Song Musings

Happy Hump Day and hope you’re in the mood for taking another deeper dive into a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or haven’t covered at all to date. It’s a real goodie: What’d I Say by Ray Charles.

The classic R&B song, written by Charles, first appeared as a single in June 1959. The single was divided with What’d I Say Part 1 as the A-side, backed by What I’d Say Part 2. The song also became the opener and title track of Charles’ sixth studio album released in October of the same year.

What’d I Say reached no. 6 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100. After significant success on the R&B chart, including a series of number 1 singles, What I’d Say marked Charles’s breakthrough on the pop chart. It also earned him his first Gold record and is considered to be one of the most influential songs in R&B and rock & roll history.

Wikipedia notes the song itself sparked a new subgenre of R&B titled soul, finally putting together all the elements that Charles had been creating since he recorded “I Got a Woman” in 1954. The gospel and rhumba influences combined with the sexual innuendo in the song made it not only widely popular but very controversial to both white and black audiences. Here’s a great live version captured in 1963 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

What’d I Say evolved from a spontaneous improvisation. At a concert in Brownsville, Pa. December 1958, there was some time left to fill after Charles and his orchestra had finished their set. Charles told his female backing vocalists The Raelettes, “Listen, I’m going to fool around and y’all just follow me.” Essentially, he played on his electric piano what came to his mind. When audience members at the end of the show asked him where they could buy the record, he knew he had something there. Charles and his orchestra played the new song at various subsequent concerts and got the same positive reaction.

Charles called Jerry Wexler at his label Atlantic Records to tell him he had a new song to record. The session happened in February 1959. Charles (piano, Wurlitzer electronic piano, lead vocals) was backed by David Newman (tenor and alto saxophone), Bennie Crawford (alto and baritone saxophone), Edgar Willis (double bass), Milt Turner (drums) and The Raelettes (backing vocals). While it only took a few takes to record What’d I Say, the problem was its original length of more than seven and a half minutes – far longer than the usual two and a half minutes radio stations typically played.

Recording engineer Tom Dowd came up with the idea to remove some parts and split the song into two three-and-a-half-minute parts. He divided the parts with a false ending where the orchestra stops and The Raelettes and orchestra members beg Charles to continue, which he does in Part 2. Moreover, while the lyrics were not obscene, the sounds Charles and The Raelettes made in their calls and responses during the song worried Dowd and the producers. Dowd ended up removing some call-outs of “shake that thing.”

What’d I Say was covered by many other artists in many different styles, such as Bobby Darin, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers featuring Eric Clapton, Rare Earth, Nancy Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr SecondHandSongs lists more than 270 versions. Here’s a sizzling rock rendition Rare Earth included on their June 1971 album One World.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

Charles said he got the idea for this song from “The sweet sounds of love.”

The call-and-response style was inspired by church music Charles grew up with. When the preacher said something, the congregation shouted it back. “What’d I Say” stands as the epitome of call-and-response in secular music.

Although he first made his mark with “I Got a Woman,” this established Charles as a front-line star. Its success at the end of his contract with Atlantic Records enabled him to sign a lucrative one with ABC-Paramount. The hits came quickly and furiously soon afterwards.

Along with “Be-Bop-a-Lula” by Gene Vincent, this is mentioned in the first line of the Dire Straits song, “Walk Of Life.” The line is: “Here comes Johnny singing oldies goldies, Be-Bop-a-Lula baby What’d I Say.”

In 1975, John Belushi did a skit on Saturday Night Live where he plays Beethoven at a piano, but ends up rocking out to this. He was a big fan of soul music, and performed as The Blues Brothers with with fellow cast member Dan Aykroyd.

Charles released a new version on his 2002 album Thanks for Bringing Love Around Again that incorporated hip-hop elements and synthesizers. This rendition met with resistance: the Chicago Tribune called it a “dead, depressing version” in their review of the album.

Sources: Wikipedia; SecondHandSongs; Songfacts; YouTube

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I hope this week has been treating you kindly so far. As I usually do on this day, I’d like to take a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or haven’t covered at all to date. This time my proposition is a true rock opus: Telegraph Road by Dire Straits.

Penned by the ex-British band’s frontman, lead vocalist and lead guitarist Mark Knopfler, Telegraph Road first appeared on Dire Straits’ fourth studio album Love Over Gold. The epic 14-minute-plus song is the opener of the album that came out in September 1982. A 5-minute edit was also released as a single in 1983, paired with Twisting By the Pool as the B-side.

Mark Knopfler was inspired to write the song while sitting in the front of the band’s tour bus and traveling along the actual Telegraph Road, a major north-south highway in southeastern Michigan. At the time, he was also reading The Growth Of the Soil by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun, a novel first published in 1917. Following a Norwegian man who rejects modernity and settles and lives in rural Norway, the work of fiction won the 1920 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Dire Straits’ first live performance of Telegraph Road occurred in March 1981 during a tour of Australia and, as such, predated the song’s release by 1.5 years. The track subsequently became a staple of the band’s live set. Knopfler also continued to play it during his solo tours. Here’s a great version from Dire Straits’ first live album Alchemy: Dire Straits Live, which came out in March 1984, captured during the band’s 1983 tour.

Songfacts notes the song about the beginning of the development along Telegraph Road and the changes over the ensuing decades was a metaphor for the development of America and one man’s shattered dreams in the wake of its decline, with a particular on unemployment. Telegraph Road was the band’s final recorded song that featured original drummer Pick Withers, who left Dire Straits after the Love Over Gold sessions and was replaced by Terry Williams. Another track on the album, Industrial Disease, addresses the decline of the British manufacturing industry in the early ’80s, suggesting the societal impact of industrialization was very much on Knopfler’s mind at the time.

The following excerpt from Wikipedia addresses the compositional aspects of Telegraph Road: The song starts out with a quiet crescendo in the key of G minor that lasts almost two minutes, before the song’s main theme starts. After the first verse, the main theme plays again, followed by the second verse. After a guitar solo, a short bridge slows the song down to a quiet keyboard portion similar to the intro, followed by a slow guitar solo. Next, the final two verses play with the main theme in between. The main theme is played one last time, followed by a slightly faster guitar solo lasting about five minutes and eventually fading out.

Here’s a neat live version of the song by Mark Knopfler, which was captured in July 2015 in Seville, Spain during his tour that year. Based on what I could see on Setlist.fm, it’s most recent during which Knopfler performed the magnificent track at select dates. Apparently, it wasn’t part of his regular setlist. This is so good. Admittedly, I’m a huge fan of Knopfler’s guitar playing, so I may be a bit biased here! 🙂

I’m leaving you with the lyrics of this great story-telling song. These words could have been written by Bruce Springsteen, which never occurred to me before – clearly a reminder I should pay closer attention to lyrics more often!

A long time ago came a man on a track
Walking thirty miles with a sack on his back
And he put down his load where he thought it was the best
Made a home in the wilderness

Built a cabin and a winter store
And he plowed up the ground by the cold lake shore
The other travelers came walking down the track
And they never went further, no, they never went back

Then came the churches, then came the schools
Then came the lawyers, then came the rules
Then came the trains and the trucks with their load
And the dirty old track was the Telegraph Road

Then came the mines, then came the ore
Then there was the hard times, then there was a war
Telegraph sang a song about the world outside
Telegraph Road got so deep and so wide
Like a rolling river

And my radio says tonight it’s gonna freeze
People driving home from the factories
Six lanes of traffic, three lanes moving slow

I used to like to go to work but they shut it down
I’ve got a right to go to work but there’s no work here to be found
Yes, and they say we’re gonna have to pay what’s owed
We’re gonna have to reap from some seed that’s been sowed

And the birds up on the wires and the telegraph poles
They can always fly away from this rain and this cold
You can hear them singing out their telegraph code
All the way down the Telegraph Road

I’d sooner forget, but I remember those nights
Yeah, life was just a bet on a race between the lights
You had your head on my shoulder, you had your hand in my hair
Now you act a little colder like you don’t seem to care

But just believe in me, baby, and I’ll take you away
From out of this darkness and into the day
From these rivers of headlights, these rivers of rain
From the anger that lives on the streets with these names
‘Cause I’ve run every red light on memory lane
I’ve seen desperation explode into flames
And I don’t wanna see it again

From all of these signs saying, “Sorry, but we’re closed”
All the way
Down the Telegraph Road

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Setlist.fm; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to a new installment of my recurring midweek feature, in which I take a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. This pick was inspired by fun New Jersey country-oriented band Sheriff Restless and a recent gig I caught during which they played You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere, a song I absolutely love. More specifically, I decided to highlight the rendition by The Byrds.

You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere was written by Bob Dylan in Woodstock, N.Y. in 1967. This song fell into Dylan’s self-imposed exile from public appearances in the wake of his July 1966 motorcycle accident. His first released version of the song was included on the November 1971 compilation Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II – more than three years after The Byrds had put it out in April 1968 as the lead single of their sixth album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, marking the first song’s commercial release.

Dylan’s writing of You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere fell into the period between June and October 1967 when the maestro penned many new songs and recorded them with The Band who at the time were still called The Hawks. Many of these recordings, at a house known as Big Pink, were first officially released in June 1975 as The Basement Tapes, though most had already appeared earlier on various bootleg albums.

The Byrds picked You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere as a cover after their label Columbia Records, which also was Dylan’s record company, sent them some demos from the Woodstock sessions. They recorded their rendition in March 1968. While it didn’t become as famous as their gorgeous cover of Mr. Tambourine Man, some critics have called it their best Dylan cover.

“I thought they sounded really good,” Roger McGuinn told Uncut, referring to the demos, as documented by Songfacts. “You didn’t know what Bob was up to; and far as I knew, he was just laid up from a motorcycle accident. But I think it was probably a reaction to the psychedelic thing. It just got to be too much and everybody wanted to back off.”

Unlike the song title may have suggested, the single by The Byrds went to no. 74 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached no. 45 on the UK Singles Chart. Here’s a version Roger McGuinn and his ex-Byrds mate Chris Hillman recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. A single of it released in 1989 made the top 10 of Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart.

According to Wikipedia, The Byrds’ rendition of You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere led to a minor controversy with Dylan: Dylan’s original demo of the song contained the lyric, “Pick up your money, pack up your tent”, which was mistakenly altered in the Byrds’ version, by guitarist and singer Roger McGuinn, to “Pack up your money, pick up your tent”. Dylan expressed mock-annoyance at this lyric change in his 1971 recording of the song, singing “Pack up your money, put up your tent, McGuinn/You ain’t goin’ nowhere.” McGuinn replied in 1989 on a new recording of the song included on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume Two album, adding the word “Dylan” after the same “Pack up your money, pick up your tent” lyric. Egos in music!

Evidently, all was forgotten by October 16, 1992, when Roger McGuinn and many other prominent artists came together at New York’s Madison Square Garden to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary as a recording artist. Most of the concert, dubbed Bobfest, was captured on CD and VHS. Subsequently, in March 2014, the concert was re-released in Deluxe Edition 2-DVD and Blu-ray sets with bonus performances and behind-the-scenes rehearsal footage, as well as a 2-CD set with two bonus rehearsal tracks. Here’s You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere performed by Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rosanne Cash and Shawn Colvin. You can read more about Bobfest here.

In addition to The Byrds and the aforementioned renditions, You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere has been covered by many other artists. SecondHandSongs lists more than 100 versions. Here’s a neat rendition by a cappella group The Persuasions from an apparent Dylan tribute titled Knockin’ On Bob’s Door, released in 2010.

Given the repeated references to Dylan throughout the post, I felt I would have been amiss not to include at least one version by him. I’m leaving you with the above noted recording that appeared on the November 1971 compilation Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits Vol. II.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; SecondHandSongs; YouTube

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I hope this week has been kind to you. Welcome to another installment of my recurring feature that explores specific songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. The other day, fellow blogger Dave from A Sound Day wrote about Supertramp’s 1977 album Even in the Quietest Moments…. This reminded me I had earmarked the British group months ago for Song Musings. My pick: Child of Vision.

Child of Vision primarily was written by Roger Hodgson, though it is also credited to the group’s co-founder Rick Davies. The song is the stunning closer of Breakfast in America, Supertramp’s sixth album from March 1979, which remains my favorite by the band. Among the great tracks on this album Child of Vision has always been a standout to me because of its neat piano action.

Child of Vision was an album track only, likely at least in part due to its length of close to seven and a half minutes. Of the four songs that also appeared as singles, The Logical Song turned out to be the biggest hit and Supertramp’s highest charting song in the U.S. at no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Breakfast in America became their most commercially successful album with approximately 20 million units sold worldwide, of which the U.S. accounts for more than 4 million.

As noted above, one of the song’s great features are the piano parts. The main instrument is a Wurlitzer electric piano played by Hodgson. The grand piano including the extended solo was performed by Davies. Supertramp’s saxophonist John Helliwell played the sax solo at the end of the song. The other members on the recording were Dougie Thomson and Bob Siebenberg, the band’s bassist and drummer, respectively. Here’s a neat live version recorded shortly after the album had come out.

Child of Vision’s lyrics question a materialistic lifestyle. Wikipedia notes Hodgson stated the song was written to be an equivalent to “Gone Hollywood”, looking at how Americans live, though he confessed that he had only a limited familiarity with US culture at the time of writing. He also said there is a slight possibility that he subconsciously had Rick Davies in mind while writing the lyrics. Hodgson and Davies had very different views of the world.

“Child of Vision was an inspirational song,” Hodgson explained on Facebook in October 2015, according to AZLyrics. “It was more of a commentary, really, of what I was seeing around me. I am singing to the idealist in Child of Vision – basically buying into the American lifestyle – ‘they gave me Coca-Cola and they had me watch television’. It was maybe talking to part of myself to hang on to the vision beyond that.”

Here’s another live version by Hodgson, captured in Montreal, Canada, in October 2013. He was backed by Kevin Adamson (keyboards, backing vocals), Aaron Macdonald (saxophones, harmonica, keyboards, backing vocals), David J Carpenter (bass, backing vocals) and Bryan Head (drums).

I’ll leave you with the lyrics:

Well, who do you think you’re fooling?
You say you’re having fun
But you’re busy going nowhere
Just lying in the sun
You tried to be a hero
And commit the perfect crime
But the dollar got you dancing
And you’re running out of time
And you’re messing up the water
And you’re rolling in the wine
And you’re poisoning your body
And you’re poisoning your mind
And you gave me Coca-Cola
‘Cause you said it tasted good
Then you watch the television
‘Cause it tells you that you should

Ooh, how can you live in this way?
(Why do you think it’s so strange?)
You must have something to say
(Tell me why should I change?)
There must be more to this life
It’s time we did something right
I said “Child of vision, won’t you listen?
Find yourself a new ambition”

I’ve heard it all before
You’re saying nothing new
I thought I saw a rainbow
But I guess it wasn’t true
And you cannot make me listen
And I cannot make you hear
So you find your way to heaven
And I’ll meet you when you’re there

How can you live in this way?
(Why do you think it’s so strange?)
You must have something to say
(Tell me why should I change?)
We have no reason to fight
‘Cause we both know that we’re right
I said “Child of vision, won’t you listen?
Find yourself a new ambition”

Sources: Wikipedia; AZLyrics; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy Hump Day and welcome to another edition of my weekly feature, which takes a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. On March 30, singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman turned 60, something I would have completely missed, had it not been for fellow blogger Dave who pens the excellent A Sound Day and posted about the happy occasion. Not surprisingly, he also included my pick this week: Fast Car, a song that was instant love the moment I heard it for the first time!

Fast Car appeared in April 1988 on Chapman’s eponymous debut album and like all other tracks on this gem was solely written by her. It also became Chapman’s first single and biggest hit, topping the charts in Canada, Belgium, Ireland, The Netherlands and Portugal. In the U.S., it peaked at no. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100, while in the UK it climbed to no. 5. The song also hit certification thresholds in various markets, most notably in the UK where it reached 4x Platinum last month (2.4 million certified sold units).

Not only only did Chapman’s expressive, relatively low voice grab my attention right away, but I also immediately loved the acoustic guitar part. Together with Talkin’ about a Revolution, the second single that also received lots of radio play back in Germany at the time, it made me buy the album on CD and subsequently a companion songbook for guitar. That’s when I fully realized how great the lyrics of these two songs are, as well as the other tracks on the album.

Fast Car tells the tale of a woman who likes to escape her dreadful life and tries to convince her unemployed and unsupportive partner to come with her to build a better future, recalling a time when he made her feel great while they were driving in his car. Thematically, it reminds me of The Animals‘ 1965 hit single We Gotta Get Out of This Place co-written by Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil. Here’s a clip of Chapman playing the song at the June 11, 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute at London’s Wembley Stadium – an impromptu performance that changed her career trajectory, as explained further down in this post.

At the 1989 Grammy Awards, Chapman won Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for Fast Car. The song was also nominated for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. In Rolling Stone’s 2004 inaugural list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Fast Car was ranked at no. 167. In the most recent February 2024 revision, the song came in at no. 71, matching its position in the September 2021 update. Fast Car also made Pitchfork’s August 2015 list of The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s at no. 86.

SecondHandSongs lists close to 100 cover versions of Fast Car, mostly by lesser known artists. The most notable exception is country singer-songwriter Luke Combs who included a decent rendition on his fourth studio album Gettin’ Old that came out in March 2023. Not only did he score a major hit reaching no. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and hitting no. 1 on the Country Airplay chart, but Combs also won Single of Year at the 2023 Annual Country Music Association Awards. Chapman took home Song of the Year, becoming the first Black woman to ever win a CMA award. Here’s Chapman’s amazing live performance with Combs at this year’s Grammy Awards where Combs was nominated for Best Country Solo Performance. Gosh, this is just great!

Here’s another cool rendition of Fast Car by Black Pumas, an intriguing partnership between producer and multi-instrumentalist Adrian Quesada and singer-songwriter Eric Burton. According to AllMusic, they fuse cinematic neo-soul, light psychedelia, and a touch of urban grit. Black Pumas released their cover of Fast Car in August 2020.

Following are select additional insights from Songfacts:

In the BBC radio series Striking A Chord, Chapman talked about the meaning of “Fast Car.”

“It very generally represents the world that I saw when I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, coming from a working-class background, being raised by a single mom and being in a community of people who were struggling,” she said. “Everyone was working hard and hoping that things would get better.”

“It wasn’t directly autobiographical,” she continued. “I never had a fast car. It’s a story about a couple and how they are trying to make a life together and they face various challenges.”

The catalyst [for Fast Car – CMM] came on June 11, 1988, when Chapman was on the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium along with big names like Whitney Houston, Peter Gabriel, and Jackson Browne. She did a three-song set in the afternoon that included the apropos “Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution,” but not “Fast Car.” She thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert, but as the show stretched into the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back on stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar, wowing the crowd and building quite a buzz. The song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, landing at #5 in the UK on July 16 and #6 in America on August 27. In the US, her album also hit #1 on that date.

Combs’ version keeps a tight grip on the original’s iconic guitar riffs, with a gravelly vocal delivery that sometimes mimics Chapman’s. It’s worth noting that Chapman is known to be very selective about who gets to use her work.

Combs has said that “Fast Car” was his first favorite song, and he learned to play guitar using it. He’s such a fan of the original that he refers to himself as a “girl” in the fourth verse to preserve the lyrics.

[Producer – CMM] David Kershenbaum wanted to create a sonic landscape that allowed Tracy Chapman to shine. Recognizing the delicate balance required when adding additional players to an acoustic artist’s work, Kershenbaum opted for a meticulous approach.

He recorded Tracy and her guitar on a digital machine, then brought in five studio drummers and five bass players to lay down tracks. Kershenbaum carefully curated the mix, picking and choosing until he struck gold with the winning combination of Denny Fongheiser on drums and Larry Klein on bass. [There is also Ed Black on guitar – CMM]

“The combination of Denny and Larry was the correct one,” he told Billboard. “Many times, they are all that’s playing along with Tracy. It’s a third of the record. So, I had to be careful that they were really supporting what she was doing and not distracting because she had to be in at the forefront of this.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Rolling Stone; SecondHandSongs; AllMusic; Songfacts; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to Song Musings, my recurring midweek feature in which I dig deeper into a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. As a huge fan of Steely Dan, today’s pick definitely falls into the first category: Black Cow.

Co-written by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen, Black Cow is the amazing opener of Aja, Steely Dan’s sixth studio album released in September 1977 and, I think many fans agree, their musical Mount Rushmore. In August 1978, Black Cow also appeared as the B-side of the album’s third single Josie.

The single enjoyed moderate chart success, peaking at no. 24 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. In Canada, it did slightly better, climbing to no. 20. The Aja album, on the other hand, was hugely successful, peaking at no. 3 in the U.S. on the Billboard 200 and in New Zealand, no. 5 in the UK and no. 9 in each The Netherlands and Australia. Aja also reached 2X Platinum status in the U.S. (2 million certified sold units) and Canada (200,000 certified sold units), as well as Gold status in the UK (100,000).

Like the title track and Peg, Walter Becker did not play on the recording of Black Cow. Donald Fagen provided lead vocals and synthesizer. As had become common since the March 1975 Katy Lied album, Messrs. Becker and Fagen relied on contributions from top-notch session musicians: Larry Carlton (guitar), Joe Sample (clavinet), Victor Feldman (Fender Rhodes), Tom Scott (tenor saxophone), Chuck Rainey (bass) and Paul Humphrey (drums). Backing vocals came from Clydie King, Venetta Fields, Sherlie Matthews and Rebecca Louis. Here’s a live version captured by yours truly in New Jersey in July 2018.

Black Cow has been covered by various other artists over the years. Among others, SecondHandSongs lists jazz pianist Ahamad Jamal (1978), jazz drummer Norman Connors (1980), smooth jazz guitarist Nick Colionne (1999), soul and jazz singer-songwriter Tony Gallo (2006), Canadian art rock band The Darcys (2012) and singer and actress Linda Lavin (2020), among others. Here’s Colionne’s instrumental version, which he recorded for his 1999 album The Seduction.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

“Black Cow” has a number of lyrical interpretations: a troubled relationship, an ode to self-doubt, a commentary on nightlife, a reference to Hindu culture (cows are sacred). Or it could be about Thelonious Monk, the American jazz composer who is often regarded as the father of bebop.

In the Classic Albums episode on the album Aja, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, perhaps showing their wry sense of humor, described the lyric as “self explanatory,” but did offer some insight as to what they had in mind.

“It starts out with this guy talking about this girl he used to be involved with,” Fagan said. “She’s sitting at a counter, and he describes her behavior and habits, and out of that you begin to see her character and their relationship.”

He added that the “black cow” is a beverage – depending on where you live, it can be a milkshake or a coke float (like a root beer float, but with coke). But it’s something you would get at a soda fountain, where the song takes place. In the ’50s, Fagen and Becker spent a lot of time at these soda fountains.

Note the deceptively simple disco-era instrumental starting out with a bass line and drums, then sneaking in layers of complexity with saxophone accompaniment and the electric piano solo. Steely Dan made a name for themselves with highly polished productions using a wide array of session musicians.

Becker and Fagan would sometimes record a song with one group of musicians, decide it wasn’t working, and try it again with an entirely new set of players – rinse and repeat until it was right. Aja was their sixth album; by this time Fagen and Becker had refined their system and developed an uncommon rapport where they could almost read each other’s musical minds.

The multitrack masters for “Black Cow” and “Aja” have gone missing, which makes it impossible to do surround-sound versions of these tracks. In the liner notes to the stereo remaster of the Aja album, the band offered a $600 reward for information leading to their return.

The 1998 hip-hop hit “Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)” by Lord Tariq & Peter Gunz samples significant portions of “Black Cow.” So much that Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are listed as the writers on the track.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; SecondHandSongs; YouTube

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday, which means time again to take a deeper dive into a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. My pick this week is I’m No Angel by Gregg Allman, an artist I’ve grown very fond of.

I’m No Angel was co-written by two British artists, singer-songwriter Tony Colton and rock sideman and session guitarist Phil Palmer. The song was first recorded by Bill Medley, former member of The Righteous Brothers, for his 1982 solo album Right Here and Now. Gregg Allman covered it five years later, making it the title track of his fourth solo album released in February 1987. The song also became the first single the following month.

I’m No Angel hit no. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock, marking Allman’s only chart-topping single. It also climbed to no. 45 on the Billboard Hot 100. This was an unexpected success for Allman whose singles either missed the charts and or charted lower. The album reached no. 30 on the Billboard 200 and also made the Canadian Album Chart, at no. 92.

Wikipedia notes the song’s lyrics were inspired by a child Phil Palmer had spotted with a T-shirt that read “Daddy’s No. 1 Angel.” Due to a fold in the shirt, Palmer initially thought it was “Daddy’s No Angel.” Knowing Gregg Allman’s struggle with alcohol and drug addiction and that by the time he recorded the song he had been divorced for the fourth time (from Julie Bindas in 1981), one could be forgiven to think I’m No Angel was an autobiographic song.

Allman began performing I’m No Angel during live shows in the mid-’80s and recorded a demo of the song at the time. It had been eight years since his last album Two the Hard Way, which he had recorded with Cher, his then-third wife. Eventually, the demo made it to Epic Records who signed Allman and released the album and its follow-on Just Before the Bullets Fly (July 1988).

Allman continued to perform the song during live shows after he had recorded it, both solo and with The Allman Brothers Band. I’m No Angel was also covered by a few artists, who notably included Cher during some of her concerts in the late ’80s. Here’s a September 2015 studio rendition by a band called The Egrets.

Following are some additional tidbits by Songfacts:

Most of the ’80s were a tough time for Allman: He was in a drug-induced funk for much of the decade, but came out of it long enough to record this album.

This was an appropriate song for Allman, who endured years of alcohol and drug problems and five failed marriages. In the song, he explains that with him, you have to take the good with the bad. He’s a classic dangerous rebel type, complete with tattoos and a dark side. He’s letting the girl know that she’ll love him anyway, even as he drives her crazy.

Gregg Allman wrote most of his own songs and had a hand in composing most of the Allman Brothers catalog, but he didn’t write “I’m No Angel.” The song was written by Phil Palmer and Tony Colton; Palmer is a British session guitarist who recorded with Dire Straits and Eric Clapton; Colton was in a band called Head Hands and Feet with Albert Lee in the ’70s before moving on to songwriting and production work. They submitted the demo to Allman, who immediately identified with the song and decided to record it.

Cher opened her 1988 concerts with this song. Her tumultuous marriage to Allman lasted 1975-1979.

Allman never became a video star, but he did make a foray into the MTV age with his video for this song, where he and his band break down in front of a dilapidated saloon. Conveniently, there are instruments set up, so they start playing while ghosts appear from the bygone days of the Old West. Allman’s avatar is hanged, but not before he kisses his comely executioner.

Jeff Stein, who also did Tom Petty’s “Don’t Come Around Here No More” and Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell,” was the director.

This was one of only two hits for Allman as a solo artist; in 1974 his song “Midnight Rider,” originally recorded with his band The Allman Brothers, reached #19 after he included it on his first solo album and issued it as a single.

In a sure sign that he will never get his wings, Allman spent three days in jail for drunk driving a few weeks before the I’m No Angel album was released. He had been arrested in September 1986 after failing a roadside sobriety test in Belleview, Florida.

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Secondhand Songs; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy Wednesday and welcome to another installment of my midweek feature, in which I take a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. Today’s pick resulted from an online chat in early March with fellow blogger Matthew, aka as The Observation Blogger in the wake of his post about Leonard Cohen’s I Can’t Forget. Check out his blog when you have a chance!

The aforementioned interaction prompted me to write about a song I loved from the very first moment I heard it: First We Take Manhattan, as covered by Jennifer Warnes.

Of course, Leonard Cohen connoisseurs know the Canadian singer-songwriter, poet and novelist penned this gem. But it was Jennifer Warnes who first recorded it for her stunning sixth studio album Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen. The versatile American singer-songwriter is best known for collaborations with the likes of Joe Cocker, Bob Dylan and Cohen. She first worked with the Canadian artist in 1972 when she sang with Cohen on his Bird On the Wire European tour.

Sadly, Warnes’ fantastic rendition of First We Take Manhattan fell far short of the chart success of Up Where We Belong and (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life, her hugely popular 1982 and 1987 duets with Joe Cocker and Bill Medley, respectively. The single did best on the Canadian Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks where it peaked at no. 6. On the equivalent Billboard chart in the U.S. it climbed to no. 29. Cohen subsequently recorded the song for his February 1988 studio album I’m Your Man and also released it as a single. It missed the charts altogether!

In addition to Warnes’ compelling vocals, which stand in stark contrast to the bone-chilling lyrics that at least in part are about terrorism, I’ve always dug the amazing lead guitar work on this song. It was provided by none other than Stevie Ray Vaughan, one of my all-time favorite blues rock guitarists.

Roscoe Beck who together with Warnes co-produced Famous Blue Raincoat and also played bass was friends with Vaughan and asked the Texan to play guitar on the recording. Apparently, Vaughan showed up with no equipment and ended up using one of Beck’s old Fender Stratocasters. After working out some technical challenges, the guitar virtuoso finished recording his takes at 4:00 a.m.!

The song’s official video, directed by Paula Walker, was filmed in New York City. It features SVR playing his beat up “Number One” Stratocaster on the Brooklyn Bridge. Cohen appears in the video as well, together with Warnes.

First We Take Manhattan has also been covered by a number of other artists, most notably R.E.M. and Joe Cocker. SecondHandSongs counted 50 versions. Here’s Cocker’s rendition, which he included on his 17th studio album No Ordinary World, released in October 1999 in Europe, followed by the U.S. in August 2000.

Following are some additional insights from Songfacts:

If you’re a bit puzzled by this song, that might be the point. Cohen took a shot at explaining it in the April 1993 issue of Song Talk. The Canadian singer/ songwriter said: “I felt for sometime that the motivating energy, or the captivating energy, or the engrossing energy available to us today is the energy coming from the extremes. That’s why we have Malcolm X. And somehow it’s only these extremist positions that can compel our attention. And I find in my own mind that I have to resist these extremist positions when I find myself drifting into a mystical fascism in regards to myself. [Laughs]”

“So this song, ‘First We Take Manhattan,’ what is it? Is he serious? And who is we? And what is this constituency that he’s addressing? Well, it’s that constituency that shares this sense of titillation with extremist positions. I’d rather do that with an appetite for extremism than blow up a bus full of schoolchildren.”

Bassist and longtime Cohen associate Roscoe Beck produced the cut. He recalled to Uncut: “I was working on Jennifer Warnes’ record of Leonard’s songs, Famous Blue Raincoat, so I called him in Montreal to ask if he had any new material for it, and he played me, ‘First We Take Manhattan.’ I was stunned. Leonard had written on keyboards since the early ’80s, but this was a much more heavily synthesized, Eurodisco approach.”

“I was also taken aback by the lyrics,” he added. “They scared me. The singer’s character seemed mentally unstable, and I wondered what the song was about. Leonard says it’s someone who’s an outsider, demented and menacing. I had an eerie feeling about it.”

Leonard arranged his version in Montreal, and he and I finished it in LA,” Beck concluded. “He’d stacked female backing vocals that were quite a surprise. The song was such a departure from the folkiness of his past. It was a fresh start.”

The Jennifer Warnes version starts out with some spoken German radio about a Berlin disco in which some US servicemen were killed only a few months after they recorded the song. Beck commented: “It seemed prophetic of that, and 9/11 too.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; Jennifer Warnes website; YouTube

Song Musings

Happy hump day and welcome to the first post-winter installment of Song Musings 2024 – yep, as of yesterday, spring has officially started, at least for folks in the Northern Hemisphere. In case you’re new to my recurring midweek feature, these posts dig deeper into songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date. This time, my pick may surprise some of my regular readers: Sailing by Christopher Cross. Yep, a track that’s on the lush side but I’ve always dug it.

Written by Christopher Cross, Sailing was featured on his eponymous debut album that came out in December 1979. The song also appeared separately as the album’s second single in June 1980. It became one of the San Antonio singer-songwriter and guitarist’s best-known and highest-charting songs, topping the Billboard Hot 1oo in the U.S., as well as the pop charts in Canada. Elsewhere, it did best in New Zealand (no. 8), The Netherlands (no. 18) and Ireland (no. 21).

In addition to enjoying significant chart success, Sailing won three Grammys in 1980 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Arrangement of the Year. It also helped the Texan win the Album of the Year and Best New Artist categories. Sailing and the album were produced by multi-Grammy winning Michael Omartian who also played piano on it and arranged the strings. Apart from Cross, Omartian has worked with the likes of Steely Dan, Dolly Parton and Rod Stewart.

Sailing was one of the first digitally recorded songs to chart. It also is widely considered as a classic example of the yacht rock genre. Drawing on smooth soul, smooth jazz, R&B and disco, yacht rock was popular between the mid ’70s and mid ’80s. At the time it was known as West Coast or adult-oriented music. The term “yacht rock” was only created in 2005 by the makers of an online video series of the same name, which followed the fictionalized lives and careers of American soft rock stars of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Here’s a live version of Sailing, which apparently was captured in September 2022.

Cross has said Sailing was inspired by an older friend from high school who would take him sailing as a teenager to leave the troubles of everyday life behind for some time. Apparently, this friend was like an older brother to Cross during what was an emotionally difficult time for him.

During his Grammy acceptance speech Cross noted that while Sailing was his favorite song on the album, it wasn’t meant to become a single initially. Later, he told Songfacts he didn’t believe Sailing was going to be a hit, thinking it “was way too introspective.” Given how wrong Cross was, perhaps it’s not suprising Sailing was covered by a number of artists over the decades. SecondHandSongs counted 85 versions. Here’s a neat a cappella rendition Take 6 recorded for their 2018 album Iconic.

Following are some additional tidbits from Songfacts:

In a Songfacts interview with Christopher Cross, he told the story of the song: “I was just at home sitting in this cheap apartment, sitting at the table. I remember coming up with the verse and chorus, and the lyrics to the first verse of the chorus all came out. These tunings, like Joni [Mitchell] used to say, they get you in this sort of trance, so all that came out at once: ‘It’s not far down to paradise…’ The chorus just sort of came out.”

“So I got up and wandered around the apartment just thinking, ‘Wow, that’s pretty f–kin’ great.’ I just thought, ‘That’s really cool.’ So then I sat down and had to try to come up with other stuff to make the rest of the song, but I thought I had something there.”

“Then it took about two years before I had a bridge to that song, because the modality of the modal tuning thing, it gets pretty linear, and you’ve got to be careful. There are writers – I won’t mention who – whose songs can get kind of boring because everything’s this modality. So I knew I needed to lift the song out of that modality in the bridge and make key changes.”

“It took about two years before I came up with the bridge that changes all the keys to where it lifts, but it was a pretty special moment.”

Michael Omartian, who was Cross’ producer, also contributed keyboards and background vocals to the album. Omartian has worked on many hit songs – he co-wrote “She Works Hard For The Money” and produced “We Are The World” with Quincy Jones. Jay Graydon, who is also a hit songwriter and producer, played guitar on the Christopher Cross album. He singles out Omartian and David Foster as guys who are great to have in sessions. “These guys are just incredible musicians,” he told Songfacts. “I’m pretty good at doing string stuff and synth overdubs, and of course guitar overdubs and stuff, but you bring good guys in, then it gets really masterful.”

Sources: Wikipedia; Songfacts; SecondHandSongs; YouTube

Song Musings

It’s Wednesday and I’d like to welcome you to another installment of my midweek feature taking a closer look at a song I’ve only mentioned in passing or haven’t covered at all to date. This time, I decided to highlight a song that only five or six years ago I possibly would have dismissed as hillbilly music: Six Days On the Road as rendered by Dave Dudley.

What has been called the definitive American trucker song was penned by Alabama songwriters Earl Green, who was a truck driver before he got into songwriting, and Carl Montgomery, a songwriter for Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. Paul Davis, a relatively unknown artist (not to be confused with Paul Lavon Davis), first recorded Six Days On the Road in 1961, but it didn’t become a hit until Dudley cut it and released his single in May 1963.

Six Days On the Road became Dudley’s signature song and first big hit on the U.S. country charts, surging all the way to no. 2. It also was his first to enter the U.S. pop chart Billboard Hot 100 where it broke into the top 40, reaching no. 32. In addition, the song became the de facto title track of his first album Dave Dudley Sings Six Days On the Road. It peaked at no. 16 on the Top Country Albums chart, which is safe to assume reflected the popularity of the single.

Six Days On the Road was neither the first trucker song nor the best, opined country music historian Bill Malone, according to Wikipedia, adding it did make trucker songs popular. He also said this: Dudley “strikingly captures the sense of boredom, danger and swaggering masculinity that often accompanies long-distance truck driving. His macho interpretation, with its rock-and-roll overtones, is perfect for the song.” This rings spot on to me! The following live performance apparently was captured in 1966.

Apart from the music, which neatly blends traditional country and rockabilly elements, and Dudley’s cool vocal delivery, it’s the cinematic lyrics that drew me into the song. Well I pulled outta Pittsburgh a rollin’ down that Eastern Seaboard/I got my diesel wound up and she’s a runnin’ like a never before is all I needed to hear to see a movie unfold before my eyes. As the song continues with There’s a speed zone ahead, well alright, I don’t see a cop in sight/Six days on the road and I’m gonna make it home tonight, you’re just rooting for the guy, as he pushes the pedal to the metal!

Another remarkable thing about the lyrics is the open reference to drug use: I’m takin’ little white pills and my eyes are open wide. I certainly don’t mean to romanticize popping uppers, but it undoubtedly happens in high-stress jobs like long distance trucking. That said, this was 1963, and when researching the song, I didn’t read anything about any bans on radio or TV. Interestingly, country music band Sawyer Brown in their 1997 rendition chose to “sanitize” the lyrics by changing the line to “I’m passing little white lines.”

Speaking of renditions, perhaps not surprisingly, Dave Dudley by far wasn’t the only music artist who covered Six Days On the Road. In fact, SecondHandSongs notes 140 versions of the song. I’d like to leave you with three of them:

Taj Mahal (1969)

The Flying Burrito Brothers (1972)

George Thorogood and the Destroyers (1991) – you just know this one’s gotta be fun, f-f-f-f-fun! 🙂

Sources: Wikipedia; SecondHandSongs; YouTube