Songs I Like – Wichita Lineman

Song: Wichita Lineman Artist: Glen Campbell (Originally published March 5, 2012)

I recently saw Glen Campbell perform on the Grammys and was struck by his courage to be out there performing even though he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease.  One of the interesting things about the brain is that when you learn music, or a musical instrument, your whole brain is engaged, as opposed to just part of it devoted to something like speech or face recognition.  So Alzheimer’s patients will often remember lyrics and melodies to songs (or remember how to play piano for instance), well after they have forgotten who their closest family members are.  It’s an interesting aspect of music that I also see with my father who has Alzheimer’s.  He still remembers me at this point, but much of his personality has been destroyed by the disease.  Still, he can remember old songs with little or no effort!

But that’s not what this post is about :-).  This is about one of my favourite all time songs, Wichita Lineman.  It was written in 1968 by someone who many songwriters consider to be a songwriting guru, Jimmy Webb.  The song became a hit for Glen Campbell on the pop, adult contemporary and country charts that year and certified gold in 1969.

Part of the charm of that version was, of course, Glen Campbell’s wonderful voice and guitar playing.  The story behind the song, according to Wikipedia, goes as follows: “Jimmy Webb’s inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through Washita County in rural northern Oklahoma. At that time, many telephone companies were county-owned utilities and their linemen were, in fact, county employees. Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb was driving through an endless litany of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole. He described it as “the picture of loneliness.” Webb then “put himself atop that pole and put that phone in his hand” as he considered what the lineman was saying into the receiver. Glen Campbell added in a statement to the Dallas Observer that Webb wrote the song about his first love affair with a woman who married someone else.”

As a songwriter, one of the interesting aspects for me is that the song has no chorus, although it does have a repeating phrase “the Wichita lineman is still on the line.”  The music is dotted with minor 7th and major 7th chords, the latter of which give it that plaintive, bitter sweet feel.  Recently, when I went to see James Taylor live in my city, I was over the top when he started to perform his version of Wichita Lineman, and it has, indeed, been recorded by many artists over the years.  In fact, I’m think I might like to do a recording of it myself some day!  

Have a listen to the song in the video below, and here are the lyrics:

I am a lineman for the county 
And I drive the main road 
Searchin’ in the sun for another overload 

I hear you singin’ in the wire, 
I can hear you through the whine 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

I know I need a small vacation 
But it don’t look like rain 
And if it snows that stretch down south won’t ever stand the strain 

And I need you more than want you, 
And I want you for all time 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

And I need you more than want you, 
And I want you for all time 
And the Wichita Lineman is still on the line 

It just gets me every time 🙂
~ IJ

Songs I Like – Seven Day Fool

Song: Seven Day Fool Artist: Jully Black (Originally published Mar.15, 2012)

Etta James passed away recently, which brought a lot of attention to her music, of course, as it has for Whitney Houston and as it does for every other artist who passes away.  Etta was probably best known for the song “At Last”, which I don’t just like, I love.

What I didn’t know was that she was also the first to release today’s ILikeSongs pick, “Seven Day Fool”, in 1961.  It was written by Billy Davis, and is essentially from a female perspective, proclaiming her love in the form of everything she does for him because she loves him.  Now that might have a bit of a sexist lean, but I think the way it’s sung both by Etta James and Jully Black, a Canadian artist, gives it a no-nonsense and still passionate, declarative feel.  In other words, these ladies are committed to their men, but they ain’t no pushovers!

It’s a real belter, especially when she hollers “And I’ll be!”  The 2007 version that Jully Black recorded pays homage in every way to the original, both in her delivery of it, and in the instrumentation and production.  That’s what I love about it.  In fact, when I first heard it (remember, I didn’t know there was an Etta James version), I thought it was a contemporary song made to “sound” like the 60’s.  That has been happening a lot lately…my Christmas blog entry “Everything Old is New Again” refers to this phenomenon in the way new artists have been writing and recording in old, but updated styles.  I love it!

This is a classic form of songwriting, using the days of the week as a reference to the idea that every day the singer is slaving away for the one she loves:

And on a Monday, 

I’m gonna love ya

And on a Tuesday, 

I’m gonna hug ya

And on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 

Gonna love ya

I work for you baby, work my hand to the bone

Care for you, baby, when you get home

Do for you, baby, for the love that I seek

Slave for you, baby, every day of the week

(And on a Monday)

Scrub your dirty floor

(On a Tuesday) 

I do a whole lot more

(On a Wednesday) 

I wash your dirty clothes

To have a little lovin’ ‘fore the weekend goes

CHORUS:

And I’ll be, your seven-day fool

And I’ll be, your seven-day fool

And I’ll be, your seven-day fool

Only because I really love you

(And on a Thursday) I’ll treat you oh so kind

(And on a Friday) I’ll take you out to dine

(And on a Saturday) I’ll work double time

If you’ll only say you’re be mine

(repeat CHORUS)

(On a Monday) ya I’m gonna love ya

(Tuesday) oh I’m gonna hug ya

(Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday)

Yeah give me all of that love

(And on a Monday) I scrub your dirty floor

(On a Tuesday) I do a whole lot more

(On a Wednesday) I wash your dirty clothes

To have a little lovin’ ‘fore the weekend goes

(repeat CHORUS) 

I really love you

I really love you

I’m just a seven day fool

I really love you

Oh on a Monday, I’m gonna love ya

And on a Tuesday I’m gonna hug ya

On a (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday) gonna love ya

A seven day fool

Not only that, but it’s a mover…you can’t stop bopping to it!  Have a listen to it in the video below.  Definitely a contemporary remake of an old classic that I Like :-).

~ IJ

Songs I Like – Edith And The Kingpin

Song: Edith And The Kingpin Artist: Joni Mitchell (Originally published Feb.27, 2012)

Recently there was a popular hash tag on Twitter regarding your favourite lyrics. I don’t normally participate in those (perhaps I should!), but this time I decided to post a couple of lines from a song that I’ve always loved because of the lyrics. It’s a Joni Mitchell song called “Edith And The Kingpin” from her 1975 album, The Hissing of Summer Lawns:

Anyone who knows me, knows that Joni Mitchell is one of my favourite songwriters, and this lyric to me exemplifies her poetry-that-comes-alive-with-music talent.  There are many poets out there and many lyricists, and more often than not, they are not interchangeable.

A lot of poetry just doesn’t work with music, but Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan were poets who were able to put music to their poetry seamlessly.  The poetry has to be approachable, and the music has to be perfectly married to the words.  This is a jazzy Joni Mitchell album, with Edith and the Kingpin being one of it’s smoother pieces.  One of the passages that gets me is this one:

His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight

Joni has a way with visual lyrics…I can “see” his grip on his own hand, there’s an intensity about the idea of his eyes holding Edith and the his obvious desire for her.  Even the fact that she uses the word “grip” instead of “hold” or any other choice, gives it that added intensity.

In the chord progression, it slips into a Bb6/9-5 to an Em7/A.  Now if that throws you, Joni actually plays in an open tuning of: D A E G C E so creating these jazz chords takes on a whole new dimension.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to know how to play guitar to read the rest of this, but when you listen to the song, moving into that passage has the effect of a bridge or a pre-chorus, although there is no chorus in this song.

In another “bridge”, she sings:

Women he has taken
Grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

That line “He tilts their tired faces gently to the spoon” is, again, so visual for me.   The fact that he’s in charge of them, that they are obvious addicts and totally under his control comes together so well in four short lines.

If you’ve never heard the song, listen to it on the video below, and here are the lyrics for you to read along with.

The big man arrives
Disco dancers greet him
Plainclothes cops greet him
Small town, big man, fresh lipstick glistening
Sophomore jive
From victims of typewriters
The band sounds like typewriters
The big man he’s not listening

His eyes hold Edith
His left hand holds his right
What does that hand desire
That he grips it so tight

Edith in the ring
The passed over girls are conferring
The man with the diamond ring is purring
All claws for now withdrawn
One by one they bring
His renegade stories to her
His crimes and his glories to her
In challenge they look on

Women he has taken grow old too soon
He tilts their tired faces
Gently to the spoon

Edith in his bed
A plane in the rain is humming
The wires in the walls are humming
Some song some mysterious song
Bars in her head
Beating frantic and snowblind
Romantic and snowblind
She says his crime belongs

Edith and the Kingpin
Each with charm to sway
Are staring eye to eye
They dare not look away
You know they dare not look away

Love it!
~ IJ

Songs I Like – Baker Street

Song: Baker Street Artist: Gerry Rafferty (Originally published Dec.5, 2011)

I remember when Baker Street came out in 1978 because this song compelled me to buy the whole album, which was great. The most unusual thing about this song is that the chorus is entirely instrumental with that distinguishable sax solo. Apparently this song lead to a resurgence in the purchase of saxophones, called the “Baker Street Phenomenon”. Any song that drives people to want to learn an instrument is okay in my books!

The whole album is terrific, and I seriously don’t think he had as successful an album since that one.  One of Gerry’s more famous previous songs was “Stuck In The Middle” from his stint in the band Stealer’s Wheel, but for me Baker Street was far superior.  He wrote it after Stealer’s Wheel broke up and he was involved in a prolonged legal battle to get out of his contract with the band.  He travelled quite a bit between Glasgow and London during the contract dispute and ended up staying at a friend’s in London on Baker Street, where the idea for the song was born.

The Baker Street sax solo was supposedly first meant to be sung, then a guitar bit was considered.   It was the session player Raphael Ravenscroft who suggested he try it on a soprano sax, and the rest is history.  When I think of it now, I can’t imagine it being anything other than sax.

“Winding your way down Baker Street”…lyrically, the song is in the second person but I imagine the song as being autobiographical, describing a guy who has had some struggles with alcohol and depression, with life being lived out on the low end.  “Just one more year and then you’ll be happy, but you’re crying, you’re crying now.”

Musically the song is in the key of “D”, but one of my favourite parts is the pre-chorus where it shifts to a Dm7 and Am.  Shifting from a major to a minor 7th can create a powerful emotional impact:

Here is the first pre-chorus:

Dm7                              Am    

  You used to think that it was so easy

Dm7                            Am         

  You used to say that it was so easy

     C             G              D    * 

But you’re tryin, you’re tryin’ now

Dm7                            Am              

  Another year and then you’d be happy

Dm7                                  Am           

  Just one more year and then you’d be happy

     C               G             A     Dm7/G         

But you’re cryin’, you’re cryin’ now 

Gerry Rafferty died last January (2011), apparently of multi-organ failure after years of alcohol abuse.  It brought on a surge of new interest in his songs, but in the years leading up to his death he appeared to spiral deeper and deeper into his dark place.  It’s too bad that it often takes an artist or songwriter’s death to bring the attention that they so desire in life.  Rafferty had that attention during the late 70’s and although he released a number of albums since, none of them achieved the success that City to City did.

Listen to Baker Street in the video below.

~ IJ

Songs I Like – Karma Police

Song: Karma Police Artist: Radiohead (Originally published Dec.1, 2011)

I swear I’ve sung this song dozens of times with guitar classes and students, and every time I do, it leaves me both confused and mesmerized. I absolutely love the chord progressions in this song, and the twists and turns musically. But what was it about?

I know enough about karma because I’m an avid reader of Buddhist philosophy. In the refrain, the line that repeats is “This is what you get.” which makes perfect sense to me, karmically-speaking (I know, I know, karmically is not a word!). But lines like “her Hitler hairdo is making me feel ill” and “he talks in maths, he buzzes like a fridge” went right over my head until I did a little research on the meaning of the song.

However, before I explain it, why not have a listen?  You can find the video below.

My interpretation of it is a son trying to enact revenge on his father, but you know, but when I watched the video of the song, well, these video directors and producers just like to play with images flying around in their own heads sometimes, so the video doesn’t necessarily explain anything. Here are the lyrics, including chords as I teach them, you lucky dogs!

INTRO: | Am D7/F# | Em G | Am F | Em G | Am D |
       | G G/F# C C/B | Am | Bm D |

Am    D7/F# Em
  Kar_ma Police,
   G        Am
Arrest this man,
   F        Em
He talks in maths,
   G             Am
He buzzes like a fridge
     D    | G G/F#  C  C/B | Am | Bm D |
He’s like a detuned ra-di—-o

Am    D7/F# Em
  Kar_ma  Police,
   G        Am
Arrest this girl,
    F      Em
Her hitler hairdo,
   G              Am
Is making me feel ill,
    D       G       G/F# C C/B Am Bm D
And we have crashed her  par—ty

REFRAIN:
| C         D         | G   F# |
    This is what you’ll get,
| C         D         | G   F# |
    This is what you’ll get,
| C         D         | G
    This is what you’ll get,
         Bm      | C | Bm D |
When you mess with us…

Am    D7/F# Em
  Kar_ma  Police,
     G           Am
I’ve given all I can,
     F    Em
It’s not enough,
     G           Am
I’ve given all I can,
    D           G  G/F# C     C/B Am Bm D
But we’re still on the  pay—roll

[REPEAT REFRAIN]

| Bm          D    | G 
    And for a minute there,
  D    | G      D     | E   |
I lost myself I lost myself, 
| Bm          D    | G 
    And for a minute there,
  D    | G      D     | E   |
I lost myself I lost myself,

| Bm D | G D | G D | E |

Bm           D      G
   And for a minute there,
  D      G      D      E
I lost myself I lost myself,
Bm           D           G
  Just for a minute there,
  D      G      D      E
I lost myself I lost myself

||: Bm D | G D | G D | E :|| 

So, are you any closer to figuring out what it’s about?  Okay, I’ll let you off the hook :-).  Here’s an explanation from Wikipedia:

“Radiohead members used to tell one another that they would call ‘the karma police’ on them if they did something wrong. The joke was incorporated as into the lyrics and title of the song. Yorke explained that the song was about stress and ‘having people looking at you in that certain [malicious] way, I can’t handle it anymore’. Thom Yorke explained the idea of the lyrics to The Independent in 2006, saying, ‘It’s for someone who has to work for a large company. This is a song against bosses. Fuck the middle management!’ Yorke and Jonny Greenwood emphasized in interviews that the song had a humorous bent; Yorke said, ‘[It’s] not entirely serious, I hope people will realize that.’ The song includes the line ‘He buzzes like a fridge/He’s like a detuned radio’, a reference to the distracting, metaphorical background noise Yorke calls ‘fridge buzz’. Yorke has said that the idea of fridge buzz is one of the primary themes of OK Computer [the CD containing Karma Police];’Karma Police’ also shares themes of insanity and dissatisfaction with capitalism.”

Now you know 🙂 

~ IJ