SEARCHING FOR LOST CHORDS

Friday, March 7, 2014

FAVORITE ROCK/POP ALL-TIME LIST # 71

   Well, it's no surprise that the song I would play for AMERICA: my number 71 favorite group would be SANDMAN.   This song has reverberated in my consciousness for four decades plus now....it's a melancholly, brooding, "looking-back-over-memory-lane" sad song...and I've always loved it.   AMERICA is a group that at one time was in my TOP TEN favorite bands...probably at about the time you and I saw them live at the Fort Wayne War-Memorial Coliseum in the Spring of '75 (I'm thinking....was that when it was?  And, who was their opening band/act? I can't remember).  Heck!  Just for their awesome string of AM hits they deserve mega accolades:   Tin Man, Ventura Highway, Horse With No Name, Lonely People, heck, even their version of Muskrat Love    :D....

Because of youthful love lost, I have a hard time even listening to their song Sister Goldenhair...which is a stunningly beautiful and well crafted pop gem.

But's it SANDMAN, baby.... the stark strumming guitar that opens the tune...the chord change at the 15/16 second mark...the tremolo that reverbs at the 26 second point...the chorus.... WOA!

"Ain't the years gone by fast?"  The poignancy and sense of loss in those lyrics hits like a bag of wet cement.

"I suppose you have missed them"  And therein lies the human condition of change, and loss, and regret.

Drink all the beer you can while there's time...cause the Sandman is coming....damn it.



2 comments:

  1. Well hold onto your hands - because they are starting to float away - the 70's are just around the corner - down the road if you will - over the next hill - can't you hear the eggs starting to crack and the slithering of the snakes. A sure sign the 70's are on the way - Linda Strange's Daughter told me so when I crested that far peak in the distance to find Miss Penelope serving up cool lemonade, while I am watching for the coming of the mole men, afraid they will up end my safe foundation - so once again we meet in that realm of twilight where no actual zone exists, but we can make anything of it we wish - so says the Sandman (I always think of you big fella when I hear that tune) and we will drink that beer to (or if we have any luck with that nasty flux capacitor) in the 70s my dear friend - friend Eugor - So says Reliops the Serpant Charmer transmitting from Seti-Alpha 4 on band width 5954.1112 who also misses the 70's...

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  2. Oh, your most High-Uppityness Lord Reliops:
    I have know idea at all what you are saying....the exhaust fumes from your Flag Star Cruiser (in the Invasion Armada) must be venting back into your helmet thus affecting and effecting your slimy snake-encircled gill-equipped BUT HANDSOME in a "rugged way" head! But nonetheless we both grove on AMERICA (RIP Dan Peek)... beer and tequila and loud music from real amps, turn-tables, and monstuh Speakers!!! Go out like a bad dude or don't go out at all!
    Eugor the gimped-one

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