Hard to pin down, is Evin Wolverton.
Category: pop
USSS: Elaine DiMasi
The most highly trained FAWMer I know, Elaine DiMasi is also the only person I know who’s ever written a madrigal for a licorice advertisement.
Elenore, Gee I Think You’re Swell
Effervescent music and witty lyrics and young love—how can it miss? The Turtles’ Elenore never made it onto my radar when I was younger. Perhaps I wouldn’t have appreciated it.
Witty rhymes like
My Teenage Years with Tom Jones and Anne Murray
Yep, I was a teenager listening to Tom Jones and Anne Murray. What?! I laugh now thinking about it. So how did that happen?
Continue reading “My Teenage Years with Tom Jones and Anne Murray”
Ropin’ the Wind with Garth Brooks
[az]B000EN0TIG[/az]Back in 1992 I was introduced to Garth Brooks by a friend from Texas. I hadn’t really been a huge country fan before then. My friend was staying with me at the time and wanted to watch the Country Music Awards. I was hooked after hearing Garth Brooks perform. Today, though I don’t listen to even new country much, I still love to listen to Garth Brooks.
In the summer of 1992 Garth came to San Diego, California, where I was then living. Continue reading “Ropin’ the Wind with Garth Brooks”
I Wish I Had a Ukulele
During February Album Writing Month, you’ll hear lots of ukulele songs. A couple years ago, it seemed everyone had one.
Everyone but me.
Continue reading “I Wish I Had a Ukulele”
You Can Not Like Steely Dan
Recently a friend reluctantly admitted (his words) that he doesn’t like Steely Dan.
Though I understand, I don’t get it.
Continue reading “You Can Not Like Steely Dan”
Stuck in the Middle Without You
G [az]B000007O5H[/az]erry Rafferty is gone.
63 is not old enough for anyone to die. No age is, but that’s another conversation.
There are a small handful of songs which get turned up, and turn up a smile on my face, every single time I hear them, whenever, wherever. Stuck in the Middle with You, one of Gerry’s songs with Joe Egan as Stealer’s Wheel, is one of them.
There are a small handful of songs which clutch tragically at my heart every single time I hear them. Whatever’s Written in Your Heart, from Gerry’s City to City, is one of them.
There are a small handful of albums which make me yearn and cry and shout and laugh and wish and dream. That same album, City to City, is one of them.
There is not enough time for all the music; not enough for all the musicians; not enough for what I wanted.
Clapton Is Not God
I[az]B0014KD46W[/az]f you’re my age you’ve read about the message ‘Clapton is God’ scrawled on subway walls (ostensibly right under ‘Frodo lives!’)
In an interview the the Cars’ Elliot Easton, they played word association with the names of guitarists. Easton’s response to ‘Clapton’ ? “Is not God.”
At the time, I thought he was wrong. Gutsy, but wrong.
A few nights ago, I changed my mind. Watching Clapton on stage (okay, on TV) with Steve Winwood, I was amazed at how inventive and unexpected Winwood’s solos were, while Clapton played the same solo in every song. Slower, faster, different keys, but essentially the same.
And yesterday, Best Beloved changed CDs in the van, and I realised that on Clapton’s Chronicles album, I only like one of the first six tracks.
No, I’m not tossing my copy of “From the Cradle” or “Disraeli Gears” but I’m also not saving up to see him next time he comes to town.
Unless, of course, he’s playing with Steve Winwood.
Standing in the Lonely Light of the Silver Moon
Music tends to be visceral, skipping past our filters, needling its way to the real stuff inside. Continue reading “Standing in the Lonely Light of the Silver Moon”