I wrinkle my brow at those who limit themselves to the music of their youth, but here I am with three acoustic songs written before 1980, one of them when Shakespeare was a toddler.
Poor old Granddad, I laughed at all his words
I thought he was a bitter man when he spoke of women's ways:
"They'll trap you and they'll use you before you even know; but love is blind, and you're far too kind-- don't ever let it show."
I wish that I knew what I know now
when I was younger
I wish that I knew what I know now
when I was stronger
"The can-can's such a pretty show; it'll steal your heart away
But backstage, back on earth again, the dressing rooms are gray.
They come on strong, and it ain't too long 'fore they make you feel a man,
But love is blind, and you soon will find you're just a boy again."
"When you want her lips, you get her cheek; makes you wonder where you are. If you want some more then she's fast asleep, leaves you twinkling with the stars. Poor young Grandson, there's nothing I can say; you'll have to learn, just like me, and that's the hardest way."
Ooh la la
Ooh la la, la la
The morning after seems like a good time to re-appreciate "Ooh La La" by Ronnie Lane.
The earliest surviving version of "John Barleycorn Must Die" dates to 1568, and even Robert Burns had a version; the one I know was recorded by Traffic in 1970.
I've always wanted to ask Bruce Cockburn if this really was based on an archetypal dream, or if he thinking of the lions playing on the beach in the dreams of The Old Man and the Sea.
"All the Stones the Builders Rejected" 
(And some days it takes more Stones than others...) Where Mythical Bestiary meets Contemporary Culture and Chews On Its Leg Until Covered with Slobber.
Showing posts with label video clips. Show all posts
Showing posts with label video clips. Show all posts
The Puppy Debate
I've been soured on CNN for more than a year now (somebody take those graphics away from Blitzer! And who made these chair-warmers into pundits?)-- but have decided to forgive Anderson Cooper, at least, for moderating this debate.
"The Blue Light was My Blues, and the Red Light was My Mind"
My favorite Robert Johnson song performed by Keb Mo. The version on his album Slow Down is more personal, and well, just a hair slower, and for me about as heartbreaking as it gets this side of Mozart's "Lachrymosa" or Skip James' voice on "Cypress Grove Blues".
AND WHO SHALL WE BLAME, THE CYNICAL RECRUITER OR THE NAIVE RECRUIT?
I make a date for golf, and you can bet your life it rains.
I try to give a party, and the guy upstairs complains.
I guess I'll go through life, just catching colds and missing trains.
Everything happens to me.
I never miss a thing. I've had the measles and the mumps.
And every time I play an ace, my partner always trumps.
I guess I'm just a fool, who never looks before he jumps.
Everything happens to me.
At first, my heart thought you could break this jinx for me.
That love would turn the trick to end despair.
But now I just can't fool this head that thinks for me.
I've mortgaged all my castles in the air.
I've telegraphed and phoned and sent an air mail special too.
Your answer was goodbye and there was even postage due.
I fell in love just once, and then it had to be with you.
Everything happens to me.
I've telegraphed and phoned. I sent an air mail special too.
Your answer was goodbye and there was even postage due.
I fell in love just once, and then it had to be with you.
Everything happens to me.
'Everything Happens To Me' lyrics by CHET BAKER
Cab Calloway: "Reefer Man"
I'm not a viper (the stuff doesn't affect me), but I am a true devotee of "reefer songs", double entendre lyrics and hot jazz of the '20s, '30s and '40s. It is because of this that I die alone and childless; none of the women who let me get close enough to have sex with them were willing to name a child "Fats" Waller Fountain. In our beginning is our end.
This clip is from W.C. Fields' 1933 film "International House", a film so surreal that if you saw it on late night television and tried describing it to your friends, YOU would be accused of being high. The performance is being watched by Fields (in the straw boater) over Dr. Wong's Radioscope, which "needs no broadcast station; no carrier waves are necessary." Indeed.
This clip is from W.C. Fields' 1933 film "International House", a film so surreal that if you saw it on late night television and tried describing it to your friends, YOU would be accused of being high. The performance is being watched by Fields (in the straw boater) over Dr. Wong's Radioscope, which "needs no broadcast station; no carrier waves are necessary." Indeed.
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