my First Music Horse Race of 2014

I try to figure out which FOURTEEN SONGS fought the hardest to ride close to my heart. Among them I've listened to during first four weeks of this very year, well, now already five weeks.

My potential love for country grows again, so I believed every horse trotting along here would be a country song. But other styles from any time always runs in parallell. Especially strange contrast is my attempts to grasp pop music from 1983. 1983 seems to be the most bad year in music history, but of course there are gold runners even there.


We start from the bottom. Stones can roll, but can they make country? COUNTRY HONK [Honky Tonk Woman] brings up some amusing energy. Stones play, but do they sing? This still too bluesy horse gets stuck in the jam, falls asleep in 14:th position. Doesn't help how much Stones shout - the music bleeds to death and Brian Jones don't come back to save the body.


13:th horse at least gets alive from the race, though galloping so bad (more than allowed in a trot competition). Probably because this 2013 jewel is so new, eager and unexperienced? Nonetheless Alice Smith has a good grip on oldish vibes, played with fresh soulfulness. CABARET could as well have won the race, especially if it had been held in Motown.


Many car drivers must've been heading for Detroit City (or riding out from). Now this is a horse race, so the classic diamond DETROIT CITY (I WANNA GO HOME) doesn't go far. To slow the track down further, we let dear Gunnar Wiklund sing it in swedish here. Wiklund is often compared to Jim Reeves. I love the whole feeling, but it gets nowhere, just clings on to the crowd.

Same goes for I'M GETTING GOOD AT MISSING YOU, though it's more alert and amusing. Sung by Don Williams, an old country boy from the 70's, and composed by Wayland Holyfield who has made more country pearls, G.G. Miss anyhow seems to be very unknown..? I don't understand why - and I'm ashamed of myself to leave it by just the last four horses ;-)


The crowd they follow mostly consists of (the backside of) LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE, an up-tempo song which has existed in many forms, even reggae and punk. A new wave version was performed by Paul Young + female "choir" pushing it with enthusiastic nerve. Long before that Waylon Jennings sung the most soulful and elegant version (reminding me much of my favourite Gordon Lightfoot). Even if Waylon's country mode gets this horse unable to run full ahead, it's satisfied here with a 10:th position.


9:th horse is incredibly slow, but usually a surprisingly mighty spurter. This time it begins to gallop too early, a totally confused and slow gallop, following it's own STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN. What could've happened if Led Zeppelin instead had send in one of their straight, down-to-earth tracks? It could've blend in well into the field of rustique country, or gone from UK all the way to California. But they were blinded by Camille & Kennerly, who makes a sweet harp cover of this stairway. Like ghosts in a castle these Harp Twins completely takes over the horse body. The girls plays it so beautiful that they forget to rock, even though otherwise both Harp Twins and Zeppelin are not afraid to use their bodies.


In the middle of the field dwells a mysterious one, by a band I've waited to experience until this very moment. Marillion makes such a unique thing as progressive rock in 1983. Suddenly it finds a track outside of the whole group, tryin' to pass them all in it's own clear line. Yes, my immediate Marillion darling seems to be GARDEN PARTY, though impossible to tell in just some rounds, since many pieces runs for 7-8 minutes. Gets a bit tired, started too late to get in time for the top right now. Maybe by summertime it's ready to shine like the most majestic flower in our deep grass.


6:th + 7:th place seems to go to Dolly Parton and/or Bellamy Brothers. By B.B. you maybe would've bet on the song we can call Rodeo Road (or Rainy, Windy, Sunshine). But for me NOTHING HEAVY (just my Baby in the Back of my Chevy) feels like an even more comfortable ride. About young and curiuos love, still too comfortable to get to position six. Parton puts up much more speed with TRAVELLING MAN, who sweaps by so fast that her mother gets picked up by mistake, instead of Dolly herself.


KEEP FEELING FASCINATION has been on the track before, but so many years ago that I had forgot it's existence. Keeps though a high position out of pure positivity. Where other 83-singles dwell in just rythms, K.F.F. really combines creative rythms with melodical harmonies. The same goes for KARMA CHAMELEON, a bright cloud full of colour and mixed culture, as close to Beatles one can come with a typical 80's tune. Becomes hard to see which melody takes the 4:th and which gets the 5:th place. But neither is a winner, since they're still too soft and superficial in some way.


A little more stuff actually lies within WHY'D YOU COME IN HERE LOOKING LIKE THAT, which ain't performed by Dolly Parton now again, but swedish Jill Johnson. Written by Bob Carlisle and Randy Thomas, the country has moved into late 80's in this case.


Through last listening curve, the fight becomes harder and harder between our two remaining master pieces. BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS seems to hold the gold medal just by it's name, not to mention it's witty pace. Kris Kistofferson has furthermore composed the horse by himself. However, in this world he gets second best.


Wins the whole great race does, to my cool surprise, a man I haven't really appreciated until now. We're talking 'bout no one less than Johnny Cash. Maybe his horses is going all the way to Memphis (or from), but here we're just trotting straight round and straight round, as he runs I WALK THE LINE.


Result list:


1
I WALK THE LINE
driven by Johnny Cash

from Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar -57


2
BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS
driven by Kris Kristofferson

from Kristofferson -70


3
WHY'D YOU COME IN HERE LOOKING LIKE THAT
driven by Jill Johnson
(with help from Nina Persson)

from Music Row -07


4
KEEP FEELING FASCINATION
driven by Human League

from single/EP -83


5
KARMA CHAMELEON
driven by Culture Club

from Colour By Numbers -83


6
TRAVELLIN' MAN
driven by Dolly Parton

from Coat of Many Colors -71


7
NOTHIN' HEAVY
driven by Bellamy Brothers

from Let Your Love Flow -76


8
GARDEN PARTY
driven by Marillion

from Script For a Jester's Tear -83


9
STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN
driven by Camille & Kennerly = Harp Twins

from youtube -10
cover of Led Zeppelin


10
LOVE OF THE COMMON PEOPLE
driven by Waylon Jennings

from Love of The Common People -67


11
I'M GETTING GOOD AT MISSING YOU
driven by Don Williams

from collection Just A Country Boy


12
DETROIT CITY (Nu Reser Jag Hem)
driven by Gunnar Wiklund

from a collection, recorded -65


13
CABARET
driven by Alice Smith

from She -13


14
COUNTRY HONK
driven by Rolling Stones

from Let it Bleed -69








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