#ayearofsongs

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #36: “I Call That True Love” by Dr. Hook

This bluesy bopper from Dr. Hook’s self-titled 1972 debut is intended to offend. It’s also written by children’s literature legend Shel Silverstein along with all but one track on their debut.

“I Call That True Love” is a misogynistic incel male fantasy that’s so over the top that if it doesn’t make you snicker you’re probably part of the problem. 

“I wanna come home every evenin' to a great big meal of wine and roasted pheasant

I want you to say to me Ray, hey this is Susy, this is Kay, I brought 'em both home to you for a present

When The Man downs his soul and find my stash, won't you tell 'em it belongs to you

And when you're sittin' in the slam tell all the other chickies when they get out they should look me up too”

Silverstein piles it on from tip to tail, and Dr. Hook makes the fucker swing with tipsy back porch charm, especially singer Ray Sawyer’s fully committed, frog croak delivery. The man sells verses lesser frontmen would have flubbed. 

Like much of the group’s first three albums, “I Call That True Love” is only-in-the-seventies counter culture courting gold best enjoyed with an ice cold Banquet Beer and a freshly rolled number. 

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #8 - “I’m A Man” by Chicago

The band that barfed out “You’re The Inspiration” in the 80s wasn’t always winery ready adult contemporary. When the Chicago Transit Authority - later shortened after the actual CTA threatened legal action - emerged in 1969, they were a ferociously tight jazz-rock 7-piece that gave equal weight to both halves of their chosen genre. 

To wit, their downright nasty, Afro-Cuban inflected, electric guitar lacerated take on the Spencer Davis Group’s 1967 hit single, which transports Little Stevie Winwood’s ode to modern masculinity to strange new places, transforming the original under 3-minute bopper into a nearly 8-minute assault. 

Their version appears on Chicago’s ballsy 1969 double record debut, and while a truncated single version was released, it’s the full figured take where all the good things of early Chicago rise and rip with terrific power and presence. 

From Peter Cetera’s thick, bounding bass riff to the clave-cowbell-tambourine chug of the horn section when they’re not punctuating lines with brass punch to the Buddy Rich-like charge of drummer Danny Seraphine to the three lead vocalists trading verses to the undeniable star, Terry Kath’s incendiary guitar, Chicago’s interpretation seizes hold and pulls one along at a breath snatching clip. 

As he is throughout their debut, Kath is a marvel - soloing, comping, and chomping at the edges, a player possessed by a ceaseless imagination anchored to a wide stance, bell bottom, badass guitar hero magic. Trombonist James Pankow describes meeting Jimi Hendrix  in 1968 after Chicago opened for Albert King. Hendrix said, “You guys have a horn section that sounds like one set of lungs and a guitar player who’s better than me. You wanna go on the road?” Hendrix later called Kath “the best guitarist in the universe.” 

A focused examination of Kath’s work across the eleven Chicago albums he worked on between 1969-1977 suggests Jimi wasn’t overblown in his praise. Kath’s genius is never more evident than the dozen tracks on the 1969 debut album, and “I’m A Man” is the perfect entry point for the unfamiliar. 

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #60: “The Bargain Store” by Dolly Parton

“My life is likened to a bargain store 

And I may have just what you're looking for

If you don't mind the fact that all the merchandise is used

But with a little mending it could be as good as new”

A lot of things about Dolly Parton generate a lotta talk - the outfits, the hair, the movies, the boobs, the theme park, the philanthropy, the rodeo dinner theaters, the awards, the collaborations - but least discussed is her status as one of the greatest and most prolific songwriters of the past 50-plus years.

Besides “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You,” few cite the hundreds of released songs she’s penned, which doesn’t touch the literal hundreds more she’s written in her daily practice of tinkering on new material. She’s too humble to brag about it but Dolly’s deadly serious about the craft of songwriting and keeps her knives sharp and powder dry. 

“The Bargain Store” was the lead off single and title track of Parton’s 15th solo album released February 17, 1975. In just over two and a half minutes, she offers a master class to aspiring composers. 

The arrangement is a seduction, Parton’s fluttering Southern songbird voice pushed forward as layers of guitars and standup bass twirl over a shuffling barroom beat, dropping down to a single guitar a few times, a lonely reflection of the solitary narrator, before the music builds to a quiet swirl of upright piano, banjo and more in the last 30 seconds, a hopeful rise that’s still a touch muted behind Dolly’s pleading but defiant vocal.

The song was pulled from a number of radio stations because a line in the chorus - “The bargain store is open/ You can easily afford the price” - was considered a veiled allusion to prostitution despite Parton stating in the next breath that “love is all you need  to purchase all the merchandise.” Boycotts notwithstanding, the song still hit Number One on the Country Charts.

Most of the 1975 release is Parton originals alongside a Porter Wagoner tune and a nice reading of Merle Haggard’s "You’ll Always Be Special to Me.” It’s a fine spot to start in exploring Dolly The Songwriter, and boy howdy, will the title cut stay with ya. 

“Why you take for instance this old broken heart

If you will just replace the missing part

You would be surprised to find how good it really is

Take it and you never will be sorry that you did”

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #59: “The Rootwitch > I Carry Your Heart”

Joseph Campbell put the zap on a lot of heads in the late 1980s. Visionary guitarist-composer Michael Hedges, spiritually switched-on by Campbell, took his recommendation to “write your own mythology” to considerable lengths, composing an unpublished autobiographical mythology with an accompanying score, 1990’s Taproot. 

The backstory is unnecessary to enjoy Taproot but it adds rings and tendrils to know Hedges is Taproot, the central protagonist, family members & friends appear as stalks and cuttings, and “The Rootwitch” is his chiropractor. 

The pleasant snap, crackle and pop of the instrumental suggesting deep tissue work and bold adjustments, the piece showcases Hedges’ vibrant, frequently flashy style as he knocks the wood percussively whilst making the strings dance in a manner seemingly impossible for only two hands. While John Fahey and Oregon’s Ralph Towner pioneered many elements Hedges was celebrated for, his bold individuality is evident on “The Rootwitch.”

This aggressive exuberance gives way to a nicely underplayed, consciously simple musical setting for e.e. cummings’ poem “i carry your heart with me (i carry it in).” Hedges’ sweet, earnest voice takes lead with pals David Crosby and Graham Nash chipping in backing vocals. Longtime Hedges collaborator fretless bass wonder Michael Manring further boosts the skipping warmth of Taproot’s closer.

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #53: “Get Down Moses” by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros 

“Once I got to the mountain top, everywhere I could see

Prairie full of lost souls running from the priests of iniquity

Where the hell was Elijah?

Well, what do you do when the prophecy came was true?”

In a voice befitting a track that evokes a prophet revered by Judaism, Islam and Christianity in the first verse, Joe Strummer taps into the mystical force found in reggae’s most potent moments.

There’s a false notion that after The Clash Strummer didn’t create music with the same depth, urgency, or passion. “Get Down Moses” and the rest of Streetcore, his posthumously released swan song, puts the lie to that idea with a song cycle that feels like the proper follow-up Combat Rock never got. 

Strummer breathes righteous fire, inciting Moses to carve another tablet out of LSD while stirring the masses to put their lips together and blow down the cages holding them in like the Walls of Jericho. 

“Goin' to the very top

(Na na, na-na-na-na-na)

Where the truth crystallizes 

Like jewels, in the rock, in the rock”

Using mostly first take vocals, longtime music sculptors, collaborators and wicked multi-instrumentalists in the Mescaleros, Martin Slattery and Scott Shields ease back the world music elements of the first two Mescaleros albums to craft a future rock that resonates with the late Clash sound while maintaining a 21st century zest.

2003’s Streetcore is a clear labor of love that honors Strummer’s core values and bright musical spectrum, poignant punctuation to Joe’s legacy after his sudden death from a heart attack in 2002. 

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #31: “Cowboy Movie” by David Crosby

The rocker as outlaw idea goes back to the genre’s roots in societal rebels in leather jackets mixing it up with folks from the wrong side of the tracks. That spirit melds well with America’s love of the Wild West, where a guitar slinger isn’t far off mythologically from a gunslinger and The Law can be anything from a cop to Big Brother to The Establishment. 

Few numbers take this dynamic as literally as Crosby’s “Cowboy Movie” off his 1971 solo debut, If I Could Only Remember My Name, one of many small marvels captured at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco during the bountiful period CSNY, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and others mingled their talents on one another’s studio work. 

At a healthy 8-minutes, “Cowboy Movie” is fully cinematic with a rollicking, cantankerous score. While the electric guitar pyrotechnics are often credited to Jerry Garcia and Neil Young, it’s actually Crosby and Garcia trading licks - a pleasant reminder that Croz could shred with the best of ‘em. The Garcia/Young pairing can be heard on an alternate version that appeared on Crosby’s Voyage box set and more recently on the 50th Anniversary Edition of If I Could Only Remember My Name. 

The rest of the band is none too shabby either - Phil Lesh on bass, Mickey Hart on drums, and Bill Kreutzmann on tambourine. Crosby vibrates on a deep frequency with the Dead guys here, drawing out some of their heaviest, liveliest playing ever. For my money, Garcia and Crosby are the sharper guitar conversation and the best choice for the official version. They lay back and advance in an organic way not present elsewhere in their work. 

“Cowboy Movie” is legendarily semi-autobiographical, supposedly sparked by hurt feelings after Graham Nash poached Rita Coolidge from a smitten Stephen Stills after meeting her during the recording of “Love The One You’re With” for Stills’ solo debut. In the song Nash is “The Duke,” Neil Young is “Young Billy,” Crosby is “Fat Albert,” Stills is “Eli,” and Coolidge is “Raven,” a “sweet, young Indian girl” later revealed to be “The Law.” 

Crosby’s recasting of a lovers triangle as frontier theatre works marvelously especially in a contender for Crosby’s gnarliest lead vocal, his delivery bucking with wild beauty and power, the perfect rider for all the guitar horsepower. The snippet of happy studio chatter at the very end suggests men that knew they’d captured something special as the dust settled. 

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #58: “Please Be With Me” by Cowboy

Another perfect jewel shaped at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in the early 70s, an acoustic rock ballad that lingers because every detail and line phrasing sticks. Clear and spare, “Please Be With Me” is a heartfelt lover’s prayer that resists unnecessary filigree, understanding how a tender voice gently bolstered by close harmonies and a couple guitars are plenty to get ‘er done. 

“I sit here lying in my bed

Wondering what it was I said

That made me think I lost my head

When I knew I lost my heart instead”

Penned late in the recording process in just a few minutes in Boyer’s hotel room, “Please Be With Me” wrestles with really needing someone and being vulnerable enough to confess that need aloud. 

“So won't you please read my signs?

Be a gypsy

Tell me what I hope to find deep within me

And because you can find my mind

Please be with me”

Cowboy lead singer-songwriter Scott Boyer plays acoustic guitar accompanied by Duane Allman on dobro. Allman got Cowboy signed to Capricorn Records and plays on “Please Be With Me” and adds electric guitar to “Lookin’ For You” on 1971’s 5’ll Getcha Ten, a cult classic that deserved more airplay and attention in its day.

Eric Clapton covered “Please Be With Me” on his second solo album, 1974’s 461 Ocean Boulevard, nicking the arrangement and even Boyer’s singing style, only adding more prominent female backing vocals. It’s a pleasant but inferior version compared to the original.

[snappyssongbook]

A Year Of Songs #57: “Ganges Delta Blues” by Ry Cooder and V.M. Bhatt

An unplanned, unrehearsed meeting of two master guitarists presents the concept of music as a universal language as a ringing reality. 

Ry Cooder plays bottleneck slide on acoustic guitar, and in his capable, bewitching hands and encyclopedic knowledge powered brain, the instrument sings like a symphony here. His partner in this largely improvised encounter is Vishwa Mohan Bhatt playing a Mohan veena, a 19-21 string archtop Hawaiian guitar of his own invention, played flat with a bar somewhat like dobro though with far more drone and sympathetic strings. 

Their instruments are simpatico cousins half a world apart but once in direct contact they sing to one another, a tintinabulous catalyst to melodies they did not know were buried in the wood and wires. 

1993’s A Meeting by the River hums, roars, and ripples with distinctness, as if one is hearing a new language being written and spoken for the very first time.

The guitarists are accompanied by Cooder’s then-14 year old son Joachim and tabla player Sukhvinder Singh Namdhari, who add to the empathetic/sympathetic back and forth that defines this “conversation” where distances are bridged even while the uniqueness and tradition each participant brings shines through. 

Of the four lengthy tracks that comprise A Meeting by the River, “Ganges Delta Blues” is the friskiest, the spice of each referenced region fragrant as fuck, the swing and sway loose, playful and fun. One imagines the players smiling as they hand the current to each other, excited as any listener to see where it goes.

Anyone interested in the broad possibilities of slide guitar must explore this album - one hears echoes of Bhatt’s style in Derek Trucks’ work, an influence he happily acknowledges. But, anyone seeking a beautiful, broadening musical experience is welcomed and encouraged to venture into this fruitful meeting.