For some reason this weekend, this old Tom T. Hall song entered my ADD-rattled brain and I've had trouble getting it off my mind. A quick search this morning showed me I'm not completely alone (see this lady's blog about the song and her family).
In the song, the singer stops in a hotel bar in Miami for a quick drink before bed. He sounds like he'd prefer to be alone, but someone sits down beside him and begins to talk. Man, I hate it when that happens. But the singer learns something from the visitor as he explains "Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime..." ...wait for it... "...But old dogs and children, and watermelon wine."
Hall has many songs that I love, including his hit "I Love". Some of his songs are funny, one that my kids have heard me sing a lot is "Sneaky Snake". I also like "Faster Horses" (another song about the virtues in life, in this case "faster horses, younger women, older whiskey and more money").
Probably my favorite song by Hall is the simple melody "I Like Beer". But of course a paragraph on simple melodies would be incomplete without the mention of the song "That Song is Driving me Crazy" - ever get a song stuck in your head and it won't leave? - this song will stay in your head for weeks.
Rhapsody describes Tom T. Hall as "story teller, poet, philosopher." I think when I die, I'd like to be known as a philospher (it would be even better to be thought that way now - but the pay isn't what it used to be). You can read the lyrics and even listen to "Watermelon Wine" on Rhapsody's site here.
Showing posts with label Country Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Country Music. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Thursday, March 26, 2009
What words do you bleep out?
Earlier this week I was listening to the radio when the song "I Put Your Picture Away" came on. The song is performed by Kid Rock and Sheryl Crow, lyrics can be found here and a music video can be found here (video starts playing automatically, so use care in a work environment). I've always thought the song was a good one. Kid Rock could make a good country singer if his songs contained trucks, trains or references to Willie Nelson (which this song almost does).
While listening, I realized that the station bleeped out (or more accurately wiped out) one word. In the song, Kid Rock sings about needing "a good girl to miss me" and being away from the one he loves. To get through the pain, he's with a "different girl every night at the hotel" and he's "been fuelin' up on cocaine and whiskey." The word cocaine was wiped out so that he says he's "been fuelin' up on whiskey." Ahh the beauty of digital editing.
Now I do believe promoting drug use in a song is a bad idea, but I also noticed that there were some four letter words that were not clipped. Admittedly, the two words that are used are words you could hear in church Sunday morning, even from the pulpit (but probably with different intent). But these aren't words I would use in front of my mother or my children - and that's the standard I try to use.
I confess that I tend to be more sensitive to four letter words than the average American. But it made me wonder - what words do you bleep out? No I'm not asking you to post them here, my mother and my children read my blog. But if you have any bleeping comments I'd like to hear them.
While listening, I realized that the station bleeped out (or more accurately wiped out) one word. In the song, Kid Rock sings about needing "a good girl to miss me" and being away from the one he loves. To get through the pain, he's with a "different girl every night at the hotel" and he's "been fuelin' up on cocaine and whiskey." The word cocaine was wiped out so that he says he's "been fuelin' up on whiskey." Ahh the beauty of digital editing.
Now I do believe promoting drug use in a song is a bad idea, but I also noticed that there were some four letter words that were not clipped. Admittedly, the two words that are used are words you could hear in church Sunday morning, even from the pulpit (but probably with different intent). But these aren't words I would use in front of my mother or my children - and that's the standard I try to use.
I confess that I tend to be more sensitive to four letter words than the average American. But it made me wonder - what words do you bleep out? No I'm not asking you to post them here, my mother and my children read my blog. But if you have any bleeping comments I'd like to hear them.
Friday, November 23, 2007
I Walk the Line
We received the DVD I Walk the Line two years ago for Christmas. Someone in the family borrowed it and it went from one set of children to another for a while. We finally got it back a couple of months ago and finally sat down to watch it last night.
I have to confess, I wasn't impressed. Oh, the music was great. The fact that Joaquin Phoenix and Resse Witherspoon did their own music was quite impressive. The views of other singers of that era was also impressive. Reading the credits afterwards and realizing that Waylon Jenning's son played Waylon was cool.
But I was unimpressed with the story line. I'm sure it's true (most of the notes I've read about it indicate it was true, but possibly unfair to his first wife), but it was depressing to me. It turns out that the man who wrote the song "I Walk the Line" simply didn't.
While Johnny's first wife was at home raising his four daughters (including singer Roseanne Cash), Johnny was out on the road not walking the line. Instead he met and fell in love with his second wife, June Carter. The movie also showed him somewhat involved with two other women.
To me the central part of the movie will forever be Johnny's "Cheatin Heart" (Hank Williams song). Why is it that a man should leave the wife of his youth to seek out a new one? Why is it that a man can't stick with the woman who stuck by him?
I also didn't like the issue with Johnny's father. Throughout the movie Johnny sought his father's approval. He never got it (the scene at the end implies that may have changed). Instead, his father always saw the cloud instead of the silver lining. Whenever Johnny did something good, someone else did something better.
But why should an adult Johnny blame his father for his problems? Why not accept the blame himself? At what point to we become our own person, responsible for our own lives, and not our father's children? No, the movie never blamed the father, but I hear a lot of viewers simultaneously saying "See, my dad was the same way."
Where's the movie about a guy that stayed with his wife, through good times and bad? A movie about a man who loved his mother and father in spite of their failures? A movie about a man who realizes that he is of his own making?
I have to admit, I don't see where the movie was unfair to his first wife. Sure she was a little bit whiney in the beginning. When they couldn't pay bills and were ready to be evicted, Johnny was squandering money on music magazines (including mags with cover pictures of future wife June Carter), Vivian wanted to go see her daddy. Ok, she should have "stood by her man" (Tammy Wynette) and suppoorted him, but somehow a mother of 1.5 children has a right to whine.
Vivian stood by her children and even was right to tell the young divorcee to "stay away from my girls." I hope to read her side of the story in the book "I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny."
I have to confess, I wasn't impressed. Oh, the music was great. The fact that Joaquin Phoenix and Resse Witherspoon did their own music was quite impressive. The views of other singers of that era was also impressive. Reading the credits afterwards and realizing that Waylon Jenning's son played Waylon was cool.
But I was unimpressed with the story line. I'm sure it's true (most of the notes I've read about it indicate it was true, but possibly unfair to his first wife), but it was depressing to me. It turns out that the man who wrote the song "I Walk the Line" simply didn't.
While Johnny's first wife was at home raising his four daughters (including singer Roseanne Cash), Johnny was out on the road not walking the line. Instead he met and fell in love with his second wife, June Carter. The movie also showed him somewhat involved with two other women.
To me the central part of the movie will forever be Johnny's "Cheatin Heart" (Hank Williams song). Why is it that a man should leave the wife of his youth to seek out a new one? Why is it that a man can't stick with the woman who stuck by him?
I also didn't like the issue with Johnny's father. Throughout the movie Johnny sought his father's approval. He never got it (the scene at the end implies that may have changed). Instead, his father always saw the cloud instead of the silver lining. Whenever Johnny did something good, someone else did something better.
But why should an adult Johnny blame his father for his problems? Why not accept the blame himself? At what point to we become our own person, responsible for our own lives, and not our father's children? No, the movie never blamed the father, but I hear a lot of viewers simultaneously saying "See, my dad was the same way."
Where's the movie about a guy that stayed with his wife, through good times and bad? A movie about a man who loved his mother and father in spite of their failures? A movie about a man who realizes that he is of his own making?
I have to admit, I don't see where the movie was unfair to his first wife. Sure she was a little bit whiney in the beginning. When they couldn't pay bills and were ready to be evicted, Johnny was squandering money on music magazines (including mags with cover pictures of future wife June Carter), Vivian wanted to go see her daddy. Ok, she should have "stood by her man" (Tammy Wynette) and suppoorted him, but somehow a mother of 1.5 children has a right to whine.
Vivian stood by her children and even was right to tell the young divorcee to "stay away from my girls." I hope to read her side of the story in the book "I Walked the Line: My Life With Johnny."
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