1
Bonnie Raitt couldn't break through.
Her initial album was cut live to four track at a summer camp in Minnesota with Spider John Koerner and Willie Murphy. This was before record labels clamored for hits, they let you find your way, especially Warner Brothers. Also, people pooh-poohed AM radio. If you were authentic, you saw it as anathema. And Bonnie was nothing if not authentic, she hewed to her blues roots, she didn't want to sell out, and she didn't, but her debut barely sold.
But then came "Give It Up." Suddenly Raitt was writing her own songs, and "Nothing Seems to Matter" and "You Told Me Baby" are stellar. But so are the covers. Most notably the second side opener, Joel Zoss's "Too Long at the Fair."
"Won't you come and take me home
I've been too long at the fair
And lord I just can't stand it anymore"
Until 1991's "Luck of the Draw," "Too Long at the Fair" was my favorite Bonnie Raitt track and "Give it Up" my favorite Bonnie Raitt album. And in those days you made it via word of mouth and the road, radio oftentimes came last, Bonnie developed an audience, she could tour, but the average person still had no idea who she was. Raitt was anything but slick, you believed every word she sang, she touched your soul.
But not so much on the follow-up, 1973's "Takin My Time." "Takin My Time" had a much slicker sound, it was anything but rough. There were a number of excellent tracks, most notably "I Feel the Same" with its chicken pickin', but it moved the needle on Bonnie's career just a wee bit. Now she'd made three albums and she had an audience, but she was far from a star, she may have been enamored of Little Feat, but even that band was rarely played on FM radio at the time, and Bonnie was heard only on college and adventurous stations. So Bonnie took a hard turn to a soft sound with producer Jerry Ragavoy and ended up nowhere, neither fish nor fowl, she didn't satiate her hard core audience and made no inroads with others. However "Streetlights" did contain a track that eventually became a classic, her cover of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery," but it was anything but AM radio fodder, even AOR fodder, "Streetlights" was a detour that cost Bonnie's career momentum. Yet if you were a fan you bought it without hearing it first and the opening track was the best, breezy yet meaningful, a cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About the Midway."
"I met you on a midway at a fair last year"
With no prior knowledge it seemed like a carny story. Yes, a tale of traveling gypsies. This was before we knew that almost every song has a backstory, and I learned that backstory Thursday night.
2
David Crosby is very intelligent, yet self-satisfied and not always informed on the issues. He's been wrong on digital music from the get-go. He says streaming does not pay, could it be that no one is listening?
Let's take "If I Could Only Remember My Name," his 1971 solo LP, the worst of the initial four band members'. I bought it when it came out, it's interesting, but does not deserve the accolades it has recently gotten. I mean if you're really stoned... But the truth is "Music is Love" has ten million streams on Spotify and three other tracks are in seven figures but the rest are in six figures, shy of a million, considerably. Now I know that a million SOUNDS like a lot, but it isn't. Forget that a lot of songs on Spotify have a billion streams, even two billion, the truth is if it weren't for Spotify, digital music, no one at all would be listening to "If I Could Only Remember My Name," because it would be out of print, completely unavailable, there's not enough physical space to stock the entire history of rock and roll in a store, never mind the fact that you get paid ad infinitum on streaming, it's an endless annuity, unlike a sale, whose money you probably blew.
Also, there's a good chance "If I Could Only Remember My Name" is in the red, it cost so much to make, and with the anemic royalty rates of yore...
As for the hits, with Stills, Nash & Young... Let's see, there are four members splitting a low royalty rate, I can see why you're not making much, but the problem lies with the label, not Spotify. As for the publishing...it's so valuable that Crosby could sell it to Irving Azoff for seven figures, so...
But Crosby has a new album out. He's made five records in the past seven years, a track record no other classic rocker can equal. He's embraced the new market wholeheartedly, that's the new paradigm, you record new music, go on the road to promote it, and then you repeat the process. But it gets better, CROSBY CAN STILL SING! And the dirty little secret is so many stars of yore cannot, at least not very well, even though they're on the road and people are paying to see them. I pulled up "River Rise" and was stunned, I didn't want to turn it off immediately, I wanted to continue to listen to it. And that's the reason David Crosby was on Howard Stern last week, promoting his new work, and I was listening Thursday night on the SiriusXM app as I was hiking, and the truth is Crosby is always fascinating to listen to.
Now if you want to be particular about it, and why not, as good as Crosby's new music is, it could benefit from some money, to afford a first class studio with a first class engineer, the tracks sound just a little too homemade, the choruses with harmonies are great, but a pro would do just a bit better with his voice, use studio tricks so it sounded a bit less naked and alone.
And the new album, ironically entitled "For Free," won't make any money, but it's a calling card, for the fans who still want to see Crosby on the road.
So Howard's wants to get Crosby, Stills & Nash back together again. But the truth is they were back together and I saw them and I'd like to tell you the vocals were up to par, but they were not. Stills can play, but... And Stills is the star, David owns up to this, endorses it, seems like we're gonna have to wait until Stephen Stills dies before he gets the accolades he deserves, before he gets into the pantheon.
And despite all this talk about the new album, Howard continued to ask questions about the past, and the most interesting dialogue was about Joni Mitchell, Crosby said they weren't close, and that she'd written a breakup song about him. HUH? Which song was it?
3
Crosby set the scene. There were twenty people together in a house, probably in the canyon. And Joni showed up and said she had a new song, and everybody wanted to hear it, so she sat down with her guitar and played the song. Twice.
You see Crosby is sitting there, getting embarrassed, because everybody knows it's about him, she's breaking up with him via this song. Crosby and Stern go on about this, and finally it's revealed, the song is "That Song About the Midway."
Hmm...
I bought a new copy of "Clouds" in the early eighties, at a swap meet, it was still covered in shrinkwrap. I didn't own it previously, one only has so much money. And the best track is "I Don't Know Where I Stand," which in retrospect is probably about Crosby too. And the opener, "Tin Angel," is superb, the opposite of a Stones album intro, quiet and introspective as opposed to in-your-face. And the album ends with Joni's take on "Both Sides Now," which Judy Collins had already turned into a monster hit, and track four was the original "That Song About the Midway."
I'm a big believer that the writer does the song best, but not in this case, then again Raitt and Mitchell's versions are very different, same chord changes, same lyrics, but completely dissimilar feel. Raitt's is an ensemble, slick, the sound supersedes the lyrics, the story seems to be told in retrospect, it doesn't feel like it just happened yesterday. But Joni's original is essentially just her and her guitar, and it's her pure voice, it's not treated like Bonnie's is, like I'd like Crosby's to be on his new work, it's not a woman on stage in a theatre, it's a singer in a coffee house, playing to forty people, it's made to be heard, but it's personal, it cuts right to the gut, but I still thought it was fiction, I couldn't figure it out, until Crosby and Stern started talking about it.
So it took me the entire hike to finish the interview, the longer the better, don't cut it short if you've got an interesting guest, you want to cover the ground, and when I got into my car I pulled up "That Song About the Midway" and listened with new ears.
"I met you on a midway at a fair last year
And you stood out like a ruby in a black man's ear"
On the road, they met on the road, as part of the traveling circus of music performance, at least that's how I remember it. And Crosby was a star, wearing his capes and...
"You were playing on the horses, you were playing on the guitar strings
You were playing like a devil wearing wings
Wearing wings you looked so grand, wearing wings"
Yes, Crosby was playing the field, his music his calling card, he was an angel, at least on the outside, but the inside?
"Do you tape them to your shoulders just to sing
Can you fly
I heard you can, can you fly
Like an eagle doin' your hunting from the sky"
Well, these are fake wings, taped on, easily removed. Meanwhile, he's flying like a bird of prey, circling in on...women.
"I followed with the sideshows to another town
And I found you in a trailer on the camping grounds"
Yes, every act has their own schedule, they rarely meet up on the road, but sometimes, missing their significant other, one will change their route, fly in for a little of that human touch.
"You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice
And I thought I saw you cheating once or twice, once or twice"
I literally thought it was about gambling, but now, rounding the Sunset curve by Mandeville Canyon, I finally knew the truth, yes Crosby was cheating on Joni Mitchell!
"You were betting on some lover, you were shaking up the dice
And I thought I saw you cheating once or twice, once or twice"
Whew!!! Now it was perfectly clear, I could see the scene, Joni was the faithful one, we always hear about her leaving relationships, but in this case... It was a dagger straight to Crosby's heart, it's very clear.
"I heard your bid once or twice
Were you wondering was the gamble worth the price
Pack it in
I heard you did, pack it in
Was it hard to fold a hand you knew could win"
She was committed, was it really worth it to screw around and lose her? Did he not foresee the consequences?
"So lately you've been hiding, it was somewhere in the news"
Cheaters always hide, you can't get a hold of them, they're embarrassed! They hate confrontations. However they say adultery is not about the person you do it with, but the person you're involved with, and if you only told your significant other your issues, progress could be made, instead you pull away in this sneaky way, like a weasel.
"And I'm still at these races with my ticket stubs and my blues"
When you're deceived, when you're abused like this, you feel so bad, you were ignorant, out of the loop, you're still here, but they're long gone.
She's tired, she feels like she worked overtime on the relationship and it was all a waste of time. And then she pushes the dagger in further:
"And I envy you the valley that you've found"
I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY!
And they never are, because you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone.
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