Elvis Presley: Can't Help Falling in Love

SONG Can't Help Falling in Love

WRITTEN BY George David Weiss, Hugo Peretti, and Luigi Creatore

PERFORMED BY Elvis Presley

APPEARS ON Blue Hawaii (1961); numerous anthologies

NOTE 1 "Can't Help Falling in Love" is an essential Elvis Presley song. Avoid any anthology of Elvis film soundtracks or of Elvis material from the 60s that does not include it. 2 There's an interesting analysis of Blue Hawaii here, in which the writer points out that the film features a sexless Elvis who, far from representing the underclass from which he arose, is a member of Hawaii's upper crust.


"I sing all kinds," a callow Elvis famously claimed, and added that "I don't sound like nobody." He spent the next twenty years proving those points in one of the most remarkable and important careers in popular music. It's received wisdom that the five years from 1953-58 were a still inconceivable outpouring of groundbreaking innovation and hit singles, but that after Elvis joined the Army in a mismatch as ill-conceived as deep fried peanut butter and mashed bananas, his career became a barren wasteland of uninspired music marked by mediocre films.

But that's too pat. In fact, Elvis recorded brilliant music throughout his life, especially 1969's From Elvis in Memphis and From Memphis to Vegas/From Vegas to Memphis (collected, along with alternate versions, on 1999's excellent Suspicious Minds). The great music was admittedly harder to uncover, which gave credibility to the notion that military service drained his creativity. But even the much (and often justly) maligned movie soundtracks usually featured a gem or two: Given good material, Elvis invariably sang it with with typical brio. Blue Hawaii, lame by even the relaxed standards of Elvis movies, is no exception. It includes the classic "Can't Help Falling in Love," in which the man famous for loving his mother sings movingly and touchingly to the 60-year old Wahila (Hilo Hattie).

That's right: Elvis found the inspiration for one of the most memorable love songs of the 60s not in lissome co-star Joan Blackman, but in a sexagenarian stand-in for his beloved mother who had died three years earlier in 1958. Elvis fans often claim that this scene was a mistake (see article linked above), that he should have sung the song to Blackman. But Blue Hawaii was going to be weak under any circumstances; Elvis crooning to a 22-year old ingenue in a Beach Blanket Bingo setting wouldn't have improved the film and might well have weakened his performance of the song. And it's the song, not the movie, that we remember.

"Can't Help Falling in Love" has an unusual background. Adapted from an 18th Century French love song (arranged by Hector Berlioz!), it was written by a collaborative of three songwriters with over a hundred years of experience between them. George David Weiss' credits included the Gidget movies and such forgotten Broadway musicals as First Impressions (with Sammy Davis, Jr. and based on, of all things, Pride and Prejudice), while Luigi Creatore and Hugo Peretti wrote songs for Valerie Carr and produced artists from Perry Como to Sam Cooke to Jimmie Rodgers. Together, they composed a simple two-minute love song that Elvis Presley interpreted for the ages.

Elvis almost always sang to someone. He never peered down from on high like, say, Pete Townshend did (albeit precariously). He never disguised his message in oblique symbols and images a la Dylan, and he was anything but a confessional singer seeking isolate himself and his sins in a cocoon with an individual listener. Nor, in his recordings, was there a marked distance between him and his audience. Whether he rocked or crooned, Elvis at his best sang to us as individuals and as a community of which he was a member.

At the end of the day, Elvis was one of us, the commoner as king, except that he had an unparalleled gift and an unequaled taste in and feel for songs. One hopes that, as he embarked on what he must have guessed would be an gantlet of uninspired movies, he smiled when he saw the score for "Can't Help Falling In Love" and thought of his beloved mother.

LYRICS
Wise men say only fools rush in
But I can't help falling in love with you
Shall I stay
Would it be a sin
If I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you

Like a river flows surely to the sea
Darling so it goes
Some things are meant to be
Take my hand, take my whole life too
For I can't help falling in love with you
For I can't help falling in love with you

They didn't call him The King for nothing:


Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger show that "Can't Help Falling in Love" is a folk song, too:


UB40 reached #1 in 1993:

Let X=X

SONG: Let X=X

BY: Laurie Anderson

PERFORMED BY: Laurie Anderson

APPEARS ON: Big Science (Nonesuch); United States Live (Warner Brothers); Live in New York (Nonesuch)

I remember my first encounter with Laurie Anderson’s music quite vividly. I was in a “Religion & Art” seminar at the University of Vermont, a class co-taught by two excellent professors. One of them said he was going to play a song that he believed was relevant to themes we’d been discussing: the song was “O Superman” from Anderson’s Big Science album—the lines "Cause when love is gone, there's always justice / And when justice is gone, there's always force / And when force is gone, there's always Mom,” as well as the eerie lines about “Here come the planes/They’re American planes/Made in America” moved me in a way few songs have; & within hours if not minutes of that class ending, I had purchased the Big Science album.

Those who’ve read any of my previous posts here, which have all sprung from my keen interest in old blues & old-time country, may be surprised me to see me write about an artist who relies so heavily on electronics & who—despite what I see as very considerable music talent—tends to be identified primarily with performance art. This isn’t just a case, however, of me reviving musical tastes from earlier in my life for nostalgia’s sake. I listened to most of the first three discs of United States Live this week & found them just as compelling as ever.

The song “Let X=X” is a great introduction to Anderson. Probably more accessible than a number of her pieces, it still contains a number of characteristic gestures: the exploration of language & signification in lyrics presented with deadpan & absurdist humor, the minimalist music, the use of the vocoder to distort her voice.

As a poet myself, I’ve long since rebelled against the poetic theory in which X=Y—that X is not real in itself, but only a stand-in for Y; I don’t care for “symbolic” reading. On the other hand, as we know from Magritte, a painting of a pipe is not a pipe, nor for that matter is the word “pipe” the thing itself. They are pointers—they direct our attention, whether in imagination or in tangible reality to the thing they signify. This is rather heady theory for a song with such deceptively simple lyrics. But we should direct our attention to the equivalencies in the lyrics: the “guy” looks like he “might have been a hat check clerk at an ice rink”—a rather absurd description, except for the fact that, according to the song, it’s a fact—or at least an equivalency. The “sky” is “sky-blue”; again, an equivalency in descriptive language; the “future” is a place “about 70 miles east of here.”

How does this relate to the long string of small-talk banter? For one thing, it makes this sort of typically meaningless chatter—such as “Thanks for putting on the feed-bag” gain a more direct equivalency to the literal. Yes, it seems vacuous, but it also signifies—it points beyond itself. The same can be said for the final image of the burning building. To “feel like” one is in a burning building is one thing—a feeling of urgency & panic, of course—but it is not the same as being in a burning building—there is a displacement thru the simile—the use of “like”; still, the entrance of the horns at this point build a musical climax from the earlier tranquil background that in some sense contradicts the distance of the “like” in the figure of speech.

There is real depth in Anderson's music & lyrics—combined with musical effects that to my ear sound as fresh & revolutionary today as they did in the 1980s; & you can dance to lots of her songs! Hope you enjoy this truly amazing piece of music.


Let X=X

I met this guy -
and he looked like might have been a hat check clerk at an ice rink.
Which, in fact, he turned out to be.
And I said: Oh boy. Right again.

Let X=X. You know, it could be you.
It's a sky-blue sky. Satellites are out tonight.
Let X=X.

You know, I could write a book.
And this book would be thick enough to stun an ox.
Cause I can see the future and it's a place - about 70 miles east of here.
Where it's lighter. Linger on over here.
Got the time?
Let X=X.

I got this postcard. And it read, it said:
Dear Amigo - Dear Partner.
Listen, now - I just want to say thanks. So...thanks.
Thanks for all the presents.
Thanks for introducing me to the Chief.
Thanks for putting on the feedbag.
Thanks for going all out.
Thanks for showing me your Swiss Army knife.
Oh and uh -
Thanks for letting me autograph your cast.
Hug and kisses. XXXXOOOO.
Oh yeah, P.S.
I - I feel - feel like - I am - in a
burning building - and I gotta go.
Cause I - I feel - feel like - I am -
in a burning building - and I gotta go.

The Knack: My Sharona

SONG My Sharona

WRITTEN BY Doug Fieger and Berton Averre

PERFORMED BY The Knack

APPEARS ON Get The Knack (1979)

This is "The Song That Killed Disco", and for that reason alone I love, worship, and adore it (yes, if you haven't guessed yet, I hate disco). The Knack came at just the right time, with music that gave what people wanted. After about 5 years of disco domination of the commercial airwaves, The Knack provided straight-ahead Rock & Roll - no glitz, no stack heels, no over-production, no metronome beat. The music hearkened back to the Beatles, the Stones, The Kinks, and other early British groups of the 1960s. And as the song's principle composer and Knack frontman Doug Fieger died yesterday after a long battle with cancer, I thought this would be the ideal time to feature "My Sharona".

"My Sharona" was on their debut album, Get The Knack, released in 1979. Fieger claims that the song was based on his infatuation with girlfriend Sharona Alperin (that's her on the record sleeve photo). Like most Knack songs, the lyrics are pretty much all about teenage male hormonal lust. The content of the lyrics is the least important thing about them; what's more important is that they form, along with that great bass line, a vital part of the rhythmic drive of the song. Doug Fieger's quirky delivery of the lyrics adds to the stop-start quality of the song, which comes across as an almost tribal ritual performance. No wonder it hit #1 on the charts for 6 weeks in 1979!

Lyrics

Oo my little pretty one, pretty one
When you gonna give me some time, Sharona?
Oo you make my motor run, my motor run
Gun it coming off of the line, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up with a touch of the younger kind
My-ee my-ee my-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona

Come a little closer, over here
Close enough to look in my eyes, Sharona
Keep a little mystery, kissin' me
Runnin' down the length of my thigh, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee my-ee my-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona

(1st guitar solo)

When ya gonna get to me, get to me
Is it just a matter of time, Sharona
Is it a destiny, a destiny
Or is it just a game in my mind, Sharona
Never gonna stop, give it up, such a dirty mind
I always get it up from a touch of the younger kind
My-ee my-ee my-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma
Myee my-ee my-ee ahee ah woo!
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona
Ma ma ma my Sharona

(2nd guitar solo)

Ooooh ah my Sharona
Ooooh ah my Sharona
Ooooh ah my Sharona

As I said, Doug Fieger passed away yesterday - February 14, 2010 - at the age of 57 after a long battle with brain and lung cancer. What better way to say good-bye than to play the song that made him and his reputation. Here's a live version of "My Sharona" from what looks to be the mid '80s. Good-bye, Doug; you're gonna be missed!

R.E.M.: Find the River

SONG Find the River

WRITTEN BY Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe

PERFORMED BY R.E.M.

APPEARS ON Automatic for the People (1992)

NOTE Michael Stipe invented "rose of hay" because he needed a rhyme for "way" and "naivete."

The best R.E.M. songs typically feature oblique, apparently indecipherable lyrics supported by hook-ridden melodies and meticulous production. "Find the River" is no exception, a soaring ballad with lush harmonies augmented by simple, less-is-more instrumentation. But the very simplicity of of the instrumentation lends an uncomplicated eloquence to the proceedings and forms an organic whole vital to the song's theme.

In literature, rivers have long represented both a life force and, because of their eternal movement to the sea through an immobile landscape, questing and searching. T. S. Eliot wrote of the novel Huckleberry Finn that

A river, a very big and powerful river, is the only natural force that can wholly determine the course of human peregrination.

Eliot thought Mark Twain's vision of the Mississippi River transformed Huckleberry Finn from an adventure story into a great book. Thus, the river is life-giving artistically ("river poet search") as well as thematically.

"Find the River" is best understood as a mystical tapestry of imagery and symbolism about a lifelong quest for meaning not found in "...the city/Where people drown and people serve." The accumulation of varying spices infuses the song like incense, lending a sort of holiness to the journey. The nearly poetic imagery supplies the same sense of transcendence:

Me, my thoughts are flowers strewn
Ocean storm, bayberry moon

At the same time, the drive to light out ahead of the rest (as Huck Finn put it) --

I have got to leave to find my way

--is as quintessentially and stolidly American as a town hall.

In "Find a River," the journey must be the reward. The uncertainties and disappointments of life ("Nothing is going my way") guarantee no destination other than the finality of the ocean. After the long trek charted in the song, the only promise is that someday

All of this is coming your way

It may be a harbinger of hope, but it's just as likely a prediction that the same striving awaits -- who? a lover? a child? a listener? But at least this striving is a search for something transcendent, an escape from the daily grind of "task in the city." That's why we have "got to find the river," for it is there that our humanity awaits.

LYRICS
Hey now, little speedy head
The meter on the speedmeter says
You have to go to task in the city
Where people drown and people serve
Don't be shy. Your just dessert
Is only just light years to go

Me, my thoughts are flowers strewn
Ocean storm, bayberry moon
I have got to leave to find my way
Watch the road and memorize
This life that pass before my eyes
Nothing is going my way

The ocean is the river's goal
A need to leave the water knows
We're closer now than light years to go

I have got to find the river,
Bergamot and vetiver
Run through my head and fall away
Leave the road and memorize
This life that pass before my eyes
Nothing is going my way

There's no one left to take the lead,
But I tell you and you can see
We're closer now that light years to go
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide
Fall into the ocean

The river to the ocean goes
A fortune for the undertow
None of this is going my way
There is nothing left to throw
Of ginger, lemon, indigo
Coriander stem and rose of hay
Strength and courage overrides
The privileged and weary eyes
Of river poet search naivete
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide
All of this is coming your way

Click here for the official R.E.M. video.

Until a few years ago, R.E.M. rarely performed "Find the River." I met Peter Buck at party back in the early Aughts and asked why, since it is such a beautiful song. He agreed, and then told me that while "River" was challenging to play live, they were considering working it up for the next tour. "Find the River" has been on their playlist ever since, so maybe he listened to me!

Tommy James: Draggin' the Line

SONG Draggin' the Line

WRITTEN BY Tommy James and Bob King

PERFORMED BY Tommy James

APPEARS ON Tommy James (1970); Tommy James and the Shondells Anthology (1989); other anthologies

NOTE "Draggin' the Line" reached #4 on the Billboard pop charts in August 1971 and stayed in the Top 40 for eleven weeks.

"Draggin' the Line" appeared originally on Tommy James' eponymous album, his first release after leaving the Shondells. (allmusic.com says that "Draggin' the Line" first appeared on James' album Christian of the World, but all other sources, including James himself, say otherwise.) James was a hit machine in the late 60s, with fifteen Top 40 hits (including three #1's) from 1966-69. These featured classic pop arrangements with dabs of white soul faintly reminiscent of The Rascals. As the decade wore on, touches of psychedelia appeared here and there; one song, "Crystal Blue Persuasion," is a barely concealed account of drug use.

Musically, "Draggin' the Line" is pure psychedelia. Its dreamy tempo, loping bass, and echoing chorus create a stoned ambiance augmented by puncturing horns. The use of brass is unusual in psychedelic music, but James recorded with horns for most of his career and deploys them to good effect here.

Lyrically, the song is a paean to the simple joys of life and the way that they alleviate the struggle of "Makin' a living the old hard way." For James, the pleasures of living are found in "snow and rain and bright sunshine" and even -- believe it or not "huggin' a tree." This, he sings, leads to "peace of mind" in a way that "the old hard way" cannot.

What, then, to make of the cryptic title? What does "draggin' the line" mean? James has never explained it, and passed on the opportunity to do in the liner notes to Anthology. Speculation ranges from an allusion to cocaine ("the line") to "draggin'" a cross. I suspect that it refers back to the opening lyric, with James' ominous delivery juxtaposed against the upbeat chorus singing of "peace of mind." It's as if draggin' the line and peace of mind are in eternal opposition, with the individual forced to do what he must to survive, a striving made worthwhile by appreciation and enjoyment of the natural world.

(For information on the origin of the phrase "tree hugger," click here.)

LYRICS
Makin' a living the old hard way
Takin' and giving day by day
I dig snow and rain and bright sunshine
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

My dog Sam eats purple flowers
We ain't got much but what we got's ours
We dig snow and rain and bright sunshine
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

I feel fine, I'm talkin' about peace of mind
I'm takin' my time, I'm gettin' the good sign
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

Lovin' the free and feelin' spirit
Of huggin' a tree when you get near it
Diggin' the snow and rain and bright sunshine
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)

I feel fine, I'm talkin' about peace of mind
I'm takin' my time, I'm gettin' the good sign
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)
Draggin' the line (draggin' the line)



Live, in 2005:


R.E.M.'s cover, featuring a rare lead vocal by Mike Mills:

Young Love

SONG Young Love

WRITTEN BY Ric Cartey & Carole Joyner

PERFORMED BY Tab Hunter, Sonny James, Chaim Tannenbaum, others

APPEARS ON Young Love: The Best of Tab Hunter (1995); Sonny James: 20 All-Time Greatest Hits (2002); The McGarrigle Hour (1998); many, many, many others

Ric Cartey wrote "Young Love" as vehicle for his band The Jiva-Tones. Released in November 1956, it failed to chart and might have headed to obscurity had not teen idol Tab Hunter and Sonny "The Country Gentleman" James both released cover versions in January 1957. Hunter's version reached #1 on multiple charts, while James hit #1 on the Billboard country chart for nine weeks running. With its operatic chorus and dreamier tempo, it's James' rendition and not Hunter's cooler version that has been sung in showers for over fifty years.

Certainly, "Young Love" is easy to parody and poke fun at: It's hopelessly overblown and melodramatic. And yet the song successfully captures the earnestness, histrionics, and charming naivete of teenage love, which has given it staying power. Anyone listening from the vantage point of middle age knows that there's not "just one love in this whole world." There may be one, there may be more than one, there may be none. This knowledge may not be part of "Young Love," but it's an important part of many listeners' connection to the song, eliciting senses of nostalgia or loss or regret.

There's nothing cerebral about young love, although it is divine ("The heavenly touch of your embrace"). But how much of this is real and how much is fantasy? The third verse ("Just one kiss from your sweet lips") implies that he hasn't yet received a kiss, that the love may be one-sided. Is he actually waiting for her to notice him and respond? Note the future tense of the next verse ("We will vow"), which seems to imply that nothing has happened yet. Is the singer staring longingly at the girl in the next desk, afraid to ask her out or admit his feelings? In this sense, "Young Love" conveys not only the intensity of teen love, with its "true emotion" and "deep devotion," but its uncertainties and insecurities as well. Perhaps the song resonates today because it gets at the truth of unrequited teen love as opposed to the idealized version it appears to celebrate on the surface.

Or perhaps it's both. Two certainties of adolescence are its incredible ups and downs and the intensity with which they are experienced. To the middle-aged listener, "Young Love" is a safe way of revisiting those days without having actually relive them. And to the teenager? Most of today's kids would no doubt scoff at the song. But once it was truth. Or should I say Truth.

LYRICS
They say for every boy and girl
There's just one love in this whole world
And I know that I found mine

The heavenly touch of your embrace
Tells me no one could take your place
Ever in my heart

Young love, first love
Filled with true devotion
Young love, our love
We share with deep emotion

Just one kiss from your sweet lips
Will tell me that your love is real
And I can feel that it's true

We will vow to one another
There will never be another
Love for you or for me

Young love, first love
Filled with true devotion
Young love, our love
We share with deep emotion

The heavenly touch of your embrace
Tells me no one could take your place
Ever in my heart

We will vow to one another
There will never be another
Love for you or for me

Young love, first love
Filled with true devotion
Young love, our love
We share with deep emotion

Sonny James, the Country Gentleman, performing "Young Love" in 1958:




Tab Hunter's 1957 hit single:




Click here and scroll down to hear Chaim Tannenbaum's lovely rendition from 1998's The McGarrigle Hour. That's Kate and Anna McGarrigle on backing vocals. Tannenbaum is a producer and musician who has played with the McGarrigles and Loudon Wainwright III.

T-Bone Burnett: Shut It Tight

SONG Shut It Tight

WRITTEN BY T-Bone Burnett

PERFORMED BY T-Bone Burnett

APPEARS ON Proof Through the Night (1983, vinyl only), Twenty Twenty: The Essential T-Bone Burnett (2006)

Born in Missouri and raised in Fort Worth, T-Bone Burnett is best known today as a music producer and for his work with such film soundtracks as O Brother Where Art Thou? and Crazy Heart. But the protean 10-time Grammy winner is also a gifted songwriter and, in the Eighties, a prolific recording artist. His lyrics typically explore the challenges that modern life and technology impose on imperfect humans increasingly ill-equipped to deal with them. Burnett often turns to the redemptive themes of love and faith, although his writing has become increasingly pessimistic. Even so, Burnett holds on to the possibility of inherently broken people finding a measure of fulfillment by the simple act of turning to each other.

Burnett first came to my attention back in the mid-Seventies as rhythm guitarist for Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. The unusual name stuck with me; when rummaging through the Austin Public Library's record collection a few years later, I came across his Truth Decay album and checked it out. The album immediately resonated with me, especially the lovely, hopeful ballad "Power of Love." He followed Truth Decay with the highly regarded EP Trap Door, then, in 1983, the full-length Proof Through the Night.

Proof garnered excellent reviews, but Burnett didn't like the production foisted on him by Warner Bros, which probably explains why it has never been released on CD. He reproduced the six songs from it that appear on the excellent Twenty Twenty retrospective, among them "Shut It Tight," the album's best song. "Shut It Tight" covers familiar Burnett territory with a deftness that blends a hard edge with sympathy and defiance. The juxtaposition of opposites ("I do the very things I hate to do") reveals a confused, sometimes inept man who "stumble[s] like a drunk along this crazy path I walk." In the end, no matter how imperfect he may be and no matter how bewildered by life, he's going to hold on because it's what he's given and perhaps because there's a certain dignity and satisfaction attained by fighting until and even after there's not a breath left to draw.

With "Shut It Tight," Burnett creates an everyman out of his own self-doubt and struggles, a figure with whom anyone who admits to his or her own humanity can identify. There's not a songwriter out there who hasn't attempted this at one time or another. That T-Bone Burnett succeeded demonstrates why he remains one of the best.

LYRICS
I find it hard sometimes to say the way that I feel
I do the very things I hate to do
I act like a child and I'm afraid of what is real
And so I try to cover up the truth

I stumble like a drunk along this crazy path I walk
I have a hundred thousand questions too
I'll go to any length to prove that nothing is my fault
Then later on I will deny the proof

I don't like to win but then again I hate to lose
And in between is something I can't stand
I don't care what you think and I hope that you approve
I am just an ordinary man

Sometimes I want to stop and crawl back into the womb
And sometimes I cannot tell wrong from right
But I ain't gonna quit until I'm laid in my tomb
And even then they better shut it tight