Radical Transparency

(in case the other blogs need a friend)

When We Used To Sit

This doesn't work. FYI.

Do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_do_

But maybe a blog post will...

I'm looking for a song. With lots of do do do dos.

A woman sings it, a singer to whom I remember my mother listening sometimes. Not as much as she listened to Tracy Chapman or Cat Stevens or Sam Cooke. But sometimes, which is kind of a lot.

The song doesn't have many rhymes. Maybe no rhymes at all, actually. That might be its thing: no rhymes. Which, if you happen to be writing a song for me, is probably a thing to avoid. I like rhymes.

Another one of the song's things is that the singer kinda talks it as much as she sings it. Which is an ok thing by me. Much better, in general, than the no rhymes thing.

The song also connects in my mind to In Liverpool. Maybe because Suzanne Vega sings them both. But maybe not.

Also, through In Liverpool, the song lives in a box in my memory with Fee and No Woman, No Cry. All three were on the first mixtape anyone ever gave me.  The do do do do song was not on that mixtape. Nor is this information relevant. I'm taking notes at this point. Notes about that first mixtape...

Fee, I liked immediately and still adore.

No Woman, No Cry I did not like, and that fact STILL blows my mind. It's still embarrassing. And it makes me sad. For myself at age 10 or however old I was. And for everyone else in the world that doesn't love No Woman, No Cry. I was missing out; so are those people.

The mixtape had two sides, each with different labels. One was called Like It's My Job. The other was called Like There's No Tomorrow. Both of those titles referred to peeing. I have to pee like it's my job. I have to pee like there's no tomorrow. Sanna, the babysitter that made me the mix, said those things, and I thought they were hilarious.

I think 10 is embarrassingly old to be answering to a babysitter. I'm pretty sure I thought that at the time too. But I also don't think I was the reason Sanna was around. My sister and cousins are all younger, and she was certainly in more charge of them than me. I think.

Anyway, it's time to wrap this up and post No Woman, No Cry. It's track 5 on Live! And it led off one of the two sides of that mixtape.

(download)

No Jewels, No Nothing

Married to the Sea. Again. Thank you, Lauren, for sending me this one too.

www.marriedtothesea.com

I can't think of anything for myself at the moment, but if that grizzly bear was my sister, I'd play Isis (track 2 on Desire). Something about the rhymes she just can't handle...

She said, where ya been?
I said, no place special.
She said, you look different.
I said, well, I guess.
She said, you gonna stay?
I said, if you want me to, yes.

(download)

My Dukes Swingin Loose

I love it when words overlap.

I can see the referee wants to go-hom-ie's got a wife and family.

Intentionally efficient use of language or not, that's a pretty great little rhyme.

Suckerpunch is track 11 on Wonderful Beef.

(download)

Like a Bubble on a Windy Day

Back on my computer for the first time since Wednesday.  Everything's been mobile since then.  Broken eyes.  Tired thumbs. 

And so much to sift and study and write.

But not yet.  First, a song.  A country song.  For the sand hills of North Carolina. 

FOR The South, but not OF The South. 

California country, hippie country.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.  One of my favorite musical names. 

And one of my favorite rhymes:

Whoa little Jennifer
I'd give a penny for
What you got on your mind

Ripplin' Waters is track 11 on Symphonion Dream.

(download)

Look at What the Cat Dragged On

The first time I saw The Spinto Band live, they opened with this song.  And rocked a very small house. The East End Cafe in Newark, DE. 

December 2003 if I remember correctly.  Or earlier maybe.  Two members of the band were still in high school.

I'm going to see them again tonight.  In Washington, DC.  At a more substantial venue.  And I'm pretty sure they won't play Kind of a Girl.  Which is a small bummer.  But, someday, when they're truly big and famous, they'll get back into the old stuff.  They'll want see what the fans saw in the beginning.

They'll want to remember moments like this:

Sorry I don't have any solutions
But I admire your problems
Though I can't tell if they're from the heart or
Just a conversation starter

Gotta respect a rhyme like that.

Kind of a Girl is not on either of Spinto's "real" label-released albums.  I have it on a compilation that's been drifting through my family since we first got to know the band.  We label the burned CDs Nashville Recordings.  Kind of a Girl is track 13, but, given that show at East End, I'll always think of it as a track 1.

(download)