San Lázaro (Eng: Saint Lazarus) by Celina y Reutilio is one of Cuba’s most moving yet vibrant and rhythmic tributes to faith and healing. Rooted in Afro-Cuban tradition, the song calls upon San Lázaro – syncretized with the Yoruba deity Babalú Ayé, protector of the sick and poor. When African slaves were brought to Cuba, they were forbidden from practicing their native religions, so they syncretized their deities with Catholic saints to preserve their spiritual traditions in secret. Its repetitive chants and invocations create a trance-like devotion, reflecting how music and prayer often merge in Cuban spiritual life. The song evokes the figure of Lazarus, both the resurrected man from the Bible and the humble beggar of Cuban folklore who walks with crutches and two loyal dogs. Through these images, the song becomes a meditation on suffering, compassion, and divine mercy.
Celina González and Reutilio Domínguez were pioneers in fusing traditional Cuban son with sacred folk elements, creating songs that resonated with both the dance floor and the altar. Their partnership, musical and romantic, flourished in the 1950s, when songs like “San Lázaro” and “A Santa Bárbara” made them household names across Cuba and much of Latin America. In Colombia – especially along the Caribbean coast – the duo’s music was embraced for its raw spirituality and infectious rhythm. Celina’s passionate voice and Reutilio’s earthy guitar style captured the soul of rural Cuba, giving their devotion a universal pulse that still feels alive in every corner where faith and music meet.
My Music Library Project wouldn’t be complete – wouldn’t even be in the same vicinity of “complete” – without today’s featured piece, which almost the whole world is familiar with: Edelweiss. Few other songs tug at the heartstrings quite like this one. Watching the clip again from the 1959 film The Sound of Music after many years apart made me feel reunited with family, youth, and the feeling of falling in love. All in all, it’s like coming home again, and suffice it to say, it made my eyes well up – just as they have many times before while watching it. The final look of Captain von Trapp toward Maria is immensely beautiful, and the scene as a whole is etched in film-musical folklore.
It’s also moving to note that Edelweiss was the final song of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musical collaboration and the last lyric written by Oscar Hammerstein II, who died in August 1960. Hammerstein was already suffering from stomach cancer, which took his life nine months after The Sound of Music opened on Broadway.
What’s really interesting, though it leaves a bit of a sour taste, is that the original film version doesn’t feature Christopher Plummer’s voice, but rather that of playback singer Bill Lee. Although Plummer performed the song on set and recorded his vocals, his performance was dubbed over with Lee’s voice. But in the version below, the voice you hear is Christopher Plummer’s own. He plays it exactly as intended – a man uncertain of himself, who hasn’t sung or performed since his wife’s passing. A man hesitant to reveal even a hint of vulnerability before those gathered, yet moved by the stirrings of old and new love, he performs his cherished song. A genuine artist in every sense. You can hear the differences between Christopher Plummer and Bill Lee’s voices here. I don’t think they should have dubbed Christopher Plummer’s voice. He didn’t need to be dubbed.
This is what Plummer had to say about the dubbing of his voice:
PLUMMER: They did for the long passages. It was very well done. The entrances and exits from the songs were my voice, and then they filled in – in those days, they were very fussy about matching voices in musicals. And Julie, of course, had been – you know, trained since day one as a – I mean, she was … tone perfect since she was in her cradle, which is an exasperating thing to admit. And it was awfully hard to match her and her sustained, long notes. So yeah, I was – they did it very well ’cause it sounded very much like me.
Anyhows, Plummer’s original vocals were recently released as part of a remastered and expanded edition of the film’s soundtrack, allowing audiences to hear his authentic performance for the first time nearly 60 years after the film’s release.
Edelweiss flower
The following was abridged from the Wikipedia article below: The song is named after the edelweiss (Leontopodium nivale), a white flower found high in the Alps in Europe. In the stage musical and its 1965 film adaptation, Captain von Trapp and his family sing this song during the concert near the end of Act II, as well as a statement of Austrian patriotism in the face of the pressure put upon him to join the navy of Nazi Germany following the Anschluss (German annexation of Austria). It is also Captain von Trapp’s subliminal goodbye to his beloved homeland, using the flower as a symbol of his loyalty to Austria. In the film version, the song is additionally sung by the Captain earlier in the film when he rediscovers music with his children.
While The Sound of Music was in tryouts in Boston, Richard Rodgers felt Captain von Trapp should have a song with which he would bid farewell to the Austria he knew and loved. Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II decided to write an extra song that von Trapp would sing in the festival concert sequence towards the end of the show. As they were writing it, they remembered that Theodore Bikel, who had been cast as Captain von Trapp, was also a guitar-playing folksinger. They felt he could display that talent when performing the song. The metaphor of this song (as a symbol of Austria) builds on an earlier scene when Gretl presents a bouquet of edelweiss flowers to Baroness Elsa Schräder, during the latter’s visit to the von Trapp household.
Edelweiss, edelweiss Every morning you greet me Small and white, clean and bright You look happy to meet me Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow Bloom and grow forever Edelweiss, edelweiss Bless my homeland forever
Edelweiss, edelweiss Every morning you greet me Small and white, clean and bright You look happy to meet me
Blossom of snow, may you bloom and grow Bloom and grow forever Edelweiss, edelweiss Bless my homeland forever
Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
Rules to Live in Harmony El Cedro Group and Alcoholics Anonymous
On my way to the gym in the mornings, I read the daily Thought, Meditation, and Prayer shared by my local Alcoholics Anonymous group. The image above appeared among the messages, and I found it so poignant despite its relative simplicity. It’s titled “Rules to Live in Harmony,” and I thought I’d share it here along with the translation below:
Arrive → Say hello Leave → Say goodbye They talk to you → Respond Promise → Keep Shop → Pay Open → Close Break → Repair Make a mess → Clean You don’t know → Don’t touch it You don’t improve → Don’t criticize It’s not yours → Don’t take it You love → Show it You offended → Apologize You receive → Be grateful
‘Not every people gets a state. I’m a Scotsman. I can speak with some authority on this‘.
– Sir Niall Ferguson
‘In this historical clip, Niall Ferguson unpacks the collapse of the two-state solution, arguing that Palestinian leadership squandered opportunities like Oslo, and reveals why European and Australian endorsements of statehood are futile post-October 7th.’
As much as I love you, Bob, George Harrison owned this song. George always brought a lucid, sunny disposition to whatever he touched, and that’s absolutely the case with his rendition of Absolutely Sweet Marie. He channels pre Dylan – 1950s rock ‘n’ roll energy here – especially in his vocal delivery and the rhythmic bounce of the music. It’s pure Gene Vincent & The Blue Caps – Be Bop A Lula spirit. This really was a perfect song for George.
There aren’t many covers of Dylan songs that surpass the originals, but in my estimation (as aforementioned), George’s Absolutely Sweet Marie is one of them. From the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden, there are only three other performances I’d call true “keepers”: Lou Reed’s Foot of Pride, Neil Young’s Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues, and Nanci Griffith’s Boots of Spanish Leather.
I grew up on the music of John Lennon, and since his life was tragically cut short, my musical appreciation gradually leaned more towards George Harrison in recent years. My parents didn’t own any of George’s solo records, and it wasn’t until the Traveling Wilburys burst onto the scene that I really heard Harrison outside of the Beatles. Even then, for years I remained largely unfamiliar with his solo work – until I started this blog. It was thanks to other people’s music articles that I finally discovered just how wonderful George’s solo output truly is. George is the gift that keeps on giving since I’m yet to hear a bad song by him. It’s crazy to think how talented the Beatles were when this guy is considered their third best songwriter.
Now, some Dylan purists might get a bee in their bonnet over what I’m about to say, but if there’s one criticism I have of that “thin, wild mercury sound” record – Blonde on Blonde, from which Absolutely Sweet Marie appears – it’s that Dylan sometimes veers into parody. The stretched-out nasal phrasing and that bubblegum organ (thanks to Al Kooper) give it a kind of spaced-out, drug-fueled feel – similar to Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, a song I never particularly cared for. My point is, when you hear all those countless wannabes doing bad Dylan impressions, this is the sound they’re imitating. Songs like Absolutely Sweet Marie (Dylan’s original) – and Blonde on Blonde in general – are where they source their shtick.
The following was abridged from the Wikipedia reference below: Absolutely Sweet Marie was recorded at around 1:00 am on March 8, 1966, at Columbia Studio A, Nashville. Some commentators have interpreted the song as being about sexual frustration. It was written by Dylan in the studio. The song has received critical acclaim; Rolling Stone placed the track 78th in their 2015 ranking of the 100 greatest Dylan songs. Dylan first performed “Absolutely Sweet Marie” live in concert on the first night of his Never Ending Tour, in Concord, California, on June 7, 1988.
I have presented below the superior original audio from the concert and the video performance below that. Cheers and thanks for reading.
Well, your railroad gate, you know I just can’t jump it Sometimes it gets so hard, you see I’m just sitting here beating on my trumpet With all these promises you left for me But where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I waited for you when I was half sick Yes, I waited for you when you hated me Well, I waited for you inside of the frozen traffic When you knew I had some other place to be Now, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, anybody can be just like me, obviously But then, now again, not too many can be like you, fortunately
Well, six white horses that you did promise Were fin’lly delivered down to the penitentiary But to live outside the law, you must be honest I know you always say that you agree Well, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
Well, I don’t know how it happened But the river-boat captain, he knows my fate Ev’rybody else, even yourself Just gonna have to wait
Well, I got the fever down in my pockets The Persian drunkard follows me And I can take him to your house but I cannot unlock it You see, you forgot to leave me with the key Yeah, where are you tonight, sweet Marie? Yeah, where are you tonight, sweet Marie?
76-year-old Billy Joel is recovering from hydrocephalus (NPH), a condition in which cerebrospinal fluid accumulates in the skull and exerts pressure on the brain. He described his balance problems as feeling “like being on a boat” and noted that the condition was once known as “water on the brain.” His daughter, Alexa Ray Joel, has been providing updates on his recovery. In fact, Alexa appears as a baby in the music video for today’s song – A Matter of Trust – alongside her mother and Joel’s then-wife, Christie Brinkley. Joel even named his boat after Alexa, who was nine years old when it was built, and later turned it into a touching song ‘The Downeaster ‘Alexa’.
Billy Joel is no stranger to this blog, and there’s a story I often enjoy retelling – my apologies to those who’ve heard it before. I saw Billy Joel’s Storm Front tour in ’91 in Sydney with my schoolmate Gary, who also happens to be the artist behind the caricature of my family featured in the ‘Reflection’ menu. Gary was an enormous Billy Joel fan. We’d go back and forth over music – he was all about Billy, while I leaned more toward Elton John. I still remember when Elton’s Kiss the Bride came out; Gary would badger me by singing, “I want to kiss the bridegroom!” in place of ‘I wanna kiss the bride, yeah!‘. A clever jab, much like his caricature. So, yes – I went to the concert mostly to humour Gary, though I did (and still do) have a soft spot for some of Joel’s music, including today’s featured track.
A Matter of Trust differs from most Joel songs in that it is based on electric guitar rather than piano, which gives it a rock edge, compared to the soft-rock balladry with which he is more often associated. It was released as the second single from his The Bridge and became a top ten hit. The song gained major traction in the Soviet Union as part of a state-sponsored television promotion of Joel’s songs in preparation for his 1987 USSR concerts, recorded on his seventh studio album – Kontsert. The music video below also includes two quick cuts of both Ringo Starr (1:38) and Paul McCartney (2:01) watching from the street. It is the only Joel music video that features him on guitar, a factor he cited when saying it was his favourite of all his videos.
[Intro] One, two One, two, three, four
[Verse 1] Some love is just a lie of the heart The cold remains of what began with a passionate start And they may not want it to end But it will, it’s just a question of when I’ve lived long enough to have learned The closer you get to the fire the more you get burned But that won’t happen to us ‘Cause it’s always been a matter of trust
[Verse 2] I know you’re an emotional girl It took a lot for you to not lose your faith in this world But I can’t offer you proof But you’re gonna face a moment of truth It’s hard when you’re always afraid You just recover when another belief is betrayed So break my heart if you must It’s a matter of trust
[Bridge] You can’t go the distance With too much resistance I know you have doubts But for God’s sake, don’t shut me out
[Verse 3] This time you’ve got nothing to lose You can take it, you can leave it whatever you choose I won’t hold back anything And I’ll walk away a fool or a king Some love is just a lie of the mind It’s make believe until it’s only a matter of time And some might have learned to adjust But then it never was a matter of trust
[Bridge] I’m sure you’re aware love We’ve both had our share of Believing too long When the whole situation was wrong
[Verse 4] Some love is just a lie of the soul A constant battle for the ultimate state of control After you’ve heard lie upon lie There can hardly be a question of why Some love is just a lie of the heart The cold remains of what began with a passionate start But that can’t happen to us ‘Cause it’s always been a matter of trust
[Outro] It’s a matter of trust It’s always been a matter of trust It’s a matter of trust ‘Cause it’s always been a matter of trust
So I raise today’s piece to you, dear reader. It’s been waiting 172 years to get here.
Libiamo ne’ lieti calici in Italian means Let’s drink from the joyful cups. I don’t know how cups can be joyful, but don’t let that get in the way of this most splendid and festive occasion. Let us revel in this fine Friday and bask in the celebration – just as the words implore: Let’s enjoy ourselves, fleeting and quick. This sparkling tune is more commonly known as The Drinking Song. On that subject, I haven’t drunk alcohol since the 10th of July, 2025, so my beverage will be of the non alcoholic variety, but a toast none the less. I have reached my longest period of cessation from alcohol in my adult life and here’s hoping it carries through to the end. Raise your glasses, dear friends, and hurrah to that!
This famous duet from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La Traviata brims with exuberance and vitality – a piece that celebrates the sweet brevity of life itself. I heard it again on my player just the other day, and it swept me up in such a wave of lightness that I couldn’t resist sharing it here. In truth, I had been reluctant to present it before – precisely because it is so well known. From the outset of this project, my intent was to spotlight lesser-heard works that shaped my appreciation of music. But sometimes joy trumps obscurity. Hearing it once more in my still-tender state of sobriety, I felt that irresistible pull: “let this baby rip.”
I’ve presented two renditions of the Brindisi (Toast) below. The first comes from the 2018 Metropolitan Opera in New York (with English subtitles), where the set design, costumes, and colours gleam with such elegance and splendour. The second is the beloved version from the mega-popular Three Tenors concert (yes, Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, and the other guy), whom I previously featured singing Puccini’s Nessun Dorma (None Shall Sleep). Unsurprisingly, The Drinking song is such a popular performance choice (as is this opera itself) for many great tenors and sopranos.
Scene (Wikipedia)
The duet is performed in the first act of the opera, during a late-night party at Violetta Valéry’s house. It is sung by Violetta and Alfredo Germont, a young man who is in love with her. Alfredo is convinced by his friend Gastone and by Violetta to show off his voice. He begins this drinking song, later joined by Violetta and the rest of the company.
Alfredo Let’s drink, let’s drink from the joyous chalices that beauty blossoms. And may the fleeting moment be elated with voluptuousness. Let’s drink from the sweet thrills that love arouses, because that eye aims straight to the almighty heart. Let’s drink, my love: the love among chalices will have warmer kisses.
Flora, Gastone, Barone, Dottore, Marchese, Chorus Ah, let’s drink, my love: the love among chalices will have warmer kisses.
Violetta With you, with you I’ll be able to share my cheerful times. Everything is foolish in the world which is not pleasure. Let’s enjoy ourselves, for fleeting and quick the delight of love is: it’s a flower that blooms and dies and can no longer be enjoyed. Let’s enjoy ourselves, fervent flattering voice invites us.
Flora, Gastone, Barone, Dottore, Marchese, Chorus Ah, let’s enjoy the cup, the cup and the chants, the embellished nights and the laughter; let the new day find us in this paradise.
Violetta: Life means celebration. Alfredo: If one hasn’t known love. Violetta: Don’t tell someone who doesn’t know. Alfredo: But this is my fate.
All Ah, let’s enjoy the cup, the cup and the chants, the embellished night and the laughter; let the new day find us in this paradise. Ah, ah, let the new day find us. (We shall let the new day find us.) Ah, ah, let the new day find us. (We shall let the new day find us.) Ah, yes… (Yes, we shall let, we shall let the new day find us…)
This song is pivotal – not only in Bob Dylan’s career but as a wider statement about human nature and our strange place in the modern world. Dylan, who almost never explains or interprets his own songs, made an uncharacteristic exception at the Academy Awards on March 25, 2001. Accepting the Oscar for Best Original Song with Things Have Changed, he stood before the biggest stage possible and told us:
“I want to thank the members of the Academy who were bold enough to give me this award for this song, which obviously [is] a song that doesn’t pussyfoot around nor turn a blind eye to human nature”.
I was lucky enough to see Dylan perform in Sydney in 2001, at Centennial Park – the very night before he won that Academy Award. Wonder Boys, the film for which he wrote Things Have Changed, remains terribly underrated. Dylan’s music is peppered throughout. Director Curtis Hanson, a longtime admirer, had personally sought Dylan for the project. Dylan, complied – and here we are today.
During his Oscar performance in the video at the end of this post, Dylan seems to wholly embody the persona. Allen Ginsberg once said Dylan could become “a column of air” on stage, with every fiber of his being focused on the breath carrying the words. That night was exactly that. My old man called me right after the broadcast and said: “Dylan’s eyes penetrated the TV screen. He didn’t sing that song, he was that song.” My dad wasn’t exactly full of his praises up until that point, so that is another reason this song holds such a special place in my heart. Also, I remember Bob parading that Oscar stature on his piano for many months; cheekily masquerading it to his audiences. He was beyond proud of his accomplishment.
I’ve written about Things Have Changed in bits and pieces before, but it feels like this article finally ties the whole puzzle together. Things Have Changed is my Bob Dylan post 2000’s Desert Island song. It resonates with me on two levels: first, instinctively and impulsively, like Freud’s Id; and second, as social commentary on the harsh, unpredictable world of politics and human behavior – the realm of the Super-Ego. The Ego, caught between the two, must somehow survive the strange pressures of modern life. In that sense, Dylan channels Freud’s idea of the central conflict of man in the modern age. We are torn between raw impulses, moral restrictions, and the uneasy compromises we make to exist. Dylan is staring right into the heart of it.
People are crazy and times are strange I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range I used to care, but things have changed.
This song is Dylan – him the writer prophesying with his pen, much as he once invoked the role of writers in The Times They Are a-Changin’. He also speaks closer to our ears than just about ever before. There’s a stark warning in his words: before you leap blindly into the lake – like Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy – pause and think twice. The roles have reversed. Dylan, once the fiery young man urging progress forward, now steps back to caution us. The train of “progress,” never actually stopped at the station – it just thundered past, a runaway engine, more radical and uncompromising than even the movements he once championed in the early ’60s. We need to take stock – or else all hell will break loose.
It seems fitting to close with Dylan’s own parting words from that Oscar stage in 2001:
“God bless you all with peace, tranquillity and goodwill.”
[Verse 1] A worried man with a worried mind No one in front of me and nothing behind There’s a woman on my lap and she’s drinking champagne Got white skin, got assassin’s eyes I’m looking up into the sapphire-tinted skies I’m well dressed, waiting on the last train Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose Any minute now I’m expecting all hell to break loose
[Chorus] People are crazy and times are strange I’m locked in tight, I’m out of range I used to care, but things have changed
[Verse 2] This place ain’t doing me any good I’m in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood Just for a second there I thought I saw something move Gonna take dancing lessons, do the jitterbug rag Ain’t no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag Only a fool in here would think he’s got anything to prove Lot of water under the bridge; lot of other stuff, too Don’t get up, gentlemen, I’m only passing through
[Verse 3] I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road If the Bible is right, the world will explode I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can Some things are too hot to touch The human mind can only stand so much You can’t win with a losing hand Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet Putting her in a wheelbarrow and wheeling her down the street
[Verse 4] I hurt easy, I just don’t show it You can hurt someone and not even know it The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity Gonna get low down, gonna fly high All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie I’m in love with a woman who don’t even appeal to me Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake I’m not that eager to make a mistake
Day After Day came on my random music player yesterday while I was out and about. I could have sworn it was a Paul McCartney track because of the voice, and I wondered how I hadn’t already included it in my Music Library Project. It’s not the first time I’ve confused Badfinger’s lead vocalist and songwriter Pete Ham’s voice with McCartney’s. I also once thought their Lay me Down was by McCartney. The resemblance is uncanny, especially considering Badfinger were signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records, with George Harrison producing this track and contributing the slide guitar part. Just a year earlier, Badfinger had also played on Harrison’s first solo album, All Things Must Pass.
Even Songfacts states: This sounds a lot like The Beatles. Badfinger was one of the first bands to sign with The Beatles’ label, Apple Records. As a result, they got to know The Beatles quite well and picked up on their sound. Badfinger signed with Warner Brothers when Apple Records folded.
My friend Max over at PowerPop first got me hooked on Badfinger’s music – God knows when – but it was back when we were both still relative newbies on the music blog circuit. He’s such a fan that his blog nickname is “Badfinger,” which I used to call him at first – unlucky for him. Let’s be honest, the band’s name isn’t exactly one of their best features. Max said about their Apple Records connection:
They were signed to the Beatle’s Apple Records which was a blessing and a curse. It got them noticed with initial excitement but also hindered their development for their own sound.
Pete Ham, the Welsh singer, songwriter, and guitarist best known as a founding member of the 1970s rock band Badfinger, died tragically young at just 27 by suicide. His death placed him among the ranks of the so-called “27 Club,” alongside Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse. Ham took his life after Badfinger was financially ruined by their fraudulent manager, Stan Polley. Sadly, Tom Evans, Badfinger’s co-lead singer and songwriter, also died by suicide in 1983.
Day After Day is one of Badfinger’s best-known songs and it is from their 1971 album Straight Up. This was their biggest hit peaking at No. 4 in the Billboard 100, No. 2 in Canada, and No.10 in the UK Charts in 1972.
[Verse 1] I remember finding out about you Every day, my mind is all around you
[Chorus] Looking out from my lonely room, day after day Bring it home, baby, make it soon I give my love to you
[Verse 2] I remember holding you while you sleep Every day, I feel the tears that you weep
[Chorus] Looking out of my lonely gloom, day after day Bring it home, baby, make it soon I give my love to you
“It’s overblown, but it’s great,” Young said of this song (A Man Needs a Maid). Featuring a dramatic Jack Nitzsche arrangement, “Maid” transcends its air of dated chauvinism to reveal a deeper core. Written for Young’s girlfriend Carrie Snodgress (who inspired the line “I fell in love with an actress”), it hangs on the fragile line “When will I see you again?” and remains a moving union of grandeur and vulnerability.
Man, Neil Young must have some pretty great songs if A Man Needs a Maid only managed to reach No. 65 on Rolling Stone Australia’s list of his hundred greatest. I remember it being the very first Neil Young song I truly adored – even before I heard Helpless in The Last Waltz, which completely blew me away. Later, I went on a binge, devouring tracks from Prairie Wind (2005)- as showcased in Jonathan Demme’s Heart of Gold documentary. And yet, despite all that, I still feel like I’m only scratching the surface of Neil’s vast discography.
As RT’s synopsis notes, A Man Needs a Maid carries a dated chauvinism, and is not unlike Bob Dylan’s Is Your Love in Vain, released six years later. Both songs, which I hold dear, have long divided even their own fan bases, often criticized for alleged misogyny. Yet I’ve always felt that what comes through most strongly is not contempt, but vulnerability. These songs read less as exercises in dominance than as confessions of insecurity – unguarded attempts at connection. They feel raw, unprocessed, and disarmingly candid, capturing the narrator’s yearning for stability, routine, and the reassurance of being truly loved.
A Man Needs a Maid is from Neil Young’s 1972 album Harvest. It’s one of the two tracks on the LP where he’s joined by the London Symphony Orchestra. He recorded it with them at Barking Town Hall in London.
Young knew he’d be criticized early on because during a performance at the Boston Music Hall on January 21, 1971 which was a year before its release, Young introduced the song by saying:
“This is another new song. It’s called “A Man Needs a Maid.” It’s kind of a . . . it doesn’t really mean what it says. It’s just the idea that anyone would think enough to say something like that would show that something else was happening. [short laugh] So don’t take it personally when I say it. I don’t really want a maid.”
[Verse 1] My life is changing in so many ways I don’t know who to trust anymore There’s a shadow running through my days Like a beggar goin’ from door to door I was thinkin’ that maybe I’d get a maid Find a place nearby for her to stay Just someone to keep my house clean Fix my meals and go away
[Chorus] A maid A man needs a maid A maid
[Post-Chorus] It’s hard to make that change When life and love turns strange And cold
[Verse 2] To give a love You gotta live a love To live a love You gotta be part of When will I see you again?
[Verse 3] A while ago somewhere I don’t know when I was watchin’ a movie with a friend I fell in love with the actress She was playin’ a part that I could understand
I was about 14 when I bought the cassette of Dylan’s much-maligned Knocked Out Loaded album. I got a kick out of some of its tracks – including today’s featured song, They Killed Him. Even now, whenever I hear it, the hairs on my arms stand on end. Dylan taking detours into unexpected musical territory was nothing new, but this song really did feel like it came out of left field at the time. It just wasn’t what listeners expected from him then, for several reasons. Let’s unpack them.
Firstly, They Killed Him wasn’t a Dylan original but a cover of a song written by his friend Kris Kristofferson. The two had worked together years earlier on Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid. Secondly, the song harks back in spirit to Dylan’s Christian trilogy: each verse is dedicated to a servant leader who died a martyr’s death – Mahatma Gandhi (SatyaGraha – Truth Insistence), Martin Luther King Jr. (“I Have a Dream”), and Jesus Christ (“Take nothing for the journey”). Thirdly, Dylan closed the track with a full-blown children’s choir – something utterly unlike anything else in his catalogue. Many fans found that part cringe-inducing; I never did. I still find it sweet.
Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven
– Mark 10, Luke 18, and Matthew 18
Kristofferson himself first released They Killed Him on his October 1986 album Repossessed, where he also added a final verse referencing the Kennedy brothers. Before Kristofferson’s own version appeared, however, Johnny Cash had recorded the song in 1984 as one of his last singles for Columbia Records. Dylan’s recording, released on Knocked Out Loaded in July 1986, also predated Kristofferson’s release by a few months. Later, Kristofferson’s supergroup The Highwaymen (with Cash, Willie Nelson, and Waylon Jennings) gave the song a memorable treatment on their 1990 album Highwayman 2.
As an aside, Knocked Out Loaded also features another cover (of an old hymn) that has long fascinated me – Precious Memories, which I wrote about back in March 2024. I’ve always been perplexed at how overlooked and underrated that track is, perhaps because the whole album was dismissed so harshly. Unlike other Dylan records, age hasn’t been especially kind to its reputation either.
[Verse 1] There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi He would not bow down he would not fight He knew the deal was down and dirty And nothing wrong could make it right away But he knew his duty and the price he had to pay Just another holy man who tried to be a friend My God, they killed him
[Verse 2] Another man from Atlanta, Georgia By name of Martin Luther King He shook the land like the rolling thunder And made the bells of freedom ring today With a dream of beauty that they could not take away Just another holy man who dared to make a stand My God, they killed him
[Verse 3] The only Son of God Almighty The holy one called Jesus Christ He healed the sick and fed the hungry And for his love they took his life away On the road to glory where the story never ends Just the holy Son of Man I’ll never understand My God, they killed him
[Verse 4] There was a man named Mahatma Gandhi A man named Martin Luther King The only Son of God Almighty The holy one called Jesus Christ On the road to glory where the story never ends Just the holy Son of Man we’ll never understand My God, they killed him
Observation Blogger 