Hello, my friends, old and new! It's not the weekend, which means you're wondering what's the deal with our Motown countdown. Let me explain. I have noticed that the countdown's fanbase is gradually shrinking. Which may be due to a lot of things that are beyond my control - but one thing that is within my control is to fiddle with the format: perhaps there were too many words and not enough songs. So, from today, I will double the number of songs compared to last time (actually it's quadruple than the number we began with) and cut down the words to the absolutely necessary ones. Also, not the weekend anymore: the countdown will be published on weekdays and will be over very soon. Here goes...
El DeBarge
Position: 60
Song: I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)
Artist: The Four Tops
Year of Release: 1965
Position: 58
Song: Super Freak
Artist: Rick James
Year of Release: 1981
Position: 58
Song: I Second That Emotion
Artist: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
Year of Release: 1967
Position: 56
Song: Ain't No Sunshine
Artist: Michael Jackson
Year of Release: 1972
Position: 56
Song: Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
Artist: The Temptations
Year of Release: 1971
Position: 55
Song: I Was Made to Love Her
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Year of Release: 1967
Position: 54
Song: You Can't Hurry Love
Artist: The Supremes
Year of Release: 1966
Position: 53
Song: (I Know) I'm Losing You
Artist: Rare Earth
Year of Release: 1970
Position: 52
Song: Fight the Power
Artist: Public Enemy
Year of Release: 1989
Position: 51
Song: Baby I'm for Real
Artist: The Originals
Year of Release: 1969
Position: 50
Song: The Tracks of My Tears
Artist: The Miracles
Year of Release: 1965
Position: 49
Song: Rhythm of the Night
Artist: DeBarge
Year of Release: 1985
Position: 48
Song: Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)
Hello again, my friends! I decided to write a different story today. It will be my story - sort of. There will definitely be songs, some of my favorite and especially those that shaped me intellectually and emotionally. Since there will be no featured artist, I will adorn this story with a photo of one of my favorite paintings. The painting is by Greece's most famous painter, Yannis Tsarouchis, who dared be openly gay even during the forbidding 1960s. I am greatly honored to be able to say that he was my friend.
I make no money from my blog, which gives me a strange kind of freedom: I can keep ugliness away. I delete the comments by homophobes or negativity trolls without hesitation. I only argue with those I respect - and I only fight with those I love, otherwise, it's just a waste of time and energy. So, to quote Paul McCartney from the Beatles' Fixing A Hole:
"See the people standing there who disagree and never win And wonder why they don't get in my door"
I am wary of people. Two reasons: a. People lie and b. People are unnecessarily cruel. Even if the former can sometimes be excused (not as often as it is though) the latter is inexcusable. It is what separates the men from the beasts: the beasts are cruel only when they have to. Sometimes, just to survive, you have to play a part, to "set it up", as Losing My Religion explains:
Don't let me get started on the hypocrites, the holier-than-thou crowd. Bob Dylan said it best in Positively 4th Street:
"You've got a lotta nerve to say you are my friend When I was down you just stood there grinnin' You've got a lotta nerve to say you got a helping hand to lend You just want to be on the side that's winnin'
You see me on the street, you always act surprised You say "how are you?", "good luck", but ya don't mean it When you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed Why don't you just come out once and scream it"
I am not ambitious - wait! let me rephrase that: I am wildly ambitious but not seriously. It's a game to me, setting a goal, achieving it - and then not bothering to follow through on the boring details, you know, the ones that bring fame and fortune. This line from Leonard Cohen's The Stranger Song is absolutely me: "It's hard to hold the hand of anyone who is reaching for the sky just to surrender." I'm that guy - and this is the song:
I love songs that tell stories. Sometimes these stories would make a great movie. A fantasy of mine; David Lynch making a movie out of The Band's mysterious love story, Caledonia Mission.
"She reads the leaves and she leads the life That she learned so well from the old wives It's so strange to arrange it, you know I wouldn't change it But hear me if you're near me, can I just rearrange it
The watchman covers me With his remedy I can't see and it's hard to feel I think his magic might be real
I can't get to you from your garden gate You know it's always locked by the magistrate Now, he don't care why you cry, he thinks it's just a lie To get out, I don't doubt that you'd make a try
If the good times get you through I know the dogs won't bother you We'll be gone in moonshine time I've got a place they'll never find
You know I do believe in your hexagram But can you tell me how they all knew the plan Did you trip or slip on their gifts you know we're just a con You knew it, why'd you do it? I've been hiding in the dark
Now I must be on my way I guess you really have to stay Inside the mission walls Down in Modock, Arkansas"
Bruce Springsteen's Meeting Across The River, the story of two losers planning a robbery, is a Film Noir waiting to happen. My favorite line is "Here stuff this in your pocket - It'll look like you're carrying a friend":
Listening to Gordon Lightfoot's The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, the details of the ill-fated journey of the unlucky ship never fail to fill me with dread:
... While listening to Marianne Faithfull's heartbreaking version of The Ballad Of Lucy Jordan fills me with sadness. The line "At the age of thirty-seven she realized she'd never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair," brings tears to my eyes.
Sometimes poetry is involved: Serge Reggiani's anti-war song Le Deserteur uses Arthur Rimbaud's Le Dormeur du Val as an introduction, a poem that makes the death of a young man in the war sound, oh, so sensual:
"C'est un trou de verdure où chante une rivière Accrochant follement aux herbes des haillons D'argent; où le soleil, de la montagne fière Luit c'est un petit val qui mousse de rayons
Un soldat jeune, bouche ouverte, tête nue Et la nuque baignant dans le frais cresson bleu Dort; il est étendu dans l'herbe, sous la nue Pâle sur son lit vert où la lumière pleut
Les pieds dans les glaïeuls, il dort souriant comme Sourirait un enfant malade, il fait un somme Nature, berce-le chaudement il a froid
Les parfums ne font pas frissonner sa narine Il dort dans le soleil, la main sur sa poitrine Tranquille. Il a deux trous rouges au coté droit"
... Sometimes the poem is the song. Case in point: Loreena McKennitt's inspired transformation into song of The Lady of Shalott, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's classic poem from 1832.
"Out flew the web and floated wide; The mirror cracked from side to side; 'The curse has come upon me,' cried The Lady of Shalott."
There are times when a song is not based on - but brings to mind a work of literature. Whenever I listen to Don McLean's The Orphans Of Wealth I think of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes Of Wrath".
Sometimes the song allows you to become one of its characters. I can totally become this 15-year-old uncouth lovelorn barbarian when I listen to Jet Boy, Jet Girl by Elton Motello:
... Or I can become a defeated older lady like the one in David McWilliams' Days Of Pearly Spencer:
... Or I can become the young man who was used by Mr. James in exchange for a ticket out of jail and a touch of luxury in Scott Walker's sublime Thanks For Chicago Mr. James:
The final verse of Genesis' The Musical Box often feels like it's speaking about me:
"I've been waiting here for so long And all this time that passed me by It doesn't seem to matter now You stand there with your fixed expression Casting doubt on all I have to say Why don't you touch me, touch me Why don't you touch me, touch me Touch me now, now, now, now, now Now, now, now, now, now Now, now, now, now, now Now, now, now, now Now, now, now, now"
Stories can be as straightforward as the one in Joni Mitchell's This Flight Tonight - just a woman's thoughts during a night flight, of the lover she left behind:
... Or they can be complicated and twisted, like the doomed romance of Heathcliff and Cathy in Kate Bush's Wuthering Heights:
Sometimes the story is simple but told in an endearing way, like Al Stewart's Year Of The Cat:
Sometimes the song's joyous feeling carries you along, like Steve Forbert's Romeo's Tune:
Speaking of Steve Forbert, he utters one of my favorite lines in the song, January 23-30, 1978: "It's often said that life is strange, oh yes, but compared to what?"
Sometimes the feeling is sad, Tracy Chapman's Fast Car:
"I got no plans I ain't going nowhere So take your fast car and keep on driving"
There are times when the story is told in amazing detail, like Lou Reed's Street Hassle. By the way, if you think there's someone in the song who sounds like Bruce Springsteen, it's because it is Bruce.
At other times I marvel at the economy of the lyrics - like Sly & the Family Stone's Family Affair:
"One child grows up to be Somebody that just loves to learn And another child grows up to be Somebody you'd just love to burn Mom loves the both of them You see it's in the blood Both kids are good to Mom 'Blood's thicker than mud' It's a family affair"
Even more so on Prince's Sign o' the Times. I mean, the line "In September, my cousin tried reefer for the very first time. Now he's doing horse, it's June." is fantastic, come on!
There are stories tackling controversial subjects, like PJ Harvey's Down By The Water, in which she expresses her regret over drowning her daughter:
There are stories that are purposefully oblique, like Kristin Hersh's Your Ghost. Michael Stipe is helping out with the vocals:
"You were in my dream, you were driving circles around me"
There are stories where certain images stand out: in Neil Young's After The Gold Rush, every time I listen to the lyrics "there were peasants singing and drummers drumming and the archer split the tree" I can visualize the course of the arrow through the air.
Then, there are stories, like Sufjan Stevens' John Wayne Gacy Jr whose horrid subject matter (the portrait of one of the worst serial killers of all-time) creatively contrasts the sweet melody of the song:
By coming out when being gay was socially unacceptable, if not illegal in much of the world, society unwittingly gave me a gift: since they were wrong about something so fundamentally right, the expression of love between two people, then they could be wrong about everything. The fact that at a young age I was able to question everything society was throwing at me was a huge learning experience, as well as a serious boost to my inner strength. I could survive on my own moral code and would let no religion, social structure, or political ideology constrain me. That does not mean that I am morally rudderless: in fact, my personal moral code is often stricter than those that "happen" to exist around me. I never forget that I am lucky to have lived in a place and time in which being gay was difficult but not impossible - and I realize that there are many brothers and sisters around the world that are not so lucky - even now. To them, I dedicate Glad To Be Gay by The Tom Robinson Band, a song that has helped me through many difficult moments.
However, being gay isn't all doom and gloom. It can be pretty fabulous too. As David Bowie said in Moonage Daydream, while he was exploring his gay side, "The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be."
Finally, four words for those who may find this self-indulgent or moot or confused or naive or insignificant or whatever: this is my narrative. If one person communicates with what I'm trying to say, that's enough for me. it only takes one person to change the world. So, I bid my musical adieu with Johnny Cash's version of U2's One:
Now, let's continue with our statistics; there was a 5% drop in visits compared to last week but it was still 16% higher than the week before that, so, we're on the right track? Probably not.
As far as stories are concerned, the Motown countdown is still not doing very well. People were mostly reading older stories - the top 3 of the week being Peter Straker, George Maharis, and Dave Clark (all three from 2016 and 2017).
As far as countries are concerned, the United States, Russia, Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Ukraine increased their overall percentages, France, Italy, Cyprus, and mostly Greece suffered losses, while the United Kingdom and Germany kept their percentages steady.
Here are this week's Top 10 countries:
1. the United States
2. Russia
3. the United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Germany
6. Brazil
7. Australia
8. France
9. Ukraine
10. Italy
Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Angola, Argentina, Austria, Barbados, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brunei, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, French Polynesia, Georgia, Greece, Greenland, Guatemala, Guernsey, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks & Caicos Islands, Uganda, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zambia. Happy to have you all!
