Don’t You Want Me by The Human League was the epitome of cool and sexy in my youth. For decades, it had slipped from my consciousness, only to magically appear to my senses recently like an old flame. The song is a shimmering time capsule of the early ’80s, where glossy synths and glam – infused production reigned supreme. Sure, that era often gets a bad rap for its excess – synth stabs, reverb, drum machines, but here, the overproduction doesn’t just work; it fits Don’t You Want Me like a glove. I also like the vocal interplay between Phil Oakey’s and Susanne Sulley’s which creates this cool, yet infectious tension.
Don’t You Want Me was released in the UK on 27 November 1981 as the fourth single from The Human League’s third album, Dare. The song had initially been intended for Philip Oakey to sing solo, but, inspired by the film A Star Is Born (1976), Oakey decided to turn it into a duet with Susan Ann Sulley, one of the band’s two female singers. For the lyrics, Oakey was inspired by a comic he read in a teen magazine. Oakey says that Don’t You Want Me is not really a love song, but “an unpleasant song about the politics of sexual power.”
Don’t You Want Me was the biggest selling single in England in 1981, reaching number one at Christmas, staying there for five weeks, and has since sold over 1.5 million copies in the UK, making it the 23rd most successful single in British singles history. In the United States, Don’t You Want Me topped the Billboard Hot 100 on July 3, 1982, staying there for three consecutive weeks. In November 1983, Rolling Stone magazine called the single a “breakthrough song.” In 2015, the song was voted the nation’s seventh favourite song by the British public.
[Verse 1: Philip Oakey] You were workin’ as a waitress in a cocktail bar When I met you I picked you out, I shook you up, and turned you around Turned you into someone new Now five years later on, you’ve got the world at your feet Success has been so easy for you But don’t forget, it’s me who put you where you are now And I can put you back down too
[Pre-Chorus: Philip Oakey] Don’t, don’t you want me? You know I can’t believe it when I hear that you won’t see me Don’t, don’t you want me? You know I don’t believe you when you say that you don’t need me It’s much too late to find You think you’ve changed your mind You’d better change it back or we will both be sorry
[Chorus: Philip Oakey] Don’t you want me, baby? Don’t you want me? Oh Don’t you want me, baby? Don’t you want me? Oh
[Verse 2: Susan Ann Sulley] I was working as a waitress in a cocktail bar That much is true But even then, I knew I’d find a much better place Either with or without you The five years we have had have been such good times I still love you But now I think it’s time I live my life on my own I guess it’s just what I must do
It is a love song (Tangled Up In Blue), and a song about how it feels to have a personal history.. it is also a great road song, filled with the essential energy of the American highway. The Minnesota musicians Dylan performs with here achieve an unforgettable groove, bass and drums and acoustic guitars (one a twelve-string, it sounds almost like a harpsichord at times) totally blended into a new and different wild mercury sound. – Paul Williams (Bob Dylan: Performing Artist, Vol 2: The Middle Years 1974-1986)
In 2012, I conducted a survey on the Expecting Rain Bob Dylan discussion forum for participants to list their 10 favourite Bob Dylan songs. 58 submissions of 10 favourite songs were received with a total of 147 Bob Dylan songs voted. Today’s featured song Tangled Up in Blue came in at No.2 such is its regard amongst Dylanholics. You can view the rest of the results here.
Tangled Up in Blue is one of five songs on Blood on the Tracks that Dylan initially recorded in New York City in September 1974 and then re-recorded in Minneapolis in December that year; the later recording became the album track and single. It reached No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 68 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Dylan had moved to a farm in Minnesota with his brother, David Zimmerman, and there started to write the songs that were recorded for his album Blood on the Tracks. David Zimmerman was the producer for the Minneapolis Blood on the Tracks recordings, but was not credited on the album. In the spring of 1974, Dylan had taken art classes at Carnegie Hall and was influenced by his tutor Norman Raeben, and in particular Raeben’s view of time, when writing the lyrics.
I was trying to do something that I don’t know if I was prepared to do. I wanted to defy time, so that the story took place in the present and past at the same time. When you look at a painting, you can see any part of it or see all of it together. I wanted that song to be like a painting.
– Bob Dylan (to Bill Flanagan, March 1985)
Tangled Up in Blue and the album as a whole represented a return of the great Bob Dylan from his glory days of the trilogy Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde. The song has a most dazzling lyric. It’s said Dylan continuously reworked the lyrics during the recordings, mostly telling the story in the third person singular, probably to signify that the narrator was a witness, not an actor. In the official version, however, he sings in the first person singular, as if he wants to indicate a personal involvement.
“[This song] took me 10 years to live, and two years to write,” Dylan often said before playing Tangled Up in Blue in concert. His marriage to Sara Lowndes was crumbling in 1974 around the time he wrote this and some even suggested the songs were wrung from an anguished Dylan which is probably an over-simplification. Jakob Dylan, the third child Dylan had with Lowndes, described the song lyrics as “my parents talking.” But Dylan denied any autobiographical connections. “It didn’t pertain to me,” he said during a 1985 interview.
[Verse 1] Early one morning the sun was shining I was laying in bed Wondering if she’d changed at all If her hair was still red Her folks they said our lives together Sure was going to be rough They never did like Mama’s homemade dress Papa’s bankbook wasn’t big enough And I was standing on the side of the road Rain falling on my shoes Heading out for the East Coast Lord knows I’ve paid some dues Getting through Tangled up in blue
[Verse 2] She was married when we first met Soon to be divorced I helped her out of a jam, I guess But I used a little too much force We drove that car as far as we could Abandoned it out west Split up on a dark sad night Both agreeing it was best She turned around to look at me As I was walking away I heard her say over my shoulder “We’ll meet again someday On the avenue” Tangled up in blue
[Verse 3] I had a job in the great north woods Working as a cook for a spell But I never did like it all that much And one day the ax just fell So I drifted down to New Orleans Where I lucky was to be employed Working for a while on a fishing boat Right outside of Delacroix But all the while I was alone The past was close behind I seen a lot of women But she never escaped my mind And I just grew Tangled up in blue
[Verse 4] She was working in a topless place And I stopped in for a beer I just kept looking at the side of her face In the spotlight, so clear And later on, when the crowd thinned out I was just about to do the same She was standing there, in back of my chair Said, “Tell me, don’t I know your name?” I muttered something underneath my breath She studied the lines on my face I must admit, I felt a little uneasy When she bent down to tie the laces Of my shoe Tangled up in blue
[Verse 5] 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 thirteenth 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 Tangled up in blue
[Verse 6] I lived with them on Montague Street In a basement down the stairs There was music in the cafes at night And revolution in the air Then he started into dealing with slaves And something inside of him died She had to sell everything she owned And froze up inside And when it finally, the bottom fell out I became withdrawn The only thing I knew how to do Was to keep on keeping on Like a bird that flew Tangled up in blue
[Verse 7] So now I’m going back again I got to get to her somehow All the people we used to know They’re an illusion to me now Some are mathematicians Some are carpenter’s wives Don’t know how it all got started I don’t know what they’re doing with their lives But me, I’m still on the road A-heading for another joint We always did feel the same We just saw it from a different point Of view Tangled up in blue
“When I listen to it now, it’s obviously a brilliant, well-crafted pop song. I’m embarrassed we dissed it so much.”
– Guitarist Charlie Burchill (Simple Minds) talking about Don’t You (Forget About Me)
This song which almost noone wanted including initially the Scottish rock band Simple Minds itself became the group’s biggest international hit. The song Don’t You (Forget About Me) was written and composed by the record producer Keith Forsey and the guitarist Steve Schiff for the film The Breakfast Club. Simple Minds were offered a private screening of The Breakfast Club in an effort to change their minds, but they still declined. Their lead vocalist, Jim Kerr, said later: “We couldn’t give a toss about teenage American schoolkids“.
Don’t You (Forget About Me) was originally offered to The Fixx, Bryan Ferry and Billy Idol they all declined (Idol did however record his own version years later). Forsey then asked Simple Minds, who as aforementioned initially refused but eventually agreed per suggestion of their label, A&M. It’s said that the band rearranged and recorded the song in three hours and “promptly forgot about it,” considering it just another song they recorded for somebody. They felt they should only record their own material. But in the wiki reference below: Kerr’s wife, the songwriter Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders, liked the song and urged him to record it.
Simple Minds, known for their new wave and post-punk style and Don’t You (Forget About Me) would go on to top the US Billboard Hot 100 chart (and No. 7 on the UK chart), making it Simple Minds‘ biggest hit (in the U.S.) to date. I heard it at the gym recently and thought I should really have it in my music library project although I was never taken with it in my youth. To me it now evokes a Smiths-esque charm with its teasing vocal delivery and playfulness which hooks me right in. It speaks about the desire to be remembered and the anxiety that comes with potentially fading from someone’s thoughts and affections.
[Refrain] Hey, hey, hey, hey Ooh, woah
[Verse 1] Won’t you come see about me? I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby Tell me your troubles and doubts Giving me everything inside and out and Love’s strange, so real in the dark Think of the tender things that we were working on Slow change may pull us apart When the light gets into your heart, baby
[Chorus] Don’t you forget about me Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t Don’t you forget about me
[Post-Chorus] Will you stand above me? Look my way, never love me Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling Down, down, down Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by Rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling Down, down, down, down
[Refrain] Hey, hey, hey, hey Ooh, whoa
[Verse 2] Don’t you try and pretend It’s my feeling we’ll win in the end I won’t harm you or touch your defenses Vanity, insecurity, ah Don’t you forget about me I’ll be alone, dancing, you know it, baby Goin’ to take you apart I’ll put us back together at heart, baby
Irish Singer Songwriter Glen Hansard is no stranger to this blog. I first wrote about him when I reviewed the surprise packet 2007 indie romantic film – Once in which he played a music busker who befriends another musician Markéta Irglová. Their song from the film Falling Slowly won the Academy Award for Best Original Song. I also saw Glen Hansard open for Bob Dylan (twice) in Melbourne the same year his film was released. Allow me to digress one moment…It’s very serendipitous how I see Bob Dylan in Sydney 2001 the night before he received his Academy Award for Things Have Changed from the movieWonder Boys and then I see Glen Hansard open for Bob in 2007 and soon thereafter he wins the same Academy Award for Falling Slowly in Once. Anyhows, on to today’s featured song.
I would never have thought a Britney Spears song would appear on my blog, but here we are with Everytime. Britney must be praised for her creation here that beautifully captures the heartbreak, regret, and longing of losing a loved one and the desire for reconciliation. Everytime was at the time allegedly about Spears’s ex-partner Justin Timberlake. Glen Hanson recorded it during a live show at Today FM and then released it on the Irish charity covers compilation, Even Better than the Real Thing Vol. 2. Britney’s original version is a piano based pop ballad (which received universal acclaim from music critics and understandably so), where as Hanson’s is an acoustic guitar and violin folk ballad. The only part of Hanson’s version which falls flat for me is the lackluster ‘bridge’, but otherwise I find it tip-top.
Hansard’s version also features Colm Mac Con Iomaire a fellow Irish composer and musician who plays keyboards, violin and sings with Glen’s band The Frames. Iomaire also played violin for an artist who has featured prominently in my blog – David Gray on his 1998 album White Ladder (on the track Silver Lining).
[Verse 1] Notice me Take my hand Why are we Strangers when
[Pre-Chorus] Our love is strong? Why carry on without me?
[Chorus] Every time I try to fly, I fall Without my wings, I feel so small I guess I need you, baby And every time I see you in my dreams I see your face, it’s haunting me I guess I need you, baby
[Verse 2] I make believe That you are here It’s the only way I see clear
[Pre-Chorus] What have I done? You seem to move on easy
[Chorus]
[Bridge] I may have made it rain Please forgive me My weakness caused you pain And this song’s my sorry
As many of you may know, Garth Hudson, the last surviving member of The Band (second from the right above), passed away recently on January 21, 2025. Today’s article is dedicated to one of Canada’s finest musical exports – The Band. However, as my blogger friend Max at PowerPop pointed out in his article on King Harvest (where I first heard this song), while Levon Helm was from Arkansas, the rest of the group were Canadian. The Band have already appeared here 7 times and their previous entry was Stage Fright from their legendary The Last Waltz concert.
King Harevst is the chronicle of an unlucky farmer who suffers a steady stream of disasters in the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, when severe drought caused massive dust storms and economic devastation. He turns to organized labor for hope. This perhaps referencing the organizing drives of the communist-affiliated Trade Union Unity League, which created share-cropper unions from 1928 to 1935, throughout the U.S. South. Robbie Robertson is a fan of John Steinbeck’s novels about this time, including The Grapes of Wrath. The Band’s music was often deeply rooted in historical and geographical narratives, and King Harvest is no exception.
Robbie Robertson: “It’s just a kind of character study in a time period. At the beginning, when the unions came in, they were a saving grace, a way of fighting the big money people, and they affected everybody from the people that worked in the big cities all the way around to the farm people. It’s ironic now, because now so much of it is like gangsters, assassinations, power, greed, insanity. I just thought it was incredible how it started and how it ended up.”
King Harvest originally appeared as the final track on their second album The Band and is credited solely to guitarist Robbie Robertson, although drummer/singer Levon Helm claimed that King Harvest was a group effort. It is a slow-burning, brooding piece which starts with a subdued, almost ghostly opening, before swelling into a blues-inflected groove which lends to its themes of rural hardship and desperation. The song features The Band’s signature mix of rustic Americana, country, and rock elements, with Garth Hudson’s swirling organ. The vocals embody the broken spirit of the farmer, with his earthy, Southern-tinged delivery and was tailor-made for this tale of hardship.
The title itself, King Harvest, refers to a fruitful harvest season – a metaphor for prosperity – but the song’s tone suggests that such rewards remain just out of reach.
[Chorus 1] Corn in the fields Listen to the rice when the wind blows ‘cross the water King Harvest has surely come
[Verse 1] I work for the union ’cause she’s so good to me And I’m bound to come out on top That’s where she said I should be I will hear every word the boss may say For he’s the one who hands me down my pay Looks like this time I’m gonna get to stay I’m a union man, now, all the way
[Chorus 2] The smell of the leaves From the magnolia trees in the meadow King Harvest has surely come
[Verse 2] A dry summer, and then come fall Which I depend on most of all Hey, rainmaker, can’t you hear the call? Please let these crops grow tall! Long enough I’ve been up on Skid Row And it’s plain to see, I’ve nothing to show I’m glad to pay those union dues Just don’t judge me by my shoes
[Chorus 3] A scarecrow and a yellow moon Pretty soon, the carnival on the edge of town King Harvest has surely come
[Verse 3] Last year, this time, wasn’t no joke My whole barn went up in smoke Our horse Jethro, well, he went mad And I can’t ever remember things being that bad Now here come a man with a paper and pen Tellin’ us our hard times are about to end And then, if they don’t give us what we like He said, “Men, that’s when you gotta go on strike!”
[Chorus 4]
The music video below was filmed in 1970 at Robbie Robertsons’ studio in Woodstock.
Can you stop this pain? Even now in the final hour Of my life I’m falling in love again
Some Morrissey fans here regard Life Is a Pigsty as the magnum opus of his solo career, and I can understand why. Over a songwriting career spanning 40 years, to me this ‘melodramatic’ track stands among his finest. It’s self-pitying of course, but there are some harsh truths in here. I am drawn to the brooding atmosphere of this song. Indeed, it’s the type of song you should listen to on a hot summer night when a thunder storm is about to erupt. What’s particularly striking is that he wrote it relatively late in his career, defying the common trajectory of artists who burn brightly before fading away.
Speaking of burning bright, this song does the opposite – it begins as a subdued, melancholic piece, with the sound of rain before evolving into a thunderous rock finale. The first section is dark and forlorn with pulsating bass, sounds of thunder, offset by the perfectly placed piano highlights; the drum dominance and the way the song builds in the 2nd section, then crashing drums & guitar bring us the crescendo. Both in atmosphere and its strong production, Life Is a Pigsty reminds me of Njósnavélin (The Nothing Song) by Sigur Rós, one of my favourite mostly instrumental tracks.
Life is a pigsty delves into the profound sense of despair and disillusionment that can permeate life. The repeated phrase serves as a stark metaphor for the chaos, messiness, and inherent suffering that the singer perceives in the world. This bleak outlook is underscored by the recurring motif of the ‘same old S.O.S.’ It explore themes of unchanging identity and the struggle to reach out to others despite being ‘the same underneath,’. The song touches on the theme of love as a redemptive force. Even in the ‘final hour‘ of life, the singer finds himself ‘falling in love again,’. This interplay of despair and hope, suffering and love, forms a rich emotional landscape – one that is quintessentially Morrissey, marked by his signature juxtaposition and darkly poetic sensibility.
[Verse 1] It’s the same old S.O.S But with brand new broken fortunes And once again I turn to you Once again I do I turn to you
It’s the same old S.O.S But with brand new broken fortunes I’m the same underneath But this you, you surely knew
[Verse 2] Life is a pigsty Life is a pigsty Life is a pigsty Life is a pigsty Life, life is a pigsty Life, life is a pigsty Life, life is a pigsty Life is a pigsty And if you don’t know this Then what do you know? Every second of my life I only live for you And you can shoot me And you can throw me off a train I still maintain I still maintain Life, life is a pigsty Life is a pigsty And I’ve been shifting gears all of my life But I’m still the same underneath This you surely knew I can’t reach you I can’t reach you I can’t reach you anymore
[Verse 3] Can you please stop time? Can you stop the pain? I feel too cold And now I feel too warm again Can you stop this pain? Can you stop this pain? Even now in the final hour of my life I’m falling in love again Again Even now in the final hour of my life I’m falling in love again Again Again Again I’m falling in love again Again Again Again
Life is a Pigsty is the 7th song from Morrissey’s 8th studio album Ringleader of the Tormentors. The album debuted at number 1 in the UK Albums Chart and number 27 in the US. It received positive reviews from most critics with an average review score of 75/100 on Metacritic.
Anyone familiar with my blog will know what a huge fan I am of David Bridie (far left above image) and My Friend the Chocolate Cake. I first came across Bridie’s music when he sang with legendary aboriginal singer Archie Roach in Melbourne back in the early 2000s. I went on to see him many times solo and with his band My Friend the Chocolate Cake (MFTCC). I even got to talk to him a few times during breaks between sets and album signings, which was a huge delight. I now consider him, hands down, my favourite Australian singer-songwriter.
Talk About Love is the 9th song (not to mention another 9 songs from Bridie as a solo artist) to be presented here by the Australian chamber pop group after their previous entry More Heart Than Me. The single is from their 1996 album Good Luck which peaked at No. 44 on the Australian charts and won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album. Talk About Love is a humble acoustic ballad which paints vivid imagery and contains themes of devotion and companionship. It was written by the group’s founder David Bridie and features the band’s characteristic blend of piano, violin and cello.
The following was extracted from Wikipedia: After the release of the album the group played a sell-out show at Edinburgh Festival in Scotland and toured Europe. They followed with a live album, Live at the National Theatre, in December 1997 where they also performed today’s featured track – Talk About Love.
My Friend the Chocolate Cake were formed initially as an acoustic side project in 1989 by David Bridie on vocals, piano, harmonium and keyboards and Helen Mountfort on cello and backing vocals. Bridie and Mountfort were members of an ambient, world music ensemble Not Drowning, Waving who have featured here as well. In 1989, Bridie had taken a holiday to New Zealand and had written “a few more breezy compositions” that did not fit into the style of not drowning, waving. Upon return to Melbourne, Mountford joined his project with her own writing. My Friend the Chocolate Cake took their name from a song title by an obscure Sydney band, Ya Ya Choral. Bridie admitted that one reason they chose an all-acoustic act was so they did not have to carry around amplifiers.
The moon falls on the railway yard We walk together arm and arm Faith and blind devotion Come glide upon the rusted edge Never question straight ahead Right out in to the darkness of the hours that life can Bring I’ll stand beside you hold you close When you’re in need of comfort most Especially when you make no sense
This is what we mean When we talk about love This is what we mean When we talk about love
I’ve found myself a Hinterland It’s perfect for a short time I think you’ll find it likeable Please wait your hurry Not too fast Just hold out while the moment lasts I know I used to wander But I promise you that I’ll stay And if you make some strange mistake Fall down hard and break your neck I’ll hang in here just right beside you
We are following our trip down nostalgia lane with the classic television-show theme song Maybe by Thom Pace. I mentioned in yesterday’s article about how John Denver’s Country Roads and today’s featured track conjured memories of childhood and nature. To me Maybe captured the theme and naturalistic tone of its series perhaps better than any other. I’m referring to The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams, which despite only running for two seasons in the late 1970s, I sure as heck found infectious viewing as a youngster.
Maybe, the theme song, which I assumed I had already written about; came with the chorus at the beginning and a much better sampling at the end of the episodes. It’s a wonderfully conceived song with beautiful lyrics and melody that I have never grown tired of listening to. It’s tailor-made for a show about a recluse’s profound relationship with nature, including his kinship with a gentle grizzly bear named Ben, although ironically it wasn’t the inspiration for the song as you will read below.
Most of the following was extracted from the reference below:
The show (and the feature-film that launched it) starred first-time lead-actor, Dan Haggerty, a former bodybuilder and stuntman, whose unique look and background as an animal-handler won him the title role of Grizzly Adams, a man who fled to the mountain wilderness in the mid 1800s after being accused a murder he didn’t commit. The show was very family-friendly, with heavy emphasis on themes like compassion, kindness, and gratitude. Plus, it was chock-full of cool animals, and amusing exchanges between mountain-man trader “Mad Jack” (Denver Pyle, aka “Uncle Jesse” from The Dukes of Hazzard) and his notoriously stubborn mule, “Number Seven”.
Deep inside the forest Is a door into another land Here is our life and home We are staying, here forever In the beauty of this place all alone We keep on hopi-in’
Maybe There’s a world where we don’t have to run And maybe There’s a time we’ll call our own Livin’ free in harmony and majesty Take me ho-ome Take me home
Walkin’ through the land Where every living thing is beautiful Why does it have to end We are calling, oh so sadly On the whispers of the wind As we send a dying message
The man behind the tune is Thom Pace, a singer-songwriter from Pocatello, Idaho. Under the Capitol Records label in 1980, he released “Maybe” on a full-length album along with more of his work. As a radio single, the song found international, award-winning success. Thom Pace revealed in an interview from the reference below that he originally wrote the song for a movie called “The Snow Tigers” about two Siberian Tigers who had lost their home due to dwindling forests. He decided to write a song from their point of view about a place where they would be safe and free again. The producer liked the song, but he decided to go full classical instrumental music, so he did not use the song. Chuck Sellier, the producer of Grizzly Adams, heard it a little later and thought that it would be a good song for the ending of the movie.
Later when I was playing in a club in Alaska, my manager called and said that Sun Classic Pictures wanted to use “Maybe” for the new Grizzly Adams television series. After much discussion, they used it and it worked well for the opening each week. What is not generally known is that it has three verses instead of two, and the only recording with all three verses is a live Reggae version on iTunes that Thom recorded in 2010.
From Wikipedia below: Another version from the theme from an album that Pace recorded and released during the 1970s, was released as a single in Europe. Maybe went to number one in Germany and stayed there for nine weeks. Pace received the “Goldene Europa” Award, Germany’s version of the Grammy Award for Best Song of 1980. The song also reached No. 14 in the UK Singles Chart and No. 23 in the Australian Singles Chart.
My son Jesus Mateo and I just got back from a four day holiday in Melgar, Tolima – jungle country, a four hour trip from where we live in Bogotá, Colombia. I’ve sent a video below of a ride we enjoyed at a park called Piscilago. Just a week earlier, my daughter Katherine Rose and I had also experienced this ride, which I presented here.
These trips lead us neatly into today’s featured track Take Me Home, Country Roads – one of the most nostalgic songs I have heard about childhood and nature. It’s one of the first songs I can recall hearing, and it remains dear to my heart – just as I imagine it does for many of you reading this. It also conjures memories of seeing the 70’s show The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams and its theme song Maybe.
[Verse 1] Almost Heaven, West Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River Life is old there, older than the trees Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze
[Chorus] Country roads, take me home To the place I belong West Virginia, mountain mama Take me home, country roads
[Verse 2] All my memories gather ’round her Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water Dark and dusty, painted on the sky Misty taste of moonshine, teardrop in my eye
[Chorus] Country roads, take me home To the place I belong West Virginia, mountain mama Take me home, country roads
[Bridge] I hear her voice in the morning hour, she calls me The radio reminds me of my home far away Driving down the road, I get a feeling That I should have been home yesterday, yesterday
Most of the following was extracted from the Wikipedia reference below:
Take Me Home, Country Roads may well be one of the most popular songs revisited over the years on contemporary music radio stations. It was written by Bill Danoff, Taffy Nivert and John Denver and released as a single on April 12, 1971, peaking at number two on the Billboard charts. It is of course one of John Denver’s most popular songs and has continued to sell, with over 1.8 million digital copies sold in the United States alone. In 1998, the 1971 recording by John Denver was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and considered a symbol of West Virginia.
Inspiration for the title line had come while Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff, who were married, were driving along Clopper Road in Montgomery County, Maryland, to a gathering of Nivert’s family in Gaithersburg, with Nivert behind the wheel while Danoff played his guitar. “I just started thinking, country roads, I started thinking of me growing up in western New England and going on all these small roads“, Danoff said. “It didn’t have anything to do with Maryland or anyplace.”
To Danoff, the lyric “[t]he radio reminds me of my home far away” in the bridge is quintessentially West Virginian, an allusion to when he listened to the program Saturday Night Jamboree, broadcast from Wheeling, West Virginia, on WWVA at his home in Springfield, Massachusetts, during his childhood in the 1950s.
Danoff and Nivert ran through what they had of the song they had been working on for about a month, planning to sell to Johnny Cash. Denver decided he had to have it when he returned with the couple to their apartment for an impromptu jam (after a post Christmas reopening night at The Cellar Door in Washington, D.C) which prompted them to abandon plans for the sale. The verses and chorus were still missing a bridge, so the three of them went about finishing…When they finished, on the morning of Wednesday, December 30, 1970, Denver announced that the song had to go on his next album.
Welcome to Monday’s News on the March – The week that was in my digital world.
Yesterday, my adopted home country Colombia had the scariest rollercoaster ride because of a diplomatic entanglement with the United States. Yesterday morning the Colombian President Gustavo Petro (a committed socialist and ex guerilla warfighter) barred two US military deportation flights (of detained Colombian criminals and undocumented illegal migrants) from landing in Colombia. As a result the new US leadership under Donald Trump threatened Colombia with 25% Tariffs on all Colombian goods (as well as revoking Visas of officials and dignatarias aligned with the Petro Government) and in retaliation Petro did the same on US products. The effect such economic penalties would have on the already fragile Colombian economy would be nothing short of devastating and the run-off effects on security and people’s livelihoods paralleling the Venezuelan crises under the Socialist Dictatorship of revolutionary Hugo Chavez and his successor Nicolás Maduro. After my troubled sleep last night (due to all this commotion), I woke up to the wonderful news that the Colombian Government agreed to accept – without restrictions the deported illegal Colombian aliens and Trump’s threat has been rescinded or put on hold. More information can be found in the BBC news article here.
I am an unashamed Australian Sports-nut… so when the Australian Open rolls around just after the Christmas and New Year’s festivities I lock into tennis-mode despite the unpleasant start-times due to the time-zone differences (16 hours to be exact) between my native and adopted country. The Open is always embroiled in controversy and this year was no different. One of my favourite moments from the event has to be American Danielle Collins reactions to the heckles and booing of the crowd during and after her match against Australian home hope Destanee Aiava. I must admit I am left disappointed and somewhat embarrassed by the unruly behaviour of large sectors of the Australian crowd including how the GOAT (at least statistically speaking) Novak Djokovic was also boo’d off after retiring injured. On a side note: What he must think of Australia after this and being prohibited from competing in 2021 (for being an unvaccinated traveller) and detained in quarantine under Australian Government’s draconian COVID measures is anyone’s guess.
Collins is my new hero. This is what she said during the post-match interview:
Did the UK only narrowly avoid a blackout last week? Freddie Sayers is joined by energy analyst Kathryn Porter to break down the National Grid numbers and find out how Net Zero might cause blackouts by 2030.
I am a frequent UnHerd viewer and this recent video interview about the state of Electricity in Britain was surprisingly intriguing and educational. I never knew how a Country’s electricity system and grids work or the effect of renewable ‘clean’ energy on its correct functioning. My fear is of a disaster that will ultimately affect mostly working class people. I like how one astute viewer put it, ‘Net Zero means zero heating, zero lighting, zero industry, zero transport, zero shops‘. All in all, the video was a steep learning curve as Freddy Sayers forewarned but a rewarding one at that.
Before I sign-off, I would like to inform you I will be away from the blogger-sphere from tomorrow until Saturday due to a vacation my son and I will be taking to Jungle country in Melgar, Colombia. I recently posted about the same trip I took with my daughter last week. In the meantime I wish y’all a very pleasant week.
