Joy to the world, all the boys and girls, joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea...I'm (six days) late again...
My introduction to this week's tune was a little on the late side. I've mentioned a time or two (or ten) that I buy used CDS at our local library sale and make sure I play them at least once. So, when this week's band's greatest hits (another version of which I noticed after I bought it, alas, I already owned) came up in my queue, I figured it would be a few days of listening on my drive to work before a quick change to another CD. Nope--I fell right in love with this week's song, which was the only song on the hits package I wasn't familiar with (despite it being a hit) and I ended up listening for weeks. Ah, but you're never too late for a great song....
I wrote about Three Dog Night way back in Vol. CXI, and sadly, as is often the case with older bands, the only news since then is that original member and one of their troupe of lead singers, Chuck Negron, passed away earlier this year. I also noticed as I did my half-assed research that in my previous post about them, I neglected to note their discography which is as follows: twelve studio albums (three reached the top ten), four live albums, seven compilations (one hit the top five), and twenty-six singles (with eleven top ten, including three at #1). Not surprisingly considering the market for oldies acts, they are still touring (with two original members still left) and actually released a new single in 2021.
"Out in the Country" was the second single from their 1970 release, the rather roughly entitled It Ain't Easy. The single peaked at #15 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100 but reached #9 in Canada (so many cool kids among our neighbors to the north!). The album hit #8 on the Billboard 200.
Fun Fact: "Out in the Country" was released the first year that Earth Day was celebrated, and in its early days was one of the songs environmentalism used to celebrate our, well, environment.
Written by Paul Williams (who had quite a bit of success as a songwriter) and Roger Nichols (ditto), "Out in the Country" is a paean to letting the beauty of the outdoors take you away from your troubles. The harmonies throughout are exquisite, and the chorus is as catchy as a Gold Glove fielder's mitt (how that for a massively shitty simile?). Even better, it's repeated--emaycee fave!--numerous times through the course of the song. There's a just this side of smooth instrumental break. and all of this is wrapped up with a bow on top in three minutes and eight seconds (there's always something to be said for brevity). In the end, it's a wonderful slice of mellow gold, and the musical world can never ever get enough of mellow gold....
Lyric Sheet: "Before the breathin' air is gone/Before the sun is just a bright spot in the nighttime/Out where the rivers like to run/I stand alone and take back somethin' worth rememberin'..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
No comments:
Post a Comment