Friday, July 8, 2011

1000 SONGS - DAY 83: SONG # 113

DAY 83: Songs to be Played at a Wedding

A duet of a male and female singer could be a nice idea for a song played at a wedding. A wedding definitely should be an event that features some dancing, and there should also be some slow music to dance to, so that couples can move across the dancefloor in close contact. The songs I have chosen in this category are songs about untrue lovers, an idea that might seem a bit odd in connection with a wedding where most people would expect to hear songs celebrating faithfulness. Nevertheless, the way that Gene Clark (1944-1991) of former Byrds-fame and Carla Olson - co-founder of the Textones together with Kathy Valentine - render the old folk tune "Fair and Tender Ladies" is simply beautiful. A dignified way to sing a duet, it is, methinks, because of the unspectacular, clear and sober way the two perform their respective voices. A nice symbol for marital life:



My daddy was a handsome gambler
He had a chain five miles long
On every link a heart did dangle
Of another maid he loved and wronged

He told to you some loving story
He'd make you think he'd leave them true
But love grows cold as love grows older
And fades away like morning dew

I'd rather be in some dark hollow
Where the sun refused to shine
Than to live here in Missouri
With your memory always on my mind

Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court your man
They're like a star on a summer's morning
First they appear then they're gone again

I add a beautful song written by Gene Clark. Version 1 is a live take arranged in a similiar way as on "So Rebellious a Lover", the album by Gene Clark and Carla Olson that also features the song rendered above. Version 2 is a fine cover done by the Norwegian band "Midnight Coir", named after a line from Leonard Cohens "Bird on a Wire" ("like a drunk in a midnight choir"). If you do not like that, you're no good at all :-):



Crank her over once again
Put your face into the wind
Find another road where you're never been.
Sing that 2-wheeled melody
The highway symphony
You know, she'll never understand.

Gypsy Rider sing
Your 2-wheeled symphony
You know there's nothing to explain.
She should have known by now
You're just a vagabond
You may never pass this way again.

All the writings on the wall
The paper all must fall
You're only as good as your word remains
You can take it out if you
Decide to follow through
Just take what you earn and leave what remains.

Gypsy Rider sing
Your 2-wheeled symphony
You know there's nothing to explain.
She should have known by now
You're just a vagabond
You may never pass this way again.


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