Weekly Top Ten (9/17/18): Things Change
Maybe it’s my head cold; maybe it was the built-up panic about the hurricane. Maybe I’m just missing people and feeling as low as I’ve felt in my life. Or it could be that medicine I took last night. I don’t know, but I’m groggy and irritable right now. Just watched an episode of “Ozark,” though, so things are looking up. At least I’m not being hunted by a drug cartel or in bed with people named Langmire.
There is always music. More, More More.
10. “Still the Same,” Bob Seger. I can’t say I love or even like this song, but since I heard it on a previous episode of “Ozark,” I haven’t been able to get it out of my head. The lyrics are mundane at best, and Seger sounds like he’s somewhere between wistful and thirsty. That’s a wide gap, and maybe only a man like “Marty Byrd” can understand. It’s got a certain rhythm, which I suppose makes it perfect for a seedy bar somewhere on a seemingly placid lake.
9. “Night Moves,” Bob Seger. If this were Tuesday, I’d say “Two for Tuesday,” a gimmick that classic rock stations used to use in order to, you know, play two in a row by the same artist. Why did they need gimmicks? I use past tense because I suppose classic rock stations gave up this practice twenty years ago. Maybe I’m wrong. Anyway, this is a much better Seger song, and perhaps his only great one. It shows more complexity than Bob is used to giving, and there was a pretty fine video accompanying the song’s release some forty years ago, about the time I moved to DC.
8. “Somebody to Love,” Valerie June. It’s hard to categorize this voice, this song. A bit country, a bit soul, and certainly bluesy folk. From her 2013 release, Pushin’ Against a Stone, this song seeped into me when I first heard it, and when I woke last night, coughing and a little feverish, I heard it through my rasps. It sounds even better now.
7. “Somebody to Love,” Jefferson Airplane. Another song for our times: “When the truth is found, to be lies, and all the joy within you dies.” Way back in the late 60’s this song came smoldering through the burning cities around us. No one sang quite like Grace. “Tears are running, all running down my breast, and your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest.” Oh yes, they do.
6. “Beware of Darkness,” George Harrison. So I took my old friend Don to the Greensprings 4 cinema back in 1971 to see The Concert for Bangladesh. He wasn’t the Beatle fan I was, and my love was dwarfed by my brother’s. Why didn’t I take my brother? Anyway, when George got into this song, halfway through, he turned the vocals over to Leon Russell. Where is Leon now? Is he still with us? Man, on this number, he did me in.
5. “Back to the Island,” Leon Russell. Nope, he died in 2016. Shit, shit, shit. Another one I never got the chance to see live. I love this song, its idyllic setting and rendering. One of the most distinctive voices in rock history, but he could get so quiet, was so gentle. I hope he was happy there, and wherever he’s gone to.
4. “Cry Me a River,” Joe Cocker. If one thing leads to another, then Leon leads to Joe. I remember this song’s being a hit on AM, though it’s hard to imagine how and why now. I didn’t get to see the Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, but I think Don did. I didn’t realize that those of us who played air guitar didn’t know the half of it. Listening now, I know we didn’t know a quarter of it.
3. “Without You,” Harry Nilsson. The sweetest song I ever heard, one of my mother’s favorites. Hard to reconcile the song with the singer, the sweetness with the hard life. Sometimes we know too much background, though, and things are better left to the darkness of “I can’t live if living is without you.” See ya Harry.
2. “Awaiting on You All,” George Harrison. Now you know I’m not a religious man, but I swear, if I were, it would be because of this song. “If you’d open up your heart…” This might be the most tightly composed and arranged song I’ve ever heard. “You don’t need no churchhouse and you don’t need no temple…” Tomorrow is Yom Kippur, though, and if you’re going, it’s a good day. To be free.
And because you’ve all been so good, I give you this:
NUMBER ONE
- “I Only Have Eyes for You” The Flamingos. My wife and I are fans of the Netflix series, “The Crown,” and last night we watched an episode featuring Her Royal Highness, the Princess Margaret. It was full of photography and portraits of Margaret. Tony, her new man, caught a shot of her as no one had ever seen her. Ever. And when Margaret returns to her chamber, she plays this song. On her phonograph. Such a moment. And we all fell in love then and forever.
