Happy New Year!/Song of the moment: "Everything I Do Gohn Be Funky"

Happy New Year!  I wish a bright, blessed, and prosperous 2011, filled with good music and good times, to all of my readers out there.

I've got a few things in store for my blog this year . . . I hope to start contributing some concert and record reviews, as well as some occasional essays, as time allows.  I may even throw in a few surprises here and there.  So stay tuned - the best is yet to come!

I don't know 'bout you, but I've resolved that "everything I do gohn' be funky from now on." Let Lee Dorsey tell you how it's done.

Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah

I got to be myself and do my thing
A little soul can't do no harm, yeah
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah

Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah

Some may say that I've got no class
But I'm doin' what I want to do, yeah
So groove with me if you can
Or just do what you can do

Aw, shucks
Why you whining
I'm on fire

Yeah, everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on

Never before have I felt so good
Just being natural me
My little hangup and my little times
But deep inside I'm free

Let your hair down and get down with me
Who's to say what's right or wrong
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on, yeah

Everything I do gohn' be funky, yeah, from now on, yeah
Everything I do gohn' be funky from now on
(Repeat and ad-lib until fade)

Happy birthday, Rick Danko/Song of the moment: "When You Awake"

He would have been 67 today, and this song is rotating on the turntable inside my head.  It's from The Band's second album (sometimes called "The Brown Album"), and was co-written by Richard Manuel and Robbie Robertson.  Rick sang lead, and it's one of his most tender, expressive vocals.

For an analysis of this unusual song, see Peter Viney's essay.  Carol Caffin also relates an amusing story regarding the discrepancy surrounding Rick's birthdate on her blog.

Ollie told me that I'm a fool.  So I
Walked on down the road a mile, went to the house that brings a smile,
Sat upon my grandpa's knee, and what do you think he said to me?

(Chorus)
When you awake, you will remember ev'rything, you will be
Hangin' on a string, from your . . . when you believe, you will relieve the only soul
That you were born with to grow old and never know 

Ollie showed me the fork in the road.
You can take the left or go straight to the right,
Use your days and save your nights,
Careful where you step and watch wha-cha eat,
Sleep with the light on and you got it beat.

(Repeat Chorus)

Ollie warned me it's a mean old world. 
The street don't greet ya, yes, it's true;
But what am I supposed to do:
Read the writing on the wall,
I heard it when I was very small

(Repeat Chorus)

Wash my hand in lye water.  I've got a date with the
Captain's daughter.  You can go and tell your brother.  We sure gonna
Love one another, oh!  You
May be right and ya might be wrong, I ain't gonna worry all day long.
Snow's gonna come and the frost gonna bite, my old car froze
Up last night.  Ain't no reason to hang your head, I could wake up in the
Mornin' dead, oh!  And
If I thought it would do any good, I'd stand on the rock where Moses stood.
(Lyrics courtesy of Jan Hoiberg's Band page.)

Song of the moment: Twilight

It's late in the evening on a relatively warm, Deep South November Sunday.  That, and the Facebook posting of a dear friend, put me in mind of this song.



This demo is from the 2005 Band box set A Musical History.  Curated and produced by Robbie Robertson, it includes many rare and unreleased tracks such as this one.  With no disrespect intended towards the other members of The Band - I love them all equally and subscribe to no feuds, for it was together that they created this timeless, elegant music - I find this version more haunting and full of meaning than the one originally released on the 1975 compilation The Best of The Band.  The image that this recording conjures up - of Robertson hunched over his piano, alone, quietly breathing the words to this song - is eerily fitting and impossible to get out of my head as I listen.


Over by the wildwood
Hot summer night
We lay in the tall grass
'Til the morning light
If I had my way I'd never
Get the urge to roam
A young man serves his country
And an old man guards the home


Don't send me no sweet salutations
Or silly souvenirs from far away
Don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day


I never gave it a second thought
It never crossed my mind
What's right and what's not
I ain't the judgin' kind
I can take the darkest, oh
Storms in the sky
We've all got certain trials
Burnin' up inside


Don't put me in a frame upon the mantle
For memories grow dusty, old, and gray
Don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day


Don't leave me alone in the twilight
'Cause twilight is the loneliest time of day

Song of the moment: Hey Jude

As of today, the music of that little band from Liverpool called The Beatles is finally available to purchase on iTunes.

Though this certainly won't make or break them, it's newsworthy nonetheless, as Apple had been negotiating for years for the rights to sell their music through its digital download service.

Whenever I think of The Beatles, "Hey Jude" is usually the song that first comes to mind.  It's one of my very favorites, not least because it has some happy memories associated with it.  According to Paul McCartney, the inspiration for the song was John Lennon's son Julian.  Lennon had just left Cynthia, Julian's mother, for Yoko Ono, and McCartney has said he penned the song, originally called "Hey Jules," to comfort the young boy (Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, p. 465).  For my money, he did a fantastic job, as I find it impossible to feel sad after listening to it.

Here's the Fab Four's promotional video for the song, filmed at Twickenham Studios on September 4, 1968.  Apparently Ringo Starr had just rejoined the group after leaving two weeks before, but if there's any acrimony on his part, you can't tell it here.  He's arguably the happiest one onstage, rocking back and forth on his drumset and singing at the top of his lungs.  Between that, Paul's puppy-dog eyes staring deeply into the camera, John's nonchalant smacking of his gum while singing, and George's air of calm at the eye of the storm, I never tire of watching this.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad, 
take a sad song and make it better. 
Remember to let her into your heart, 
then you can start to make it better.

Jude, don't be afraid, 
you were made to go out and get her. 
The minute you let her under your skin, 
then you begin to make it better.

And anytime you feel the pain, 
hey Jude, refrain, 
don't carry the world upon your shoulder.

For well, you know that it's a fool 
who plays it cool 
by making his world a little colder.

Na, na, na, na, na na, na, na. na.

Hey Jude, don't let me down. 
You have found her, now go and get her. 
Remember to let her into your heart, 
then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in
hey Jude, begin, you're waiting for someone to perform with. 
And don't you know that it's just you? 
Hey Jude, you'll do, the movement you need is on your shoulder.

Na, na, na, na, na na, na, na. na.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad, 
take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin, 
then you begin to make it better, better, better, better, better, better, oh!

Na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, hey, Jude.

(Lyrics courtesy of The Beatles' website)

Song of the moment: I Don't Want to Talk About It

You probably know this song from Rod Stewart's cover version, recorded at Muscle Shoals in 1975 for his Atlantic Crossing album.  It was a hit on both sides of the pond, reaching #1 on the UK Singles Chart (1977) and climbing into the top fifty on the Billboard Hot 100 (1979).  The band Everything But The Girl would have another top-ten UK hit with it in 1988.

It's too bad the song's composer has never had the same amount of exposure.  Georgia-born Danny Whitten is best remembered as one of the founding members of the rock group Crazy Horse.  Written with Nils Lofgren, "I Don't Want to Talk About It" was included on the band's 1971 self-titled release, which would sadly be Whitten's last.  He had been abusing heroin since the late '60s, and his alcohol and drug addictions were spiraling out of control - to the point that bandmate Ralph Molina finally sacked him during rehearsals for Crazy Horse's upcoming support tour.  On November 18, 1972, Neil Young gave Whitten $50 and a plane ticket to Los Angeles when he proved unable to keep up with the other musicians during the recording sessions for Harvest.  Young received a phone call at his Bay Area ranch later that night - Danny was dead at 29 of an overdose of Valium and vodka.

Young's deep grief over the loss of his friend and musical cohort can be traced through several of his songs (such as "Don't Be Denied" - written the day after Whitten's death - and "The Needle and the Damage Done") as well as through entire albums (the dark, edgy Tonight's The Night).  Young admitted to his biographer Jimmy McDonough that he "felt responsible.  But really there was nothin' I could do - I mean, he was responsible.  But I thought I was for a long time. [...] Danny just wasn't happy.  It just all came down on him.  He was engulfed by this drug.  That was too bad.  Because Danny had a lot to give, boy.  He was really good" (Shakey, pp. 389, 390).  And this mournful, haunting ballad - augmented by Whitten's soul-weary lead vocal, the CSN-esque backing harmonies from the rest of the Horse, and the shimmering slide guitar from guest musician Ry Cooder - proves it.  

I can tell by your eyes that you’ve prob’ly been cryin’ forever,

And the stars in the sky don't mean nothin’ to you, they're a mirror.

I don't wanna talk about it, how you broke my heart.

If I stay here just a little bit longer,

If I stay here, wont you listen to my heart, whoa oh, heart

If I stand all alone, will the shadow hide the color of my heart;

Blue for the tears, black for the nights we’re apart

And the stars don’t don't mean nothin to you, they're a mirror.

I don't wanna talk about it, how you broke my heart.

If I stay here just a little bit longer,

If I stay here, wont you listen to my heart, whoa oh, heart?

My heart whoa oh heart

I don't want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.

If I stay here just a little bit longer,

If I stay here, wont you listen to my heart, whoa oh, heart?

My heart whoa oh heart.

My heart whoa oh heart.

My heart whoa oh heart.

(lyrics courtesy of Wikipedia)