Category: acoustic guitar

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Life on the Road: Insights from ‘You Love the Thunder’


The Jackson Browne song “You Love the Thunder” is about a musician and a lover who joins him on tour, a thread that underlies many of the songs on Browne’s album, Running on Empty. The album explores life on the road from performances, to backstage, hotel rooms, and relationships with band members and audiences. The lyrics of “You Love the Thunder” suggest that while Browne’s lover may not always enjoy the difficult aspects of a musician’s life on the road, they are irresistibly drawn to the excitement of the lifestyle and the passion that runs through it like a vein of valuable ore. The line, “To be a woman in love with a man in search of the flame,” exemplifies the central meaning of the song: the enduring, though sometimes challenging, love for someone driven by a passionate, and likely spiritual quest.

Here’s my cover.

 

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The Truth in ‘Lyin’ Eyes’: Money and Relationships


When the Eagles were a struggling group in Los Angeles, they noticed many beautiful women married to older, successful men. It posed the question: Were these women happy or unhappy? One night, while drinking in their favorite bar, they spotted a beautiful young woman. Alongside her, a fat, old, rich guy sat drinking. They were chatting, and apparently a couple. Glen Frey, the group’s leader, commented, “Look at her. She can’t hide those lying eyes.” The Eagles realized they had a great idea for a new song. They began to write the lyrics right then and there.

The song tells an in-depth story about women who have taken the easy way out by marrying for money alone. While the song is entirely fictional, it has an incontrovertible ring of truth. Maybe that’s why Lyin’ Eyes reached number 8 on the Country Chart. It is the only Eagles song to become a top 10 Country hit.

Here’s my cover.

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Tequila Sunrise: A Cowboy’s Life in Music


“Glenn Frey and Don Henley wrote this song together, and Frey sang lead. Along with “Desperado,” it was one of two songs they came up with in the first week that they started writing together. The songs formed the basis of the Eagles’ second album, with Frey and Henley comparing the life of a cowboy to that of a musician. “Tequila Sunrise” shows the transient nature of each lifestyle, as the singer falls for a woman who just wants to use him and move on. The theme didn’t immediately connect with the buying public, but the songs and the album stood the test of time.” *

Here’s my cover.

*Excerpted from Songfacts®

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How Cat Stevens’ Early Song Became a Timeless Hit


Cat Stevens wrote “The First Cut Is The Deepest” when he was eighteen. At the time, he had no intention of becoming a worldwide star performer. He sold the song for thirty pounds to P.P. Arnold, a soul singer who lived near him in London. She released “The First Cut Is The Deepest” on her first album. It reached #18 on the U.K. charts in 1967. Eventually, Rod Stewart and Sheryl Crow covered the song, making it a major hit in America.

Stevens released his version of the song on his debut album, New Masters. Because he never released “The First Cut Is the Deepest” as a single, the album went largely unnoticed.

Despite his shyness, Stevens’ songwriting and singing burst through to make him an international star in the music industry. I’m using Stevens’ version in my cover.

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The Hopeful Essence in Cat Stevens’ Lyrics


In this song, (Yusuf) Cat Stevens is singing to a woman he yearns for in a Human form. On another level, he may be singing, aware or unaware, to the Divine Feminine. In either case, the object of Stevens’ love is unattainable in the present. Yet, I believe, that the admirer (Stevens) continues to yearn for his beloved in the hope that he will, one day, meet his perfect love, in either or both Human and Divine forms. There are many interpretations of “How Can I Tell You.” In my view, the song is hopeful rather than despairing.

However one interprets “How Can I Tell you,” I feel that the song is filled with incredible beauty that cannot help but shine through.

And thank you, Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens), for your always beautiful, wise, and inspiring music.

Here’s my cover.

With Digital Instrumentation Enhancement

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The Story Behind Jackson Browne’s ‘Somebody’s Baby’


Well, here we go again–another Jackson Browne song. I tried not to do it, but when no songs came flying into my head, I went to Jerry’s Guitar Bar for inspiration. And there it was–a brand new Jackson Browne lesson. I just couldn’t resist.

“Somebody’s Baby” is reminiscent of a fifties Rock and Roll song. Only, it’s much better. Like they always said on American Bandstand, “It has a good beat.” For “Somebody’s Baby, the beat is better than just “good.” The song has a driving, get-up-and-dance beat. The lyrics are also clever, as is customary for any Jackson Browne song, and the melody is captivating.

Now, here’s the rub. “Somebody’s Baby” is atypical of a Jackson Browne song. The only reason he wrote it is because his friend, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire), asked him to write it with Danny Kotchmar for Crowe’s film, Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Kotchmar wrote the framework for the song, and Browne finished and recorded it for the movie.

Jackson Browne tried to distance himself from the song because he felt it was “too commercial.” But too many people liked it, and Browne eventually recorded the hit song on one of his albums. Here’s the man himself playing the song.

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Why “Always On My Mind” Became a Hit for Willie Nelson


Willie Nelson made “Always On My Mind” one of his signature songs. Upon hearing the song for the first time, Nelson knew that he wanted to add “Always On My Mind” to his repertoire. Several recording artists, including Elvis Presley, released the song unsuccessfully. When Nelson recorded it in 1982, the song became a smash hit. Nelson’s sensitive rendition made the song a top 5 hit and a Grammy nomination.

Wayne Carson wrote “Always” as an apology to his wife when he was working in a recording studio in Memphis and stayed ten days longer than he expected to. When Carson called his wife to tell her that he had to stay in Memphis longer, she let him have it. To make his wife feel better, Carson told her she was “always on his mind.”

“It just struck me like someone had hit me with a hammer,” Carson told the LA Times. “I told [my wife] real fast I had to hang up because I had to put that into a song.  ‘Always’ is about one long apology. I guess there are a lot of people in the world who are looking for a way to say [what the lyrics express] in a song.”

“Always On My Mind” popped into my head from out of nowhere. Coincidentally, I’ve been hearing it at the gym where I work out, but after the fact. I’ve decided that it’s a reminder from the cosmos to appreciate my loyal wife of thirty-six years. Here’s my cover played in Nelson’s style.

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‘For A Dancer’: Life Lessons in Jackson Browne’s Lyrics


Jackson Browne wrote “For A Dancer” in memory of a modern dancer friend who died tragically in a fire. When Jackson’s wife, the model Phyllis Major, died suddenly in 1976, “For A Dancer” mysteriously took on a new meaning. “That’s how songs work,” Brown said in an interview. “They migrate into other parts of your life and other experiences.”

Browne eventually played the song at the funerals of two other celebrity friends. And if one listens to the lyrics closely, “For A Dancer” becomes a larger commentary on the intransience of life itself. We cling to it like a thread, and nothing is certain.

To me, the larger meaning of the song underscores the necessity of using every precious moment wisely. Here’s my cover.

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An Insight Into Jackson Brown’s Unique Music


Jackson Browne’s guitar techniques, lyrics, and melodies stand apart from the crowd. What he says through his music is sometimes searing, sad, and occasionally, happy. However, all of Browne’s songs have something in common: an incredible sensitivity and beauty.

Browne wrote “These Days” when he was only sixteen years old. Despite his youth, Browne demonstrated a keen sense of heartbreak. I’m not sure how a sixteen-year-old could feel the depth of emotion and remorse expressed in this song. If we assume Jackson experienced and gave voice to the words and tone of “These Days,” then he was wise beyond his years and deeply rooted in himself from early on.

The song had its first release when a protégé of Andy Warhol named Nico picked it up on her “Chelsea Girl” album. Brown played acoustic guitar in the background. “These Days” gained wider recognition when several artists subsequently covered it.

Brown eventually released his version of the song in 1973 on the album “For Everyman.” He rewrote “These Days” to make it more optimistic. In his own words, Jackson remembers, “Over the rest of my teenage years and into my 20s, I developed a kind of optimism, a kind of resoluteness, so I changed [one verse] to: ‘I’ll keep on moving, keep improving.’ That’s more to me what life is made of, the idea that I’ll get through this, I’ll continue looking.”

I’ve always wanted to play this song the way Jackson Browne does. Thanks to my friend Jerry Lambert, I can now do it. Here’s my cover.

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Discovering the Beauty of Kate Wolf’s ‘Cornflower Blue’


I first heard “Cornflower Blue” as the opening song on Kate Wolf’s 1983 double album “Give Yourself to Love.” As I listened to the album many times over, “Cornflower Blue” grew on me (no pun intended). I began to appreciate the exquisite beauty in the lyrics and in Kate’s lovely singing voice.

Oftentimes, songs like this one will find their way into my heart and I feel compelled to play them myself. With this song, I had my doubts. The chances were good that I might not pull it off. Learning how to play “Cornflower Blue” like Kate does was like learning how to walk again. The style is completely counterintuitive to what I’m used to, but I’m glad I made the effort. I hope my cover of the song conveys some of the mystery and beauty of the original.