This is another great Tom Paxton song from the 80s. Paxton takes off on "Ghost Riders in the Sky" in a parody of the Yuppie culture. A lot of Paxton's songs are topical and have a fairly short shelf life. If you remember the big Yuppie culture though, this one's still funny.
Tom wrote another one about the coming plague of lawyers called "One
Million Lawyers". His prediction has since come true. He wrote one about
the planet Pluto's demotion to dwarf planet. The song is funny. Some of
his stuff is poignant like "Hobo's Lullaby". And he does do some kids
song like "Daddy's Takin' Us to the Zoo Tomorrow."
First time I heard this song, it was Peter, Paul and Mary who sang it. I
didn't find out till I bought the music that someone named Tom Paxton
wrote the song. Later on I took the kids to a folk concert in Fort
Worth, Texas where both PP&M and Tom Paxton performed the same
night. One of the songs Tom sang was "Last Thing on My Mind," a lament
about lost love - the kind that's your fault. Tom writes a lot of
protest songs. Some I agree with and some I don't. I'm funny like that
about folk music.
Here's Tom singing "Last Thing on My Mind,"
with another favorite of mine, Liam Clancy of the Clancy brothers. There
are much better sounding versions of this song, but I couldn't resist a
live version with Liam.
Kind of a sad song, but the guitar part is very nice. I learned to play it on the guitar and used to sing it when girlfriend's broke up with me. That actually happened a lot. This song got me through some bad days.
One of my early folk gospel favorites was Very Last Day by the inimitable Peter, Paul & Mary. Paul was actually a Christian and was responsible for the trio's inclusion of Christian folk music selections on many of their albums. I actually performed this once for Sabbath School when I had the music crew stand me up. It's kind of a militant sort of Christian song - rather like Oh, Sinner Man, so I let 'em all have it with my rather aggressive version of Very Last Day.
PP&M do a terrific job of capturing the intensity of the song. Remember this was back when SDA pastors were preaching hard about the time of trouble and the return of Christ. This song seems to catch the determination of people holding on while waiting for the coming of the Lord. Here's Very Last Day.
Love the way these guys work the harmony. Nobody does it better. They make it sound effortless, but they really worked hard to achieve that perfect sound. I still play this song when I feel militant about the Second Coming.
Ever once in a while you stumble across a weird little song and it just sticks in your head. This little ditty by Louden Wainright III celebrates an experience we've all had driving down a country road late at night. this is one of those songs you sing at the top of you lungs when you're driving along alone and feeling just a bit unhappy with the state of affairs in the world and you just want to express your frustration with the things.
Here's Louden Wainright III with "Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road".
My Grandpa used to play this song on his harmonica when we were
kids. He had a verse about a peanut on the railroad track, his heart was
all aflutter, and along came a train with a clickety-clack and it was
toot toot peanut butter. He could always get a laugh out of anyone ten
years old and younger.
"Polly Wolly Doodle" was my favorite one of his harmonica tunes. He could do this triple tonguing deal that I have never been able to pull off. My #2 favorite song of his was a somewhat risque ballad called "I Never Loved Her Like I
Loved Her Last Night in the Back of My Cadillac 8". I think there may
have been a story behind that, because my grandmother tended to get
flustered when he played it. As I learned later, Grandpa and Honeymama
(my grandmother's grandkid name) went out on a date one night and drove
to Itasca, found a preacher and got married. Then Grandpa took her home
and they didn't tell her father, my great grand papaw, about if for two
weeks cause they were both afraid of him. I rather suspect my Honeymama
and Grandpa did NOT drive straight home from Itasca that momentous date night. I've driven on
those back roads and there are plenty of places to park I can tell you. Grandpa always
had a little grin on his face when he played "Cadillac 8". Honeymom just
rolled her eyes and left the room.
A friend of mine hooked me on Leon
Redbone years ago and I especially loved his bluesy mellow version of
Polly Wolly Doodle. I learned to play the song on the harmonica by
playing along with a Leon Redbone tape I recorded off the original vinyl
album. It was a little scratchy, but that kind of goes with old Leon's
style..............and Grandpa's. Here's Leon Redbone with Polly Wolly
Doodle:
This song has a special place in my heart. It was one of my son Micah's
favorite song. We played it at his memorial service. As a parent there's
probably nothing worse that can happen to you than for you to lose a
child. This song was Micah's gift to us. I can't listen to it without
weeping openly. After his death, I had to be strong for my wife who was
devastated when Micah passed away. Mom's are not equipped to outlive
their children.
I used to put the CD of this song and several
others that were his favorites on the CD player in the car and drive
around and have myself a good cry and sing this song at the top of my
lungs. I still do it, though nowadays it's with my mp3 player while I'm
out on a good long walk away from people. It has a cleansing effect - kind of like scrubbing your soul.
Here's Mercyme's "I Can Only Imagine."
I've got another one of Micah's songs for next week. Stay tuned.
This little man did as much to end Apartheid as some activist groups. It's a little known fact that neither the government of South Africa, nor the African National Congress, the UN and half a dozen anti-apartheid groups wanted Paul Simon to do the Graceland Tour. But the naysayers needn't have worried. Simon's incredible musical collaboration with some of Africa's finest musicians did probably more to discredit apartheid and helped unite Africans across the continent than anything done by any two liberal advocacy groups or government agencies.
I love this amazing music. Paul Simon introduced some marvelous
musicians to the world, not the least of which included the likes of
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekala, and Miriam Makeba. He really
took a beating from anti-apartheid people and from the South African
government. They were all wrong as was the cultural boycott that Simon
was accused of violating. He was even accused of "exploiting African
musicians." The truth was, he paid the musicians triple and didn't take
any money for himself. Here was a case of good guys versus a good guy.
How is it that people who put on the mantle of saviors of the
downtrodden are so often selfish, power hungry, narrow-minded twits?
Here
is "Homeless", a piece that showcases the talents of the inimitable
Ladysmith Black Mambazo (who by the way started out as a church choir).
This clip includes commentary on the genesis of this particular song and the close relationship that developed between Simon and the African musicians during the tour.
