The Evolution Of A Meme

Phil over at Thoughtsparks recently posted a list of songs he is playing and learning on his guitar, a twist in the response to Kelly's Soundtrack Meme.

I thought it was comment-worthy and the fact that he tagged me just forces me to take the time to write the response I would want to write anyway.

First - a bit of background for those that don't know me. I am the type of person who has something of an insatiable appetite for knowing stuff about the music, artists and songs I love. I read liner notes. I research musicians to see what else they play on, and producers to see who else they have worked with. My mind is full of so much useless information about this sort of thing that I can annoy people at parties for hours on end...

This curiousity has led to some amazing discoveries of music I would never have found otherwise...

So anyway, when I read Phil's list, I saw a couple of things:

Phil has great taste in music, he likely plays an acoustic guitar, and he may not know about Townes Van Zandt and Steve Goodman.

These guys are both amazing songwriters whose most famous songs were made popular when covered by other artists. They also both died at tragically young ages.

I thought it would be interesting to share a little bit of them here - Enjoy!!

Pancho & Lefty - Townes Van Zandt

I couldn't find a performance of Steve singing his City of New Orleans so here is another favorite of mine - A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request.

You Tube is just the greatest!!

Oh, and when I pick up my guitar lately, I try to play anything from Warren Haynes - Live At Bonnaroo but in particular Glory Road (Ray Sisk)

SB

Posted by

Scott Blitstein

at 21:56 | 2 Comments

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Scott, very good post. Yeah, I know of both of them, though I wasn't aware that they wrote those songs. Of course I should have known it with Willie, but I actually did think Arlo wrote City of New Orleans. (That's what you get for pulling music from e-chords.com). You are right in that they both like John Prine are best known for the songs they wrote than their performance. Thanks for pointing that out.

I also enjoy learning about the producers. Would there have been the Beatles without Brian Epstein? Or the greats like Johnny Cash without Sam Phillips? The list goes on doesn't it?

#1 Phil (Homepage) on 2007-11-01 06:36 (Reply)

Willie is such a great writer on his own that him covering someone else's tune is probably among the biggest compliments I can imagine a songwriter getting.

"Hmm, I could write a masterpiece of my own at any time but I really like what you have done..."

How cool is that!!

SB

#2 Scott (Homepage) on 2007-11-01 12:27 (Reply)

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Music Is...

Information is not knowledge,
Knowledge is not wisdom,
Wisdom is not truth,
Truth is not beauty,
Beauty is not love,
Love is not music
and Music is THE BEST

Frank Zappa
1940-1993