Song of the Day

Song of the Day (213): Crossing Muddy Waters – John Hiatt

Somethings are too awful to be true. John Hiatt’s wife committed suicide and he managed to write this song – gut wrenching, elegant and detached enough not to collapse in sorrow. I’m not sure how he managed to give voice to the longing, anger, loss, frustration, and abandon that he experienced. Left me in my […]

Song of the Day (212): The Ballad of Lucy Jordan – Marianne Faithful

What a life Marianne Faithful led. In her teens, she became an “It Girl” around London, breaking out on her own singing “As Tears Go by.” She fell in love with Mick Jagger and the two of them cavorted around the globe. She ran from that world, falling into an abyss of heroin addiction and […]

Song of the Day (211): Waiting – Alice Boman

Heard this song playing over the credits for the show Shrinking and it mesmerized me. Alice Bowman is a Swedish singer who first recorded this song in her bedroom and you can hear her ethereal state as she gives voice to a longing that she feels so deeply even if she doesn’t fully understand it: […]

Song of the Day (210): Tears of a Clown – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles

Let’s go back to 1966, a 16-year-old Stevie Wonder got together with Henry ‘Hank’ Cosby to create this magical instrumental. They take a recording to the Motown Christmas Party where they present it to Smokey Robinson. He likes the tune enough to put words to it, Smokey had a grand vision, connecting images of Pagliacci, […]

Song of the Day (209): Waiting on a Friend – The Rolling Stones

So smooth, so easy, Mick swaying over Nicky Hopkins’ piano, Mick Taylor’s long, looping guitar chords, and Sonny Rollins on the saxophone. They’re not those British Bad Boys here but grown men extolling the virtues of friendship. When all the drama falls away, when chasing women, breaking up, and all that stress goes flat, you […]

Song of the Day (208): Sammy’s Song – David Bromberg

I’m typing this while sitting in a hotel room in Delaware which has me thinking of David Bromberg, a citizen of this state. There’s a good story about how that happened. Bromberg grew up in Tarrytown North of New York City, and moved to the City, first for school (Columbia University) and then music, leaning […]

Song of the Day (207): Snowin’ on Raton – Townes Van Zandt

This song depicts snow falling in a mountain pass between Trinidad, Colorado and Raton, New Mexico. Yet it is a different geography that matters, the layout of the heart of the wanderer who cannot stay no matter how much it hurts to leave. It is not a tale of a wild romantic, but a hard […]

Song of the Day (206): Damn Your Eyes – Bettye LaVette

This woman can sing, can grab you by the collar, shake you up and make you tremble. A nine-minute song with five verses and a chorus, yet it all comes down to the title line, “Damn your eyes.” With Bettye LaVette, one line is enough. With that single, short line she makes us understand that […]

Song of the Day (205): Homecoming – Tom T. Hall

Tom T. Hall has written hundreds of songs including a dozen number one hits. Some of the songs are not worth the wax on which they were originally recorded, some are mediocre, mere filler, some so full of melodrama that diabetics cannot go near them, but there are some songs that justify his nickname as […]