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  1. #101
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    "She's Leaving Home" - The Beatles

    A song about a girl who's either ran away or left home, only informing through a note that she left for them. After discovering the letter, her parents never stopped to ask why she would leave in such a manner, they're too self-absorbed for that. All that they can do is paint her as an ingrate whom they gave everything, the best that money could buy. While they go on & on about how they did everything for her, not once did they stop to consider that while they gave her material things, they left her bankrupt as regards the things that money couldn't buy.

    THAT is sad & tragic & unfortunately, for many, it has the ring of truth to it.

  2. #102
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    You wanna hear sad? Ok, I'll give you sad. While cloaked by music that's somewhat peppy, the lyrics of this song simply paint a picture of one sad existence. Rather than post the lyrics, I'll basically give my particular synopsis of the song.

    "Eleanor Rigby" - The Beatles

    It seems as though Eleanor toils in the church, lonely, alone & underappreciated by all. Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, she has to suffer the indignity of sweeping the rice off of the floor from the weddings of others. Poor Father McKenzie seems to have a problem with keeping his socks in tact & has the thankless jobs of darning his own socks & writing some pretty cool sermons that no one will hear,

    Hell, no one comes near.

    That is unless it's to torture Eleanor by having her witness yet another damn wedding that won't be hers. Which means that yet again, she'll be sweeping yet more rice off of the floor. Adding to her angst is the reality that while there are poor children suffering with hunger, she must throw perfectly good Uncle Ben's rice into the trash.

    One dark & foggy eve [[and with a life like hers, what other kind of night could there possibly be?) Eleanor died in the church. My suspicion is that she likely died of a bad reaction from all of the of the rice dust that she'd swept up all of those years while wearing no protective mask. Eleanor was buried, suffering further indignity by being buried with her name & just like Sonny LoSpeechi said, "Nobody cares kid!", because nobody came, not even one of those hundreds of rice throwing bastards who threw all of that rice that she had to sweep up had the decency to make an appearance.

    Meanwhile due to attrition & the down-sizing/outsourcing of poor Eleanor, Father McKenzie has yet more burdens placed upon him, having to both bury Eleanor & most likely facing a future of also having to sweep up the rice that was in poor Eleanor's job description. He also must bear the burden that while burying Eleanor, not one soul was saved, likely launching him into self-loathing, or worse.

    "Where do they all come from" indeed! A pox on them all, the ingrates!!!
    Oh yes, that is a very sad song. Even as a kid I realized that. Why so many people covered it, I'll never know. It was a great song, but just so damned sad. I felt the same way about the Unifics' "The Beginning of the End". The song was great, but the lyrics were incredibly sad.

  3. #103
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    What could be worse than living with the feeling that some mystical lady riding on a horse is going to come to get you late one night?

    Well, perhaps Michael Martin Murphey can answer than one for you. And even worse, he seems to be rather looking forward to it! On a serious note, this is a song that's always gotten to me, it's also a song that even when I didn't stop to consider the lyrics, I just knew that it was a song of dread.

    "Wildfire" - Michael Martin Murphey

    She comes down yellow mountain on a dark flat land she rides
    On a pony she named Wildfire
    With a whirlwind by her side
    On a cold and drafty night

    Oh they say she died one winter
    When there came a chilling frost
    And the pony she named Wildfire
    Busted down his stall
    In a blizzard he was lost
    She ran calling Wildfire [[3 times)

    By the dark of the moon I planted
    But there came an early snow
    There's been a hoot owl howling outside my window now
    For six nights in a row
    She's coming for me I know
    And on Wildfire we're both gonna go
    We'll be riding Wildfire [[3 times)

    On Wildfire we're going to ride her
    Gonna leave it all behind
    Yes she's always shining right out of my mind
    Riding Wildfire

    Now what I didn't understand back then was why was this guy talking about some damn owl hooting at his window. I'm from Brooklyn & the only thing I knew about owls was Charlie from The New Zoo Revue, or the owl who told us "Give a hoot...don't polute." THAT I could get with, but owls outside the window?

    I later learned that owls were feared by some. They were considered to be a bad sign, representing deception & evil by most Native tribes. They were considered to be harbingers of evil, sickness, or an impending fatality, basically, a sign of death. And being the sneaky buggers that they are, they're nocturnal hunters & since you can't hear them flying, due to their stealth, they're able to sneak up it’s prey & attacvk. Which sounded pretty much like the crackhead down the block.

    What I don't understand is what made this guy look so forward to going off to glory with this strange chick while riding Wildfire? All that I could think of whenever I heard that line was that crazy Twilight Zone episode where Diana Hyland would appear out of nowhere looking like a demented Grace Jones chasing her future self.

    So the question became, exactly WHAT was ol' Mikey trying to leave behind?

    These 30-some years later, I STILL don't know the answer!

  4. #104
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    Marv:

    "The Beginning Of My End" has got to be the worst. I was 8 when that song came out around Thanksgiving/Christmas of 1968 & even though it's easily one of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard, it's easily one of the saddest & for a soon-to-be 9 year-old, it was a somewhat unsettling song because back then, we 9 year-olds weren't ready to die, nor did we want to even think about anyone dying.

    It simply amazed me how such a beautiful song could have such horrible subject matter.

    Such is the mind of a 9 year-old growing up in the relatively naive 60s!

  5. #105
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    I have to add "Dance With My Father" to any list of truly sad songs.

    I imagine that anyone who has a great relationship with a parent would someday look back & wish that they could do something as simple as to merely be able to dance with their father or mother just one more time. While most people might want to go back into time & do something really big or splashy, it's the sentiment of longing to take a brief backward step in time to do something which seems relatively simple, a simple dance, that gives this song such weight & poignancy.

    As I think of it, I can only hope that when my time comes, my son would feel that way about me. Given the type of relationship that we have, I think that he would feel that way & that means a lot to me.

  6. #106
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    Marv:

    "The Beginning Of My End" has got to be the worst. I was 8 when that song came out around Thanksgiving/Christmas of 1968 & even though it's easily one of the most beautiful songs I'd ever heard, it's easily one of the saddest & for a soon-to-be 9 year-old, it was a somewhat unsettling song because back then, we 9 year-olds weren't ready to die, nor did we want to even think about anyone dying.

    It simply amazed me how such a beautiful song could have such horrible subject matter.

    Such is the mind of a 9 year-old growing up in the relatively naive 60s!
    Juice we are the exact same age [[don't tell anybody, hehehehehehe....) but I was an 8 and half year old kid too listening to that song over in Ohio/Michigan. It [["The Beginning of the End") was the absolute worst! LOL! It could make a grown man cry. They played it on the radio and my older brother Robert, would play it and the whole album at the house. I took the lyrics literally as in that scene actually happened to the guy singing it.
    Last edited by marv2; 07-31-2012 at 10:58 PM.

  7. #107
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    I have to add "Dance With My Father" to any list of truly sad songs.

    I imagine that anyone who has a great relationship with a parent would someday look back & wish that they could do something as simple as to merely be able to dance with their father or mother just one more time. While most people might want to go back into time & do something really big or splashy, it's the sentiment of longing to take a brief backward step in time to do something which seems relatively simple, a simple dance, that gives this song such weight & poignancy.

    As I think of it, I can only hope that when my time comes, my son would feel that way about me. Given the type of relationship that we have, I think that he would feel that way & that means a lot to me.
    I cannot listen to "Dance With My Father" period! I turn it off anytime I hear it starting up.

  8. #108
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    I was going to pick "The Beginning Of My End", "Toby" & a few others, but understandably, others beat me to them. So, I'll have to come up with a few others.

    For example another song whose lyrics make you absolutely feel for the subject has got to be "Wildflower" & for me, I'm going with the version by New Birth. I know all about Skylark, but for me, this is simply the definitive verasion of this song. I don't know how anyone hearing the lyrics of this song could avoid the feeling of reaching out & just giving this young lady a hug because she sounds as though life had been kicking her butt from Day One. If the lyrics to this song doesn't make a person feel something, then I don't know what to say.

    Wildflower - New Birth

    She's faced the hardest times you could imagine
    And many times her eyes fought back the tears
    And when her youthful world was about to fall in
    Each time her slender shoulders bore the weight of all her fears

    And a sorrow no one hears
    Still rings in midnight silence, in her ears

    Let her cry, for she's a lady
    Let her dream, she's a child
    Let the rain fall down upon her
    She's a free and gentle flower growing wild

    And if by chance that I should hold her
    Let me hold her for a time
    And if allowed just one possession
    I would take her in my arms, to be mine

    Be careful how you touch her, she'll awaken
    As sleep's the only freedom that she knows
    And when you walk into her eyes, you won't believe
    The way she's always paying for a debt she never owes

    And a silent wind still blows
    That only she can hear, so she goes

    Let her cry, for she's a lady
    Let her dream, she's a child
    Let the rain fall down upon her
    She's a free and gentle flower, growing wild

    Let her cry, oh, she's a lady
    Let her dream, 'cause she's a child
    Let the rain fall down upon her
    She's a free and gentle flower growing wild
    She's a flower growing wild, she's a flower growing wild


    Can you imagine what kind of life it must be where the only time that you're at peace is when for all intents & purpose you're basically unconscious? Unfortunately, while growing up I saw kids who this song coul've been written about. They never caught a break & seemed to get kicked in the teeth at every turn & despite that, they were some of the sweetest people imaginable.

    This song is deep & one that unfortunately, has been the life/lives of more people than we could ever know.

  9. #109
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    Yeah Marv, those are 2 tough songs to get through. But I have to admit that "The Beginning Of My End" is such a beautiful song & brings back such great memories of that Christmas [[if you were in New York then I know that you remember that snow storm), that despite the subject matter I still think of it fondly.

    As for "Dance With My Father", while I'll never feel that way I can appreciate the poignancy of that song.

  10. #110
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    Yeah Marv, those are 2 tough songs to get through. But I have to admit that "The Beginning Of My End" is such a beautiful song & brings back such great memories of that Christmas [[if you were in New York then I know that you remember that snow storm), that despite the subject matter I still think of it fondly.

    As for "Dance With My Father", while I'll never feel that way I can appreciate the poignancy of that song.
    You are not going to believe this! I just read that the story in the song "The Beginning of My End" actually happened to Al Johnson the leader of the Unifics! I guess as an 8 year old I was right.

  11. #111
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    Yeah Marv, those are 2 tough songs to get through. But I have to admit that "The Beginning Of My End" is such a beautiful song & brings back such great memories of that Christmas [[if you were in New York then I know that you remember that snow storm), that despite the subject matter I still think of it fondly.

    As for "Dance With My Father", while I'll never feel that way I can appreciate the poignancy of that song.
    Juice, I know what you mean and I do remember that Christmas, '68 I got "Hot Wheels"! LOL! But I was in Toledo, Ohio and we always get snowed in for Christmas there. Man, music does bring up memories of things I had not thought of in many years.

    Oh yeah, I cannot listen to "Dance With My Father". We went out to the beach, Jones Beach a few summers ago with my friends Vinny and Annette. That song came on the radio in the car and they started singing it. I wanted them to turn it off, but it was their car! LOL!

  12. #112
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    Marv and Juice,

    I saw Roquel sing this song with his brother at the Lyric a few years ago with The Tops.....and he barely got through the song. And they were not faking the funk. Had my girls tearing up so bad they couldn't even tell him how much they liked it.

    Manny,

    My sad song for the weekend is Jolene....as performed Live by the White Stripes in England.

    This might be the clip....I can't view youtube from work [[at least that's what I tell them)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haU6_PyyG0k

    Love their performance.....but this live version leaves out my fave line:

    "He talks about you in his sleep,
    It's all that I can do
    To keep from crying....
    When he calls your name.....Jolene"

  13. #113
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    Marv,

    I didn't get Hot wheels that year, that was the next year.

    That Christmas, amongst other toys, I received my usual compliment of Gi Joe[[s) & a Motorific race set. As memory serves me, it was this one
    Name:  Motorific Wildcat.jpg
Views: 451
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  14. #114
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    Des,

    I know what you mean.

    I posted picture here when The Four Tops performed in A.C. with Levi's passing still fresh in mind. And I have to say that it was kinda hard to shoot that part of the show when Roquel brought his brother to the mike during the song.

    Those were the days & no dirsespect intended to anyone but I still miss Theo Peoples being on that stage with them.

  15. #115
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    Quote Originally Posted by juicefree20 View Post
    Marv,

    I didn't get Hot wheels that year, that was the next year.

    That Christmas, amongst other toys, I received my usual compliment of Gi Joe[[s) & a Motorific race set. As memory serves me, it was this one
    Name:  Motorific Wildcat.jpg
Views: 451
Size:  57.9 KB
    You are killing me here! LOL! I actually remember that one too. The tracks hedged together and underneath each piece there was wiring like. Yep to the GI Joe's [[the full sized ones) and in '67 it was "Action Jackson". hehehehehehe..... oh great memories.

    Last edited by marv2; 08-04-2012 at 12:11 AM.

  16. #116
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    Marv,

    Thanks for the reminder!

    Once you mentioned Action Jackson, I remember a couple of the other toys that I got that Christmas of 1968.

    I also got Captain Action & his boat that shot missiles. The boat didn't exactly float as well as advertised, but since it had wheels, you could also roll it across the floor. Plus Captain Action had outfits so that you could make him anyone from The Green Hornet to Captain America.

    I sure wish that I had all of those toys in tact because they go for a lot of money these days.

    OK...this is a music thread, so before this thread gets totally hijackedwhat I'm finally going to do after years of discussing it, is to finally go to the Clubhouse & create that toy thread that I've been talking about for years.

    Back to the music & I'll have another song or 2 to add tomorrow!

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