“You can't be a legend in your parents' basement.”
- Joe Walsh
Friday is the day to talk about lyrics here. I saw a question I liked recently, so I thought why not combine the two? Here it is:
“What song never fails to immediately change your mood for the better?”
I will offer three.
Already Gone/The Eagles: No matter when, where or under what circumstances I hear this song, my spirits are lifted. I first heard it sometime in the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school, 1974. It was on the Eagles' On the Border album which I had purchased at B&B Records for the going price of $5.98. Right out of the gate as the opening track, it set the tone for what was a flawless record. I was fresh off the breakup of a sour relationship and entering a heady period of wide open freedom. The song was a muscular anthem with a “I'm outta here. Don't worry about me." attitude that makes you want to lift your chin, roll down the car windows and let ‘er blast. The dual guitar parts by Don Felder and Glenn Frey are so dandy - the solo and the riffs and fills, especially that one at 2:36. The song was written by Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund, one of the few Eagles' songs that was not written by a band member. To this day, if I hear it, I’m turnin' it up, way up.
So often times it happens
That we live our lives in chains
And we never even know we have the key
Happy Ways/Joe Walsh: Joe can be deadly serious or rock and roll's court jester, depending. This is from his second solo record after leaving The James Gang, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (1973). It contained his big hit, Rocky Mountain Way, and Happy Ways seems like a throw away track, but not for me. I've never met another person that's familiar with it; at least it's never come up. It has a Caribbean vibe, I suppose. Not something I'm drawn to, normally, but it works here. Joe's slide guitar and a bunch of La La La's never fails to make me happy.
Looking at the good things all around me
Smiling at the people that won't believe
My happy ways may raise a question
There is no answer except in my dreams
Sometimes You Can Put It Out/The Rossington-Collins Band: For those of us in 1980 still mourning the tragedy of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash three years earlier, The Rossington-Collins Band was a helpful balm. It was made up of band survivors, Gary Rossington and Allen Collins (guitars), Leon Wilkeson (bass) and Billy Powell (piano). Other players filled out the lineup with Rossington's wife, Dale Krantz, serving as lead vocalist. It was a brilliant move at the time to have a female on vocals out of reverence for the loss of Ronnie Van Zant, the voice of Skynyrd's legacy. Krantz brought her own style and grit to the proceedings; it was just what was needed. The band put out two fine albums and the song here is off the first, Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere. Sometimes You Can Put It Out has a positive approach to life theme that doesn't come through as schmaltzy. The musicianship of the players is stupidly good. In the late 80s in Memphis, I was friends with a guy who was also a music fool. He was a drummer in a band and I'd go see them play now and then. We talked a lot of music. He made me a couple of mix-tapes that featured songs he thought I might not be familiar with. He said, “You gotta hear this one song by Rossington-Collins” and told me its name. “Oh,” I said, “I'm well aware of it.” Then we both laughed about how crazy good it was and the cherry on top being its jaw-dropping final minute outro of the guitars. It's fun when you run across a kindred weirdo. It's a good memory about a good song that always picks me up when I hear it.
Sometimes I wake up feelin' I could conquer anything
Sometimes I wake feelin' like I'm hangin' by a string
Aw but stretch that tight wire over the city
I know the walk is dangerous but the view is so pretty.
Anyone else?