50 – Novim’s Nightmare – Cat Stevens – 1975

Novim's Nightmare - Cat Stevens

            When Numbers came out in late 1975 I was at Blackburn College, eagerly looking forward to its release (as I eagerly awaited anything new from Cat). I bought it at an appliance store on the Carlinville square I can no longer recall. It wasn’t a record store; it just had records for sale.

            I took it back to my room, put it on my Garrard Zero-G turntable, turned up my Pioneer SX424 receiver, put on my big red Koss headphones, dropped the stylus, and sat back to listen.

            “A Pythagorean Theory Tale”… what the heck was that about? It was a concept album with a children’s book to follow (which never appeared as far as I know). The first song was an instrumental (“Whistlestar”).

            The music was very pretty on the next song (“Novim’s Nightmare”), but what did the lyrics mean? (I always listened the first few times with the album cover (with lyrics) in hand).

            “Once I had a dream, that worried me
                        Like a drunken guillotine
                        Lingering just above my head
                        Why, why, why, why?
                        Why was I born "The Nine"
                        Cursed repeatedly
                        Who would know if I should die.
                        No one needed me     

                                    ***

            All at once my bones began to change
                        I was tall and young again,
                        Sweet as rain falling on the snow
                        Who, who, who, who?
                        Who is he, who am I, and
                        What laid in between?
                        How can I say goodbye? No one let me in
                        Can't see no need for Nine no more
                        Now it's too late to open the door.      

            Ohhhhkaaaay….

            The Rolling Stone review was brutal “… an album so breathtakingly stupid that even the most loyal fan (Hey, I resemble that!) could count its merits without using any of the fingers on either hand.”

            And it went downhill from there, “Sententiously subtitled “A Pythagorean Theory tale,” Numbers , ostensibly the story of some numerically named extraterrestrials, really isn’t about anything at all- no minor flaw in what purports to be a concept LP.”

            I guess he didn’t like it.

            I like “Novim’s Nightmare,” but I can honestly say I’ve not listened to the whole album since the 70s, but even the worst Cat album has one song worth listening to.

            I then made the mistake of going to YouTube and looking at the video for “Banapple Gas.”

            Here’s the link. Banapple Gas

            Yikes!! 

            By itself, the song is a little weird. Watch the film and you can see why he stayed away from recording for 30 years. (though he did two more albums after Numbers, which maybe was his repentance) .

49 – The Hurt – Johnny Cash – 2003

The Hurt - Johnny Cash

            This is a song I bought from Zune marketplace as a direct result of seeing the video. A devastating, heartbreaking video with an aged, but still undiminished, Johnny Cash several months before his death. The song, written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, is about an addict, and you know Johnny Cash sings from experience there.

            The instrumentation is spare; a piano, and Johnny’s voice:

                        I hurt myself today
                        To see if I still feel
                        I focus on the pain
                        The only thing that's real
                        The needle tears a hole
                        The old familiar sting
                        Try to kill it all away
                        But I remember everything

            When the lines below are sung, June Carter is seen briefly.

                        What have I become
                        My sweetest friend
                        Everyone I know
                        goes away
                        In the end
           

            And as it flashes on June Carter, several months before she died, the lyrics hit home with a power that’s unlike any other, on my Zune anyway.

            Then, as the piano chimes (and that’s the only word for it when you listen with ear buds) louder and louder, the song climaxes.

                       
                        And you could have it all
                        My empire of dirt
                        I will let you down
                        I will make you hurt

                        If I could start again
                        A million miles away
                        I would keep myself
                        I would find a way.

            Incredible and, again, shattering. The most powerful music video ever (in my humble estimation). It brings me to tears just hearing the song, because it cannot be separated from the video and the images of a young and, especially, old Johnny Cash.

            But it also reminds me, weirdly, of my youth, when we would get together at Thanksgiving or Christmas in Rockford, Illinois with my grandparents, my grandmother’s brother and sister-in-law, and their unmarried son who still lived at home and played the Hammond Organ (foreshadowing my career at Accutronics, which was owned by and supplied all the circuit boards for Hammond Organ).

            He played both kinds of music, Country and Western, and a lot of Johnny Cash, but he played in a kind of mechanical way with a sort of Liberace leer. He was in his mid 30s, still at home, unmarried, which at the time I found a little weird (writes the guy who didn’t marry until he was 34, though I moved out of my folks’ home after college).

            He did meet a nice girl at work (he worked for the company that made Chiclets and every Christmas we would get a sampler pack of their products, Chiclets, Certs breath mints, Beeman’s and Black Jack gum), married her, and had a daughter. I felt bad for him  because when his mom died, his dad remarried and, when his dad died, the house he lived in was left to his step mom and he had to pay her rent to live in the house he grew up in. Then she sold the house from under him and he had to move out.

            My grandmother was still alive at the time and she bought several pieces of furniture from him, to help him out financially, that her (and his dad’s) parents had owned. I have one piece, a beautiful oak side board.

47- Christiaan, No – Jimmy Webb – 1977

Christiaan No - Jimmy Webb

            I love this Jimmy Webb song. I used to cherry pick parts from it to sing to my son when he was very little. The parts that were in my register anyway.

            I doubt he remembers any of it, but I substituted Zay-Zay for Christiaan when I sang it to him (though we never called him Zay-Zay), I needed it to retain the meter).

                        “Christiaan, no, no, no, Christiaan no,                                                                                              

                         Take your time, take your time, take it slow,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

                         You’ll be leaving soon enough to make the teardrops flow.

                                                            ***

                        “You will grow, grow, grow, Christiaan grow                            

                         You will glow like the moonlight on the snow,                                    

                         You will fly like the snowflakes, when the wind begins to blow         

                         take it slow”

                      

                                                           ***

                        “’Cause it hard to know what you want to be,

                          When you’re just a little boy who’s turning three,

                          When you’re just a little boy who’s only turning 29,

                          Take your time.”

            Simple, but not too sappy (“ Watching Scotty Grow”, for one).

46- Let My Love Open the Door – Pete Townshend – 1980

Let My Love Open the Door - Pete Townshend

            Kind of a tough call on this one. I almost lumped it in with my other MTV songs since it came out around the time MTV started in 1981and they played the heck out of it, but I think it stands alone since I was had purchased the Empty Glass album before this song turned up on MTV.

            I like it mainly because of the sentiment of Pete’s lyrics:

            “When everyone keeps repeating that you’ll never fall in love,

            “When everyone keeps retreating and you can’t seem to get enough,

            “Let my love open the door.”

45 – Daydream Believer – John Stewart- 1971, and

Daydream Believer - John Stewart

Daydream Believer - The Monkees

            The Monkees’ take on this simple song is their last #1 hit and is one of the perfect pop songs of the 1960s. From the moment the jingle jangle piano opening starts (Peter Tork on piano) it always makes me smile. It’s the late 60s, JFK is gone, but MLK and RFK are still around (for awhile yet) and everything is groovy.

            My whole life is ahead of me and everything in Suburbia (Algonquin) is good.

            Years later, I heard John Stewart on the Steve Dahl show explain how the Monkees changed one of his words, to not freak out people like me, I suppose.

            In the line, “You once thought of me as a white knight on his steed, now you know how happy I can be”, which doesn’t make sense, really, had been changed from “…now you know how funky I can be.”

            When John Stewart recorded his version in 1971 for his album, “Lonesome Picker Rides Again,” he replaces the word and adds a few changes o the chorus at the end.

            The song’s 3:07 construction is super simple, in the Monkees’ versions it’s Verse, Chorus, Verse, Chorus, repeat 4-5 times, to fade.

            John Stewart repeats the chorus 2 times then begins to make some substitutions.

            “…to a Daydream Believer and a homecoming queen” becomes

            “’…to a Lonesome Picker and a homecoming queen.”

                        then

            “…to an old surfer drummer and a homecoming queen.”

                        then

            “…to old Nashville Carter and a homecoming queen.”

                        and finally

            “…to a daydream deceiver and an old closet quee…” and he breaks up laughing.

            Great song.

44 – Keep Me in Your Heart – Warren Zevon – 2003

Keep Me in Your Heart - Warren Zevon

            That Warren Zevon could write and produce this song knowing how little time he had left is amazing to me.

            It’s the song I want played at my memorial service.

            ‘Nuff said.

43 – Hallelujah – John Cale – 1991

Hallelujah - John Cale

            This is the John Cale version of Leonard Cohen’s great song, “Hallelujah”.  It has been used many times, in many shows and movies, such as “Shrek”, “House”, and “Scrubs”, but the one it always reminds me of is “The West Wing”.

            Actually, the version used in the West Wing was Jeff Buckley’s, but regardless, the song reminds me of  “Posse Comitatus”, the unforgettable episode where Mark Harmon, playing C.J.’s Secret Service agent/new boyfriend, is gunned down when he inadvertently walks in on a robbery in progress in a NYC convenience store.

            It’s also the one where the President (Martin Sheen, the President we pretended was real during the GW Bush years) runs into his opponent for reelection played by James Brolin and Brolin, when told of the death says, “Crime. Boy. I don’t know” and President Bartlett (Sheen) after some more strained small talk, says “In the future, if you're wondering, 'Crime, boy, I don't know,' is when I decided to kick your ass."

            You know by its context that somebody’s going to die when you hear “Hallelujah”, it never accompanies good news. It was a classic use of popular music in television to comment on or act as a counterpoint to what was going on onscreen.

            (If you read Ken Levine’s blog, and I do religiously, that’s why I link to it on mine; he feels that the use of music in this way is a cheat, a lazy way to make a point. I agree to a point, but this song is emotionally wrenching in its use here. C.J. finally gets a life outside the West Wing and “Bang!” it’s over)

            Most people agree the first use of popular music in TV drama was Michael Mann’s “Miami Vice”. Or at least it was the first time I was made conscious of the powerful emotions that the right song with the right image can produce.

            “Hallelujah’s use in the West Wing was heartbreaking. I don’t know if it’s Aaron Sorkin who chose the music, but “The West Wing” always used the perfect song at the perfect time.

            There’s another song on my Zune that was used brilliantly by “The West Wing”, about 15 postings from now, as I look at my list, so be forewarned.