Everybody Has A Dream by Billy Joel

Writer’s block has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. From the point I started studying the act of musical composition in middle school through college as a music compositions major and now writing this blog for the past seven years, the search for inspiration has been a constant struggle.

In my time sitting in a practice room with a blank piece of manuscript paper in front of me in college and during the times when I can’t figure out anything interesting to reflect on in the past week of my life, I find my greatest inspiration in the people in my life.

“Everybody Has A Dream” by Billy Joel isn’t really about dreams like we normally think about the,. When you hear that phase “Everybody Has A Dream,” you think of career goals, an exotic vacations and some material possession someone hopes to own. That is not what Joel is singing about. He says that his dream is to spend time alone at home with someone he loves. Why? Because the most powerful inspiration he has found in his life is in this person that he loves.

It’s not a coincidence that most of the Billy Joel songs I’ve written about have come from his masterpiece, The Stranger. This album is Joel's greatest work and one of the best albums in the popular music canon.  There’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” a magnificent Abbey Road-like reality check for high school students (and the rest of us), “Only the Good Die Young,” a hilarious commentary on Catholicism and the trade-offs we all make and “She’s Always A Woman,” a beautiful statement on the nature of femininity (click on the links to check out these posts).

All of these songs including the other tracks on this album blend together Joel’s 1970s cynicism he views love and relationships with the romanticism he grew up with in the 1950s. Even in his darkest moments Joel is an optimist. He believes in love he just doesn’t believe in all of the crap that gets in the way of love which is why it’s not a big surprise that he ends his masterpiece with “Everybody Has A Dream,” a song of thanksgiving.

“Everybody Has A Dream” has a slow gospel feel to it.  Joel's idolization of Ray Charles comes shining through from the chord progression to the laid back feel of the groove.  Echoing blues lyrics the verses speak of searching for inspiration. The world is so bleak he “relies of my imagination,” to get him through his life. The second verse affirms his believe and optimism “and if a word from you can bring a better day,” holds him up and keeps his hopes alive.

The second verse ends with lyrics that are resigned:

So let me lie and let me go on sleeping,
And I will lose myself in palaces of sand.
And all the fantasies that I have been keeping
Will make the empty hours easier to stand.

The bleakness of these words is followed by a the chorus which states that his dream is simply to be “with you.” He doesn’t want anything else in his life, he just wants to be with the person that he loves. When you find a person that brings you inspiration, the motivation not only to create art, but to get up out of bed in the morning, to believe in yourself, to give life your all and to stand up in the face of adversity, there is nothing that you want in life more than to be with that person.

This song is about the journey, the struggle to find inspiration and the strength in we find each other.  Sharing life with others is what gives life meaning and feeling that power is the greatest dream of all.

Wasted Time by The Eagles

“All relationships ends.”

We have this idea in our society that the perfect relationship starts in your twenties and lasts until you are on your deathbed. Then magically you and your partner die at the exactly same time and no one is left alone to mourn the other person.

This idealized version of a relationship places more value on the length and the way the relationship ends than on the relationship itself. Saying a relationship that lasts a month is not being significant and having a relationship end in betrayal makes us seems like it’s all just wasted time.



Eagles Wasted Time by alfa_blond

For Christmas I got a collection of the Eagles’ studio albums. I know this band from their reunion concert Hell Freezes Over, and I’ve enjoyed their music ever since. I was excited to listen to Hotel California and hear some of my favorite songs in the context of one of the greatest albums in the history of rock music.

While many people (including myself) mock the title track as being a party killer and putting crying babies to sleep (which I swear works for Ollie), “Hotel California” is a beautiful and haunting song. However, the song that really stuck out to me as being truly remarkable was “Wasted Time.”

Like Henley’s later solo song “Heart Of The Matter,” (which I wrote about in this previous post), “Wasted Time,” in an insightful and powerful song that illuminates truths about relationships and the complexities of love.

The song begins with Henley comforting a friend who has recently gone through a breakup. He sings  gently “you can’t believe it’s happening again . . . and it looks like the end.” Like a patient friend Henley works to validate his friend's feelings before helping her feel better. The way that Henley sings “you’re afraid it’s all been wasted time” hints at an understanding that he later reveals.

The way this friend’s relationship ended is one of most painful. It’s not that she was betrayed. In some ways she did everything right and it didn’t work out. She simply “loved the boy too well.” Henley shows off the subtle and effortless acrobatics of his voice with line, gently soaring up and resting on the word “well.” As he continues, he reveals that he too is trying to stop worrying if it’s all been wasted time.

Henley then flips around the advice she gave to him “sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone.” By reflecting back her advice at her, he reminds her of her own inner strength. This leads to the resolution “maybe someday we will find, that it wasn’t really wasted time.” While the song starts with lonely piano octaves, it ends with a sweeping rush of strings and Henley’s voice rising like a sunset.

It can't all be wasted time.  As painful as things may feel and as bleak as the prospects are in the future you can't forget at the the beginning of the relationship there was a spark or some magical shared experience that brought you together.  You can let the way the relationship ends invalidate that moment and all the good times that happened later or you can choose not to.  Yes, there's a time for us all when it feels like wasted time, but it's up to ourselves to move past that and see the value beyond the end. 

Piano Man by Billy Joel

All iconic artists have a signature song.  Elton John has “Your Song,” Springsteen has “Born To Run,” and Billy Joel has “Piano Man.”

One of the things that many American, and some artists whoa re not American have done with a their music is to define the American experience. Billy Joel does this in a similar way that Springsteen does with working-class characters and deep nostalgia from times that came before while also acknowledging the flaws of the past, like Joel sings in “Keeping The Faith,” “the good old days weren’t always good and tomorrow ain’t as bad as it seems.”



Joel’s music has always had a harsher edge and a more cynical almost punk rock aesthetic. “It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me,” sounds bitter and “She’s Always A Woman,” has a strange almost sarcastic feeling to it (which I wrote about in this earlier post).

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Joel’s signature song has a similar feel. “Piano Man,” is a song about dreams unfulfilled. It’s about people dealing with regret and trying to escape their the reality of their lives. When described this way, “Piano Man,” seems like a bleak and joyless song, but when you listen to it, you realize that it is something very different.

I’ve never been to a bar that had a piano man like Joel playing at it, but he paints such a vivid picture of the bar that you feel like you are part of that world. There’s depth in all of the descriptions of his characters that help you imagine deeper stories like in a good fantasy story.

The whole song swirls and rallies around the song itself. The chorus is the chorus of the people in the song and as we sing along to this song we become one more person sitting in that bar, with all of our own worries and fears, simply wanting to be lost in a song.

In many ways this is what Joel has done his entire career.  When I watched him perform in Wrigley Field last summer, I could feel how much he wanted his music to be a participatory event and how much that he wanted to take the audience away.

Joel is much more of a realist and his bitterness and anger reflects the “angry young man” in all of us in ways that pop music from previous generations did not. He worked through the pessimism of the 1970s and the cynicism of the 1980s with a song in his heart.

We demand the piano man to sing for us, because we need him to forget about life a while. He put into song the desire we all have for escape and provides that escape at the same time. “Piano Man” is the definition of great pop song. It’s specific enough to relate to our own lives but ambiguous enough to appeal to mass audiences. It melds styles of music together in subtle and unexpected ways and as good as it feels to listen to, it reaches a higher level of meaning when you let go and sing along.

Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway) by Billy Joel

At the crossroads of science fiction and rock music you have the good:



 . . . the bad:



Yes, I am categorizing this song as “bad.” You want to make something out it?

Then there’s the um. . .



Science fiction and rock has melded into some amazing musical creations and some  painful musical atrocities. Rock music like science fiction often works as a commentary on society reflecting the future of as a way to examine the present. So while throughout rock music there have been some misguided attempts at melding these two genres, there have been some really amazing ones like "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)."



After spending time in Los Angeles and becoming disillusioned by the music scene and the culture there, Billy Joel returned to New York. He marked this by the release of his album Turnstiles. This album featured songs reflecting this move like “Say Goodbye To Hollywood,” and odes to his hometown like “New York State Of Mind.” This album ended with “Miami 2017,” which portrayed a despotic post-apocalyptic New York, where people had fled to Miami for refuge.

Joel wasn’t that far off. The New York of 1976 was not the Disney Store-Giuliani cleaned up time square that we know now. It was the Taxi Driver, crime-ridden and about to default city that many viewed as a hopeless center of sin.

Loving a city that many disregarded as falling apart, Joel responded with “Miami 2017” singing about watching the city burning down, but continuing to play a concert regardless of the destruction. This was a song about how that even in the apocalypse of iconic buildings and the sinking of Manhattan itself, the spirit of the city lived on through a concert that would not stop.

When the attacks on the World Trade Center buildings on 9/11 occurred, people became cautious to show images of these buildings and the destruction of New York. Instead of going along with this, Billy Joel proudly performed “Miami 2017,” at The Concert For New York.



While his words seemed less prophetic and more like a reflection of actual events, when he sang “we went right on with show,” it meant something to the city and the rest of the country.
instead of mourning the fact that Joel and all of New York witnessed 9/11, the song reminded all of that we are survivors and to take pride in living through this experience.

Through the clouds of dust there’s the music and the spirit that no destruction could silence.

Always On My Mind by Willie Nelson

You know one of your friends is really into someone they like when they bring that person up in conversation all of the time. If you’ve been on the other side of this you know what it’s like to have someone always on your mind.

Like the first burst of emotions when you fall in love, the intensity of your thoughts about this other person wanes over time but it never really disappears. What happens after years in being in a relationship with someone isn’t that they leave your thoughts, it's just that you get so used to them being in you thoughts it becomes normal to think of the them all of the time.

“Always on My Mind,” is one of the most famous and beautiful love songs in popular music. It’s as much an apology song as a statement of commitment. Brenda Lee first recorded it in 1972:



This song was a moderate success but it was Elvis Presley’s cover the brought this song into prominence:



My introduction to this song was through Willie Nelson:



Brenda Lee is a fantastic singer but what works with Nelson’s and Presley’s version is the fact that they both exude this feeling of regret and heartache. This song isn’t an open apology. It’s not saying: “I did all of these things wrong,” instead it goes with “maybe. . . I did something bad.” That’s a big deal for this character in this song.  You hear that in the desperate voice of Elvis in his later years and the beat-up and battered voice of Willie Nelson.

Willie Nelson really owns this song. It feels like songs that he wrote for himself. There’s a conversational feeling to the verses that opens up into a beautiful chorus. There’s desperation, a feeling that this is the last attempt to bring this person back into his life, yet he can’t just come out and say that he was wrong. It’s tragic on some level how much he just can’t bring himself to open himself up. But you feel like he’s trying and maybe that’s enough.

What consolation is it really that someone who has done you wrong was thinking about you the entire time?

It depends on the situation, but for me it means a lot. It’s a statement that other things in life aren’t as important and through all of stuff they did wrong, they couldn’t help but think of you. The knowledge that someone is thinking about you is comforting. It lets you know that you matter, that you mean something and that you are always with the people who love you.

Long As I Can See The Light by Creedence Clearwater Revival

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know where I’m going.

It’s kind of like that whole thing where you can feel alone even when you’re in a crowd. I have a general idea where my life is going. I’m lucky enough to be married and have a great job, which really brings a level of stability and predictability to life.  But then things happen that remind you that all of the plans we make don't give us a true sense of direction. 

It’s the things that you can’t control that throw your life off course, which are the most meaningful. If you really think about the moments that changed your life, it’s never things that you can predict or control. These moments are the sad ones like sickness and death but also the amazing ones like finding love and your wife getting pregnant.

These things are awesome and they make the world seem completely different but they also throw you off. Where do you find your point of orientation, how do keep on the path? For some people it’s God, for others it’s their family and for John Fogerty, it’s simply the light.



Fogerty’s music reflects life's journey. The music he did with Creedence Clearwater Revival and as a soloist speaks to finding peace and somewhere whether its’ out a back porch or simply in a sunny day.

“Long As I Can See The Light,” is a simple song. It only has one repeated section, there’s no bridge or chorus. Not very many artists can get away with this but the melody is beautifully crafter like Brandi Carlile’s “The Story,” that you don’t mind the repetitive nature of the song.

“The light,” can be interpreted literally as a bright window in the dark, but the song quickly hints at something deeper.  Fogerty sings about an inevitable journey that will eventually bring him home. He sings about a need to go out, explore and travel but also the need for this light to direct his path.

What’s revelatory about this song is that even though there is this deep unknown, there is a certainty that he will come home.  It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t know where he is going, he’ll find his way home.

Too often in life we think about our journeys as going somewhere. Fogerty reminds us that while our paths take us to strange and foreign lands, at the end they lead us right back home.

That’s a comforting thought, because I know that no matter how lost and scared I feel, at the end, life will lead me back home to Diana. The light in my life is whatever force brought us together and continues to lead us to each other when life's journeys pull us apart. 

Badlands by Bruce Springsteen

One of my friends jokingly said that Springsteen doesn’t sing his own songs in his concerts because the audience sings along. People pay big bucks to go to his shows sing in a big group like a live Karaoke band. 

Of course, I disagree with this.  Springsteen works harder on stage than most musicians, half his age.  But I didn't understand how meaningful his music really was until I heard "Badlands" at the end of a funeral service. 

Singing along to music can mean very different things to different people. Sometimes it’s nostalgia and other times it’s just loosing yourself in music through euphoric joy. You can have a song that is not that deep or meaningful and sing-along with a stadium full of people and have fun. It’s an amazing thing.  But with Bruce Springsteen, it’s more than that.

Imagine yourself at a Black Eyed Peas concert singing these lyrics along with the band:

I gotta feeling...
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good night
That tonight's gonna be a good, good night!

Now try to imagine singing these words along with Bruce and the E Street Band:

Lights out tonight,
trouble in the heartland.
Got a head-on collision,
smashin' in my guts, man.
I'm caught in a crossfire,
that I don't understand.

I’m not making the argument that the Black Eyed Peas are an inferior band (I did that in this earlier post). But they are doing something very different and singing along to “I Gotta Feeling,” means something different than singing along to “Badlands.”

Springsteen tells the story of a man who through struggles and hardships realizes some truths about life. The first verse talks about being in a figurative “head-on collision” and a “crossfire.” He’s fed up. He doesn’t care for the “same old played out scenes” and he wants something real. It’s the same fear and reservation that is expressed “Thunder Road,” of a life that may go to waste through inaction.

The chorus states that the sorrow and broken hearts of the past as a price that you have to pay to make these badlands, these rough times in our lives to “start treating us good.”  The second verse continues these conclusion that the protagonist has made:

Poor man wanna be rich
Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied
Till he rules everything

These are the truths about human nature and greed. In understanding these things we realize that it’s love, faith and hope as Springsteen sings that will raise us up, not wealth.  The bridge is a stirring and proud declaration of unity and perseverance:

For the ones who had a notion,
A notion deep inside.
That it ain't no sin to be glad you're alive,
I wanna find one face that ain't looking through me,
I wanna find one place, I wanna spit in the face of these badlands.

"Badlands" symbolizes all of the people who try to keep us down and Springsteen stirs the spirit inside of us to throw those shackles aside, be glad that we’re alive and search for meaning in the relationships that truly matter.

From the first opening riff, “Badlands,” is a celebration. The guitar solos and Clarence’s incredible saxophone solo are like the ending of “Thunder Road,” extended out into one amazing feeling of liberation.

Springsteen’s music and songs like “Badlands,” hold profound spiritual meaning for people. Singing along to these songs inspires people with strength and hope.

On my desk is a memorial card for a young man who died at the age of 18. On the front is his picture and on the back is information about the young man and the memorial service. About halfway down the back is a small cross and below the cross are these lyrics:

Well, I believe in the love
that you gave me.
I believe in the faith
that could save me.
I believe in the hope and
I pray that some day,
It may raise me
above these Badlands . . .

“Badlands,” isn’t just another pop song. Bruce Springsteen is not just another rock star. To this young man’s family, his words are an expression of what made this life that is now over, meaningful.  As I sat there in the church I couldn't help but softly sing-along, closer to a prayer than a song with grace and thanksgiving.

Thunder Road - Part 3: Magic In The Night

There are things that haunt us in our lives. Regret chases away our dreams and petrifies our motions.

Throughout “Thunder Road,” we get a sense that Mary has some thing that is holding her back from joining the protagonist in his car but we aren’t sure what it is. While we never hear the details, the last part of “Thunder Road” focuses on how much bravery it takes to move beyond the ghosts of the past into the possibilities of the future.

 Mary has made promises that she has broken. These boys that she has hurt and sent away haunt the “skeleton frames of burned out Chevrolet."  Mary can’t escape all of the mistakes she has made, all the sins of her past and in the darkness of the night they overtake her. Her graduation gown, the symbol of what she worked so hard for, is in rags.  What she thought would bring her liberation is just an illusion.

As the night ends, there is a “lonely cool before dawn.” The engines of the burned out Chevrolet's filled with her broken dreams, start to roar like an animal heading towards her soul. But when Mary steps out onto the porch and sees him standing there, all her regret and fears, disappear on the wind.

The perspective switches one more time and as Mary climbs in, he thinks, “it’s a town full of losers and I’m pulling out of here to win.” This line is about leaving everything behind, moving on with one’s life and taking a chance to make something happen. As Springsteen sings “win” we hear the music rev up like an engine and in the sailing saxophone line we see the car drive out onto thunder road.

“Thunder Road,” like many of Springsteen’s songs works through a simple arrangement of chord progressions. If you know the basic I-IV-V chords on a guitar you can work through most of this song. Combined with the harmonica at the beginning of the song has a folk-like sensibility. Springsteen mixes this with the grandeur of Phil Spector’s symphonic pop songs like “Unchained Melody.”

“Thunder Road,” lacks a clear verse and chorus structure.  Instead it unravels with a stream of consciousness, slowly building and evolving across a musical landscape that reflects the nostalgia in all of our hearts.

When Springsteen broke into this song in the pouring rain at Wrigley Field, I pulled my wife close to me. As the harmonica line sailed into the night, I felt tears welling up. You could feel the entire stadium begin to sing with Bruce. Then Bruce put his mic down and let the audience sing “ . . . young anymore, show a little faith, there’s magic in the night, you ain’t a beauty but hey you’re alright.”

Then Bruce responded approvingly “well, that’s all right with me.”



With these words, the audience is singing about Springsteen himself. He’s not the twenty-something he was when he first sang “Born To Run,” but he’s still our man.  These lines are about what is the most important things in life, faith, love and the belief that there is magic out there. There is wonder in the unknown and if we believe in something hard enough and take a chance, we can all find our own “Thunder Road.”

Thunder Road - Part 2: What else can we do now?

Sometimes life answers our prayers in ways that we don’t expect.

Yes, Mary can hide from the world, throw down the gift of roses and push away the boys that have tried to comfort her. She can wait for some figure, some savior to appear. What Mary doesn’t realize is that the person she is looking for is right in front of her.

He knows he’s no hero. The only way he can bring her “redemption,” bring meaning to her sins and her heartache is ride out into the open road, to escape and find freedom.



He can’t offer her the world but he can help her find it. In the simple joy of feeling the wind in her hair, and the possibility of the open road there is liberation. There’s a sense that anything can happen. With uncertainty mixed with excitement, they’ve got one more chance to strip their wings, the angelic visions of their dreams, for the reality of these wheels that can drive them to everything and anywhere. It’s a transformation from the dreams you’ve prayed for to the blessings you’ve never imagined.

The name “Thunder Road,” an allusion to a Robert Mitchum film brings images of romance, the unknown and mystery. Like a “killer in the sun,” a criminal with no where to hide they can make it to this magical place, their own personal promised land, if they run.

What does he really have to offer her? In a moment of childlike excitement he describes his guitar. There’s a sense that he is trying to impress her but then he quickly pulls back. He knows that it truly is a long walk from her front porch to his front seat. He explains that the ride isn’t free because he knows that there are things that he is asking her to sacrifice.

There are words that she longs to hear from him that he can't speak.  It’s in this acknowledgement that we realize that this is not the end of a journey but the beginning of one.  He will eventually say these words she needs to hear as he promises that he can provide her freedom.

This part of the song is all about the things that we hope for coming true in ways that we never expect. Life doesn’t always have a sense of urgency because it all seems infinite but it’s not.

We need to trade in our illusions, face the possibilities in our life and take whatever path will make our dreams come true.

Thunder Road - Part 1: Magic In The Night

To celebrate my 300th post on this blog I presented “Thunder Road” by Bruce Springsteen.  I felt that post did this song justice embracing all of what this song meant to me by letting the song speak for itself.

Lately I’ve felt myself drawn to this song. It’s like I need this song in my life right now. Maybe it’s my grandmother dying, becoming comfortable being thirty, or the other changes in my life. I’m not sure. But I’m finding what I’m searching for in my life in this song now more than ever.

I have hesitated to write about this song because it so magical and I fear that I lack the skills to really articulate everything that this song is about. It’s time to not be afraid and to look deep within this song. To know what a song is about is to know what it means and it is within this meaning that we find ourselves.



It starts with an invitation, a guitar and piano ascending carefully, dancing and flowing in and out of each other. “Thunder Road’s” introduction is one of the most famous album openings. As the first track on Springsteen’s pivotal album Born To Run, “Thunder Road” was the entry point into a universe of characters that would encapsulate everything that is rock music.

With each line Springsteen paints a vivid picture. The sound of a screen door, the waving of a vision of grace as Mary comes into our world. Originally, this girl was Angelina and then Christina but in the end Springsteen settled on Mary. This name brings forth images of the innocent virgin carrying an unimaginable burden to the mother watching her only son suffer. These visions mix together with a girl standing nervously facing the road ahead.

One of the ways that you know that you are in love is when love songs begin to make sense. As our unnamed protagonist identifies with Orbison’s song for the lonely we know there is something immediate and powerful about his feelings. He begs for her not to leave him because he “can’t face myself alone again.” She’s turned him home and he’s tried to imagine his life without her that he can’t.

She has doubts. Maybe she’s not that young girl, the idea woman. He begs her to have faith and believe in him. When he says that she “ain’t a beauty,” he isn't saying that he doesn’t think she’s pretty. Instead he’s embracing what she is, not the woman she wishes she could be.

The song starts by setting a scene and switches perspectives through Orbison’s song to this man speaking to a girl. These words reveal a vulnerability and a passion. He’s trying to convince her to come with him because there is something that she brings to the way he sees himself that he can’t live without.  Also, he believes there is something that he can give her that no one else can.

In the opening of "Thunder Road," our main character embraces everything that this girl is, her doubts and her fears because he has faith.  He knows that there is something there between them and that there is magic in the night.

Top 5 Boy Bands Songs

Before I take some time to consider the new boy band One Direction, let's take a look at my personal 5 favorite boy bands songs:


5.  "Shape Of My Heart" by The Backstreet Boys


The Backstreet Boys ushered in a new era in Boy Bands in the early 1990s.  While they didn't dance as well as some other groups they had charisma and were able to turn standard pop fair into enormous hits.  Oh, and they could actually sing which is demonstrated in the performance above.  "Shape Of My Heart" is a later hit that is "I Want It That Way" with lyrics that make a little bit more sense and an amazing bridge.   

4.  "Motownphilly" by Boyz II Men


This was the lead single off of their first album.  Before they scored hits with slow songs and  expressions of how they would make love to you (check out this post), these boyz could really rock.  


3.  "Tearing Up My Heart" by 'N Sync


A beautifully crafted song, this song starts out with a solo calling out an awesome hook.  We all knew there was something special about the break-down of this song, little did we know that it was Justin Timberlake and the artist he would become.

2.  "Just A Little Misunderstanding" by The Jackson 5


This song was an album cut.  AN ALBUM cut!  This means they recorded this song and didn't think it was very good so they didn't release it as a single.  Seriously.  Any boy band that has album cuts this strong is truly amazing. 

1.  "Twist And Shout" by The Beatles


The Beatles were important for many reasons and one of them was because they were the first boy band in pop music.  Yes, the Beatles became so much more than a boy band but watching this performance it becomes clear what every boy band tries to capture.  Like so many other things in pop music The Beatles did it first and they did it best. 

Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash

Have you ever had a hangover?

If you’re not sure, then you haven’t had one. Waking up feeling unrested with a slight a headache is not hangover. Lying in a fetal position unable to move without having your head feel like it’s about to explode while you stomach does backflips and praying to deities that you never thought previously existed for relief is a hangover.

Leave it to Johnny Cash, country music’s bad boy to record a song about this feeling.



Kris Kristofferson, award winning actor and musician ended up working as a janitor at Columbia Records after earning a Masters degree at Oxford and becoming a captain in the US army because he wanted to be songwriter. After composing “Sunday Morning Coming Down” and recording a demo, he got his tape to Cash. Some stories of how this happened involved landing a helicopter on Cash’s lawn, but more likely Kris was simply persistent and eventually Kristofferson came up with a song that Cash fell in love with.

With a classic Johnny Cash rhythm guitar backing, this song begins simply enough describing waking up in the morning with simple but clever lyrics that immediately characterizes the protagonist.

Well, I woke up Sunday morning
With no way to hold my head that didn't hurt.
And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't bad,
So I had one more for dessert.
Then I fumbled in my closet through my clothes
And found my cleanest dirty shirt.

Kristofferson paints a bleak picture of the internal logic of this man who man who drinks to get up in the morning and doesn’t have it together enough to have clean clothes around.

While the song continues, strings enter the musical background rising up like the sun filing up with musical landscape with light. At the same time Cash goes on to singing about gigging the night before and while this darkness is in the front of his mind, the world of Sunday morning reminds him of “something” he lost.

In the chorus Cash wants to escape from the realizations of what is missing in his life.

On a Sunday morning sidewalk,
I'm wishing, Lord, that I was stoned.
'Cause there's something in a Sunday
That makes a body feel alone.
And there's nothing short a' dying
That's half as lonesome as the sound
Of the sleeping city sidewalk
And Sunday morning coming down.

Cash wants to escape from this world because it shows him that there is something more meaningful in life than partying during the night. People aren’t out walking around on Sunday mornings, instead they are home with their families or singing in a church choir. Yes, moments of partying are fun, but who you are left with on the Sunday, the people who you share your life with after the partying is over is what brings true fullfillment.

There’s something about a hangover that reveals what you really have in your life. In this moment of physical trauma while your mind is swirling around you face your regrets, your hopes and what you have to live for.  It’s a stark reminder for some how little they have but for many of us how much we have to look forward to once the hangover has passed.

?!?!?!?!?!

I remember watching this as a kid and it's still as awesomely-consfusing and transcendentally silly as it was back then.

God Bless Jim Henson.

Don’t Leave Me This Way by Thelma Houston

The Disco genre of the 1970s is unfortunately one of the most unpopular historical music eras in pop music. I understand that the popularity of the Disco music got out of control and that people yearned for something different, but the backlash and anti-Disco events like Disco Demolition Night were ridiculous in retrospect.

Whenever something becomes popular, it’s usually based in the core of something that is of a high quality and then it’s the knock-offs and the imitators that breed annoyance. You can’t let the mediocrity in the genre overshadow the great stuff. It’s like saying the Harry Potter books are garbage because you read some slapped together children’s novel about a wizard. “Disco Duck” was a pretty atrocious song but you can’t let it get in the way of Thelma Houston’s masterpiece “Don’t Leave Me This Way.



Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes originally recorded this song with Teddy Pendergrass singing lead.



This group is best known for one of the most heart-breaking soul hits of the 1970s.



Teddy’s vocals are incredible. It’s impossible to really compare what he brings to this song with Houston’s performance. They are both incredible. What gets to me more about Thelma Houston’s version is that there is a sense of both desperation and strength. Coming from a woman’s perspective there’s something tragic yet beautifully liberating about this song.

"Don't Leave Me This Way" starts as being heartbreaking. She is singing about how she “can’t survive, can’t stay alive” without his love. The chorus changes tone to a joyful celebration of how great his love has made her feel. Here is a woman laying it out on the line how much she needs her man. In a way, it’s a statement of dependency but there’s something else going on here.

At the same time this is a song that is a celebration of love and the fact that it is in this feeling that you can freedom. Like the way music can help you become free in the joy of dance, his love brings her that feeling. Instead of dwelling on the pain that he brings her she focuses on the feeling of ecstasy. Maybe it’s not about begging a man who is treating her poorly to stay but elevated a man and making his realize how great a person he is and how the power of his love.

There is something haunting and unforgettable about this song. The opening humming and the beautiful orchestration capture the best of Disco and really the best of music.  For me this song is a plea to people moving on from Disco music to not leave in anger.  While people at the time expressed annoyances towards this genre it's nice to see that people years later revel in the joy disco brought to their lives and I'm so glad that this song is around to remind people of that feeling. 

Hello by Lionel Richie

Let's make a list of the things that are wrong with this video (we're going to go in order of appearance):



1.  Lionel, maybe if you want to get to work, why don't you just take off the jacket as opposed to rolling up the sleeves.

2.  Someone went a little overboard with the decorative indoor scarf.

3.  Really, you are going to start fantasizing about your student while she is doing a scene.  SIGH, it begins.

4. OK, now he is singing about her passing by his door, but instead he is peeking into her band rehearsal, not cool, she may be blind, but she's not stupid or is she?  

5.  What Lionel doing in the locker bay?  I can understand a teacher walking by a classroom, but what kind of teacher hangs out by the lockers.

6.  Speaking of lockers, where are they?  Is this set in a college or a high school?  I haven't been to a college with lockers like that, maybe it's a 1980s thing, but I'm really hoping that this is set in a college. 

7.  Now she starts working on a bust of what is clearly going to be Lionel, and everyone around her is seeing her work.  Doesn't anyone else find this creepy?

8.  She maybe be talented, but how does she know what he looks like.  SHE'S BLIND!  You can't get an image of someone's face from hearing their voice.

9.  Lionel tries to approach her when she is eating lunch and her friends interject.  You'd think one of them would notice a teacher walking up to a student or acknowledge the teacher as they walk in front of him.  

10.  Now he is in dance class.  Man, the only way he is getting away with this stalking is the fact that she's blind.  Maybe Lionel had bad experiences with stalking before.

11.  The phone call, um . . . did he say hello?  I mean he puts the phone down but she is listening and smiling as she hangs up.

12.  Then the big reveal of the bust . . . yeah, it's not wonderful.  Let's just be honest here.  Though her source material isn't great.

Dude, I kind of love this song, but I'm kind of, really disturbed by this video.  Lionel really should have stuck with singing songs comparing woman to buildings. 



There is NOTHING wrong with video. Everything is pure gold.

Caledonia by Dougie MacLean

Feel like something beautiful?



One of these days I'll do an in depth analysis of this song, but for right now I'm content to simply enjoy the warmth of this song.

The Lyrics To Star Wars!

Did you know there was lyrics to the main theme of Star Wars?



Okay, that's not the real lyrics. From what I know there aren't any lyrics. This is from an hilarious Bill Murray SNL skit. I was reminded of this from the French version of the song (which my brother sent me).



I'm not sure if this is the greatest thing ever or well the . . . um. . . anyone know French well enough to translate these lyrics?  Somehow this reminds me of "Mr. Roboto" by Styx.


Styx - Mr. Roboto by manon42

Something about a guy taking himself way too seriously when clearly singing a ridiculous song in an unbelievable video.  I've seen interviews with the lead singer of Styx.  He seriously thought he was making legit science-fiction.  Wow. 

"This is what star wars would be like with more black people"

Feel like smiling?



"Move yourself and glide like a 747."

Round 13: Aerosmith & Run-D.M.C. Vs. Aerosmith & . . .

In 1986 Run-D.M.C. with the help of producer Rick Rubin re-recorded "Walk This Way" with Aerosmith.  This song was originally released eleven years earlier off of Aerosmith's Toys in the Attic.  This duet with Run-D.M.C. revolutionized the music industry as the first mainstream melding of Rock and Rap music.  "Walk This Way" helped legitimize Rap as a musical genre and revitalized Aerosmith's career. 



Vs.

Through the years Aerosmith has tried to recreate the magic of their re-imagining of this song with Run-D.M.C.  In 1989 Bon Jovi joined Aerosmith at a peformance in the UK.



Then in 1999 when Kid Rock joined Run-D.M.C. and Aeromsith at the 1999 MTV VMA's.



 . . .  then there was the Superbowl performance with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake . . .



 . . . then there was Fergie. . .



And just last week . . . SIGH. . . Carrie Underwood joined Steven Tyler the lead singer of Aerosmith at the 2011Acadamy Of Country Music Awards Show (skip to 2:45).



The Winner:

Now I love "Walk This Way."  It's a great song.  The original version features one of my favorite guitar licks.  It's got rapid-fire suggestive lyrics that are clever and hilarious.  Run-D.M.C. really did bring  new life to this song but the following performances well. . . it's just not the same.  Frankly it's getting a little tiring.  I mean Carrie Underwood?  Really?!?  It's not that it was a bad performance but how many time can you bring this song out and expect it to be fresh and exciting.

While the audiences almost always erupts in enthusiasm every time Steven Tyler whips this song out with a new artist, I feel it's a unsuccessful attempt to capture the magic of the original duet with Run-D.M.C.

This is where it all started live in 1977.

Round 10: Ben E. King Vs. John Lennon

Ben E. King recorded one of the most unforgettable songs in popular music "Stand By Me" in 1961. 



Powerful, soulful and beautifully recorded it's no wonder that John Lennon knew this song by heart, like so many of us who have experienced this song.

Vs.



Lennon recorded "Stand By Me" in 1975 for his album Rock 'n' Roll.  With a different driving beat and a vocal styles uniquely Lennon's, this song stands as one of Lennon's most popular solo works.


The Winner:
This is a tough one.  Both songs are touching and unique in very different ways.  While I like the rawness of Lennon's recording, the cleanness and clarity of Ben E. King's recorded showcases his amazing vocals which express the profound meaning of longing and hope in this song.