Down the Lyrical Highway

(Reprise)

Blasts from the Past

It's been a while...

When I last wrote here, this past October, Bob Dylan had just been awarded the Nobel Prize for literature. This momentous occasion inspired me to share my bittersweet musical experiences and my fondness for lyrics. I had fully intended to follow up that post with a few lists, sharing some of my favorite musical artists from a lyrical perspective. I'll do it when Bob makes his Nobel acceptance speech, I thought. He didn't. He wrote a short thank-you note to the award committee which was read at the Nobel banquet in December by the U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.* I'll do it when Bob gives the obligatory Nobel Laureate lecture, I thought. According to the Nobel Foundation statutes, the Nobel Laureates are required "to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded". The lecture should be given before, or no later than six months after, the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony. With no sign of the lecture, and living the free spirit, non-disciplined, unscheduled life of a relatively recent retiree, I let time slip away from me. I recently read that Dylan, in his unique style, got his laureate lecture in just under the wire, recording a video lecture on June 4. Now I was the procrastinator. When I saw that June 21 would be World Music Day, I knew the time had come for my stroll down the lyrical highway...

My music awareness grew up in the 1960s. For some odd reason, my brother and I always got record albums in our Easter baskets. The Who's Tommy, Simon and Garfunkel's Sounds of Silence and Bridge Over Troubled Water, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's Deja Vu all made their appearance surrounded by chocolate rabbits and jelly beans. Though I would listen to most of the classic folk and rock music of the 60s and early 70s – the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton in his many manifestations, the Byrds, Peter, Paul and Mary, Judy Collins – the five below are the ones that have stood the test of time for me, my favorites for lyrics, storytelling and what little melody I can absorb:

1. Paul Simon. Though I got every Simon and Garfunkel record that came out, Sounds of Silence, Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, Wednesday Morning 3 AM, and Bridge Over Troubled Water are my favorites. “Bridge Over Troubled Water” remains my all-time favorite song. When Paul and Art went their separate ways, I continued to acquire each of their solo albums. While Art made wonderful recordings of other people's songs, Paul continued to write and record original material. His solo albums are almost all wonderful. (I could have done without Songs from the Capeman. Creepy...) Graceland, an 80s masterpiece, shows up on lists of the best record album(s) of all time. Paul Simon continues to write clever, thoughtful lyrics, still releasing albums on a regular basis. They are not always “great” albums (CDs? MP3s?), but they always have a few great songs on them.

I am just a poor boy

Though my story's seldom told

I have squandered my resistance

For a pocketful of mumbles

Such are promises

All lies and jest

Still, a man hears what he wants to hear

And disregards the rest

- From “The Boxer”

For reasons I cannot explain

There's some part of me wants to see

Graceland

And I may be obliged to defend

Every love, every ending

Or maybe there's no obligations now

Maybe I've a reason to believe

We all will be received

In Graceland

- From “Graceland”

2. Neil Young. I was a fan of the 1960s Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, and Nash, two groups that reshuffled some of their musicians and songwriters. When former Buffalo Springfield singer/songwriter/musician Neil Young was added to Crosby, Stills, and Nash, I was hooked on his songs. This turned out to be a very good thing – though he denies it, I ended up marrying one of the foremost authorities on Neil Young and his music. I acquired Neil's solo music as it came along – After the Gold Rush and Harvest being two of my early favorites – but I married a man who made it unnecessary for me to acquire any more – he did the acquiring. I don't know how many Neil Young recordings are actually in this house. My husband has more versions of “Cortez the Killer” alone than I can count. (Seriously...) Neil is another prolific artist whose voice has aged well and still writes and records on a regular basis. And he isn't afraid to try something new. He's had his country period, even his techno period. (Vocoder fans, anyone?) He's also fond of rerecording his older songs, putting a new sound to them. Dreamin' Man is a great collection, unplugged recordings of previously electric songs that take on a different vibe with the acoustic sound. Rumor has it Neil has so much unreleased music that if he were to die today, his estate could continue putting out albums at a regular rate for decades to come. Interesting facts about Neil (I'm living with the foremost authority, remember?): Neil is part of a group that owns Lionel Trains. Obsessed with sound, he's responsible for the realistic train whistle on their model train locomotives. He and his (now ex-) wife are also responsible for thirty years of very successful (think Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Arcade Fire, Bob Dylan as acts...) fundraising concerts for the Bridge School, a school for special needs kids that he and his wife started for their special needs son.

Love lost, such a cost,

Give me things

that don't get lost.

Like a coin that won't get tossed

Rolling home to you.

- From “Old Man”

It ain't an honor to be on TV

And it ain't a duty either

The only good thing about TV

Is shows like 'Leave it to Beaver'

Shows with love and affection

Like mama used to say

A little Mayberry livin'

Can go a long way"

- From “Grandpa's Interview” (Greendale)

3. Bob Dylan: Though his voice has not aged as well as Paul's or Neil's (Some might say it was never very good.), he continues to record and perform on what has been called “The Never Ending Tour”, playing at venues of all sizes for much of each year – since 1988(!) Like Neil, he's not afraid to try new things. Starting out as a folk singer, then going electric, going through a Christian recording phase, writing country, blues and torch songs, he is constantly reinventing himself – well, at least, his music. I liked his early folk period, but my two favorite albums are from the mid 70s – Desire and Blood on the Tracks. His songs have been widely covered since early in his career. Some (probably the same “some” as above) might say that anyone sings a Dylan song better than Dylan himself. Chimes of Freedom, a collection of 76 songs written by Bob Dylan, but recorded by a who's who of well-known singers and musicians of the past forty years as a fundraiser celebrating fifty years of Amnesty International is worth a listen. It contains a great variety of Dylan's musical periods, and the famous artists each give their own unique styles to his lyrics.

She lit a burner on the stove and offered me a pipe

"I thought you'd never say hello" she said

"You look like the silent type"

Then she opened up a book of poems

And handed it to me

Written by an Italian poet

From the fifteenth century

And every one of them words rang true

And glowed like burning coal

Pouring off of every page

Like it was written in my soul from me to you

- From “Tangled Up in Blue”

A self-ordained professor's tongue

Too serious to fool

Spouted out that liberty

Is just equality in school

"Equality," I spoke the word

As if a wedding vow

Ah, but I was so much older then

I'm younger than that now.

 

- From “My Back Pages”

4. 
   Joni Mitchell: Though I was only a moderate fan back in her heyday, I've come to appreciate Joni's vocal soprano gymnastics in the years since. Her lyrics and melodies are uniquely frenetic. Unfortunately, her voice has not aged well, and her later recordings do not sound like the early Joni. Health issues in recent years have forced her into retirement. But her collection of songs from the late 60s into the 80s are worth revisiting again and again. I don't have a favorite single album, Joni Mitchell being the only artist on this list that I search out the greatest hits collection to hear her music. She had a few great songs off of each of a dozen or so albums over a fifteen year period.

But now old friends are acting strange

They shake their heads, they say I've changed

Well something's lost, but something's gained

In living every day

I've looked at life from both sides now

From win and lose and still somehow

It's life's illusions I recall

I really don't know life at all

- From “Both Sides Now

And the seasons they go round and round

And the painted ponies go up and down

We're captive on the carousel of time

We can't return we can only look

Behind from where we came

And go round and round and round

In the circle game

- From "The Circle Game"

5. Billy Joel: Yeah, I know, he's not quite in the same category as Paul, Neil, Bob and Joni, but I fell in love with his Piano Man album as a junior in college and have been a fan ever since. When I found out he was a Long Islander, like me, I liked him even better. (Besides, the cover photo on his first album, Cold Spring Harbor, reminds me of my brother, though my brother has aged more gently...) I find his lyrics Long Island-y at times, a good thing, he holds his own with Paul, Neil and Bob when it comes to storytelling, and there is something about the piano as the primary instrument that allows me to “hear” the melody better. Piano Man, The Stranger, and Turnstiles are my favorite albums. Though his voice is strong and has aged well, and he continues to tour, he hasn't really released any new music since 1993. The reason? According to Joel, he just doesn't have anything new to say. He enjoys the performing and the touring, but he feels he has said everything lyrically he had to say. Unlike Paul, Neil and Bob, who obviously feel they have more yet to say, Billy Joel knows, rightfully or wrongfully, when to stop, and has. But I really did, and still do, enjoy what he had to say.

Well we all have a face

That we hide away forever

And we take them out and show ourselves

When everyone has gone

Some are satin some are steel

Some are silk and some are leather

They're the faces of the stranger

But we love to try them on

- From The Stranger

In the middle of the night

I go walking in my sleep

Through the valley of fear

To a river so deep

And I've been searching for something

Taken out of my soul

Something I would never lose

Something somebody stole

- From River of Dreams

These are the last words I have to say

That's why this took so long to write

There will be other words some other day

But that's the story of my life

- From Famous Last Words

 

 

 

 

Next:

Words of Worship, Words of Truth

*Hear or read his acceptance note here: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-speech.html

**Hear or read his laureate lecture here: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-lecture.html