Pagan Baby (1970) – Creedence Clearwater Revival

Posted on September 17, 2025 by observationblogger — 10 Comments

Pagan Baby is a stellar guitar rocker, laden with smokin’ riffs that get you pumping. It’s mostly instrumental interspersed with John Fogerty’s raw and energetic voice that conveys a sense of urgency. Also his unique regional accent contributes to the songs southern and swamp rock feel. The lyrics themselves like “Roll me, baby, Roll your big, brown eyes” and “Don’t be savin’, Spread your love on me,” are delivered in a playful, but insistent tone. All this combined with the song’s driving rhythm and the iconic guitar solo that follows the chorus, transforms the track into a memorable piece of classic American roots rock. I first heard it at my friend Max’s blog – PowerPop where he wrote:

John turned his Kustom K200/A Amp up to 11 with this song. It’s a little harder than their radio hits and they dip into blues rock with this cut. It was never released as a single but has become a fan favorite, especially among those who appreciate CCR’s rock album tracks.

Most of the following was abridged from the Wikipedia reference below:
Pagan Baby opens Creedence Clearwater Revival’s sixth studio album released in December 1970. Another song that will appear here from that album which most readers will be familiar is Have You Ever Seen the Rain. The album was recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco, and took a month to complete, which was an unusually long time for the band. On previous albums, they had rehearsed songs before entering the studio, but, for Pendulum, the members learned the songs in the studio.

It is the last album the band recorded while Tom Fogerty was still a member, as he left the group in early 1971 to start a solo career; and the last of the band’s albums to be produced solely by John Fogerty. The album is the only one by Creedence Clearwater Revival to not contain any cover songs, and the last in which all the original songs were written by John. The album peaking at No. 5 on the Billboard. The only single taken from the album, “Have You Ever Seen the Rain“/”Hey Tonight“, was released in January 1971, and reached number eight on the Billboard chart.

[Verse]
Pagan Baby, won’t you walk with me?
Pagan Baby, Come on home with me
Pagan baby, Take me for a ride
Roll me, baby, Roll your big, brown eyes
Yeah! Ooh! Ooh!
Pagan Baby, Let me make your name
Drive it, baby, Drive your big love game
Pagan baby, What you got, I need
Don’t be saving, Spread your love on me
Aah! Mm-mm-mm!
Pagan Baby, Now won’t you rock with me?
Pagan baby, Lay your love on me
Yeah, yeah!
Aah! Hey, hey!
Aah! Hey! Yeah!
Hey! Hey! Haaaaaaay!

References:
1. Pendulum (Creedence Clearwater Revival album) – Wikipedia

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There She Goes (1988) – The La’s

Posted on September 16, 2025 by observationblogger — 2 Comments

There She Goes is a juicy Power Pop song which comes in an assortment of flavours since it was so widely covered. It was the theme song for the Gilmore Girls pilot, but I first heard it in the alternative comedy movie – So I Married an Axe Murderer starring Mike Myers. Sure, it’s bubblegum late-’80s music, but it carries hints of the alt-rock sound that was about to take the music world by storm. Despite relying on a repeating chorus and refrain, it remains the indie group’s most well-known song. There She Goes also seems to borrow elements from The Velvet Underground’s 1967 track There She Goes Again – similar in theme and lyrics, though musically quite different.

I still find the Liverpool rock group’s song a catchy pick me up about simple love, although the Forbes article below suggests there may be something sinister lurking within – like heroin. Lines like “there she blows again/pulsing through my vein” seem to reinforce that notion. However Lee Mavers, the reclusive front-man and main songwriter of The La’s, which broke up years ago, refuted the idea. Mavers eventually did get into heroin, although not until the 1990s after he had written There She Goes”.

Lee Mavers of The La’s, performs on stage in Rennes, France, 1989

From Songfacts:
La’s frontman Lee Mavers is a pretty enigmatic character. If you examine them closely, you’ll find a lot in common with Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed: Both had limited success with their first band but a steady cult following since, both are evasive of the media and reclusive, both are rumored to have written songs about drugs and to be heavily into drugs, and both are widely cited by other music artists as an influence out of step with their commercial success.

The 1980 – 1990’s group The La’s were not just a pop band according to the article below:
Don’t let the light, breezy melody of “There She Goes” fool you. The guitarist Eric Clapton noticed the band, particularly Mavers, in 1991 when they became mainstream popular. “The only thing I’ve really liked (recently) is a guy called Lee Mavers…he’s got a stance and a style that I think is tremendous,” Clapton told Rolling Stone, suggesting that The La’s pack a lot more punch than just pop.

“I saw them do a thing on TV with [Mavers] on acoustic guitar, and the bass player with an acoustic bass,” continued Clapton, “and they did ‘There She Goes,’ and it was so strong. I think that’s what it’s about for me…the craft.”

[Verse 1]
There she goes
There she goes again
Racing through my brain

[Refrain]
And I just can’t contain
This feelin’ that remains

[Verse 2]
There she blows (There she blows again)
There she blows again (There she blows again)
Pulsing through my vein (There she blows again)

[Refrain]
And I just can’t contain
This feelin’ that remains

[Verse 3]
There she goes
There she goes again
She calls my name, pulls my train
No one else could heal my pain

[Refrain]
But I just can’t contain
This feelin’ that remains

[Verse 4]
There she goes
There she goes again
Chasing down my lane

References:
1. ‘There She Goes,’ By The La’s: About Simple Love Angst, Or More? – Forbes

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There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (1986) – The Smiths

Posted on September 15, 2025 by observationblogger — 10 Comments

“I didn’t realise that ‘There Is a Light That Never Goes Out’ was going to be an anthem, but, when we first played it, I thought it was the best song I’d ever heard.”

– Johnny Marr’s (guitarist) comment on the song’s enduring popularity

This classic Smiths song is everything that’s so darn cool about them, wrapped up in one package:

  • Morrissey’s warped, melancholic black-humour trickery – And if a double-decker bus crashes into us / To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die. AllMusic’s Tim DiGravina argued that, while depressed characters were a regular feature in Morrissey’s work, his lyric on “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” “ups the sad-and-doomed quotient by leaps and bounds.”
  • Johnny Marr’s jangly, metallic yet rustic guitar sound,
  • an irresistibly alluring melody that makes you grin, even as it carries a romantic and pensive wistfulness,
  • and the subject matter itself – the joy and reckless abandonment of early adulthood, heading out with your partner simply to go “where there’s music and there’s people.” The narrative recalls the James Dean film Rebel Without a Cause (1955), in which Dean – an idol of Morrissey’s – flees his torturous home life, riding as a passenger with a potential romantic partner. Morrissey even echoes a line from that movie (“It is not my home”) in the song. 

The clever fan-made music video at the end of this post, adapted from scenes of 500 days of Summer, begins with hopeless romantic Tom Hansen listening to this very song in an elevator. Summer, standing beside him, turns and says: “I love the Smiths.” Tom, startled, replies: “Sorry?” She repeats: “I said I love the Smiths… you’ve got great taste in music.” Tom, suddenly besotted, asks: “You like the Smiths?” She smiles and answers: “Yeah. To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die… I love them.” Then she steps out of the elevator, leaving Tom stunned, his only response a whispered: “Holy shit.”

It’s so perfectly captured – that instant of connection when someone loves a song as deeply as you do. I totally get that.

There Is a Light That Never Goes Out makes you want to relive your youth – go out, take risks, have fun, and soak up life. It’s an absolute humdinger.

The following was abridged from the Wikipedia reference below:
It featured on the band’s third studio album The Queen Is Dead (1986), and was not released as a single in the United Kingdom until 1992, five years after their break-up. It peaked at No. 25 on the UK singles chart. The song has received considerable critical acclaim; in 2014, NME listed it as the 12th-greatest song of all time. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 226 on Rolling Stone’s list of the “500 Greatest Songs of All Time“.

The Smiths began working on “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” during their late-1985 recording sessions at London’s RAK Studios. Morrissey was sceptical about using synthesised strings, the lack of a budget to hire a real string ensemble as well as the band’s reluctance to allow outsiders into the recording process. Marr later described the recording process of the song as “magical” and commented, “Someone told me that if you listen with the volume really, really up you can hear me shout ‘That was amazing’ right at the end.”

[Verse 1]
Take me out tonight
Where there’s music and there’s people
And they’re young and alive
Driving in your car
I never, never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one anymore
Take me out tonight
Because I want to see people
And I want to see lights
Driving in your car, oh, please don’t drop me home
Because it’s not my home, it’s their home
And I’m welcome no more

[Chorus]
And if a double-decker bus crashes into us
To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die
And if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us
To die by your side, well, the pleasure, the privilege is mine

[Verse 2]
Take me out tonight
Take me anywhere
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care
And in the darkened underpass
I thought “Oh God, my chance has come at last”
But then a strange fear gripped me and I just couldn’t ask
Take me out tonight
Oh, take me anywhere
I don’t care, I don’t care, I don’t care
Driving in your car, I never, never want to go home
Because I haven’t got one
La-dee-dum, oh, I haven’t got one
Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh

[Chorus]

[Outro]
Oh, there is a light and it never goes out
There is a light and it never goes out..

References:
1. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out – Wikipedia

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There is a Garden (1993) – Archie Roach

Posted on September 14, 2025 by observationblogger — 3 Comments

Archie Roach’s There is a Garden stands, to my ears, as a contemporary spiritual masterpiece. It is a song so stark and hauntingly simple in its arrangement, yet it’s precisely the absence of embellishment that makes it feel timeless, almost hymn-like. Archie’s plaintive, yearning voice set against the mournful undertone of the string, penetrates with amazing emotional effect. Quite simply this is one of my most cherished Australian songs.

David Bridie, who is my favourite Australian singer-songwriter and a recurring presence on this blog with well over twenty appearances – was the producer of Jamu Dreaming (1993), the album that gave us There is a Garden. Bridie’s minimalist, atmospheric touch accentuated Roach’s voice rather than burying it.

Born in Mooroopna, Victoria in 1956, Australian – aboriginal Archie Roach was taken from his family as a child – a victim of the government’s assimilation policies that created what is now called the Stolen Generations. This act of removal and cultural severance haunted him all his life, and became the raw material of his artistry starting with his debut album, Charcoal Lane (1990). There is a Garden though less celebrated than Took the Children Away, reflects the same deep scar while also revealing how hope can still emerge. The Garden becomes a space where healing might occur, if not in the current life, then in the next. Death is not seen as an end according to Aboriginal spiritual beliefs rather a transition; a journey back to the Dreaming from which all life originates.

When former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national apology in 2008, it marked a moment of reckoning for the policies that uprooted Archie and thousands like him. Archie Roach passed away in 2022. Through songs like There is a Garden, he integrated Indigenous history into contemporary Australian music. More importantly, his work reached beyond the cultural sphere into politics and the public conscience, helping to begin the process of reconciliation.

When all the trees have gone
And all the rivers dried
Don’t despair, when all the flowers have died
For I have heard that there’s a garden, somewhere

When you hear the children cry
When you see them die
And mother can’t sing a lullaby
I can smell, blessed, warm spring rain

We are young, we are old
Although what we have, can’t be bought or sold
And we are paying for your crimes
Oh but every day, in every way
We get better all the time

And when everything is gone
And you’ve lost all hope
And you have come to the end of your road
Well I believe that the flowers will bloom again

We are young, we are old
Although what we have, can’t be bought or sold
And we are paying for your crimes
Oh but every day, in every way, we get better all the time
Yes everyday, in every way, we get better all the time
Yes everyday, in every way, we get better all the time

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One Fine Day (1963) – The Chiffons

Posted on September 13, 2025 by observationblogger — 13 Comments

It was lovely to open the blinds this morning in Bogotá, Colombia, and see the makings of one fine day – perfect to lead us into today’s song. Being so close to the equator, this region doesn’t experience four traditional seasons but instead alternates between wet and dry periods, as is typical in the tropics. However, Bogotá sits high in the Andes at 2,640 meters above sea level, which moderates its climate and makes it quite different from lowland tropical regions. We’re now reaching the end of the relatively dry stretch (July–August) and heading into the wetter months of September through November. To give a sense of scale, Bogotá receives an average annual rainfall of about 2,300 mm, compared to roughly 700 mm in London – nearly three times as much. So, one must savour mornings like today, even if the forecast promises rain around noon.

I first heard One Fine Day at Christian’s Music Musings blog and swiftly added it my Music Library Project. So without further to do, I hand you over to Christian and the song below that:

The Chiffons/One Fine Day

After so much metal action, my next proposition is a bit of a breather, which takes us back to 1963. When I think of ’60s American girl groups, The Ronettes, The Shirelles and Motown acts like The Supremes, The Marvelettes and Martha and the Vandellas come to mind. Another one are The Chiffons who like The Ronettes came from New York but were formed one year later, in 1960. One Fine Day, co-written by the songwriting powerhouse of Gerry Goffin and Carole King, appeared as a single in May 1963, peaking at no. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. Goffin and King also penned another major 1963 hit for The Chiffons: He’s So Fine (1963), which topped the U.S. pop chart and would get George Harrison in trouble in the mid-’70s when a judge in a lawsuit ruled Harrison had committed “subconscious” plagiarism (with My Sweet Lord). It appears a version of The Chiffons including original lead vocalist Judy Craig continues occasional performances to this day.

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Lay Down Your Weary Tune (1963) – Bob Dylan

Posted on September 12, 2025 by observationblogger — 8 Comments

I remember procuring Bob Dylan’s Biograph (a 3 a three-cassette tape) when I was a young tacker. I devoured it as though I had found a treasure trove of lost musical artefacts although only 18 of the 53 tracks were previously unreleased including today’s featured track Lay Down Your Weary Tune. Over the years I had inexplicably let this one fall through the cracks (a sacrilege for a Dylanholic) and then one fine day it emerged from the recesses of my You Tube feed. Call me sentimental, but it was like having a dove return home from many years in foreign lands to rest her weary head. I also find myself just wanting to cradle up to it and rest as if my casket was going down.

Lay Down Your Weary Tune is one of Dylan’s earliest unreleased tracks, where you are left wondering – how on earth did he not give this one the green light. It was recorded for the studio sessions of 1963 album The Times They Are a-Changin’, but not released until more than two decades later on Biograph in 1985. To me the song sounds like a prelude to his later masterpiece Mr. Tambourine Man which is also a devotional piece to his musical muse.

Background (Mostly abridged from the Wikipedia article below)

In the album liner notes, Dylan claims that in the song he was trying to capture the feeling of a Scottish ballad he had just heard but identified, but speculation includes The Water Is Wide (which he sang with Joan Baez in the Rolling thunder Revue), O Waly, Waly and I Wish, I Wish. The folk rock group the Byrds recorded Lay Down Your Weary Tune for their 1965 album Turn! Turn! Turn!.

Dylan wrote the song at Joan Baez’s house in Carmel, California, in late 1963. During the same visit, he also wrote the song The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll which I posted in May 2025. Dylan had originally wanted to sing Lay Down Your Weary Tune with Baez at her October 12, 1963, concert at the Hollywood Bowl, but Baez was not yet comfortable with the song. Dylan recorded the song in a single take on October 24, 1963, during the sessions for The Times They Are a-Changin. However, he decided to replace it on the album with the song Restless Farewell, a song he wrote as an angry response to a Newsweek reporter who in late October 1963 published a story about Dylan of which Dylan did not approve. In the interim, Dylan played Lay Down Your Weary Tune at a concert at Carnegie Hall on October 26, which was eventually released on the album Live at Carnegie Hall 1963.

Sociologist Steven Goldberg said it’s a song where Dylan’s focus changed from politics to mysticism. Music critic Michael Gray interpreted the song as, “a vision of the world, that is, in which nature appears not as a manifestation of God but as containing God in every aspect“. Gray also described it as, “one of the very greatest and most haunting creations in our language“. Christian theologian Stephen H. Webb has linked many of the images of the song to the Bible and calls it “one of the greatest theological songs since King David composed his psalms.”

[Chorus]
Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ‘neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

[Verse 1]
Struck by the sounds before the sun
I knew the night had gone
The morning breeze like a bugle blew
Against the drums of dawn

[Chorus]

[Verse 2]
The ocean wild like an organ played
The seaweed’s wove its strands
The crashing waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands

[Chorus]

References:
1. Lay Down Your Weary Tune – Wikipedia

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Theme from Harry’s Game (1982) – Clannad

Posted on September 11, 2025 by observationblogger — 14 Comments

The enormity of the ‘Harry’s Game’ moment was not lost on Moya, who told The Guardian: 
“It was unreal for a small Irish folk band from Donegal. I was the first female Irish folk singer to break abroad. People started calling me the First Lady of Celtic Music, a title I’m really proud of.”

– Máire (Moya) Brennan

Upon reflection of yesterday’s senseless and cowardly assassination of freedom activist and conservative Charlie Kirk, the hauntingly beautiful Theme from Harry’s Game by the Irish folk group Clannad feels all the more timely. The vocalist Máire (Moya) Brennan told The Guardian: “The Irish Gaelic lyrics, derived from a saying in a book of old Irish proverbs that our grandfather had given Ciarán: ‘Everything that is and will be, will cease to be. The moon and the stars, youth and beauty’. There’s no solution to war, just people killing each other”. Ever since I first heard the theme in this scene from the 1992 movie Patriot Games adapted from the Tom Clancy book, it foraged its way somewhere deep-down.

It was commissioned as the theme for Harry’s Game, a Yorkshire Television miniseries adapted from a 1975 novel set in the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The song catapulted Clannad to international superstardom, with a Grammy and a Billboard Music Award to follow. Peaking at No.2 in Ireland and No.5 in the UK, it remains the only hit single in the UK ever to be sung entirely in the Irish language. The sound would become Clannad’s signature, and they would go onto to sell 20 million albums.
You may have heard of the famous Irish new-age Celtic singer Enya, well she began her music career (as the younger sister) with her family band Clannad, but left in 1982 with their manager and producer Nicky Ryan to pursue a solo career.

The influence of Gregorian chant was an important strand in the musical mix. The lyrics laced the verse of a Connacht Irish Proverb with a chorus of ancient mouth music, conjuring the wilds of Ireland. The hymn-like song famously took just hours to write, but the sound had been years in the making. Brennan said “We wrote it in a couple of hours and thought, great, it’s a nice tune and everything,” she added, “but we didn’t realise the sound we created had developed over the six albums before, with all the experimentation we did with words and voices and harmonies.”

She compared the chorus to an aural fiddle: “Fol de liddle, taddle do, diddley idle oh.” Nonsense sounds like these are often inserted into Irish folk songs, as a free-form play or an expression of verbal dexterity.

The translation below from Irish Gaelic to English was made by retired editor Tom Thomson and his interpretation is below that.

East and west will go away
As has happened before
The moon and the sun

Fol lol the doh fol the day
Fol the day fol the day

The moon and the sun will go away,
The young people, and later their fame

Fol lol the doh fol the day
Fol the day fol the day

Fol lol the doh fol the day
Fol the day fol the day

A going away that has happened before,
The young man and later his fame

Fol lol the doh fol the day
Fol the doh fol the day

Author’s comments:

Rather sad and pessimistic and absolutely true – the civil war, the troubles, the current unwillingness of politicians in the North to even try to work all go together to suggest that it will indeed all happen again and be forgotten and then happen again.

References:
1. Theme from Harry’s Game – Wikipedia
2. Theme From Harry’s Game – Great Irish Songbook

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It Must Be Him (1967) – Vikki Carr

Posted on September 9, 2025 by observationblogger — 7 Comments

When I was a teenager, Moonstruck was one of my family’s favourite movies. We watched it together so often. The film borders on art-house because it’s steeped in cultural content and a style distinct from that seen in mainstream film. It’s quirky and certainly brash in terms of performance delivery and writing and the music therein is a spectacular reflection of its capriciousness. I purchased the soundtrack on cassette and listened to it to death. That’s where I relished in today’s featured song —It Must Be Him by Vikki Carr. Her impeccable singing on The Ed Sullivan Show, featured at the end of this post, is one for the ages. Pure class. As someone in the comments noted: “Singing live and totally on key…a lost art!”

It Must Be Him was originally a French song called Seul Sur Son Étoile and then the English version recorded by Vikki Carr, with lyrics by Mack David, was a hit around the world, reaching No. 3 in the United States, No. 2 in the UK, and No. 1 in Australia. The singer describes anxiously waiting by her telephone, desperately hoping that her former boyfriend will call, although they had separated. Carr went on to record it in Spanish and Italian, as well.

Vikki Carr (born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas-Martinez Cardona in 1941, El Paso, Texas) is an American singer whose soaring vocals and emotional intensity made her one of the most distinctive pop balladeers of the 1960s and 70s. Her breakthrough came with “It Must Be Him”. Its success catapulted her into international fame, particularly in the U.S. and the U.K., and it remains the defining song of her career, emblematic of her flair for passionate, theatrical delivery.

[Verse 1]
I tell myself, “What’s done is done”
I tell myself, “Don’t be a fool”
Play the field, have a lot of fun
It’s easy when you play it cool
I tell myself, “Don’t be a chump
Who cares? Let him stay away”
That’s when the phone rings and I jump
And as I grab the phone I pray

[Chorus]
Let it please be him, oh, dear God
It must be him, it must be him
Or I shall die, or I shall die
Oh, hello, hello, my dear God
It must be him, but it’s not him
And then I die, that’s when I die

[Verse 2]
After a while, I’m myself again
I pick the pieces off the floor
Put my heart on the shelf again
You’ll never hurt me anymore
I’m not a puppet on a string
I’ll find somebody else someday
That’s when the phone rings
And once again, I start to pray

[Chorus]

[Outro]
Let it please be him, oh, dear God
It must be him, it must be him
Or I shall die, or I shall die

References:
1. It Must Be Him (song) – Wikipedia

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The Hebrides (Overture) 1833 – Felix Mendelssohn

Posted on September 8, 2025 by observationblogger — 5 Comments

I had left Mendelssohn’s The Hebrides out of my music project, perhaps because I’d heard its opening so often in popular culture that I dismissed it as just another overplayed classical motif – much like his famous Wedding March. But when it unexpectedly came on my music player the other day and I listened through to the end, I was swept up like a feather in its whirlwind serenade and completely captivated. An overture is an orchestral introduction to a larger work, but in this case Mendelssohn wrote it as a stand-alone concert piece rather than as a prelude to a theatre work.

Most of the following was abridged from the 2 references at the end of this post:

The piece was inspired by Felix Mendelssohn‘s 1829 visit to the Hebrides islands off Scotland’s west coast, which he made at age 20 while traveling with his childhood friend Carl Klingemann. The two roved among the lakes and moors of the Scottish Highlands, and Mendelssohn wrote colourful letters home about their adventures. He described the “comfortless, inhospitable solitude,” which stood in contrast to the entrancing beauty and wildness of the countryside. Here was a place very different from Berlin, where the young composer had grown up. Mendelssohn loved Scotland, and he was stimulated by its sights and sounds. (His Symphony No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 56, was also known as the Scottish Symphony.)

Sketch of a landscape in Scotland by Felix Mendelssohn, in his letter of 1 August 1829 to his sister Fanny

The Hebrides was inspired specifically by the Scottish island of Staffa, with its basalt sea cave known as Fingal’s Cave. In an exuberant letter, he described the experience to his sister Fanny, and, wishing to convey to her how deeply he was moved, he wrote down for her a few bars of the melody that he later used at the beginning of his overture. It was later dedicated to Frederick William IV of Prussia, then Crown Prince of Prussia (a German state centred on the North European Plain). The final revision was completed by 20 June 1832 and premiered on 10 January 1833 in Berlin under the composer’s own baton. The original handwritten score for the overture was purchased by the Bodleian Library on the 400th anniversary of its founding in 2002 for £600k.

Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor who became one of the leading figures of early Romantic music. Born into a wealthy, cultured family in Hamburg, he showed great talent from a young age, writing symphonies, concertos, chamber music, and piano works that combined classical balance with Romantic feeling. Mendelssohn is best known for works like the Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Italian Symphony, and his Violin Concerto in E minor. He also revived interest in Johann Sebastian Bach by conducting a landmark performance of the St. Matthew Passion in 1829. Though he enjoyed fame across Europe and founded Germany’s first music conservatory in Leipzig, his life was cut short at just 38, leaving behind a legacy of elegance, melody, and inspiration.

References:
1. The Hebrides (overture) – Wikipedia
2. The Hebrides, Op. 26 – Britannica

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The Wrestler (2008) – Bruce Springsteen

Posted on September 7, 2025 by observationblogger — 6 Comments

I won’t be spending too much time on today’s track from the movie of the same name, because it featured prominently in my Friday’s Finest instalment of the The Wrestler movie where I wrote:

Rourke told Springsteen about his upcoming film and asked if Springsteen could write a song for it. Springsteen subsequently did, played it for Rourke and director Darren Aronofsky before a concert. When they liked it, Springsteen gave them the song for no fee. The song was widely expected to receive a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Song where Springsteen would perform it on the awards show, but in what Rolling Stone termed “shocking news”, it was denied a nomination when the Academy nominated only three songs in the category rather than the usual five.

So, the winner of Best Song at the Golden Globes is snubbed from even a nomination at the 81st Academy Awards – and to make matters worse, Mickey Rourke delivers a career-defining, physically and emotionally grueling performance in independent cinema, only to be snubbed by the Academy as well. My friend Bernie at Reely Bernie couldn’t have described it any better:

Talk about yet another example of the gray-haired traditionalists denying smaller films and stunning performances for bigger names like Sean Penn. I’m a huge Rourke/underdog fan. He’s made some lousy decisions in his life, but onscreen, he makes you want to hug him.

Springsteen is, of course, no stranger to writing songs for films which include Streets of Philadelphia for the 1993 film of the same name, which was written for the story of a lawyer with AIDS and earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Song. He also wrote Dead Man Walkin‘ for the 1995 film Dead Man Walking, which earned him an Oscar nomination.

Further from Wikipedia – The origins of the song (The Wrestler) are based in a lost and resumed friendship between Springsteen and Wrestler lead actor Mickey Rourke. Springsteen recorded it at his Thrill Hill Recording studio in New Jersey, played all the instruments, and produced it himself.

[Intro]
Two, three, four

[Verse 1]
Have you ever seen a one-trick pony in the field, so happy and free?
If you’ve ever seen a one-trick pony, then you’ve seen me
Have you ever seen a one-legged dog making its way down the street?
If you’ve ever seen a one-legged dog, then you’ve seen me

[Chorus]
Then you’ve seen me
I come and stand at every door
Then you’ve seen me
I always leave with less than I had before
Then you’ve seen me
Bet I can make you smile when the blood, it hits the floor
Tell me, friend, can you ask for anything more?
Tell me can you ask for anything more?

[Verse 2]
Have you ever seen a scarecrow filled with nothing but dust and weeds?
If you’ve ever seen that scarecrow, then you’ve seen me
Have you ever seen a one-armed man punching at nothing but the breeze?
If you’ve ever seen a one-armed man, then you’ve seen me

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
These things that have comforted me I drive away
This place that is my home I cannot stay
My only faith’s in the broken bones and bruises I display

[Outro]
Have you ever seen a one-legged man trying to dance his way free?
If you’ve ever seen a one-legged man, then you’ve seen me

References:
1. The Wrestler (song) – Wikipedia

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