And speaking of change, this is one of my favorite songs. There aren’t a lot of songs in which the artist’s rendition and the song are so completely identified but this is one of them.
And speaking of change, this is one of my favorite songs. There aren’t a lot of songs in which the artist’s rendition and the song are so completely identified but this is one of them.
It’s gratifying to hear someone sing a song with such phrasing and skill, with such a distinctive voice, and with no digital trickery. Just a man and a microphone – the way God intended.
I love Sam Cooke. Taken far too young.
I’ve reached the age where I start noticing the greats we lose along the way. There are people like Christopher Hitchens, Roger Ebert, Steve Jobs, George Carlin whose deaths have left me really missing their unique (non-musical) voices. BB King is dead, Bowie, half the Beatles are gone (and Paul’s voice is shot), Gandolfini, Alan Rickman, too many big talents with too few replacements.
How much fun would Hitchens be having with this election? How great a set would Carlin do on ‘trigger warnings,’ and ‘micro-aggressions?’ How many more movies would Rickman have stolen just by turning his sneer on the camera? How many young guitar-players will never get a chance to sit beside BB King and learn how to really play the blues?
The ones I’m dreading are Mick and Keith. When they go the sixties and the seventies and the boomers are officially part of history and a big page will turn.
One of my high school buddies used to sneak out at night, go across the river, and sit in with Muddy Waters. He’s now one of Canada’s foremost blues musicians.