No, I won't back down, no, I won't back down, you can stand me up at the gates of hell but...I'll still be (over two weeks) late again....
Another kind of ho-hum introduction to this week's tune--back in my Camelot Music days we thought this week's artist's album looked interesting and gave it a spin on the turntable (nah--it was all CDs by then). I fell immediately in love with this week's song and the rest of the album. It also began a lovefest with her music, and I anxiously awaited her next four or five offerings...until time and tide, and you know the rest....
Mary Chapin Carpenter was born in Princeton, N.J. in 1958, and got her inspiration to be a musician from her mother who was a folk singer. Carpenter learned the ukulele and classical guitar at a young age and began writing songs as a child. After graduating from Brown University (how many country performers have Ivy League degrees?), she began playing covers in folk clubs around Washington D.C., before adding her own material. During this time, she would meet John Jennings who would play a crucial role in her career as a songwriting partner and producer. Carpenter was signed to a contract by Columbia Records in 1987, in which year she also released her debut album. Chapin's second record would have her first hit and by her third she had become a country music star. Carpenter has been nominated for eighteen Grammy Awards, and won five, including four straight from 1992-95 for Best Country Female Vocal Performance. For her career, Carpenter has released seventeen studio albums (with one top ten on the Billboard Hot 100, and eight top ten albums on the Country chart, including one #1), two live albums, and four compilations. She's also released forty-one singles, with nine reaching the Country top ten, and one of those being a #1. Carpenter has been known for her liberal politics (yea!), and her support for feminism. She has performed with numerous artists over the past thirty-eight years and released her latest album this past June.
Fun Fact: Carpenter joins Friday Night Jukebox alumni Stevie Nicks, Roseanne Cash, and Sheryl Crow as female musicians emaycee has had a crush on at one time or another. Probably not quite the honor of winning a Grammy....
"Passionate Kisses" was the third single from Carpenter's 1992 release, the rather alluringly titled Come On Come On. The single would reach #54 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #4 on the Country singles chart. The album hit #31 on the Billboard 200, and #11 on the Country albums chart.
Somehow, over the course of the thirty-three years since its release, I managed to either forget (likely), or never knew (could be?) that "Passionate Kisses" was written and originally recorded by Lucinda Williams (I loved two of her albums and then see time and tide comment above...). No matter, though I did give a listen to Williams' version to which Carpenter's version is remarkably similar. The song opens with a soft but loving (and short) piano riff before breaking into a rollicking call for all the good things in life to be hers. Carpenter has a wondrous voice and makes the most of it here bringing forth all the uh, passion, to carry the song. In the end, it's a smart pop song performed with the gusto of a woman not afraid to ask for the good life--and a good love as well.
Lyric Sheet: "Is it too much to demand/I want a full house and a rock and roll band..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
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