These are not listed in order of my "favorite's" but if you haven't heard some of these songs...I think you might want to. They go straight to the heart. As you might guess, music is my venue of expression and an honest witness to my life's "time-line".
Joan Baez: "Brothers In Arms", "Asimbonanga" and "Biko" (From her "Recently" Album.) This last song, "Biko", is written about Stephen Biko who helped Nelson Mandella in fighting a corrupt government system in South Africa , eventually overthrowing this cruel system at the expense of prison time and lives. The slow, steady African drum beat throughout the song, along with an instument sounding like mournful bagpipes, sets the emotional scene, taking you into the prison cell with Stephen Biko and his suffering. Baez exposes these events to the world to scrutinize and helps educate us on what was happening during this bloody dictatorship. "...you can blow out a candle, but you can't blow out a fire, when the flame begins to catch, the wind will whip it higher, oh Biko, Biko because Biko...."
Emmy Lou Harris and Mark Knopfler: (All The Road Running Album) "Love and Happiness" (Reminiscent, to me, of the "Three Coins In A Fountain" days. A sweet song, adding every other good-luck charm to wish upon for a love-one's benefit.)
Bob Dylan: "Mr. Tambourine Man" - a line in this that caught my attention goes: "To dance beneath the diamond sky with one arm waving free...." This duplicates the idea of "freedom with discipline", a term I learned about from an enlightening caligraphy class. Both those lines touch an elemental truth in me of living in balance with freedom but maintaining working boundaries for ourselves.
Arlo Guthrie: "Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys" CD. Just listen to the first lyrical guitar renditions on "Gypsy Davy". It replicates the free swagger and lilt of a gypsy's movement, bells jingling and colorful beads flashing. As you are getting into this cool guitar pattern, all of a sudden you are hit by notes coming in from an unexpected direction. You almost "duck". These little unexpected tweaks feel like someone pulls the rug out from under you and yourr sense of direction vanishes and leaves you floating in space, waiting for the song lyrics to weave their spell. In fact, the guitar renditions all through this 2nd song on this album are incredible. That first stanza just picks you up and plunks you down in a magical land of this free-roving gypsy and his stolen lover. Other Arlo Guthrie Favorites: (some on this album) "Cowboy's Lament", "Last Train" & "City of New Orleans".
John Lennon & Yoko Ono: "Mind Games". I had forgotten all about this song then heard it again. Why do all the oldies stations omit some of the best songs from the past? Listening to it just puts me in an "open- heart, in-love" state of mind. (Maybe because that's where I was when this song first came out.) Wonderful lyrics and the melody is magical!
