Anymore, when I finish a post before the next week's is due, I consider that a success....
When I was in college, I would occasionally skip class when the weather was nice and travel the backroads outside Kokomo, Indiana to a little town called New London. The population of New London was probably less than a hundred people, and all I remember of it was a little park (and possibly some kind of mom-and-pop store) where I used to sit on its lone picnic table, take in its beauty, and gather myself. Though I didn't know it at the time, I was probably in the grips of the depression that would infest my life for the next twenty years. On one of those trips, one where I was very uncertain of the path my life was following, this week's song came on the radio and for some reason (better left unsaid) really seemed to hit home. While I would stay on that path (and have no regrets about doing so), as time has passed there are certain parts of this song that have proved very prescient....
I wrote about the Commodores in my ninth post for Friday Night Jukebox, and much like last week's tune the bio paragraph was not much of a career retrospective, so I'll give the Commodores a little love this week. Formed in 1968 while the original members were attending college at Tuskegee University, the band would play frat parties and local concerts before breaking out in 1974 with their first hit single. The Commodores would have a nice run until the early eighties, when a number of the original members began exiting for those hallowed solo careers. They have won a Grammy Award and were inducted into both the Alabama Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. For their career, the Commodores have released fifteen studio albums (with four reaching the top ten), and thirty-nine singles (two #1's and seven more top tens). Surprisingly enough to me, the band (with an often-revised lineup) is still together and touring.
Fun Fact: The band got its name when bandmember William King flipped open a dictionary and ran his finger down the page until it stopped. He would joke in later years how close the band came to being called "The Commodes."
"Sail On" was the first single from their 1979 album, the rather mystically entitled Midnight Magic. The single would reach #4 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, yet for some odd ass reason, Wikipedia had no entry for it. The album, which Wikipedia did have an entry for, would eventually peak at #3 on the Billboard 200.
"Sail On" tells the tale of a man who has been spurned and is waking up to the reality that the relationship wasn't all he thought it was and is looking to break free from a bad love. Lionel Richie's vocals, which carry the song, straddle a fine line but in the end are neither too sad nor too bitter--just looking to sail on, so to speak, to a new freedom. The piano throughout is resolute, and the band's harmonies are as smooth as sweet cream. Love a little, learn a little--and always be ready to hop on the next ride to a new adventure....
Lyric Sheet: "It was plain to see/That a small-town boy like me/Just wasn't your cup of tea/I was wishful thinking..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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