Tag: Bob Dylan

Will I See You Tonight?

May 11, 2020 / C R Burgan

“Outside another yellow moon
Has punched a hole in the nighttime, yes
I climb through the window and down to the street
I’m shining like a new dime” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits) © Audiam, Inc

Thomas Alan Waits was born December 7, 1949, in Pomona, California. He has one older sister and one younger sister. Tom’s mother was a housewife and attended church regularly; his father taught Spanish at a local school and was an alcoholic. He spent his early life in Whittier, California, where he learned to play bugle and guitar. His father taught him to play the ukulele.

During summer school breaks young Tom would spend time with his maternal grandparents in Northern California. Later he would credit his uncle’s raspy, gravelly voice for inspiring what has become his trademark singing style.

When Tom was 10 years old, his parents separated with his father moving away from the family; his mother soon moved with the children to Chula Vista, a suburb of San Diego. It was here that Tom began exploring music to a greater degree. Before long he was fronting bands, imitating the soul and R&B artists of the day, while also showing interest in country music and roots rock ‘n’ roll. Later Bob Dylan would become a big influence with Tom studying the folk icon’s lyrics by writing them on his bedroom wall.

During his high school years Tom would later describe himself as “kind of an amateur juvenile delinquent”, dabbling in “malicious mischief”. He claims he was a “rebel against the rebels”, as he could not subscribe to the philosophies of the hippie subculture that was emerging across the country. Having acquired instead an affinity for the writings of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs, he felt a much stronger kinship to the Beat generation of the 1950s.

At the age of 18 Tom dropped out of high school.

“The downtown trains are full
Full of all those Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

Waits worked for a time at Napoleone’s pizza restaurant in National City, California; a job that he referenced in his song, “I Can’t Wait to Get Off Work”, and as a solo artist he was soon playing local folk venues and coffeehouses, eventually supporting acts such as Tim Buckley, Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee, and his friend Jack Tempchin. But knowing that playing in San Diego would only ever take him so far, he began driving up the coast to Los Angeles, to play at the Troubadour.

It was while playing at the Troubadour that Tom would first sign a publishing deal, and later would meet David Geffen, who gave Tom a contract with his Asylum Records label.

David Geffen © Joel Bernstein
Asylum Records

“Well, you wave your hand and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that will ever capture your heart
They’re just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

The first time I saw Tom Waits perform, or ever even heard of him for that matter, was on The Mike Douglas Show. Mike Douglas was a former singer who had sung for the Kay Kyser big band during the swing era, and was also the singing voice of Prince Charming in Walt Disney’s Cinderella. He went on to host his own syndicated afternoon variety show. At its peak The Mike Douglas Show was broadcast in 171 markets, with an estimated six million viewers.

Waits appeared on Douglas’ show on November 19, 1976. His appearance was to promote his album, Small Change, which had been released several months earlier. After being introduced by the host, Waits played “Eggs & Sausage” from his previous album, Night Hawks at the Diner, accompanied by a small combo. He then took a seat next to Douglas, with additional guests Glenda Jackson and Marvin Hamlisch looking on.

After telling his guest that he “project(s) a very strange image”, Douglas asks Waits how he would describe himself. Among other things Waits offers, “I’m an unemployed service station attendant most of the time. I’m just lucky. I’m a living, breathing example of success without college, is what it boils down to.” Further along in the interview Douglas asks Waits whether he likes to be classified as a poet or singer, to which he replies, “I’m a Methodist deep down inside. It’s hard to say”.

Later in the show, Waits performs the title track from Small Change accompanied by a saxophone. If you’ve never heard this “song” I suggest you look it up. It will help you understand how jarring this performance was to my early teen Top 40 sensibilities.

“I know your window and I know it’s late
I know your stairs and your doorway
I walk down your street and past your gate
I stand by the light at the four-way” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

To say that Tom Waits’ voice and music are an acquired taste is probably somewhat of an understatement. Many people will never get that far. It wasn’t until more than a decade after my initial exposure that I came to appreciate his talents as a songwriter, if not as a bona vox.

Although Waits rarely gives interviews, when he does sit with a writer it’s typically questionable whether you’re getting the man or his carefully crafted shtick. Because I admire Tom Waits’ songwriting ability, I’ve always been curious how he feels about other artists recording his compositions. It’s easy to say that many of Tom’s songs would be improved when rendered by a friendlier voice, although that may seem blasphemous to Waits purists.

Surely the exposure that he has received from having his songs recorded by others has not hurt his career any. Using as an example “Ol’ ’55”, the first track from his debut album Closing Time, which was subsequently recorded by The Eagles: Waits version of his song was released as a single, but neither the song, nor the album charted; while The Eagles album On the Border, which contained their version of Waits’ song, reached #17 on the Billboard 200 chart, and was certified double platinum, with sales of 2 million units.

When asked about The Eagles recording of “Ol’ ’55” Waits commented that he was “not that particularly crazy about (their) rendition of it … I thought their version was a little antiseptic”.

Later he would remark, “I don’t like the Eagles. They’re about as exciting as watching paint dry. Their albums are good for keeping the dust off your turntable and that’s about all.”

Tom is certainly entitled to his opinion, but there is no doubt that other artists – respected by him, or otherwise – have generated a significant amount of income for the prolific songwriter.

“You watch them as the fall
Oh baby, they all have heart attacks
They stay at the carnival
But they’ll never win you back” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

“Downtown Train” is a song from Waits’ 1985 album release Rain Dogs. The album was written and recorded while he was making his home in NYC, and there is no denying the New York grittiness inherent in each of the album’s selections. The lyrics of the song conjure a damp, shadowy urban nightscape, punctuated by the glare and roar of a night train, where the narrator waits to have his desperate desire and longing fulfilled by a perception that may be nothing more than an implausible apparition. But still he waits and asks the same question over and over.

“Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
Every night it’s just the same
You leave me lonely, now” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits)

“Downtown Train” soon drew the attention of other artists. Patty Smyth was the first to record the song, releasing her version in 1987. While Tom Waits had never had one of his own recordings crack the Billboard Hot 100 chart, Smyth’s cover rose to #95. Mary Chapin Carpenter included a version on her debut album, also released in 1987.

Patty Smyth
Mary Chapin Carpenter

Rod Stewart included the song as a last minute addition to his Storyteller anthology, a 4-disc boxed set with recordings spanning his entire career to that point. Stewart’s version of “Downtown Train” reached #3 on the Hot 100, with the anthology reaching #54 on the album charts, and being certified double platinum. It was a number-one single on the album rock and adult contemporary charts, went to number one in Canada and made the top ten on the UK Singles Chart in 1990. Stewart received a Grammy nomination for the song in the category Best Male Pop Vocal performance.

Rod Stewart
Bob Seger

Bob Seger recorded his own version of the song in 1989, but decided against releasing it after Stewart’s version hit the market. He would later include the track on his 2011 compilation Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets.

I know that some are not necessarily fond of Rod Stewart’s cover of “Downtown Train”. It’s been criticized for being too pop; too overblown. I happen to be a fan of Rod’s version, particularly for the over-the-top production from Trevor Horn. It satisfies my pop sweet tooth, with a nod to Phil Spector’s “wall of sound” in the bridge. Being a fan of Rod’s voice, I can identify with the longing he portrays in the final chorus, as strains of the instrumental “train” fade away down the track.

But don’t let it be said that I am not a fan of Tom’s version. Nobody does stripped-down, urban angst as he does, playing the eccentric vagrant as no one can; and being a fan of film noir I love the imagery of Tom’s accompanying video (featuring a cameo from the Raging Bull himself, Jake LaMotta). The fact that other artists have covered the song with their own versions speaks to its ability to convey emotion, and being relatable to a wide and varied audience.

And there is no doubt that – good, bad, or indifferent – these various covers of Tom’s original songs have brought the song writer a considerable amount scratch!

“Will I see you tonight
On a downtown train?
All of my dreams just fall like rain
On a downtown train” – Downtown Train (Tom Waits) © Audiam, Inc

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downtown_Train

https://www.songfacts.com/facts/rod-stewart/downtown-train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Waits

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

Bring in the Workers and Bring Up the Rails

February 3, 2020 / C R Burgan

”There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real” – Canadian Railroad Trilogy (Lightfoot) © Warner/Chappell Music

Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. was born November 17, 1938, in Orillia, Ontario, Canada, to Gordon Lightfoot, Sr, and Jessie Vick Trill Lightfoot. Recognizing Gordon’s musical talent at an early age, his mother schooled him into a successful young singer, performing with various choral groups at local festivals. Winning a vocal competition at the age of twelve, he made his first performance at Massy Hall in Toronto.

In his teenage years Lightfoot learned piano, and taught himself how to play drums & percussion, as well as folk guitar. He has stated that a formative influence for him during this period was 19^th-century American songwriter Stephen Foster. His athletic abilities as an accomplished track-and-field competitor, as well as his scholastic aptitude, helped him earn entrance to McGill University’s Schulich School of Music and the University of Toronto, Faculty of Music.

In his early 20s Lightfoot moved to California, where he spent two years studying jazz composition and orchestration at Hollywood’s Westlake College of Music. While there he supported himself by singing on demo recordings and writing, arranging, and producing commercial jingles. But missing Canada, Lightfoot returned to Toronto in 1960.

Pete Seeger
Ian and Sylvia
The Weavers

Now influenced by the folk music of Pete Seeger, Bob Gibson, Ian and Sylvia Tyson, and The Weavers, Lightfoot began performing with various groups, soon making a name for himself on the Toronto folk music circuit.

Lightfoot traveled in Europe and the United Kingdom, where for one year he hosted BBC TV’s Country and Western Show. Returning to Canada in 1964, he began earning a reputation as a songwriter. Ian and Sylvia Tyson recorded Lightfoot’s tunes, “Early Morning Rain” and “For Lovin’ Me”; a year later both songs were recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary; other performers would eventually record one or both of these songs, including Elvis Presley, Chad & Jeremy, George Hamilton IV, The Clancy Brothers, and the Johnny Mann Singers.

In 1965 Lightfoot signed a management deal with Albert Grossman, who managed Bob Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, as well as other notable folk acts. Also signing a recording deal with United Artists, he released his debut album, Lightfoot!, in 1966.

“For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road runnin’ from thesea to the sea
Bringin’ the goods to a young growin’ land
All up from the seaports and into their hands” – Canadian Railroad Trilogy (Lightfoot)

To kick off the celebration of Canada’s centennial year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation commissioned Gordon Lightfoot to write “Canadian Railroad Trilogy”, as part of a special broadcast scheduled for January 1, 1967. The song, written over a period of three days, describes the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the early 1880s.

The Canadian Pacific Railway was incorporated in 1881. It was Canada’s first transcontinental railroad. Built between 1881 and 1885, it connected eastern Canada with British Columbia. Now primarily a freight hauling railway, it was for decades the only reliable means of passenger travel to remote areas of Canada’s western provinces, and played a significant role in the development of that region.

Lightfoot’s song documents the ambitions and optimism of a young nation, eager to connect its individual provinces with a means to flourish with the anticipated prosperity of a dawning industrial age. He sings of a vast majestic and verdant land, soon to be tamed by men with steel hammers; soon to be bound by iron rails. The song was written with three distinct sections: a slow & poignant middle section, framed by more strident & faster paced sections at the beginning & end. Mimicking a locomotive as it slowly builds up a head of steam, the first section of the song gradually increases in tempo. Once again, after the measured pace of the middle section, the locomotive gains steam as it highballs toward the song’s reflective finale.

Of his now classic composition, Lightfoot has remarked: I played it for the CBC guy live at his desk before I recorded it. This was part of a two-hour special that was played on New Year’s afternoon. I got the idea to write it long from a mentor of mine named Bob Gibson, who is a major figure in the folk revival. He had written a song called “Civil War Trilogy,” which had a slow part in the middle, and I followed that pattern. Without a piece of input like that, I probably wouldn’t have been able to approach the song on that basis. The song says a lot. Canadian author Pierre Berton said to me, “You know, Gord, you said as much in that song as I said in my book [about the building of the railroad across Canada].” I appreciated the compliment.

Lightfoot has also mentioned a list of about nine of his songs which he always includes in his live performances, with “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” being among those songs.

When I asked my older brother Randy – the most avid Gordon Lightfoot fan I know – for some insights about “Trilogy”, he remarked on Gordon’s storytelling-style of songwriting. This led me to reflect on the bards of yore, whose fame originated from their tradition of oral storytelling, the ability to recount epic tales poetically in rhythm & rhyme as an intrinsic element of their societal culture. Clearly this is a songwriting style that Gordon Lightfoot has mastered, and inspired in others. Several years ago I set about writing a song to tell the story of a Civil War train wreck, and immediately I considered how Lightfoot, in his own song, had recounted the story of the shipwreck of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald; certainly a model worth referencing.

Gordon Lightfoot rerecorded “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” with full orchestration for his 1975 compilation album, Gord’s Gold; live versions appear on two of his live album releases. The song has been covered by John Mellencamp and George Hamilton IV, among others, with James Keelaghan performing the song on the Lightfoot tribute album, Beautiful. In an interview with The Telegraph, Lightfoot indicated that upon meeting Queen Elizabeth II, she had told how him much she enjoyed the song.

“Drivin’ ’em in and tyin’ ’em down
Away to the bunkhouse and into the town
A dollar a day and a place for my head
A drink to the livin’ and a toast to the dead” – Canadian Railroad Trilogy

While compiling material for this post I listened to “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” on YouTube numerous times. As I scrolled through the comments that had been posted there I was struck by the impact this song has had on many listeners and felt compelled to include a few:

Strapper Nick – I’m sure this tune has extra special meaning to Gordon’s fellow native Canadians, but I’m an American who loves it just as much. It’s my favorite Lightfoot song and I never tire of listening to it. It just stays in my head.

David Nyro – I’m not Canadian but the very moment I heard this song, a young man in college, it touched my soul. Yes, it’s proudly Canadian, but I think it’s universal. It touches on the mythic and the yearning of any new country.

Craig Perry – History never sounded so good and interesting until sung by Gord !

Jerry – I NEVER get tired of this incredible classic!!!

“Oh the song of the future has been sung
All the battles have been won
O’er the mountain tops, we stand
All the world at our command
We have opened up the soil
With our teardrops and our toil” – Canadian Railroad Trilogy

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Railroad_Trilogy

http://gordonlightfoot.com/songbookcommentsabouthissongs.shtml

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lightfoot

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Railway

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

The Singing Brakeman

October 10, 2019 / C R Burgan

“All around the water tank
Waiting for a train
A thousand miles away from home
Sleeping in the rain” – Waiting for a Train (Jimmie Rodgers) © Peermusic Publishing

Born on September 8, 1897, in Meridian, Mississippi, James Charles Rodgers has become known as “The Father of Country Music”. While he certainly didn’t invent the musical form, Rodgers, along with his contemporaries The Carter Family popularized the genre during the early days of radio and phonograph recordings. Though he also dabbled in folk, blues and jazz, it is for his accomplishments in bringing the traditional, nostalgic music of rural white people in the American South to the attention of a nation that would prove to have a huge appetite for this common strain of musical communication.

Rodgers’ mother died when he was six or seven, and he subsequently spent much of his youth living with various extended family in rural Mississippi & Alabama. Destined to be an entertainer, he had by the age of thirteen already spent time on the road organizing and performing in traveling shows, only to be tracked down and brought home by his father, Aaron Rodgers, a maintenance-of-way foreman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.

His father found young Jimmie his first job working on the railroad as a water boy. It was during this period that he was taught guitar technique by other rail workers and hoboes that he encountered on the job. As a water boy he would also have been exposed to the work chants of black gandy dancers. A few years later, through his older brother, Walter, he became a brakeman on the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad.

“I walked up to a brakeman gave him a line of talk
He said if you’ve got money boy I’ll see that you don’t walk
I haven’t got a nickel, not a penny can I show
Get off, get off you railroad bum and he slammed the boxcar door” – Waiting for a Train (Rodgers)

In 1924, at age 27, Rodgers was diagnosed with tuberculosis. After a period the disease would cause him to give up working for the railroad, and he eventually returned to entertaining.

By 1927 Rodgers had returned to Meridian, MS, where he settled in with his wife Carrie and daughter Anita. April of that year found him in Asheville, North Carolina, where he performed on that city’s first radio station, WWNC, which would eventually lead to a weekly radio show for him and a band that he had cobbled together. In July of ’27 Rodgers would make his first recordings for Ralph Peer, a representative of the Victor Talking Machine Company, in Camden, New Jersey. Though success from those initial recordings was modest, he would return to New Jersey in November, armed with original songs co-written with his sister-in-law, Elsie Williams, who would eventually become his most frequent collaborator, writing or co-writing 40 songs for Rodgers.

One of the sides cut during this second series of sessions was “Blue Yodel”, also known as “T for Texas”. Over the next two years it would sell nearly half a million copies, cementing his place as one of the top recording stars of that era.

The next few years found Rodgers continuing to cut new records. He made a movie short for Columbia Pictures, The Singing Brakeman, toured the Midwest with Will Rogers, even made a recording of “Blue Yodel No. 9”, accompanied by Louis Armstrong on trumpet, and his wife, Lil Harden Armstrong on piano.

“He put me off in Texas a state I dearly love
The wide-open spaces all around me the moon and stars up above
Nobody seems to want me or to lend me a helping hand
I’m on my way from Frisco going back to Dixie Land” – Waiting for a Train (Rodgers)

Rodgers died May 26, 1933, at the age of 35, from a pulmonary hemorrhage. At the time of his death his recordings accounted for fully 10% of RCA Victor’s sales, in a market that had been severely impacted by the Great Depression. When the Country Music Hall of Fame was established in 1961, Rodgers was one of the first three inductees, along with music publisher/songwriter Fred Rose and singer/songwriter Hank Williams. Rodgers was inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 as an early influence, and inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2013. Merle Haggard recorded a tribute album, Same Train, A Different Time: Merle Haggard Sings The Great Songs of Jimmie Rodgers, while Lynyrd Skynyrd named both Haggard and Rodgers in their song “Railroad Song” (“I’m going to ride this train, Lord, until I find out, what Jimmie Rodgers and the Hag was all about”).

On Haggard’s album, Same Train, A Different Time, in a spoken introduction, the singer refers to Rodgers as “the most important man, who ever sang a country song”.

On May 24, 1978, the United States Postal Service issued a 13-cent commemorative stamp honoring Rodgers, the first in its long-running Performing Arts Series. The stamp depicted him in brakeman’s outfit and guitar, giving his “two thumbs up” (as in one of the famous photos of him), along with a locomotive in silhouette in the background.

Chester Arthur Burnett, better known as Howlin’ Wolf, tried to emulate Rodgers’s yodel, but found that his efforts sounded more like a growl or a howl. “I couldn’t do no yodelin’,” Barry Gifford quoted him as saying in Rolling Stone, “so I turned to howlin’. And it’s done me just fine.”

Bob Dylan wrote in the liner notes to a 1997 tribute album: “Jimmie Rodgers, of course, is one of the guiding lights of the twentieth century, whose way with song has always been an inspiration to those of us who have followed the path. … He was a performer of force without precedent with a sound as lonesome and mystical as it was dynamic. He gives hope to the vanquished and humility to the mighty.”

The professional recording & performing career for which Jimmie Rodgers is remembered and revered lasted barely six years, and yet his influence is still felt nearly a century later by those who remain inspired by his musical legacy, and feel driven to pay tribute to the “Singing Brakeman” in their own personal way.

“Though my pocketbook is empty
And my heart is full of pain
I’m a thousand miles away from home
Just a-waiting for a train” – Waiting for a Train (Jimmie Rodgers) © Peermusic Publishing

Sources:

http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/39/jimmie-rodgers-the-father-of-country-music

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-d&q=Jimmie+Rodgers+%28country+singer%29+%E2%80%93+Wikipedia

All photos sourced through internet searches, unless otherwise noted