The Music of My Life-A Serial

The Music of My Life

Introduction

I was born on May 1st, 1956, the year that Elvis ruled the airwaves. His self-titled debut album featured a mix of remakes of country songs, race music, songs that had been previously recorded by black singers like Ray Charles, Clyde McPhatter and Little Richard. The breakout was the rockabilly hit, Blue Suede Shoes, penned by the white but soulful Carl Perkins. Sun Records producer Sam Phillips also threw in the Rodgers and Hart classic Blue Moon, to cover all the bases, but it was clear that a line had been crossed.

1956 was a defining year in music. Artists like Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent, Pat Boone, Fats Domino and groups like the Diamonds, the Cadillacs, Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and Bill Haley & the Comets were challenging the old guard. Big band artists that had ruled the airways since the early 40s were being overshadowed by these decidedly less talented musicians. Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Nat King Cole, Doris Day, The Platters, Johnny Ray, Eddie Fisher and Jerry Vale were all professionals. They understood music. They belonged to the union. Now, they were facing a whole new style of music that they could not fathom nor could they duplicate. In fact, most established artists were quite hostile to the new rock and roll crowd. Sinatra called them “cretinous goons” and opined that Rock n Roll was “the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear.” Check out Nat King Cole’s tune “Mr. Cole Don’t Rock & Roll”. Later in his career, Cole was forced by his record company to record several Rock & Roll tunes as were so many contemporary artists, including Sinatra.

Rock & Roll was rooted in Rhythm & Blues which had been banned from the airways in most of the US because of its sinful, sexual content. Ironically, Contemporary Pop singers of the 40s and 50s owed to Jazz, itself steeped in African American culture, their livelihoods. Rock & Roll was vulgar, obscene, nonsensical and possessed none of the greatness that their music held. In the span of a few years, American music had gone from lush, romantic and clever orchestrated pieces penned by legends like Sammy Cahn, Cole Porter and George Gershwin to three chord ringing guitars and single note sax solos that made no bones about what kids wanted; sex and a good time.

Like most kids who grew up in my generation, the adults in my home ruled the radio/record player at home. My parents listened to the news in the morning at breakfast and at night, my dad played records by Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller and other big bands as well as my mother’s beloved Sinatra records. Once we got a TV in the early sixties, the rules remained the same, although I do remember watching the Beatles American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.
I received a small AM transistor radio for my seventh birthday and tuned it to local Pop station, KQEO and discovered groups like the Beach Boys, The Tymes, Peter, Paul & Mary, Bobby Vee. Ruby and the Romantics, The Drifters, Dion Dimucci and the Four Seasons. The old guard was still around, but they were showing up on the charts, and radio, less and less.

My brother, seven years older than me introduced me to some of the great American R&B and Rock music. He saved up enough for his own record player that we kept in the bedroom we shared. From that moment on, I was hooked. At thirteen, I bought my first guitar. It came with a Bob Dylan Songbook. My brother, taught me a few chords and whenever I would see him, he would teach me a few more. When he went into the Navy, he sent me records by artists I had never heard of like Joe Cocker, Al Green, the Stones and all kinds of stuff that I couldn’t get at the Woolworth’s downtown.

By my fifteenth birthday, Sinatra had retired, (if only for two years) and other music stars of his era were relegated to Las Vegas. Pop music was being churned out by a few writers like Boyce and Hart, Carol King and Gerry Goffin, Jimmy Webb, Bacharach and David, Neil Diamond and Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil and Gordon Lightfoot. A new breed of LA studio musicians known as the Wrecking Crew were pushing out the older studio guys, playing on nearly every record produced between 1965 and 1975 (including some of Sinatra’s later hits). The folk music scene, psychedelic rock and the singer/songwriter movement had come of age. The kids had taken over.

My love of music has kept me involved on every level and in nearly every genre. I spent a number of years in radio as an on-air personality programming Contemporary Christian, Easy Listening, Pop, R&B, Hip-Hop, Rap and Jazz, I repped artists for a record company that had Gospel, R&B, Rap and Jazz artists on their roster, and I’ve played in Rock, Folk and Country bands. I’ve been writing songs since I first learned to string together a series of chords on the guitar. Most of all, I’m a fan. I LOVE music. Music teaches, exploits, entertains, explains, motivates, measures and moves us forward. There is nothing else like it on earth.

What makes a great song?

If you’re me, the song elicits an emotion. It makes you feel something. It can make you cry or laugh or make you angry. A well written song holds your attention from start to finish. The first time you hear it, you have to wonder how it is going to end and when you do get to the resolution, it wraps up everything nicely in a complete package.

Great songs live forever. There are songs that every musician wants to try their hand at, either because they are complex or maybe just because they know that the audience will recognize and approve of the tune. There are over 2000 versions of Paul McCarney’s “Yesterday” because it is a must sing in everybody’s repertoire. In fact, the Beatles hold the record with most covered songs “Yesterday”, “Eleanor Rigby”, “…and I Love Her” and “Blackbird”. Notice that three of the four most covered Beatles songs are very simple arrangements. (All of them written almost entirely by Paul McCartney.) Simple is good. Great writing endures.

People want something that they can sing along to. Every musician started their learning process with some simple yet popular song. Mine was “House of the Rising Sun”. Producers will tell you that you want a great hook. Sometimes, that’s all we know from a song.

A truly memorable song tells a story. Sometimes it is a mystery, like Chuck Berry’s “Memphis” where we discover at the end of the song that the love he’s missing is the little girl he’s lost in a divorce. Sometimes it history like Gordon Lightfoot’s “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” or legend like Marty Robbin’s “El Paso”. Most often, though, it is just a straight ahead story about the things that happen to people every day; love, loss; hard times; trouble. Those are the songs that everyone can relate to. How many times have you completely overlooked that love song until the day you break up with your best love? Suddenly, every word has meaning.

Over the next year or so, I’ll be releasing my list of songs that have entertained, educated, intrigued and in many ways. Songs that changed my life. The list of songs I love could take up volumes, but for the sake of this discography, I have limited it to songs from the year of my birth until today. They include rock, pop, country, Americana and other genres. They are in no particular order, and I don’t have one song that really stands out above the rest, although I do have an affinity for Bob Dylan. These are just some songs that I think are worth hearing over and over again. Let’s see if you agree.
They will eventually end up in book form after I gather the appropriate permissions for artwork, lyrics and more. – Jose Antonio Ponce

Memphis, Tennessee-1959 Written and performed by Chuck Berry

The original operator assistance song.

Chuck Berry is in many folks’ minds the true father of Rock & Roll. If I had to argue, I would say that many more of his songs were covered by other artists, especially “Maybelline” and “Johnny B Goode”. Berry got the idea for the song from a verse or a line from a song that he heard Muddy Waters sing In the Muddy Waters tune, the caller is asking the operator for help in locating his girlfriend.

The caller in the song asks the operator to try to track down a call he missed from a girl named Marie calling from Memphis, Tennessee. Marie has called his uncle’s home and he desperately wants to return the call. He tells the operator his sad tale of love lost.

The lyrics flow like tears in this song. Not one syllable is wasted. Berry laments missing the call, not having the number, but has some vague information about where Marie lives, in a home on “the southside, high upon the ridge just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge.” Torn from the arms of this girl, Berry’s last memory is of her waving goodbye, tears in her eyes, their love forbidden by her mother. Most of Chuck Berry’s fans were, at that time, teenagers and so the assumption initially was that some stupid parent had forbidden their daughter’s love for this boy. Berry, however, was already thirty-three when the song was released and so his story turns out to be that the girl’s mother is the singer’s estranged wife and the love he so misses is his six-year old daughter. Pure heartbreak.

Chuck Berry was born in 1926. Thirty-three years later, this Black ex-con would write Memphis and record the song at home in St. Louis and release it a year later. It would resonate with his audience, white teenagers, but because of restrictions on airplay and sales of race records, those record labels that had a largely Black artists rosters, Berry’s version never charted in America. Can you believe that? This iconic tune has been covered over 200 times and has been a hit for less talented artists like Johnny Rivers and superstars like the Beatles, Elvis, Rod Stewart and even Count freakin’ Baise, but Berry’s version never charted.

Chuck Berry was the first inductee into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Not just inducted into the first class, but the first person inducted. His song, Johnny B Goode shared space on a solid gold disk on the Voyager space mission with Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky. Saturday Night Live did a bit where it was reported that aliens had discovered the disk and sent a message to earth saying, “Send more Chuck Berry.” He received honors from the Grammys, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Kennedy Center, BMI, numerous arts entities, music groups and literary concerns from around the globe. The first home he purchased in 1950 is on the historic register.

Chuck Berry was ripped off by almost every record company he ever signed with and nearly every live venue he went through. After he became “the” Chuck Berry, he began to manage himself with the help of his wife of 68 years. He booked himself, made his own travel and hotel arrangements and wrote his own contracts and, most importantly, collected his money.

Memphis is the perfect song supported by a great hook, one that Berry himself made popular in the 50s and one that has been copied by everyone from the Beach Boys to Led Zepplin. The lyrics are crisp, clear and full of emotion and it is a great story with a perfect twist. The song is the perfect representative of the beginning of Rock & Roll.

Chuck Berry’s legacy is every kid who ever picked up a guitar. Everything guitar players play, he played first. Every rock and roll riff is a derivative of his work. Every rock and roll dream ever dreamed was to be Chuck Berry. Even those kids who never heard of him know who he is. Memphis is a huge part of that legacy.

Memphis Tennessee-Chuck Berry

Long distance information, give me Memphis Tennessee.
Help me find a party that tried to get in touch with me.
She did not leave a number but I know who placed the call.
‘Cause my uncle took a message and he wrote it on the wall.

Help me, information, get in touch with my Marie.
She’s the only one who’d call me here from Memphis Tennessee.
Her home is on the south side, high upon a ridge.
Just a half a mile from the Mississippi bridge.

Last time I saw Marie she was wavin’ me goodbye
with “hurry-home” drops on her cheek that trickled from her eye.
We were pulled apart because her mom did not agree
and tore apart our happy home in Memphis Tennessee.

Help me, information, more than that I cannot add.
Only that I miss her and all the fun we had.
Marie is only six years old, information please.
Try to put me through to her in Memphis Tennessee.

Songwriter: Chuck Berry
Memphis lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Entertainment One U.S. Lp

While Johnny B Goode is undoubtedly Berry’s most popular song and was in fact, voted the number one Rock & Roll song of all time, Memphis stood out among the noise and nonsense of early rock. Many of the songs of that era had non-sensical lyrics like Tutti Frutti, Get a Job and Splish Splash. Other tunes, while telling a story, told it simplistically., not with the intelligence of some of the great songwriters of the 30s and 40s. Still other songs were put together hastily by record companies wanting to ride the juggernaut that was Rock & Roll and often written by songwriters who had no idea what rock was all about. Memphis transcended all of that.

At Seventeen-Written and performed by Janis Ian-1975

A remarkable song and one that holds up even today. Although Janis Ian wrote the song at age 23, the song encompasses every teenage girl’s angst, fear, and fantasy about being able to be loved. It is about the peer pressure of not having a boyfriend when it seems as if everyone around you is hooking up. You can tell how real this is. Ian said that she wrote the song after reading about a eighteen year-old woman who believed that her life would improve after her debutante ball. It didn’t.

Janis Ian had never gone through the typical high school experience like prom night, and she vacillated about writing the song, taking three months to complete it, but when you listen to it you believe that Janis Ian must have experienced these feelings herself.

The song struck a chord in women and girls around the world and won a Grammy™ for Best Female Pop Vocal and was nominated for Record and Song of the Year. It was the standout single on her fifth album, Between the Lines.

The young girl in the song comes to realize that love is only for the beautiful and the future only certain for a privileged few. As such, ordinary, “ugly duckling girls,” no matter how hard they try are forced to stand aside and cope, sometimes by inventing scenarios where imagined boyfriends will fulfill all their fantasies, including their imagined sexual dreams. The girl in the song understands that she will never have the life she dreams of and is willing to settle for the life she has.

What makes the song is the language. Janis Ian is in total command of the English language and she uses her brilliant turn of phrase to paint a picture that is glum and exhaustive from trying to keep up. The singer believes that the winners in this tale will soon discover that their lives will become vapid and empty.

In 1975, we were getting songs with meaningless, bland lyrics like the Bee Gees Jive Talkin’ and Olivia Newton Johns Have You Never Been Mellow. Janis Ian used words like “rich-relationed” and “debentures” as well as phrases like “charades of youth” and “dubious integrity” to let us know that she, the artist and the girl, are not what we expect her to be. For many years, record executives tried to get Janis Ian to lighten up, smile more, be more feminine and to write things that were, in their minds, broader and less depressing. Ian never capitulated.

Combine this with an easy bossa nova beat, exceptional guitar work, and crisp, clear production and this song shines. The absolute best version of the song comes from her 2014 album Strictly Solo where Ian performs the song with incredible clarity.

Ian began playing piano at two and by her teen years was a multi-instrumentalist, playing organ, French horn, and guitar, writing and publishing her first song at twelve and at fourteen, wrote and recorded her first hit, Society’s Child, a poignant and important song about an interracial relationship. At fourteen, most of us were worried about acne and getting into high school. Janis Ian was worried about the world.

Janis Ian has been writing and recording music since 1967 and the quality of her songs has not diminished. Her 2021 album, The Light at the End of the Line, was nominated for a Grammy™. (Her 8th nomination.) Sadly, in 2022 she retired due to a strain of viral laryngitis that took its toll on her magnificent voice, but she has left a fifty-five-year legacy of music for us to enjoy.

At Seventeen-Janis Ian

I learned the truth at seventeen.
That love was meant for beauty queens
and high school girls with clear-skinned smiles
who married young and then retired.

The valentines I never knew.
The Friday night charades of youth.
Were spent on one more beautiful.
At seventeen I learned the truth.

And those of us with ravaged faces
lacking in the social graces
desperately remained at home.
Inventing lovers on the phone
who called to say, “Come dance with me”
and murmured vague obscenities.
It isn’t all it seems…at seventeen

A brown eyed girl in hand-me-downs
whose name I never could pronounce.
Said, “Pity, please, the ones who serve.
They only get what they deserve.”

And the rich-relationed hometown queen
marries into what she needs
with a guarantee of company
and haven for the elderly.

Remember those who win the game
lose the love they sought to gain.
In debentures of quality
and dubious integrity.
Their small-town eyes will gape at you
in dull surprise when payment due
exceeds accounts received…at seventeen

To those of us who knew the pain
of valentines that never came.
And those whose names were never called
when choosing sides for basketball.

It was long ago and far away.
The world was younger than today.
When dreams were all they gave for free
to ugly duckling girls like me.

We all play the game, and when we dare
to cheat ourselves at solitaire.
Inventing lovers on the phone.
Repenting other lives unknown.
They call and say, “Come dance with me”
and murmur vague obscenities
at ugly girls like me…at seventeen.

Songwriter: Janis Ian
At Seventeen lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

I was unable to secure an interview with Janis Ian for this episode, but I intend to reach out to her again for the book that will be completed later this year or early next. In that book, I will have then secured the rights to re-publish lyrics and artwork for most of these artists.

El Paso-1959 Written and performed by Marty Robbins

Marty Robbins was driving from one city to the next on tour during the Christmas season in 1956 when he spotted the highway sign proclaiming “El Paso City Limits”. “What a beautiful name,” he thought to himself and resolved to write a song about the city. By the time he had reached his destination, he had forgotten about the song.

Two years went by and each time he passed through El Paso he was reminded of his idea to write the song. Driving through El Paso a year later while on vacation with his family, he decided that if he did not write the song while he was thinking about it, he would forget yet again. With his son Ronnie sleeping in the back seat, he began singing a tune and weaving a story during his drive through the city. Ten minutes later, this classic hit was born. (Driving through El Paso takes a lot longer these days.)

El Paso was Marty Robbins’ biggest hit and his masterpiece. The song was the first song ever to reach number one on both the country and pop music charts simultaneously. It stayed on the Pop charts for two years before winning a Grammy in 1961 and is on the lists of the best Country songs and best songs ever written. Released as the first single on Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, it pushed the album into a top ten slot and spawned another album of old west ballads.

The narrative tells the first-person story of a young cowboy who falls in love with a Mexican cantina girl, Faleena. When he finds another cowboy flirting with her, he challenges him to a gunfight and kills the cowboy. He is forced to flee into the badlands of New Mexico just north of El Paso. His love for Faleena drives him back to El Paso where he is chased down by a posse and shot. He dies in the arms of his love. Perfectly tragic.

A beautiful arrangement with incredible and yet understated lead Spanish guitar work by the late Grady Martin and Robbins’ tenor singing a haunting lead with backing vocals by Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser. The rhythm does not vary at all from start to finish. There are 470 economical words that tell a wonderful story of love, longing, jealousy, murder, loneliness, courage, justice and redemption. The song was quite long by the standards of the day. (4:40) The general rule for radio airplay was that a song had to be under 3:30 and tell a story in a straightforward fashion. In fact, Columbia released an airplay friendly version that was a minute shorter, but also released the full version on the B-side of the single, giving DJs the option of playing one or the other. DJs of the day listened to and preferred the longer version as it told the complete story, and the fans loved it even more. El Paso became a worldwide hit.

Robbins wrote two sequels to the song. Faleena (from El Paso) in 1966 which tells the story of the girl Faleena who leaves home in New Mexico to find excitement in El Paso. There, she becomes a cantina girl, dancing and flirting with all the cowboys to keep them coming back to Roses’ Cantina. She causes a fight between two cowboys, and one is killed. The other escapes but comes back to her. He dies in her arms and (spoiler alert) she kills herself with his gun so that they can be together. The song is 8:18 long and received almost no airplay, but by 1966, Robbins could do no wrong.

Seventeen years after El Paso, Robbins wrote El Paso City about a songwriter who, knowing nothing about the city remembers hearing the tale of the cowboy in the story and comes to believe that he, in another time, was that cowboy and once again tells the tale. Robbins said that he had the same feeling to write another song about El Paso as he flew over the city 15 years after penning the original and that, spookily, the song took 4:15 to compose, the same amount of time it took to fly over El Paso. El Paso City also reached number one but neither Faleena nor El Paso City approached the beautiful pathos or the popularity of the original.

One final irony. The last episode of Breaking Bad was titled “Felina” and there are several snippets of the song “El Paso” throughout the episode. The spelling is different than in Marty Robbins tune, but we noticed that Felina is an anagram for finale and that the letters are a composite of the chemical signatures for iron, lithium and salt; components of blood, meth and tears.

El Paso-Marty Robbins

Out in the west Texas town of El Paso I fell in love with a Mexican girl.
Nighttime would fine me in Rosa’s Cantina,
music would play and Felina would whirl.

Black as the night were the eyes of Felina,
wicked and evil while casting a spell.
My love was strong for this Mexican maiden.
I was in love, but in vain I could tell.

One night a wild young cowboy came in, wild as the west Texas wind…
Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing,
with wicked Felina, the girl that I love.

So in anger I challenged his right for the love of this maiden.
Down went his hand for the gun that he wore.
My challenge was answered, in less than a heartbeat.
The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor.

Just for a moment I stood there in silence,
shocked by the foul evil deed I had done.
Many thoughts ran through my mind as I stood there.
I had but one chance and that was to run.

Out through the back door of rose’s I ran, out where the horses were tied.
I picked a good one; he looked like he could run.
Up on his back and away I did ride

just as fast as I could from the west Texas town of El Paso,
out through the badlands of New Mexico.
Back in El Paso my life would be worthless.
Everything’s gone in life. Nothing is left.

It’s been so long since I’ve seen the young maiden,
my love is stronger that my fear of death.
I saddled up and away I did go, riding alone in the dark.
Maybe tomorrow a bullet may find me.
Tonight, nothing’s worse than this pain in my heart.

And as last here I am on the hill overlooking El Paso.
I can see Rosa’s Cantina below.
My love is strong, and it pushes me onward, down off the hill to Felina I go.

Off to my right I see five mounted cowboys.
Off to my left ride a dozen or more.
Shouting and shooting; I can’t let them catch me.
I’ve got to make it to rose’s back door.

Something is dreadfully wrong for I feel
a deep burning pain in my side.
Though I am trying to stay in the saddle,
I’m getting weary, unable to ride.
But my love for
Felina is strong and I rise where I’ve fallen.
Though I am weary, I can’t stop to rest.

I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle.
I feel the bullet go deep in my chest.
From out of nowhere, Felina has found me,
kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side.
Cradled by two loving arms that I’ll die for,
one farewell kiss and Felina good-bye.

Songwriter: Marty Robbins
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

Marty Robbins had a long and brilliant career and was a favorite of audiences everywhere. Although he passed away at the age of 57, his career spanned nearly 34 years with his first hit, I’ll Go on Alone in 1952 on through his last top ten hit, Honky Tonk Man from the film of the same name in 1982, the year of his passing. He recorded over 500 songs, 52 albums and 100 singles. He was an actor; a NASCAR driver and owner and his songs have been covered by everyone from Johnny Cash to the Grateful Dead. There are tributes to him continually in Nashville and around the world.

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning?)-2001
Written and performed by Alan Jackson

September 11th, 2001 is one of those landmark days in history for Americans. For my parents, it was the announcement on the radio on December 7th, 1941 that the Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor. For people of my generation, it was the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22nd, 1963. It wasn’t as if war hadn’t been declared or a president assassinated in America before, it was just that these incidents came so publicly, through the mass media of the day. For the newest generation, this was there “where were you” moment. With each of these events, we as Americans wondered not only how this could have happened, but why.

I was filling in for the morning show producer at a 50,000 watt radio station on that Tuesday morning September 11th, 2001 when the twin towers were hit and subsequently came down. We stayed on the air with the same crew for three days straight letting callers vent their anger, share their grief and watched Americans of all faiths and stripes come together. It was horrible and inspiring all at once. Two months after the attacks, Alan Jackson would try to pull us together as a nation by pointing out what we shared on that terrible day.

The song asks the question and brings together all of America in one, horrifying moment of grief and disbelief. “Where were you…?”

Like many of us, Jackson was stunned by the attacks. He was home when he heard the news. For weeks he struggled to gather his thoughts and emotions into a song that might reach people but just couldn’t find a way to make it happen. He didn’t want to write something that was angry or vengeful, but he didn’t want to forget the way he felt that morning. He was experiencing what all of us were at the time, denial. Something like this simply could not happen in this country.

A month and a half later, he awoke in the middle of the night with a melody and a few lyrics in his head which he recorded so that he would remember them. Later in the day, he finished the song. Initially, he did not want to record the song, feeling as if he would be profiting from the deaths of so many and the grief of many more, but his wife and producer convinced him that this could help many understand their grief.

Alan Jackson went into the studio and recorded this anthem to the 9/11 tragedy and absolutely nailed the feelings so many were expressing after that day. He cut across all of the division in America by simply asking the question we would all be asking each other decades later. The lyrics are simple and are a series of questions; Where were you? What were you doing? Were you angry? Did you hug your children? Did you go to church? Did you sit and cry?

He asks if people wept for themselves and for the lost. He asks them if they were afraid to the point of arming themselves and he wraps it up in a chorus that reminds us that, like him, we are just ordinary people, unable to understand geopolitics because we are concentrating on the things that matter to us the most, home and family. He reaffirms his faith and paraphrases th letter of Sait Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 13, verse 13 “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Jackson was accused of profiting from the song because monies from the song were not publicly donated to a 9/11 fund, but privately and anonymously, Jackson did donate profits to various 9/11 groups.

There were other songs written as a result of the 9/11 attacks. Some are angry, like Toby Keith’s Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue and others more introspective like Mary Chapin Carpenter’s first-person account, Grand Central Station. There are songs about the heroes of that day, from the passengers of United 93 to the firefighters who gave their lives and even a few songs of protest about America’s involvement in other countries that spurred this kind of retaliation.

Alan Jackson’s song is simply about healing, understanding, and learning. When the first notes of the song come up and one of his concerts, the audience falls silent, and people turn their cell phones up as votive lights. It is the single greatest healing song ever written.

Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turnin’?)

Where were you when the world stopped turnin’ that September day?
Were you in the yard with your wife and children
or workin’ on some stage in L.A.?

Did you stand there in shock at the sight of that black smoke
risin’ against that blue sky?
Did you shout out in anger, in fear for your neighbor
or did you just sit down and cry?

Did you weep for the children, they lost their dear loved ones?
Pray for the ones who don’t know?
Did you rejoice for the people who walked from the rubble
and sob for the ones left below?

Did you burst out with pride for the red, white, and blue
and the heroes who died just doin’ what they do?
Did you look up to heaven for some kind of answer?
And look at yourself and what really matters?

I’m just a singer of simple songs. I’m not a real political man.
I watch CNN, but I’m not sure I can tell you. The difference in Iraq and Iran.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God. And I remember this from when I was young.
Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us.
And the greatest is love.

Where were you when the world stopped turnin’ that September day?
Teachin’ a class full of innocent children
or drivin’ down some cold interstate?
Did you feel guilty ’cause you’re a survivor?
In a crowded room did you feel alone?
Did you call up your mother and tell her you love her?
Did you dust off that Bible at home?

Did you open your eyes and hope it never happened?
Close your eyes and not go to sleep?
Did you notice the sunset for the first time in ages?
And speak to some stranger on the street?

Did you lay down at night and think of tomorrow?
Go out and buy you a gun?
Did you turn off that violent old movie you’re watchin’
and turn on I Love Lucy reruns?

Did you go to a church and hold hands with some strangers?
Stand in line to give your own blood?
Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family?
Thank God you had somebody to love?

I’m just a singer of simple songs. I’m not a real political man.
I watch CNN, but I’m not sure I can tell you. The difference in Iraq and Iran.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God. And I remember this from when I was young.
Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us.
And the greatest is love.

I’m just a singer of simple songs. I’m not a real political man.
I watch CNN, but I’m not sure I can tell you. The difference in Iraq and Iran.
But I know Jesus and I talk to God. And I remember this from when I was young.
Faith, hope, and love are some good things He gave us.
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.
And the greatest is love.

Where were you when the world stopped turnin’
On that September day?

Songwriter: Alan Jackson
Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

America-1957 Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim with music by Leonard Bernstein from the Broadway musical and film West Side Story

Capulets and Montagues. Romeo and Juliet. Jets and Sharks. Tony and Maria. It could only be West Side Story.

Racist overtones aside, America is one of the greatest songs ever written, a rousing, spirited dance number with these recent immigrants laying out the pros and cons of life in America. Bernstein, a master composer brings the song to life with simple staccato alternating bars of 6/8 and 3/4 time. The music was so complex that when the musical was first being proposed, they were considering scrapping the song because many thought that no one would be able to sing the melodies, much less the harmonies. Sondheim’s lyrics are slick and contemporary and challenge the 1957 listener. Even today, they force you to take sides.

America is easily the best number in the entire score. Sondheim’s lyrics are poignant if dated, expressing the frustrations and hopes of Puerto Ricans who have come to America looking for a better life and finding overt racism from everyone. Remember, the musical made its Broadway debut in 1957. This was a time in America when Puerto Ricans were emigrating to the US by the thousands. The island’s economic recovery plan, Operation Bootstrap, focused on shifting from an agrarian economy to an industrial one, leaving many workers out in the cold. The solution to both problems? Actively facilitate migration—and compel one-third of the population to head north. Many agricultural workers moved to New York City because of the promise of better paying jobs in the industrial sector and it became a problem for native New Yorkers.

By the time the musical made its way to the big screen in 1961, over one hundred thousand Puerto Ricans had moved to New York City. This was real life to New Yorkers on both sides of the issue.

All the hopes and frustrations of being a Puerto Rican in New York are expressed in the song. In the original Broadway production, the debate is between Anita and her friend Rosalia. The lyrics are snarky and cutting on both sides. Rosalia talks about the paradise that is Puerto Rico with its tropical breezes, pineapples and coffee blossoms gently blowing in the breeze. Anita sees the island differently, a place of tropical diseases, hurricanes, overpopulation, crime, and poverty. Anita prefers this new, shiny modern island, Manhattan.

The Broadway version is more subdued, in part because the orchestra is smaller. There is more tropical percussion and fewer brass instruments, but that gives the song a more earthy tone. The jabs from the lyrics are clever and deeper because they are more personal and the song is more about disparaging Puerto Rico than praising America.

In the 1961 film version, the lyrics have changed and become more masculine. Bernardo and his crew describe the discrimination and poverty of being Puerto Rican in a country where he is unwanted. He sings of the overcrowding, the crime, the inability to find a decent job, of being so impoverished that no one can enjoy the luxuries extended to most Americans and of being cheated by shopkeepers and landlords.

Anita and her girlfriends again take the opposite tack, briefly denigrating their homeland and praising the fast pace in America; the cars, the skyscrapers, the modern conveniences, and the room to breathe. Anita has the last word, reminding Bernardo that the best thing about America is that she is there.

This clever banter is driven by exciting Latin rhythms, brassy and bold and much more spirited than the Broadway version. The music is bolder, the rhythm stronger. The song and the dance number is staged on a Lower Manhattan tenement rooftop and that somehow opens the song up and invites the audience in. You want to jump into the fray and put in your own two cents worth. Listening to both versions, you can hear how American audiences were more captivated by the film version. You cannot help but be stirred by this performance. It is glorious.

America-Original lyrics from the Broadway production of West Side Story

Rosalia:
Puerto Rico, you lovely island. Island of tropical breezes.
Always the pineapples growing. Always the coffee blossom blowing

Anita:
Puerto Rico, you ugly island. Island of tropic diseases.
Always the hurricanes blowing. Always the population growing. And the money owing.
And the babies crying. And the bullets flying.
I like the island Manhattan. Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

Chorus
I like to be in America! Okay by me in America!
Everything free in America For a small fee in America!

Rosalia: I like the city of San Juan.
Anita: I know a boat you can get on.
Rosalia: Hundreds of flowers in full bloom
Anita: Hundreds of people in each room!

Chorus
Automobile in America. Chromium steel in America.
Wire spoke wheel in America. Very big deal in America!

Rosalia: I’ll drive a Buick through San Juan
Anita: If there’s a road you can drive on
Rosalia: I’ll give my cousins a free ride
Anita: How you get all of them inside?

Chorus
Immigrants goes to America. Many hellos in America.
Nobody knows in America. Puerto Rico’s in America!

Rosalia: I’ll bring a TV to San Juan
Anita: If there’s a current to turn on!
Rosalia: I’ll give them new washing machine
Anita: What have they got there to keep clean?

Chorus
I like the shores of America. Comfort is yours in America.
Knobs on the doors in America. Wall-to-wall floors in America!

Rosalia: When I will go back to San Juan?
Anita: When you will shut up and get gone?
Rosalia: Everyone there will give big cheer!
Anita: Everyone there will have moved here.

Songwriters: Stephen Sondheim / Leonard Bernstein
America lyrics © Rilting Music Inc., Jalni Publishing, Inc., Rilting Music, Inc., Warner Chappell Music Ltd, Jalni Publications Inc.

America-Lyrics from the motion picture West Side Story

Anita
Puerto Rico. You lovely island. Island of tropical breezes.
Always the pineapples growing. Always the coffee blossoms blowing. And the money owing.
And the baby’s crying. And the people trying.
I like the island Manhattan (I know you do!) Smoke on your pipe and put that in!

Chorus
I like to be in America. Okay, buy me in America.
Everything free in America. For a small fee in America.

Anita: Buying on credit is so nice.
Bernardo: One look at us and they charge twice.
Anita: I have my own washing machine.
Bernardo: What do you have don’t you keep clean?

Chorus
Skyscrapers bloom in America. Cadillacs zoom in America.
Industry boom in America. 12 in a room in America.

Anita: Lots of new housing with more space.
Bernardo: (Lots of doors slamming in our face.)
Anita: I’ll get a terrace apartment.
Bernardo:Better you get rid of your accent.

Chorus
Life can be bright in America. If you can fight in America.
Life is all right in America. If you’re all white in America.

Anita: Here you are free and you have pride.
Bernardo:Long as you stay on your own side.
Anita: Free to do anything you choose.
Bernardo: Free to wait tables and shine shoes.

Chorus
Everywhere grime in America. Organized crime in America. Terrible time in America.
Anita
You forget I’m in America.

Bernardo: I think I’ll go back to San Juan.
Anita: I know a boat you can get on (Bye, bye!)
Bernardo: Everyone there will give big cheer! (Hey!)
Anita: Everyone there will have moved here.

Doctor, My Eyes-1972
Written and performed by Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne is somewhat of a songwriting prodigy, penning the song These Days in 1965 at the age of 16 and having it become a hit record for Nico two years later. He recorded the song for his debut album in 1972 and the song was also a hit for Greg Allman. By 1972, he had written songs as a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band as well as for The Byrds and The Eagles.

Jackson Browne was one of those people from the Laural Canyon area in Southern California that, at the time, was a mixture of famous and non-famous musicians. From the mid-1960s to the early 1970s some of the greatest American music was written by residents of, or those associated with, Laurel Canyon. Joni Mitchell, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn, J. D. Souther, the Mamas and the Papas, Carole King, the Eagles, Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield and Poco), and many more. Browne grew up musically in this atmosphere where these artists played songs for one another in all-night jam sessions. It was an amalgam of influences that included blues, rock and roll, jazz, Latin, country and western, psychedelia, bluegrass, and folk.

With some success as a songwriter, Browne writes Doctor, My Eyes and releases it on his debut album in 1972 and it becomes a top 10 hit, which was a little bit of a surprise to the record company who asked Browne to change the original lyrics which they felt were too depressing. Browne sat down and came up with the lyrics we have today.

Originally, he had written about his experiences as a 16-year-old seeing the Sunset Strip in LA for the first time. It was the first time he had ever encountered transvestites, the drug trade and violent crime and it frightened him. The world he was seeing now was somehow askew and he wanted to right it. The final version, once released, resonated with lots and lots of people, especially soldiers returning from Vietnam. For them, the song explained what they had been telling anyone who would listen; that they had seen and heard things in the fog of war that they would never forget and did not want to talk about.

Doctor My Eyes doesn’t smack you in the face like CSN&Y’s Ohio, or any of Dylan’s stuff. The song has a groove to it. It moves behind Leland Sklar’s bass and Russ Kunkel’s drums. That’s what catches your attention and before you know it, you are hearing the words. The message is simple. We are so bombarded with injustice and often sheer evil that we have become numb.

Whenever Graham Nash sings Military Madness, he always comments on how ridiculous and frustrating it is that he is “still singing this song 50 fucking years later.” He’s right and that’s what Doctor My Eyes is all about. All the hope and optimism that was the music of the 60s never seemed to materialize. We still have all the problems that we had then. In fact, if anything, things have gotten worse. So overwhelmed are we that we have stopped listening.

The protagonist in the song laments that having learned how not to cry has somehow made him callous and unfeeling. We now are talking about media overload and how it affects us. Psychologists call it “news-related stress,” “headline anxiety,” and, my favorite, “doomscrolling.” This results in avoidance. We walk with blinders on and if we can’t see the problems of the world, they don’t exist.

Jackson Browne predicted this phenomenon in 1972. In 2023, he posted a video of the song online of he, Leleand Sklar and Russ Kunkel collaborating with musicians around the world on the song as part of the Playing for Change series of videos. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQPD17v6eLU

Here we are, 50 fucking years later still trying to solve the problem.

Doctor, My Eyes

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years
and the slow parade of fears without crying.
Now I want to understand.

I have done all that I could
to see the evil and the good without hiding.
You must help me if you can.

Doctor, my eyes tell me what is wrong.
Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?

‘Cause I have wandered through this world
and as each moment has unfurled
I’ve been waiting to awaken from these dreams.

People go just where they will.
I never noticed them until I got this feeling
that it’s later than it seems.

Doctor, my eyes tell me what you see.
I hear their cries. Just say if it’s too late for me.

Doctor, my eyes they cannot see the sky.
Is this the prize for having learned how not to cry?

Songwriter: Jackson Browne
Doctor My Eyes lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town-1966
Written by Mel Tillis Recorded by Kenny Rogers & the First Edition

We talk about it all the time. We see Wounded Warrior commercials on TV ad infinitum. We talk about Post Traumatic Stress and the damage it does to our young men and women, but back in 1969, nobody understood much less wanted to talk about these things.

Mel Tillis grew up in Pahoke, Florida and living behind his childhood home was a married couple who were always fussing and fighting. The husband had been wounded during the Second World War and while in the hospital in England, he met and married his nurse, Ruby and brought her back home with him. Young Mel Tillis would often hear the couple arguing and asked his mother what the fuss was all about. While she wasn’t certain what the issues between the man and his wife were, she commented to Mel on one occasion that the wife, Ruby “was a good girl” and that her husband was always accusing her of all sorts of things. The conversation stuck in his head.

Years later, while Tillis was stuck in traffic, he heard Johnny Cash’s Don’t Take Your Guns to Town” and stole the lyric, changing it to Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town. In his song he tells the story of a paraplegic who helplessly watches as his wife gets made up for a night on the town. He pleads with her to stay home, tells her that he understands that he is not the man he once was and that she deserves the attention a woman her age needs, and yet, at the end of the song, she still leaves. In the song, the singer refers to “that old crazy Asian war.” Tillis composed the song in 1966 and had updated it to refer to the Korean conflict, but years later, the listening public would believe it referred to the Vietnam war.

Tillis played the song for his chief critic, his wife, and she hated it, calling it the most morbid song she had ever heard. At the time, Tillis was a full-time country writer, penning hits for Webb Pierce, Ray Price, Kitty Wells, Charlie Pride and Brenda Lee. Tillis didn’t start performing full time until the mid-1960s.

Ruby was recorded by Waylon Jennings in 1966 but didn’t get much traction. Johnny Darrell made it a country hit a year later, but country music was largely ignored by mainstream media and audiences. It wasn’t until Kenny Rogers & the First Edition released their version in 1969 at the height of the Vietnam war that the song took off.

It’s easy to look at this a cheating song, long a staple of country music, but there is so much more here. We have the wounded vet, unable to fulfill the promises he made when he married this woman. We have his reasons for even going to war in the first place. We feel his loss, his heartbreak and eventually, his anger. The song, while not directly pointed at veterans, becomes an anthem for all the frustration they must have felt coming home to crowds of people who harassed and accused them of being “baby killers” and drug addicts.

Vietnam was the first truly televised American conflict. Nightly news reports counted the dead and atrocities committed by some US soldiers were well publicized in the US media. Although much more heinous war crimes were being committed by the North Vietnamese army, Americans were seen as the interlopers. There were no welcome home parades. Instead, people hurled invectives at them. On top of that, the federal government offered almost no support to returning vets. GI Bill benefits were almost non-existent and a flurry of “bad paper,” less than honorable discharge papers kept many vets from receiving even the simplest medical benefits. Over 150,000 soldiers were wounded in Vietnam and most of them were left to fend for themselves.

Now comes this song that magnifies that plight. Here was a song that spoke about wounded veterans. If they were wounded in battle, so what. It was their punishment for their war crimes.

The song was covered by a passel of other country artists including Roger Miller, Johnny Cash, Bobby Bare, Jimmy Dean, George Jones, Faron Young, Flatt & Scruggs, Red Sovine, David Allen Coe, Jerry Reed, Dolly Parton and Carl Perkins. Pop acts including Bobby Goldsboro and even Leonard Nimoy recorded Ruby. Even alternative rock and grunge groups like Right Said Fred, Cake, The Killers and The Flaming Lips took a shot at the song. It has been recorded in Russia, Germany, Ireland, France, England, Greece and spawned a few related songs including Ruby’s perspective by Dodie Stevens, Billy, I’ve Got to Go to Town and Bobby Womack’s Ruby Dean where the couple’s son pleads with his mother to be faithful.

What started out as a simple country song became a worldwide phenomenon that did more than just entertain. It educated Americans to the truth about war and veterans’ need for love, compassion, understanding and forgiveness.

Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town

You’ve painted up your lips and rolled and curled your tinted hair.
Ruby, are you contemplating going out somewhere?
The shadow on the wall tells me the sun is going down.
Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town.

It wasn’t me that started that old crazy Asian war.
But I was proud to go and do my patriotic chore.
And yes, it’s true that I’m not the man I used to be.
Oh, Ruby, I still need some company.

It’s hard to love a man whose legs are bent and paralyzed.
And the wants and the needs of a woman your age, Ruby, I realize.
But it won’t be long I’ve heard them say until I’m not around.
Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town.
She’s leaving now ’cause I just heard the slamming of the door.
The way I know I’ve heard it slam one hundred times before.
And if I could move, I’d get my gun and put her in the ground.
Oh, Ruby, don’t take your love to town.
Oh, Ruby, for God’s sake, turn around.

Songwriter: Mel Tillis
Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town lyrics © Cedarwood Publishing

Dancing with a Stranger-2019
Written by Sam Smith, Normani, Stargate & Jimmy Napes
Performed by Sam Smith & Normani

At this point, you might have been wondering if I was going to include any music from this century. While I grew up and was largely influenced by music of the late 20th century, I do find a jewel now and then in modern music. One of them is Dancing with a Stranger.

The song came about as a result of a collaboration between two artists and three producers.

Tor Hermanson and Mikkel Eriksen are known as the songwriting and production team Stargate. They have written and produced music for Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Katie Perry among others. Their music tends to be urban influenced, synth heavy Europop, but they have all of the tools at their disposal to make music fit almost any artist.

Producer and songwriter Jimmy Napes has often worked with Hermanson and Eriksen and their styles complement one another. He’s been writing for Smith for a decade as well as collaborating with Alicia Keyes and Taylor Swift. The former DJ began writing at 14, eventually writing commercial jingles before meeting Smith.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Normani was developing her high energy, soul infused style in the music heavy New Orleans. So how did these people get together?
According to Smith, the group were all working in the same studio in Los Angeles, Smith with Stargate and Napes while Normani was putting together tracks for her new album. Smith was in a breakup situation and already working on the song. He asked her if she wanted to hear what they had so far, which was basically just keys and vocals. Normani began to talk about how getting over someone, while might require distraction, also created an immense sense of guilt.
Immediately, the producers seized on the idea and began to write music with the appropriate melancholy tone.

The song hits the mark on every level. The music is muted, soft and somber. No one instrument stands out and in fact are purposely subdued. There is a ghost track of vocals that mimics the memory of the love lost. There is heartbreak, sorrow and anger all wrapped up in one. The singer ignores her/his culpability for the dissolution of the relationship, blaming the other party. “Look what you made me do?” they cry. Haven’t we all felt this way at one time or another?

The song clocks in at just over three minutes, but that is all we need to make us cry and make us feel regret for all of the times we have made the wrong choice and ended up alone.

Dancing with a Stranger

I don’t wanna be alone tonight. (alone tonight)
It’s pretty clear that I’m not over you. (over you, over you)
I’m still thinking ’bout the things you do. (things you do)
So I don’t wanna be alone tonight, alone tonight, alone tonight.

Can you light the fire? (light the fire, light the fire)
I need somebody who can take control. (take control)
I know exactly what I need to do.
‘Cause I don’t wanna be alone tonight, alone tonight, alone tonight.

Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Dancing with a stranger.

I wasn’t even goin’ out tonight. (out tonight)
But, boy, I need to get you off of my mind. (off of my mind)
I know exactly what I have to do.
I don’t wanna be alone tonight, alone tonight, alone tonight.

Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Dancing with a stranger.
Dancing with a stranger.
Dancing, yeah, ooh.

Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Look what you made me do. I’m with somebody new.
Ooh, baby, baby, I’m dancing with a stranger.
Dancing with a stranger.

I’m dancing, I’m dancing (ooh)
I’m dancing, I’m dancing (dancing with a stranger)
I’m dancing, I’m dancing (dancing with a stranger)
I’m dancing, I’m dancing (dancing with a stranger)

Songwriters: James John Napier / Mikkel Storleer Eriksen / Normani Kordei Hamilton / Samuel Frederick Smith / Tor Erik Hermansen
Dancing with a Stranger lyrics © Downtown Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Music heals and the first time we discover this is when we are most vulnerable. Usually, that involves heartbreak. I remember breaking up with my first serious girlfriend and suddenly understanding the meaning of all of these love songs that I had sung along to mindlessly, but never really heard. In my work with veterans, we have discovered that telling a story in song often communicates better than just the narrative. Vets who have been trying to relate their experiences on the field of battle for years without success find that when people hear that same story in song, they are able to understand and relate to those experiences.

Does Your Mama Know About Me?-1968
Tom Baird & Tommy Chong. Recorded by Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.

We take for granted the freedom we have to socialize with anyone in today’s America. You can see examples of our progress everywhere. There isn’t a television commercial that doesn’t feature an interracial or gender-neutral family. Romantic relationships on the large and small screen are no longer limited to the opposite sex or same cultural makeup. Careers choices are no longer limited by gender, ethnicity or economic status.

America in 1968 was a far different space. While not overtly racially divided, we were still suffering from old prejudices despite the passing of the civil rights act in 1964. Many people did not want to let go of the authority that they had had for so many years, not just in the deep south, but everywhere. Corporate America was not ready for the many upwardly mobile people of color that for the first time in generations saw the opportunities that were now available to them. There were few interracial couples on the big screen and none on television.

On the flip side of the coin, energized by the civil rights movement, many began to demand respect for themselves, their neighbors, their whole communities. Kids who had for so long been told that they shouldn’t (or weren’t allowed to) socialize with other children began to discover that we’re all really pretty much the same. Many of the myths about the races began to crumble.

Young people began to socialize outside of their urban and suburban circles, sometimes to the chagrin of their parents. All of this was finding its way into our music, especially at Motown Records. After becoming successful with homegrown acts like the Temptations, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Mary Wells, The Supremes, The Four Tops, and many more, Berry Gordy decided to expand his empire by signing mixed and non-African American groups to Gordy, a subsidiary the Motown label.

Early on, African American musicians had been signed to White owned labels, sometimes with disastrous consequences for the artist. Often, they were cheated out of their royalties or ownership of their music. Black owned labels rarely signed White artists. Barry Gordy was the first to cross the color barrier going the other direction. Among the groups signed to Motown or one of its subsidiaries were the Rock/R&B band Rare Earth (Gordy actually named the label after the band) led by drummer and lead vocalist Peter Hoolrelbeke a/k/a Pete Rivera, Native American rock band Xit led by Tom Bee who would go on to become a staff writer for Motown and the Canadian group, Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers.

Written by Tom Baird and Tommy Chong, (Yes. That Tommy Chong) the song askes the question, “Does your mama know about me? Does she know just who I am?” Chong described growing up in Calgary, Alberta Canada as being “more like Mississippi than California.” His experiences there shaped him, and he became part of an interracial group, the Calgary Shades. No subtext there.

At one point, Chong was actually hauled into a meeting with the mayor and the chief of police and told “all of Calgary thinks it would be a good idea if you and your band left town.” The band left for Vancouver. As a theater house band, they opened for big-name acts like Ike and Tina Turner. Chong’s old friend, Bobby Taylor, joined the group, took over lead vocals and the band changed their name to Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers. Shortly after, The Supremes were in town, heard the band and told Berry Gordy about them. The band was signed to the Gordy label on the strength of Does Your Mama Know About Me.

The song, played in waltz time, is a plaintive question about how much the parents know about who this girl is dating. It refers to Chong’s courtship of his first wife, Maxine, who was Black. During that time, there was as much resistance from Black parents, friends and relatives as there was from Whites. The singer wants to know if he will be accepted or if he is going to be rejected by her family. He goes on to ask the same question about her father and her friends and if she is willing to accept the problems that will most certainly arise from their relationship.

Oddly enough, in 1968 the lyrics were not clear to many people. Why was he even asking the question? How many times was that question asked during the 60s and 70s? In fact, the question is still asked today for not so different reasons.

Does Your Mama Know About Me found its way onto the Vancouvers’ self-titled album and the band was part of the Motown tour in 1968 opening for Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and other Motown acts. The song reached #29 on the Billboard charts in 1968. It went on to be recorded by The Supremes and put on their album Love Child, but it was never released as a single and one has to wonder why such an important song was not released by one of the music industry’s most progressive labels by one of Motown’s hottest groups at the time. The song was also later recorded by Jermaine Jackson.

During a Cheech and Chong performance fifty years later, I heard this song for the first time and wondered why I had never heard it before. Perhaps it was believed that both Black and White owned radio stations wouldn’t play the song. Such a shame because it is timeless and meaningful especially today.

Does Your Mama Know About Me?

Does your mama know about me?
Does your mama know about me?
Does she know just what I am?
Will she turn her back on me
or accept me as a man?

And what about your Dad?
Did you think of what he’ll say?
Will he be understanding
or does he think the usual way?

Maybe I shouldn’t worry
but I’ve been through this before
and I’d like to get things straight
before I’m knocking on your door.

Does your mama know about me?
Does she know just what I am?
If she says forget about me
do you think you’d understand?

And what about your friends?
Do you care what people say?
Will you accept the burdens
I know will surely come your way?

Maybe I shouldn’t worry
but I’ve been through this before
and I’d like to get things straight
before I’m knocking on your door.

Does your mama know about me?
Does she know just what I am?
Will she turn her back on me?
Or accept me as a man?

We’ve got to stand tall.
Can’t stumble or crawl.
We’ve got to be strong.
For love that’s so right
can’t be wrong.

And every day I see it grow.
And I don’t want to let it go.
I guess that’s why I gotta know…

Does your mama know about me?
Does your mama know about me?
Does your mama know about me?
Does your mama know about me?
Does your mama know about me?

Songwriters: Thomas Chong / Tom Baird
Does Your Mama Know About Me lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

He’s Alive-1977
Written and performed by Don Francisco

Don Francisco has been a Christian songwriter and performer for nearly his entire career. The son of a Christian seminary professor, he grew up in the church, but like many gospel artists, walked away from his Christian roots. The God he grew up with, was in his opinion, a vengeful God.

Francisco began his career smack in the middle of the singer/songwriter movement that spawned such iconic artists as Jackson Browne, James Taylor, The Eagles, Joni Mitchell, Neil Diamond, Don McClean, Carol King and so many more. (Carol King had been writing from the Brill Building in NY since the early 60s but broke out as a performer in 1971.)

Like these artists, he began as a folk singer and eased into rock and roll, southern rock to be specific, touring through the deep south. He was far away from his Christian roots, practicing eastern meditation, but in 1974, he had what he calls a supernatural experience. He said that God spoke to him and asked him why he was running away from Him. Francisco took stock of his life and began a journey into Christian music. Two years later, he released his first album. Again, he was in the middle of a new music movement. Contemporary Christan music was pushing traditional praise and worship music out of the mainstream. Since then, he has been a favorite in the industry.

He’s Alive was written during that time when Don Francisco was new to Christianity and released in 1977 as part of his second album, Forgiven. It did not become an instant hit, partly because it was not considered a praise song. Three years later, Don Francisco was named songwriter of the year at the Dove Awards and He’s Alive was awarded Song of the Year.

What made the song difficult for many at the time was its first person narrative. Inserting oneself into the bible story was considered prideful in Christian music then, but it also is what makes the song.

The singer is the apostle of Jesus, Simon Peter, talking about the days after the crucifixion when Jesus’ friends and apostles all abandoned him and went into hiding for fer of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish political leaders that had so efficiently destroyed Jesus’ ministry by having him crucified.

The song starts out slowly, just guitar and vocals with Peter describing his fear, expecting at any moment to be dragged away by Roman soldiers. Mary arrives to tell Peter and John that the body of Jesus has been stolen. They all run to the tomb and find that things are just as Mary said. John remembers the prophecy and believes that Christ is risen, but Peter is still afraid, still guilty and ashamed of his behavior.
Meanwhile, the music sneaks up on you, building and building until it reaches a joyous crescendo as we hit the chorus “He’s Alive!” It’s at this point that we realize that this indeed is, a praise song. Don Francisco’s personal encounter with a loving and forgiving God rather than the demanding, controlling God he grew up learning about changed his life forever. He remains one of the most popular Christian artists to this day.

The song was recorded in 1989 by Dolly Parton with a much larger production and just barely cleared the top 40 on the U.S. Country charts, but it remains one of her favorite songs to sing in concert and a favorite of her fans. By contrast, Don Francisco’s version was the #1 song when Contemporary Christian Music published their first CCM chart in 1977. The song continues to hold the record for the longest-running chart single in the history of Christian radio.

He’s Alive

The gates and doors were barred, and all the windows fastened down.
I spent the night in sleeplessness and rose at every sound.
Half in hopeless sorrow and half in fear the day
would find the soldiers breakin’ through to drag us all away.

And just before the sunrise I heard something at the wall.
The gate began to rattle, and a voice began to call.
I hurried to the window. Looked down into the street
expecting swords and torches and the sound of soldiers’ feet.

But there was no one there but Mary so I went down to let her in.
John stood there beside me as she told me where she’d been.
She said “They’ve moved him in the night and none of us knows where.
The stone’s been rolled away and now his body isn’t there.”

So, we both ran towards the garden. Then John ran on ahead.
We found the stone and empty tomb just the way that Mary said.
But the winding sheet they wrapped him in was just an empty shell.
And how or where they’d taken him was more than I could tell.

Oh, something strange had happened there. Just what I did not know.
John believed a miracle but I just turned to go.
Circumstance and speculation couldn’t lift me very high,
‘cause I’d seen them crucify him. Then I saw him die.

Back inside the house again the guilt and anguish came.
Everything I’d promised him just added to my shame.
When at last it came to choices, I denied I knew his name.
And even if he was alive, it wouldn’t be the same.

But suddenly the air was filled with a strange and sweet perfume.
Light that came from everywhere drove shadows from the room.
And Jesus stood before me with his arms held open wide.
And I fell down on my knees, and I just clung to him and cried.

Then he raised me to my feet and as I looked into his eyes
the love was shining out from him like sunlight from the skies.
Guilt in my confusion disappeared in sweet release.
And every fear I’d ever had just melted into peace.

He’s alive, yes he’s alive
Yes, he’s alive and I’m forgiven. Heaven’s gates are open wide.
He’s alive (he’s alive), yes he’s alive (he’s alive)
Oh, he’s alive and I’m forgiven. Heaven’s gates are open wide.

He’s alive, he’s alive
Hallelujah, he’s alive
He’s alive and I’m forgiven. Heaven’s gates are open wide.

He’s alive (he’s alive), he’s alive (he’s alive)
He’s alive. I believe it, he’s alive
Sweet Jesus

Songwriter: Don Richard Francisco
He’s Alive lyrics © New Spring Publishing Inc.

Scotch and Soda-1958
Author unknown. Performed by Dave Guard of the Kingston Trio

The Kingson Trio was one of the most successful folk groups in American music. Although they have gone through various incarnations over the years, breaking up, getting back together, some members moving on while picking up new members, the group’s music has largely remained the same. The original lineup featured Dave Guard, Bob Shane and Nick Reynolds.

The band was at the height of their success just after their self-titled first album in 1958, winning the very first Grammy award for country music for the song Tom Dooly since no folk category existed. The following year, the Grammy’s added a folk category and the Kingstons won for their second album.

Scotch and Soda appeared on their first album and didn’t get much airplay except on a few college stations and some jazz radio, as the song is decidedly jazz. The trio came upon the song in a unique way. The parents of Major League Baseball pitcher, Tom Seaver who played for several teams from 1967 to 1986 first heard it in a hotel piano lounge in 1932 while on their honeymoon in Phoenix, Arizona. They considered it “their song” and asked the piano player to write it down. Indeed, Seaver may have been conceived during the song.

Dave Guard was dating Seaver’s older sister Katie at that time, heard the song and loved it. Guard tried to find the original author before copyrighting the song under his name in 1959. This was a practice of many folk artists at the time who heard traditional folk songs during their travels. Guard continued to search for the author for the rest of his life. To this day, the original songwriter remains unknown.

The song is simplicity itself. Simple guitar, upright bass and vocals and begins with a four-chord progression before the singer begins to tell his lover the intoxicating effect she has on him. “Oh me. Oh my. Do I feel high.” The song clocks in at 2:33 and never wanders. It stays right on an even keel and sends a message directly, gently and perfectly. The song ends as smoothly as it began. The only simpler way to send the same message is to say “I love you.”

One of the reasons that the song did not receive much airplay is because of the use of the term “high.” At the time, you could not make any reference to being high or stoned or drunk because it was felt that it could unduly influence America’s youthful population who were buying the majority of records at the time. The Kingstons would again suffer the pains of censorship a few years later when they had the audacity to put the word “damn” into the song Greenback Dollar.

Scotch and Soda has been recorded hundreds of times by such diverse artists as Frank Sinatra, The Manhattan Transfer, Charlie Barnett, Lou Rawls, Willie Nelson, Tony Bennett and many more.

Scotch and Soda

Scotch and soda, mud in your eye, baby, do I feel high.
Oh me, oh my. Do I feel high.

Dry martini. Jigger of gin. Oh, what a spell you’ve got me in.
Oh my. Do I feel high.

People won’t believe me.
They’ll think that I’m just braggin’.
But I could feel the way I do,
and still be on the wagon.

All I need is one of your smiles, sunshine of your eye.
Oh me, oh my. Do I feel higher than a kite can fly!
Give me lovin’, baby, I feel high.

People won’t believe me.
They’ll think that I’m just braggin’.
But I could feel the way I do,
and still be on the wagon.

All I need is one of your smiles, sunshine of your eye.
Oh me, oh my. Do I feel higher than a kite can fly!
Give me lovin’, baby, I feel high.

Songwriters: Unknown
Scotch And Soda lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Operator (That’s Not the Way it Feels)- 1972
Written and performed by Jim Croce

Not his biggest hit, but certainly one of his most memorable songs. Jim Croce based this song on his experiences in the National Guard, watching his fellow soldiers getting “Dear John” phone calls during their allotted daily three-minute calls home from the base. One minute, they were happy and anxious to be calling home, the next, they would be in tears because their girlfriend had dumped them.

National Guard duty in the 60s required a man to be enlisted in the guard for at least 3 years and you could be called to active duty at any time. In most cases, that meant deployment to Vietnam. But if you were lucky, you might be deployed stateside for the remainder of your duty. National Guard soldiers went through basic training for six weeks. Not a long time to wait. Still, we are talking about young men and women and youth is impatient. For some girls, six weeks was an eternity.

After being kicked to the curb, many young men transferred from the guard to the U.S. Army and were swiftly sent to Vietnam.

A beautiful if sad story. The guy on the line is trying to reach his ex-girlfriend who has left him for his ex-best friend to tell her he’s over her. Croce’s melancholic voice is perfect for the song and plays well with the complex and melodic guitar work of Maury Mueleisen, who perished in the same plane crash that also claimed the lives of Croce, pilot Robert N. Elliott, comedian George Stevens, Croce’s manager and booking agent Kenneth D. Cortese, and road manager Dennis Rast.

The song is a bit unusual in that the chorus is three times as long as each verse and it clocks in at 3:50. Croce was known for his brevity, taking just enough time to tell a story and nothing more. In fact, most of his songs rarely went past the 3:30 mark and many of them are under 3:00.

Back in the day, to make a long-distance call from a pay phone, you had to ask for operator assistance in what was then referred to as a person-to-person call. The operator had to announce you and if the person on the other end accepted the call, you had to pump money into the phone’s coin slot at the rate of fifty cents for every three minutes. Given enough information, the operator might actually be able to find the person you were looking for without a number.

The crux of this story is Croce is just lonely and wants somebody to talk to. He is far from home and he begins to tell the operator his sad story of love, betrayal and regret. His heart is breaking, and he has no one to talk to except this anonymous voice on the other end of the phone. At the conclusion of the song, he decides not to place the call, thanks the operator for her kindness and tells her that she can keep the dime for her trouble. Well written and well told. It makes me cry every time.

Operator (That’s Not the Way it Feels)

Operator, oh, could you help me place this call?
See the number on the matchbook is old and faded.
She’s living in L.A.
With my best old ex-friend, Ray.
Guy, she said she knew well, and sometimes hated.

But isn’t that the way they say it goes?
Well, let’s forget all that,
and give me the number if you can find it
so, I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine
and to show I’ve overcome the blow.

I’ve learned to take it well.
I only wish my words could just convince myself
that it just wasn’t real.
But that’s not the way it feels.

Operator, oh, could you help me place this call?
‘Cause I can’t read the number that you just gave me.
There’s something in my eyes.
You know it happens every time.
I think about a love that I thought would save me.

But isn’t that the way they say it goes?
Well, let’s forget all that,
and give me the number if you can find it
so, I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine
and to show I’ve overcome the blow.

I’ve learned to take it well.
I only wish my words could just convince myself
that it just wasn’t real.
But that’s not the way it feels. No, no, no, no
That’s not the way it feels.

Operator, oh, let’s forget about this call.
There’s no one there I really wanted to talk to.
Thank you for your time.
Ah, you’ve been so much more than kind.
You can keep the dime.

But isn’t that the way they say it goes?
Well, let’s forget all that,
and give me the number if you can find it
so, I can call just to tell ’em I’m fine
and to show I’ve overcome the blow.

I’ve learned to take it well.
I only wish my words could just convince myself
that it just wasn’t real.
But that’s not the way it feels.

Songwriters: James J. Croce
Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels) lyrics © H&R Lastrada Music, R2m Publishing, Wingate-music Corp.

I’ve Been Everywhere-1962
Written by Geoff Mack and recorded by Hank Snow

This song is marvelous and initially was categorized as a novelty song. At first glance, there’s not much to it. It’s just a guy naming the places he’s been to and, well, he’s been everywhere.

Written and recorded by Australian songwriter and country singer Geoff Mack in 1959, the song went almost nowhere. (Pun intended.) Originally, the song named towns and provinces in mostly eastern Australia. Places with names like Tullamore, Mooloolaba, Murwillumbah, Muckadilla, Boggabilla, Turramurra, Woodenbong, Indooroopilly and Wollondilly. The song was recorded in 1962 by another Australian country singer who went by the moniker of Lucky Starr and the song reached number one on the Sydney music charts in 1962. Since then, it has traveled almost as much as the singer.

Soon after it became a hit down under, different versions showed up in New Zealand, Great Britan, and Ireland, but it was the version by Canadian born Hank Snow that was the biggest hit by far. Snow adapted it to the Americas, naming towns and cities in Canada, the United States and on down to South America.

You might think that rhyming a bunch of names would be simple and, quite frankly, boring, but I’ve Been Everywhere is one of the most entertaining songs ever written. The song starts out slowly as the singer describes hitching a ride with a long-haul trucker, but then picks up where the cadence is steady and rhythmic. The words come rapid fire. The song changes keys for times, stepping up a whole step each time, a common practice in early country music. In later cover versions of the song and when Hank Snow performed it live, the tempo speeds up the closer you get to the end of the song. In some versions, the band drops out and the singer moves through the names like an auctioneer.

The song was recorded by Johnny Cash, Asleep at the Wheel, Lynn Anderson, The Statler Brothers and many more over the years. Live, it is always a crowd pleaser.

I’ve Been Everywhere-American Version

I was toting my pack along the long dusty Winnamucka road
when along came a semi with a high canvas covered load.
If you’re going to Winnamucka, Mack with me you can ride.
So I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand.
And I said, “Listen, bud! I’ve travelled every road in this here land.”

I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breath the mountain air, man.
Travel – I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been everywhere.

Been in Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota, Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota
Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma, Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma
Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo, Tocopilla, Barranquilla and Padilla
I’m a killer.

I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breath the mountain air, man.
Travel – I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been everywhere.

Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana, Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana
Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa, Glen Rock, Black Rock, Oskaloosa
Tennessee, Hennessey, Chicopee, Spirit Lake, Grand Lake, Devil’s Lake, Crater Lake, for Pete’s sake

I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breath the mountain air, man.
Travel – I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been everywhere.

Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika, Shefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica
Pittsfiels, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport, Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport
Idaho, Jellicoe, Argentina, Damontina, Pasadena, Catalina, see what I mean.

I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breath the mountain air, man.
Travel – I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been everywhere.

Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravellburg, Colorado
Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, Eldorado
Larrimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chattanika
Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika
Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City
Souix City, Cedar City, Dodge City, what a pity
I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
Crossed the deserts bare, man. I’ve breath the mountain air, man.
Travel – I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been everywhere.

I’ve Been Everywhere-Aussie Version

Well, I was humpin’ my bluey on the dusty Oodnadatta road
when along came a semi with a high and canvas-covered load.
“If you’re goin’ to Oodnadatta, mate, um, with me you can ride.”
So I climbed in the cabin and I settled down inside
He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand,
I said “Listen, mate, I’ve travelled ev’ry road in this here land.”

Cos “I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
‘Cross the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been ev’rywhere.

I’ve been to Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba.
Nambour, Maroochydore, Kilmore, Murwillumbah.
Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla.
Condamine, Strathpine. Proserpine, Ulladulla.
Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla.
Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla.
I’m a killer.

“I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
‘Cross the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been ev’rywhere.

I’ve been to Moree, Taree, Jerilderie, Bambaroo.
Toowoomba, Gunnedah, Caringbah, Woolloomooloo.
Dalveen, Tamborine, Engadine, Jindabyne.
Lithgow, Casino, Brigalow and Narromine.
Megalong, Wyong, Tuggerawong, Wangarella
Morella, Augathella, Brindabella, I’m the fella.

“I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
‘Cross the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been ev’rywhere.

I’ve been to Wollongong,Geelong, Kurrajong, Mullumbimby.
Mittagong, Molong, Grong Grong, Goondiwindi.
Yarra Yarra , Bouindarra, Wallangarra, Turramurra.
Boggabri, Gundagai, Narrabri, Tibooburra.
Gulgong, Adelong, Billabong, Cabramatta.
Parramatta, Wangaratta, Coolangatta, what’s it matter?

“I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
‘Cross the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been ev’rywhere.

I’ve been to Ettalong, Dandenong, Woodenbong, Ballarat.
Canberra, Milperra, Unanderra, Captains Flat.
Cloncurry, River Murray, Kurri Kurri, Girraween
Terrigal, Fingal, Stockinbingal, Collaroy and Narrabeen
Bendigo, Dorrigo, Bangalow, Indooroopilly
Kirribilli, Yeerongpilly, Wollondilly, don’t be silly.

“I’ve been everywhere, man. I’ve been everywhere, man.
‘Cross the deserts bare, man. I’ve breathed the mountain air, man.
Of travel I’ve had my share, man. I’ve been ev’rywhere.

I’ve been here, there, ev’rywhere.
I’ve been ev’rywhere.

(Driver)“Okay, mate, you’ve been
ev’ry place except one, and ya
don’t need my help t’get there.”

Songwriters: Albert Geoffrey Mcelhinney (Geoff Mack)
I’ve Been Everywhere lyrics © Belinda Music (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)-1970
Written and performed by Melanie featuring the Edwin Hawkins Singers

Melanie was born and raised in Astoria Queens, NY and simply by age and location, was placed in the middle of the folk music explosion of the mid 60s centered in Greenwich Village. It was a place where new and exciting talent like Bob Dylan, Peter, Paul and Mary, Phil Ochs and Tom Paxton not only found their voices and rhythm, but also were elevated to stardom. They played places like the Café Wha?, Gerde’s Folk City, The Village Vanguard, Café’ Au Go Go and many more.

Melanie also made the rounds of the coffeehouses, playing covers of traditional folk songs and sharing her music. She signed a contract with Columbia and recorded a couple of singles, moved to Budda Records and recorded an album which did okay in Europe, where she toured, but nothing that you might call success. And then it happened.

Then, in 1969, The Woodstock Music and Art Fair kicked off in Bethel, NY. Melanie had heard about the festival being planned for the following year while she was performing in France and decided to attend. Her mother drove them toward Woodstock but only made it as far as Bethel, NY before the massive traffic jam stopped them. As they checked into a hotel, someone recognized her and rushed her to a waiting helicopter. She arrived during the first set of the day, flying over a sea of writhing bodies that she mistook for a field of flowers. “Those are people,” the pilot informed her.

The three-day event was plagued by, among other things, a massive rainstorm that soaked the grounds on the first day. The group, The Incredible String Band, refused to perform in the rain and suddenly someone backstage said to Melanie, “You’re next.”

As she walked onto the stage, candles were being lit from the back of the field, the glow gradually making its way to the front of the stage despite the rain. She performed a 20-minute set about 11:30 PM, sandwiched between Tim Hardin and Arlo Guthrie under her given name, Melanie Safka. Her set included Dylan’s Mr. Tambourine man and a few of her own songs. The experience of singing to a crowd of over 500,000 people all sitting in the rain and illuminating the field with candles inspired her to write her first hit, Lay Down (Candles in the Rain.)

I only discovered this after she passed away in early 2024 and had to listen to the song again. Now, it all made sense.

The tune is simple, but majestic. There is a single beat, a snare hit, and then the chorus smacks you in the chest. Melanie’s voice soars above the gospel chorus of the Edwin Hawkins Singers and sets the tone for the entire song. With her first verse she sets the scene as she saw it from the stage that Friday night in August of 1969. A crowd of people all jammed together, sitting in the mud and desperately trying to chase away the darkness a single candle at a time. Five hundred thousand souls. One people. One mindset.

The song has more choruses than verses and is only about three and a half minutes long, but Melanie makes the most of it. Direct, simple, powerful and memorable.

Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)

Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.

We were so close, there was no room.
We bled inside each other’s wounds.
We all had caught the same disease.
And we all sang the songs of peace.

Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.

So, raise the candles high,
’cause if you don’t we could stay black against the night.
Oh, raise them higher again.
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain.

Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.

We were so close, there was no room.
We bled inside each other’s wounds.
We all had caught the same disease.
And we all sang the songs of peace.

Some came to sing. Some came to pray.
Some came to keep the dark away.

So, raise the candles high (Up high)
’cause if you don’t, we could stay black against the sky.
Oh, oh, raise (Raise) them higher again. (Up high)
And if you do we could stay dry against the rain.

Lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
You’ve got to lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
Oh, you’ve got to lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.
Oh, you’ve got to lay down, lay down, lay it all down.
Let your white birds smile up at the ones who stand and frown.

Songwriter: Melanie Safka
Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) lyrics Copyright Bienstock Publishing Company
and Quartet Music Inc.

Living in America-Written by Dan Harman and Charlie Midnight
Performed by James Brown

With the passing of bassist TM Stevens, I began to go over some of the work he had done. TM was a very much in demand bassist, working with such diverse acts as Miles Davis, Billy Joel, Prince and Al DiMiola. His inspiration was Bootsy Collins who was bassist for James Brown. Years later, TM would also find himself in James Brown’s band laying down a funky bassline for Brown’s comeback tune and one of his best, Living in America.

The song was co-written by Dan Hartman (1950-1994) and Charlie Midnight. Hartman had written mostly rock hits including Free Ride for The Edgar Winter Group and his own top 100 hit I Can Dream About You for the film Streets of Fire. Charlie Midnight is best known as a producer for Joni Mitchell, Cher, Britney Spears, The Doobie Brothers, Joe Cocker and Barbara Streisand. Hartman and Midnight formed a partnership in the early 80s, writing, co-producing and winning Grammy awards, one of which was for Living in America. It turned out to be their biggest hit and James Brown’s first top 10 Hot 100 hit since 1968.

The song became an American anthem when it was added to the soundtrack of Rocky IV. In the film, James Brown performs the song in the boxing ring as boxer Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) enters the ring to take on Russian challenger Ivan Drago (Dolph Lundgren.) Creed is killed in the ring setting up the showdown between Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and Drago. Years later, the song would find its way into the charts again after the tragic events of 9/11.

Anytime this song shows up on my feed or on the radio, I have to turn it up and sing along. It is the only way to listen to it with its attendant shouts that punctuate the chorus. What drives the song is TM’s bass, simple but hard driving 4/4 time and the guitar fanned by Dan Hartman. The rest of the band, Dan Hartman on keyboards, Stevie Ray Vaughn on lead guitar, drummer Ray Marchica and The Uptown Horns; Arno Hecht, Bob Funk, Crispin Cioe, “Hollywood” Paul Litteral give the band a much bigger sound than the sum of its parts. The horns hit hard from the get-go and everybody shines at some point during the song with all of the players doubling on backing vocals on the chorus and during the call and response. James Brown is on fire. You can almost see the sweat pouring off of him.

The song is simple. It’s a list of things that make this country America; “Superhighways, smokestack, fatback, many miles of railroad track. All night radio, runnin’ through your rock ‘n’ roll soul. All night diners keep you awake on black coffee and a hard roll. You might have to walk a fine line, take the hard line but everybody’s workin’ overtime.” Brown also mentions some of the great cities across the nation and when touring would always include the name of the city where he was performing to the delight of all in attendance. There are several versions of the song, the shortest being the soundtrack performance and the best being the unedited dance version that clocks in at 6:32.

In a curious callout, Brown shouts “Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out.” It’s a reference to a bit from Murphy’s Delirious comedy concert film about James Brown’s incoherent patterns of speech. Brown’s comments were thought to be a dig at the fact that he was in a major motion picture while Murphy was still trying to break into film.

Living in America

Yeah, uh. Get up, ow. Ow. Knock it out this. Woo!
Superhighways, coast to coast.
Easy to get anywhere.
On the transcontinental overload
just slide behind the wheel.
How does it feel
when there’s no destination that’s too far?
And somewhere on the way you might find out who you are, woo.

Living in America. (ow)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America.
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America.
Got to have a celebration.

Rock my soul, huh, ow, huh.

Smokestack, fatback.
Many miles of railroad track.
All night radio, keep on runnin’
through your rock ‘n’ roll soul.
All night diners keep you awake
on black coffee and a hard roll, woo.
You might have to walk a fine line. (say it)
You might take the hard line.
But everybody’s workin’ overtime.

Living in America. (huh)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America.
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America.
Yeah, got to have a celebration, woo.

I (I) live in America.
Say it loud.
I live in America.
Wait a minute.

You may not be lookin’ for the promised land
but you might find it anyway
under one of those old familiar names.
Like New Orleans (New Orleans), Detroit City (Detroit City)
Dallas, uh (Dallas), Pittsburgh, PA, (Pittsburgh, PA)
New York City (New York City), Kansas City (Kansas City)
Atlanta, woo (Atlanta), Chicago and L.A.

Living in America.
Hit me.
Living in America, yeah
I walked in and out.
Living in America.

I live in America.
Right here. Dig my mess.
I live in America.
Say it loud, It’ll make you proud, uh.
Said, I live in America.
Hey, I know what it means, ah.

Living in America.
Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out.
To the bridge, ay
Living in America.
Hit me
I said now, eye to eye.
Station to station
Living in America.
Oh, so nice with your bad self (uh)
Living in America.
Whoa, I feel good

Songwriters: Charlie Midnight / Dan Hartman
Living in America lyrics © Reservoir Media Management, Inc, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)
Written by Pete Seegar and recorded by the Byrds

Written in 1959 by folk icon Pete Seeger, the song is based on the first eight verses of chapter 3 of the Book of Ecclesiastes. (KJV)

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven; A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

Ecclesiastes is the fifth book of Wisdom; the twenty-first book of the Old Testament; the twenty-first book of the Bible. It is believed that Ecclesiastes was written by a Hebrew named K’hulath but his name translates as Ecclesiastes in Greek, which means teacher. The poem was both self-reflection and advice to the Jewish people. The summary message is that God is the only source of true meaning, and the true purpose for our lives. In Jewish tradition, Ecclesiastes was read on the day of Pentecost.

When Seeger wrote the song, the US and Russia were smack in the middle of an arms race to see who could build the biggest bomb. It was a time of bomb shelters, air raid sirens and duck and cover drills in our schools. There was a very real possibility that humanity would soon wipe itself off the face of the earth. Seeger wrote the song in protest.

Of course, Seeger was an old hand at protest songs. Influenced by his father and mother and his uncle Alan, a famous war poet killed during the first world war, Seeger joined the Young communist League at 17 and enrolled in Harvard hoping to become a journalist, but the lure of politics was too much. He gravitated to revolutionaries and the unions, both considered socialist, and he began to write music about the injustices he saw. At 22 joined the Almanac Singers which had as members Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston and Lee Hayes. The group recorded Songs for John Doe and were promptly labeled subversive by Time Magazine.

Seeger continued to write protest music all through the 40s and 50s. He was called to testify before the House Unamerican Committee but continued to support civil and labor rights, racial equality, and anti-militarism. By 1959 when he wrote Turn! Turn! Turn!, he was a de facto political leader.

The song toured with him and was finally recorded in 1962 by the Limeliters and later that year by Seeger and in 1963 by Judy Collins but it wasn’t until 1965 when the electric folk group, The Byrds recorded it that the song reached new heights. With Roger McGuinn’s electric 12 string intro hook, pleasant harmonies and up-tempo melody, the song shot to number one. It’s rumored that it took the band 78 takes to get the song just right. It is by far their most successful single and has been covered by everyone from Dolly Parton to Nina Simone.

The melody and lyrics are simple and vary little from the original text and its message is as instructive and important as it was when it was written 3000 years ago.

Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There is a Season)

To everything turn, turn, turn.
There is a season turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.
A time to be born, a time to die.
A time to plant, a time to reap.
A time to kill, a time to heal.
A time to laugh, a time to weep.

To everything turn, turn, turn.
There is a season turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.
A time to buid up, a time to break down.
A time to dance, a time to mourn.
A time to cast away stones.
A time to gather stones together.

To everything turn, turn, turn.
There is a season turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.
A time of love, a time of hate.
A time of war, a time of peace.
A time you may embrace.
A time to refrain from embracing.

To everything turn, turn, turn.
There is a season turn, turn, turn.
And a time to every purpose under Heaven.
A time to gain, a time to lose.
A time to rain, a time of sow.
A time for love, a time for hate.
A time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.

Songwriters: Peter Seeger
Turn! Turn! Turn! lyrics © Melody Trails Inc. C/o The Richmond Organization, Melody Trails Inc.

Tomorrow
Written by Carvin Winans and Debra Kerr Winans
Recorded by the Winans

This call to faith is simple and direct and one that most Christians can relate to.

Four brothers from the Winans family in Detroit, Michael, Ronald and twin brothers Marvin and Carvin, were the older of 10 siblings including oldest brother David Jr., brother and sister BeBe and CeCe, Daniel, Angelique and Debbie, all who sang in gospel choirs in their youth.

The four brothers decided to form a professional gospel group and were initially known as the Testimonial Singers. Singing mostly traditional Gospel, they were introduced to contemporary gospel artist Andre Crouch who signed them to his record label. Crouch produced their first three albums including Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow which included the single Tomorrow,
written by Carvin Winans and his wife Debora Kerr Winans.

The song was the group’s first big crossover hit, getting tons of airplay on R&B stations and won a Grammy for Best Soul Gospel Performance by a Duo or Group in 1986 two years after its initial release. Following the Grammy win, the Winans were offered the opportunity to sign with Quincy Jones. Under his guidance, they went on to win two more Grammys in 1987 and 1988.

The brothers continued to record, now in the stratosphere with guest artists appearing on their albums including Stevie Wonder, Lala Hathaway, Kenny G, and Kenny Loggins, but their run on R&B radio was coming to an end. The group went back to their gospel roots and eventually moved onto solo projects. With the death of the second eldest brother, Ronald, the group’s run came to an end.

The song itself is based somewhat on Revelation 3:20, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him and he with me.

In the song, Jesus is asking to be let into our lives, but we put Him off again and again. This is something that most Christians have experienced in their lives. As young men and women, we tell God to wait while we live our lives, sow our oats, raise our families, and build our careers and then one day we wake up and tomorrow is here.

The song is imperfect in many respects. It doesn’t always rhyme where it should and it is repetitive, but these are minor problems. Like a good altar call, the message is repeated again and again impressing upon the listener the urgency for making the decision for Christ today, in this moment. It is classic gospel and very persuasive and has the added strength of having the feel and sound of a great R&B ballad. I dare anyone to hear this song and not think twice about their relationship with God.

Tomorrow

Jesus said here I stand.
Won’t you please let me in.
And you said I will….. tomorrow.
Jesus said I am He
who supplies all your needs
and you said I know but tomorrow.

Ooh, tomorrow.
I’ll give my life tomorrow.
I thought about today.
But it’s so much easier to say
Tomorrow. Who promised you tomorrow?
Better choose the Lord today.
For tomorrow very well might be today.

Jesus said here I stand.
Won’t you please take my hand.
And you said I will….. tomorrow.
Jesus said I am He
who supplies all your needs
and you said I know but tomorrow.

Ooh, tomorrow.
I’ll give my life tomorrow.
I thought about today.
But it’s so much easier to say
Tomorrow. Who promised you tomorrow?
Better choose the Lord today.
For tomorrow very well might be today.

And who said that tomorrow would ever come for you?
Still you laugh and play and continue on to say…

Tomorrow. Forget about tomorrow.
Won’t you give your life today. Oh please,
don’t just turn and walk away.
Tomorrow. Tomorrow is not promised.
Don’t let this moment slip away. Ooh
Your tomorrow could very well be here today.

Tomorrow lyrics © BMG Rights Management Limited

Waters of March-1972
Written by Antonio Carlos Jobim
Recorded by Sergio Mendez and Brazil 77

God bless the late Stan Getz (1927-1991) for introducing American audiences to the Bossa Nova. Getz, a tenor sax player from Philly had a long an illustrious career, making his bones playing with all of the giants of the swing era including Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He moved on to work with other innovators like Dizzy Gilespie and leading his own bands. He could have gone on working with other legends of jazz, but in 1962 he fell in love with the Bossa Nova, recording several successful albums.
In 1964, he teamed up with Antonio Carlos Jobim (1927-1994) and Joao and Astrud Gilberto for the album that would bring us The Girl from Ipanema, a song that would become a worldwide hit and earn a Grammy for Best Single and the album taking home Best Album honors that year.
After that the floodgates were opened and we saw all styles of American music being infused with a little more rhythm and a little more Brazilian flavor. One of the best songs to come out of that influential time was a Jobim composition entitled Waters of March. Jobim wrote both the Portuguese and English lyrics that at first might seem rambling but is really a brilliant metaphor for life. Inspired by the rainy season in Brazil and the bits of flotsam that go floating by, the listener begins to see how all things are tied together. It was also voted by the Brazilian edition of Rolling Stone as the second greatest Brazilian song.

The song is also brilliantly arranged with the music slowly trickling downward like water streaming downhill, mimicking our lives that begin to slow as we age. We learn that everything is important, everything matters no matter how small.

First recorded in 1972, the song has been recorded by nearly every major jazz artist and vocalist including Art Garfunkle, Sergio Mendez, Al Jarreau, Rosemary Clooney, Cassandra Wilson,
Oscar Castro-Neves, Bono and many more.

Waters of March

A stick, a stone
It’s the end of the road
It’s the rest of a stump
It’s a little alone

It’s a sliver of glass
It is life, it’s the sun
It is night, it is death
It’s a trap, it’s a gun

The oak when it blooms
A fox in the brush
A knot in the wood
The song of a thrush

The wood of the wind
A cliff, a fall
A scratch, a lump
It is nothing at all

It’s the wind blowing free
It’s the end of the slope
It’s a beam, it’s a void
It’s a hunch, it’s a hope

And the river bank talks
Of the waters of March
It’s the end of the strain
The joy in your heart

The foot, the ground
The flesh and the bone
The beat of the road
A slingshot’s stone

A fish, a flash
A silvery glow
A fight, a bet
The range of a bow

The bed of the well
The end of the line
The dismay in the face
It’s a loss, it’s a find

A spear, a spike
A point, a nail
A drip, a drop
The end of the tale

A truckload of bricks
In the soft morning light
The shot of a gun
In the dead of the night

A mile, a must
A thrust, a bump
It’s a girl, it’s a rhyme
It’s a cold, it’s the mumps

The plan of the house
The body in bed
And the car that got stuck
It’s the mud, it’s the mud

Afloat, adrift
A flight, a wing
A hawk, a quail
The promise of spring

And the riverbank talks
Of the waters of March
It’s the promise of life
It’s the joy in your heart

A stick, a stone
It’s the end of the road
It’s the rest of a stump
It’s a little alone

A snake, a stick
It is John, it is Joe
It’s a thorn in your hand
And a cut in your toe

A point, a grain
A bee, a bite
A blink, a buzzard
A sudden stroke of night

Ode to Billie Jo-1967
Written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry

This incredibly simple ballad stirred up conversations around the world in 1967. The song has been the topic of speculation for decades. It is a beautiful mystery related through a dinnertime conversation of a country family.

Bobbie Gentry spent her younger years in a place just like the setting for her song Ode to Billie Joe. Raised in her early years by her grandmother after her parents divorced, Gentry began writing music at 7. Over the next few years, she taught herself to play piano, guitar, bass, banjo and vibes and eventually moved to California to live with her mother. There, she began to make the rounds of country music clubs and coffeehouses in her teens, taking the name Bobbie Gentry. After high school, Gentry moved to Las Vegas and then back to Los Angeles to study music at
UCLA and the Conservatory of Music, where she honed her songwriting skills. During this time, she began to send her demo tapes out to various record companies and one found its way to Capitol Records.

Gentry recorded Ode to Billie Joe on a cheap guitar that so embarrassed the A&R man that he suggested that they add strings to the recording. As it turned out, it was a masterstroke, with arranger Jimmie Haskell who added two cellos and four violins. The seven-minute song was pared down to four minutes and released as a B-side, but quickly became the favorite of radio DJs and programmers and became a hit. Gentry’s sultry voice combined with the simple guitar and string arrangement and the mysterious story resonated with people and the song shot to number one.

Gentry tells the story about a farming family around the dinner table talking about the suicide of a local boy, Billie Jo McCallister who has jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge. The speculation about the suicide is almost secondary to the family’s life. It’s just part of dinner conversation with little sympathy for the boy, no mention of his family or the consequences of his death. The father comments that he still has more work to do. The brother offers a memory that involves his sister and the mother talks about the new preacher stopping by for dinner on Sunday. Only the narrator seems shaken by the death of Billie Joe and there is speculation that she might have had some sort of relationship with the boy.

He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge
And she and Billie Jo was throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge

The public was fascinated. Why did Billie Joe kill himself? What was it that was thrown off the bridge? What was the singer’s relationship with the boy? We never find out.

Another verse that was cut from the original song goes on to further speculate what may have happened. Is Sally Jane the singer? Is she a rival of the singer?

People don’t see Sally Jane in town anymore.
There’s a lot o’ speculatin’, she’s not actin’ like she did before.
Some say she knows more than she’s willin’ to tell.
But she stays quiet and a few think it’s just as well.
No one really knows what went on up on Choctaw Ridge
the day that Billy Jo McAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Gentry’s Ode knocked the Beatles out of the number one spot in its first week of release, one of the few artists to do that. Gentry took home three Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, the first Country artist to ever win in this category. The song launched her career as an artist and songwriter and she went on to win numerous awards and charted 11 more times in her career.

In 1976, actor/director Max Baer produced a film based on the song. While financially successful, the movie was not well received, and fans of the song were disappointed with the song’s homosexual overtones and that the object thrown off of the bridge was a rag doll.

Ode to Billie Jo

It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day.
I was out choppin’ cotton, and my brother was balin’ hay.
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat.
And mama hollered out the back door, y’all, remember to wipe your feet.
And then she said, I got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge.
Today, Billie Jo MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

And papa said to mama, as he passed around the black-eyed peas.
Well, Billie Jo never had a lick of sense, pass the biscuits, please.
There’s five more acres in the lower forty I’ve got to plow.
And mama said it was shame about Billie Jo, anyhow.
Seems like nothin’ ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge.
And now Billie Jo MacAllister’s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

Brother said he recollected when he, and Tom, and Billie Jo
put a frog down my back at the Carroll County picture show.
And wasn’t I talkin’ to him after church last Sunday night?
I’ll have another piece-a apple pie you know, it don’t seem right.
I saw him at the sawmill yesterday on Choctaw Ridge
and now ya tell me Billie Jo’s jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Mama said to me, child, what’s happened to your appetite?
I’ve been cookin’ all morning, and you haven’t touched a single bite.
That nice young preacher, Brother Taylor, dropped by today.
Said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday, oh, by the way.
He said he saw a girl that looked a lot like you up on Choctaw Ridge.
And she and Billie Jo was throwing somethin’ off the Tallahatchie Bridge.

A year has come and gone since we heard the news ’bout Billie Jo.
Brother married Becky Thompson, they bought a store in Tupelo.
There was a virus going ’round, papa caught it, and he died last spring.
And now mama doesn’t seem to want to do much of anything.
And me, I spend a lot of time pickin’ flowers up on Choctaw Ridge
and drop them into the muddy water off the Tallahatchie Bridge

Publisher: Royalty Network, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.