The little bit of Y comes here with Cowgirl in the Sand,a song Neil Young performed with CSN, and also released on his 1969 album, Everybody Knows This is Nowhere.I've found an old acoustic version with dubious visuals but excellent audio, from a 1971 live performance, where all the quirky lyrics are clear: (apologies to any feminists for the chorus, but "it's the human in you/ that makes you want to play this game" while true, just doesn't have the same ring to it)
hello ruby in the dust...
which reminded me of That Song About the Midway, by Joni Mitchell
lyrics here
was it hard to fold a hand/ that you knew could win?
can i do much more than sigh and just raise a glass as i appreciate the music....
ReplyDeletehave a great day hedge
And you, my friend. Glad you enjoyed. Sometimes even grownups need to be sung to sleep.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Cross is one of my favorite songs ever!
ReplyDelete@MZ Mine too. Got me through my thirties. "you will survive being bested" was something I needed to hear, apparently. :_)
ReplyDeleteI love Southern Cross, and I am a huge Joni Mitchell fan. But the one I find most interesting here is "Cowgirl In The Sand." When I was in high school, I got 4 Way Street and that was on it, as well as "Don't Let It Bring You Down." In certain moods, I played the hell out of them. Of course, in other moods, I played the hell out of "Carry On" and some other long one that was on that. Southern Man, maybe?
ReplyDeleteYou choose the coolest music, at least to me. Those were the (musical) days! And get off my lawn you kids! ;-)
Thanks FB. Yeah Cowgirl in the Sand just has that other-wordly vibe that Neil can get going--don't know what it is, but it always gets to me. I'm thinkin you are talking about Southern Man--that was the longest cut on there I think.
ReplyDeleteYou're really ringing my bells this morning.
ReplyDeleteSouthern Cross is one of my favorites ever too. Maybe my favorite CSN. The best chorus! And that line 'we never failed to fail' mmmm. And you are SO right about their stage performance, yikes. We groaned through a concert that they squeaked and discorded through. But in the studio, ahhh.
And Neil. What can I say? I really love his word-voice, with women. Yes, he isn't always PC. But shucks, I have feminist sensibilities, but I don't want the world homogenized, especially not in art and music. Yeah, ruby in the dust . . .
Thanks for a new-to-me Joni song (thought I had at least heard them all), while her voice is still clear and shining. Great line you quoted too.
Thanks for all this, while I'm home today, cleaning. A great musical interlude.
@Ruth--I also have memories of an abysmal CSN concert. and an equally horrific Bob Dylan one--he was just so awful and unintelligible we walked out about halfway through. Your mention of cleaning made me smile--I always clean to maximum music. Makes it enjoyable instead of dull and mindless. So glad you liked the selections--I find the better the lyric, the more I like the tune, and all three of these are solid poetry, I think.
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