But I don’t identify Mr Keen with the tune. Years ago, Joe Ely was set to close the Houston International Festival. Word was, he would do an acoustic, solo set. But they kept setting up more mikes & amps on the stage as we waited. So he came out with one of his kickass bands (guess they had nothing better to do in Austin that night). And opened the show with “The Road Goes On Forever”–the first time most of us had heard it.
Mr. Bojangles written by Jerry Jeff Walker. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band probably did the most famous recording but Sammy Davis Jr. had one of the most moving.
I knew a man Bojangles and he’d dance for you
In worn out shoes
With silver hair, a ragged shirt, and baggy pants
The old soft shoe
He jumped so high, jumped so high
Then he lightly touched down
I think I might have a penchant for evocative and sentimental songs of narrative and imagery.
One song that I always rave about for many different reasons is Elbow’s “Scattered Black and Whites” I do so again now, and will keep doing so until its brilliance is acknowledged.
And of course Squeeze are always worth recommending.
She uncrews the top of a new whisky bottle,
Shuffles about in her candlelit hovel.
Like some kind of witch,
With blue fingers in mittens.
She smells like the cat,
and the neighbours she sickens.
“… I watched you undress
Wearing your sunset of purple tightly woven around your hair
That rose in strangled ebony curls…
…
…a yellow cat runs out on the stream of hall light and into the yard
A wooden cherry scent is faintly breathing the air…”
**Robert Earl Keen **“Shades of Grey”
“…There were men and dogs and helicopter buzzin’ all around
They had the brothers on the pickup hood and me down on the ground
Bob flew all to pieces but Randy he held tight
When a black man in a suit and tie stepped out into the light
He told his men to turn us loose
They put down their guns
He said these are just some sorry kids, they ain’t the ones…”
Also John Eddie but it’s a 3-way tie between “Jesus is Comin’” “Family Tree” and “Let Me Down Hard” and I’ve probably used up my quoting-copywritten-stuff quota for one thread.
“It’s late September and I really should be back at school.”
I can practically smell the fallen leaves and fireplaces and feel the chilly weather and the feeling of beginning a new semester of school, when I hear this line. The rest of the song doesn’t really paint a picture, but this one line sets it up perfectly.
Radio Radio:
I was tuning in the shine on the light night dial
Doing anything my radio advised
With every one of those late night stations
Playing songs bringing tears to my eyes
I was seriously thinking about hiding the receiver
When the switch broke 'cause it’s old
Yup, it really says western Kentucky, and I realize the location is a bit… off. But I guess it was hard to fit Lexington in there and get the correct rythem.
It is still a very moving, emotional song to me, when Secterariat died, one of the sports shows made a video to that song using film clips of his life in it… I bawled like a baby.
“Pushing through the market square, so many mothers sighing.
News had just come over, we had five years left to cry in.
News guy wept and told us, earth was really dying.
Cried so much his face was wet, then I knew he was not lying…”
Actually, I think you have misunderstood the imagery.
Reading the spoiler might seriously upset you.
[spoiler] The protagonist’s wife, Michelle, had an affair with protagonist’s lifelong friend, Emil. The protagonist has killed Emil, and is currently awaiting execution.
It’s an adaptation of a French song. The meaning is clearer in the original. [/spoiler]
I’m not sure I buy that. First, a small nitpick. In Brel’s version the affair was with Antoine, not with Emile. I have a fairly low proficiency for reading French, but my reading, with assistance from Google’s translation, is that both Emile and Antoine are still alive, since the singer is telling them to “take care of” his wife, albeit in different ways. McKuen’s translation, as recorded by the Kingston Trio, seems to combine the two men into one character. But even then, I don’t see any indication that any of the people that the singer is addressing (Emile, Papa, Francoise) is dead. And then Terry Jacks’ version completely cuts out Francoise, completely changing the meaning of the song. I can see a possible argument for your interpretation in the original or in the Kingston Trio version, but not in the Terry Jacks recording.
For my own contribution, I would have mentioned Springsteen if he hadn’t already been mentioned. I want to add a good chunk of the works of the Hold Steady (who are hugely influenced by Springsteen). Like Springsteen, singer Craig Finn’s lyrics reference individuals who are largely rejected by society, but he paints a much harsher and often unpleasant picture. But it is vivid.
“Your Little Hoodrat Friend”
“Your little hoodrat friend’s been calling me again
And I can’t stand all the things that she sticks into her skin
Like sharpened ballpoint pens and steel guitar strings
She says it hurts, but it’s worth it
Tiny little text etched into her neck it said
‘Jesus lived and died for all your sins’
She’s got blue black ink and it’s scratched into her lower back
It said, ‘Damn right I’ll rise again’
Yeah, damn right you’ll rise again”