I wrote about this week's tune in one of my earliest posts, wherein I related how I had bought Eric Clapton's Unplugged for my father, who was in the last couple of months of his battle with lung cancer, and the joy the song brought to him. Eric Clapton's version (it's been covered by many) was my introduction to it, but since Clapton has become a right-wing nut job, I went with Richie Havens' version of it because a) it's better, and b) Havens wasn't a racist jackass who stole his best friend's wife like Clapton.
I also wrote about Richie Havens, and his wonderful song "Follow" about a year and a half ago, so there is no need for a bio this week. And since Havens passed in 2013, there aren't any updates to his career.
Like "Follow," Havens' version of "San Francisco Bay Blues" was not released as a single. Also like "Follow," it was released on the album widely considered to be Havens' best work, Mixed Bag, which I will gently remind you peaked at #182 on the Billboard 200.
I'm not going to lie to you: had "San Francisco Bay Blues" been named "Hudson Bay Blues" the chances are good that I still would have liked the song but being about walking around my birth home and most favorite city in the world most certainly takes it into another stratosphere for me. Havens tells the tale of a man whose woman has left him, sailed away on an ocean liner, and while he knows he's to blame he's still dreaming she'll come back so he can walk arm in arm with her down by the San Francisco Bay. Behind an airy musical groove, Havens' vocals capture exquisitely the man's sorrow, his hope, and the romance that is San Francisco. This one's a little personal as it brings back memories of walking around Sausalito with my family when I was still in my early teens with the bay in the background, but that doesn't make it any less of a gem than it is.
Lyric Sheet: "I ain't got a nickel/And I ain't got a lousy dime/If she don't come back/I think I'm going to lose my mind..."
Enjoy:
Republican = Traitor
Peace,
emaycee
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