Singer-songwriter Ryan Adams has been dogged through his career by his name’s similarity to singer-songwriter Bryan Adams, sometimes showing his anger at fans requesting Bryan’s song, “Summer of ’69.” A few days ago, though, Ryan Adams embraced the joke, covering Bryan Adams’s “Run to You” from 1984’s Reckless. And Ryan did not just play a few bars, he played the whole darn song.
Ryan Adams is known for playing a wide variety of musical styles, and the fans at Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara, California on Wednesday, October 1, 2014, showed they really love him when he plays some 1980s pop. Check it out.
Now that Ryan Adams has covered Bryan, what Ryan Adams song would you like to hear Bryan Adams cover? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Recently on Tuesday, July 22, singer-songwriter Ryan Adams performed the song “Stay With Me” at State Theatre in Portland, Maine. The song will appear on his forthcoming self-titled album, Ryan Adams. Check out his playful performance in the video below.
Ryan Adams will be the fourteenth studio album from Adams, whose last CD Ashes & Fire came out in October 2011. The three-year layoff is a relatively long one for Adams, who is generally known for producing a lot of material. Adams recently explained to Rolling Stone that he stopped recording for awhile because of Ménière’s disease, an inner ear disorder. Fortunately, therapy from a hypnotherapist and some medical marijuana helped get Adams back in the studio.
As you can tell from “Stay With Me,” the new album features powerful rockers with a different sound than his previous album, which I liked a lot. Adams already released the song “Gimme Something Good” from the new album as a 7-inch single, and it became the number one seller on Amazon.
I am reserving my judgment on the new music until I hear the whole album, but I am happy to see Adams making music again. The label Pax-Am releases the whole album Ryan Adams on September 9. What do you think of the new music from Ryan Adams? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Country outlaw Tompall Glaser passed away this week. Glaser had a distinguished career, performing with his brothers and running a publishing company. But most of us know him for his work on the first “outlaw” country album, appropriately named Wanted! The Outlaws. The 1976 album — which also featured Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Jessi Colter — was a landmark album that went platinum.
One of the songs Glaser performed on the album, along with “Put Another Log on the Fire,” was “T for Texas.” Here he is performing the song in the 1980s.
Glaser also co-wrote the great song, “Streets of Baltimore,” for Bobby Bare. The song contains a lot of alt-country street cred because of the wonderful version by Gram Parsons. More recently, the song has been covered by The Little Willies. Here is a 2006 Virginia performance of the song by Ryan Adams.
T for thanks for the great music, Mr. Glaser. Rest in peace.
What is your favorite Tompall Glaser song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
There are a number of popular songs that reference the Fourth of July and Independence Day. There are songs that take a historical approach to focus on the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence as in the play and movie 1776. And there are popular songs about America like the version of “America the Beautiful” by Ray Charles or the song we discussed on Chimesfreedom last year, Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” But there are also a number of songs that refer to the modern version of the holiday without singing about Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, or purple mountains majesty.
Shooter Jennings: “Fourth of July”
Shooter Jennings, son of the great Waylon Jennings, recorded an excellent song about the holiday in “Fourth of July” off his debut album, Put the O Back in Country (2005). Although the song does not mention the Declaration of Independence or our Founding Fathers, it evokes the Fourth of July that is more familiar to Americans today of having a nice holiday.
Unlike many of the other Fourth of July patriotic songs, Shooter Jennings’s song is completely about the holiday. And it is a fun song. A live version is here.
“Independence Day”
There are two excellent songs titled “Independence Day” that focus on personal escape and independence. In Bruce Springsteen’s song from The River (1980), he sings about leaving home, not necessarily on the Fourth of July. The song highlights the tension between father and son, with the son leaving: “Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day / It’s Independence Day all boys must run away.”
While Springsteen’s “Independence Day” portrays a bittersweet aspect of growing up and escaping, Martina McBride sings her “Independence Day” as an angry and empowering anthem. In the song, written by Gretchen Peters, the singer recounts her mom standing up to domestic abuse.
The “Independence Day” in this song refers both to the mother’s action asserting independence as well as to the holiday: “So I took myself down to the fair in town / On Independence Day.” Here is McBride’s video of the song, which appeared on her album The Way That I Am (1993).
“Fourth of July, Asbury Park”
Springsteen actually does have a song that, unlike his “Independence Day,” is set on the holiday. “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” first appeared on Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (1973) album. The song captures a moment of young love on a summer holiday down by the shore.
Here is a young Boss playing the song in 1975 at Hammersmith Odeon. Like Shooter’s song, this one does a great job of capturing the holiday spirit.
Songs About Fireworks
I suspect that many firework displays feature Katy Perry’s “Firework,” from her Teenage Dream (2010) album. Although the song mentions the Fourth of July, it does so in the context of asking the object of the song to “Just own the night like the Fourth of July.”
Like McBride’s “Independence Day,” Perry’s “Firework” is a song of empowerment, but without the arson.
Another song that evokes the annual holiday explosives is Ryan Adams’s excellent song, “Firecracker” from his Gold (2001) CD. The song is about courtship instead of going out to see fireworks on the Fourth of July: “I just want to be your firecracker / And maybe be your baby tonight.”
In this video, Adams performs “Firecracker” in an acoustic version.
“The Great Compromise”
John Prine invokes patriotic imagery as he remembers “a girl who was almost a lady” born on the Fourth of July in his wonderful “The Great Compromise.” The song appeared on Prine’s album Diamonds In The Rough (1971).
The girl in “The Great Compromise,” however, really represents the United States. Prine’s song about disillusionment with the country during the Vietnam War is one of the great songs about our country. [Thanks to Lucia Ferrara for reminding me about the Prine song.]
Other Singing References to the Fourth
Many other singers and songwriters have planted references to the holiday in their songs. For example, there are songs by James Taylor (“On the Fourth of July”), U2 (the instrumental “4th of July”), Elliott Smith (“Independence Day”), X (“4th of July”), Ariel Abshire (“Fourth of July”), and Aimee Mann (“4th of July”).
Tom Waits mentions the holiday in “This One From the Heart.” So does Chicago in “Saturday in the Park” but the band was not completely sure about the day: “Saturday in the park/ I think it was the Fourth of July.”
And Lucinda Williams sang about a “Metal Firecracker,” although the song title referred to a tour bus. PopMatters has a good list of July Fourth songs, and check out the comments below for some more additions.
What is your favorite Fourth of July song? Let us know in the comments. And have a happy and safe Fourth of July.
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.
(1971).
