"Help Me, Rhonda" - The Beach Boys
In 1965, The Beach Boys released The Beach Boys Today! Many Beach Boys fans consider it to be their greatest album, and I'm one of those fans! You may argue with me, touting the greatness of Pet Sounds, and I will respect your opinion. (Heck, I like Pet Sounds, too!) However, I feel that there are times when Pet Sounds sounds a touch too self-conscious to me, like Brian Wilson was a little too solemn about it all. The Beach Boys Today! is a more balanced album in that it mixes introspective, serious songs ("When I Grow Up To Be A Man;" "Kiss Me, Baby") with fun, get-up-and-dance tunes ("Dance, Dance, Dance," "Do You Wanna Dance?"). It's one of those rare albums that manages to be both breezy and serious. I love it!
One of the songs on that epic album was "Help Me, Ronda." The band initially didn't put too much effort into the tune, giving it a sparse arrangement and tossing it onto the track list as filler. Radio DJs liked the track, however, and began to include it in their playlists. Brian Wilson was struck by the song's success, so much so that he decided that the band would re-record the song with a more lush arrangement. The Boys did so (with a little help from The Wrecking Crew, those wonderful L.A. studio musicans), and it's that revamped version that I love!
"Cathy's Clown" - The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers' "Cathy's Clown" is musical proof that every breakup has a silver lining! You see, during high school, Don Everly suffered a messy breakup with a girlfriend named Cathy. Eventually, the bad times came to an end, and Don moved on, forming The Everly Brothers with his brother Phil. Flash forward to 1960. Don and Phil had just signed with Warner Bros. Records, and their new bosses wanted a hit to get things off on the right foot. It was then that Don's mind went back to Cathy. Don took pen in hand and banged out "Cathy's Clown" in record time. The song went on to top the charts both in the USA and in the UK!
On behalf of all us music lovers, I'd like to say thanks, Cathy, for inspiring such a timeless song! "Cathy's Clown" is a real showcase for Don's lyrical skills; the lines roll over each other with a wonderful sense of rhyme, meter, and wordplay. The masterful words are what make the song a favorite of mine, but there are tons of things to love about this song, like the firing-squad drums, the stand-up-for-yourself message, and the Everlys' signature vocal harmonies!
"Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner" - Warren Zevon
In 1975, Warren Zevon was living in The Dubliners' Bar, a small dive about 20 miles outside of Barcelona, Spain. Zevon was flat broke, so David Lindell, the bar's owner, allowed Zevon to exchange nightly bar concerts for room and board. One night, Lindell revealed in a conversation that, before becoming a bar owner, he had been a mercenary in South Africa. This fascinated Zevon, so Lindell started telling stories of his days as a soldier for hire. One day, Zevon suggested that he and Lindell collaborate on a song, marrying Lindell's mercenary adventures with Zevon's musical skill. The result was "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner."
"Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner" features a heady mix of old-fashioned folk tales, Rudyard Kipling short stories, and "The Legend Of The Sleepy Hollow," only souped up with machine-gun fire and dropped in the middle of 1960s Africa. It is a very dark story of revenge from beyond the grave, but Zevon's evocative voice and the spare arrangement really draw the listener in. I close my eyes and I can picture myself sitting at a campfire, a roasted marshmallow, forgotten, falling into the flame as I listen to Zevon, at the other side of the fire, telling this tale of blood and vengeance.
"Donna" - Ritchie Valens
As with Buddy Holly and The Big Bopper, it's impossible to hear any Ritchie Valens song without feeling a touch of sadness. Naturally, we shouldn't remember someone solely for how they died, but knowing that Valens's life was cut short on "The Day The Music Died" has a way of hanging over the mind. However, I'm convinced that Valens's work would have lived on forever, even without the tragedy at the end of his life. "La Bamba?" "Come On, Let's Go?" "We Belong Together?" All wonderful!
"Donna" was Valens's tribute to his girlfriend of the same name. Interestingly enough, although this is a breakup song, Ritchie Valens and Donna Ludwig never broke things off; they were together until Ritchie died in 1959. In that way, perhaps this song is eerily prescient; Ritchie would be leaving Donna before the year was out; maybe not in the same way, but just as tragically. Anyway, let's put the history aside. Regardless of what this song's backstory is, it's a wonderfully sad song about a teen lamenting his lost girlfriend. Makes me almost cry every time!
"Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" - Bruce Springsteen
One of my favorite things about rock music is the sense of vitality and hope it can evoke. Rock songs are the sorts of tunes we tend to love as teenagers, and don't most young musicians dream of being rock stars? There's something about those dreams that I love, and I can't think of any song that captures those feelings better than Bruce Springsteen's "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)."
"Rosalita" tells the almost-autobiographical story of Springsteen's first record deal, but the song's not really about that. The song's more about the vitality of young love and the faith that somehow, some way, things are going to work out! This song comes at the euphoric moment when everything clicks together, when you can stand before the girlfriend's dad and say with confidence that, yes, you CAN provide for his daughter! Or, as some of my favorite lyrics in ANY song say:
Now, I know how your mama, she don't like me
'cause I play in a rock n' roll band
And I know your daddy, he don't dig me
but he never did understand
Someday, we'll look back on this and it will all seem funny
But now you're sad, your mama's mad
And your papa says he knows that I don't have any money
Well, tell him this is his last chance
to get his daughter in a fine romance
Because the record company, Rosie,
just gave me a big advance!
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