Song of the DAY!

Song of the day:

Often times I wake up with a song or two on my mind, so I’ll probably make it a fixture here. Often, while I’m tidying up the kitchen and prepping the morning coffee, I announce to Katie, “The Song of the Day is… _____ and it shares its throne with Gob’s magic theme song from Arrested Development. Let me know what song you woke up with. Sometimes, mine are very bizarre. And that’s what makes the Song of the Day so dern fun.

I woke up around 4:40 today, too hungry to sleep, rolling around for 2 hours, with about 5 songs running around in my head keeping the vicious cycle of what I like to call “poor-stomach-no-sleep” going on multiple levels (head, stomach, and the “meta-level”). Today was a sleep in day too, nothing to do until David from the band Tex comes over for breakfast at 8:30.

1. Memphis Yodel - Jimmie Rodgers, from The Essential Jimmie Rodgers

“I woke up this morning, the blues all around my bed.
I woke up this morning the blues all around my bed.
I didn’t have nobody, to hold my aching head.”

Since I know a lot of “woke up this morning” songs, when I can’t sleep in the morning they all come rushing to me. As you know, and care, Jimmie Rodgers was the “yodeling brakeman.” He laid down hits like “Away on the Mountain” and popularly “In the Jailhouse Now” and most notably “T.B. Blues” which he died of (listen to that song, it’s tragic).
When I start thinking on a Jimmie Rodgers song I tend to mix them all together, in a sort of best of Jimmie Rodgers “Master-Song”. This is the case because most of his songs are very similar, for multiple reasons: (1) Most of them have really interesting, sometimes amazingly well put lyrics - in that song/rhyme/lyrical depth/and matter-of-fact cleverness that works for simple rhyme songs, (2) his yodels - while they can get old on the second time through in one sitting - are different each song, but they always nail the notes without a shadow of wavering (I think that is amazing considering how high he is singing), (3) simple tunes, nice country melodies, and (4) well, “I’d rather drink muddy water and sleep in a hollow log…” or “I got me a shotgun with a great, long, shiny barrel…” or “I’m fighting like a lion, looks like I’m going to lose” and “I can git more women, than a passenger train can haul!!!!!!”

2. Allan Boothe’s song titled ________, off of his “Open Air in a Closed Casket” album (for sale online and in local stores - www.allanboothe.com or myspace)

“I know of a place where he needs to feel insane
I know of a place where the clouds deny the rain.”

I probably messed those lines up. But anyway, that song has a light and quick beat that keeps your head bobbing. Thank you, Allan, for perpetuating my sleepless state.

(30 minutes later… Oh, maybe that song is not on the album… I just scanned through it to get the name of the song, but I couldn’t find it. So, if Allan Boothe didn’t write it, then I did, and I am a genius - Allan, defend your glory!)

3. “Woke up this morning with my mind on Jesus” from Doug Martsch’s (Built to Spill) solo album.

“Woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus.”

I believe this might be a traditional song that he modernized, but it might not be the case. This is not a religious album, by the way. Just about every song on it has a strong-armed slide guitar melody playing with the main vocal line. His style on the slide guitar is not Nashville. The melodies come out much firmer from his big steel slide than the overly popular whisps we here from the lap steels and textural slide guitar that is popular these days (like in Bright Eyes). And it really adds to the album. Actually, that is probably the reason the songs are so catchy. It is the most prominent feature of the album. Kudos to Metro Coffee down on S. 19th, they were playing this album when I was in there two weeks ago.

4. Now that I have pontificated on 3 songs, I can’t recall what other songs got me up 30 minutes ago. But I did pretty good. It is now 7 am and I’ve had an apple to tame my burning stomach.

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