I can throw a CD (or iPod) full of Steely Dan songs in the car and drive for hours. And that is the “shiver” quality that I get from Deacon Blues: Somewhere between the music and lyrics, I found something of myself, even though I know it has nothing at all to do with me. Maybe I’m wrong…who knows what Donald Fagen was thinking when he wrote it…I’m sure I don’t! For me personally, this is a perfect example of how I stamped my own meaning on a song lyric. All of their songs all have a sophisticated jazz style of music married with irreverent lyrics, but the lyrics in Deacon Blues somehow seem more personal. My all time favourite Steely Dan song is Deacon Blues. A few years later, Steely Dan had a big hit with “ Rikki Don’t Lose That Number” and that’s what started my love affair with their music. I played in a cover band then that had a brass section and we were always looking for songs with brass parts, so the first Steely Dan song I learned was “ Pretzel Logic“. I want this song played at MY funeral!Īnother band that I was turned on to in the 70’s was Steely Dan. The kicker is the phrase “so long old gal”. Nobody can write like James Taylor, and this whole song gave me shivers, but the chorus does it especially: Don’t we all have f***ed up families? The song itself is a kind of sentimental send off to a real character by the name of Alice. The 2nd to last line made me laugh out loud when I first heard it. I read an interview with James about this song, and he said that he decided to change the character to a female “Alice” and give his personal connection to it a little distance. James’ brother Alex died in 1993 and this song is really about him. I have to add a James Taylor song, and there are so many obvious ones, so rather than being predictable I’m going to introduce you to a song from his 1997 album called “ Hourglass“. It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of James, and his voice, again, is just perfect for this song. Listening again to James Taylor’s version gives it a whole new feel. An interesting thing about this song is that it has no chorus, but a repeated phrase or refrain “and the Witchita Lineman is still on the line.” The chord changes are gorgeous and unpredictable, especially in the 3rd line of the verses when, having come from a Gm7 in the previous, it changes to Dm7, Am7 and then comes back to a G major. His voice was beautiful and plaintive, perfect for the subject of this song. And of course, there was Glen’s little guitar riff at the beginning, and his solo half way through mirroring the melody is just magic. The Glen Campbell version was pretty 60’s-sounding with its string section prominently coming in at the beginning and throughout the recording. There are a gazillion things I love about this song. When I saw JT live here in Victoria a couple of years back, I nearly fell off my chair when he performed this song! Here is Glen Campbell’s version: Other artists have also covered this song, including one of my favourites, James Taylor. Glen Campbell had a hit with “ Witchita Lineman” in 1968, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t hear it until later than that. The next song is probably on a lot of songwriter’s lists simply because it was written by songwriting guru Jimmy Webb. And the idea of being dizzy with infatuation was also pretty appealing. ![]() The chorus modulating in the second line was the little musical bit that was, at that time, magic to my ears. It so happened that I picked up a guitar for the first time at the same age, and I was exposed to this new and crazy thing called radio around about then too! You can listen to the song first, if you like, and then I’ll tell you what that special something was in this song for me: Dizzy became a huge hit for Tommy in 1969, so that means I was 12 years old when I first heard it. The first in my list had to be the very first song I fell in love with, “ Dizzy” by Tommy Roe. As a songwriter, you realize the value of writing something that will stick with your listeners, and I decided to evaluate each one for that special something that made me shiver. I know…who cares what my favourite all time songs are? Well, to tell you the truth, I saw somebody else do a similar list so I decided why not me? The interesting thing about going through my lists and lists of songs was in realizing how each one represented a different time in my life, but they also reflect how my tastes changed.
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