The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Monday August 31, 2015
Sad news: this will be our last week of the daily #WeekdayRamble. That’s more for the lazy days of summer. With the three sport season coming up we need to focus more on specific subjects, specifically sports and music. We’ll be posting a weekly Sports Ramble early in the week and Music Ramble later in the week. Hopefully we’ll also get back to podcasting, where we’ll do popular #WeekdayRamble bits like #FunFacts. We’ll also do some random Weekday Ramble blogs as well.

For this last week I’ll be writing about more personal stuff, mostly songs I listened to from my parent’s record collection when I was a kid. Today I’ll be highlighting three of my favorite songs from that era.

Birmingham Blues - Charlie Daniels
from the 1975 LP Nightrider

Nightrider, Charlie Daniels sixth album, is diverse in a southern rock sort of way.  There's hard country, jump blues, honky tonk, sad waltzes, and a little bit of soul. Daniels' songwriting is mature and the musicianship is astounding.

"Birmingham Blues" should be a southern rock anthem: it’s got a big riff, virtuosic soloing, and the energy that better known songs like “Can’t You See” lack. Essential listening.

Paradise/The Spell – Uriah Heep
from the 1972 LP Demons and Wizards

Uriah Heep have been unfairly called “a poor man’s Deep Purple.” I like Purple, but Heep are a lot different. Their fantasy lyrics, like their sweet album covers, are uniquely their own. Ken Hensley’s major to minor chord progressions and big melodies have an endearing different but familiar feel.

“Paradise/The Spell” is a good vs. evil story in like six parts. 11 minutes of album time on one song was nothing to Heep. This is their classic lineup, too: David Byron’s vocal range is limitless, Gary Thain’s basslines are fluid, Mick Box’s chunky guitar sits in the background and bursts in when necessary, and prodigy Ken Hensley dazzles on organ, keyboard, and slide guitar.

Sleepwalker – The Kinks
from the 1977 LP Sleepwalker

The Kinks ‘70s and ‘80s albums are unjustly overlooked. That’s the rule for the clever, melodic songwriting of Ray Davies as well. Through all the musical changes of the late ‘70s the Kinks kept their signature song while also moving it forward. “Sleepwalker” is both upbeat and dark. A pretty good song for Halloween, actually. Like many Kinks classics, it uses three chords to their maximum effect. It’s a snappy little ditty.

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Friday August 28, 2015
I’m not sure if I have fond memories of having cassette tapes growing up because I actually liked them or if I just settled for whatever I could afford. I guess I could afford CDs, but when my choice was between having five tapes for $20 or one CD for the same price I’d usually choose the latter.

I wore out a lot of my tapes, but there were two I remember vividly. Below are a highlight from each of them.

I Need You – The Who
from the 1965 LP A Quick One

A Quick One, the Who’s second album, is an anomaly. All four members, even Roger Daltry and Keith Moon, wrote songs for it. The title track is a mini-suite that Pete Townshend referred to as “Tommy’s cousin.”

Townshend and bassist John Entwistle’s contributions are generally strongest, but Keith Moon’s “I Need You” stacks up with the best of them. It’s fierce drumming is the lead instrument (as it is on Moon’s other track on the album, bizarre Salvation Army band-ish “Cobwebs and Strange”). The melody is surprisingly strong, Moon’s falsetto jumping like the early Beatles tracks that the song emulates.

Amused to Death – Roger Waters
from the 1993 LP Amused to Death

Roger Waters 1993 album Amused to Death never got the notoriety of the David Gilmour-led Pink Floyd albums from the same era. It’s too bad, because while the ‘80s and ‘90s Floyd is good, it’s tame compared to Waters’ musical and lyrical masterpiece.

His critique on culture is unparalleled. The album track builds from Waters’ practically whispered first verse to a big finish with the resounding conclusion: “no tears to cry/no feelings left/this species has amused itself to death.”

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Thursday August 27, 2015
Our last Quote/Picture/Video of the summer is fittingly about flowers.

Advice from Ma Theresa
We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers, grass- grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.
-Mother Teresa

People today hate silence. It’s too bad, because it’s in the silence that we find God – and often, ourselves. We hate silence so much that we can’t even go a few seconds between pitches at a baseball game without noises and sound effects being pumped in. Are we that afraid of hearing ourselves think?

I Googled “flowers”…

And found this. This is the reason the Weekday Rambles are ending, folks.

Flowers – Bill Mallonee
from the 2006 album Permafrost

Bill Mallonee is one of the best songwriters you’ve (probably) never heard of. If you like Dylan, Gram Parsons, and those types of folks, at least. He’s like them only with a poppier edge as well.

It’s always about the song with Mallonee and he releases dozens a year. “Flowers” has typically profound lyrics:

round here there's just trouble
chasing after the wind
buy that line with all the money in the bank
and never ever look in
to be so damn enlightened
oh to be so free
to be so down in the bottom of the ninth
at the top of the century

I came with dirty hands
I came with blinded eyes
tongue tied I could barely speak the truth
about my tall lies
they sold me on some pleasure
till the pleasure it sold me
into something that looked and smelled
a whole lot like slavery

we all need new beginnings
the first steps make you better
maybe you're just a prayer away
from getting your shit together

flowers growing out of the desert
flowers out of parched ground
flowers coming right up through the cracks
of the pavement in your old town
flowering's not a science
it's more like a fine art
flowers coming right up through the cracks
of our broke up little hearts

This performance is from a house concert. He largely makes his money today by doing them.

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Wednesday August 26, 2015
We'll be having a somewhat disappointing piece of news regarding Rambling On soon. In that spirit, here's a Quote/Picture/Video on the subject of disappointment.

Carl Jung was not a ladies man
A particularly beautiful woman is a source of terror. As a rule, a beautiful woman is a terrible disappointment.
-Carl Jung

Settle down, Carl Jung. What he says, while not a rule, is true more often than I'd like it to be. I don't blame the beautiful women themselves though. It's the influences around them that make them think that physical beauty is more important than it actually is. In fact, though this quote is too often true, it's the men that are the terrible people in the situation, not the women. A beautiful woman has to decipher if people like (or love) them for who they are not what they look like, and that isn't easy. It's the people on the outside who judge based on beauty, and use that beauty to their advantage, that are usually to blame.

It got through Buckner!

The 1986 New York Mets are my third favorite baseball team (behind the '91 and '87 Twins and right ahead of the “We Are Family” Pittsburgh Pirates). Hardcore baseball fans know the story: the Boston Red Sox had the '86 World Series practically won until a horrendous ninth inning in Game Six that they never recovered from. The ultimate moment of disappointment: Bill Buckner's crucial error. Look up videos and articles about him to get an idea of how iconic this moment is, and how much shit he got for it in its aftermath.

Bad memories

Even more fresh in the memory of sports fans, especially those in Minnesota, is Gary Anderson's missed field goal in the 1998 NFC Championship game. He hadn't missed a field goal in two years. Listen as Madden and Summerall jinx Anderson. Or maybe it was a botched snap from the Superstar Mike Morris.

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

by Erik Ritland

Rambling On is a seriously fun blog and podcast covering sports, music, culture, and more. Check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.

He who purifies himself in the river of a subdued spirit, the waters of which are truth, its waves compassion, and its shores excellent temper and conduct, will be liberated from this world; but liberation cannot be obtained by just outward observances.
-Ancient Indian proverb

There is a lot of wisdom in this short, beautiful, practical proverb. It is insightful for anyone who desires to be the best version of themselves.

Having a “subdued spirit” is an underrated concept. It's difficult to subdue the wildness of the self, it takes hard work and the difficult virtue of self-control. It's easier to be forceful, prideful, and self-absorbed. Hence the need for purification.

The proverb says that we purify ourselves in the water of truth. But what is truth? Is it relative to each person's views? Or is there absolute truth? A dramatic scene during Jesus' trial before Pontius Pilate cryptically touches on the subject:

Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then?

Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.

Pilate saith unto him, What is truth?
(John 18: 37-8a)

It's a chilling exchange with no resolution. As Sir Francis Bacon cleverly says in his essay On Truth:

What is truth? said jesting Pilate, and would not stay for an answer.

To Pilate's credit it's tough to stay for the answer, especially if you follow the Christian tradition. Jesus' truth is life's highest calling: love God and love one another, even unto death. Take up your cross and die daily to yourself and what holds you back. As the great 20th century author and philosopher G.K. Chesterton said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” Easy Christianity is fake Christianity.

Jesus and the ancient Indian proverb promote different visions of what the truth is (though there is a good bit of overlapping). They both agree, at the very least, that absolute truth is real and attainable. This goes against our post-enlightenment culture which claims that one person's belief is as good as any other. It seems like a fine, inclusive view, one that promotes tolerance and coexistence.

However, if one person's truth is as good as that of anyone else, is there a difference between Mother Theresa and Hitler? The relativist is forced to believe that they each had their own equally “right” version of the truth, which is obviously terrifying.

Even more definitively, “there is no absolute truth” is itself an absolute truth, so the argument collapses on itself philosophically.

Ultimately, each of us has to answer the important question of what truth is. We all have doubts, as jesting Pilate did, but there are answers in the faith of Jesus and the rivers of Eastern wisdom.

Compassion, conduct, anger
The waves of the purifying waters are the difficult virtue of compassion. Is it easier to condemn those you disagree with, and your enemies, or to have compassion on them? Once again, it takes hard mental and emotional work to have compassion, work that we are often too lazy to do. Yet the more you focus on having compassion, especially for your enemies, the happier you'll be mentally. It's all part of subduing the mind. Only after it is subdued can there be any room for peace, which is why so few people have peace of mind today.

The shores of the river are excellent temper and conduct. It's so easy to lose our temper. My mind immediately goes to driving: although I am not close to perfect, I tend to get angry at the slightest thing another driver does wrong. Even if I was a perfect driver, losing my temper does nothing but add unnecessary negativity to my life, which causes both mental and physical anguish. If I see the other as a brother or sister it becomes harder to lose my temper at them.

This is connected to the Christian concept of grace. Christians aren't called to love based on merit, but simply because each person is our brother and sister. God loves us for who we are, and as such we should do the same for those around us. When I lose my temper at another driver my heart rate goes up, I get angry, and I feel terrible. When I smile and laugh it off I always feel better about myself and the situation. This extends to any other time in my life when I can either get angry or stay calm.

“Excellent conduct” is somewhat relative to cultural and personal standards. In some cultures you're expected to take your shoes off upon entering a person's house; in others it's weird or gross. Regardless, there are plenty of things that fall into this category across cultures: treating people well, not lying, being presentable, being respectful, and others. Cultures can differ on those things too, but there are parameters that are set both intrinsically and by our surroundings. Following your conscience is a good starting point but it can't end there – I'm sure Hitler followed his conscience, or at least fit his conscience to his hatred.

It's all a lot simpler than a convoluted explanation: be compassionate, control your anger, and be a good person.

In the world, not of the world
The proverb promises us that we'll be liberated from the world if we search for truth, practice compassion, control our temper, and have excellent conduct. This is an interesting point of both similarity and dissimilarity to the Christian tradition.

By Eastern standards a person practices virtues, like compassion and good temper, in order to escape the world itself because it is evil. Jesus spends a lot of time condemning those of “this world” throughout the Gospels but he does not have that dualistic hatred of the physical world itself. The point of his Incarnation, the concept of God becoming human, is that humanity and the material world are good and are worth saving. Although he had problems with the system, Jesus was a faithful Jew of his time, and as such believed the Jewish philosophical claim that the physical world was “very good” because God created it. This is in sharp contrast with dualistic Eastern traditions which claim that the spirit is good and the world is bad.

There is a similarity between the two views, though. Jesus called Satan “the prince of this world” in the context of those who are weighed down by detrimental worldly things: lust, pride, power, and other temporary fixes that do not satisfy. Indian philosophy warns of these things as well. The difference is that Christianity sees it as a sickness in an otherwise good world, while Eastern thought claims that it is proof that the world is bad and must be transcended.

On authenticity
The last point of the proverb is something unequivocally similar with the teachings of Jesus: that outward appearances can't make up for what is lacking on the inside. As Jesus says:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! First cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
(Matt. 23:25-28, RSV)

The point of Jesus' harsh, somewhat cryptic words are the same as that of the proverb: “liberation cannot be obtained by just outward observances.” You can fool other people, you can even fool yourself, but you can't fool God. Who you are matters. Intention matters. Why you do what you do matters.

Gather at the river and throw yourself in
Ultimately, cleansing in the purifying river of this proverb means desiring to be the best version of yourself. It means searching earnestly for the truth, being compassionate, keeping anger in check, and doing what is right. We each have to make the journey ourselves, but wisdom from the greatest minds that have already made the journey, such as the people who created proverbs like this one, are an excellent guide.

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Tuesday August 25, 2015
Some #FunFacts about Daniel Boone to continue my current obsession with history.

The beginning
Almost like his early biography would make the perfect beginning of a folk song, Daniel Boone learned how to chop wood by the time he was five, cared for his father's cows by 10, and was taught survival skills by Delaware Indians throughout his childhood. Now that's rustic.

Go on now, get
Daniel Boone is credited with discovering the Cumberland Gap through the Appalachian mountains. The problem: the Swanee Indians were already there. Instead of killing him, as they did with most trespassers, they let him live and told him to never come back.

What's in a name?
Boone's nickname was Tick Licker. I know what you're thinking: sweet nickname! And also, what the hell does it mean? Well it's a joke – the idea is that he was so good with a rifle that he could shoot a tick off an animal's back. I'm so tempted to start a band called Erik Ritland and His Tick Lickers.

Deceit
Contrary to popular belief Boone wore a beaver hat, not a coonskin hat. I feel so duped.

The end
After his early travels and military escapades Boone settled down. He bought and sold land, was a surveyor, traded horses, and hunted. He died in 1820 at the age of 86. His last words: “My time has come, I’m going.” That would be the name of the folk song that the first fact began.

Sources
http://www.softschools.com/facts/biography/daniel_boone_facts/847/
http://apecsec.org/5-interesting-facts-about-daniel-boone/
http://ohmygodfacts.com/7-interesting-daniel-boone-facts
http://www.booneassociation.com/timeline.html

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Monday August 24, 2015
Continuing our history trend with #FunFacts by focusing on folk hero Johnny Appleseed.

A mixed bag
The real life and motives of Johnny Appleseed were a little different than what many of us were taught in school. He didn't roam the wilderness planting apple trees to beautify the land and fill it with fruit – he did it to stock up real estate. After the Revolutionary War a claim could be made on land by planting 50 apple trees on it. At his death in 1845 he owned over 1200 acres of land.

Regardless, Appleseed still had a reputation for being a nice, charitable guy. He bartered with poor people and was even said to have given the shoes off his feet to those less fortunate.

It's hard
Supposedly the trees Appleseed planted weren't meant for eating. Called “spitters” (because that's what they made you do) they were mostly used for hard cider.

I can get behind that.

A lover of animals
Appleseed was also a lover of nature and animals. He is said to have moaned in regret after killing a rattlesnake that attacked him: “Poor fellow, he only just touched me, when I, in the heat of my ungodly passion, put the heel of my scythe in him and went away."

Hospitality
America was in its infancy at the time of Johnny Appleseed's travels. Most homes and farms would welcome him and give him a place to stay, even if they didn't know of his reputation. If only things could still be that way.

Sources
http://www.biography.com/news/johnny-appleseed-story-facts
http://mentalfloss.com/article/62113/9-facts-tell-true-story-johnny-appleseed

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

Wilco
Star Wars (dBpm 8/21/2015) 
Essential tracks: "More...," "Random Name Generator," "Where Do I Begin," "Magnetize"



Wilco hasn’t made a satisfying album since A Ghost is Born. There are some great moments on Sky Blue Sky, and instrumentally they’ve never been tighter, but Jeff Tweedy’s songwriting just hasn’t been that inspiring. Especially on their last two releases, Wilco (The Album) and The Whole Love.

More than simply a return to form for the band, Star Wars is also a revitalization of the album format. Fuzzed out riffs, layers of keyboards, and plenty of old school synths give it a strong overall harmony. Sonically it's warm and consistent, each track flowing into the next a la Sgt. Pepper. At just over 30 minutes it’s the perfect length, making it easy to go back to and really absorb. It’s the sort of album that bands used to come out with twice a year, and still could if the creativity and ambition were still there.

Catchy, melodic “More…” and “Random Name Generator” find the band at their poppiest and most Beatle-esque.  Inventive guitar riffs swirl around “The Joke Explained,” an opaque criticism of organized religion (I’m on to you, Tweedy). That’s a strength of Star Wars, though: the songs have a good creative balance between plainness and obscurity, where recent Wilco lyrics have fallen too far into one or the other.   

Like classic albums of the ‘60s and ‘70s the sound is consistent even as the band explores different textures and styles (after all, Sgt. Pepper had radically dissimilar songs “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “She’s Leaving Home,” “Within You Without You,” and “When I’m 64” all side by side). Droning “You Satellite” initially seems redundant, but its mix of guitars, keyboards, and noises gets more compelling with each listen. The breezy mix of pop, rock, and country of “Taste the Ceiling” would have fit nicely on A.M. or Being There.

Musically “Pickled Ginger” is one of the most interesting tracks on Star Wars. It is built around distorted, bluesy rhythm guitar and filled out with discordant keyboards and the wildly inventive guitar work of (presumably) Nels Cline. But Tweedy sounds like a bratty teenager when he sings lines like “no one tells me how to behave” and “no one tells me how to be saved.” He’s trying to be rebellious and edgy, I get it, but those types of sentiments have become quite ordinary in our increasingly anti-religious world (especially among musicians, and on the political left in general). It’s also a philosophical non-point, as anything Tweedy believes he absorbed from one source or another, and I doubt he’d argue that there aren’t better and worse ways to behave (or be saved for that matter). Furthermore, if “no one” tells him how to behave that includes himself, and if I take his advice then he can’t tell me how to behave, either – which includes voicing my opinion about what the best and worst ways to behave (or be saved) are.

The last four songs are a mini-suite, something like a more fleshed out “Mean Mr. Mustard/Polythene Pam/She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” (or a less grandiose “Golden Slumbers/Carry that Weight/The End”).  It starts, fittingly, with “Where Do I Begin,” which is practically a suite in itself. It moves from an electric folk song with a chord progression reminiscent of Tweedy’s early work in Uncle Tupelo (especially “If that’s Alright”) into foreboding psychedelic rock with fuzzed out guitars and backwards cymbals. Its increasingly off the rails coda leads nicely into “Cold Slope.” Like most songs on Star Wars – and the best art in general – it nicely balances contradictions, its moody feel and warm melody juxtaposed with erratic guitars. This balance, which sometimes borderlines on the best sort of absurdity, pervades every part of the album, even its title and artwork.

“Cold Slope” ends abruptly, leading directly into hypnotic “King of You.” It’s repetitive, but the imaginative riff and heavy fuzzed out guitars make it more interesting than similarly structured “You Satellite.” “Magnetize” closes the album with a small-scale version of itself, a strange psychedelic opening leading into a beautifully melodic, piano-led ballad with more layers fuzz guitar.

With Star Wars, Jeff Tweedy’s band has reached a transcendence that it hasn’t come close to since A Ghost is Born. An album for people who love albums, its appeal will  grow as listeners and critics get more time to absorb it.
 
Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Friday August 21, 2015
50 years ago today the Beatles made their only appearance in Minnesota at Met Stadium. There's a nice piece about it in today's Pioneer Press that interested me as a fan of the Beatles, the '60s, and the Twins. Check it out.

For their set the boys played plenty of hits - “Help!,” “A Hard Day's Night,” “Ticket to Ride,” and others – but they also dug out a few lesser known songs. Below I feature three of my favorites.

The videos are, when I could find them, the original mixes from the American albums*. The songs are each linked in their title to live versions from a week earlier at Shea Stadium (where they played the same setlist with the addition of "Twist and Shout"). I highly recommend listening to the intensity of the Shea versions.

Dizzy Miss Lizzy
originally released on the 1965 LP Beatles VI

Most songs the Beatles cover are required listening ("Twist and Shout," "Please Mr. Postman," "Roll Over, Beethoven," so many others). They were essential to the charm of their first few albums. By late 1964, though, beginning with the batch of songs from Beatles for Sale, critical acclaim for their interpretations of other songwriter's material goes down.

This is a fallacy, as their last cover, "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," shows. Lennon rips through the Larry Williams track as fiercely as he did "Twist and Shout." Dig these rhythm and blues.

Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
originally released on the 1964 LP Beatles '65

Another often overlooked cover in the Beatles catalog, "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" updates the rockabilly of Carl Perkins with vigor. Whether covering soul, Motown, rhythm and blues, or rockabilly, the Beatles were always fresh when interpreting the music they loved. The guitar solos are pure George, showing that Perkins was his biggest guitar influence.

Baby's in Black
originally released on the 1964 LP Beatles '65

Response to "Baby's in Black" is mixed among Beatles fans. Some think it's a throwaway, filler from an era (post-Hard Day's Night) when they were running out of ideas. Others feel that its dark waltz feel and tight, out-of-the-box harmonies (where John and Paul sound like one voice throughout) make it a unique treasure. As you may have guessed, I am in the latter group. There's no Beatle song that sounds anything like "Baby's in Black." Uniqueness doesn't always mean greatness, but the lilting quality of the song is endearing.

I'm surprised the band played it live, as the waltz time and harmonies had to be difficult to execute over all the crowd noise.

*Some may wonder why I'm referencing the "butchered" American versions instead of the standard British releases. Well, this is an article about a concert in America, and the fans in the crowd would have known them from those records. Also, despite being money grabs without any consent from the Beatles (they hated them, actually, hence the "butcher cover"), their mixes are interesting, it's fun to have the hits on the records, and some of the collections are as good or better than their British counterparts (Meet the Beatles!, The Beatles Second Album, and Rubber Soul come to mind).

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.

The Weekday Ramble is a daily dose of sports, music, culture, and more from Rambling On founder Erik Ritland. For more information check us out on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or at our website.


Thursday August 20, 2015
A meaningful song from my adolescence.

Time – David Bowie
from the 1973 LP Aladdin Sane

David Bowie's “Time” brings up all sorts of emotions in me, as I discovered it (and subsequently became obsessed with it) at the impressionable age of 14. Its blistering rock, effortless melody, and poetic lyrics are still fresh.

The song begins with the tumbling, jazzed up piano of Mike Garson. Bowie's vocal is strong but subtle to begin:

Time
He's waiting in the wings
He speaks of senseless things
His script is you and me boys

Time
He flexes like a whore
Falls wanking to the floor
His trick is you and me, boy

The imagery in the second verse is perverse but evocative. The third brings in thick, heavy layers of Mick Ronson, my guitar hero in Jr. High:

Time
In Quaaludes and red wine
Demanding Billy Dolls
And other friends of mine
Take your time

The sniper in the brain, regurgitating drain
Incestuous and vain
And many other last names

I look at my watch it say 9:25 and I think
"Oh God I'm still alive"

We should be on by now

This is Bowie at his clever, whimsical best. The songwriting is deceptively simple, the verse repeated three times and slightly changed for the fourth. It then moves to the dramatic, pulsating repetition of the songs emotional lyrical center: “we should be on by now.”

A catchy interlude of “la la la”s abruptly gives way to silence before the next verse:

You
Are not a victim
You
Just scream with boredom
You
Are not evicting time

Bowie's falsetto at “scream” is chilling. Mick Ronson, a master of texture and tone, shines in the following guitar break, knowing exactly when to hold notes and for how long.

The final verse, one of Bowie's most stunning lyrics, is simple but profound (and sung in another brilliant melodic change):

Chimes
Goddamn, you're looking old
You'll freeze and catch a cold
'Cause you've left your coat behind
Take your time

Breaking up is hard
But keeping dark is hateful
I had so many dreams, I had so many breakthroughs
But you, my love, were kind
But love has left you dreamless
The door to dreams was closed
Your park was real dreamless

Perhaps you're smiling now
Smiling through this darkness
But all I had to give was guilt for dreaming

We should be on by now

“Breaking up is hard/but keeping dark is hateful”...“Perhaps you're smiling now/smiling through this darkness/but all I had to give/was guilt for dreaming”...wow. Bowie was rarely more inspired, and his vocal performance matches the lyrics. As in the middle section, emotion and tension build each time “we should be on by now” is repeated. A final singalong “lalala” part builds up to Bowie's final plea of the songs title, ending five of the most breathtaking minutes of '70s rock.

The heavy, well placed guitar work of Mick Ronson carries “Time.” I loved every note he played with Bowie. He was one of my heroes. My love of him only increased when I heard his playing on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue.

I still remember the moment I first checked out his biography. It was 3:00 AM and I was on a bulky, old style desktop computer at the middle school my brother worked at as an overnight janitor (I often helped him so I could spend time on a relatively new phenomenon called the internet). The carpet smelled new, the lights were low, and I was groggy from lack of sleep. I leaned in my chair and my jaw dropped when read the words “Died: April 29, 1993.” Not knowing any better, or having any immediate resources, I assumed (and hoped) that he was still alive. I was sad to find that cancer had taken him years before I ever heard his guitar playing.

Each of the Bowie albums he played on, The Man Who Sold The World, Hunky Dory, Ziggy Stardust, and Aladdin Sane, are essential listening As far as pure rock n' roll songwriting Bowie was never better, and the Spiders From Mars are his most cohesive band. “Time” is only one example of how bright they shined.

Erik Ritland is a writer and musician from St. Paul, Minnesota. His blog and podcast Rambling On features commentary on music, sports, culture, and more. He was also Lead Staff Writer for Minnesota culture blog Curious North. Support Erik's music via his Patreon account, reach him via email, or find him on Facebook and Twitter.