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Month: December 2019
Song Lyric Sunday – The Weight
Pull up a chair – it is time for the last Song Lyric Sunday of the year and the decade! Jim has challenged us with finding a song lyric that has something to do with crazy.
There are a lot of songs out there to choose from. I was almost driving myself crazy trying to decide on the one I wanted to choose. Then, my mind decided to go down my late 60s early 70s brain and select a song from the classic movie “Easy Rider”. I gave pause to the reality that there are a so many people who never lived in that culture and have likely never seen that movie. I must say when I think back on seeing that film in the theatre at such a naive young age, I didn’t understand half of it. The music was a great take away.
Credit for writing “The Weight” is given to lead guitarist of The Band, Robbie Robertson although several band members were said to have contributed to the lyrics. There are so many differing opinions about the lyrics, I hesitate not know which sources are the most reliable. So I will share the most agreed upon information.
Robbie Robertson said he was influenced by Mexican filmmaker Luis Bruñuel, whose films featured dark subjects and a bit of surrealism.
The town Nazareth was chosen because Nazareth, Pennsylvania is where Martin guitars are made and the goto guitar manufacturer of choice for many acoustic musicians. It is also said this is where the group Nazareth came up with the name of their band. The song was featured on their album “Music from Big Pink” after the the big pink house they rented and used as a recording studio. The Band was Bob Dylan’s backup band and they went to New York to stay and record while Dylan recovered from a motorcycle accident.
The characters featured in the song were all people known by the band members. This quote from the Songfacts website is taken from Levon Helm’s autobiography This Wheel’s On Fire: Levon Helm And The Story Of The Band and explains the character in the song ‘Crazy Chester’:
Crazy Chester’ was a guy we all knew from Fayetteville who came into town on Saturdays wearing a full set of cap guns on his hips and kinda walked around town to help keep the peace,if you follow me. He was like Hopalong Cassidy, and he was a friend of the Hawks. Ronnie would always check with Crazy Chester to make sure there wasn’t any trouble around town. And Chester would reassure him that everything was peaceable and not to worry, because he was on the case. Two big cap guns, he wore, plus a toupee!
The movie Easy Rider featured the recording by The Band but it could not be licensed for the soundtrack. The version of ”The Weight” on the soundtrack is a cover performed by the band Smith.
This is the clip from the movie Easy Rider, featuring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. A classic scene.
Here is the video from Woodstock. It’s the music of a generation and included as #41 in Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The lyrics are from Songfacts.com via LyricFind.
[Levon Helm]
I pulled into Nazareth, was feeling ’bout half past dead
I just need some place where I can lay my head
Hey, mister, can you tell me, where a man might find a bed?
He just grinned and shook my hand, “No” was all he said
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me
I picked up my bags, I went looking for a place to hide
When I saw old Carmen and the Devil, walking side by side
I said, “Hey, Carmen, c’mon, let’s go downtown”
She said, “I gotta go, but my friend can stick around”
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me
Go down, Miss Moses, ain’t nothin’ you can say
It’s just old Luke, and Luke’s waiting on the judgment day
Well, Luke, my friend, what about young Annalee
He said, “Do me a favor, son, won’t you stay and keep Annalee company”
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me
[Rick Danko]
Crazy Chester followed me, and he caught me in the fog
Said, “I will fix your rag, if you’ll take Jack, my dog”
I said, “Wait a minute Chester, you know, I’m a peaceful man”
He said, “That’s okay, boy, won’t you feed him when you can”
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me
[Helm and Danko]
Catch the cannonball, now to take me down the line
My bag is sinking low, and I do believe it’s time
To get back to Miss Fanny, you know she’s the only one
Who sent me here, with her regards for everyone
Take a load off Fanny, take a load for free
Take a load off Fanny, and you put the load right on me
Song Lyric Sunday is sponsored each week by Jim Adams over at A Unique Title For Me. It is a nice thought-provoking opportunity to share in music and write about something a little different. If you would like to join in, check out his blog and read up on the rules. Take the time to read through the links in the comments for this week’s crazy contributions!
SoCS – Was This the Year of Our Discontent?
Linda has challenged us with a seemingly simple task today. Let’s just see where this goes. Nothing is coming to mind so this may be the stream of unconsciousness!
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “year.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
My head is empty. Nada. Year? Come on, there must be something. Oh, yeah, where I grew up when we wanted to confirm something with someone we said “ya hear” which came out sounding much more like “y’ear”. I wonder if that counts?
Of course everyone is talking about the approaching new year. The time when we talk about making changes, our new goals and resolutions. We set ourselves up to fail by shooting for too much too fast. Bah humbug to the new year.
Last night I discovered my outlook for the coming year according to the Chinese Year of the Horse is not really good. Now that is going to haunt me. Why do I read such garbage?
This is also the time we do the ritualistic ‘year in review’. Self assessment to world assessment. CNN took it a step further and did a decade in review of photos from the last decade. Talk about depressing. Tragedy after tragedy. There were positive things happening in the last ten years surely!
year, year, year.
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings wrote “The Yearling”. Have you read it? It’s a story of living in the harsh Florida country side before Disney turned Florida into America’s playground. It was at one time the best selling novel in America. I am not sure when that was but I think it must have been around the time of it’s publication.
Speaking of Ms. Rawlings, I have a book written by her maid Idella Parker – “Idella: Marjorie Rawlings’ Perfect Maid”. I really enjoyed seeing the author in the eyes of Idella and it was a great look at the life of Idella’s life pre-civil rights America.
I do not have any year books from high school. My mom had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and money for non-essentials just was not there. Do you still have your high school year books? What do you think when you see the pictures of your high school self? I was awkward. Not yet grown into myself.
I have not seen any “year end” sales yet. Do businesses do that any more? I suppose those are geared for companies who run their business on a calendar year rather than someone who has a September fiscal year cut off.
2019 is almost a wrap. Another year for the books. And on that note, I think that wraps up this post. I will see you later “y’ear”?
Stream of Consciousness Saturday is hosted each week by Linda Hill. She spells out all the rules each Friday so new bloggers can join in the fun. The comments on her Friday blog is where you will find all the SOCS entries for the week. Reading the comments gives you a great glimpse into the minds of your fellow bloggers. You can find Linda’s blog here.
Nature’s Gifts
Yesterday we drove into town just to get out of the house for a minute. Weren’t into one store to pick up some a Christmas tags. It was as crowded as before the holiday as we watched people paw over all the post-Christmas decorations. I had forgotten how many people venture out to get this items for next year. Me? I do not plan that far in advance.
We decided to go to Barnes and Nobel and look at books and enjoy a holiday coffee. Since the guitar store was next door, hubby took advantage of stopping in to play a couple of Martin guitars that just were not in Santa’s budget. Not that he wants or needs a guitar. He has an exquisite instrument that he made himself a few years ago. But still, it’s fun.
The skies were starting to darken and we remembered we needed to get home soon because the bird feeders were still out. We did not want to entice any black bears to dine at our back door.
We wanted one more small gift card that we forgot, so we drove over to a local store, hoping we would find one. The racks were depleted. I guess a lot of people received gift cards this year. But what I did find in the parking lot was this beautiful sunset.
At that moment, nothing else was important. I just stood and took in the colors. I almost forgot to pull out my phone and take the picture. And that would have been okay.
The drive home was peaceful and the skies looked different at every turn. Living near the mountains offers so many different views.
As we came around the corner toward our driveway, the headlights cast three shadows. Deer! I urged hubby to backup so I could get a better view. There they were. Three beautiful creatures. I managed to get two of them in the shot before we pulled up the driveway and the noise of the truck startled them.
Sometimes the best gifts of the season are things we had all along.
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