or maybe read as hard work with nothing to show- how do you shove smoke?
There is also the reoccurring refrain;
"No more weather on the old dirt road/ Better than a mudslide mama when the morning comes"/ "when the dry spell come"
Weather meaning clear days ahead? Finding stable ground. Perhaps that is why the road is labeled "old" and not just simply "dirt road" and the song ends with "bye bye", bye to the old.
The song was written by John Lennon and Harry Nilsson during what is famously known as Lennon's Lost Weekend (1973-1975). It would be featured on Lennon's fifth studio album, Walls and Bridges (1974). The song itself was criticized as being a "throwaway" and dismissible (Geofffrey Giulliano as well as Richard Ginell). Paul Noyer quotes John Lennon saying he described the song as "just a song" written while being drunk with Nilsson during the producing of Nilsson's tenth studio album Pussy Cats (1974). Harry Nilsson providing "Americanism" to it at Lennon's request. Nilsson went on to record his own version of the song for Flash Harry, his fifteenth studio album. This version feature another ex-Beatle member and friend, Ringo Starr.
The song features an all-star cast of characters on Lennon's recording, including; Nicky Hopkins on Piano, Jesse Ed Davis on electric guitar, Ken Ascher on electric piano, Arthur Jenkins on percussions, and Jim Keltner on drums.
Spotify Playlist; https://open.spotify.com/user/1257762993/playlist/04PHyOKBedpudETfqbHZ76?si=8NFnFhJrQrKlFjpKZxpZjg
