1
Is this now a country song?
I went last night to the Write-off Room to see the Sherman Oakies. Felice heard about it from Dean Parks's wife Julie. A bunch of studio musicians playing...exactly what?
I know some of the Dust Bowl classics from Ry Cooder. But there's a giant hole in my country knowledge. This music was pooh-poohed in the northeast, and "Hee Haw" was a seedy cash-in after the demise of "Hootenanny," the folk music TV show. That's right, folk music was so big in the early sixties there was even a series about it on ABC. But it died in September 1964, buried by the British Invasion, or should I say pummeled. Even patron saint Bob Dylan went electric. Singer-songwriters with acoustic guitars emerged in the seventies, but we're still awaiting a serious folk revival, with easily singable songs with messages, a throwback to simpler times in these days where protest against the system seems to have no effect, where the system itself seems to have triumphed.
Despite being influenced by the Delta blues, and even some of the Englishmen loving country songs, we young 'uns didn't want none of that hillbilly music, with its twang. Some people say their parents played Hank Williams, but my 'rents played show tunes. And when a country song came on the radio, I pushed the button. But, in truth, very few country tunes crossed over to Top 40 in the mid to late sixties.
But in the seventies, when truly all the action was over on the FM dial, we got Charlie Rich's "The Most Beautiful Girl"... That one I loved. I remember hearing it on the jukebox at the diner in Rutland, Vermont when we stopped for a pee break. Yes, you could tell where you were in the country based on the records in the jukebox, before the whole country became homogenized.
Then there was the big hair country. Played by people from the hollers. But I heard and liked Dolly Parton's "Jolene," and somewhere along the line, maybe it was Gram Parsons, maybe it was not, country infiltrated rock and roll. But not too deep, not that twangy. And although these country rock acts were huge, Nashville really didn't want much to do with them. Although ultimately the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band merged the two with "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." That's the first place I heard "Tennessee Stud," a song written by Jimmie Driftwood, what a great name, and sung on the album by Doc Watson, who'd actually played my college with his son Merle, who died tragically, leaving the blind Doc without his eyes.
I didn't own "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," but I was at a house party in Salt Lake and a friend who I bonded with over the Souther, Hillman, Furay debut dropped the needle on "Tennessee Stud" and started to sing and I got hooked.
But all this is to say that my country knowledge is spotty, if I'm not completely ignorant.
Now today's country music is the rock and roll of the seventies, which is one reason it's so successful, but that original sound... You can read about it at the museum in Nashville, and be sure to go, but this certainly ain't my roots.
2
So after discussing the pedal steel guitar with Dean, I ask Don Was about his country knowledge. He tells me about a radio station from Nashville he could get in Detroit. So I'm feeling completely out of it.
But then...
A number of songs in...Felice nudges me, isn't this a Randy Newman number? And it was, "Rider in the Rain," from "Little Criminals"! And I own that album, but despite it containing Randy's first hit, I didn't play it that much, I was partial to "Sail Away" and "Good Old Boys."
So maybe the country the Oakies was playing was actually a big tent. After all, Holly Palmer came up and sang "Ode to Billie Joe," which I absolutely hated back then, but have come to like, if not love.
And the funniest thing is Dillon O' Brian had a printer right by his chair, where he was sitting and playing guitar, and he'd print off a number and distribute it to the band of studio aces and they'd dive in. It was that kind of night, loose, the kind you're privy to in L.A., pros having fun.
And then Dillon starts to tell this story, about Jeff Porcaro observing Jim Keltner at Amigo, they've been trying to get the groove right with multiple takes, and then finally they nailed this song.
Whereupon the band fell into "City of New Orleans."
Because that's the kind of vibe the song has, you fall into it, you settle into it, like on a train that is starting to pull out of the station before it hits full speed and you start to cruise.
"Riding on the City of New Orleans
Illinois Central Monday morning rail
Fifteen cars and fifteen restless riders
Three conductors and twenty five sacks of mail"
Singer-songwriters were raging in 1972 when Arlo Guthrie's fourth studio album "Hobo's Lullaby" was released, but Arlo hadn't really had any serious traction since the Woodstock movie.
Now the funny thing is Arlo's last Reprise LP, 1976's "Amigo," was the best thing he ever did, but at that point in time, despite critical hosannas, singer-songwriters were out with full bands, the quieter sound was passé and...
People still had hope with Arlo's third LP, 1970's "Washington County," but by the time of "Hobo's Lullaby" even fans had given up, and suddenly Arlo had a hit, with the Steve Goodman song "City of New Orleans."
But despite Arlo's credibility, FM would have no part of it. "City of New Orleans" broke on the dreaded Easy Listening format, where it ultimately climbed to number 4, and then crossed over to the Hot 100, where it peaked at number 18. But by time it was through, everybody was exposed, everybody knew it.
3
"Good morning America how are you
Say don't you know me I'm you're native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done"
And now the assembled multitude is singing along. Because somewhere along the line this song became embedded in our DNA. Everybody in the venue's got their head in the air, exuberant, luxuriating in the moment. It's one thing to watch the music, it's quite another to participate.
But really, it's the change that evidences magic.
"All along the southbound odyssey
The train pulls out at Kankakee
Rolls along past houses farms and fields"
And it circles back. and at the end...
"But all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
And the steel rail still ain't heard the news
The conductor sings his songs again
The passengers will please refrain
This train got the disappearing railroad blues"
And this is when you get that sinking feeling, because you know just like the train this song is going to disappear, and you're so locked into this feeling. Which is neither right nor left, red nor blue, but truly American. Not that anybody truly rides the rails anymore, and driving cross-country, discovering yourself along with the land...that's gone too in an era where flight is cheap and you can interact with anybody on the planet instantly via the internet.
4
Now those who lived through the era know that "City of New Orleans" was written by Steve Goodman. He was one of the twin towers emerging from Chicago, along with John Prine. But Goodman was cut down by leukemia and nobody under the age of forty, fifty, has any idea who he is, but they know this song.
But do they know it because of Arlo Guthrie's hit version or...
"City of New Orleans" was the opening cut on Willie Nelson's album with that title in 1986. This was a decade after "Red Headed Stranger," Willie was now even a movie star.
Willie's version of "City of New Orleans" went all the way to number one on the country charts.
But Willie's version has a slightly different groove, instead of the relaxing, yet tipsy train ride of Arlo's version, in Willie's take you've got the rhythm of the steel wheels of the engine pulling the string of cars forward. There's this underlying power, it's not like you can't hear or understand the lyrics, but it's the country groove that hooks you.
So maybe "City of New Orleans" is country after all.
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