RIP, Andrew Gold

If you were born after the 1970s, it takes a bit to understand the decade. Singer-songwriters like Gold were all the rage back in those days. Lonely Boy was a big hit around what, 1977? I think Thank You for Being A Friend came out the next year (or was it included on that same album?). Both songs were good, but of course everyone will remember "Friend" because of Golden Girls.

 

Let's not forget Rupert Holmes...especially if you like Pina Coladas.

 

The guy that will always personify the 70's music scene for me is Gordon Lightfoot. He had a string of terrible, catchy tunes.

But his lyrics were confusing as hell at times. Ever actually listen to the words of "If you could read my mind?" If so, please tell me what the ghost in a wishing well is all about.

 

Uh, about an old-time movie?

 

You know that ghost is me.
And I will never be set free
as long as I'm a ghost you can see.

WTF? He is referencing the ghose in the movie, I guess, but what the blue blazes is he talking about?

 

You can add Dan Hill to this list too.

 

It's a metaphor in which he is comparing himself -- in the view of the ex with whom he is breaking up, to whom the song is addressed -- with a ghost in some spooky old BW movie they once watched. He's saying, "to you I am nothing more than a ghost now."

It's like the "old-fashioned love song" in Three Dog Night's "Just An Old-Fashioned Love Song," it's not referring to a specific article (or song, or ghost from a wishing well) but simply the IDEA of some vaguely-remembered shared experience by which the singer can appeal to the romantic nostalgia of the ex.

See also "Taxi" by Harry Chapin.


It's also a good technique by songwriters to give the audience (made up primarily of teens) the feeling they are older, wiser, and more mature than they really are.

 

Shannon by Henry Gross was the cheesiest schmaltz of the 1970s, and challenges Honey by Bobby Goldsboro and Tell Laura I Love Her as the cheesiest schmaltz evah.

 

"Shannon" however is by far the best song about a dead dog that has ever made the Top 40.

 

I'll be damned...I actually understand it now. And it is way too simplistic for me to have not "gotten" it before.

 

A part of me still holds some rudimentary affection for "Shannon." There, I said it.

 

Dupree actually had two hits: "Steal Away" and "Hot Rod Hearts".

And strangely enough, he had a song on the WWF's album "Piledriver", which was "Girls and Cars". The song was as an entrance theme for Rick Martel and Tito Santana.

It's amazing what one can find on wikipedia.