#2 Stones In The Road -- Mary Chapin Carpenter (1994)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CPMWyiAESo

Back in the day (mid to late 80s, I think), a group of us started going to see Emmylou Harris at Wolf Trap every year. One particular year, her opening act was someone we had never heard of, named Mary Chapin Carpenter. We were so impressed that we started going to Carpenter’s annual performances instead, although a few of us kept going to Emmylou’s shows as well. By now, I’ve seen more performances by her than by any other artist – in addition to the shows that she does almost every summer at Wolf Trap, I’ve caught shows by her at other local venues (Birchmere, 9:30 Club, Lyric Opera House in Baltimore), and one each in Philadelphia (WXPN annual summer music festival) and Elmer, NJ (Appel Farm Arts and Music Festival). I actually started going to the WXPN festivals in the summer of 2000 to see Carpenter, because for some reason she wasn’t going to be at Wolf Trap that year.

Carpenter wrote “Stones In The Road” during the heyday of her period as an unlikely country music superstar. The song is certainly more folk than country – it was actually first recorded by Joan Baez – which helps explain why her record company never released it as a single. Unlike “Slippin’ Into Darkness” and “Thunder Road” it follows the traditional verse-chorus-bridge structure, but like the latter the lyrics are outstanding, a parable of growing up in a comfortable white middle-class environment, for the most part touched only indirectly by the chaos of the late 1960s, and seeing youthful idealism replaced by the cynicism of the grownup rat race. It’s interesting that while the references in the first verse of the song (Pledge of Allegiance, starving children overseas) are common to many of us, the second verse is intensely personal, as Carpenter was growing up in Princeton NJ when Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral train traveled from New York down to Washington after his assassination in 1968. And as with “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”, the final lines pack a real punch. (Carpenter was always best when her political points were subtle):

"And the stones in the road leave a mark from whence they came / A thousand points of light or shame, baby, I don't know."

 

#3 Thunder Road -- Bruce Springsteen (1975)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGBXnw86Mgc

Picking a single “favorite song” isn’t the easiest thing in the world; probably any of the top 9 on this list could make a strong case for the honor. In particular, the top 3 are really more like 1A, 1B, and 1C.

In general, I get annoyed when people pull out the lyrics from rock (or other) songs and point to them as poetry. Song lyrics aren’t meant to stand alone. Rather, they’re designed to work along with the musical elements of the song. So, there are many great songs with wonderful lyrics that work well in the context of the song, but aren’t necessarily impressive if pulled out and viewed on their own.

There are, however, certainly some songs whose lyrics alone could stand on their own merits, and Springsteen has written more than his share of these (as has Joni Mitchell). “Thunder Road” for me tops the list, not least for its relative brevity (as early Bruce goes); as he himself said later in “No Surrender”, “We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school.” (OK, “Thunder Road” actually runs 4:51, but you get the point.)

My college roommate and I were introduced to Bruce’s music by our next-door neighbor in the dorm, who hailed from the Philadelphia suburbs. The three of us wound up developing a Sunday night ritual of listening to one side of a Bruce album – there were only two at the time – every Sunday night, and on October 20, 1974 we made the drive from Lebanon Valley to Dickinson College in Carlisle to see him perform, in what appeared to be the college dining hall / multi-purpose room. For some reason, I have never forgotten that the opening act was (as introduced by Bruce) Hange Range, from Schooley’s Mountain, New Jersey. Don’t think he did “Thunder Road”, but we do remember him doing “Jungleland”.

Best Music of 2014

Here’s my annual list of favorite songs and albums. I’ll update this post once the results are in from the three radio station polls in which I voted. [DONE]

Songs (WXPN list) 

1. Happy – Pharrell Williams (#20 WXPN Top 200)
2. You Go Down Smooth – Lake Street Dive (#14 WXPN, #48 WTMD Top 89)
3. After The Disco – Broken Bells
4. The Moment – Toad The Wet Sprocket
5. Coming Of Age – Foster The People (#111 WXPN, #38 WTMD)
6. Bad Self Portraits – Lake Street Dive (#6 WXPN, #31 WTMD)
7. Holding On To Life – Broken Bells (#65 WTMD)
8. Turn It Around – Lucius (#113 WXPN)
9. Black & Blue – The Secret Sisters
10. Modern Blue – Roseanne Cash (#199 WXPN)

Other Favorite Songs (not played on WXPN) 

1. Use Me Up – Lake Street Dive (album track)
2. Love Never Felt So Good – Michael Jackson
3. Classic – MKTO
4. Ain’t It Fun – Paramore
5. The Story Of My Life – One Direction
6. All About That Bass – Meghan Trainor
7. American Dream – MKTO
8. Problem – Ariana Grande 

Favorite Albums

1. Bad Self Portraits – Lake Street Dive (#1 mvyradio Top 25)
2. Into The Mirror: Del Amitri Live In Concert
3. The River & The Thread – Roseanne Cash (#2)
4. Put Your Needle Down – The Secret Sisters
5. Twelve Stories – Owen Danoff
6. High Hopes --  Bruce Springsteen (#25)
7. Bluesamericana – Keb' Mo' (#6)
8. Give The People What They Want – Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings (#8)

Shuffle #39 (December 6, 2014)

Shake It – Iain Matthews

Yesterday Girl – The Smithereens

The Real Feeling – Ace

Back To Black – Amy Winehouse

I Wish It Would Rain – Rodney Crowell

Can’t Depend On Love – Gordon Lightfoot

Sunlight – The Youngbloods

Greenback Dollar – The Kingston Trio

Red Rain – Peter Gabriel

#4 Fire On The Bayou -- Neville Brothers (1981)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJpzNfao8X4

I’ve seen the Nevilles a few times, including at least twice at Wolf Trap, but my favorite show by them was at Rockville’s Hometown Holidays (annual Memorial Day weekend celebration) in 2000. I think the guys realized that many in the crowd for the free show on a drizzly Saturday evening didn’t necessarily know any of their stuff, so they stuck to their best material, rather than going off on any tangents (political or otherwise).

This one is the best of their best. If you can listen to it for more than a few seconds without getting an irresistable urge to get up and shake your booty, consider yourself clinically dead.

#5 Slippin' Into Darkness – War (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6L-2IQMDwcA

For my money, War is the best funk band this side of James Brown. Calling them a “funk band” really doesn’t do them justice, however, with the way their sound frequently features Latin rhythms and the harmonica work of Lee Oskar (probably the only Dane ever to play in a successful American funk or soul act).

While the group is best-known for top 10 hits such as “Cisco Kid”, “Why Can’t We Be Friends”, and “Low Rider”, “Slippin’ Into Darkness” is their masterpiece. Dave Marsh writes that the lyrics “evoke the dissolution of the civil rights movement into the drug-laced daze of the frustrated early seventies.” I’m not sure how much of that was intentional – the lyrics are certainly opaque in places – but “You’ve been slippin’ into darkness / Pretty soon you’re gonna pay” definitely does hit home.

Shuffle #38 (November 29, 2014)

Looking For An Echo – The Persuasions

Hold Back The Night – Graham Parker

Up The Junction – Squeeze

You Keep Me Hanging On – Joe Simon

Telegraph Road (LIVE) – Dire Straits

They Can’t Take That Away From Me – Patti Austin

Johnny One Time – Brenda Lee

#6 Over The Rainbow -- Eva Cassidy (1992)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGaVQN-en2A

With the possible exception of Sinatra, I’ve never heard anyone approach Eva Cassidy as a singer, in terms of voice quality, phrasing, and the overall ability to interpret a song, whether it be a standard like this one, a blues classic like “Stormy Monday”, a soul number like “People Get Ready”, or a folk tune such as “Who Knows Where The Time Goes.” I first saw her on a side stage at the Wolf Trap Jazz and Blues Festival one year, when she was performing with go-go legend Chuck Brown, and was instantly hooked. I was fortunate enough to see her a few more times before her untimely death from melanoma, once more with Chuck and a couple of times by herself at free summer/fall concerts outside the old Silver Spring Armory and at A Taste of DC downtown.

A few years after her death, BBC Radio 2 and the Top of the Pops British TV show picked up Cassidy’s recording of “Over The Rainbow”, eventually sending her Songbird album to the top of the British charts and bringing Cassidy much more fame and appreciation than she ever had during her lifetime. The posthumous success is richly deserved, not just for her stunning version of this song but for her entire body of work.

Serendipity #27

(I’ll Never Be) Your Maggie May – Suzanne Vega

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFs4isCJQEI

Heard 11/25/2014 around 5:30, at Jerry’s Subs (Fallsgrove)

Shuffle #37 (November 23, 2014)

Red Sails In The Sunset – The Spaniels

Sunny Came Home – Shawn Colvin

Do What You Want, Be What You Are – Hall & Oates

Leader Of The Pack – The Shangri-Las

Let’s Say Goodnight – Los Lobos

Caroline No – The Beach Boys

In These Shoes? – Kirsty MacColl

Twilight Zone – Golden Earring

Feel A Whole Lot Better – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Some Enchanted Evening – Jay & The Americans