[l1]I[/l1] love singing along with Kansas City Star. It’s one of those silly songs Roger wrote that leaves out all the struggle and heartache, and puts in everything that’s right with our hearts and heads.
[l1]A[/l1] hallmark of Roger Miller’s songwriting is what I call his happy heartbreaks: the saddest stories, told with wit to cheerful music.
Just as Hitchcock makes pokes us with the incongruity of life by making us laugh during a terrifying scene, Roger reminds you that life isn’t the events, but our reactions. Even the poor guy standing in a train station somewhere 110 miles from Baltimore sounds more resigned than heartbroken when he says “I don’t think she loves me any more.” Continue reading “Happy Heartbreak #1: Engine, Engine #9”
[l1]I[/l1] don’t even know his real name; he signs his emails res, but resonance is not just a brilliant songwriter, but a world-class performer. More than one of his songs sound like Styx got back together. Except maybe with even better lyrics. Continue reading “USSS: resonance”
[l1]T[/l1]he most highly trained FAWMer I know, Elaine DiMasi is also the only person I know who’s ever written a madrigal for a licorice advertisement.
[l1]E[/l1]ffervescent music and witty lyrics and young love—how can it miss? The Turtles’ Elenore never made it onto my radar when I was younger. Perhaps I wouldn’t have appreciated it.
[az]B000EN0TIG[/az][l1]B[/l1]ack in 1992 I was introduced to Garth Brooks by a friend from Texas. I hadn’t really been a huge country fan before then. My friend was staying with me at the time and wanted to watch the Country Music Awards. I was hooked after hearing Garth Brooks perform. Today, though I don’t listen to even new country much, I still love to listen to Garth Brooks.
[l1]G[/l1] [az]B000007O5H[/az]erry Rafferty is gone.
63 is not old enough for anyone to die. No age is, but that’s another conversation.
There are a small handful of songs which get turned up, and turn up a smile on my face, every single time I hear them, whenever, wherever. Stuck in the Middle with You, one of Gerry’s songs with Joe Egan as Stealer’s Wheel, is one of them.
There are a small handful of songs which clutch tragically at my heart every single time I hear them. Whatever’s Written in Your Heart, from Gerry’s City to City, is one of them.
There are a small handful of albums which make me yearn and cry and shout and laugh and wish and dream. That same album, City to City, is one of them.
There is not enough time for all the music; not enough for all the musicians; not enough for what I wanted.
[l1]I[/l1][az]B0014KD46W[/az]f you’re my age you’ve read about the message ‘Clapton is God’ scrawled on subway walls (ostensibly right under ‘Frodo lives!’)
In an interview the the Cars’ Elliot Easton, they played word association with the names of guitarists. Easton’s response to ‘Clapton’ ? “Is not God.”
At the time, I thought he was wrong. Gutsy, but wrong.
A few nights ago, I changed my mind. Watching Clapton on stage (okay, on TV) with Steve Winwood, I was amazed at how inventive and unexpected Winwood’s solos were, while Clapton played the same solo in every song. Slower, faster, different keys, but essentially the same.
And yesterday, Best Beloved changed CDs in the van, and I realised that on Clapton’s Chronicles album, I only like one of the first six tracks.
No, I’m not tossing my copy of “From the Cradle” or “Disraeli Gears” but I’m also not saving up to see him next time he comes to town.