Songs You Should Probably Hear At Least Once

   There is a lot of wonderful music out there, you hear it on the radio every day. If your my age, you've been hearing it on the radio for about fifty years now. What I've learned over the years, though, is that the music you hear on the radio is not always the best music there is out there, even by the the same artist.
   I find this very frustrating to talk to people who have an opinion on an artist only based on what they've heard on the radio. To help relieve my frustration a little in this regard, I'm going to post some of my favourite songs you probably haven't heard on the radio.

   The first one is Leonard Cohen's "The Sisters of Mercy". I was kind of torn between this and "Dress Rehearsal Rag" but I was after a slightly lighter tone so chose the former. I saw Cohen perform this song live here in London many years ago and he told a little story about how it came to be. Apparently he was wandering frigid Edmonton after a concert one wintery evening and somehow got invited in out of the cold by a couple of young women. He ended up spending an "unfortunately chaste" night at the girls' place and ended up writing this song as a result, if my faltering memory serves.
   Melanie Safka has always been one of my favourite artists, ever since "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain). It always bothered me that one of her most popular songs of all time was "Brand New Key". It certainly is a catchy little song but in her overall body of work there is some achingly beautiful music. Once again I had a hard time choosing. I finally opted for "Leftover Wine", probably one of her best. Briefly, it describes her relationship with her fans and audience. It was hard not to pick "Momma Momma", "Bobo's Party" or perhaps even "Birthday of the Sun", plus many others. This particular song, perhaps more than any other, showcases her amazing voice.

   I was watching a Harry Chapin PBS special many years ago and saw him perform a song called "Sniper". It was an amazing nine minute opus and I immediately went and bought the album it was on. Out of many Chapin songs I love, this is personally my favourite. It is a fascinating character study, touching on human nature and the effects of alienation. It was inspired by the story of Charles Whitman, who, in 1966, went to the top of the University of Texas tower and started shooting, killing thirteen people and an unborn child. Not typical Chapin stuff but he goes back and forth, almost documentary style, getting the story both from the sniper's viewpoint and the people who knew him. This is a powerful song.

   I was only mildly familiar with Joni Mitchell before I saw an appearance of hers on the Johnny Cash show way back when. She sang a song called "For Free", from her "Ladies of the  Canyon" album. At that point I was hooked, bought the album and many more. Nothing of hers I'd heard on the radio at that point really would have prompted me to become a fan so I'm very thankful for Johnny Cash having her on.

   Okay, I think I might stop there although I could go on and on. As you've probably figured out by now, I am an old "folkie" and I make no apologies. If you've hung in there and actually listened to all of these then you've heard almost half an hour of "Brian Baker music" and you should be congratulated for making it through! There has always been so much music out there that the radio and T.V. stations couldn't possibly do all the artists the justice they so readily deserve. The end result is that we, as an audience, lose out. We never get the opportunity to hear all the other music that's out there. Occasionally, Doralyn and I will be watching a movie and somewhere in the soundtrack we'll hear a song we fancy, that we've never heard before. So we look up the artist and discover all sorts of new great music! That's the wonderful thing, it's all at your fingertips!