Come On Eileen by Dexy’s Midnight Runners

The year I was born was a crazy year in music. There was Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Working for the Weekend” by Loverboy, and Willie Nelson’s “Always On My Mind” (I’ve written about all of these songs, just click on the song title.” These three songs have maintained status in pop culture in film and television commercials (Soprano’s, Zoolander, jeans commercials).



One song that really deserves a resurgence in pop culture is one of my favorite songs from my birth year “Come On Eileen.”



There’s so much that is weird about this song in such an awesome way. First off, Dexy’s Midnight Runners is named after the drug Dexedrine, and midnight running was the idea about dancing all night when using that drug. With this kind of band name you expect some kind of club, synthesized dance music. Instead you get a unique folk-inspired song, full of heart.

This song doesn’t really sound anything like the other songs that came out that I mentioned earlier in this post. Well none of those songs sound at all like each other which is one year 1982 was such an incredible year in music. “Come On Elieen,” has musical allusions throughout its structure from the opening violin playing the irish folk song “Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms,” to mentioning of Johnnie Ray a 1950s singer-songwriter.



“Come On Eileen” kicks in with a myriad of instrument including a piano, accordion, trombone and saxophones and violins. Nothing about the groove feels like something that would chart on a the U.S. Billboard charts but it became a number 1 hit, sandwiched between “Billie Jean” and “Beat It,” by Michael Jackson.

The lyrics are often misunderstood.  Even when I follow along with them its still hard to understand what is being sung. Basically it’s a reflection on the previous generation and being amazed at how much this girl Eileen has grown up. The chorus, which I grew up thinking, was:

At this moment,
take off everything,
You in that fress
Oh, it falls on your breast,
Oh you’re dirty,
Oh, come on Eileen

Is actually a much sweater sentiment:

At this moment you mean everything,
You in that dress,
My thoughts I confess,
Verge on dirty ,
Oh, come on Eileen

There’s an amazing and sudden change in the groove into the chorus that happens with a shift in the meter dropping two beats that you expect to hear. Then there’s one of the most unusual musical devices in pop music an accelerando. Pop songs rarely speed up and slow down. There’s only a handful of examples when this happens. The moment when “Come On Eileen,” slows down and slowly grinds ups up makes you feel like you are hearing a live recording of the band.

I remember dancing to this song in college, twenty years after it came out and feeling the dance floor slow down and pick up towards the end of this song. It’s really a beautiful musical moment that is rarely experienced in pop music.

“Come On Eileen,” is a beautiful song with so much spirit and heart. There’s a reverence to the past in its words and music and also an innocence that makes this song shine like the  smile of a close friend.

Let’s bring this song back to the center of pop culture. It’s well-deserving of the attention and primed for a new generation to misinterpret the lyrics as they dance along to the sweet sounds of Too-ra-loo-rye-aye.

The Story by Brandi Carlile

Sometimes you find a song that expresses so accurately the way that you view the world that it feels like that you’ve known it your entire life.

 

When I first heard “The Story,” I was astounded. This is one of those instances in music where the parts individually are not that remarkable but when they are put together the create something unforgettable.

“The Story” is repetitive. There is one phrase that is repeated over and over with no bridge or chorus. The chords are unremarkable and go exactly where you expect them. The lyrics are insightful, but simple and outside of the context of the song may seem kind of trite.

The melody is perhaps the most interesting piece of the song. The first phrase rises up and down and then following phrases start on a high note and trickle down. This creates a sighing effect. It starts lower after a couple descending and gentle rises and falls before finally settling. Many people complain that modern pop songs don’t have artfully contoured melodies and “The Story” is an example of a truly amazing “Yesterday"- like melody.

The there’s Brandi Carlile’s voice. She’s in her early thirties, but the way she sings makes you feel like that she has lived lifetimes. She plays with the break in her voice between her head voice and chest voice like Sarah MaLachlan to a wonderful effect. It’s both mournful and triumphant expressing a feeling of being tired but also never giving up.

When you put these pieces together “The Story,” tells a remarkable tale of what it means to be a human being. The lines on our face, that come not only from tears but from laughter all create stories and like everything in life they do not mean anything if you have no one to share them with.

She sings about the stories, the places she’s been, the rule’s she has broken and how she did it all for her love because of the way that person made her feel. Then she breaks free of illusions, admitting that her head is a mess. It is in this moment, the time when she is at her most vulnerable that she realizes how much love she holds for this other person because they know her like nobody else does.

What makes our stories meaningful is what makes our lives worth living. We tell them to each other so that we can understand one another to create a more significant and lasting connection. These stories are happy, they are sad and sometimes they are painful, but they need to be told for us to find our way in this world.

You can hear every different kind of story in this song. The melody never changes, but the feelings do and like life itself, it's a truly amazing journey.

Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel

“Mrs. Robinson” isn’t really about Mrs. Robinson.

The Graduate is one of the greatest films of all time. This film about a recent college graduate’s struggle to figure out his life reflects a shared experience and feeling that twenty-something's across generations experience.

Then of course there is Mrs. Robinson who seduces, the recent college graduate, Benjamin while he is going out with her daughter. The whole cross-generational affair is enough to cause controversy and interest in viewers, but it’s really not the point of the film. The point is . . . well. . . it’s complex and multilayered and you’re just going to have to watch it to figure it out for yourself.

Mike Nichols’ the director of The Graduate became obsessed with Simon & Garfunkel, and asked for three songs to be written for this film. Paul Simon came up with the shell of one about Mrs. Roosevelt, Joe DiMaggio and times past. After some lyric changes, a stripped down version without verse appeared in the film.

Later Simon & Garfunkel completed this song and released it on their 1968 album, Bookends. Along with “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” (which I discussed in this earlier post), “Mrs. Robinson” became one of Simon & Garfunkel’s signature songs and one of the most popular songs of the decade.



Now when I said that this song isn’t about Mrs. Robinson, it’s because, she’s really not a respected or heroic figure in the film. The lyrics of this song really don’t hold the depth that later Paul Simon songs do. He admitted that the Joe DiMaggio reference had more to do with syllables then meaning and also there’s the fact that it was originally Mrs. Roosevelt that he was singing about.

What we are left is really about gratitude, trying to convince someone how important and meaningful they are to the people around them. It’s a beautiful sentiment and every time the chorus rises, you feel a sense of warmth and love.

If you take this song as being separate from the film, it takes on a whole other level of meaning. It’s not about the loss and confusion of The Graduate, rather it’s a reassuring anthem to a person who doesn’t realize how special she is to the people in her life.

Watch The Graduate and sing along with “Mrs. Robinson.” Try not to get them mixed up with each other. Sometimes we find meaning when we put things together but other times we find even more meaning when we look at things separately.

Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain (Song From Brave Trailer) by Julie Fowlis

I loved her beautiful wild red hair. The sublime nature scenes of rolling Irish hills were breathtaking. Everything about the Brave trailer felt excitingly different but comfortable. Then Julie Fowlis gentle voice began singing “Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain” As her voice calmed the action and the strong words of our heroine asked a powerful question, I was memorized.



Every once in a while a movie trailer becomes an emotional and meaningful experience completely separate from the film itself. Almost all of the time when this happens, the trailers feature incredible music. Like the use of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” in the Where The Wild Things Are trailer:



And REMs tribute to Andy Kaufman that inspired the title of Man On The Moon.



After hearing this song, I spent the next week trying to figure out how to get a recording of this song. I initially thought it was part of the soundtrack to Brave.  I wasn't able to find any samples songs from that album, so I resigned myself to wait for the soundtrack to come out. A couple days later I decided to look around some more through a random message board I found this:



Julie Fowlis is an Scottish artist who sings primarily is Scottish Gaelic. Her gentle and expressive soprano voice perfectly fits the style of folk music that she sings. “Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain” is a track from her debut album in 2005 titled Mar A Tha Mo Chridhe. The lyrics to “Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain” tell the story of a man finding a girl who is singing about her love who is at sea. The song has a twist in the last verse when it is revealed that the man who is so struck by the girl's singing is the love the girl has been singing about who has finally come home.

What strikes me about the lyrics is that most of the lines describe the beauty of nature during the twilight hours. These moments are painted using different senses and almost fantastical imagery juxtaposing the peace and calm of nature with the pain and heartache in the girl's hearts. On one level this doesn't seem to have anything to do its Brave, but maybe the yearning for something more, something different set against a magical setting really is what both this song and Brave is all about.

“Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain" is one of the be most beautiful songs that I've ever heard. The combination or the music, the words and the performance create a feeling that only music can capture.  This is a song that you've never heard before but seems to have always been in your heart. It’s a story you've never read but somehow feels like something that you've written.  It's a place you've never been that feels like a home.

Beware (Jay-Z Remix) by Punjabi MC

Recipe for great song:

Fist let’s start with a 1980s TV theme song:



Now let’s take the bass line from that and add in some vocals. How about we use “Mundian To Bach Ke” by Punjabi artist Labh Janjua. This Indian song warns a young girl that now that she is grown up she needs to be careful of boys, perfect.



Ok. . . this ought to be good, let’s see what happened when Punjabi MC mixes these things up.



That’s a party right there, maybe we should add a little of the “H to the Izzo” and see what we get:



My mind is officially blown.

This is one of those things that on paper seems like it would never work but it comes together in a way that is unbelievable. I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised with Jay-Z, this guy did sample a song from Annie (which I wrote about in this earlier post).

Every once in a while a Western pop artist deeps into what people call “world music” for influences like Sting’s song “Desert Rose” which featured Algerian singer Cheb Mami.



I came across this song for the trailer for new Sacha Baron Cohen film The Dictator.



While the song seems to fit the vibe of this film it doesn’t really make sense. The trailer portrays this fictional dictator as being from a Middle Easter country and well, “Beware” is clearly of Indian origin. It’s like using “La Bamba” for the movie trailer for New Year’s Eve, which is set in New York City.

Besides being a pleasing mix of sounds what does this all add up to. The bass line from a show about a talking car makes sense in the way its about protection and so is the warning about men. Jay-Z’s lyrics start with typical boasting in the first verse talking about how he’s the “black Brad Pitt” but he gets decidedly political in the second verse.

Jay-Z takes this palate of sounds to talk about issues in the Middle East. He talks about screaming, “leave Iraq Alone” and wanting the troops to have a safe return. Then we get a deeper look at Jay-Z’s world view.

Before Bin Laden got Manhattan to blow
Before Ronal Reagan Got Manhattan the blow
Before I was cabbing it there back and forth
Raw we had it all day, Papi in the hallway
Cop one on consignment give you more yay
Yea, but that’s another story
But for now, Mami turn it around and the let the boy play.

Jay-Z starts talking about the attacks on 9/11 as well as referencing speculation that the Reagan administration had partial responsibility for the distribution of crack cocaine. He goes into his experience selling drugs out of a cab with his distributor. Then he wraps the verse up basically saying that it’s time to party.  Like most Jay-Z lyrics there’s a lot crammed in here and he puts it across while effortlessly rapping through a variety of rhythmic patterns.

This song represent diversity in the best way.  There's layers of meaning in all of the ingredients involved and each group of people these separate parts represent are invited through this song to explore cultures outside of their own.

This song isn't created for the sake of being "diverse."  It's not a lesson in "diversity training," rather it's a celebration of how great a time we can have by coming together.

Series of Dream by Bob Dylan

I don't really have a great impression of 1980s Bob Dylan so I was pleasantly surprised by this song from 1989. 



Thoughtful and introspective, Dylan sings with a level of clarity that is sometimes lost with his gravely voice. The melody has these gentle peaks that draw you and open up in some beautfiul and unexpected ways.

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.

Round 2: Bob Dylan Vs. Jimi Hedrix

Bob Dylan recorded "All Along The Watchtower" in 1967. It has become one of his most famous and most frequently covered songs. With intriguing lyrics and a structure that some critics claim to be circular (some say the last verse is the beginning of the narrative), Dylan created a unique vision of reality.



Versus:

Jimi Hendrix.

In 1968, Hendrix took Dylan's song, and doubled it's length, painting the emotions and story of the with his unforgettable guitar playing. Jimi's singing is fearful and other-worldly as  thick cloud of distortion permeates the song.   




The Winner:
Dylan after hearing Hendix's version said, "It overwhelmed me, really. He had such talent, he could find things inside a song and vigorously develop them. He found things that other people wouldn't think of finding in there. He probably improved upon it by the spaces he was using. I took license with the song from his version, actually, and continue to do it to this day."  Yes, Dylan's original is interesting and intimate.  However, Hendrix takes all of the emotions that Dylan implies and expresses them opening and forcefully.  You only need to hear the first 10 seconds of Hendix's version to know what this song is all bout.     

Next week: Madonna Vs. Don McLean

BP Protest song: God’s Counting on Me, God’s Counting on You by Pete Seeger

“The oil spill makes me wish for the first time that Superman actually existed. It would take him approximately 10 minutes to plug it up and another 30 minutes to clean it up the spill . . . sigh . . .”
-my facebook status during the second week of the oil spill in the Gulf.

One of the most disheartening sites in recent memory was flying into Panama Beach, Florida and seeing oil floating on the top of the water. At first, there was a sense of disbelief and then a sinking feeling of horror.  Diana’s cousin was getting married down there.  In all the excitement, I almost forgot about the whole oil spill until walking on the beach and seeing tar balls collecting on the sand.

It’s hard for me to know how to feel about all of this. Being angry at BP, politicians and whoever else we can blame this catastrophe on really doesn’t get us anywhere. Where do we look for guidance? Yesterday I found some answers in a man who has acted as the consciences of America for generations, Pete Seeger.

Pete Seeger is 91 years old and one of the most influential American musicians.  Without him there would we wouldn’t have Bob Dylan, Springsteen, the conscience of rock music and the spirit of hip-hop. Continuing the tradition of Woodie Guthrie, Seeger is a cultural treasure carrying on  some of our most important songs like “We Shall Overcome” . . .



 . . . and composing some of the most powerful songs like “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?”



What does this old man have to tell us about the oil spill? Simply that we can get through this if we join together.



There’s some political shading in this song,  “drill baby drill turns to spill baby spill."  But it's more humorous then critical and “it’s time to turn things around trickle up, not trickle down,” isn’t so much political but a call to all of us to change our way of thinking.

Like “We Shall Overcome” this is a song for the people, and it warms my heart how Seeger teaches the song to the audience as he performs.  Sometimes we forget that protest music isn’t so much about anger but calling people to change and there’s no better way than to encourage people to change through optimism: “Don’t give up, don’t give in, working together we all can win.”

The chorus ends with the statement, “hoping we’ll all pull through” and if after 91 years, Seeger is still believes in all of us, than who am I to become disheartened?

My favorite part of this song is the last verse: “when we sing with younger folks, we can never give up hope.” It’s so true. Sharing music, songs and life with young people rejuvenates you like nothing else and maybe that’s why Seeger is still active in his 90s. 

I don't know if we're all to blame for this disaster but as Seeger suggest we all have a role in the solution.  When Seeger opens the songs singing "God's counting on me, God's counting on you,"  he's not talking so much about God but about us counting on each other.   If we come together and face our problems not with anger but with hope we will pull through.

Thanks for the hope Pete.

If You Could Read My Mind by Gordon Lightfoot/Johnny Cash

"I just don't get it."

As much as we try to figure out the events of our lives sometimes we just have to admit to ourselves that there are things beyond our understanding.  We question the logic of life when things don't go our way and the feeling of helplessness, accepting what we can not make sense of is one of the hardest things in life.

Gordon Lightfoot's 1971 unforgettable hit "If You Could Read My Mind" is about this moment. 



I recently came to this song through Johnny Cash's cover:



On February 26th, 2010 seven years after his death, Johnny Cash released his last album, American VI: Ain’t No Grove. Like the five previous albums produced by Rick Rubin, this was a simply produced album combining popular hits along with Cash’s own compositions. The most popular of these song was “Hurt,” a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song (which I discussed in this earlier post) was on the previous album American IV: The Man Comes Around. While Cash’s own compositions on this album are stunning and unforgettable, his interpretations of other songs are truly remarkable.

There is something unforgiving and dark about this song. Here is a man trying to explain how he feels initially relating himself to a trapped ghost then in the second verse a fallen hero. Even when there’s hope in the third verse and he admits how his queen that brings “all the good things out in me.” He admits, “let’s be real, I never thought I could act this way.” Then he gives up.

And I got to say that I just don’t get it.
I don’t’ know where we went wrong,
But the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back.

Lightfoot displays incredible song writing craft and he builds tension towards the end of each rising in melody and speeding up the rhythm of the words. The setting of the words reflects the natural pulse of the words. The way the words against the constant pulse of the guitar that just tears at your heart.

Now Lightfoot’s performance is great, but Cash takes it to another level. Slowing down the tempo and singing with his battered baritone, Cash doesn’t so much sing but emotes straight from the dark corners of his heart.

Cash's voice carefully and deliberately steps through each note. No, his voice is not as agile as it was when he was younger but it’s the slight strain, the struggle, the shake in his voice transforms this song from a reflection of a pain to the actual event of a heart breaking.

When Cash sings “I just don’t get it,” you believe he truly doesn’t.

Admitting this to ourselves is one of the most painful and helpless things we can do.  And no, listening to Cash fall apart doesn't make us feel better when we just don't get life.  That's not the point of sad music.  Sad music helps us feel better about the pain in our lives, it reminds us that we are not alone in our struggles and that as hard as our moments in our lives are, just like this song, eventually it will be over.

Ashokan Farewell from Ken Burns’ The Civil War

"Gen. McClellan was such a wuss. seriously. WORST CIVIL WAR GENERAL EVER!!!"
-Facebook Status update June 24th

As I was watching Ken Burns’ epic documentary The Civil War, I got so enraptured in the drama of the conflict I had to post the a Facbook status update about the McClellan, a Northern general.

McClellan had the resources and the troops but with a lack of confidence and spirit needlessly prolong the war.  Like at the Battle of Antietam, when McClellan with troops outnumbering the Confederate troops failed to launch counterattacks. Why was I getting so frustrated with McClellan? I realized it was because I thought of him as being on my team, the winning team, the North. After finishing the The Civil War, I realized how wrong I was to feel this way.

My understanding of this conflict from my exposure during middle school was that the North didn’t want slavery the South were bad guys who did.  So the North fought them, freed the slaves and the South lost, the end. Ken Burns revealed a lot more to this story.

The South succeeded and the way the North got them back was by invading their land. Lincoln refused to let the war be about slavery and the Emancipation Proclamation was very much a political move. He stated at one time that if he could win the war and not free the slaves he would. There were no good guys or bad guys in this war, only Americans.

At the end of it all the person that I most admired was not Lincoln but General Lee. While his military strategy beating the odds over and over is impressive it was the way that he served his troops which is the most touching.  Lee constantly advocated for the welfare for his troops and after his loss in Gettysburg he rode out amongst his men and apologized to his troops taking blame for devastating loss.

The most powerful part of Ken Burns masterpiece is how he helps us understand on a human level what happened. No one can truly comprehend the over 600,000 American deaths in this war. Burns reveals the struggles through individuals like Sullivan Ballou with his beautiful and heart breaking letter to his wife.



Accompanied by "Ashokan Farewell," the theme composed for this series, this letter expresses love and passion that we all share as Americans and reminds us that the tragedy of death is not simply a loss of life but the pain felt by the people who loved the one who has passed.

The Civil War will change the way you view America and will make you question what it means to be American.  Yes, it's nine episodes that adds up to more than 10 hours but watching this documentary is an engaging and unforgettable experience.    

Redemption Song by Bob Marley

Diagnosed with cancer, in pain and facing his own mortality, Bob Marley wrote “Redemption Song” in 1979. Marley had already changed the way the world viewed Reggae music, Jamaica and the Rastafari movement.

With insightful lyrics and a sound that popular culture had never heard before, Bob Marley penetrated deep into the American consciousness, which is evident in his greatest hits album, Legend selling over ten million copies in the United States.

Unlike earlier songs, which featured his band The Wailers, Marley recorded “Redemption Song,” recorded for his seventh album Uprising with a simple acoustic guitar accompaniment. It’s simple presentations echoes back to American folk singers and early works by Bob Dylan filled with social commentary and powerful imagery. There’s something about redemption song that is unique, not only in the protest music but in Bob Marley. Earlier Marley had called out to the world to “Get Up Stand Up” but in “Redemption Song” there was a softer tone, a more personal statement.

Inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey, urging people to emancipate themselves from mental slavery, Marley composed a song of freedom, a song of hope. He begins in the first verse singing about pirates taking him into physical slavery but “the hand of the almighty” keeping him strong as hi moves forward in his generation. He invites us to sing in his song of freedom because he states “all I ever have, redemption songs.

In the second verse, Marley urges us to free ourselves from a different kind of slavery to free our minds from “mental slavery.” He redirects our fear of atomic energy as they can’t stop who we are and asks us “how long shall they kill our prophet, while we stand aside and look.”

Marley is asking is how we can stand by and watch the things that mean most to us be killed. Instead of focusing on outward fears of nuclear energy, Marley is telling us to look for our spiritual larders, protect what is most important. At the end of the verse Marley states that other people say that we simply have a role to “fulfill the book.” All we are doing is playing falling into place with what others have planned. In this way we truly are slaves and its up to us to free ourselves for this new kind of slavery.

Marley sings that all he ever has is “redemption songs” but “Redemption Song” isn’t one of them. The redemption that Marley asks us to seek is not found in the words and melody of this song, they are found within ourselves. When we finally get there, we can join Marley but until then what we have is this call to freedom.

As the final song on his last album, “Redemption Song” is a powerful statement of the nature of change. Marley can’t make the world change, he can only invite us to think about our lives and do something different. Many people have answered to call to help him sing with him and maybe that’s all we need to do to change the world not through a grandiose speech but through a simple song of freedom.

Walking In Memphis by Marc Cohn

Matt, what are you listening to?!?

Last Tuesday, I put my car into the shop for a scheduled maintenance so my father-in-law let me borrow one of his cars for the day. The only drawback to my father-in-laws car is the fact that it doesn’t have an ipod hookup in its stereo system (though it does have an audio cassette player, which I doubt has ever been used). In my car, I have an ipod hook up so I’m usually listening to mixes that I make or podcast on the way to work.

As I’m driving to work with a friend I carpool with, we are listening to what happened to be in the CD player which was Taylor Swift's first album. My brother-in-law Matt used this car all summer to get to work, so I knew it was his CD. He was the one who introduced me to Taylor Swift. I swooned over how great “Love Story” is in a previous post but I’m not as big a fan of the first album (though I find “Picture To Burn” hilarious) and anyways my friend in the car isn’t that into her.



The only other CD we could find in this car was a burned mix that was labeled illegibly, the best I could make out was “Scoone 2 + Mix.” Matt introduced me to Taylor, loved that stuff, so I figured I’d check out this other CD he left in the car. We put it in and we find it’s rave music. I’ve never been to a rave, I don’t know anything about rave culture of rave music except for the fact that sometimes glow stick are involved.

My friend and I are giving each song about 30 seconds and finding one dance song after another, sometimes we can decipher what song is being remixed other times we have no idea. I'm not a big fan of this style of music, don’t hate it, just not that into it, especially during an early morning commute. Then we got to a track that had the piano track to “Let It Be.” We both exhaled and relaxed ready to enjoy one the greatest rock songs of all time, and then instead of hearing Paul McCartney's voice enter, we hear Shaggy.



“It Wasn’t Me” mashed up with “Let It Be.” What in God’s name are you listening to Matt?!? My head can’t even begin to explain what is so wrong about this mix. The juxtapositions of these two songs while inventive is just plain wrong. I need a whole post dedicated to this mix to wrap my brain around it.

We can only stand listening to this mix for about 40 seconds and then we move on. What I hear a couple tracks later is the opening piano line to “Walking In Memphis.” Last week, I downloaded “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn off of itunes. I planned to do an analysis of this song that I've found that many people love and connect with. Even though it’s a little adult contemporary, it paints a beautiful picture with cultural references that echo back to songs like “American Pie” capturing a time and place in a unique and unforgettable way.



Instead of Marc Cohn there's a European guy singing about getting prepared to go raving. Instead of singing “walking in Memphis” he sang, “I’m raving, I’m raving.”



As my friend sat in disbelief, I actually started enjoying this song. It was kind of making fun of raving and utilizing the nostalgia of “Walking In Memphis” to comment on the fun of going to a rave in a mocking almost Saturday Night Live kind of way.

Then after the first chorus, to my utter shock and disbelief, “Scotland The Brave” enters.



Probably the most famous Scottish bagpipe song beside “Amazing Grace,” “Scottish the Brave” in a patriotic song and rousing melody that exemplifies the spirit of Scottish music.

Okay, let me try to wrap my brain around this one. Here’s a song based on “Walking In Memphis” a song about an American city, used to sing about raving, a dance almost trance-like experience paired with a Scottish pipe tune. Maybe, Scooter the German band that did this remix, um, didn’t want to seem too American, so they threw in a little dash of Scottish to balance out the Elvis references.

Arrgh, my brain can’t handle this. Too many cultural implications, crashing together.

Matt, what's going on? How are you listening to this stuff? It's not so much that this is "bad" music, but rather it's baffling. You're my brother-in-law and the longer I know you the more I simply think of you as a brother, but really Matt? "Put on my raving shoes?" Are you kidding?

sigh

Honestly, this Mix CD made me laugh out loud which I really needed heading back to work after a long weekend. Thanks for leaving that CD in the car. It totally made my day.

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills & Nash

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” live performance at Woodstock

When I was in elementary school and “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” would come on the radio I eager anticipate the “doodoodoodoo DOOT! Doot doot doo Doodoodoo” at the end. I could always recognize this song because of the incredible harmonies, beautiful melodies and poetic lyrics, but I just wanted to get to the end section. Part of what I annoyed me back then was that I couldn’t really predict when that section was going to come. I’d expect it after a certain phrase, but I would be mistaken. After being mistaken a couple times, I woudl become more impatient with the song. When the ending finally came, I felt like I had been through an ordeal like the way Peter from “Family Guy” felt after watching the extended version of the “Maude” theme song.

Actually, this's EXACTLY how I felt.

What I didn’t appreciate back then is also one of the most amazing things about Crosby, Stills & Nash’s most famous song. “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” takes the classical form of the suite into popular music creating a set of four related songs to create a singular music experience.

“Form” in music is a used to describe how the different sections in a piece of music and how the composer arranges these sections. Form is a musical device like melody, harmony and lyrics, which add to the overall expression of a song. The way a composer arranges different sections and the overall length of a song have a significant effect on the way that we understand music.

Crosby Stills and & Nash is one most and enduring supergroup in Rock. The collaboration of these three musicians has been so successful that many know them more for their work as a supergroup than their previous work that made them famous.

David Crosby as a founding member of the Byrds helped create the sound of the 1960s, contributing his songwriting skills and adding vocal harmony to songs like, “Turn! Turn! Turn!” Stephen Stills along with Neil Young formed Buffalo Springfield, a band responsible for one of the most important protest song "For What It's Worth."

Graham Nash as a member of The Hollies was part of the “British Invasion,” a movement of British band onto the American popular music scene started by the Beatles. Nash, contributed to many of The Hollies hits helping create their unique vocal harmony heard in their hits like “Bus Stop.”

The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and The Hollies may not seem like a big deal to us now, but they were important bands of the 1960s and it truly was a momentous thing to for the strongest creative forces of these three bands to come together.

In classical music, a suite is a piece of music that consists of several shorter pieces. During the baroque era, suite usually contained dance music. As classical music developed, the suite form expanded to included different kinds of music.

Crosby, Stills & Nash stick to this classical definition of suite including four shorter pieces that all have a dance feel to them. Each of these sections contrast but also work together to create a unique musical journey.

The first section feels like a standard 1960s mid-tempo rock song. It has some folk flavor to it and predictably follows a verse-chorus song form. This up-beat song contemplates the difficulties in the relationship but is also reaffirming in the challenges. This section is like the beginning of a movie setting up the status-quo with hints of the journey to come.

The second section starts with “Friday evening, Sunday in the afternoon, what have you got to lose?” This section is slower and more contemplative reflecting on suffering and despair in the lyrics. He thinks about leaving concluding “what have I got to lose?” while still wondering if she will come see him after he ahs left.

After the second section slows down the song, the energy in the song seems to dissipate like train coming to rest. However, right when song feels like it’s about to end the song starts up with a Indian influenced raga-like section. The rising voices look outwards in contrast to the second section pondering the beauty in nature. The rising melodies conclude with one of the most beautiful uses of alliteration in popular music “lacy, lilting, leery, losing love, lamenting, change my life, make it right, be my baby.” This conclusion leads directly into the last section a pure expression of joy.

The ending of this song used to feel like a pay-off to me because it finally came, but now that I’m older I enjoy the journey leading up more. Sometimes it takes more effort to focus on the journey and not rush ahead to the ending. There are times when I read a book quickly just to get to the ending, but I’m always left feeling a little hollow. The journey is what makes the ending more meaningful.

It’s not the fact that Peter finally hears “and then there’s Maude” that makes the joke so funny, it’s the fact that we see his smile slowly fade as the song continues to string him along transforming his anticipation into rage.

Father and Son by Cat Stevens

“Father and Son” Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) live performance
“Father and Son” music video

Dear Boyzone fan,

Recently I came across a video of you with a stadium full of your fellow Boyzone fans cheering at a Boyzone concert. I understand how boy-bands like Boyzone provide an escape for many pre-teen and teenage girls like yourself.

I’ve seen stadiums of girls going crazy over singers starting with Elvis Presley, rising to new peaks with the Beatles and continuing with bands like Bon Jovi. That’s nothing out of the ordinary. What was odd, and honestly kind of bizarre was how the song that the entire audience was singing along to was “Father and Son.”

Most of the time when you see thousands of girls singing along to pop songs, they are rock anthems or love songs which have relatively simple lyrics without deep layers of meaning. So you can see how Boyzone is unusual in choosing to cover “Father and Son,” one of popular music’s most personal, powerful and emotionally brutal songs.

I’m not trying to discredit Boyzone’s performance or recording of “Father and Son” but rather, I want to illuminate some things about the song that you love so much. Studying the meaning of the words and understanding the history rarely diminishes my personal enjoying of the song but rather adds a layer of meaning that only makes the song better.

Cat Stevens, now known as Yusuf Islam, originally composed and recorded “Father and Son” in 1970. Stevens sold over 60 million albums in the 1960s and 1970s At the peak of his fame in the 1977, he converted to Muslim, changed his names to Yusuf Islam and left the music industry. He has only recently released started performing music and his first album since the 1970s, Roadsinger.

As one of the most successful solo male artist of his times, Stevens set himself apart singing about relationships in an revealing and powerful way. With songs like “Wild World,” Stevens added a unique perspective on life with a folk music style that challenging artists of the time to dig deeper into the complexities of human relationships.

“Father and Son” is unique in the fact that the song is a conversation between a father and his son. Cat Stevens differentiated these two characters by singing with darker tone for the father and a brighter tone for the son. Stevens does not provide any that explains the context of the song. Instead, he starts in the middle of the scene as the father responds to the son.

We can gather from the father’s opening words that the son feels he needs to make a change. The father tries to reassure his sn but some bitterness seeps through when he says tells his son that he is young and that’s his sons fault. The father cites his own life as proof that he need not do something drastic to find happiness.

The father continues talking about how he was in his son’s shoes. He says that he knows “that’s its not easy, to be calm when you’ve found something going on.” He encourages his son to think about everything that he has because “you [the son] will still be here tomorrow, but your dreams may not.”

We do not hear the son’s words in response to his father but instead his thoughts. The son explains, “from the moment I could talk I was ordered to listen.” The son is so focused on the fact that he feels that his father does not validate his thoughts and feelings that he is completely closed to any advice his father has to give.

The father continues, repeating what he just said to his son again. We hear the son’s thoughts in the background, ”away, I know I have to make this decision alone, no.” It’s as if the son is standing there being lectured, holding in his words as they have proved useless, trying to will his thoughts to his father.

The son responds “all the times I cried, keeping all the things I knew inside, it’s hard but its harder to ignore it.” He explains that if these feelings were right, he’d agree but “its them [other people] you know not me.” None of these ideas and thoughts feel like his own anymore. It’s his father’s words, it’s people telling him how to be and in order to feel independent, to be himself, he feels he needs to go away. Behind his son’s struggle the father’s thoughts echo in the background, “stay, why must you go and make this decision alone?”

Everything that is between this father and son, are within all of us. There are times when we try to give advice and it’s not taken because not because our advice is bad, but because the people who we seek to help need us more to listen than to advise.

On the other side, there are times when we need to communicate what we feel, and be willing to listen to advice and trust people who simply through living longer may know better. We struggle for so much of our life to be independent, sometimes we forget, that independence is not an end goal, but a means to leaning to know ourselves. Sometimes out focus on independence blinds us to the feelings of the people around us.

I don’t know if you felt all of this when you were singing along with Boyzone. If you weren’t, it’s no a big deal, but now that you know more about this song, I hope it’s more meaningful. Is it a little weird for “Father and Son” to be a boy-band song? Yeah, but is it a horrible thing, not really. Boyzone’s version of the song bring people to “Father and Son” who otherwise never would have heard it and give them a glimpse of the complexity of love and the struggles that define our relationships.

Cat's in the Cradle by Harry Chapin

“Cat’s in the Cradle” live performance

Whether we like it or not, most of us are more like our parents than we’d like to admit.

If you spend enough time with a friend, you pick up their mannerisms and perspectives. For many of us there is no one that we’ve spent more time with in our lives than our parents. It’s only logical that in many ways we are like our parents.

I’m in my late 20s, and I’ve noticed my friends and I seem to talk about our parents more than we did in college. College creates the illusion that you are on your own, when most of us truly aren’t. When you get out to the real world, many of the safety-nets of college are gone. I never realized how much my parents and college took care of for me until I truly had a place of my own and was working a job full time.

Living life as an adult has made it easier for me and my friends to relate to our parents. I’m paying bills just like they are, dealing with taxes and having to make difficult decisions just like they did when they were my age and continue to make at their age. When my dad was 10 years old, he may have been very much like me when I was 10 years old but I didn’t know my dad when he was a kid so I don’t have a frame of references. However, I have seen my parents go through life as adults so when I make decisions and do “adult” things the similarities come across clearly.

“Cat’s in the Cradle” explores the idea of children taking after their parents from the perspective of a father. Harry Chapin’s most memorable song is one of those songs in our popular culture that goes against what we expect. There are not that many songs that deal with the idea father and son relationships.

The father in “Cat’s in the Cradle,” is simply too busy to spend time with his son. In the first two verses of the song, the father misses the son learning to walk and talk. Later the son asks to play ball but the father says he is too busy and promises and that there will be time later for them to get together and have a good time.

The son grows up and goes to college. When he visits his dad, the tables turn as the father wants to spend time with the son, while all the son wants is to borrow the car and go out with his friend. The father retires and the son gets married and has kids of his own. One day the father calls his son and asks if they can get together and the son answers that there is too much stuff going on with his family and job to see his father.

There is no anger between the son and the father in this song. There is a feeling of disappointment when the son is turned down and later the father. The son states in the first too verses that “I’m gonna be like you dad.” His “smile never dimmed” when the father says he is too busy. There is a sense that the son understands even at a young age that the father would truly like to spend more time with the son but feels that he simply cannot. When the son later says he is too busy to see his dad, he reassures his dad that “it’s been sure nice talking to you.” Even though the son states that he is too busy, he feels a need to express to his dad that it’s been nice talking.

The father realizes that the son’s declaration, that he will grow up to be like his dad comes true, but not in the way that the dad imagined. The dad seems to mourn the fact that the son grew up to be like the father focusing on the fact that the son just like the father simply doesn’t have time to spend with him.

Instead of anger, there is a feeling of guilt that the father holds. He feels that he let down his son by not taking the time to spend time with him. The fact that his son throughout his life never seemed to get anger at his dad only make the guilt worse.

Even though the father’s realization is depressing, the song ends on a sense of hope, “when you coming home son? I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then son, you know we’ll have a good time then.” I like to think that after the father made his realization that he talks to his son and they both make an effort to change not only for each other but also for the son’s children.

Many credit “Cat’s in the Cradle” for having a life-changing effect. This song has helped people realize the power they have in their children’s lives and the inevitability that we all have in following in our parent’s footsteps. .

Harry Chapin, said that he thought “Cat’s in the Cradle” was a scary song. At it’s heart, it’s a disturbing idea that the worst of us will be passed down and that we are destined to repeat the sins of our fathers.

I chose to look at this song another way.

I have no doubt that most of who I am, I got from my parents. I like to think that I’ve reciprocated back to them the best of what they gave me. As dark as “Cat’s in the Cradle,” is, it comforts me in the idea that in the inevitability of picking up negative things from our parents; we also pick up things that we admire about our parents

When I listen to this song, I am reminded that the things I admire about my father truly are within me. Whenever I do something or say something that reminds me of my dad at first, I’m a little freaked out, but then I smile to myself laugh and thank God that he is always with me.

The Wrestler by Bruce Springsteen

“The Wrestler” music video
“The Wrestler” live performance clip

The stage lights suddenly shut off and I heard a wash of synthesized strings, slowly moving through a four-chords pattern drifting over the audience. Standing up on the third level of the United Center, I looked out over the audience and felt a sense of relaxation fill the arena.

The synthesized strings surrounded me like a summer breeze, comforting in its warmth but fleeting in its presence. Slowly a spot light slowly opened up to reveal Bruce Springsteen standing behind a microphone, head down in contemplation. He rose his head up slowly looking out at the audience with as if he was looking into a mirror deep into his own eyes. He approached the microphone and slowly counted, “1, 2, 3, 4.”

Springsteen’s voice cut through the wash of sound like reality pushing its way into a dream. As he counted to four, a single acoustic guitar entered strumming solemnly bringing us into ourselves, changing our glances from the heavens above to the earth below.

Up until this point in the concert, Springsteen was throwing a party. The most optimistic of the five times I’ve seen Springsteen live, this concert was a celebration of hope, optimism and the American dream. Springsteen and The E Street Band started the concert with “Badlands,” a tribute to resilience. He worked his way through songs that spanned his entire career, it was after “The Promised Land,” one of my favorite Springsteen songs that the lights shut off, and the introduction to “The Wrestler” began.

Springsteen has spent his career composing and performing songs about people who have difficult lives. However, there is something different about “The Wrestler.” It’s not a song like “Promised Land” which describes a person in bad situation but is resilient in facing challenges. Describing “The Wrestler” as a song about a man who is depressed isn’t really what this song is about either.

Springsteen wrote “The Wrestler,” for the critically acclaimed film of the same title, which was touted as the “resurrection of Mickey Rourke.” The Wrestler is as good as everyone says it is. I have only seen a couple films in which the actors become their characters so convincingly and so completely. The plot of the film follows Randy “The Ram” Robinson, a washed out professional wrestler. The character of Randy has fallen on hard times and because of injuries has to stop wrestling. Randy feels drawn to go back to wrestling as his only human connection. It’s a place where he feels alive in a world that seems to keep pushing him.

Springsteen utilizes questions to expresses the feeling of the narrator. Like Bob Dylan’s use of questions in “Blowing in the Wind,” Springsteen asks us if we’ve seen things that most of us can only imagine. This draws us deeper within ourselves as our own imagination takes us into the depths of our hearts.

The opening line “have you ever seen a one trick pony in a field so happy and free?” takes the phrase “one trick pony” which is used to describe a person who can only do one thing well and combines it with the literal meaning of a pony. Within this line, we understand the sadness but also the feeling of bliss that animals get when they are free.

The chorus enforces the response in the verses stating that if you’ve seen that, then we have seen the narrator. Each line “then you’ve seen me” is followed by a declaration. He is a man who stands at every door, always leaves with less and can make you smile, but only through his pain. When he wonders, “can you ask for anything more?” he asking us if there is anything more in life that is important. In a way, it is these consistencies that bring him solace with is true in all of our lives.

He takes full responsibility his life in the bridge. He pushes away what he the comforts, the people, in his life, which he accepts That is what is so poignant about these statements. His words touches us as we all struggle to accept ourselves throughout our lives.

Faith is something that we have in things that are beyond understanding, inspired by intangibles that touch our souls. The wrestler’s faith in his body which reflects a darkness.

Springsteen invites us to questions the choices in our lives, the constants that bring us comfort and the faith that brings us hope. To call “The Wrestler” depressing would oversimplify what is meaningful about this song. This song is is indescribably, spiritual and personal.

As Springsteen sang through “The Wrestler,” last night and reached the climax of the bridge, I was overcome by a sense of belief. And for a moment, my soul was overcome by truth, faith, hope and love.

Tell me, friend can you ask for anything more?

Turn! Turn! Turn! (to Everything There is a Season) by The Byrds

"Turn! Turn! Turn!” the Byrds live performance
"Turn! Turn! Turn!” Roger McGuin & Bruce Springsteen live performance

I was named after a trash can.

Well that’s the joke but it’s half-true. People often ask me how my parent’s chose my first name, "Kingsley." The short answer is that my dad saw the name on a office product and named me after a company which now specializes in depositories www.kingsley.com (and well yes, they do make trash cans but mostly they specialize in drops boxes).

The real answer is about the immigrant experience. When people immigrate from Asia, most of the time they chose American first names, use the middle name for their Chinese name (mine is Chin-Jer) and use their original last name. Choosing the American name for immigrants often comes from taking a name that sounds like their Chinese name. For example my dads full Chinese name is “Tang Bing-Yue” (in Chinese the order of names are: last, first then middle). My dad when he came to America took "Bing," (i.e. Bing Crosby) and my dad’s American name is Bing Yue Tang.

Now when my parent were trying to figure out an American names for my me and my borther they didn’t want to use a Christian derived name, since they were not Christian. Most American names have Christian origins except for the British Royal names like "Edward" my brother’s first name and "Kingsley" which is derived the from the Scottish clan name "Kinsella."

My parents played along with the Christian traditions which had made their way into the American culture like Christmas and Easter which we celebrated non-religiously. It seemed to me growing up that Christianity was something for other people that I didn't need to know about.

Growing up listening to the local oldies station with my dad "Turn! Turn! Turn!" was a song that I knew well and even in middle school I fancied myself an expert on popular music. So when one of my friends spoke about his excitement about this song because the lyrics were from the Bible, well, it brought together two worlds: the popular music world that I loved and the Christian world, which I had been ignoring.

Since then I have made an effort to get to know Christianity, not because I wanted to convert or go to church every Sunday, I just didn't want to be left out. I wanted to know about the religion inspired some of the most important and transcendent art in history.

In studying Christianity in American culture, I have seen interpretations of the religion that I strongly disagree with. From Bob Jones universities policy banning interracial marriage on its campus which was in effect until it was taken off the books in 2000, to current arguments citing verses from the Bible to argue homosexuality as being a sinful lifestyle choice. Many people have insidiously distorted Christianity to serve their own agendas. This is not only annoying but infuriating because at its core, at its best Christianity is a hopeful religion and one of the truest expressions of all that is humanity and “Turn! Turn! Turn!” represents all of this in a beautiful and powerful way.

When Pete Seeger, one of the most influential American folk singers, used the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1 from the King James version of the Bible he was responding to his publisher who disliked his protest songs. Seeger responded that what protest songs “were the only songs he knew how to write" as he explains in this interview.



The two musicians at the end of this clip are Roger McGuinn and David Crosby who as members of the band the Bryds recorded “Turn! Turn! Turn!” and transformed it from an obscure folk song to an iconic song of the 1960s.

McGuinn describes how they added a “Beatle beat” and an counter-melody to use as an introduction but the Byrds did so much than that to the song. What is immediately striking about this song is the Roger McGuinn’s guitar. This song is one of the most famous uses of the 12-string Rickebacker guitar. This guitar features 6 pairs of strings, each pair tuned to the same note that corresponds to a stings on regular 6-string guitar. The bottom four pairs have the strings tuned in octaves on the same note while the top two pairs are tuned in the same octave. This creates a bright resonant sound, that sparkles like the light shining through oak trees leaves on a sunny day.



The guitar playing of McGuinn’s 12-string Rickebacker seems to turn and roll into itself enforcing the meaning of the lyrics. Watching McGuinn playing this song solo with his guitar up the creative and understated way that McGuinn moves through the chords and creates the sound of multiple guitars in becomes clear.

On top of this rolling guitar line are the vocals which alternate between unison singing on “to everything” to the gentle harmony behind the words “turn, turn, turn.” David Crosby, who later went on to further fame with Crosby, Stills and Nash provides the gentle high harmony which brings a comforting sense to the melody.

While the chorus has a sense of calmness and acceptance the verses express a feeling of urgency. With the turning of the earth and the cycle of life, thereis inevitable that all the things in the verses, both good and bad are happening and the purpose behind all of this is beyond are understanding.

Seeger added the last two lines of the final verse because he needed them to balance out the verse but in adding “a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late” he breaks the pattern. Every other line describes the good and the bad, a yin/yang relationship. The song mentions peace in the third verse but is preceded by war. However ending the last verse with peace alone is a statement that peace is coming and that we can’t give up.

“Turn! Turn! Turn!” may not be the greatest religious song ever written but it helped me understand what Christianity means to people. It showed me that Christianity is about embracing the human experience. It is knowing that everything, even the bad things, have a purpose and that in the end of all there is always hope because in life it is never to late embrace love over hate and embrace peace over war.

That’s not a bad bunch of ideas to be at the center of a culture, or a life.

Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon & Garfunkel

On the journey of life our hearts struggle with questions about our lives. We question our direction and our purpose in an attempt to understand the choices we make and the things that happen to us that are beyond our control. Along with these questions, we ask ourselves what it means to care about each other, to live with each other and at the heart of it all, what it means to be a friend.

When the duo, Simon and Garfunkel released “Bridge Over Troubled Water” in 1970 the relationship between the two artists Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel was strained. They could not agree on the final track of the album as well as who should sing the title track. Paul Simon felt that Garfunkel should sing it as a solo and had to convince Garfunkel to do so. However, Simon has repeatedly said that he regrets this decision as it centered attention on Garfunkel. Simon and Garfunkel broke up later that the same year they released “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and since had a rocky relationship included a failed attempts at recording together and numerous reunion concerts.

It seems ironic that Simon and Garfunkel recorded one of pop music’s greatest tributes to friendship as the duo was breaking up. Even though “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” is a song that has a life of its own, the circumstances of its creation informs our understanding of the work. Maybe during the recording this song Simon and Garfunkel realized that they did not feel for each other what Simon wrote about and Garfunkel sang. The history of the song does give it meaning but makes us look at it in a slightly different light giving us a perspective to work from which adds a layer of depth to our understanding.

The melody of “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” is carefully crafted featuring mostly step-wise motion (moving between notes that are right next to each other) feature some well-placed leaps. The melody builds in the first stanza bring motion in the melody into to different parts of the line. In the line “when you’re weary, feeling small” there is a slight drop towards the end of the line. The next line, “when tears are in your eyes” the motion of the melody in the beginning, which builds into the next line which draws out the words with longer note values. There is a jump in the middle of this phrase bringing out the word “your” which foreshadows the wide leaps in the chorus. The last line of this stanza “I will dry them all” mirrors the first line coming to rest, reflecting the meaning of the lyrics.

The next two lines “I’m one your side, when times get rough,” has it’s own rise and fall resting for a moment before the dramatic leap in the next line. The chorus starts with heartfelt leap in the line “and pain is all around,” and then slowly rises. The words “like a bridge over troubled water” slowly descends, which is followed by a descending angular contour reflecting the darkness of“troubled waters.” The words “I will lay me down,” rise slowly with a the determination of a boxer who refuses to stay down.

In the first and second verse the narrator reassures his friend saying how he will help if bad things happens. The lines “when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all” and “like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down,” is actions we want to do for our friends. We want to be able to fix problems and actively help them when things are difficult. Laying down over troubled waters is a self-sacrificing act. You aren’t helping someone conquer something by themselves but rather giving up someone of yourself so that they can get through their tribulations.

There is a change to optimism in the bridge assuring that the future is bright and that good things will happen, “your time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way.” He says that in good times he will be “sailing right behind” not leading, not making something happen but supporting. Instead, of promising, “I will lay me down,” he promises, “I will ease your mind.”

Friendship is born from wanting to fix problems and develops into powerful feeling, a force that connects us to the friends in our lives. “Bridge Over Troubled Waters” challenges us to support our friends, not lead them, help them with problems, not fix them for them and to always be there with our friends in each others heart.

I have many friends who live in different cities and they can’t come by in 5 minutes when something bad happens. We try to see each other as much as we can but it’s hard. As I've grown up, I've realized that friendship is not about what we do for each other. Actions are just a manifestation of what is really important, what truly defines friendship, the feelings that we share.

These feelings sustains us when we are scared, tired and alone. These feelings remind us that over distance and time there is always friendship in our hearts. And these feelings brings us together so that we never face the future alone and have the power to calm the troubled water in our lives.

Take Me Home, Country Road by John Denver

We come to love music in different ways. Sometimes it’s from learning a song and performing it and other times it’s from hearing a song. One time I came to love a song from singing along to a German Polka band.

Several of my close friends after college relocated to the Cincinnati area for their careers and my wife and I often visit them. On my first trip to Cincinnati, my friends took me out a bar/restaurant called the Hofbrauhaus.

We got a table in the main room, got some nice fresh pretzels and lots of good beer. The evening was off to a great start and as we were catching up a band started their set, which consisted mainly of a drummer and an accordion player. They played everything from tradition polka music to German drinking songs to Sousa marches and pop songs like “Sweet Caroline.” The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone in the room was singing along and dancing to this incredible band on stage.

Every time the band played a song that people knew everyone would stand up on the wooden seats sing along and rock out. My favorite song they played that night was “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

I didn’t know the lyrics, but catching enough of the words to just sing through the song with the room full of people was one of my favorite musical experiences. Maybe it was the people in the room or the beer in my stomach but man, that song felt so good to sing at that time and ever since then “Take Me Home, Country Roads” has been on my favorite songs.

Like most people in my generation, I rode off John Denver as kind of being wimpy, white-bread, country-pop music. Looking at pictures of John Denver it seemed clear that not was he an artifact of the my parents generation but an artists that only the lamest people in my parents’ generation enjoyed.

There is some truth to that presumption. John Denver’s music is non-threatening and appeals to a specific crowd but he captures a sense of reverence and nostalgia that may come off as a little corny. The thing is that is exactly how our memories are sometimes.

John Denver released “Take Me Home, Country Roads” in 1971 and it became one of John Denver’s signature songs. This song is a well-loved anthem for the state of West Virginia and is played by the West Virginia University Marching Band at the beginning of every home game.



The melody of “Take Me Home, Country Roads” is simple and doesn’t move around across a wide range of note. However, the rise and fall of the melody is carefully crafted and creates a sense of direction. In the first verse, the melody in the verse rises to “Blue Ridge Mountains” and then rests on a lower note on the word “Shenandoah.” The word “river” has a slight rise on its last syllable that propels the melody into the next phrase.

The second phrase of the verse is similar to the first phrase but instead of having a slight rise in the end of the phrase, the chorus picks immediately begins. There is space between the first phrase and the second phrase of the verse, but there is no space between the second phrase and the chorus. Making the end of a phrase happen at the same point as the beginning of the chorus, this phrase elision, sweeps up the energy of the previous phrase like wave gently pushing the listener forwards into the chorus.

The melody in the chorus rises up to the middle of that phrase and descends as we would expect, however the way that the melody rises is both dramatic and unexpected. “Country Roads” rises up, meanders on “take me home” and then descends to the low note on the word “place.” Instead of having a steady build to the top of the phrase on the word “belong,” there is a jump up to “-long” of “belong” that brings a sense of yearning and a genuine feeling of purpose.

This is a song about missing home, about wishing you could be in the place that you feel most comfortable and the long notes in the chorus and the reminiscing verses bring a sense of warmness truly capturing the feeling of being home. Yes, “Take Me Home, Country Roads” sounds like the music equivalent of a sepia tone photograph but it’s feels real and I can’t really imagine this song sounding any better then when with John Denver singing this song with the pop country background behind him.

This song mentions a lady’s voice, a mountain mama, and a miner’s lady. There are hints of a girl that flow through this song like reflection of light in a stream. They song doesn’t tell a cohesive story but instead presents different images that like a mosaic which instead of presented an image creates a feeling.

Nostalgia is a tricky feeling. When you have great memories of a place and you revisit the location, often they aren’t as amazing as you remember. I went back to Hofbrauhaus and it was fun but it wasn’t as magical as the first time that I visited but I still had a great time. In some ways the feeling of wanting to go back, that nostalgia was better than actually going back.

If we hold on to memories for the purpose of trying to replicate them we will continuously be disappointed but if we keep them in our minds as places we can go to find comfort and happiness we will never be alone and always be at home.