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Cage and Fish and Barry White

I was introduced to it on I-35, from Wichita to Kansas City, a late afternoon when the sun from the west made the Flint Hills in fall look like they were on fire.

It was with me when I drove 2 hours northwest of Albuquerque, where the streets have no name through the Rio Puerco Valley, to hike up Cabezon Peak, with the dirt creaking yellow-red in the dryness.   

It was with me almost every day for a year after my fiance was killed in a motorcycle accident. 

It was with me through the Valley of Fires, the volcanic stretch along the asphalt from San Antonio, New Mexico to Ruidoso.  I was on my way to a new job in Texas.   But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

Do you remember the law firm Cage and Fish, the attorneys Ally McBeal and John Cage?  Ally's psychologist (played by Tracey Ullman) recommended to Ally that she have a theme song.  I don't remember Ally's -- but I do remember John Cage's theme song ... "we got it together baby," the first line of Barry White's "You're the First, the Last, My Everything."

Do you have a theme song? 

I know mine.  It's most of the songs on U2's The Joshua Tree.

Over the weekend I watched the DVD about the making of the CD.  The album has sold 10 million copies in the United States alone.  The Joshua Tree was # 26 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time; and in 2001 (fourteen years after its initial release), it was # 6 on Contemporary Christian Music's The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music.

U2's guitarist, The Edge, said this about one of their goals for the music of The Joshua Tree, "We talked to Brian (that's Brian Eno, their producer) about the cinematic aspect of music, where music can actively evoke a landscape and a place, and can really bring you there." 

Not surprisingly, the band was often evoking America's desert Southwest. 

If you're in tourism, lodging or even in retail, are you using music effectively to bring your customers to the place they dream of going?  To the place they want to be?

Now it probably won't surprise you if I tell you that I own about 2 dozen CDs; when I'm not listening to NPR or classic rock and roll, I play them.  But I've bought 3 CDs of The Joshua Tree over the years. 

As long as it's with me, so are the Flint Hills in the fall, Cabezon Peak and the Valley of Fires.   

Maxwell Parrish's Evening

Gold Dust Woman

Rock on--gold dust woman
Take your silver spoon,
And dig your grave

Heartless challenge
Pick your path and I'll pray

Wake up in the morning
See your sunrise--loves--

to go down

Lousy lovers--pick their prey
But they never cry out loud

Did she make you cry
Make you break down
Shatter your illusions of love
Is it over now--do you know how
Pick up the pieces and go home ....

- Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac's 1997 Rumours 
Photo from nicksfix.com

Do you every listen to the words of a song you took for granted when you were young?

Last month I heard the lyrics of Gold Dust Woman for the first time.  Maybe it's because I've picked up the pieces and gone home ... many times.

Stevie Nicks is still touring and performing ... ten shows in Australia and New Zealand this Spring, later 33 in the US, the first 10 with Don Henley. 

Last fall, The Stevie Nicks Stakes, an Australian horse race named in her honor, allowed her to visit down under and pre-promote the tour that began in February 2006, the Gold Dust Solo Tour.

We treasure a talent who won't give up, who continues to share her joy and life with us.

Campfire Girl

"It was nice to meet you, but I have to go.  The fiddle player's grandparents are saving me a seat on the front row."

My first trip to Luckenbach, Asleep at the Wheel was starting to play.  And, I'd just met and left someone tall, dark and handsome at the campfire across from the dance hall.

A few songs into the first set he asked me to dance.  We danced on the same floor again, a year later at our wedding reception.

I know the magic of a Texas dance hall.  Luckenbach is still special, but they're all magical.  The people change -- but, that's not the magic.  And, I know the music in Texas is as diverse as the flags that have flown over her -- rhythm and blues, gospel-tones, redneck rock, twang and folk.

I know how it'll smell and how it'll feel.  There's usually a wood-burning stove, the smell of stale beer, sawdust and smoke. It smells different on an August night than it does on a Saturday afternoon in February.  But, dance halls are thick across the Texas Hill Country -- thanks in part to the German immigrants who made it home nearly 150 years ago.

It's still part of home -- the foundations of our culture, our communities and our core values ... family, friends, music, laughter and legends.

That's one of the reasons I'm honored to be a part of a new Texas Music Program, Radio Lonestar.  The producer, Jerry Clayton, has his roots deep here, in Texas Music.  He'll provide us with the stories today that will be our legends tomorrow.

 

 

 

www.luckenbachtexas.com

What about that frog song?

Hollywood, California, 1970:   Michael and Joe were in Hollywood and heard that their friend from Oklahoma was in town recording a demo for a possible children's musical for television.  They stopped at the studio where their friend was recording to see him and hear some of  his songs.

Michael and Joe knew their friend Hoyt was a great writer.  Another band they knew had recorded two of his songs in the late 1960s and created hits.*

They heard one of the songs and told Hoyt, "That could be a hit."  They got a recording of Hoyt playing it on his guitar and took it with them to their band's next planning session.

After the 1960s rock era, the band wanted to go into the new decade with a cleaner image and more positive songs.  But did they want to sing about a frog and a fish?

The band members listened to Hoyt's recording that night and decided it wasn't a good idea.  Michael and Joe were disappointed, but decided to stay in the studio and talk over other stuff after the band's meeting was officially over.

One by one, each band member reappeared that night, each one asking to hear "that frog song" again.

They recorded it and it appeared on their November 1970 release, "Naturally."  They were able to pull three singles from the album.  All three, "One Man Band," "Liar" and that frog song became Top 40 Hits.

In 1971, Billboard, Cash Box and Record World acclaimed the frog song Single Record of the Year, written by country/folk star Hoyt Axton.  It was a number one hit for six weeks straight.  It was Three Dog Night's biggest single of their career, selling over 4 million copies.

It starts like this ... "Jeremiah was a bullfrog, was a good friend of mine ...."  The song was titled "Joy to the World."

On Michael Allsup's web site, he has a tribute to Hoyt Axton, and shares one of the last conversations he had with him.

"While at Hoyt and Debbie's house the last time, when I said 'goodbye' Hoyt pulled me close and said, 'Thanks for giving me a career, Michael.  Thank all the guys (in Three Dog Night) for me.'  I damn near broke down.  I put my hand on his shoulder and said, 'Hoyt, you silly shit.  Don't you know you gave us one, too?'  We both held back tears, as smiles overtook our faces.  I left thinking of how much the combination of Hoyt and our band had gotten into the American public.  What a wonderful feeling, to have brought music to an entire generation and maybe more."

- Michael Allsup, Three Dog Night
http://www.michaelallsup.com/hoyt5.htm

Last summer I was in New Mexico, driving from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, listening to my favorite station, KIOT-FM.  When I heard ... "well I never been to Spain, but I been to Oklahoma ..." I fell in love with Hoyt (the songwriter) and Three Dog Night, all over again.

* Steppenwolf recorded two songs in the late 60s written by Hoyt Axton: "Snowblind Friend" and "The Pusher," which was used in the movie, Easy Rider.

Andy Warhol's Pine Barren Tree Frog, from www.allposters.com