Tag archive for ‘Lyric of the Week’
Martin Sexton, “Fall Like Rain”
Martin Sexton is the guy John Mayer calls “one of the most treasured singer-songwriters I’ve ever heard in my life.” Mayer must have first become acquainted with the Syracuse, New York-born artist when he was busking in Harvard Square while Mayer was a student at Boston’s Berklee School of Music. The two Boston transplants have [...]
Etta James, “I’d Rather Go Blind”
Last Friday, the renowned blues and R&B singer Etta James died at a hospital in Riverside, California, outside L.A. James had battled health problems and years of drug abuse, but died from complications of leukemia. Though James had an early hit in her career with a song called “Dance With Me, Henry” (also known as [...]
Kevin Gordon, “Colfax”
Kevin Gordon may be one of the most accomplished but underrated songwriters and guitarists in Nashville. His music is a swampy concoction of the blues and a kind of working man’s poetry–probably a mix of a youth spent in Louisiana and the subsequent years studying poetry at the prestigious Iowa Writer’s Workshop (where heavyweights like [...]
Jackson Browne, “These Days”
Though Jackson Browne is often associated today with the social and political consciousness of his songs, “These Days,” one of his earliest and often-covered compositions, deals with images of love, loss, and regret. “I wrote this when I was about sixteen, although not precisely in this form,” Browne says when introducing “These Days” on the [...]
Ray Charles And Betty Carter, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”
In 1960, following the pop success of “What’d I Say,” Ray Charles signed a new record deal with ABC-Paramount. A new five-volume box set, Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles, from Concord Music Group covers this era, which followed his productive years at Atlantic Records. Charles’ post-”What’d I Say” career can be characterized by an [...]
The Smiths, “Half A Person”
The Smiths recorded “Half A Person” in January 1987 and released it as the b-side to the single “Shoplifters Of The World Unite” the following month. But the band would not see the year through. When their final album Strangeways, Here We Come was released in September, guitarist Johnny Marr had already left the group. [...]
Hank Williams, “I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive”
“I’ll Never Get Out Of This World Alive,” recorded in June 1952, was one of the last songs Hank Williams ever cut. Released just a month before he died on New Years Day 1953, it became a hit and enduring classic, both a tongue-in-cheek play on words and intimation of life’s brevity. In Paul Hemphill’s [...]
Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, “Motorvatin’ Mama”
Jeff Beck couldn’t believe that “Motorvatin’ Mama” wasn’t a song from the 1930s. In fact, it was written by The Rolling Stones founding bassist Bill Wyman and recorded for his all-star group The Rhythm Kings’ first album, Struttin’ Our Stuff, in 1997. “Jeff Beck said to me, ‘Where did you get ‘Motorvatin’ Mama’? Where’d that [...]
Adele, “One And Only”
Songwriter Greg Wells tells the story behind writing “One And Only” with Adele In October, the British pop superstar Adele canceled her remaining 2011 concert dates in order to undergo treatment for a vocal cord hemorrhage. The laser microsurgery was performed in Boston, and recent news from the Adele camp have indicated that the singer [...]
Van Dyke Parks, “Come To The Sunshine”
Before the historic Beach Boys sessions, the Smile lyricist finds a place in the sun A few weeks ago, The Beach Boys famous “lost” masterpiece was finally released in its original intention as The Smile Sessions. When Brian Wilson retreated to the studio in November 1966 to begin work on what would have become Smile, [...]
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