“I am always at a loss to know how much to believe my own stories.”
- Washington Irving
Is it Thursday already? Okay, then, Three For Thursday. Artists and songs you may not be familiar with.
#1. Do you ever have a song that has a grip on you and you have no explanation why? You have no particular history with it. It wasn't popular during a good or bad time in life. It wasn't playing at the restaurant when you and that person broke up. Nothing. That's describes this Bob Schneider song for me. I don't know it just moves me like it does. I saw him interviewed about it. He said he's in a group of songwriting friends who, every week, one of them throws out a phrase. The challenge is that they each write a song that must include that phrase somewhere in the lyrics. The phrase that birthed this song was “Spaceforce.” It's interesting how creativity works..
#2. As I've argued before, there's no argument, really, because I'm correct, Ryan Adams is the most talented songwriter of his generation. I choose to overlook his personal baggage and enjoy the gifts he sends into the universe.
Let your tears fall and touch my skin
Then your thunderclouds could rage and wail
I will collect them all for you in butterfly jars -
As the one barber said to the other in Coming to America, “That boy good!”
#3. Boy, I love this bunch out of Philadelphia.. It heartens me to see kids having this much fun making their loose, raggedy noise. There's hope for rock-n-roll.