We’ve previously established that I might play the whole Other Voices, Other Rooms record before the year is through, and this song is one that I regular walk around mumbling, but had no idea until, well, today, what it was called.
Night Rider’s Lament appears to be an old song by someone named Michael Burton, but you might’ve heard Garth Brooks cover it, or you might’ve heard Bill Callahan and Will Oldham cover it much more recently.
Listening to, yes, the Bandsplain podcast about REM, which either weirdly or on brand for both me and them was a really important band in my life for a very short but important period of time, around 16-17 years old.
I heard Orange Crush first, probably and The One I Love, sometime around 1990 at summer camp, and a few years later worked my way through the whole catalog, and at one point had all the CDs through Monster, before, well, the “college rock” scene changed, and they seemed almost comically over-the-top.
Caught myself singing along with this song today after a long stretch at the DMV (don’t ask) and a generally emotional few days.
This song was an Indigo Girls song for me long, long before I found out it was a Dire Straits song, and I’m not sure I’ve ever listened to the original on purpose, so this is just what it is.
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I never feel like I’m straining when I’m rehearsing. Is it because I sing louder when I record? I dunno. 265 songs in, 100 to go, and I should probably, like, be improving my singing along the way here, like maybe watch a YouTube video about how to sing or something?
This song is annoying. Like, it would be bad enough if it were just another Eagles song that I had a moderate amount of attachment to from some radio play and a Best Of CD or whatever. (I must’ve owned Hotel California at some point.) But instead, the connection I have with this song is that for the boys a year older than us at summer camp, this was their stupid theme song. We really didn’t likely most of those boys, and when they were the oldest kids at camp, we reached an all-time high for the number kids that got kicked out or not invited back, including multiple friends of ours. They were not great role models.
No one got kicked out the year we were in charge.
Anyway.
The song is fine. It has some good lines. “Freedom? Oh, freedom. That’s just some people talkin’.” That’s a solid line.
I just listened to as much of the original I can stand, and… there are a lot of strings? Like, is that an orchestra? wtf. Checked the Linda Ronstadt version, and of course, it’s lovely, but… oh, two-thirds in, rises the orchestra as the strings swell. ok then, let’s check Johnny Cash’s later years cover… Alright, it’s fine, until the backup singer comes in, and it’s literally Don Henley. :eyeroll:
This song is of course super sweet Love 94™ material, but was also a request that took me a couple months to brave. I figured out one of the little riffs, but didn’t try the other part. If you know the song, you’ll know what I mean.
Look, things get pretty fuzzy where The Band and Bob Dylan intersect, as noted more than once in this project. This song, as far as I’m concerned, is The Band’s song, and the canonical version is the one on Music From Big Pink. Even if Dylan wrote the lyrics and they recorded it with him first on the Basement Tapes, but didn’t release that one until years later. So I’m not tagging this as cover-of-a-cover. Conveniently, I’m the only one making rules around here.
This song took more tries than expected, playing in open G, as instructed by the most interesting transcription I found online, which was based on a solo live performance, and not the live performance we listened to in the car earlier tonight, where Jeff sings “nothin’” 36 times. (Honestly checking back to the 6+ minute original album version, I really don’t think I’ve ever heard it? Or not in years? I’ve only heard live versions for a long time.)
Ugh, I know I’ve done some dark songs (er, there have been some drug references, folks), but this song is about a real-life poet whose father kills himself, and then he kills himself, and I’m fine, thanks for asking, honest! But also it’s just a great song that plays directly off the Sloop John B, which was such an incredibly dumb and basic and harmless song when I was a kid, and an easy way to say “I wanna go home.”
Needed to get some feelings out, and this song is a great vehicle for that sort of thing. We’ve seen Arcade Fire live now three times, and Lies is a feature every time, with Will Butler careening around the stage smashing a drum, and an arena’s worth of people singing along to the hard and easy parts.
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As demonstrated here, my voice is better at the easy parts than the hard parts, but this was a fun one. Left both the phone track and the microphone track in this time, because it sounded a little richer, and added, uh, more vocals. Plus the MIDI bass synth and imitation Will Butler drum thing.
This song was alphabetically first on my phone for a long time, which means every time it connects to our 2013 Prius via bluetooth, it starts playing. And that’s a real emotional song to casually drop onto the car stereo, with the kids, in any situation.
On the way to soccer practice? Achin’ To Be.
Coming home from the grocery store? Achin’ To Be.
Carpooling neighbors to school on a rainy day? Achin’ To Be.
Driving to the gym after the kids are asleep and need to get psyched up to lift weights or swim or whatever? Achin’ To Be.