Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, The Waste Books, tr. R. J. Hollingdale, New York Review Books, 1990, p. 223, Notebook L, Aph. #67:
If we did not remember our youth, we should [would] not be aware of old age: the malady of age consists solely in our no longer being able to do what we could do formerly. For the old man is certainly as perfect a creature in his own way as is the young.
The title I supplied alludes to Paul Simon's Still Crazy After All These Years. (What a great song!)
Sex, drugs, and rock & roll without the drugs. In memory of the recently late Paul Revere of Paul Revere and the Raiders, a '60s outfit with a garage-band sound I never much liked, which had a hit with the anti-drug Kicks with which I shall kick off tonight's offerings.
Buffy Sainte-Marie, Cod'ine
An equally powerful version by Janis Joplin
Hoyt Axton, The Pusher
Dave Van Ronk, Cocaine Blues
Velvet Underground, Heroin
Warren Zevon, Carmelita
Dubiously classified as drug songs:
Peter, Paul, and Mary, Puff the Magic Dragon
Doors, The Crystal Ship
Tim Hardin, Red Balloon. Small Faces version. Hardin died of a heroin overdose in late December, 1980.
Donovan, Mellow Yellow. Supposedly about cigarettes filled with dried banana peels. I tried one of these mellow yellow joints in Hollywood, Cal, in '67. It had no psychoactive effect I could discern.
Beatles, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. Supposedly about LSD.
UPDATE 10/19: Jeff Hodges thinks I should have included Neil Young, Tonight's the Night. He's right.
No “Cocaine” by Eric Clapton?! That’s a huge and surprising omission, unless you don’t take it to be either pro- or anti-drug. Clapton himself calls it anti-drug, so perhaps a Sunday supplement should ensue. On the kudos side, I’m glad that you labeled “Puff” and “Lucy” as only dubiously classified as drug songs, as both songs’ authors have vehemently and repeatedly protested their songs’ innocence.
My title indicates that my focus is on anti-drug sons. J. J. Cale's tune "Cocaine" is pretty clearly pro-drug, as witness the lyrics:
If you wanna hang out you've got to take her out; cocaine.
If you wanna get down, down on the ground; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.If you got bad news, you wanna kick them blues; cocaine.
When your day is done and you wanna run; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.If your thing is gone and you wanna ride on; cocaine.
Don't forget this fact, you can't get it back; cocaine.
She don't lie, she don't lie, she don't lie; cocaine.
True, Clapton has claimed that the song is anti-drug, but the claim is simply not credible. Generally speaking, artists' opinions about their works are not to be given much credence. Dylan is an example of one who has spoken nonsense about the meaning of his own songs.
Just read the above lyrics. The meaning is clear. You need cocaine to 'hang out' and to 'get down.' The second phrase means to party, to have sex, to have a good time, to jump up and dance. It does not mean to bring yourself down either physically or mentally. But then why "down on the ground"? Because it rhymes, and this is just a popular song the lyrics of which were scribbled in a couple of minutes. To write a song like this you start with a chord progression and a guitar riff and then find some words to go along with them.
And then we are told that cocaine "don't lie"; she takes you away from the phony workaday world of the uncool and puts you in touch with reality. And in her embrace there is an escape from bad news and a cure for the blues. If you've lost your 'mojo' and its on the sag and your 'thing' is gone, you can get it back with this stuff. And "she don't lie!"
There is simply no way this song could be interpreted as anti-drug. It is pretty clearly, though not obviously, pro-drug.
Clapton ought to 'man up' and admit it. Arguing that it is anti-drug would be like arguing that the Rolling Stones' Let's Spend the Night Together is a stern warning against premarital sex, or that their Under My Thumb is a feminist anthem.
That's why I didn't include Clapton's "Cocaine" on my list of anti-drug songs.
These tunes go out to Sally Shoaf. It was great to see you again after 50 years, Sally.
I'm So Glad to join you, My Best Friend, as we follow Mr. Tambourine Man on an Embryonic Journey to hear the Chimes of Freedom as we Break on Through to the Other Side.
Jack Kerouac in a letter from 17 January 1962: "Everybody is making money off my ideas, like those "Route 66" TV producers, everybody except me . . . ." (Selected Letters 1957-1969, ed, Charters, Viking 1999, p. 326; see also p. 461 and pp. 301-302.) Here is the Nelson Riddle theme music from the TV series. And here is part of an episode from the series which ran from 1960-1964. George Maharis bears a striking resemblance to Jack, wouldn't you say? And notice Maharis is riding shotgun. Kerouac wasn't a driver. Neal Cassady was the driver.
Now dig Bobby Troup. And if that's too cool for you, here is Depeche Mode. Chuck Berry, the Rolling Stones, Dr. Feelgood, and others have covered the tune.
Anarchist philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, over at The Philosopher's Stone, writes,
While I was making dinner, Susie put on a CD of Pete Seegar [sic] songs. I was struck once again by the oft-remarked fact that for half a century, the left has had all the good songs. That cannot be irrelevant.
By the way, the old commie's name is 'Seeger' not 'Seegar.' In the ComBox, some guy confuses him with Bob Seger! The Left has had all the good songs over the last 50 years? Nonsense. Here are 50 counterexamples.
The really interesting case is Bob Dylan. The Left can of course claim the early topical songs such as "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll. (Not that we contemporary conservatives don't take on board all that was good in these critiques of racism and Jim Crow.) But it wasn't long before Dylan distanced himself from politics and leftist ideology, a distancing documented in My Back Pages. And then came the absurdist-existentialist-surrealist phase represented by the three mid-'sixties albums, Bring It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. After that, the motorcycle accident and another attitude adjustment culminating in a couple of masterful albums, John Wesley Harding and New Morning, in which religious and conservative themes come to the fore.
I'll give just one example, Sign on a Window, from the October 1970 album, New Morning. This marvellous version sung by Melanie Safka. The song concludes:
Build me a cabin in Utah
Marry me a wife, catch rainbow trout
Have a bunch of kids who call me 'Pa'
That must be what it's all about
That must be what it's all about.
To appreciate the full conservative flavor of this song, listen to it in the context of Masters of War from the protest period and It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) from the absurdist-existentialist-surrealist period.
Now for a few tunes from the NRO list with the NRO write-up.
1. Won’t Get Fooled Again by The Who.
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.
2. Don’t Tread on Me by Metallica. A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”
3. 20th Century Man by The Kinks. “You keep all your smart modern writers / Give me William Shakespeare / You keep all your smart modern painters / I’ll take Rembrandt, Titian, da Vinci, and Gainsborough. . . . I was born in a welfare state / Ruled by bureaucracy / Controlled by civil servants / And people dressed in grey / Got no privacy got no liberty / ’Cause the 20th-century people / Took it all away from me.”
4. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down by The Band. Despite its sins, the American South always has been about more than racism — this song captures its pride and tradition.
5. Wake Up Little Susie by The Everly Brothers. A smash hit in 1957, back when high-school social pressures were rather different from what they have become: “We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot.”
From time to time it is perhaps appropriate that we should relax a little the bonds that tether us to the straight and narrow. A fitting apologia for a bit of indulgence and even overindulgence is found in Seneca, On Tranquillity of Mind, XVII, 8-9, tr. Basore:
At times we ought to reach even the point of intoxication, not drowning ourselves in drink, yet succumbing to it; for it washes away troubles, and stirs the mind from its very depths and heals its sorrow just as it does certain ills of the body; and the inventor of wine is not called the Releaser [Liber, Bacchus] on account of the license it gives to the tongue, but because it frees the mind from bondage to cares and emancipates it and gives it new life and makes it bolder in all that it attempts. But, as in freedom, so in wine there is a wholesome moderation.
Sed ut libertatis ita vini salubris moderatio est.
. . .
Yet we ought not to do this often, for fear that the mind may contract an evil habit; nevertheless there are times when it must be drawn into rejoicing and freedom, and gloomy sobriety must be banished for a while.
Amos Milburn, One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer
The Champs, Tequila. Arguably unique in that its lyrics consist of exactly one trisyllabic word.
Electric Flag, Wine. Great video of the late Mike Bloomfield and his Gibson Les Paul in their prime. Definitive proof that a Jew can play the blues.
Canned Heat, Whisky-Headed Woman.
Doors, Whisky Bar
Buck Owens, Cigarettes, Whisky, and Wild, Wild Women
Cigarettes are a blot on the whole human race
A man is a monkey with one in his face
So gather 'round friends and listen to your brother
A fire on one end, a fool on the other.
Ramblin' Jack Elliot's version
Tex Williams, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette, 1947
Commander Cody's version
Etta James, Cigarettes and Coffee
Jr. Walker and the All Stars, Shotgun
Mississippi John Hurt, Stagger Lee
Gene Pitney, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 1962
Joan Baez, Rock Salt and Nails. "If the ladies was squirrels with high bushy tails/I'd fill up my shotgun with rock salt and nails." This is undoubtedly (!)the best version of this great Utah Phillips song.
Doc and Merle Watson's version
Rosalee Sorrels' version
UPDATE 9/14: Malcolm Pollack recommends Procol Harum, Whisky Train. Joe Odegaard points us to this bluegrass version of Rock Salt and Nails.
UPDATE 9/16: I forgot EmmyLou Harris, Two More Bottles of Wine. I must be slipping . . . .
UPDATE 9/17: Zimmi too has a rendition of "Rock Salt and Nails." Sounds like it's from The Basement Tapes.
In memory of Joan Rivers. Here is the young Joan on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1967.
Rolling Stones, Watching the River Flow
Doc and Merle Watson, Banks of the Ohio
Neil Young, Down by the River
Creedence Clearwater Revival, Green River
Doc Watson, Life is Like a River
Hoagy Carmichael, Lazy River. I scratched my long arm something fierce reaching back into the musty mausoleum for this moldy oldy.
Hank Williams, Lost on the River
Leon Redbone, Mississippi River Blues
J. J. Cale, Mississippi River
Janis Joplin, River Jordan
Moe Bandy, Red River Valley
Leadbelly, Red River Blues
Dr. John, Swanee River Boogie
Bill Monroe, River of Death
Bonnie Raitt, River of Tears
Chase Webster, Moody River
Johnny Burnette, Moody River
Henry Mancini, Moon River
Update 9/7: Jeff Hodges recommends Robbie Robertson, Somewhere Down the Crazy River. Tom Coleman wonders why I didn't include Joe Cocker, Cry Me a River. Reason: I don't like it all that much. The same goes for Ike and Tina Turner, River Deep, Mountain High.
Calexico, Alone Again Or
A great cover of Love's version from '67.
Ry Cooder, Paris, Texas
Ry Cooder, He'll Have to Go
Ry Cooder, Yellow Roses
Spade Cooley, Detour
Old Crow Medicine Show, Sweet Amarillo. Dylan wrote it.
Marty Robbins messes with the wicked Felina in El Paso and comes to an untimely end.
Dean Martin is down and out in Houston.
A lonely soldier cleans his gun and dreams of Galveston.
A slacker standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona spies a girl in a flatbed Ford.
Johnny Rivers heads East via Phoenix and Albuquerque.
From Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah, this sojourner of the American night has driven every kind of rig that's ever been made.
Update (9/1). Ed Farrell writes, "The Little Feat version of I'm Willin is a good one. But my favorite version will probably remain the one done by Seatrain circa 1970–which was the standard road song for Sierra climbing trips in late high school/college. Seatrain never really took off as a band but their musicianship was quite good though their style was difficult to pigeonhole."
That is a good version, indeed better than Little Feat's. There were a lot of great bands back in the day that never really made it. Another is Fever Tree. I remember hearing them circa '68 live at a club called The Kaleidoscope in Hollywood or West L. A. Give a careful listen to The Sun Also Rises.
Ed also recommends Seatrain's version of the Carole King composition, Creepin Midnight. Produced by George Martin.
Finally, please take a look at Ed's spectacular photography.
A musician needs a muse. George Harrison and Eric Clapton found her in Pattie Boyd. Here are five of the best known songs that she is said to have inspired. If you don't love at least four of these five, you need a major soul adjustment.
Something
Isn't it a Pity?
Wonderful Tonight
Layla (The best part starts at 3:13 the poignancy of which still rends my soul the way it did 44 years ago)
Bell Bottom Blues ("If I could choose a place to die, it would be in your arms . . . .")
Try to guess the English title before clicking on the link.
Aliquid. Probably George Harrison's best composition. One of the great love songs.
Hic venit sol. YouTuber comment: "The Beatles are an antidepressant. This song is a great example!"
Intus te sine te. Another great Harrison song.
I have borrowed from here and here. There may be errors in the Latin. I am not enough of a Latinist to be sure.
These tunes go out to my elementary school classmates in anticipation of our 50th reunion this September.
Beatles, When I'm 64
Beatles, In My Life
Beatles, With a Little Help from My Friends
For Boomer nostalgia, nothing beats The Moody Blues, Your Wildest Dreams
Once upon a time
Once when you were mine
I remember skies
Mirrored in your eyes
I wonder where you are
I wonder if you
Think about me
Once upon a time
In your wildest dreams
In your wildest dreams
In your wildest dreams.
And as we approach The End of the Line, the Traveling Wilburys have some words of wisdom:
Maybe somewhere down the road a ways
You'll think of me and wonder where I am these days
Maybe somewhere down the road when someone plays
Purple Haze
[. . .]
Well it's all right, even if you're old and gray
Well it's all right, you still have something to say
Well it's all right, remember to live and let live
Well it's all right, best you can do is forgive.
And now some personal dedications:
For Desmond C., Tom Waits, Shiver Me Timbers. Rest in peace, Desi.
For the formidable Sister Augustine, 'Gus,' Joan Baez sings Dylan's I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine.
For some reason, The Monkees's Daydream Believer always puts me in mind of Jean H. who captured my fancy back in the first and second grades. I don't know why it should except for the line, "wake up sleepy Jean . . . ."
I remember my old pal Joe O. who I've known since kindergarten riffing on the "roovi do" line in the Randy and the Rainbows 1963 hit Denise, so I'll dedicate this one to him. Great video, by the way, from a time when America stood tall in the world.
Unfortunately, one of our classmates, Vincent R., fought the law and the law won.
To end on a more sober note, these go out to those of our classmates who have passed on and to the rest of us who will pass on . . .
George Harrison, All Things Must Pass
Bob Dylan, Not Dark Yet
"Sometimes my burden is more than I can bear/It's not dark yet, but it's getting there."
Finally a tribute to Sr. Mary Stella of the third grade: Ave Maris Stella.
List found here. Hyperlinks by BV to songs he is in the mood to revisit this Saturday night while he drinks a specialty boilermaker: a bourbon and sweet vermouth wine spodiodi with a Sam Adams Boston Lager 'chaser.' He will repeat as necessary to achieve the requisite mood. He drinks only one time per week, this time of the week. For some, alcohol is the devil in liquid form. For BV it is a delightful adjunct to a civilized life, one he can take or leave. To hell with Sharia and its 'liberal' and leftist enablers.
BILLBOARD (USA) MAGAZINE'S SINGLES CHART FOR WEEK OF:August 1,1964
TW LW Wks. Song-Artist
1 2 3 A HARD DAY'S NIGHT-BEATLES
2 1 7 Rag Doll-Four Seasons
3 6 6 The Little Old Lady (From Pasadena)-Jan & Dean
4 11 5 Everybody Loves Somebody-Dean Martin
5 18 4 Where Did Our Love Go-Supremes
6 9 7 Wishin' And Hopin'-Dusty Springfield
7 8 8 Dang Me-Roger Miller
8 3 11 I Get Around-Beach Boys
9 4 10 Memphis-Johnny Rivers
10 5 9 The Girl From Ipanema-Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto
11 13 6 Under The Boardwalk-Drifters
12 14 6 Nobody I Know-Peter & Gordon
13 7 8 Can't You See That She's Mine-Dave Clark Five
14 10 9 Keep On Pushing-The Impressions
15 20 7 I Wanna Love Him So Bad-The Jelly Beans
16 12 9 Good Times-Sam Cooke
17 22 6 How Glad I Am-Nancy Wilson
18 15 9 Try It Baby-Marvin Gaye
19 23 7 Farmer John-The Premiers
20 25 7 Steal Away-Jimmy Hughes
Before getting on with tonight's theme, we pause to remember Johnny Winter (1944-2014). Can a white boy play the blues? I heard the question debated in the '60s and I took the line that the blues was a language anyone could learn whether a Jew like Mike Bloomfield (Albert's Shuffle) or an albino like Johnny Winter (Serious as a Heart Attack).
The Clancy Brothers, When the Ship Comes In
Wikipedia: According to [Dylan] biographer Clinton Heylin, "When The Ship Comes In" was written in August 1963 "in a fit of pique, in a hotel room, after his unkempt appearance had led an impertinent hotel clerk to refuse him admission until his companion, Joan Baez, had vouched for his good character". Heylin speculates that "Jenny's Song" from Brecht and Weill's Threepenny Opera was also an inspiration: "As Pirate Jenny dreams of the destruction of all her enemies by a mysterious ship, so Dylan envisages the neophobes being swept aside in 'the hour when the ship comes in'." Dylan's former girlfriend Suze Rotolo recalls that her "interest in Brecht was certainly an influence on him. I was working for the Circle in the Square Theater and he came to listen all the time. He was very affected by the song that Lotte Lenya's known for, 'Pirate Jenny'."[1]
Lucinda Williams, Positively Fourth Street
Timi Yuro, What's a Matter Baby?
Betty Everett, You're No Good. My favorite version. First recorded by Dee Dee Warwick. (Sister of Dionne?) Done in the '70s by Linda Ronstadt.
American Dreams, My Boyfriend's Back.
Out of ideas for now.
It was 30 years ago tomorrow, during a training run. Running pioneer James F. Fixx, author of the wildly successful The Complete Book of Running, keeled over dead of cardiac arrest. He died with his 'boots' on, and not from running but from a bad heart. It's a good bet that his running added years to his life in addition to adding life to his years. I've just pulled my hardbound copy of The Complete Book of Running from the shelf. It's a first edition, 1977, in good condition with dust jacket. I read it when it first came out. Do I hear $1000? Just kidding, it's not for sale. This book and the books of that other pioneer, George Sheehan, certainly made a difference in my life.
The atavism and simplicity and cleansing quality of a good hard run are particularly beneficial for Luftmenschen. Paradoxically, the animality of it releases lofty thoughts.
See here for a comparison of Fixx and Sartre. And here for something on George Sheehan. Now for some 'running' tunes.
Spencer Davis Group, Keep on Running
Jackson Browne, Running on Empty
Eagles, The Long Run
Beatles, Run for Your Life
Del Shannon, Runaway. Charles Weedon Westover was born 30 December 1934 and is best known for his 1961 #1 hit, "Runaway." Suffering from depression, Shannon committed suicide on February 8, 1990, with a .22-caliber rifle at his home in Santa Clarita, California. Following his death, the Traveling Wilburys honored him by recording a version of "Runaway".
Bob Dylan, If Dogs Run Free
Chuck Berry, Run Rudolph Run
Johnny Preston, Running Bear
Dion DiMucci, Runaround Sue
Roy Orbison, Running Scared
Crystals, They Do Run Run
Addendum (7/20)
I should have mentioned it last night. Today, 20 July, is not only the 30th anniversary of Jim Fixx's death, but also the 49th anniversary of the release of Bob Dylan's Like a Rolling Stone. Wikipedia:
The song had a huge impact on Bruce Springsteen, who was 15 years old when he first heard it. Springsteen described the moment during his speech inducting Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988 and also assessed the long-term significance of "Like a Rolling Stone":
The first time I heard Bob Dylan, I was in the car with my mother listening to WMCA, and on came that snare shot that sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind … The way that Elvis freed your body, Dylan freed your mind, and showed us that because the music was physical did not mean it was anti-intellect. He had the vision and talent to make a pop song so that it contained the whole world. He invented a new way a pop singer could sound, broke through the limitations of what a recording could achieve, and he changed the face of rock'n'roll for ever and ever "[66][67]
Dylan's contemporaries in 1965 were both startled and challenged by the single. Paul McCartney remembered going around to John Lennon's house in Weybridge to hear the song. According to McCartney, "It seemed to go on and on forever. It was just beautiful … He showed all of us that it was possible to go a little further."[68] Frank Zappa had a more extreme reaction: "When I heard 'Like a Rolling Stone', I wanted to quit the music business, because I felt: 'If this wins and it does what it's supposed to do, I don't need to do anything else …' But it didn't do anything. It sold but nobody responded to it in the way that they should have."[68] Nearly forty years later, in 2003, Elvis Costello commented on the innovative quality of the single. "What a shocking thing to live in a world where there was Manfred Mann and the Supremes and Engelbert Humperdinck and here comes 'Like a Rolling Stone'".[69]
Your humble correspondent was lying in the sand at Huntington Beach, California, when the song came on the radio. It was like nothing else on the radio in those days of the Beatles and the Beach Boys. It 'blew my mind.' What is THAT? And WHO is that? I had been very vaguely aware of some B. Dylan as the writer of PPM's Don't Think Twice. I pronounced the name like 'Dial in.' That memorable summer of '65 I became a Dylan fanatic, researching him at the library and buying all his records. The fanaticism faded with the '60s. But while no longer a fanatic, I remain a fan.
Marianne Faithfull, The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Part of her story in this 2013 Telegraph piece.
Warren Zevon, Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me. The female version by Linda Ronstadt. She blows Zevon's version clean out of the water, and she is prettier too.
Beatles, I'm a Loser
Ted Daffan, Born to Lose, 1943. I prefer this spare original rendition to the lush Ray Charles cover from the early '60s. Don Gibson does a great job with it too.
Buck Owen's Cryin' Time surely belongs on the list. A year later, in 1965, Ray Charles came out with his better-known cover.
Brenda Lee can be relied on for schmalz, sentiment, and self-pity. Losing You. Fool #1. All Alone Am I. Break it to Me Gently.
