Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DLXIX--Rod Stewart: Maggie May

 I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now...I'm (only six days?) late again....

My introduction to this week's tune is probably the fact that I was born.  It's one of rock's most iconic songs, and beyond a shadow of a doubt the signature song of this week's artist.  And it's probably somewhere on just about every list of the greatest rock songs ever, and most deservedly so....

Though I really love (early) Rod Stewart, I probably wouldn't put him in my top ten favorite artists ever, but oddly enough, no one is even close when it comes to appearances here on Friday Night Jukebox.  Thus far, Stewart has had three posts on singles of his (Vol. III--going back a a long way! Vol. XXXVI, and Vol. CCCLIV), one post on my album of the year writings (amazingly enough, this week's tune is from that very album--Vol. CCXXXII), three posts as the lead singer of the Faces (Vol. CCXXVI, Vol. CDVII, and Vol. DXXXVI), and one as the lead vocalist on a Jeff Beck single (Vol. CCCXXXI).  Which means this is the ninth time his work has been featured here, which is really saying something (to steal a song title).  And somehow, through all of those, I managed to never post a link to Stewart's discography, which I'll rectify here.  Stewart released his last studio album in 2024 and was on tour this year at the ripe old age of eighty until illness forced him to cancel dates.

"Maggie May" was released in 1971 on the definitive--and one of my five favorite albums of all time--Rod Stewart album, Every Picture Tells a Story.  The single hit #1 (with a bullet in America!) in both the U.S. and the U.K., while reaching the top five in nine other countries, somehow hitting only #11 in Germany (what the fuck, Germany?  It hit number 8 in fucking Zimbabwe for Christ's sake....).  It's listed at #130 on Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time, and at #182 on Billboard's

list of their All-Time charts.

Fun Fact:  "Maggie May" was originally released as the B-side of "Reason to Believe."  Radio stations quickly picked up on the brilliance of the B-side and turned it into a hit.  Good call radio stations!

This week's tune is kind of a cheat, as I wrote about it when I wrote about Every Picture Tells a Story:

"Maggie May":  The song that made Stewart a star--and rightfully so.  A #1 hit here and in the U.K., it's smart pop for the masses as Stewart spins the tale of a young man in love with an older woman who's making a fool of him, but he just can't leave her even though he knows he should.  Great drumming again from Waller, great guitar from Wood, stunning mandolin work from Lindsay Jackson, and an impassioned performance from Stewart.  Little known fact:  there's an instrumental intro to the song called "Henry" that in some versions is treated as an intro and in others as a separate (though at 32 seconds, very short) song.  Favorite line:  "I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school/Or steal my Daddy's cue and make a living out of playing pool/ Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand..."

Not much I can add to that, other than that the song is actually autobiographical)--I just felt the song was so good that it deserved its very own post.  I have a hunch there's a couple of other songs featured on album posts that will get this very same treatment someday....

Lyric Sheet:  [Blogger's Note:  Going to use a different line than the one above because it's my prerogative, to steal another song title....] "Maggie, I wished I'd never seen your face/I'll get on back home one of these days/[Another Blogger's Note:  One of the truly great "ooh-oohs of all-time] Ooh, ooh..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXXXVI--Faces: Open to Ideas

And it's too late, baby, now it's too late (to blatantly steal a phrase)....

This week's tune was originally slated to be the first post I wrote about a song by this week's artist, but then I worried that this song was a little too obscure and changed it to "Ooh La La."  Almost immediately after I posted that one it dawned on me that one of the reasons I started Friday Night Jukebox was to feature obscure album cuts and added it back to my list.  Only took me roughly six years to get back to it....

This will mark the third song by the Faces that I have written about (Vol. CCXXVI and Vol. CDVII) and as the remaining three members are still alive and I've posted about the deaths of the other two there's precious little to add.  So we'll call it a day on the bio paragraph....

"Open to Ideas" was released as a previously unreleased song on their 1999 retrospective, the rather drowsily entitled Good Boys...When They're Asleep.  As the song was previously unreleased you'll be shocked to learn that it wasn't released as a single, while the album peaked at #87 in Scotland and #79 in the U.K. on their respective charts.

Fun Fact:  "Open to Ideas" was a leftover from the band's final session together circa 1973.  And as the old saying goes, better late than never....

There is no one on this planet who was a better practitioner of blue-eyed soul than Rod Stewart back in the day, and "Open to Ideas" is a stellar piece of blue-eyed soul.  Stewart weaves the tale of a man trying to get in touch via the phone with his girlfriend who is taking a break from their relationship.  And in a plaintive yet soul searching vocal he's letting her know that he's, well, open to ideas about how to continue with their relationship.  The band--Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan, Ronnie Lane, and Kenney Jones--do a marvelous job of subtly keeping the groove going.  Wood gives a nice short guitar solo in the closing instrumental, while the rest of the band closes it out with all the grace it can muster.  Just a beautiful, beautiful ballad of a man coming to terms with the depth of his love, and the limits to holding on to it.

Lyric Sheet:  "Strange that I don't need no break to find out/What it's all about/You and me baby make it really work/But I don't give a damn to shout..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDVII--Faces: Stay with Me

 I spent a little bit of time during my college years trying to find this week's featured tune on a Rod Stewart album (sounds quaint, but this would have been many years before the internet), only to find out after I began working at Camelot Music that Stewart had been in another band and that they had actually recorded it.  I'm sure it's shown up on one of his many hits packages through the years, but it forced me to give a Faces greatest hits collection a listen, and that was quite fortuitous as they turned out to be a hell of a band in their own right.

I wrote about the Faces in Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXVI, and precious little has changed about the band's history or its remaining members who are still alive (though it was reported last year that those three members were recording new music, but nothing has as of yet been released).  Otherwise, Rod Stewart is still touring and making music, Ronnie Wood is still with the Rolling Stones, and Kenney Jones is doing whatever it is that old fart wealthy drummers who whine about their taxes do.

"Stay with Me" was the first single from their 1971 album, the wondrously titled A Wink Is as Good as a Nod...to a Blind Horse (would easily rank in the top ten of all time cleverest album titles).  The single reached #17 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and #6 in their native U.K. but it's best showing was at #4 in Canada (so many cool kids in the Great White North!).  The album went to #2 in Great Britain and #6 here in the States.

"Stay with Me" is a rollicking number that tells the somewhat tawdry tale of a man asking a woman to stay the night...but to make sure she's gone in the morning.  Somewhat oddly for a hit single, the band--most notably Ronnie Wood on guitar--plays some balls out rock and roll for almost a minute before Stewart's vocals kick in.  Throughout the song, the band absolutely shines--Ian McLagan on keyboards, Wood on guitar, and Jones on the drums literally push the accelerator to the floor from beginning to end.  All in all, though, the song is a perfect illustration of why Rod Stewart is considered one of the greatest rock vocalists of all time.  With swagger ("Guitar!") and humor ("What was your name again?"), Stewart sings from the gut, and from the heart, and electrifies the band note by note and word by word.  A truly great performance from a truly great band.

Lyric Sheet:  "Red lips, hair, and fingernails/I hear you're a mean old Jezebel/Let's go upstairs and read my Tarot cards..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCLIV--Rod Stewart: Oh No Not My Baby

 I knew a little about Rod Stewart's catalog when I started managing a Camelot Music store in 1981, but a few months after I started I became considerably more familiar with the depth of his hitmaking, thanks to a customer who brought back a defective (that wasn't so defective) copy of a best of compilation LP from his days on the Mercury label.  In fact, it was so good I not only bought it, but the second compilation from those years as well, and spend a good chunk of the early eighties listening to the both of them.

I wrote about Rod Stewart around a million years ago in the third ever post for Friday Night Jukebox.  While the earlier posts didn't have quite the biography of the newer ones, I'll still keep this mercifully short as plenty of writers better than I have covered his illustrious career.  I will make note, though, that since his humble beginning busking on the street with a harmonica in 1962, Stewart has won multiple Grammy Awards, been elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice (solo and as a member of Faces), been elected into the U.K. Music Hall of Fame, and been knighted.  He's also sold over 250 million records, and has had ten #1 LP's and six #1 singles in his native U.K., as well as four #1's of each here in the U.S.  And to top it off, he'll be releasing his thirty-first album sometime later this year.

Fun Fact:  The first solo album Stewart released did not chart in his native U.K.  The second one hit #62.  Of the next twenty-eight he released, twenty-seven of them reached the top ten in the U.K., and the one that missed peaked at #11.  That is one hell of a streak....

"Oh No Not My Baby" (which for whatever reason does not make the usual use of punctuation marks) was written by the great Carole King and her one-time husband Gerry Goffin in 1964.  It was originally a hit that same year for Maxine Brown, peaking at #24.  Rod Stewart recorded his version in 1973 while still a member of the Faces, but it was released as a solo effort even though he was backed by them in the studio.  It was never released on a studio album.  The single hit #6 in the U.K. (so many cool kids in Great Britain), and #59 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.

With "Oh No Not My Baby" Rod Stewart (who produced the single himself) took the best of sixties pop, added the best of seventies pop, and created a blue-eyed soul gem.  There haven't been too many rock and roll vocalists who can do vocally what Stewart can, and he makes his voice into an instrument of its own as he sings the tale of a man whose friends and family tell him not to trust his lady love, but who's certain that they're oh so wrong about her.  The Faces--with the help of a string section and possibly some horns--make a musical panoply in the background of Stewart's plaintive wailing (especially impressed with the drumming which give the song a nice funk groove) that glues the other pieces together.  If you're an aficionado of pure sweet pop--I know I am--this one is right up there with the best of what pop has to offer.

Lyric Sheet:   "When my friends told me you had someone new/I didn't believe a single word was true/I told them all I had faith in you/I kept a-right on sayin'/Oh, no, not my baby..."

Enjoy:

The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXXXI--Jeff Beck: People Get Ready

 While I don't believe in God, this week's tune sure makes me wish there was one--sounds like my kind of train ride....

Jeff Beck has long been considered one of the greatest guitarists of the rock and roll era (or any other era, most likely), though unlike some of his contemporaries (Clapton, Hendrix, Page) Beck has never had quite the commercial success they have enjoyed (though he is often considered a guitarist's guitarist, which might be the highest praise he could get).  Beck started playing guitar at age six in his native U.K., and by the ripe old age of twenty he was already performing live and joining bands.  He is well known for his perfectionism and his temper; his lack of record sales may also be a reflection of the fact that Beck has always marched to the beat of his own drum (so to speak).  No matter--judging from a recent rockumentary I saw about him, he looks like he's very, very comfortable financially.  The list of artists Beck has worked with is as extensive as it is diverse, from Jon Bon Jovi to Stevie Wonder.  For his career Beck has released 17 studio albums (highest charting was #4), nine live albums, and two compilations.  He has won eight Grammy Awards (all but one for instrumental performance--surprise, surprise), and has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, once as a member of the Yardbirds (1992) and the other as a solo artist (2009).  Beck continues to perform and record, and released his latest single last year, a collaborative effort with Johnny Depp.

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"People Get Ready" was released as a single by Beck and Rod Stewart in 1985 from Beck's album Flash.  The single was the highest charting in the U.S. of Beck's career, reaching #48 (with a bullet!), on the Billboard Hot 100 while the album peaked at #39 on the Billboard 200.  

Fun Fact(s):  "People Get Ready" was written by R & B legend Curtis Mayfield, and was originally released as a single in 1965 by the Impressions, of which Mayfield was a member.  The song peaked at #14 (with a bullet!).  Martin Luther King, Jr. said the song was the unofficial anthem of the Civil Rights Movement, and Rolling Stone ranked it #24 on its list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

From it's opening guitar solo to its closing guitar solo (and all those in between), both Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart give "People Get Ready" all the due deference its place in pop music history has earned.  While Beck's playing is understated, it also strips the song to its core and sends its message straight to the heart.  Stewart captures the hope and the sheer joy that the song evokes--if he was this train's conductor you'd be more than happy to follow him all the way to Jordan.  In the end, one of rock's greatest guitarists teamed up with one of rock's greatest vocalists to record their version of one of rock's greatest songs...and they nailed it.  A triumph from beginning to end.

Lyric Sheet:  "So people get ready/There's a train to Jordan/Picking up passengers/Coast to coast..."

Enjoy:

It's Not Just an Infrastructure Bill, It's a Jobs Plan, Too

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXII--Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells a Story (Album)

It's my birthday week (hit the big six oh this year) so we have our yearly installment of "It's My Birthday So I'll Review an Album If I Want To..."

This year Rod Stewart's album Every Picture Tells a Story is the feature LP.  As these album posts tend to run a wee bit long, we'll dispense with the obligatory stolen from Wikipedia bio, and just note a few facts about the album.  In addition to having one of the truly great album titles and being one of my five favorites LP's of all-time, Every Picture Tells a Story was a number one hit for Stewart both in his native U.K. and here in the U.S. of A.  It finished a surprisingly weak #172 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All-Time (I wondered at the time if its relatively low rank--in Rolling Stone's ten year anniversary issue the album showed up on more of their critics' best of lists than just about any other music of their first ten years save the Velvet Underground's "Heroin"--was because in the late 70's Rod the Mod decided he'd rather make money than art), but is generally considered one of the best albums of the 1970's.  Finally, as Stewart was still singing with the Faces at the time, it includes a heaping helping of their musicianship (especially Ronnie Wood on guitar and Ian McLagan on keyboards/piano).

And away we go...

"Every Picture Tells a Story":  Thanks to Micky Waller's explosive drumming this one is literally a detonation of an opening.  The story of the young Stewart traveling around Europe and trying to find himself (and coming to understand that he'd already found himself at home) is easily the best song Stewart ever did and easily one of the ten best rock and roll songs of all-time.  A masterpiece on the insecurities and the beauty of youth.  Favorite line:  "I couldn't quote you no Dickens, Shelley, or Keats/'Cause it's all been said before/Make the best out of the bad just laugh it off/You didn't have to come here anyway..."

"Seems Like a Long Time":  Stewart and a piano (with some fine backing vocals from Madeleine Bell and friends) in this introspective turn on how slowly time churns as we wait for deliverance from both the personal and the worldly.  Gospelesque at times and really showcases what a magnificent voice Stewart has been blessed with.  Favorite line:  "War time is only the other side of peace time/But if you've ever seen how wars are won/You know what it's like to wish peace time would come..."

"That's All Right"/"Amazing Grace":  Song 1:  In which Stewart gets to show off this blues chops in an old blues standard by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup, and the band gets to show off its chops in several different incarnations (another shout out for Waller).  Mostly just a lot of fun.  Song 2:  All I'll say is that when I was in the grips of depression in the nineties, I awoke one morning to this song on the alarm radio and though I'm not a religious man, it gave me a moment's peace at a time when such moments were few and far between.  Song 1 Favorite line:  "I'll be leaving here tomorrow/Leaving here for sure/You ain't gotta be bothered with me/Hangin' round your door..."  Song 2 Favorite line:  No need--you already know the words.

"Tomorrow Is a Long Time":  Stewart covers an unreleased Dylan tune (Dylan would record it himself some years later for his Greatest Hits II) that sure sounds like it should have come from his Nashville Skyline sessions.  Much like "Seems Like a Long Time" this one tells us the waiting is the hardest part (seems I've heard that before...).  A ballad with lots of strings, a quiet portrait of a man recalling the beauty of his missing lover and his pain of being without her.  Favorite line:  "I can't see my reflection in the mirror/I can't speak the sounds that show no pain/I can't hear the echoes of my footsteps/Or remember the sound of my own name..."

"Maggie May":  The song that made Stewart a star--and rightfully so.  A #1 hit here and in the U.K., it's smart pop for the masses as Stewart spins the tale of a young man in love with an older woman who's making a fool of him, but he just can't leave her even though he knows he should.  Great drumming again from Waller, great guitar from Wood, stunning mandolin work from Lindsay Jackson, and an impassioned performance from Stewart.  Little known fact:  there's an instrumental intro to the song called "Henry" that in some versions is treated as an intro and in others as a separate (though at 32 seconds, very short) song.  Favorite line:  "I suppose I could collect my books and get on back to school/Or steal my Daddy's cue and make a living out of playing pool/ Or find myself a rock and roll band that needs a helpin' hand..."

"Mandolin Wind":  Considered by some (though not me) to be the best song on the album, Stewart weaves the tale of a prairie couple surviving the full force of nature and of the man's love for his wife for standing by him through thick and thin.  Amazingly enough, the song contains some mandolin playing (though who it was remains something of a mystery), and some more nice guitar work from Wood.  An understated vocal performance from Stewart and a compelling narrative.  A great song.  Favorite line:  "When the rain came I thought you'd leave/'Cause I knew how much you loved the sun/But you chose to stay, stay and keep me warm/Through the darkest nights, I've ever known..."

"(I Know) I'm Losing You":  For all intents and purposes, this is a Faces song as the entire band is featured and each gets to showcase their particular instrument...and does so brilliantly.  This is the song that probably took me the longest to appreciate, but it is sheer genius.  It's a cover of a 1966 hit by the Temptations about a man who knows he's losing his lover to another man and he's angry, sad, beaten, and the Faces lay it all on the line in this ominous ode.  When the band begins to hum the tune it never ceases to amaze me how perfect--and audacious--it is.  A band at its peak.  Favorite line:  "When I look into your eyes a reflection of a face I see/Oh Lord I'm losing you/I'm hurt, downhearted, and worried girl/'Cause that face doesn't belong to me..."

"Reason to Believe":  Stewart closes the album with a folk tune written by Tim Hardin.  I've never been able to figure out if the protagonist is singing to a lying lover or to God (maybe one and the same?) but it's a beautiful ballad and unsurprisingly, Stewart's vocals nail it (including a brief a cappella turn).  The song should be featured in hymnals spanning the globe--a heavenly ending to an otherworldly album.  Favorite line:  "If I listened long enough to you/I'd find a way to believe that it's all true/Knowing that you lied straight-faced while I cried/Still I look to find a reason to believe..."

As Youtube has fucked up album videos (to put it mildly), I'll leave you with an album cover and a link to Spotify:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol CCXXVI--The Faces: Ooh La La

As I've noted here a time or two, thrift shop CDs for a dollar have added immensely to my enjoyment of music by allowing me to take a chance on bands that I have missed through the years but don't have the financial means to take said chance.  One such band was Faces, who I knew slightly because of a) my fandom of early Rod Stewart, b) their one big hit, "Stay With Me," and c) this week's tune.  I picked up a two disc hits compilation of theirs for that one dollar figuring I'd listen to it a few times through on my jaunts to work before moving onto the next great musical adventure.  I preceded to spend the next three months alternating between the two discs as it turned out Faces were actually one hell of a band whose output went far beyond a couple of  hit singles.

Faces formed in 1969 in England from the remains of Small Faces after lead singer Steve Marriott left to form the band Humble Pie.  Joining Ronnie Lane, Ian McLagan, and Kenney Jones were a lead vocalist and a guitarist of some note--Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood  respectively.  Between their beginning and their end in 1975, the band released four albums (three of which reached the top thirty on the Billboard 200), 11 singles (the aforementioned "Stay With Me" was their only hit, reaching #17--with a bullet!--on the Billboard Hot 100), and were noted for being a hell of a live act (if a bit on the tipsy side as they did so).  Unsurprisingly, Rod Stewart's solo success lead to fissures in the band and they went their separate ways in 1975 (though they have reunited several times through the years).  In 2012 they were elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  In addition to Stewart, their members have gone on to quite some success--Ronnie Wood eventually joined the Rolling Stones and has now spent the better part of forty years with one of the world's most successful bands, and Kenney Jones would go on to replace Keith Moon in the Who for a number of years.  Sadly, Ronnie Lane died of multitple sclerosis in 1997 and Ian McLagan passed in 2014.  Though the band didn't last long, they are considered one of the more influential bands from their era, especially in their native U.K.

Fun Fact:  Small Faces became just Faces because when Stewart and Wood joined the band they were considerably taller than the other members (though only 5'10" and 5'9" respectively) and the remaining members of Small Faces thought they should make a break with the past and focus on the new band.

"Ooh La La" was released in 1973 on Faces' final album, entitled, surprisingly enough, Ooh La La.  It was released as a single but it failed to chart (how in the hell that happened is beyond me).  Rod Stewart--who does not appear on the version being featured this week--did release his own version of it in 1998 and it did hit the top 40 (even though it wasn't a particularly memorable version).  The song has also been featured in a number of movies and television commercials.

"Ooh La La" tells the story of a young man being warned by his granddad about the ways of wily women and the young man rolling his eyes...until he's a little older and wishes that when it comes to women, he knew what he does now when he was younger.  The song is notable because it is the only Faces song that Ronnie Wood sang lead vocals on (though Wood has had a couple of solo projects, being in bands with lead vocalists extraordinaire Rod Stewart and Mick Jagger probably doesn't offer much in the way of chances to sing lead).  Wood also delivers some fine acoustic and electric guitar work, McLagan has some enjoyable piano work in the instrumental break, and Jones, in what may be an FNJ first, plays the maracas (coooolllll) for a bit.  The song has a lot of folksy charm and is one of those that can lighten even the worst of my days, leaving me singing the words "Ooh La La" (and what a great title that is) for days on end.  Just like now...ooh la la, ooh la la la....

Lyric Sheet:  "Poor young grandson, there's nothing I can say/You'll have to learn, just like me/And that's the hardest way/Ooh la la..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXXVI--Traditional: Amazing Grace

An amazing woman died this week.

She never held an elected office.  She never made a movie, starred in a TV show, or wrote a book.  She wasn't a cultural or political icon and she'll never appear in a Who's Who of any sort.  She would have been mortified if anyone tried making her day to day life into a reality show.  And she never won any awards--though her kids would have voted her Mom of the Year on numerous occasions if such an award existed.   But she survived a horrendous auto accident that shattered her leg and wrist, alcoholism (almost thirty years sober at her death), tobacco, and breast cancer--and she would have told you that quitting smoking was the hardest of the four.  She watched her husband lose two jobs to mills closing in a slowly dying steel industry, and uprooted her life twice to move across country and state to state to keep the life they knew together going.  She later watched him die far too young from lung cancer, and witnessed a daughter losing a son to another horrendous auto accident.  Along the way she raised three pretty decent kids, helped nurture eleven incredible grandchildren, and enjoyed four great-grandchildren of whom even bigger things are hoped.  Somewhere along the way she found time to make sandwiches weekly for bag lunches for the homeless, baby-sat kids for people looking for work during the Great Recession, lead rosary prayer groups, and kept the cleanest house in recorded human history.

She lived to be eighty-years-old, and most importantly, she was my Mom.

She told me once that "Amazing Grace" was her and my father's favorite hymn to sing when they were at mass, and that's why it's this week's featured tune on Jukebox.  After I failed miserably at writing the Great American Novel, I ended up in dire financial straits, and I lived with my Mom for a year while I tried to get back on my feet monetarily.  One night while my Mom was cooking dinner I was practicing my guitar, and I picked out "Amazing Grace."  She came from the kitchen to watch me play in her family room momentarily, then went back to making dinner, all the while humming along as I continued to play "Amazing Grace."  That's the type of thing you recall when someone you've  loved since the moment you were born passes away.

The lyrics to "Amazing Grace" were written by John Newton, and the melody, near as I can tell, is from some ancient piece of some sort that I didn't really much care enough about to learn of.  I chose the song because my Mom liked it.  I chose the version by Rod Stewart  from Every Picture Tells a Story because I love the instrumental guitar intro and very few people on this planet sing as beautifully as Rod Stewart did back in the day.

"How sweet the sound," very much indeed.

Thanks for everything, Mom.

Enjoy:

Peace,,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. XXI--Hall and Oates: She's Gone

Because no one ever wrote a song about a lost love....

Back when I was still a young man, Hall and Oates were my introduction to what is known as blue-eyed soul and while there are artists whose work I have followed more closely through the years than Hall and Oates (Van Morrison, Rod Stewart, Boz Scaggs) there is still a soft spot in the heart for those early lessons.  They pretty much lost me after their Voices album (like they cared--they enjoyed massive popular success thereafter), but I can still put on any of their songs from 1974-1980 and be mesmerized.

Such is the case with "She's Gone," a beautiful ballad about losing the love of your life.  Originally released in 1974 on their Abandoned Luncheonette album, the song was a mediocre hit (#60 on the Billboard Hot 100--with a bullet!) until Hall and Oates had their first top ten hit with "Sara Smile" (also a wonderful song) in 1976 at which time "She's Gone" was re-released (capitalism at its finest!) and became their second top ten hit.  Little did they know that some forty years later they would be inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame.

Daryl Hall would later say that he thought "She's Gone" was the best song he and John Oates wrote, and I wouldn't disagree.  Often overlooked when it comes to rock's great vocalists, Hall's vocals (concurrent with Oates' background vocals) are really what make the song.  There is a back and forth between the two that is magical and stretches the boundaries of white boy soul (and turns me into a split personality every time I hear it as I try to sing along to both parts).  Throw in a dandy little guitar solo from Oates, a touch of saxophone, and an eerie intro and a couple of kids from Philadelphia had one hell of a song.

And who among us hasn't had a love we'd "pay the devil to replace"?

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. III--Rod Stewart: "Handbags and Gladrags"

It may be hard for some to believe in light of Rod Stewart's eighties pop crap and his crooner persona since the early 2000s, that up until the late seventies Stewart was on a plane with the Rolling Stones, the Who, Bob Dylan, and any number of other rock icons from the sixities and seventies.  You would be hard pressed to find a top 100 rock albums of all time that didn't include (and rightfully so) his seminal work, Every Picture Tells a Story, or a top 500 singles of all time that doesn't include "Maggie May."

And yet, this week's single is one of Stewart's lesser known songs (though it found popularity later as the theme for the BBC's The Office and a semi-hit for The Stereophonics), "Handbags and Gladrags."

While the song strongly showcases Stewart's signature blue-eyed soul vocals (see also Van Morrison or Darryl Hall), the most amazing thing about the song is how it turns convention on its ear--rock 'n' roll is proudly rebellious, but this song is ostensibly about a father telling his school skipping daughter about the fleeting whims of youth--and it works.  Just a beautiful song....

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee