Wondrous stories

Today is the end of my third week back in work after the Christmas break. Someone on Twitter described January as a 74 day month and man, I know what they mean.

Boris Johnson dominates the news with tawdry tales of Downing Street parties breaking lockdown refusing to go away. A monumental piss up at Number 10 on the eve of Prince Philip’s funeral forced BJ into apologising to both the Queen and to the British people. He stressed that he took full responsibility but was at pains to point out that it wasn’t his fault and that he didn’t know about it. Dominic Cummings is willing to swear on oath that he told Boris to get it stopped but was waived away. Coverage in the foreign press has been brutal. We truly are a laughing stock. I have also read this morning of nine mile long queues at Dover due to the introduction of new customs regulations needed due to Brexit. This is of course pushing up prices in the shops with inflation hitting thirty year highs. Tory apologists keep reminding us that ‘Boris got Brexit done’………………….Done?  we certainly have been!!!

Rafael Benitez has finally been sacked as Everton manager. This has come six weeks too late and I fear that it may be too late to stop us facing a desperate struggle to avoid relegation. He was the wrong appointment and his stubborn, petulant behaviour has forced Lucas Digne out of the club and I fear that Lewis Dobbin will follow him due to Rafa not giving him a chance. With the new stadium rapidly taking shape, it should be a time of great optimism for Bluenoses, instead, fans are angry, disillusioned and worried about the future. Duncan Ferguson has been appointed temporary boss. I have not been able to tear myself away from Twitter today as the big man has got the fans bouncing again. Good luck big fella, we’re right behind you!!!

I awoke this morning to the sad news that Meatloaf had passed away. I would be lying if I called myself a fan but I do love Bat out of Hell. Meatloaf claimed he barely made a penny out of an album that is one of the bestselling of all time. His duet with Cher on Deadringer is another highlight as are I’d do anything for love and Modern Love. My personal favourite is Meat’s performance of Hot patoosie – bless my soul in the Rocky Horror show. Rock music fans will also remember Meatloaf taking vocal duties on Ted Nugent’s Free for all album. R.I.P Marvin Lee Aday. You truly were a musical giant who touched millions.

Our house is full of music. There are guitars, C.D’s, vinyl albums and a decent Hi Fi rig in my man cave. A Ruark speaker downstairs and even the shower has a built in Bluetooth speakers to facilitate loud singalongs! It was while taking a shower last  weekend that I was singing along with The road goes on forever by Joe Ely. I love this song and even after thousands of listens I still get incredibly emotional as the story unfolds. Thus inspired, as a lover of a good lyric, I decided that this blog should celebrate my favourite story songs. Some of the songs describe real events while others are products of the fertile minds of the songwriters. I hope my list inspires you to consider your own list. Feel free to share it, I’m always looking for musical inspiration.

Joe Ely – The road goes on forever

I have to start with the song that inspired this blog. This is a modern day Bonnie and Clyde tale that unfolds over eight verses and no choruses. Main characters Sherri and Sonny are easy to like and believable. I love playing this song on guitar but choke up somewhere around verse six and don’t get to the end. This song was written by Robert Earl Keen but Joe Ely nails it and makes it his own. Check it out, you won’t be sorry.

Bobby Gentry – Ode to Billy Joe

This song is set in the Mississippi Delta and perfectly evokes the heat and humidity of the Southern State. It tells the story of the suicide of the eponymous Billy Joe. Gentry later clarified that she intended the song to portray the family’s indifference to the suicide in what she deemed “a study in unconscious cruelty”, while she remarked the object thrown was not relevant to the message.

Such was the intrigue around the song the song that it led to a film bearing the same name to be made in 1975.

I love this song and I love the way that Bobby Gentry sings it. I have since listened to more of her music which is well worth checking out.

1. Bob Dylan – Hurricane

The first ‘true story’ song on my list is about Rubin ‘Hurricane’ Carter who was an American-Canadian middleweight boxer, wrongfully convicted of murder and later released following a petition of habeas corpus after serving almost 20 years in prison.

In 1966, Carter, and his co-accused, John Artis, were arrested for a triple homicide which was committed at the Lafayette Bar and Grill in Paterson, New Jersey, United States. Shortly after the killings at 2:30 am, a car, which contained Carter, Artis and a third acquaintance, was stopped by police outside the bar while its occupants were on their way home from a nearby nightclub. They were allowed to go on their way, but after dropping off the third man, Carter and Artis were stopped while they were passing the bar a second time, 45 minutes later, and both of them were arrested.

Carter and Artis were interrogated for 17 hours, released, then re-arrested weeks later. In 1967, they were convicted of all three murders, and given life sentences, served in Rahway State Prison; a retrial in 1976 upheld their sentences, but it was overturned in 1985. Prosecutors declined to try the case a third time after their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court failed.

Carter was not formally exonerated until 1988.

This is Bob Dylan at his furious best when telling Carter’s story on this track from his Desire album. Bob released Murder most foul in 2020. A 17 minute song about the assassination of JFK that ran my choice pretty close. It is the fury and passion of Hurricane that wins the day for me.

1. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Next

This song was written by Jacques Brel, a Belgian singer-songwriter who mostly sang in French or occasionally Flemish. English translations of his songs were recorded by many performers including David Bowie, Scott Walker, Ray Charles, Judy Collins, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, James Dean Bradfield, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams. Despite this stellar cast, it’s Alex Harvey any day for me. Next is the brutal tale of a second world war survivor whose experiences left deep scars on his psyche. Alex Harvey truly makes the song his own.

1. Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad

This was another tough choice. I’m not Bruce’s biggest fan but I admit he has written many fantastic story songs. Close contenders were Born to Run and The River. My selection sees Springsteen channelling Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad is the main character in Steinbeck’s classic novel of Farmers forced to head to California from the dust bowl of Oklahoma due to drought and bank foreclosures. Springsteen’s song focuses on the economic hardships faced by many modern American families as they struggle to survive in the world’s richest country.

Another song I love to play on guitar and another I often fail to complete singing due to the emotions raised in me by righteous indignation and empathy with the characters in this brilliant tale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SN1UK8ghGw

1. Mary Gauthier – Drag Queens in Limousines 

When I wrote my last blog about my 2021 highlights I was truly horrified when I realised that I criminally forgot to include Mary Gauthier’s autobiographical book Saved by a Song: The Art and Healing Power of Songwriting. I love Mary Gauthier, we have seen her four times, met her and can vouch that she is a genuine, open soul who is passionate about her songs and music. Mary is another artist who could have made multiple entries on my list of favourite story songs, perhaps more than anyone else. This song describes the singer leaving home and moving to the big city. When I read Mary’s book, it brought this song to life. If you love music and good stories of redemption then please check out Mary’s story.

1. Joni Mitchell – Woodstock

Joni Mitchell was in a relationship with Graham Nash when the Woodstock festival was held. She had not been there herself since a manager had told her that it would, instead, be more advantageous for her to appear on The Dick Cavett Show. She composed it in a hotel room in New York City, watching televised reports of the festival. “The deprivation of not being able to go provided me with an intense angle on Woodstock,”

This song showcases the brilliance of Joni Mitchell as a lyricist. You can imagine being there as the song unfolds. It is barely believable that she wrote this masterpiece watching TV news reports.

1. Rhiannon Giddens – Birmingham Sunday

Another true story told by a song. Birmingham Sunday was written by Richard Fariña and first performed by both Fariña and his sister-in-law Joan Baez. The subject matter is the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in the eponymous city in Alabama on September 15, 1963 by members of the Ku Klux Klan that killed four girls and injured 22 others. The girls were Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley.

I first heard of this horrible event when Pat and I visited the Museum of Civil Rights in Memphis, Tennessee. I wept for two hours solid walking around the former Lorraine motel, I felt ashamed to be white. All ‘fear of a black planet’ Brexiteers should be made to walk around this place. If you haven’t changed your minds after your visit then I truly fear for the fate of humanity.

Rhiannon Giddens sings this song with passion and dignity.

1. Willie Nelson – City of New Orleans

Arlo Guthrie wrote this song where the narrator is a not human! The City of New Orleans is a train that runs from Chicago to New Orleans via Memphis Tennessee. As a kid I loved watching Casey Jones on TV. This series was all about our eponymous hero and his adventures on the Cannonball express. As I got older, I got into the Grateful Dead’s drug addled version of the Casey Jones legend. City of New Orleans is the genuine article, a celebration of a great American Railway journey that runs from Chicago to New Orleans. The City of New Orleans is still the name of the train. Willie Nelson may not have wrote the song but man, nobody could sing it as well!

1. Townes Van Zandt – Marie

I couldn’t write about story songs without featuring something by Townes Van Zandt. I thought that it could only be Pancho and Lefty, arguably the greatest song ever written. As I thought about what to write, I started to argue with myself that Tecumsah Valley was actually a better choice. This led me to consider Dublin Blues. Although written by Guy Clark, Townes’ version is the definitive take on this magnificent song. I have though picked Marie. This is a song about a tragic relationship between two homeless people. It is all too relevant given the world we live in.

1. Lou Reed – Walk on the wild side

All the characters in Lou Reed’s classic song from the Transformer album are real people he met hanging out with the Andy Warhol crowd in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Not only does this song feature great lyrics, it also features a great performance from Herbie Flowers on Double Bass and a fantastic Saxophone solo from Ronnie Ross.

1. Steve Earle – The Devil’s  right hand

I am a libertarian at heart so I feel somewhat hypocritical challenging the Second amendment’s right to bear arms. Too many people die from gunshot wounds, little good seems to come from legal ownership of lethal weapons. This is in many ways too deep an argument to get dragged into as there are passionate views on both sides. What is sad fact though is the grief of those bereaved families is all too real.

I sometimes feel the NRA should adopt Steve Earle’s cautionary tale as their theme song!

I could go on and on as there are so many story songs I love that didn’t make it onto this list;

Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe, Bronski Beat – Small time boy, Tracey Chapman – Behind the wall, Richard Thompson – 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and Suzanne Vega – Luka are a few of my favourites that didn’t make the list. I genuinely hope that you check out these great songs and I also hope you compile a list of your own. As I said earlier, feel free to share your favourites with me.

There was no fairy-tale start to Big Dunc’s tenure as temporary manager at Everton. A 1-0 home defeat to Aston Villa was bitterly disappointing. The second half performance gives some grounds for optimism but the team still lacks balance. Playing two in midfield is not working and the defence is shocking. I fear that relegation is the likely outcome this season without the addition of another central defender and a top notch creative midfielder. Much as I would love Big Dunc to get the job full time, I have to admit he’s probably not the right man at this time.

On the 29^th December 2021 John Madden passed away. John was the former coach of the Oakland Raiders who won the Super Bowl with them in 1977.  Madden retired from coaching in 1978 citing his acute fear of flying. He then embarked on a career as a commentator and, in my humble opinion, became the best in the world at any sport. I never thought anybody could better Richie Benaud until I saw Madden.

In 1984, Madden took the advice of NFL coach John Robinson—a friend of Madden since elementary school—and created the “All-Madden” team, a group of players who Madden thought represented football and played the game the way he thought it should be played.

Madden explained:

What does it mean to be ‘All-Madden’? It’s a whole range of things. For defensive linemen and linebackers, it’s about Jack Youngblood playing with a busted leg, Lawrence Taylor wreaking havoc on the offense and Reggie White making the other guy wish he put a little more in the collection plate at church. It’s about a guy who’s got a dirty uniform, mud on his face and grass in the ear hole of his helmet.

Madden wrote bestselling books with ‘One knee equals two feet’ being one of my favourite Sports books of all time.

From 1988 on, Madden lent his name, voice and creative input to the John Madden Football series of football video games, later called Madden NFL, published by EA Sports/Electronic Arts. Entries in the series have consistently been best-sellers, to the extent that they have even spawned TV shows featuring competition between players of the games. Despite Madden’s retirement as a broadcaster in 2009, he still continued to lend his name and provide creative input to the series which were so popular that he became better known as the face of Madden to contemporary football fans than as a Super Bowl-winning coach and broadcaster.

Madden viewed the game as an educational tool. During initial planning conversations with Electronic Arts founder Trip Hawkins in 1984, Madden envisioned the program as a tool for teaching and testing plays. He stated in 2012 that Madden NFL was “a way for people to learn the game [of football] and participate in the game at a pretty sophisticated level”

I previously mentioned that John gave up coaching due to his chronic fear of flying. To overcome this disability he travelled between commentary gigs in the Madden cruiser.

Greyhound offered him a customized bus and access to a driver for three years. Madden just had to do promotions for the transport company and make speaking appearances. Plus, after the three-year period, Madden got to keep the bus.

Over the years, new iterations of the Madden Cruiser arrived. In 1994, he upgraded to a bus with branding from Outback Steakhouse. Other versions of the vehicle came in 1998 and 2002.

Following Madden’s death, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell talked fondly about riding in the bus. He and Madden used it to attend pre-season training for various teams. Goodell said pulling into a rest stop in the Madden Cruiser was a wild experience because everyone came out to see Madden and the vehicle.

According to a Sports Illustrated story, Madden loved that the bus gave him an opportunity to see seldom-visited parts of the country. For example, he discovered a Mexican restaurant in the small town of Van Horn, Texas, and made it a frequent stop when in the area.

RIP John Madden