Despite its somewhat foreboding title and subject matter, this Nanci Griffith song is upbeat and fun to play. “I Wish It Would Rain” was released by MCA in 1988 on Nanci’s 6th album titled “Little Love Affairs.” I hope you enjoy listening to the song as much as I enjoy playing it. I’m including a video of Nanci Performing in the late 1980’s. Just look at her beautiful smile. Here’s my cover.
The Beatles have produced a motherload of work in the thirteen* albums they released. Within their massive discography, there are bound to be songs that the band members liked or disliked in varying degrees. Lennon and McCartney wrote “It’s Only Love” in 1965. The song is about a difficult relationship that is ultimately worth it because, after all, “It’s Only Love,” and that’s the way it often goes.
I was surprised to learn that John Lennon thought the song was “pure rubbish,” meaning that it was only a filler song created to feed the hounds of commerce. Paul McCartney had a more optimistic view: “Sometimes we didn’t fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like ‘It’s Only Love.’ If a lyric was really bad, we’d edit it, but we weren’t that fussy about it because it’s only a rock ‘n’ roll song. I mean, this is not literature.”
Most fans, like myself, can relate to the song, finding the lyrics acceptable and the melody beautiful.
Here’s my cover.
*The number of Beatles Albums varies by country from twelve to seventeen. Thirteen Beatles Albums were released in the United States.
Jackson Browne has always been a brilliant lyricist, singer, guitarist, and songwriter. I have enjoyed playing many of his songs on this blog. All of them are my favorites, and “Enough of the Night” is no exception.
Written when he was turning forty, Browne originally thought he was writing about someone else, until he realized that “Enough of the Night” was about himself. He had grown tired of a destructive lifestyle that mostly involved drugs (Cocaine). He decided the time had come for a change, and Browne writes about it poignantly in his lyrics. Listen closely, and you’ll see what I mean. “Enough of the Night” is also reminiscent of Jackson’s sister, but that’s another story entirely.
Here’s my cover.
“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®
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.
Many of Yusuf/Cat Stevens’ songs convey underlying messages about childhood and the relationships between children and adults, such as ‘Father & Son’ and ‘Oh Very Young,’ to name a few. “Where Do the Children Play?” is no exception. It becomes increasingly timely with each passing day, given the environmental crisis we are facing.
The song refers to the destruction of natural spaces caused by overdevelopment and industrialization. It asks a fundamental question: What future awaits our children when the spaces where they play are increasingly paved over and polluted?
“Where Do The Children Play” prompts us to consider the inherent features of the ‘progress’ we are making, as well as Humanity’s impact on planet Earth. Essentially, this beautiful and simple song begs for a balanced relationship between Human Beings and nature.
Typical of a Cat Stevens song, the rhythm is quite unique. Here’s my cover.
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.
This song is about a man who gives up his dreams to live a life of routine monotony due to the crushing necessity of earning a living.
In a 1997 interview with Mojo magazine, Browne said of this song: “I’m a big fan of ambiguity and its bountiful rewards, and ‘The Pretender’ is two things at once. It’s that person in all of us that has a higher ideal, and the part that has settled for compromise, like Truffaut says, there’s the movie you set out to make, and there’s the one you settle for. But in a more serious sense, ‘The Pretender’ is about 1960s idealism —the idea that life is about love, brotherhood, justice, social change, and enlightenment. These concepts were prevalent as our generation reached its stride, and later, we settled for something quite different. So when I say ‘Say a prayer for The Pretender,’ I’m talking about those people who are trying to convince themselves that there really was nothing to that idealism.” (excerpt from an article by SongFacts.com)
The boldface type is about a lyric in the song I could relate to most, since I lived through that period: “I want to know what became of the changes we waited for love to bring. Were they only the fitful dreams of some greater awakening?”
Here’s my cover of “The Pretender.”
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.
“Girl From The North Country” is another one of those songs that popped into my head from out of nowhere. I can’t decide if it’s a message from the Beyond or just a little piece of my subconscious rising like a sunspot from the deep layers of my skin with aging. Whatever the case, “Girl From The North Country” is one of Dylan’s earliest recorded songs, written in England in 1961 and released in 1963. Listening to it now, I find the ballad enchanting.
As a young adult, I followed Dylan’s work tangentially only because it was prominent in the mainstream. Lately, I’ve developed a deep appreciation for Dylan’s music and the man himself. I’ve covered several Dylan songs in this blog, including “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “My Back Pages,” and now this one.
“Girl From The North Country” is a beautiful ballad recounting a lost love. Many believe the woman in the song is Suze Rotolo. At the time, Dylan had just dropped out of college to pursue his musical career in New York City. Rotolo had just graduated from high school and entered the Greenwich Village folk scene. Their first meeting took place at the First Riverside Church concert in New York City. Dylan described the meeting in his memoir: “Cupid’s arrow had whistled past my ears before, but this time it hit me in the heart, and the weight of it dragged me overboard.”
Eventually, the couple lived together in Greenwich Village and then grew apart when Dylan went to England, and Rotolo went to Italy to continue her education.
After some time passed, Dylan went to Italy to find Retolo. At the same time, Rotolo returned to New York City. The couple finally reunited and lived in Dylan’s apartment until their final breakup.
The album cover of Dylan’s second album, Freewheeling, features Dylan and Rotolo walking arm in arm down a Greenwich Village street.
Here’s my cover.
Heart Banter by David Gittlin 