This song is kind of my summer anthem. Five of the best summers of my life were spent as a canoeing instructor, swimming instructor and waterfront direct at Lone Star Camp in Athens, TX. This song by the inimitable Loudon Wainright III, composer of the equally famous "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road". This versions features the also inimitable Earl Scruggs on banjo.
The song takes me back to the warm green waters of Echo Lake and the golden Texas summers of my youth and young adulthood. Enjoy!
Probably my favorite version of "City of New Orleans' is Arlo Guthrie's. He did , however, get the song from a songwriter named Steve Goodman. He's an odd little guy, but he writes pretty good songs. I looked him up and found this version of Goodman doing his own song.
I liked this song when it first came out, though I never was one much for the hippie lifestyle. I don't just hear the melody. I listen to all the words. It's a problem when your verbal IQ is 10-15 points higher than your performance (math) IQ. It means you can't help but hear the words. I hadn't thought about this for years until Me and Sheila and a Dog named Daisy drove 2300 miles in a U-Haul from Texas to Washington State. Seemed kinda appropriate for the trip.
Sheila, the boys and I once spent a Sunday at the Kerrville Folk Festival in Texas. One of the performers was a perky little woman named Christine Lavin. While she's aged some since we saw her live, she's still funny and odd even with white hair. One of my favorite of her songs is a tribute to men without hair and as a man who is losing his hair with startling rapidity, I find myself quite fond of this song. She also did a version some years ago with five other women who called themselves "Six Bitchin' Babes", a nom de plume somewhat at odds with their collective feminism.
Great song, though. Christine can be forgiven for her politics if she keeps writing funny songs.
This unusual song by John Mayer flies in the face of the romantic poets. Love to Mayer is something you do, not something you can hold on to or something that just magically pop up in your heart. It's not a feeling that you can capture like you could scoop up a butterfly with a net. CS Lewis captured this idea in his book Mere Christianity. “Do not waste time bothering whether you ‘love’
your neighbor; act as if you did. As soon as we do this we find one of
the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you
will presently come to love him.”
About the only iteration of love as a "thang," that I think is accurate, is something the apostle John pointed out in one of his letters. "God," he said, "is love". All love springs from the author of love and is the wellspring of all love in the universe. There are some preachers and romantics who will argue with you that love is a "thang," but I think they miss the point. Love it seems springs from an act. It's not some magical thing that occurs when a pretty girl in a skimpy bathing suit walks by on the beach or a muscled up young man removes his shirt while repairing your porch. I think they're thinking of another "L" word besides love.
This beautiful old hymn was a hit back in the 70s for Cat Stevens. Cat
later left the music business and joined Islam for a strange and
troubling journey for those who enjoyed his music. It always seemed odd
that the gentle singer we knew would embrace a religion not known for
it's peaceful ways. Cat changed his name to Yusuf Islam. He was born
Steven Demetre Georgiou. Now he goes by just plain Yusuf. Over the years
reporters used to seek him out to comment on some new official Muslim
outrage like the fatwah against author Salman Rushdie. He made some
comments that got him in trouble over the years. Eventually he returned
to the music business and made some new music and engaged in peace
activism. He has been given several humanitarian awards over the years.
Given
that as an outspoken Muslim pacifist, Yusuf is a fairly rare bird, it's
little wonder he gets a lot of attention from progressives in the
entertainment industry and the political sector. I don't care if the man
is a Muslim. At least he's a peaceful man and that is most important.
And his rendition of Morning Has Broken is one of my favorite versions
of this song. Enjoy:
This song went into my songleader's handbook years ago. Cat Stevens/Yusuf is the reason I found it. I am grateful.
