Dark Hollow

SONG Dark Hollow

WRITTEN BY Bill Browning

PERFORMED BY Bill Browning, The Grateful Dead

APPEARS ON B-side to "Borned With the Blues" (1958);
Bear's Choice (History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1) (1973), Three from the Vault (2007), others

I couldn't find out much about the history of this song. I first heard it on the Grateful Dead's Bear's Choice, an album critically derided on its release in 1973, although it did offer their first release of "Dark Hollow." I assumed for years that it was either a traditional number or borrowed from someone like Lefty Frizell.

But, according to the Grateful Dead Lyric & Song Finder, "Dark Hollow" was actually the B-side of a single recorded in 1958 by one Bill Browning. Other than that he was from Wayne County, West Virginia, fronted a rockabilly band called the Echo Valley Boys, and passed away in 1978 at the ripe young age of 57, not much is known about Browning. How an unknown late-50's B-side came to the attention of the Dead's Bob Weir is equally a mystery, although Bobby has a gift for discovering and elevating obscurities: After he learned "Me & My Uncle" from John Phillips, it became the most performed song in the Dead's catalog even though Phillips himself never recorded it.

However Weir came across "Dark Hollow," he knew a winner when he heard one. It's a song about madness and the fever of unrequited love, and how the former -- signified by the dark hollow -- is preferable to the latter. Punctuated by a train whistle, that great country symbol of loneliness, the lyrics of the song are simple yet eloquent: It's not better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all. In fact, it's better to go mad ("...knowing that you're gone/Would cause me to lose my mind...") than to even contemplate the thought of your loved one in the arms of another. Contrary to what Pete Townshend and The Who might think, love is for keeping because the alternative when it's gone is darkness, loneliness, and riding the rails with the misfits, outcasts, and lunatics.

The Dead perform "Dark Hollow" with as a folk-bluegrass standard, assisted greatly by Jerry Garcia's keening harmony behind Weir's rock-style vocals. The Browning version is pure melodrama, replete with train whistles. Browning recorded from 1957-1960 and left a small discography. He likely didn't write another song close to the league of "Dark Hollow," but he at least achieved greatness once. That's more than most can say.

LYRICS
I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine
Than to be in some big city
In a small room with a girl on my mind

So blow your whistle freight train
Take me far on down the track
I'm going away, I'm leaving today
I'm going but I ain't coming back

I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine
Than to see you another man's darling
And know that you'll never be mine

So blow your whistle freight train
Take me far on down the track
I'm going away, I'm leaving today
I'm going but I ain't coming back

I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun don't ever shine
Than to be home alone, knowing that you're gone
Would cause me to lose my mind

So blow your whistle freight train
Take me far on down the track
I'm going away, I'm leaving today
I'm going but I ain't coming back

I'm going away, I'm leaving today
I'm going but I ain't coming back

Here's Bill Browning's rendition. Dig the train whistle!



The Grateful Dead sing "Dark Hollow" in 1971:

Falling Slowly - Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová

SONG Falling Slowly

WRITTEN BY Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová

PERFORMED BY Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová

APPEARS ON Glen Hansard & Markéta Irglová, soundtrack to the movie Once

I'd actually been planning to do a post on Richard and Linda Thompson's "Dimming of the Day", but I ran across the DVD of the movie Once this week and fell absolutely in love with the movie and the soundtrack, especially the featured song, "Falling Slowly". The movie is about two struggling musicians who meet and create something special in the world between them. I've done a review of the movie here. On Just A Song I want to talk specifically about "Falling Slowly.

Co-written by Glen Hansard (guitar & vocals) and Markéta Irglová (piano & vocals), the song is the essence of the movie. It's so wistfully sad that it's hard not to be in tears by the end, and at the same time it's powerful and dramatic. It deals with the "what could be" but admits that life will go on if it doesn't. Ostensibly written by the "Guy" character in the movie, it's based on his estrangement from his girlfriend who now lives in London, and his wish to rekindle the spark. At the same time it comes to represent what happens between Guy and Girl in the movie - the close friendship that develops and has the potential to go even closer, but in the end they realize that they have even stronger feelings elsewhere and so move on.

The poetry in the lyrics is especially moving. The desperate hopefulness of "Take this sinking boat and point it home..." and the despair of "Moods that take me and erase me..." send a chill through me every time I hear them. This is a powerfully moving song, exquisitely composed and performed by these two sensitive souls.

Lyrics

I don't know you
But I want you
All the more for that
Words fall through me
And always fool me
And I can't react
And games that never amount
To more than they're meant
Will play themselves out

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you have a choice
You've made it now

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can't go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I'm painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It's time that you won

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now

Take this sinking boat and point it home
We've still got time
Raise your hopeful voice you had a choice
You've made it now
Falling slowly sing your melody
I'll sing along

The video of the song I've chosen is from the tour Glen and Markéta did after the movie in 2007 as The Swell Season. This is from an appearance on Disney's Artist's Den show, recorded in the Good Shepherd Center Chapel in Seattle. Enjoy!

Todd Thibaud: Give Back My Heart

SONG Give Back My Heart

WRITTEN BY Todd Thibaud

PERFORMED BY Todd Thibaud

APPEARS ON Favorite Waste of Time (1998)

While it's easy to dismiss the appeal of the Boston music scene as similar to the Tulsa skyline or British cuisine, that would overlook the genuinely talented singer-songwriters who came out of the Hub. I'm thinking of artists like Antje Duvekot, Patty Griffin, Melvern Taylor, and Todd Thibaud. Each of these singer-songwriters has a distinct artistic voice that resists easy classification. Duvekot and Griffin are mightily talented singers as well as songwriters, Taylor supports his idiosyncratic outlook with creative, ukulele-based arrangements, and Thibaud brings a booming baritone and aggressive rock instincts to a genre otherwise nearly bereft of both.

Thibaud, a native Vermonter, moved to Boston in 1987 to pursue his dream of making it in music. He fronted The Courage Brothers for a few years until that band dissolved under the pressures of artistic differences. His career bent under a further setback when his record label dropped all rock acts. But, Thibaud persevered and eventually released Favorite Waste of Time on an indie label in 1997. Remixed and rereleased to national distribution, it received good reviews, one of which I read.

I picked up Favorite Waste of Time on the basis of a brief write-up in Rock & Rap Confidential (now sporadically available by email). I quickly gravitated to "Give Back My Heart," the album's anthemic breakup song. Rather than sing from a perspective of bitterness or pain, Thibaud forthrightly recognizes that the relationship is over. With bravado he demands that his ex return his soul even as he recognizes that "it's in your hands." It's as if he's saying that "My heart may be broken, but I'm not going to give you the satisfaction of me not moving on. So, give back my heart."

Thibaud conveys a feeling of solidarity with anyone (which means everyone) who has experienced a broken heart. It's hard, he says, but it doesn't necessarily mean unending misery. It's an opportunity to find strength: By taking back your heart and soul, you take back your life. That may not be much different from what Dear Abby has said for generations, but it's actually unusual in popular music. So, Thibaud treads new ground of a sort, and he does it inspiringly.

LYRICS

Give back my heart, you've had your turn

It's time for me to move along and this I've learned

That sometimes love is more a curse

You give your heart and soul but then it just gets worse

Don't expect me to linger here

When I've got my life to start

And all the plans that bound us once have been torn apart

Give back my heart

Give back my soul, it's in your hands

And all that I can do is hope you'll understand

That sometimes love is meant to be

Well that's just not the way it went for you and me

Don't expect me to linger here

When I've got my life to start

And all the plans that bound us once have been torn apart

Give back my heart

Here, Thibaud, fronting The Courage Brothers, performs a somewhat subdued version of "Give Back My Heart." It's fine, but not as grand or inspiring as the studio rendition on Favorite Waste of Time. Unfortunately, I could not find this anywhere on the internet.

The Who: Blue Red and Grey

SONG Blue Red and Grey

WRITTEN BY Pete Townshend

PERFORMED BY The Who

APPEARS ON The Who By Numbers (1975), Thirty Years of Maximum R&B (1994)

Fueled by Pete Townshend's high octane power chords and ambitious operatic album structures, The Who by 1975 were the most important and most artistically successful extant rock band. The Beatles had broken up five years earlier. The Stones were lost in a creative wilderness. Southern rock, led by the Allman Brothers, had introduced a new element of virtuosity to rock, but it never tackled grand themes with the force of The Who. So, it came as somewhat of a surprise when Townshend retrenched and delivered The Who By Numbers, a brief set of personal, nearly confessional songs that left critics scratching their heads.

Today, By Numbers stands as respected part of The Who's canon. It by no means reaches the heights of Who's Next and most of its predecessors, but it's also superior to anything that came after. One of its most enduring songs is "Blue Red and Grey," a simple, life-affirming number sung by Townshend and supported by an unlikely (for The Who) ukulele and haunting, muted trumpet. The rest of the band -- and, indeed, Townsend's electric guitar -- sits out while Pete sings this simple paean to love and how it can infuse every second of life with delight. There's no other Who song quite like "Blue Red and Grey," and I suppose that it's arguably a Pete Townsend solo tune inserted into a Who album.

And yet. Pete had already embarked on his solo career. Who Came First was three years old, and the brilliant Rough Mix was two-years imminent. There were other outlets for the song, so I prefer to think that he wanted it on a Who album for a reason. Maybe he wanted his listeners to look past the usual Townshend themes of angst, anger, and the fraught relationship between star and audience. Maybe he wanted to remind us of the simpler joys of living in a context that guaranteed a larger listenership than a solo album. Or maybe "Blue Red and Grey" is a simple leavening of the confessional tone that dominates so much of By Numbers. No matter, it's a terrific and sensitive song, an anomaly in The Who catalogue, perhaps, but also perhaps all the more likable for that.

LYRICS

Some people seem so obsessed with the morning

Get up early just to watch the sun rise

Some people like it more when there's fire in the sky

Worship the sun when it's high

Some people go for those sultry evenings

Sipping cocktails in the blue, red and grey

But I like every minute of the day

I like every second, so long as you are on my mind

Every moment has its special charm

It's all right when you're around, rain or shine

I know a crowd who only live after midnight

Their faces always seem so pale

And then there's friends of mine who must have sunlight

They say a suntan never fails

I know a man who works the night shift

He's lucky to get a job and some pay

And I like every minute of the day

I dig every second

I can laugh in the snow and rain

I get a buzz from being cold and wet

The pleasure seems to balance out the pain

And so you see that I'm completely crazy

I even shun the south of France

The people on the hill, they say I'm lazy

But when they sing, I sleep and dance

Some people have to have the sultry evenings

Cocktails in the blue, red and grey

But I like every minute of the day

I like every minute of the day

Here are four renditions of "Blue Red and Grey," beginning with the original album version and followed by solo performances from Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey, then closed out by Eddie Vedder's cover. Note that all three live performers use a ukulele. I guess when you strike a perfect note, people are reluctant to change it.

Rabbit Box

SONG: Rabbit Box

BY: Vic Chesnutt

PERFORMED BY: Vic Chesnutt

APPEARS ON: Little (Texas Hotel)

It has taken awhile for the news of Vic Chesnutt’s death to sink in. As many know, this uniquely talented singer-songwriter died on Christmas day as the result of an overdose; whether this overdose was intentional or not may never be known, tho Chesnutt apparently had some history of suicide attempts. His death is also being seen as an indictment of the U.S. healthcare system, as he’d accrued quite large amounts of debt despite being insured. Chesnutt was in poor health—he had been paralyzed from the waist down since a car accident in 1983.

Such a devastating event would have been enough to turn many away from any thought of a creative career, but in Chesnutt’s case, the accident seems to have focused his resolve in terms of music & songwriting—despite the fact that his injury compromised his strength & dexterity & forced him to rely on relatively simple chord shapes for his composing. In many ways, Chesnutt turned this liability into a virtue, because the directness & spareness of his guitar-playing makes it all the more immediate & compelling in the context of his songs.

His lyrics are always wonderfully literate—he had considerable gifts as a writer, & was also a voracious reader of poetry; he favored Stevie Smith, Emily Dickinson, Wallace Stevens & Whitman, & in fact set two Stevie Smith poems to music (“Not Waving, But Drowning” & “One of Many.”) However, saying that his lyrics are “literate” shouldn’t suggest any sort of preciousness, nor should it suggest that his words are anything other than immediate—immediacy is one of the great characteristics of his art.

Chesnutt’s 1990 debut album Little is to my mind one of the great singer-songwriter documents. He had spent the mid to late 80s performing both in bands & solo in Athens, GA, where he was spotted by R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe, who produced Little—in Chesnutt’s own words, “Mr Stipe…single handedly toted me to this cozy hotel.” The songs on the album do in the main tackle “little” subjects—small incidents, especially remembered from childhood; these small incidents, however, always seem to expand in Chesnutt’s handling to a suggestion of much larger issues.

His song “Rabbit Box” is a fine example of this. Ostensibly a song about two rather mundane childhood incidents, we can see how the stories of trapping a possum & a kitten in the live trap he’d made & shooting pigeons he believed to be doves speak to the chaos of childhood discovery—not necessarily a “wonderful” thing as portrayed in a sentimental vein, but something that can be disturbing & unsettling. There is also more than a bit of suggestion of randomness in these stories, & especially in the case of his dove hunting, of random violence. As Chesnutt sang in the song “Speed Racer” on the same album:

the idea of divine order is essentially crazy
the laws of action and reaction are the closest thing to truth in the universe

Of course, there is some sly humor in “Rabbit Box” as well—note the audience reaction at the end of the song in the video below. This humor doesn’t undercut the song’s bigger themes, but in some ways serves to deepen them by making them more real.

Chesnutt’s death is a great loss. I suspect that his star may shine more brightly as time goes by—in his life, he was much more a “cult figure” than a star. If this is your first encounter with his music, I hope it will spur you to seek more. If, like me, his music has been important to you, I hope you will celebrate his tremendous legacy even in the shadow of his death.


Rabbit Box

while I was still in elementary school
I discovered Daddy's tools
and amassed a small pile of scrap lumber
and I built a rabbit box; set it facing north
but caught a possum and a kitten
both of which were a bitch to set free
cause I thought they were going to bite me
but we all three escaped safely

once I took my single shotgun
put on some camouflage
hid in the neighbor's pasture by the cow pond
finally after a long time
a bunch of doves flew by
and landed in a huddle on the power line
so I aimed with an eagle eye and fired
but it was two pigeons that fell like bean bags into the weeds
well they sure looked like doves to me

Vic Chesnutt

White Christmas - Bing Crosby

SONG White Christmas

WRITTEN BY Irving Berlin

PERFORMED BY Bing Crosby

APPEARS ON The 78-rpm soundtrack album for the film Holiday Inn

I know, I know, but somebody had to do it, so I volunteer.

This is the quintessential American Christmas song. Bing Crosby's version of it is the best selling single of all time. Versions ranging from Bing's original to The Drifters to the Mantovani Magic Strings to fer pete's sake Andrea Bocelli blast at you from the sound systems of every shopping mall in the US and Canada.

Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1940, but the circumstances under which it was written changed every time Berlin told the story (typical Berlin behavior!). The first public performance was by Bing Crosby on his The Kraft Music Hall radio show on Christmas Day, 1941. Crosby recorded the song for Decca Records in May of 1942, and was released on July 30 as part of the soundtrack for the movie Holiday Inn, both in the movie and on a 78-rpm album. The song spent eleven weeks at the top of the Billboard charts in that year. It was re-released for the holiday season in 1945 and 1946, and went back to the top of the charts both times, making it the only single with three separate runs at the top of the US charts.

What's the appeal? Mostly nostalgia. The song was released at a time when many American men were going to war in the South Pacific, and visions of an old-fashioned Christmas complete with snow and sleigh bells and all were bound to appeal to boys and men far from home in conditions the exact opposite of those portrayed in the song. After that it just became a natural part of the Christmas season in the American public venue - on the radio, on TV, and in the movies. I even saw it named in a mystery short story, supposedly playing in the background of a ransom tape sent to the parents of a kidnapped child! Let's face it, this song is mapped into our national DNA.

LYRICS

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas 

Just like the ones I used to know 

Where the treetops glisten, 
and children listen 

To hear sleigh bells in the snow 



I'm dreaming of a white Christmas 

With every Christmas card I write 

May your days be merry and bright

And may all your Christmases be white 



I'm dreaming of a white Christmas 

With every Christmas card I write 

May your days be merry and bright 

And may all your Christmases be white

Naturally, the video selected is the segment from the movie Holiday Inn, with Bing and Marjorie Reynolds, although the singing voice was dubbed in by Martha Mears. Is there anybody in the Western World who hasn't seen this scene at least once? Heh, heh! I doubt it. Have a great holiday, Just A Song contributors and fans!

Nina Simone : Four Women

SONG: Four Women


BY: Nina Simone


PERFORMED BY: Nina Simone


APPEARS ON: Wild is the Wind (1966)



While I had really good men in my life to shape and guide me, much of who I am can be attributed to the number of strong women around me. They helped shape my character and personality as much as any other factor. I guess that’s why I find African American women of all ages such fascinating creatures. They all seem to have an aura that is a product of carrying a race through struggle. You can even see it in the younger ones that haven’t approached the age to take on this responsibility. There is something about a sister when you look into her eyes that makes me want to find out there she's been and what she's been through. They are all different shades and sizes with different attitudes and personalities. The way they approach life is directly related to their backgrounds and upbringing. Some are soft spoken and choose to speak when necessary. Some are loud and boisterous and everyone knows when they are in the room. Some are emotional and cry quickly for reasons men have problems understanding. Others have grown accustomed to having to be so tough that it's hard for them to show any emotion outwardly even though they feel it deep inside. Some are educated with book knowledge. Others went to the school of hard knocks. Some are outgoing and like to have a good time. Others are reserved and prefer to be alone. I think they are all beautiful in their own way and this song reminds me of that.

Nina Simone recorded the song Four Women in 1966. It was released on the album 'Wild is the Wind'. Ms. Simone sings about the physical and mental design of four different women. They are Aunt Sarah, Safronia, Sweet Thing and Peaches. I don't know this for sure but I am willing to bet that these were not actual women that Nina Simone knew personally. In her description of each person she describes them in a way that explains who they are and why they are the kind of women she is singing about. When I was reading about the song I discovered that some people in the African American community felt the song was drawing on stereotypes. I guess you could feel that way if you took every person described in the song in a literal sense. I think the part that those people missed was the fact that although she described four women with different backgrounds and personalities, the one thing that they have in common is that all of their journeys are connected by our history in America. It's a testament to how our lives and outlook have been shaped over time.

I was late to the discovery of Nina Simone's music. This song was recommended to me by a friend and I have been hooked on it ever since. This remains my favorite song of hers because of the subject matter.

Lyrics:

My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is woolly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
inflicted again and again
What do they call me
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah

My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me
My name is SAFFRONIA
My name is Saffronia

My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me
My name is SWEET THING
My name is Sweet Thing

My skin is brown
my manner is tough
I'll kill the first mother I see
my life has been too rough
I'm awfully bitter these days
because my parents were slaves
What do they call me
My name is PEACHES