The night they drove old Dixie down

This was recorded originally by The Band, and written by Robertson and the boys.  Joan Baez made a name for everyone recording it in 1971.  The original by the Band was very aggressive and  southern.   

I like the part about Robert E. Lee, a person I have immense respect for as a soldier and a person, both were exemplary.   The Band is sort of mysterious to me musically and ethosly.  I have read about the pink house and Dylan, I guess I am too young.  Baez the same except I alwas and still consider her a babe.

My best friend growing up and probably still, (never have as close a friend as when you were 12, paraphrased from Steven King novelette)  he was from Delaware so I always listened when I heard something about the Great general. 

Different Drum"

 This is a song written by Michael Nesmith in 1965 and became popular in 1967 when recorded by the Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt.   

The song is slightly awkward yet brilliant, like most of Mike Nesmith's songs.  Ronstadt kicks ass on this song with her stylizing.  Stone Poneys is a great name for a band, up there with the Grateful Dead, these names spread fear and panic through parents around the world.

This song was written as a man but Ronstadt changed that but still used the word "pretty" which is a genius move which sort of fits rule 3 related to older phrasing.  Soon I will publish my rules for hit songs, once I finish editing it.

"Lookin' Out My Back Door"

 This is a song recorded by the American band Creedence Clearwater Revival. Written by the band's lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter, John Fogerty, it is included on their 1970 album Cosmo's Factory.  

I cannot figure this band out.  I also cannot figure out this script.  why does it do that.  There is this formating thing.  Anyway, John Fogerty is a well off southern California guy who writes songs that do not sound like the Beach boys.  I do not know anything.

On  one level, I do not even like this song, on most levels i guess. 

"High On You"

This is a 1985 song by the American rock band Survivor. It peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 the week of March 23, 1985.
I remember Eye of the Tiger, Rocky and all that.  Good movie song but to play it all the time on the radio, that's not right.  They  High on You rotted my brain out for almost a year.

I am glad the hard working boys of Survivor made some good money, really, I am.  I would have paid them not to let that song on the air.  Not that it is a bad song by the rules of music, rule 4 and rule 9 apply.  I guess my dread is the balance between playing a song on the radio and driving nails in my ears to not ever hear that song again.  I thought it was a 38 Special song for years.  I think the  songs of those two groups are annoying in the same way.

I always ask myself the question:  Will this song be requested and listened to in twenty years?  I have had three twenty year periods now and King of the Road still holds up.  One Oclock Jump, Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade, Roy Orbison's Only the lonely still hold up.  High on You?

Not so much.


PS.  The worst thing about this type of song, you cannot get it out of your head, ever.

Take the Money and run

This is a song recorded in 1976 by the Steve Miller Band. A song about two young (possibly teenage) bandits and the police officer pursuing them, it was one of the many hit singles produced by the Steve Miller Band in the 1970s and featured on Fly Like an Eagle. The song peaked at #11 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in July 1976^[1] and also charted well in Australia.

1973 is my wheelhouse for music because my brother was a few years older than I was so I was swamped with Deep Purple, Woodstock and the Grateful Dead.  I was a senior in high school in 1976 when this song came out.  Steve Miller songs were everywhere.  Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I was in Utah for my high school years and the availability to a wide variety  of music was limited but The Steve Miller band was always on X-Rock 80. X Rock was a border blaster,  a broadcast station that in practice is used to target another country. The term "border blaster" is of North American origin, and usually associated with Mexican AM stations covering large parts of the United States and United States border AM stations covering large parts of Canada.

XEROK-AM is a commercial AM (medium wave) radio station in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico. It is licensed to operate with a power of 150,000 watts on a carrier frequency of 800 kHz, although its new transmitter is now powered at 50,000 watts. The station calls itself "Radio Cañón."
XEROK is the dominant Class A station on 800 AM, a Mexican clear channel frequency. The station had a colorful history as a border blaster, aiming its programming at listeners in the United States, when at night, its 150,000 watt signal could be easily heard in many parts of the Southwest.

In the evenning, with near zero humidity or clouds, it was possible to pick up tons of radio stations.  Most of them were the russian woodpecker versions blocking Radio Free Europe or Voice of America.  But X-Rock came in clear most nights.

Good things do come across the border.