This week, Chimesfreedom has focused on new versions of old songs, so here is one more. Ryan Adams recently performed an acoustic cover of Ratt’s 1984 hit song, “Round and Round” on NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. He has reportedly been playing the song periodically in concert while promoting his CD Ashes & Fire (2011). Check it out.
John Parr, who recorded the 1980s hit “St. Elmo’s Fire (Man in Motion)” for the Brat Pack movie St. Elmo’s Fire has decided to re-record the song in honor of . . . a football player. Parr explained that he was inspired by Tim Tebow, the Denver Broncos quarterback who is known for talking about his Christianity and for kneeling in thanks on the field of play. Some, like Parr, see inspiration in Tebow, while others see hype for a mediocre quarterback.
Parr’s recorded “Tim Tebow’s Fire.” Warning: If you are a fan of the movie, St. Elmo’s Fire, you might want to avoid listening the the new version and getting it stuck in your head.
The phrase “St. Elmo’s Fire” comes from a weather phenomenon involving electrical charges commonly seen by sailors during thunderstorms. It was named after a mispronunciation of St. Ermo or St. Erasmus, the patron saint of Mediterranean sailors. Whether or not you think of Tebow as some kind of saint, he certainly has become a phenomenon.
In December, three music heavyweights got together backstage at the Civic Opera House in Chicago and jammed on The Band’s classic song, “The Weight.” Wilco, Nick Lowe, and Mavis Staples took turns on the verses.
Staples is no stranger to the song, having performed the song with her family and The Band on Martin Scorsese’s classic rock film, The Last Waltz.
The song’s writer, Robbie Robertson, as well as other members of The Band have commented on the song’s meaning through the years and the fact that the characters in the song are named after people they knew. For an interesting detailed analysis of the lyrics — such as “Who was Crazy Chester?,” check out this article from Peter Viney. For example, it is “Fanny,” not “Annie” in the chorus, and the Nazareth is in Pennsylvania. The Dallas Observer has a recent short article about the song “The Weight,” including some discussion of how the song abides along with links to some other versions.
What do you think of the jam version of “The Weight”? Leave your two cents in the comments.
On this date in 1935, Elvis Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi. His simplified life story is that an awkward young boy grew into a young man who rocketed to stardom in the 1950s with his musical talent and then went to Hollywood where he lost his way making second-rate movies. Eventually, the story goes, the man found his musical roots in a television special, but then lost his way again in a spiral of excess and over-medication.
But one’s life cannot be simplified into a few sentences. The general story line is inaccurate on a number of levels, including the general assertion that Elvis made no decent movies or music during the time he made films. While a number of the films are only interesting because of Elvis’s presence and there is a lot of cheesy music like “Do the Clam,” the King was still capable of hitting one out of the park now and then during this period. Several songs you know originally came from his movies, like “Can’t Help Falling in Love” from Blue Hawaii (1961).
The clip below is a song you may not have ever heard if you have not seen the movie, The Trouble With Girls (and How to Get Into It) (1969). The film itself is among his more interesting and unusual movies, despite the title that makes it sound completely generic. Unlike other Presley vehicles, The Trouble With Girls does not feature him in almost every scene (he’s in about one-third of the film), and at various times before production Glenn Ford and Dick Van Dycke were slotted to play Elvis’s role as Walter Hale. His character is the manager of a traveling chautauqua, which is a school that provides education combined with entertainment. You may read more about the unusual movie at this fan site.
The musical highlight of the movie is where Elvis performs “Clean Up Your Own Backyard.” The bluesy song is an excellent vehicle for Elvis, and the lyrics about hypocrisy is a good lesson for all of us. Before we judge Presley’s life, “Clean up your own backyard / You tend to your business, I’ll tend to mine.”
Recently, a woman from Tennessee was arrested for carrying a licensed gun in New York City. The case has sparked some uproar because of the unusual facts. The woman, Meredith Graves, apparently was carrying a gun licensed in her home state of Tennessee while visiting the 9/11 Memorial in New York. After seeing a “No Guns” sign, Ms. Graves asked police where she could check her gun. Subsequently, she was arrested under a New York law prohibiting people from carrying a loaded gun, even if the gun is licensed in another state.
The case is a perfect illustration of the old adage, “Ignorance of the Law is No Excuse.” Generally, that is true in the law, as one may understand that someone should not be able to commit robbery and then say they did not know it was against the law. Only very rarely can ignorance of the law rise to a Due Process problem when someone is punished for violating a law they did not know existed. Under this case, a court would probably hold that when someone travels to another state with a gun, it is not unfair to require them to check the local laws on whether they can pack heat.
Here, Ms. Graves had every intent to comply with the law and was arrested for violating a New York law she did not know existed. A prosecutor sought a felony conviction, which could result in a sentence of up to 3 1/2 years. This case seems like a perfect one for a prosecutor to use discretion to avoid a conviction of someone who did not wish to cause any harm and who tried to comply with the law — even if she could have done things a little better. My guess is that the prosecutor is using the case to help publicize the New York law to tell tourists to leave their guns at home.
There are a number of slang terms for guns, and one of the coolest is “the Devil’s right hand,” used in the song of the same name written by Steve Earle from his album, Copperhead Road (1988). The song begins with the singer’s first encounter with what his mama called “the Devil’s right hand,” illustrating a fascination that ends up with the singer using a gun to kill another man during a fight in the card game. Like Ms. Graves, the singer pleads not guilty and blames it all on “the Devil’s right hand.” Here is a young Steve Earle performing the song.
It is somewhat surprising that the song has not been covered more often by rock groups, considering the song’s catchy music and edgy lyrics. Perhaps the best cover is by The Highwaymen. That version makes good use of all of the members of the group: Johnny Cash, Waylong Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, and Willie Nelson.
Two of the members of that group — Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash — recorded their own solo versions too. Here is the group version. So listen to the song one more time as a reminder to check those gun laws when you travel.
UPDATE: In March 2012, Merredith Graves reached a deal with prosecutors so she did not face any jail time for carrying bringing her gun to town.
(1988). The song begins with the singer’s first encounter with what his mama called “the Devil’s right hand,” illustrating a fascination that ends up with the singer using a gun to kill another man during a fight in the card game. Like Ms. Graves, the singer pleads not guilty and blames it all on “the Devil’s right hand.” Here is a young Steve Earle performing the song.