Think I'll go out to Alberta

Another great CD.

"If I get there before the snow flies,
And if things are going good,
You could meet me if I send you down the fare.
But by then it will be winter
Not so much for you to do
And the wind sure can blow cold way out there."
Ian Tyson: Four strong winds

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Neil Young: Comes a time
Song: Neil Young: Four strong winds (Ian Tyson cover)

And I get back to Illinois

Currently grooving to
Record: Ty England: Two ways to fall
Song: Joan Baez: Day after tomorrow

I would turn away and return to you

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Villagers: Becoming a jackal
Song: Villagers: Becoming a jackal (Live at Jools)

I wrote a post yesterday but somewhere in cyberspace it diappeard ...
Yesterdays record was: Neil Young: Tonights the night
Yesterdays song was: Neil Young: Roll another number

My life is changin' in so many ways

Half way through a biography of Neil Young. Some days I also listen to a record I read about. Today I listened to a classic album "Harvest". It kind of deepens the understanding of the lyrics to read about the songs . It's also interesting to know some things about the circumstances during the recordings and also about his private life.

A month ago I had a short discussion concerning Neil Young versus Bob Dylan. I said that, although I'd listened a lot to both of them, I thought Bob Dylan was a way better lyricist. Reading this book I understand that at least some agree.

"My life is changin' in so many ways
I don't know who to trust anymore
There's a shadow runnin' through my days
Like a beggar goin' from door to door"
Neil Young: A man needs a maid

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Neil Young: Harvest
Song: Neil Young: A man needs a maid

Cursed with a love

Currently grooooving to ...
Record: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton
Song: Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton - Crowd surf off a cliff

And this is how it is

"And this is how it is
and it's no easy trick
we can promise what we want to
but we can't make it stick
half a life ago
with this ring we wed
and now we're sittin’ at this table
with the things we never said"
Gretchen Peters: Breakfast at our house

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Gretchen Peters: Burnt toast & offerings
Song: Gretchen Peters: Breakfast at our house

Got a reservation

A week ago I saw a documentary on svt/play 'bout the French film maker Jaques Tati. It brought me back to my childhood. As I remember it, my father was a great fan of his and I saw the last of his films, Traffic, when I was 10-11 years old. I know I liked it very much. Maybe I've been afraid of not appreciating that one, or any of his other films, I haven't own any of them. The documentary also made it absolutely clear to me why I loved Traffic and why I had to buy the Tati-collection which includes all his five movies.

Tonight I watched the first one, "Jour de fête" and although it's not one of the best movies in the world, it's really funny. One can also understand by watching it, who were the heroes in his life.

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Chip Taylor: Yonkers N.Y
Song: Chip Taylor: Charcoal sky

Everybody knows this is nowhere

"I think I'd like to go back home
And take it easy
There's a woman that I'd like to get to know
Living there"
Neil Young: Everybody knows this is nowhere

Currently grooving too ...
Record: Neil Young: Everybody knows this is nowhere
Song: Neil Young: Everybody knows this is nowhere

Teach your children well

"You, who are on the road must have a code
that you can live by.
And so, become yourself, because the past
is just a goodbye."
Crosby, Stills & Nash: Teach your children well

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Crosby, Stills & Nash: s/t
Song: Crosby, Stills & Nash: Teach your children well

Some days you gotta dance

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Burrito Deluxe: Disciples of the truth
Song: Burrito Deluxe: Wichita

I wanna make you close your eyes

Girl I've been waitin' on this long hard day to get over
So I can rest my head right here on your shoulder
I just wanna lay here and feel ya breathe
Listen to the rhythm of your heartbeat
And see where it leads...
Dierks Bentley: I wanna make you close your eyes


Currently grooving to ...
Record: Dierks Bentley: Feel that fire
Song: Dierks Bentley: I wanna make you close your eyes

Time to get a gun

My neighbors car got stole last night
right out of his driveway.
We heard the dogs barking,
we never paid them any mind.
And Mary says she's gonna lock the door
from now on when we go away.
I've been walking around this farm
wondering if it's time.
Fred Eaglesmith: Time to get a gun

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Fred Eaglesmith: Falling stars and broken hearts
Song: Miranda Lambert: Time to get a gun (cover)

We've All Got Our Reasons

"There's history and mystery hidden beneath our skin
It's all a part of who we are and the life we live"
Walt Wilkins: We've All Got Our Reasons

Currently groovin' too ...
Record: Walt Wilkins: Mustang Island
Song: Walt Wilkins: We've All Got Our Reasons

Out of the rain

"It's been raining hard in Winnipeg, like where you've gone
So I am going to write a song to soothe my aching
For two whole days the rain came down and I've been thinking round
To when I was too young to see my heart was breaking"
The Duhks: Out of the rain

Currently grooving to ...
Record: The Duhks: Migrations
Song: The Duhks: Out of the rain

Everybody's got someone

"Everybody's got somebody that they never forget
a turn in the road they don't regret
a long gone love that never lost its shine"
Maia Sharp: You are mine

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Maia Sharp: Echo
Song: Maia Sharp: You are mine

I was done out of money

"I was done out of money
I was dry as a bone
Standing on a corner in Juarez, Mexico"
Brad Colerick: Juarez

Record: Brad Colerick: Lines in the dirt
Song: Brad Colerick: Juarez

Across the evening sky

"Across the evening sky, all the birds are leaving
But how can they know it's time for them to go?
Before the winter fire, I will still be dreaming
I have no thought of time"
Sandy Denny: Who knows where the time goes

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Ben Harper: Diamonds on the inside
Song: Fairport Convention: Who knows where the time goes

No telling what a love song could do

"As she started to sing for the very last time
He trembled as he stood there alone
And the pain he'd been holding inside for so long
Just fell from his heart and was gone"
Linda Thompson: No telling

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Linda Thompson: Fashionably late
Song: Linda Thomson: No telling

If I don't see you

"If I don't see you when the bonfires are burning, burning
If I don't see you when we're singing the Gloriana tune
If I've got to see you when it's raining deep inside the forest
I got to see you at the waning of the moon"
Van Morrison: Celtic New Year

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Van Morrison: Magic time
Song: Van Morrison: Celtic New year

Is there room for one more

"Is there room for one more at the singles bar?
Have been working up the courage all year
I pull off my ring as I push my way in
Won't be needing it here
Can you guess my age in this life?
Who'll be taking me home tonight?"
Tracey Thorn: Singles bar

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Tracey Thorn: Love an it's opposite
Song: Tracey Thorn: Oh, the divorces!

And what a surprise: Gwyneth Paltrow: Country strong (CMA Awards)
She looks pretty nervous but she's doing fine. Look at the smile on Vince Gill's face :-)

You can fall like the rain

"You can fall like the rain
And I will be a river
Winding forever
Strong and true
I’ll carry you away
To the peaceful water
And lanterns on the levee
Will shine for you"
Kate Campbell: Lanterns on the Levee

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Kate Campbell: Songs from the Levee
Song: Kate Campbell: Lanterns on the Levee

Blue jean baby

Talking earlier on records and books I tend to go back to, here's a movie as well.

One of the best scenes in one of the best movies ever. Almost famous directed by Cameron Crowe. Although the film is not purely autobiographical, Crowe was writing for Rolling Magazine when he was 15, it's based on his experiences during that time.

And Kate Hudson is absolutely phenomenal as the "band-aid" Penny Lane.

I've never been a fan of Sir Elton John. I heard a lot of the hit songs in the early 70's, but at that time I didn't buy any records at all. When I started to buy records in the end of the 70's, I guess you could say his "prime time" was already over.

Almost famous has two wonderful compositions from him and since I saw the movie for the first time, I've bought some of his early stuff. And it's absolutely great.

"Blue jean baby, L.A. lady,
seamstress for the band
Pretty eyed, pirate smile,
you'll marry a music man

Ballerina, you must have seen her
dancing in the sand
And now she's in me, always with me,
Tiny dancer in my hand"
Elton John: Tiny dancer

Currently grooving to ...
Record: Elton John: Honky Chateau
Song: Mona Lisas and mad hatters

Fountain of sorrow

Another year has gone by but things will never be the same ...

I have, in another blogpost, reflected over records that you always get back to. For me "Late for the sky" by Jackson Browne is one of those records. The combination of exquisite lyrics and beautiful songs is absolutely wonderful. In every one of the eight songs I find words that speak to me in different ways.

And tonight, a year after my father died, I travel through the years listening to the songs again.

"Looking through some photographs i found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two i know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn't show your spirit quite as true
You were turning 'round to see who was behind you
And i took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes

Now the things that i remember seem so distant and so small
Though it hasn't really been that long a time
What i was seeing wasn't what was happening at all
Although for a while, our path did seem to climb
But when you see through love's illusions, there lies the danger
And your perfect lover just looks like a perfect fool
So you go running off in search of a perfect stranger
While the loneliness seems to spring from your life
Like a fountain from a pool

Fountain of sorrow, fountain of light
You've known that hollow sound of your own steps in flight
You've had to hide sometimes, but now you're all right
And it's good to see your smiling face tonight"
Jackson Browne: Fountain of sorrow

At the moment grooving to ...
Record: Jackson Browne: Late for the sky
Song: Jackson Browne: Fountain of sorrow

"I felt the taste of mortality in my mouth, and at that moment I understood that I was not going to live forever. It takes a long time to learn that, but when you finally do, everything changes inside you, you can never be the same again. I was seventeen years old, and all of a sudden, without the slightest flicker of a doubt, I understood that my life was my own, that it belonged to me and no one else."
Paul Auster (Moon Palace)

If I needed you

"If I needed you
Would you come to me
Would you come to me
For to ease my pain
If you needed me
I would come to you
I would swim the seas
For to ease your pain"
Townes Van Zandt: If I needed you

At the moment grooving to ...
Record: Townes van Zandt: The Late Great Townes Van Zandt
Song: Townes van Zandt: If I needed you

Days up and down they come

If trying to explain "things" in some peculiar way, I guess you could say that most of the lyrics I really like, in books or in songs, are lyrics that capture either thoughts I once thought or maybe wish I would have thought. And put down in a way I never could have done.
There are records by for instance Emmylou Harris, Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen and books by Klas Östergren or Paul Auster.
Talking about Paul Auster, he has the ability to get me hooked by the first chapter, the first paragraph, or sometimes, like in "Book of illusions", "Man in the dark" or "The music of chance", by the first sentence.

"It was the summer that men first walked on the moon. I was very young back then, but I did not believe there would ever be a future. I wanted to live dangerously, to push myself as far as I could go, and then see what happened to me when I got there. As it turned out, I nearly did not make it"
Paul Auster: Moon Palace (1989)

"Days up and down they come
Like rain on a conga drum
Forget most, remember some
But don't turn none away

Everything is not enough
Nothin' is too much to bear
Where you been is good and gone
All you keep is the gettin' there

To live is to fly
Low and high
So shake the dust off of your wings
And the sleep out of your eyes"
Townes van Zandt: To live is to fly

At the moment grooving to ...

Record: Townes van Zandt: High low and inbetweens
Song: Townes van Zandt: To live is to fly

And so it is

Another new year out in this wilderness called life.

"And so it is
Just like you said it would be
Life goes easy on me
Most of the time"

At the moment grooving to ...
Record: Damien Rice: O
Song: Damien Rice: The blower´s daughter