Rhinofy-Marc Cohn
1. "Walking In Memphis"
I’d be a liar if I told you I was happy to be back in L.A.
My leg’s been hurting, I charged a reduced rate, the last thing I wanted to do was go to Memphis. But from the moment I landed and rode in Tad’s Cadillac everything felt right. As I told my psychiatrist, in Memphis I was my best self. I had a voice, I asked questions, I was invigorated and free.
And the whole time I was there this song was going through my brain.
I came to Marc Cohn late.
I don’t mean I just discovered him, it’s that I was overworked by his label, Atlantic, and his manager, Perry Watts-Russell. The album seemed a bit too slick, I didn’t think "Walking In Memphis" would be a hit, I wasn’t exactly on strike, but I didn’t dig deep until I heard…
2. "True Companion"
Baby I’ve been searching like everybody else
You think you’re only going to get married one time. At least I did. If my wife had not left me, I’d have never left her, it’s not in my DNA, I stick it out, sometimes to my detriment.
I got that from my mother. She’d never let me quit. And it wasn’t until decades later that I realized the benefit of this lesson. Sure, the key to being successful at work is showing up. But many people can do that. But few can persevere, through the good times and the bad, believing that dedication pays its own dividends.
Last night John Mayer told me his obsession with the guitar ruined his relationship with his parents. His mother kept asking him what he was gonna do when he grew up, he said THIS! PLAY THE GUITAR!
And that’s the main reason Mayer’s been successful. He’s paid his dues. In a land that’s become all about instant gratification. Sometimes you can’t see the destination, you’ve just got to get on the road, keep walking, even though you’re broke and busted and everybody tells you you’re a fool.
What do they say, it builds character?
It also builds relationships.
But when you’re abandoned, you’ve got no choice but to jump back into the pool. Because, like Sting so eloquently sang, the bed’s too big without you. It’s not exactly the sex you miss, it’s the touch, the existence of another person in your space. I remember my wife coming over for a booty call a couple of weeks after she moved out, she said she thought it would be good if we lived apart, but stayed married, that’d be perfect. Maybe for her, but not for me. I sink when I’m alone. That’s what I love about the Internet, all the people at my fingertips, it’s the best thing that ever happened to me.
But when she moved out, it was before the cyberspace revolution of 1995, when everybody bought a computer to play on AOL. I was alone. And eventually I found someone.
But she was not my true companion.
3. "Dig Down Deep"
This is me. To a "T".
Baby let’s go below the surface
See what we can find
This is what I’m doing right now! I’ve built my entire so-called career on this. And it’s what everybody hates about me, along with the fact that I’ve never been President of a record company and have never cut a number one record myself.
People just want to talk about the money, they don’t want to talk about the why. If I took phone calls, and I don’t, I’d be subjected to endless b.s., people selling me their stuff, telling me how great it is. They don’t want to dig down deep, they don’t want to hear about the chinks in their armor, the reasons I believe their project will lack success.
And it’s the same deal if they’ve actually made it, if they’ve had success. You can’t say anything negative about Justin Bieber to AEG, LOOK AT THE GROSSES! The manager of Lady Gaga signed off of my mailing list when I criticized her latest album, said on the surface the sales total appeared grand, but the discount price indicated there was soft demand.
Which is why it doesn’t pay to talk to these people. They’re on a one way trip to their destination, and they don’t want anybody to impair them.
Still…
Analysis, the ability to sift through the facts to draw conclusions, is what I’m all about, especially in relationships.
I don’t want to go up to the mountain
I don’t need to go down to the sea
Gonna sit right here ’till we unravel
The mystery
Some people are moving so fast they can’t see. Maybe that’s why they do it.
I come from a family of world travelers. In my early twenties I went on react, I didn’t need to go nowhere to feel good about myself. I could just sit on the phone, on the couch, talking…that was good enough for me.
While everyone else is just walking around
In their sleep
Baby let’s dig down
Dig down deep
I wanna dig down deep
I never go to breakfast. I’M NOT UP!
People invite me all the time. I tell them as soon as I wake up, I go to work. I don’t exercise, I don’t eat, otherwise I’d rather be asleep. Because I want to stay up as late as possible, in the dark, getting to the truth. Daytime scares me, all that hustle and bustle. But when the sun goes down it’s just me and the other night owls searching for answers at our own pace.
And I don’t wanna wait until tomorrow
‘Cause the fortune said that ‘The time is now’
It’s time to find out what we’re doing
What we’re doing anyhow
My ex-wife was not happy about this, my girlfriend is not a fan. For me, the right time is always now. I don’t care if it’s two a.m., we’re gonna sit right here, or lie in bed, unraveling the mystery, teasing out the answers, arguing.
I don’t believe in putting off disagreements. It just breeds distance.
You might say I’m intense.
I’m saying I want to grab hold of life, nothing’s more important than what’s going on between the two of us right now.
It’s an open invitation
If you wanna dig down deep, if you want to stand for what you do know and admit what you don’t, I’ve got endless time for you.
It’s a feeling in your heart
And a lump in the throat
It’s a strange and lovely ride
Wanna dig down deep inside
It’s all about conversation. What do they say, better to be blind than deaf? You want to be able to communicate. With your next door neighbor, the person speaking crap about you, the one you love.
We’re complicated creatures. We can live together for decades and not fully understand each other.
But I wanna try.
4. "Perfect Love"
You’ve got to listen, if for no other reason than the James Taylor background vocals, so subtle, so right.
Well they worked one summer together
At the ’64 World’s Fair
They met Robert Kennedy there
Back when we lived in a can-do nation. The ’64-’65 World’s Fair was the World’s Fair to end World’s Fairs. Arguably it did. Except for Expo ’67, which was already on the books. When you get that big, when you get that all-encompassing, your only choice is to scale back.
We were fighting our problems. We weren’t throwing our hands in the air and giving up. JFK may have been dead, but RFK and MLK were years away from the grave.
And there are references to the Unisphere and Rockaway Beach and the passage of time…and that’s what perfect love is all about, the passage of time. Not the one night stand, not the summer romance, but the relationship that lasts…through the ups and downs. Longevity begets history, it pays its own dividend.
5. "Saving The Best For Last"
A story song. One can argue that rap is just the latest iteration of this concept.
What the poor and the downtrodden need most is hope.
That’s what religion is all about.
Because sometimes reality is too much to take.
6. "29 Ways"
I actually met Willie Dixon once. At the Bug Music Christmas party.
I wish all these old bluesmen were still here, for us to question, the same way you do your grandpa. Youth is shiny and smooth, but it’s the weary oldsters who can really give you insight.
And this cover of Willie’s song works on wax, but it was the highlight of Marc’s shows way back when, probably still is.
7. "Miles Away"
My friends will ask me how I’m doin’
But I just can’t lie to ’em
Not feeling fine today
FANTASTIC!
That’s what my dentist always says when I ask him how he’s doing.
Somewhere it was written that we can’t own up to being anything but perfect. And that’s a lot of pressure, and not the human condition.
I love it when someone tells me they’re not doing well. Because then I know I’m gonna get a story, all about hopes, dreams, disappointments, life.
I’ve been miles away so many times in my life. In situations where I’ve been misunderstood and discounted. You’ve got to create your own little world. I’ll let you into mine if you let me into yours.
8. "Silver Thunderbird"
Don’t you gimme no Buick
Son you must take my world
If there’s a God in heaven
He’s got a Silver Thunderbird
You can keep your Eldorados
And the foreign car’s absurd
Me I wanna go down
In a Silver Thunderbird
My father owned one. Not a classic fifties model, but an overweight early sixties iteration. It was his first upscale automobile. He bought it used, he loved it, it indicated he’d…made it.
And as the years passed, he eventually gave up on American iron, he moved on to Mercedes. He had to have the top of the line. He got the first one through a connection, he was owed a favor, and thereafter he could not step down, it made him feel so good to get behind the wheel.
Some things never change. Not only in Los Angeles, everywhere your automobile is evidence of your status. It’s the way you tell people who you are.
9. "Lost You In The Canyon"
I don’t know why Marc Cohn fell off the edge of the earth. Maybe it was grunge, maybe it was shifting to the guitar on his next album from the piano, but he never had a hit again.
But there is this one track from his third album I want to include in this playlist.
Got your call from California
But I could hardly hear your voice
Through the hissing of the highway
And all that other noise
‘I might lose you in the canyon’
You were riding up the coast
All these things we leave unspoken
Seem to haunt me like a ghost
AT&T’s worthless in the canyons.
And that’s one third of Los Angeles right there. That’s how you know someone’s on that service, they’re driving on the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass and…the connection’s lost.
The subscribers seem to think they’ll keep signal on the freeway, but even they know it’s hopeless in the canyons.
That’s what they say… I’m entering Laurel, Benedict…I’M GONNA LOSE YOU!
I’ve lost you in the canyon
Guess you tried to let me know
Lost you in the canyon
Long, long time ago
Lost you in the canyon
Brother you fade out slow
You can’t maintain a long distance relationship with someone who moves to California.
You see we’re three hours behind. We’ve got a whole different mind-set. We’re all about possibilities. You criticize us for exercising, focusing on our appearance, embracing new age remedies, but it’s all about shedding your old self for a new one, asking questions instead of believing you’ve got all the answers. Your only hope is to fly out and join us…or let us leave you behind.
There were times I thought I knew you
Before these changes came to pass
But you don’t think about it do you
From up there in your house of glass
The earth is shifting underneath you
The land is sliding all around
Do you ever stop to wonder
About that paradise you’ve found
No. The traffic sucks. I still haven’t recovered from the ’94 earthquake. But there’s no place I’d rather live.
I’ve lost you in the canyon
Guess you tried to let me know
Lost you in the canyon
Long, long time ago
Lost you in the canyon
Brother you fade out slow
10. "Walking In Memphis"/"True Companion"
We’re all looking for our best selves. And we want to experience life with our true companions. And there are so many blind alleys, oftentimes you want to give up. And to say I’d lost my way in the early nineties would be an understatement.
Marc Cohn’s debut helped get me through.
It gave me hope.
Made me feel someone else felt what I did.
That I was not alone.
Dig down deep.
P.S. Along with the rest of the debut, the three tracks not listed above, I’m also going to include takes from the "Live 04-05" album. That’s where Marc Cohn’s best, where you finally get him, live.
