Six Songs Of Separation
I can't come up with only six, but the first seven that came to mind that were easy to write about follow:
String Of Pearls - Glenn Miller Orchestra
When I was still playing with dolls and trucks, my mom had a lot of records that I loved to play. Most were her 78s and her 45s (I didn't really care for the LPs, dunno why), which were usually jazz stuff, or Beatles singles, now that I think of it. However, my most favorite of all her records was a little floppy plastic thing that must have come out of a magazine, and which was an advertisement for what must have been record reconditioning. This floppy record was midway in size between a 45 and a 78, and it had little snippets of old (probably war time) big band tunes, demonstrated in their old scratchy form, and then in their new and improved version which apparently you'd get after you bought whatever it was that the record was selling. It never ever completed a song, but I imprinted strongly on the harmonic tension of the head of String of Pearls, and bugged my mom until she told me what it was. Strangely, I've never owned a recording of this tune, and I've probably never heard it in its entirety except as elevator music or as a heavy metal interpretation by bored Berklee students.
Body & Soul - Manhattan Transfer
My first exposure to... so many *many* things. Vocalese, harmonies that caused my soul to soar, Eddie Jefferson, Coleman Hawkins, a sort of circular chord progression that could be *sung* instead of... tediously sung over. I was eleven, on tour, and ragingly hormonal at the time I first heard this (in NYC), and those things, coupled with its insane breadth of new musical concepts for me, created an indelible impression on my musical sense.
Every time he played some melodic melody
Fast or slow you could tell that it was Hawkins
No other one ever has quite captured his tone
Just he alone has a sound that penetrates
It would sure go right through you yes it will
And every chorus gives you just another thrill
Then along came Eddie Jefferson
He sang the melody like Hawkins played it
He sang it true - he sang it blue - made words for it too
All his fans in New York loved him - there's no one above him
Here in the USA I've heard 'em say, "Oh, Eddie was the man!
Oh, how he could sing - man did he swing
Sang on the wing - did his own thing, yes he did..."
Faithfully - Journey
In the 80s when this song came out, everybody dedicated this song to their boyfriend or girlfriend. Having already been an itinerant performer for years of my life at that point, I always felt that high school romantic relationships were not strong enough to reasonably identify with the hardship of being a touring musician with a love back home. However, my best friend Ellsbeth, another semi-outcast who joined me over the junior high and high school years in many musical and paisan/family-developing exploits, dedicated it to me. I'm forever hers, faithfully.
Chain Gang - The Pretenders
My first lover was murdered when I was a junior in high school. This song doesn't really resonate for me in general, but the third verse always struck my anger about the whole senseless situation of a kid being strangled because a couple of stupid rednecks thought that killing a man and his son would keep the world from finding out that one of them had traded gay sex with dad for drugs:
But I'll die as I stand here today
Knowing that deep in my heart
They'll fall to ruin one day
For making us part
Everybody's Cryin' Mercy - Bonnie Raitt
My mother's favorite song, and later one of mine when I understood it better and got hip to politics, Mose Allison, and (OMG!) Taj Mahal on harp. I was in a fantastic original band in the 80s that couldn't figure out the changes so I could sing this, but they fired me, and I joined a less competent blues band shortly thereafter. These guys somehow managed to figure out this INCREDIBLY COMPLICATED PROGRESSION (give me a break) and I got to perform a straight ahead cover of it at a big music festival, which my mom attended a few years before she died. She would have loved the music I do now, but since she isn't around for it, I'm glad I got to do this one for her.
Everybody's cryin' peace on earth
Just as soon as we win this war...
Moonlight In Vermont - Billie Holiday
Ever have something that evokes strong feelings and memories for you that aren't real? For years, the Billie Holliday version of this song has made me happily yet wistfully reminiscent about a romance that I've never actually had. It also reminds me of a specific someone, with whom I've actually spent some romantic time in Vermont, but somehow this song is a time capsule for me, like a weekend getaway that's going to happen (with that certain someone) at some future time.
Walk A Straight Line - Squeeze
Many of my relationships have been fundamentally flawed, and either dishonest at their core, or at least dreadfully one-sided in a variety of ways. This song hit me at a time when I was head over heels with The Significant Other That Broke My Heart The Hardest, in a dishonest relationship that killed yet thrilled me every single day I was in it. The entire time we were together (and for months before we actually *were*), there was always the hope that the barriers that kept our relationship unequal and inequitable would be surmounted in an ethical manner, and some of that gripping desire kept our relationship alive long after we both should have quit. In large part, the lyrics to this song echoed that desire.
And if love needs help and if love needs time
Give love the strength to walk a straight line
Since huaman tagged me, I tag sfgrrl, lil_brown_bat, agntprovocateur, girl_on_a_stick, perci, hawkegirl, iconoplasty, and andr00 to come up with six songs that mean something to them.
(Ping me privately if you'd like to hear some of the less popular ones on this list.)
String Of Pearls - Glenn Miller Orchestra
When I was still playing with dolls and trucks, my mom had a lot of records that I loved to play. Most were her 78s and her 45s (I didn't really care for the LPs, dunno why), which were usually jazz stuff, or Beatles singles, now that I think of it. However, my most favorite of all her records was a little floppy plastic thing that must have come out of a magazine, and which was an advertisement for what must have been record reconditioning. This floppy record was midway in size between a 45 and a 78, and it had little snippets of old (probably war time) big band tunes, demonstrated in their old scratchy form, and then in their new and improved version which apparently you'd get after you bought whatever it was that the record was selling. It never ever completed a song, but I imprinted strongly on the harmonic tension of the head of String of Pearls, and bugged my mom until she told me what it was. Strangely, I've never owned a recording of this tune, and I've probably never heard it in its entirety except as elevator music or as a heavy metal interpretation by bored Berklee students.
Body & Soul - Manhattan Transfer
My first exposure to... so many *many* things. Vocalese, harmonies that caused my soul to soar, Eddie Jefferson, Coleman Hawkins, a sort of circular chord progression that could be *sung* instead of... tediously sung over. I was eleven, on tour, and ragingly hormonal at the time I first heard this (in NYC), and those things, coupled with its insane breadth of new musical concepts for me, created an indelible impression on my musical sense.
Every time he played some melodic melody
Fast or slow you could tell that it was Hawkins
No other one ever has quite captured his tone
Just he alone has a sound that penetrates
It would sure go right through you yes it will
And every chorus gives you just another thrill
Then along came Eddie Jefferson
He sang the melody like Hawkins played it
He sang it true - he sang it blue - made words for it too
All his fans in New York loved him - there's no one above him
Here in the USA I've heard 'em say, "Oh, Eddie was the man!
Oh, how he could sing - man did he swing
Sang on the wing - did his own thing, yes he did..."
Faithfully - Journey
In the 80s when this song came out, everybody dedicated this song to their boyfriend or girlfriend. Having already been an itinerant performer for years of my life at that point, I always felt that high school romantic relationships were not strong enough to reasonably identify with the hardship of being a touring musician with a love back home. However, my best friend Ellsbeth, another semi-outcast who joined me over the junior high and high school years in many musical and paisan/family-developing exploits, dedicated it to me. I'm forever hers, faithfully.
Chain Gang - The Pretenders
My first lover was murdered when I was a junior in high school. This song doesn't really resonate for me in general, but the third verse always struck my anger about the whole senseless situation of a kid being strangled because a couple of stupid rednecks thought that killing a man and his son would keep the world from finding out that one of them had traded gay sex with dad for drugs:
But I'll die as I stand here today
Knowing that deep in my heart
They'll fall to ruin one day
For making us part
Everybody's Cryin' Mercy - Bonnie Raitt
My mother's favorite song, and later one of mine when I understood it better and got hip to politics, Mose Allison, and (OMG!) Taj Mahal on harp. I was in a fantastic original band in the 80s that couldn't figure out the changes so I could sing this, but they fired me, and I joined a less competent blues band shortly thereafter. These guys somehow managed to figure out this INCREDIBLY COMPLICATED PROGRESSION (give me a break) and I got to perform a straight ahead cover of it at a big music festival, which my mom attended a few years before she died. She would have loved the music I do now, but since she isn't around for it, I'm glad I got to do this one for her.
Everybody's cryin' peace on earth
Just as soon as we win this war...
Moonlight In Vermont - Billie Holiday
Ever have something that evokes strong feelings and memories for you that aren't real? For years, the Billie Holliday version of this song has made me happily yet wistfully reminiscent about a romance that I've never actually had. It also reminds me of a specific someone, with whom I've actually spent some romantic time in Vermont, but somehow this song is a time capsule for me, like a weekend getaway that's going to happen (with that certain someone) at some future time.
Walk A Straight Line - Squeeze
Many of my relationships have been fundamentally flawed, and either dishonest at their core, or at least dreadfully one-sided in a variety of ways. This song hit me at a time when I was head over heels with The Significant Other That Broke My Heart The Hardest, in a dishonest relationship that killed yet thrilled me every single day I was in it. The entire time we were together (and for months before we actually *were*), there was always the hope that the barriers that kept our relationship unequal and inequitable would be surmounted in an ethical manner, and some of that gripping desire kept our relationship alive long after we both should have quit. In large part, the lyrics to this song echoed that desire.
And if love needs help and if love needs time
Give love the strength to walk a straight line
Since huaman tagged me, I tag sfgrrl, lil_brown_bat, agntprovocateur, girl_on_a_stick, perci, hawkegirl, iconoplasty, and andr00 to come up with six songs that mean something to them.
(Ping me privately if you'd like to hear some of the less popular ones on this list.)