Nine Inch Nails pulled off a surprise album drop Thursday. If you’re into them, that’s a pretty big deal.
To me, this was much bigger news. Bob Dylan released his first original work in 8 years on Friday, a sparse, rambling 17-minute ballad about the JFK assassination entitled “Murder Most Foul.”
It may not be what your in to, but I’d suggest listening at lease once.
Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits (1980)
With the bars closed for the COVID-19 novel coronavirus outbreak and Kenny Rogers passing away Friday night at age 81, I figured it was a good a time as any to spend a lot of time writing and listening to music. One result is my album of the day.
I might do one of these everyday. I might not. Who knows?
Bu the album for today … I guess it’s Sunday, March 22 … is Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits.
Released on Sept. 23, 1980 (Bruce Springsteen’s birthday), this Liberty release is the top-selling Country greatest hits compilation of all-time, edging Garth Brooks’ The Hits with 22 million records sold.
The first of numerous Rogers’ greatest hits packages, this one actually contained three new tracks on the 12-track album.
A song-by-song look at Kenny Rogers’ Greatest Hits:
1. The Gambler – This is the first hit song ever written by Don Schlitz, penned in 1976 when he was 23. That’s saying something. Initially, he could get no one to record it, so he released it as a single himself. It reached No. 65 on the charts. Shel Silverstein loved the song, convincing Bobby Bare to record it. Johnny Cash recorded it, as well. But it wasn’t until it was recorded by Rogers in 1978 that it had an impact. Released on the album of the same name, it became the first of 24 No. 1 country songs penned by Schlitz. Other Schlitz classics include 40-Hour Week (Alabama), When You Say Nothing At All (Keith Whitley, Alison Krauss), On The Other Hand (Randy Travis) and Forever And Ever Amen (Randy Travis). Of course, the song sparked the successful series of “The Gambler” TV movies starring Rogers and launching his acting career.
2. Lady – One of three songs recorded specifically for this album, it’s the biggest solo hit of Rogers’ career. Lionel Richie, then of the Commodores, wrote the song specifically for Rogers. It would spend six straight weeks at No. 1 in the fall/winter of 1980. It was only knocked out of the top spot the final week of December by John Lennon’s Just Like Starting Over. Lennon had been shot and killed Dec. 8 in front of The Dakota apartment building in New York City. Lady was No. 3 on the Billboard chart for the year and No. 10 for the decade of the 1980s. It is No. 60 on Billboard’s All-Time Hot 100 chart.
3. Don’t Fall in Love with a Dreamer w/Kim Carnes – Carnes, like Rogers, was an alum of folk group The New Christy Minstrels.
4. Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town w/The First Edition – A story song about an impotent, disabled Vietnam veteran who endures his wife leaving home every night to meet other men in town. Written by Mel Tillis.
5. She Believes in Me – Having been truly in love in my life and having lost, this song, for whatever reason resonates with me. It doesn’t matter who you are, in some fashion, to have a relationship, a love that lasts, you are sacrificing somehow. You are somehow settling, somehow disappointed, even those who think they aren’t. And it’s when you and your partner are happy making the sacrifices that you make for each other that something special can happen.
6. Coward of the County – Another story song, this one has not held up for me. I still find myself singing along, but the basic theme of the story is Tommy’s love Becky is raped by the Gatlin boys … and there were three of them. Tommy proves he’s a man by mustering up the courage to single-handedly whip the Gatlin Boys, thus making up for his life of being a “coward.” Except my problem is, what the hell does that do for Becky? She’s still violated and hurt and angry … and giving them a good ass-beating solves none of that. Maybe the world has grown up a little since this song came out.
7. Lucille – Rogers’ first solo country hit from 1977, it reached No. 1 on the Country charts and No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
8. You Decorated My Life
9. Reuben James w/The First Edition – Rogers would say he liked two kinds of songs, love songs and story songs that had social relevance. This is the latter. From Rogers’ First Edition days, he sings of an old black sharecropper, Reuben James, who stepped up and raised the white son of the “gossip of Madison County” who died in childbirth. The song’s narrator is obviously the now-adult child and is singing James’ praises.
10. Love the World Away – The second of three new releases on this album, this song was also released on the hugely popular Urban Cowboy soundtrack. It was a top-5 tune on the country charts and a top-20 song on the pop charts.
11. Every Time Two Fools Collide w/Dottie West – one of a handful of highly successful duets with country darling Dottie West.
12. Long Arm of the Law – The third new release on the album, though not a chart hit, this song remains popular with Rogers fans.
You cage me
trap me
hold me
pin me down
building walls of glass You try to keep me
You cut off my air and hope I will sing
You shut out the lights and expect me to paint
You never understand why I shatter your walls
I never explain why I stay
but I do
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” — Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
If you spent second one bitching about Colin Kaepernick or any NFL player kneeling, yet you’re posting quotes by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on your Facebook profile today, you’re full of shit.
And if you don’t understand why, you’re ignorant, too.
I’m sorry, that’s blunt. That’s not the most painful statement, though.
The most painful statement is that most who quote King once a year while opposing what he stood for the other 364 days know exactly what they are doing. And why they are doing it. And I don’t have to spell it out.
I would suggest today giving King’s Letter From A Birmingham Jail a read today. It’s truly one of the single-most important American writings in our history.
It’s something that shouldn’t be reserved for King’s birthday, but something we should be familiar with year round. But quite frankly, I’m sure it makes white people, particularly white Christians, uncomfortable. Particularly when you apply his premise to the current situation in our nation.
But reading, being conscious of and addressing King’s concerns contained within would make us all better people, better Americans and, most decidedly, better Christians.
A Patrick Mahomes/Kansas City Chiefs T-shirt passed on to me by my friend Francie Szarek.
When you get deep into the NFL playoffs, or the playoffs in any sport, most folks’ teams are no longer in the mix.
Some people just kind of roll with it, enjoying the games. Some people have a betting interest.
And then I think there are a lot of fans that kind of pick favorites for the rest of the way. Sometimes because there’s a team they like a little that’s not their team, sometimes because of a particular player or players (I root for the teams that have the most Clemson guys on the roster), and then some are simply rooting AGAINST teams they can’t stand (see the Patriots).
Today, I’m wearing a Kansas City Chiefs/Patrick Mahomes T-shirt passed onto me to wear by my friend Francie Szarek. I think she’d admit she lives in a Pittsburgh Steelers household, but her husband’s Steelers are out and as a Kansas native, she’s all in on the Chiefs.
I was already pulling for the Chiefs. My Cowboys haven’t been in the NFC Championship in 20 years. And the Chiefs knocked the Houston Texans, my second favorite team, out last week. With three Clemson players on the roster, that makes them my favorite the rest of the way.
But wearing another team’s colors, gear etc., … do people do that? I can’t remember the last time I did it. Maybe Georgia Tech T-shirts in the 1980s? But I was a kid, and that happens.
Among my adult friends, any of them wearing another team’s stuff are an indication sex is or was happening. Obviously, today, I am an exception.
Do any other adults out there wear another team’s stuff?
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Raising Two Americans 