The lyric consists entirely of names of obscure baseball players from the late 1940s and early 1950s. You don’t have to be a baseball fan to feel here the magic that only music can create–what our adult heart does with the treasured memories of our youth.
Continue reading...Song Of the week
002: Buddy Holly, ‘Learning the Game’
Written and sung at 22 and a half, a month before he died. At that age, Lennon was recording ‘Love Me Do’ and Dylan had just finished his first album of original material.
Continue reading...191: The Fleetwoods, ‘Mr Blue’
Nobody talks about The Fleetwoods anymore. In my eyes, that’s a tragedy, because so often when I’m feeling like Mr Blue their songs come softly to me. They were the first group to have two records top the Billboard Hot 100 in a single year! No one can take that away from them. I hope no one would want to.
Continue reading...032: Duke Ellington, “Take the ‘A’ Train” (Billy Strayhorn)
When young Billy Strayhorn played for him backstage, the legendary Duke Ellington was very impressed: “I’d love to have you in my organization. I’ll call you.” But no call came, so Billy, literally hungry, took the chance of showing up at the Duke’s door. Not wanting to go empty-handed, he took the note the Duke had written: “Take the ‘A’ train…”
Continue reading...018 Sir Paul McCartney, ‘Distractions’
In which Jeff calls Sir Paul “the Prince of Plastic, the Sheikh of Shallow” (utter blasphemy!) and presents the one song from Paul’s 30something post-Beatle CDs that deserves to be visited and revisited, because it’s
uniquely mature, straightforward, honest and heartfelt.
023: Tommy Edwards, ‘It’s All In the Game’
The only #1 hit written by a sitting Vice President.
And it wasn’t Mike Pence or Spiro Agnew.
048 Sam Cooke ‘Bring It On Home To Me’,
In which Jeff is reminded that Sam Cooke takes a back seat to no one, not even to Smokey Robinson; and that the sweetest fruits are often those closest to the roots.
Continue reading...087: Bob Dylan, ‘Black Diamond Bay’
Here’s a less-known Dylan masterpiece, ‘Black Diamond Bay’ from the last of his great albums, ‘Desire’ (1976).
It’s a cinematic tour de force, a dreamed narrative from a movie that you’ve never quite seen, hovering just beyond the horizon of your consciousness. You know every cliché, even the ones you’re aware Dylan is inventing as you watch.