You better stay away from him, He'll rip your lungs out, Jim, Huh! I'd like to meet his tailor.

Songs Everyone Should Know

“Werewolves of London”, Warren Zevon (1978)

I saw Warren Zevon about a year before he died. He performed “Werewolves of London” and it was still very good, but was somehow tinged with sadness or something I could not quite put my finger on. The imagery in the song is still poignant but the style is a bit dated now.  We seem to like things much darker now, and there was something fun about this song.

Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone

Hip to be Square

“Big Yellow Taxi”, Joni Mitchell (1970)

I remember listening to “Both Sides Now” coming from the funky little yellow radio my Dad had in the kitchen that he snapped on every morning – which seemed like he had been doing every morning since the dawn of time. I heard a lot of songs on that radio. I had my toast with peanut butter at the arborite table, wondering if I would be on the Green team or the Red team for ‘Sports’ day. Listening to Joni, I made special note to look at the clouds when I sat on the schoolyard waiting my turn for long jump or high jump or whatever else they made us do.  It seemed to me I had never really looked at clouds at all.