We might need to remember some of these older songs like Talkin in Vietnam Talking Blues by Johnny Cash
One mornin' at breakfast, I said to my wife,
We been everywhere once and some places twice,
As I had another helping of country ham,
She said "We ain't never been to Vietnam,
"And there's a bunch of our boys over there."
So we went – to the Orient: Saigon.
Well we got a big welcome when we drove in,
Through the gates of a place that they call Long Vinh.
We checked in and everything got kinda quiet,
But a soldier boy said: "Just wait 'til tonight,
"Things get noisy. Things start happenin'.
"Big bad firecrackers."
Well that night we did about four shows for the boys,
And they were livin' it up with a whole lot of noise.
We did our last song for the night,
And we crawled into bed for some peace and quiet,
But things weren't peaceful. And things weren't quiet.
Things were scary.
Well for a few minutes June never said one word,
And I thought at first that she hadn't heard.
Then a shell exploded not two miles away,
She sat up in bed and I heard her say: "What was that?"
I said: "That was a shell, or a bomb."
She said: "I'm scared." I said "Me too."
Well all night long that noise kept on,
And the sound would chill you right to the bone.
The bullets and the bombs, and the mortar shells,
Shook our bed every time one fell,
And it never let up; it was gonna get worse,
Before it got any better.
......
So we sadly sang for them our last song,
And reluctantly we said: "So long."
We did our best to let 'em know that we care,
For every last one of 'em that's over there.
Whether we belong over there or not.
Somebody over here love's 'em, and needs 'em
Well now that's about all that there is to tell,
About that little trip into livin' hell.
And if I ever go back over there any more,
I hope there's none of our boys there for me to sing for;
I hope that war is over with,
And they all come back home,
To stay.
In peace.
A bit of talking blues history
One source cites Christopher Allen Bouchillon as the originator of this song form. Dylan's early work including talking blues, but his source was John Greenway
San Francisco Chronicle interview with Joni Mitchell about her retirement from music:
On this afternoon, she talks about how she developed her style, but the most essential quality of a songwriter, she suggests, may be mental toughness. Like Bob Dylan and fellow Canadian Neil Young, Mitchell has fallen in and out of favor over the years. She has been revered, imitated -- and ridiculed for being esoteric and out of touch.Ultimately, she was not tough enough. "Everything in my later career, with few exceptions, has been compared unfavorably to my early work," she says, matter-of-factly. "I've done 16 records hearing people say, 'You're not as good as you used to be. Finally, I said, 'OK, I agree with you.' "
Mitchell announced she was leaving the music business in 2002 and hasn't looked back. "My goal as a writer is more to comfort than to disturb," she says, explaining her decision. "Most of the art created in this particular culture is shallow and shocking, and I can't create music for this social climate."
She pauses. In conversation, she is outspoken, funny, self-deprecating and stimulating. But she doesn't find anything funny about the topic at hand. "There's not much room for subtleties today. It's the shallow, flashy heart that grabs the attention; chase scenes, atrocities."
She doesn't have the same opinion of her songs that us fans do. About Both Sides Now she says:
Even after all this time, she doesn't understand all the excitement over the song. "I thought 'Both Sides Now' was a failure, so what do I know?" she says, smiling. "I was not a good judge of my early material; none of it sounded all that good to me. That's why I wanted to keep moving forward."
Certainly the songwriter is going to have a different perspective on a song, but that sounds like she is trying to distance herself from her past, her early years, the years that everyone compares her current songs to. I understand that. Mitchell has long bemoaned fans and critics wanting her to "paint A Starry Night again, man" (from Miles of Aisles). On that live album she went into a long story about artists repeating themselves. Certainly her affinity is more for painters than songwriters.
Naomi Shemer, one of the most famous voices and songwriters in Israeli folk music began her journey to the next world. She was 74.
Her most famous song was Yerushalayim Shel Zahav -- Jersusalem of Gold - about Jersusalem before the start of the Six Day War in 1967, and is forever associated with that war.
I loved many of her other songs, including Kinnert which used the lyrics of Rachel.
All the news stories gathered by google.
In the words of Education and Culture Minister Limor Livnat: "The kingdom of Hebrew singers has lost its queen."
I'll bet she will teach those angels a thing or two about song.
Nothing beats a good, poetic lyric. I love Joni Mitchell's Urge for Going, when I heard Tom Rush sing it. Today, I heard her version, which I hadn't heard in a long time, from Hits. That voice, that guitar, those words -- that's why it's hard to listen to newer singer/songwriters, to Mitchell's own new stuff. Locked in nostalgia? Not really. I am just a sucker for that confessional voice -- in poetry and folk songs.
I awoke today and found the frost perched on the town It hovered in a frozen sky, then it gobbled summer down When the sun turns traitor cold and all the trees are shivering in a naked rowI get the urge for going
But I never seem to go
I get the urge for going
When the meadow grass is turning brown
Summertime is falling down and winter is closing in[Urge for Going - Joni Mitchell]
I've long longed for Tom Rush's Circle Game -- he was one of the first to sing Joni's songs in the 1960s. He recorded Tin Angel, Circle Game. Mitchell didn't even record Circle Game until 1970's, Ladies of the Canyon.
Leonard Cohen is 70? How is this possible? Okay, so I'm not a hardcore Leonard Cohen fan, but I know Suzanne (and played it badly on the guitar!) and remember that photo of him and Joni (the Canadian folk singers!) at a music festival in the 1960s. There's certainly plenty on the web to taste his music, lyrics, poetry, art. Go and eat.
Reading my email on AOL tonight, I turned on the AOL Radio to the Folk station. Came in on the middle of Best of Friends sung by Tom Paxton, Anne Hills, and Bob Gibson. Ahhh the fine, time-tested harmonies. Paxton has been around since the mid-1960s, making music and records for adults and children. Bob Gibson, who died in 1996 (which makes this newly released recording even sweeter) started playing in the 1950s. Anne Hills, recording since the early 1980s, has sung with others like Paxton, Gibson, Cindy Mangsen and solo. This fall Hills is performing and singing with Priscilla Herdman and Mangsen
Sometimes, the voice that's been around sounds sweeter than those untried sopranos aching over the same romance and naivete. An old, new classic for sure.
Saw Working Girl on cable recently and it reminded me of how much I like the Carly Simon song Let the River Run. It had a pop-ish world beat and her magnificent voice. Her new greatest hits album has its own site and a video and audio of the song. Like other classic singer/songwriters of the late 60s and early 70s, I like Simon's early, more acoustic, simple albums the best. In fact, I think I'll prefer her earlier Best of collection.
And, naturally, this reminiscing leads me to Carole King. I almost always prefer her Tapestry versions of her songs to other interpretations. I found her latest CD Love Makes the World a bit, um, boring. I don't think I listened to it more than twice. I've heard, though, her daughter Louise Goffin's latest is very good. I may have heard it on the radio, somewhere between Philadelphia and New York.