Category: Music

Super Bowl Songs: Bon Iver & “Wisconsin”

Bon Iver Wisconsin“Wisconsin” by Bon Iver (click play button)

Bon Iver For EmmaChimesfreedom continues its celebration of today’s Super Bowl battle between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers with a song about the home of the Packers: “Wisconsin” by Bon Iver.

Although Bon Iver’s “Wisconsin” is a recollection of events that happened in Wisconsin, the song is more universal. The narrator is singing about a lost love and his memories of their time in Wisconsin.

Bon Iver is the recording name taken by Justin Vernon, and “Wisconsin” is a hidden track on Bon Iver’s 2007 album, For Emma, Forever Ago. Most of the album was written by Justin Vernon during a time of seclusion in a Wisconsin cabin. Following a break up with his former band, an illness, and the end of a relationship, Vernon moved from North Carolina to his childhood state of Wisconsin to live alone in his father’s cabin for almost four months. Out of his pain, he created the album.

You’re up on the bar and your shaking
With every grimy word
Who will love
Whats love when you’ve hurt
You wonder as you see the snow kissed the curb
Love is loves return

That was Wisconsin that was yesterday
Now I have nothing that I can keep
Cause every place I go I take another place with me
Love is loves critique

Vernon took the name Bon Iver from an episode of Northern Exposure where residents of Cicely, Alaska emerged from their homes after the first snow to wish each other “bon hiver” — French for “good winter.”

Have a good Super Bowl Sunday and be safe. Bon hiver.

Bonus Cheerier Songs: If you would like a “happier” song set in Wisconsin, here is the opening to Laverne & Shirley.

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    Super Bowl Songs: Pete Seeger & “Pittsburgh Town”

    FootballAs you prepare for a day of watching commercials occasionally interrupted by a football game played by the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers, Chimesfreedom considers songs inspired by the states in the big game. An upcoming post will address the state of the Packers, but this post considers the hometown of the Steelers: Woody Guthrie’s “Pittsburgh Town,” recorded by Pete Seeger.

    Like some other songs sung by Guthrie and Seeger, “Pittsburgh Town” takes on the big corporate interests. For Pittsburgh, at the time, that meant attacking the steel industry: “What did Jones & Laughlin steal now Pittsburgh?” But the song ends by defiantly proclaiming the workers are organizing and joining the Congress of Industrial Organizations (a precursor to the AFL-CIO).

    All I do is cough and choke in Pittsburgh
    All I do is cough and choke in Pittsburgh
    All I do is cough and choke
    From the iron filings and the sulphur smoke
    In Pittsburgh, Lord God, Pittsburgh

    From the Allegheny to the Ohio, in Pittsburgh
    Allegheny to the Ohio
    Allegheny to the Ohio
    They’re joining up in the C.I.O.
    Pittsburgh, Lord God, Pittsburgh

    According to Ed Cray’s Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie, most of the lyrics to the song were improvised when Guthrie was performing for Jones & Laughlin employees after Guthrie had just seen the workers’ poor living conditions. Guthrie may not have been in too good of a mood, having just spent the night in hotel infested with cockroaches.

    Bonus Cheerier Songs: Yeah, the song is depressing, and maybe I’m mad my team did not make the Super Bowl. If you would like a “happier” song, here is Charlie Daniels “In America” (“Go and lay your hand on a Pittsburgh Steelers fan / and I think you’re finally gonna understand”).

    Do you have another Pennsylvania song you like? Leave a comment.

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    Charlie Louvin RIP

    Satan is Real, The Louvin BrothersCountry music legend Charlie Louvin died this morning due to complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 83.

    Charlie Louvin, born Charlie Elzer Loudermilk in 1927, and his brother Ira formed the Louvin Brothers, known for their harmonies and described by Allmusic.com as “one of the most influential musicians of the ’40s and ’50s.” After the Louvin Brothers stopped recording together in 1963, Charlie continued to record on his own, including a couple of well-received CDs in the last several years. Ira, who battled alcoholism, died in a car crash with his wife in Missouri in June 1965.

    The Louvin Brothers, who started out with gospel music and then branched into secular songs, had many great recordings, including some original compositions such as “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” which later was Emmylou Harris’s first hit.

    Although rock and roll played a part in the Louvin Brothers’s declining popularity in the early 1960s and their eventual break up, many “younger” people like me discovered the Louvin Brothers through later rock artists who were influenced by the Louvins, like The Everly Brothers and The Byrds. I first discovered them through Gram Parson’s recording of their song, “The Christian Life” (as well as Roger McGuinn’s version with the Byrds). I do not know if Kurt Cobain ever heard the Louvin Brothers’s recording of “In the Pines, (Where Did You Sleep Last Night)” but one could see a connection between their version and his intense haunting MTV Unplugged version. Although Cobain’s version is generally considered to be more connected to Lead Belly’s version, one might hear Cobain transform the Louvin’s yodels of pain into anguished screams for help.

    One of my favorite album covers of all time is the cover of the Louvin Brothers album Satan is Real. The album features the smiling brothers in whites suits standing in hell with a cartoonish devil in the background. I love the cover song too, as I also love their song “The Great Atomic Power.” Even though the songs do not preach my type of religion, I find the songs beautiful and terrifying, with a touch of humor.  Uncle Tupelo also did a nice cover of the Louvins’ “Great Atomic Power.”

    Here’s to you Charlie. Thanks for the music. I hope today you found out heaven is real.

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    The Missing NY City Hawk & John Denver

    Here in New York, amid all of the celebrity couples, one of the most famous couples has been the red-tailed hawks who have lived for nine years above a Fifth Avenue co-op building overlooking Central Park: Pale Male and Lola. They even have a Facebook page. (Chimesfreedom recently added a Facebook page too.)

    John Denver Aerie

    In the last month, though, Lola has been missing and observers suspect she might have died. Pale Male, who has fathered 26 hawks since first being observed in 1991, has apparently moved on and is courting another mate.

    I am the hawk and there’s blood on my feathers,
    But time is still turning they soon will be dry.
    And all of those who see me, all who believe in me,
    Share in the freedom I feel when I fly

    The story about Lola reminds me of the John Denver song “The Eagle and the Hawk” (maybe you expected The Kinks?). The song was on his 1971 album, Aerie. In the 1970s, John Denver was everywhere. He had numerous hits, he had an Emmy-winning special, he guest starred in TV shows, he hosted the Grammys, he was in a movie with George Burns, and he even guest hosted The Tonight Show. By the end of the 1970s and into the 1980s, though, perhaps partly due to a backlash because of so much exposure or perhaps because he began devoting more of his time on humanitarian and environmental causes, he seemed to largely disappear from pop music. Denver asked to participate in 1985’s “We are the World” recording, but producers denied his request because they thought his participation would hurt the credibility of the project because he was no longer popular.

    Denver died in 1997 in a flying accident. One irony is that during his lifetime, he did more for humanitarian causes than many of the other people who participated in “We Are the World.” And, while many still see him as a lightweight pop star, in later years many have come to recognize his contribution as a great writer of pop songs such as “Rocky Mountain High,” “Annie’s Song,” and “Take Me Home, Country Roads.” Had he spread out the big hits over his lifetime instead of releasing them in a few years during a huge burst of creativity, maybe he would be more highly regarded than he is.

    While one of his first hits came when Peter, Paul, and Mary covered “Leavin’ On a Jet Plane,” he also had a great voice. The power of his voice and his range is on display in singing “The Eagle and the Hawk,” originally written for a documentary and a beautiful song. Maybe if you play it loud enough, Lola will return.

    Bonus “What Were They Thinking Video”: I have no idea why this amateur video of “The Eagle and the Hawk” with a guy in a tie mouthing the words and dancing in the woods has almost 500,000 views.

    What do you think? Leave a comment.

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    Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert

    Rock Concert

    Don Kirshner, rock promoter, producer, and host of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert, passed away this week.  He was 76.

    Time Magazine once called him “The Man with the Golden Ear,” and the many bands that he helped included the Police, Billy Joel, Tony Orlando, Neil Diamond, Carol King, Prince, Ozzy Osbourne, The Eagles, and The Monkees.  But I remember him as host of Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert.

    Rock Concert was on ABC every other week late at night beginning in 1973 and ran through 1981, starting well before I had access to cable and before MTV.  For much of that time, along with NBC’s Midnight Special during most of the same years, Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert was one of the few places to see many great bands on television.  Kirshner gave national TV exposure to bands like The Ramones and Bruce Springsteen before most people had heard of them. As someone who was still a kid listening to AM radio, I found my first exposure to many bands I later would grow to love on Don Kirshner’s show.

    When Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert would come on, past my normal bedtime, through my sleepy eyes I saw this balding middle aged man with a monotone voice introducing various bands.  He seemed so different from the bands he introduced that one wondered what he was doing on the show.  I cannot help thinking of Kirshner without remembering Paul Shafer imitating him on Saturday Night Live.  But, like John Hammond (discoverer of Dylan, Aretha Franklin and many others) and Ahmat Ertegan (founder and president of Atlantic Records), Kirshner was one of those people who were important to rock and roll who looked like he should be working in an accounting office. I doubt they would put someone as modest in demeanor and appearance as Kirshner on television today, but it is a tribute to his importance that he hosted and had the show named after him even then.

    We rightfully focus on the art and the artists, and we cheer when bands like Wilco find a way to avoid getting handcuffed by record company suits. But it is worth thanking the many people who make it possible for us to enjoy the music. Don Kirshner was one of the few behind-the-scenes people we got to see because of his television show. Still, today most of the clips on YouTube from his show are edited to just show the music without Kirshner’s introduction. I understand, because the music is what is important. But it is worth taking a second to acknowledge the passing of someone who helped bring us such fun and great music who is now introducing many of the same bands in heaven. Thanks Mr. Kirshner.

    Image via YouTube. Do you remember Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert? Leave a comment.

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