{"id":448,"date":"2006-06-16T11:50:35","date_gmt":"2006-06-16T19:50:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2006\/06\/16\/true-companion\/"},"modified":"2006-06-16T11:50:35","modified_gmt":"2006-06-16T19:50:35","slug":"true-companion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2006\/06\/16\/true-companion\/","title":{"rendered":"True Companion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Baby I’ve been searching like everybody else
Can’t say nothing different about myself
Sometimes I’m an angel, sometimes I’m cruel
When it comes to love I’m just another fool<\/em><\/p>\n

Prior to becoming famous for being shot, Marc Cohn was known for his one big hit, "Walking In Memphis".\u00c2\u00a0 In a Sirius-oriented world, where they only play the hits, that’s all most people are familiar with.\u00c2\u00a0 But Marc’s debut album is full of gems.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially the final track.\u00c2\u00a0 Which almost seems like an afterthought.\u00c2\u00a0 Just Marc and his piano, singing about his true companion.<\/p>\n

Don’t believe the rappers talking about bitches and ho’s.\u00c2\u00a0 Boasting about kicking women to the curb.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re all looking for that one special someone.\u00c2\u00a0 Who KNOWS us.\u00c2\u00a0 Who we feel comfortable with.\u00c2\u00a0 Who we can be ourselves with.<\/p>\n

Today’s dating rules seem to say it’s all about image.\u00c2\u00a0 Lose that last ten pounds, get new clothing, be bright and sunny and the guys will like you.\u00c2\u00a0 And men, be sure to lavish a ton of dough on her.\u00c2\u00a0 Show her that you’ve got resources, that you can pull her up into a lifestyle she’s always dreamed of.<\/p>\n

That’s all bullshit.\u00c2\u00a0 People want somebody who’s open and honest.\u00c2\u00a0 Who tells his story, and listens to yours.\u00c2\u00a0 Reveals his flaws as well as relishes his victories.\u00c2\u00a0 In other words, people are clamoring for, desirous of, someone real.<\/p>\n

You know the people in a good relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re members of a conspiracy.\u00c2\u00a0 They laugh at each other’s jokes, make inside references.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re bonded.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas so many times the people who LOOK good, both individually and together, turn out to have so little together.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear about infidelities, separations, divorces.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the first couple, they’re together forever.\u00c2\u00a0 Whether regaling you with stories of watching "American Idol" or climbing the Himalayas.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I’m an angel, and sometimes I’m cruel.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the human condition.\u00c2\u00a0 I wish it wasn’t so.\u00c2\u00a0 But things happen.\u00c2\u00a0 Having nothing to do with the other person.\u00c2\u00a0 And I lash out.\u00c2\u00a0 I hope at those times, there’s enough bedrock for the relationship to sustain.\u00c2\u00a0 Because I don’t want to lose my true companion.<\/p>\n

"True Companion" is not the only stellar track on Marc Cohn’s debut.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the album has the aforementioned "Walking In Memphis" and "Silver Thunderbird", but the other song that will never be eliminated from my iPod is "Dig Down Deep".<\/p>\n

Baby let’s go below the surface
See what we can find<\/em><\/p>\n

It happens all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m talking to somebody’s wife at a party and when the husband sidles up she says I’M TELLING HIM THINGS I NEVER TOLD YOU!\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I had a similar thing happen last week at XM.\u00c2\u00a0 Wherein a coworker said the same thing to someone whose office was right next door.\u00c2\u00a0 Somehow, in America, digging down deep is illegal.\u00c2\u00a0 Not proper decorum.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re supposed to respect others’ privacy.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas everybody’s so LONELY!\u00c2\u00a0 Just dying to tell his story, just dying to know that somebody else knows.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to let it out, so it’s no longer bottled up inside.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to talk about things.\u00c2\u00a0 I want to talk about you, who you are, what you feel.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only your victories, but your losses.\u00c2\u00a0 Hold back, and probably we won’t be spending too much time together.\u00c2\u00a0 For not only is our interaction unfulfilling, you make me feel like some kind of freak, for wanting to know.\u00c2\u00a0 And, if you tell enough, and feel the warmth from the bond, and gently investigate, I’ll tell you my story too.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is so hard for me to do, but what I’m dying to do.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, "Dig Down Deep" is about a love relationship.\u00c2\u00a0 About not going out on the town, not going to sleep, but getting into it RIGHT NOW!<\/p>\n

Everyone always says tomorrow.\u00c2\u00a0 Which really means never.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s too dangerous.\u00c2\u00a0 If the truth comes out they’ll be rejected.\u00c2\u00a0 Marc knows this.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why he ultimately sings:<\/p>\n

It’s an open invitation
So baby don’t you cry
It’s a life long celebration
And I think we’re right on time
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<\/em><\/p>\n

You know how it is.\u00c2\u00a0 When the conversation is done, you TINGLE!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Marc Cohn never equaled the brilliance of that debut album again.\u00c2\u00a0 He switched to the guitar on his second record.\u00c2\u00a0 And there weren’t as many keepers.\u00c2\u00a0 One never knows why someone loses the muse, why they can’t open up and deliver again.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe because it’s been a lifelong dream.\u00c2\u00a0 And once fulfilled, once it’s all out, and their honesty delivers success, they either bask in it or don’t know what to do next.<\/p>\n

But in my iTunes library, I’ve got this live version of one of those later tracks, "Lost You In The Canyon", that is one of my favorite P2P downloads ever.\u00c2\u00a0 With just Marc and his guitar, you feel the despair, the DISCONNECTION.\u00c2\u00a0 And this honest emotion touches me.\u00c2\u00a0 So, when I opened an envelope from Jordan Burger at the Agency Group and found a new live Marc Cohn album in the bunch of CDs, I immediately put it in my computer.<\/p>\n

It’s all the great tracks from the first album, as well as renditions of the few stellar ones thereafter.\u00c2\u00a0 And as I was pulling down the titles from CDDB, I marveled that I had never HEARD of this CD.<\/p>\n

I went onto Amazon.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t there.<\/p>\n

I googled Marc, and what came up was a fan site.<\/p>\n

I didn’t believe he didn’t have his own site.\u00c2\u00a0 Finally, I just typed marccohn.com into the window.\u00c2\u00a0 And, at marccohn.net, I found his site, with this new album, and little else.<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Baby I’ve been searching like everybody elseCan’t say nothing different about myselfSometimes I’m an angel, sometimes I’m cruelWhen it comes to love I’m just another fool Prior to becoming famous for being shot, Marc Cohn was known for his one big hit, "Walking In Memphis".\u00c2\u00a0 In a Sirius-oriented world, where they only play the hits, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-7e","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}