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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #82: Leaving on a Jet Plane

By lousiteadmin

 

Lyrics

Peter, Paul & Mary from Album 1700 (1967)

“The first cover song on the list,” Peggy said. “John Denver fans are going to have a bone to pick with you.”

“Actually, this is no more a cover than ‘I Heard it through the Grapevine’ was. John Denver wouldn’t release a commercial version of this song himself for six years. He was essentially an unknown songwriter when Peter, Paul & Mary had a hit with it. As far as his fans having a bone to pick with me, I don’t think his version holds a candle to the PPM version. His vocal is lovely, but Mary Travers’s vocal is transcendent. You’re right there in the room with these two people.”

“I get what you’re saying. He’s singing it out to the crowd, while she’s singing it to her lover.”

“Exactly.”

“John Denver fans are still gonna be pissed with you.”

“I’m ready for their ire.”

“Good to see your convictions are strong. So what exactly is going on in this song, anyway? Is she going on a business trip? Is this a long-distance relationship? Is she joining the Peace Corps?”

“I hadn’t considered the Peace Corps thing, but that makes as much sense as any other scenario. There’s a little too much pain here for a business trip, unless it’s a really long business trip, and I don’t think this is a long-distance relationship. If it were, she wouldn’t be talking about what happens when she comes back.”

Peggy was quiet for a few seconds, during which I conjured other scenarios for this couple’s separation.

“I was never good at long-distance relationships,” she said, which seemed like a bit of a non-sequitur to me.

“Or long-distance friendships,” I said, the words jumping from my mouth before I had a chance to consider them.

“Ouch.”

Now that we were back in touch on a regular basis, I hadn’t planned on bringing up how we’d lost communication or how I felt that Peggy had largely been to blame for this. I’d tried in multiple ways to stay connected to her after Stevie whisked her away, but I never felt as though she was trying as hard, and I finally let it go.

I thought about apologizing for being insensitive. Then I decided against it. Instead, I said, “Good thing one of us came up with an elaborate excuse for getting back in touch, huh?”

She hesitated a couple of seconds before saying, “Yeah, good thing.”

Sticky
Jul 17, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #83: The Wheel

By lousiteadmin

Lyrics

Rosanne Cash from The Wheel (1993)

 

“Wow, a song for grownups,” Peggy said.

“I think there have been quite a few songs on this list that grownups can relate to.”

“Yes, but I think this is the first that only grownups can relate to.”

“I’m not convinced of that. I would have understood at least a chunk of this message when I was a teenager.”

Peggy laughed. “Yes, you were always very mature about relationships. To a fault, in my opinion.”

The sentiment threw me back a bit. I felt a little as though Peggy were attacking me, and my immediate response – as if to prove that I wasn’t ruled by maturity – was to think that Peggy was the exact opposite in that regard. She was always ridiculously impetuous about relationships. She’d even married a “bad boy,” though, to her credit, she’d stuck with him a long time at this point. I managed to avoid actually bringing this up, though.

“Kidding,” she said when I didn’t say anything right away.

She wasn’t, but I let it go.

“It isn’t just the message that’s mature in this song,” I said. “It’s the production as well. While this song would completely work on one instrument – and you know that’s one of my qualifiers for being on the list – the production takes it to another level. Those guitar arpeggios, the jittery drumming, the plaintiveness in her voice. There’s experience in that arrangement.”

“So you’re saying a more pop arrangement would have undermined the song?”

I wasn’t saying that, but it was a good point. “I think it would have. The way this song was produced compels you to listen to the lyrics – interestingly more than if the arrangement had been simpler.”

I could almost feel Peggy nodding on the other end. “Something you can only truly appreciate when you’re older.”

“Or if you’re mature to a fault.”

Peggy chuckled, but I could sense some discomfort in the chuckle, which I considered to be a good thing. “That bugged you, huh?”

“What gave you that impression?”

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Jun 30, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #85: Fall on Me

By lousiteadmin

 

Lyrics

R.E.M. from Life’s Rich Pageant (1986)

 

“You’ve had a disproportionate number of message songs on this list so far. Is that a theme?” Peggy said.

“I think that might be a sample size thing. I probably have a disproportionate number of songs that begin with the letter W on the list at this point, too. I can promise you it didn’t factor into my choices.”

“But you do like message songs. That was always one of your things.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that. I mean, songs are supposed to be about something, right?”

“Berry Gordy didn’t think so.”

“He wasn’t alone in that. There are plenty of music company heads – and artists for that matter – who feel the same way. I heard a song this morning that I swear came straight from an algorithm. Somebody punched in a few keywords like ‘horny man,’ ‘sex,’ and ‘clichéd come-on lines,’ and this song came out.”

She chuckled. “So if you punched in ‘acid rain’ and ‘environmental earnestness,’ ‘Fall on Me’ wouldn’t come out?”

“I don’t think so. This song might be earnest, but it’s genuinely earnest. I think you can call Michael Stipe and Mike Mills on a lot of things, but I think they truly felt what they were writing about.”

“Okay, I’ll give you this one.” Peggy paused, presumably to allow me a half-second to enjoy the fact that she’d conceded a point to me. “It’s actually pretty funny that we’re even talking about the lyrics to an R.E.M. song. How often did you have to listen to this song to figure out the words?”

“Well, the video helped on this one. The lyrics were superimposed over the images. But yes, Michael Stipe might be the greatest mumbler in the history of popular music.”

“It says something, then, that we all think so highly of his messages.”

I grinned. “Well, you think so highly of his messages. I just like the way the guitars sound. I never cared all that much for message songs.”

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Jun 11, 2015
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The 100 Greatest Songs of the Rock Era: #87: Homeward Bound

By lousiteadmin

Lyrics

Simon & Garfunkel from Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme (1966)

 

“Do you know which word shows up most amongst the titles of the eight thousand songs I have on iTunes?” I said.

“Um, ‘the?’” Peggy said. “‘A?’”

“Other than articles and other super-common words.”

“‘Love?’”

“Okay, other than ‘love.’”

“Is there anything else you’d like to eliminate before I continue guessing?”

“You’re right; that was a stupid way to start this conversation. It’s – other than ‘love’ – ‘home.’”

Peggy laughed. “That is so you – in two ways.” She laughed again.

“Really?”

“Really. One, that you’re such a nerd that you would actually know this kind of thing, and two, that you’ve always had a home fixation.”

“I have?”

“You don’t know this about yourself? No question about it – marriage, family, food. You’re all about that stuff.”

“Food is about home? You know, there are these businesses called ‘restaurants’ –”

“– Food is definitely about home for you. Remember who you’re talking to.”

Since I’d reconnected with Peggy, it wasn’t always easy to remember who I was talking to. Because we were so close a long time ago, did she know me in a way that more recent friends and associates didn’t? Or did she only know who I once was? She had me on the home thing, though.

“So, you’re saying that we can define ourselves by the titles of the songs we have on our computers? I think the word that shows up fourth most often – other than the common stuff, again – is ‘better.’ Does that mean I’m an incurable optimist?”

“I think you’re making a good case for this as a new form of analysis.”

I decided to pursue a different course of conversation. “This song came very early in Paul Simon’s run. He kept writing memorable, influential songs for nearly a quarter of a century – right through The Rhythm of the Saints. That got me thinking about something else I want to explore soon: whether or not you could collect a good album from the songs an artist released after their peak-output period ended.”

“In other words, would an album of the best songs released by, say, Tom Petty after Into the Great Wide Open be considered a major release?”

“Exactly. The answer to that one would be no, by the way.”

“Agreed. We’re gonna have fun with this one. So what about Paul Simon?”

“I don’t think so. After Rhythm he just dropped off the table. Did you listen to that album he released a few years ago? Ouch. And we don’t even want to consider the Capeman stuff.”

“Maybe he just ran out of things to say. It’s amazing that he had so much to say to begin with.”

“And ‘Homeward Bound’ was one of the best of them.”

“One of the best? Does that mean there’s more Paul Simon to come?”

“You’re not going to get me to reveal anything before it’s time.”

She laughed again. “You already have.”

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May 05, 2015
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