Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLVIII--Nanci Griffith: On Grafton Street

I first discovered Nanci Griffith on Other Voices, Other Rooms, her paean to the artists who influenced her (which won a much deserved Grammy Award for Contemporary Folk Album in 1994).  I have been quite a fan of hers since (even went to see her with John Prince--a dream concert for an Old Fart Folkie), and could quite easily have picked any one of eight or nine songs on that album for this week's tune.  But I wanted to highlight a song that she had written (all fifteen of the songs on Other Voices, Other Rooms were written by the artists she was influenced by), and chose this week's tune because it seemed to me to reflect best her songwriting abilities...though any of another seven or eight could have probably done the same.

Nanci Griffith's career got its start in 1978 in Austin, Texas and has extended to the present day.  While she has never had a great deal of commercial success, she can best be described as an artists' artist--with the testament of the plethora of musicians who have played at one time or another on one of her albums (Bob Dylan, John Prine, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. of U2, and Adam Duritz to name a few).  Over the course of the last forty-one years, she has released 20 studio albums, five compilations, and one live album.  While her highest charting album here in the States broke the top fifty on the Billboard 200, she has had two top twenty albums on the U.K. charts (so many cool kids in the U.K.).  Griffith has also written a couple of top ten hit singles on the country charts for Kathy Mattea and Suzy Boggus.  Griffith's backing band is known as the Blue Moon Orchestra (kind of cool for a backing band name).  She is a survivor of breast cancer and thyroid cancer. 

(Not so) Fun Fact:  Griffith's high school boyfriend was killed in a motorcycle accident after taking her to the senior prom.  He has been the inspiration for a number of her songs since.

"On Grafton Street" was never released as a single.  It appeared on Griffith's 1994 album Flyer, which was the highest charting album of her career, peaking at #48 on the Billboard charts.

In "On Grafton Street," Nanci Griffith weaves the tale of a woman walking the streets of a foreign town at Christmas time who is reminded of a lost love (Griffith has noted that Flyer was her most autobiographical album, so there's probably a germ of reality in this one), but despite once having believed she couldn't live without him is surprised to find so many years later that her life has gone on just fine without him, and that the memory of him can still bring a smile to her face.  While it would have been easy to turn such a song into a sappy affair, Griffith does a nice job of letting the unexplained remain unexplained, with her nod to the path to happiness not always being the one we wished.  Griffith has a beautiful voice, makes good use of the sweet melody that permeates both song and chrous, and lets the instruments throughout speak softly but carry a big stick.  Every now and again a song comes along that--while maybe not your exact experience--has a ray of truth to it that you've seen reflected in your own life, and makes for some winsome listening.  "On Grafton Street" is one such song, and is a testament to the enduring--if sometimes fleeting--nature of love.

Lyric Sheet:  "It's been twenty years or more/Since I last said your name/I hear you live in Dallas now/In a house out on the plains/Why Grafton Street brought you to mind/I really can't explain..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLVII--Indigo Girls: Closer to Fine

A folk song and female vocalists...does it get any better than that?  Not for emaycee it doesn't....

Amy Ray and Emily Saliers met in elementary school, began playing together in high school, and by the time they reached Emory University, they had become the Indigo Girls.  They released their first single in 1985, an EP later that same year, and their first full-length album in 1987.  They then signed to Epic Records and released their first major label album in 1988, which also became their first hit.  Over the course of the last thirty-four years, the Indigo Girls have released fifteen studio albums (two of which hit the top ten), three live albums, and five compilations.  Both Ray and Saliers have released solo albums, but they continue to tour and record together, having released their latest album in 2015 and completing their most recent tour in 2018.  They have been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, and won once for Best Folk Album.  Ray and Saliers are both very politically active, having associations with environmental groups, animal rights groups, anti-death penalty groups, and are considered icons in the gay rights movement (both are lesbians).  Overall, a nice little career for the duo.

"Closer to Fine" was the first single released from their ever so cleverly named 1988 album, Indigo Girls.  It would go on to be the highest charting single of their career, reaching #58 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  They are joined by the Irish band Hothouse Flowers for backing vocals on the single.

Fun Fact:  There's a great scene in the movie The Hollars (hardly an Oscar nominee but well worth 90 minutes of your time) where as a woman is being carted into surgery for a brain tumor, her two sons and her husband serenade her with "Closer to Fine."  Not quite as good as the Indigo Girls' version, but uplifting in its own way.

Written by Emily Saliers (Indigo Girls do not collaborate on their songwriting, just work together on the arrangements once they're in the studio), "Closer to Fine" is a song about the many paths that life offers us to happiness, and that the less one thinks about said paths, the happier one is likely to be (as an official old fart, I can attest to the accuracy of this).  There are several aspects of the song that stand out to me--first being, as a devotee of the acoustic guitar, is the wondrous harmony between Ray and Saliers guitar playing, which shines through the song.  Though written by Saliers, Ray takes the lead vocals, but Saliers harmonizing on the chorus is as wondrous as their acoustic guitars.  But what really takes the song to another level for me is one of those special moments that so many great songs have, and in "Closer to Fine" it's where their voices jump up an octave as they accentuate the word "fine."  It not only makes for fun singing along, but emphasizes the notion that they are indeed fine, and that happiness is right at their fingertips.  I can honestly say this is one of the better folks songs of the last thirty years, and one that reminded me of the joy I took from folks music, and would send me on a folk finding spree that would last for the better part of the next ten years. A great, great song.

Lyric Sheet:  "And I went to see the doctor of philosophy/With a poster of Rasputin and a beard down to his knee/He never did marry or see a B-grade movie..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Phrase of the year

On a day in which I learned that Merriam Webster's word of the year was "they" (explanation here) and that most of the year's top words revolved around the impeachment of Donald Trump, and after reading about Attorney General William Barr's lie-filled interview on MSNBC earlier today concerning the IG Report on the FBI's conduct concerning Donald Trump's collusion with Russia, in the spirit of both I would like to nominate "Lying sack of shit" as the phrase of the year.  To wit:

Donald Trump?  Lying sack of shit.

William Barr?  Lying sack of shit.

Mike Pompeo?  Lying sack of shit.

Mick Mulvaney?  Lying sack of shit.

Devin Nunes?  Lying sack of shit.

Mitch McConnell?  Lying sack of shit.

Trump children?  Lying sacks of shit.

Think of it--it's the perfect phrase for republicans these days:

"Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Lying Sack of Shit, said today..."

"Lying sack of shit and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy was on Capitol Hill this morning to..."

"Ivanka Trump, lying sack of shit, was set to debut her new line of..."

It's short, it's sweet, and in direct opposition to republican distortion of facts, it's truthful.


Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

False prophets and their enablers

How stupid do you have to be?

"Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves."  Matthew 7:15

It was beyond pathetic to watch as Rick Perry and Nikki Haley embarrassed themselves this past week trying to stroke Donald Trump's  penis  ego by proclaiming that he has been chosen by God to lead America.

After supposedly sending his only begotten son to be mankind's savior, who instructed his followers to heed the golden rule and to look out for the least among us, why in the fuck would make anyone think that God--if one chooses to believe in such--would decide that what America most needed now was a selfish, greedy, perverted, and cruel idiot for our leader?

For fuck's sake, if there was ever an argument for there being no God, Donald Trump being God's chosen would have to seal the deal.  There is no way in hell any God that stupid could have created such a magnificent universe.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

It's the little things in life

Piss off, douchebags

You know, I have my ups and downs with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (often because I think she toes the centrist line a bit too much), but the woman is absolutely fearless.

Having a bad day today?  Then make your day a little bit better and watch as Speaker Pelosi absolutely bitch slaps a simple-minded reporter from the conservative Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. after he asks her if she hates Donald Trump:

Swear to God, when you look up "Badass" in the dictionary, there's a picture of Nancy Pelosi next to the definition.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

High horse horseshit

Need I say more?

Seems that republicans are outraged--outraged, I tell you!--that during this weeks impeachment hearings before the House Judiciary Committee, Professor Pamela Karlan said that while Trump can name his son Barron, he cannot make him a baron.

The horror.

Let me tell you, when the leader of your party has paid off prostitutes, probably slept with underage girls, has used the office of the Presidency to enrich himself again and again, is a racist, and in all likelihood, is a traitor to his own country, you should probably tamp down the outrage on what was actually a clever play on words.

More simply, go fuck yourselves.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLVI--Adam and the Ants: Antmusic

And again this week we have another tune discovered during the After Dinner Music Sessions, courtesy of CBS Records and their promotional single extravaganza...

Adam and the Ants formed in London in 1977.  Their first incarnation lasted until January of 1980 when three members of the band left to form Bow Wow Wow .  The second incarnation would go on to have considerably more commercial success than the first, especially in their native U.K., and last until 1982.  Adam Ant (yeah, nobody really named their kid that--real name Stuart Goddard) was the only link between the two, and he would go on to some solo success, as well.  The band released three LPs during their short tenure, with one going to #1 and another to #2 on the British charts.  Adam Ant would release six albums before calling it quits (two more top five albums in the U.K.) in 1995, though in another instance of Money Matters in Rock and Roll, resumed his solo efforts in 2013 and has released two more albums.  The band had six top five singles, and Ant himself had two more.  The band has also released 11 compilations and three box sets, which is pretty impressive considering Adam and the Ants have only released eleven studio albums in their careers.  Still, they had an impressive run for four years, and are considered part of the second British Invasion into the U. S. music market (though with considerably less financial success than the first).

"Antmusic" was released in 1980, and was the third single from their album Kings of the Wild Frontier.  The single would reach #2 on the British charts, though it did not have any success on the Billboard Hot 100.  The album would reach #1 in the U.K. and was the best selling album for 1981 in their native land (it would peak at #44 on the Billboard 200).  The album would also go on to win a Brit Award for album of the year.

Fun Fact:  In what will be a first and last here on Friday Night Jukebox, this week's band makes use of Burundi drums and their music is considered to be Burundi beat (for the music it borrows from comes from Burundi--the only other band to employ the sound is Bow Wow Wow and I didn't like any of their songs).

And speaking of Burundi drums (segues are for amateurs), one of the many things that sets "Antmusic" apart from so many other minor hits is the drums, which are almost like two drumsticks clicking together and really help, along with the chants, to make the chorus ever so memorable.  The song itself, I believe, is a kick in the ass to disco (though it could just be to the music industry's trend of over saturating talentless tripe in the name of making a buck), and suggests that this month's flavor should be, surprisingly enough, "Antmusic."  Ant does a fine job of of vocalizing his disdain for flavor of the month as a means to making music, there's some nice guitar (nothing fancy, just your average 80's pop song guitar solo) that adds a little edge to the song, and the lyrics are a bit clever as to why one should prefer to be an ant rather than a coked up disco dancer.  No, this one won't make anyone forget "Night Moves," "Baba O'Riley," or "Born to Run," but it's a nice cut that provided a bit of a segue (that word again!) from the punk movement to new wave.  And every now and again, a little fun goes a long way in providing listening pleasure.

Lyric Sheet:  "It's so sad when you're young/To be told you're having fun/So unplug the jukebox/And do us all a favor, yeah/That music's lost its taste/So try another flavor/Antmusic..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee