We didn’t buy "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo".\u00c2\u00a0 By that time, the Byrds were done.\u00c2\u00a0 Our first exposure to country rock was Crosby, Stills & Nash.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that we knew that’s what they called it.\u00c2\u00a0 We just knew "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" sounded so GOOD!<\/p>\n
I remember being at my buddy Marc Goloff’s house when he dropped the needle on "Gimmie Shelter".\u00c2\u00a0 Back when music was precious, when you couldn’t possess all you wanted, and you discovered new music at your friends’ houses.\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe after school, on a weekend, you’d go into a classmate’s bedroom and they’d spin a record that you’d often heard of, but couldn’t afford.\u00c2\u00a0 Sometimes it was Johnny Winter, something interesting, but an album you had no need to own yourself.\u00c2\u00a0 Other times what came out of the speakers was so infectious that you would have forked over all the money in your wallet to own it IMMEDIATELY!<\/p>\n
Marc didn’t turn out the lamps for effect.\u00c2\u00a0 There was ambient light from the front porch emerging through the windows of his room.\u00c2\u00a0 And when I heard that eerie intro to the Stones opus I was shocked, how did they come up with something this ethereal, this GOOD!<\/p>\n
Although he turned me on to "Rock and Roll Woman" from the Buffalo Springfield’s "Retrospective", Marc didn’t introduce me to "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes".\u00c2\u00a0 I can’t remember who did that.\u00c2\u00a0 Seemed that every party you went to that fall you heard the song.\u00c2\u00a0 Eventually, I bought the album and fell in love with "Long Time Gone", which had some of the same feel as "Gimmie Shelter".\u00c2\u00a0 And I had to buy "Deja Vu" the day it came out.\u00c2\u00a0 I played "Carry On" every morning for a month.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, country rock was everywhere.\u00c2\u00a0 The Dead released "Workingman’s Dead" with "Uncle John’s Band".\u00c2\u00a0 Reviewers considered Poco’s debut a masterpiece.\u00c2\u00a0 This homey, often acoustic music was the new soundtrack.\u00c2\u00a0 With the Beatles gone, kids switched from playing the Merseybeat at parties to the California sound.<\/p>\n
And then came "Take It Easy".<\/p>\n
The reason "Take It Easy" sticks is that second verse…<\/p>\n
Well I’m standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona Sure, the guitar sound of the intro enraptured the listener just like "Gimmie Shelter", but what makes "Take It Easy" so memorable is the personalization.\u00c2\u00a0 Within this one verse is a whole movie.\u00c2\u00a0 And hope.\u00c2\u00a0 No matter how depressed, how lonely you were, you could listen to "Take It Easy" and believe you were just one chance encounter from having your life work.<\/p>\n Maybe the Eagles were too good.\u00c2\u00a0 Their voices were too mellifluous.\u00c2\u00a0 Don Henley’s lyrics too poignant.\u00c2\u00a0 But the band’s success gave country rock a bad name.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, soft, acoustic music was for wimps.\u00c2\u00a0 The focus shifted from the west coast back to the east.\u00c2\u00a0 Suddenly, it was all about punk.<\/p>\n Of course, disco had its place too.\u00c2\u00a0 But after that died, we had MTV, dominated initially by the English acts, and then the video extravaganzas of Michael Jackson and his disciples.\u00c2\u00a0 Country rock is seen as a relic akin to hair band music.\u00c2\u00a0 And boy band music.\u00c2\u00a0 An historical curio.<\/p>\n But if this is so, why does it sound so damn good?\u00c2\u00a0 Why do the Eagles outgross not only the punks, but ANYBODY who came thereafter?\u00c2\u00a0 Why do they own the best selling album of all time?<\/p>\n Maybe there’s a little bit of magic in that country rock music they’re playing.\u00c2\u00a0 Not that anybody will acknowledge this in the States.<\/p>\n Funny thing about the U.K.\u00c2\u00a0 They always seem to be picking up on overlooked U.S. sounds, and capitalizing on them.\u00c2\u00a0 Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page…they were huge fans of delta blues, which had little mainstream traction in the U.S.\u00c2\u00a0 And now we’ve got an English band trying to recapture this California sound.<\/p>\n I can’t ignore e-mail from J.B. Brenner.\u00c2\u00a0 He sent me a copy of Willis Alan Ramsey’s album.\u00c2\u00a0 Do you know "Satin Sheets"?\u00c2\u00a0 Never a hit, but a classic to those who’ve heard it, whether it be the original take, or remakes by the likes of Waylon Jennings and Shawn Colvin.\u00c2\u00a0 It fell through my cracks, but J.B. was a huge fan, back when there could be pockets of fans, when something could truly be a regional underground hit.<\/p>\n So, when J.B. sent me a track today, I listened.<\/p>\n Now if I lived in England, and was in the music business, maybe I’d know the Storys story, and might hate them on principle.\u00c2\u00a0 Based on their backstory, how they were signed, how they were marketed, how they were hyped.\u00c2\u00a0 But I do my best to ignore the hype today.\u00c2\u00a0 It barely reaches me.\u00c2\u00a0 If it’s so loud that I am aware of it, I’m predisposed to dislike the act involved.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m waiting to discover music from alternative sources, from friends I trust, like J.B.<\/p>\n At first I wasn’t impressed.\u00c2\u00a0 The Storys’ "Cinnamon" sounded a bit too generic.\u00c2\u00a0 But then there was an ENTHUSIASM in the chorus, and the song broke down and came back deep in.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly I was hooked.<\/p>\n I’ve given up on hipness.\u00c2\u00a0 It gets you nowhere.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a circle jerk of music business insiders and hard core music fans who are so deep into it that they’re not interested in what’s ear-pleasing, what sounds good.\u00c2\u00a0 And the Storys’ "Cinnamon" sounds good!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about singing and playing.\u00c2\u00a0 The members of the act listened to the California sound of yore.\u00c2\u00a0 And they might not have taken it one step beyond, but they managed to capture the essence.<\/p>\n Tell me it’s second-rate like America.\u00c2\u00a0 Tell me the rest of the songs don’t sound as good.\u00c2\u00a0 All I can ask is WHAT POSSESSED THESE PEOPLE TO MAKE THIS MUSIC?\u00c2\u00a0 What possessed the Feeling to record "Sewn"?\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t they get the message this music isn’t hip?\u00c2\u00a0 That it’s all about beats?<\/p>\n As the U.S. business dies, there’s a vibrancy in the U.K.\u00c2\u00a0 Because people are more open, they’re less catholic in their tastes, the first criterion is that something be good.<\/p>\n Then again, the Storys don’t own the chart in the U.K. either.<\/p>\n Our values are all fucked up.\u00c2\u00a0 We’re so busy moving forward that we’ve left the essence behind.\u00c2\u00a0 The fundamentals always play.\u00c2\u00a0 Good vocals and good changes are the building blocks of success.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re not the ONLY way to success, but why are they denigrated to such a degree today?<\/p>\n The take of "Cinnamon" on MySpace is not the same one I’ve got, it’s missing a middle section, which contains a bit of the track’s magic.\u00c2\u00a0 And don’t even bother to listen if you’re a hip-hopper or metalhead, this music isn’t for you.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you remember sitting in your dorm back in the seventies, breaking the shrinkwrap on earthy records, this is going to resonate with you.\u00c2\u00a0 This will remind you when sweet didn’t mean shit.\u00c2\u00a0 When if you could raise your head in the air and sing along it was seen as a GOOD THING!<\/p>\n Now that the mainstream has collapsed, there’s an opportunity for all the music lambasted by those in control of the media to come back.\u00c2\u00a0 Musicians can go straight to the public, which is the new gatekeeper.<\/p>\n "Cinnamon" doesn’t have the lyrics of "Take It Easy".\u00c2\u00a0 It verges on forgettable.\u00c2\u00a0 But it gives me hope.\u00c2\u00a0 That someone out there still CARES about this music, this sound!<\/p>\n
Such a fine sight to see
It’s a girl my lord in a flatbed Ford
Slowin’ down to take a look at me<\/em><\/p>\n\n