All His Hopes and Dreams

 

I’m old enough and sad enough about the current state of affairs to have written several dozen songs lamenting the way we seem to choose to live.  But when I hear The Pretender by Jackson Browne, I realize I haven’t come close.

The Road I’m On

Music Harmony 101:  harmonize your melody by using the chords based on the 1^st, 4^th and 5^th notes of the scale, commonly notated using the Roman Numerals I, IV and V.  If you want a bit of spice, add the chord based on the 6^th note (VI).

That’s enough for most western music: rock, pop, country, punk, hymns, national anthems, you name it.

You can just repeat a sequence endlessly, like I-VI-IV-V, as used in Stand By Me and a million other songs.

You can follow a rigid formula, like I-IV-I-V-IV-I, the 12 bar blues pattern used for a healthy majority of blues songs, also sped up with a backbeat for early rock ’n’ roll.

Or you can mix ‘em up endlessly like Jackson Browne does in Running On Empty.

The basis of the song is a jumped up groove on the church cadence (“amen”): IV-I.  Once you’ve got that approaching the hypnotic, let’s take it somewhere by adding the 6th: IV-I-VI.

Now let’s go crazy for the bridge.  VI-IV-V-I, then switched up to VI-V-IV-I. Back to VI-IV-V-I, then IV-V-I (this last sequence being something used by everyone from Bach to The Ramones).

Just four chords, mixed up and stirred around in a way that makes it both familiar and fresh at the same time.

Just what you’re hoping to find.

Believe I’m Sinking Down

Have I ever mentioned I’m not a fan of award shows?  I rarely watch them because they always disappoint.

But I made an exception this year and watched the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductions. I mean, Rush, Heart, Albert King.  Gotta be good right?

Guest appearances by John Fogerty, Tom Petty, Jackson Brown, David Grohl, Gary Clark, John Mayer.  People I admire.  Music I love.  Gonna be good for sure.

Nope.

Lame speeches.  So-so performances.  Well-meant and no doubt all very sincere, but in the end, just a bunch of silliness.

You know, when Alex Lifeson gets the most applause for literally saying “blah blah blah” for 3 minutes (though it seemed like 7), the evening has been kinda dull.

Cool jam on Crossroads as the credits rolled, though.

Running Into The Sun

So, the flip side of the coin where I'm now kinda old but still carry this teenage angst that Born To Run brings to the surface is ...

I've been worried about being too old forever.

Every time I hear Jackson Browne's Running On Empty I start to panic. When did that road turn into the road I'm on? I look into their eyes and see they're running too. Yikes! Life is passing me by! It's almost over and I didn't get anything done! Help!

Thing is, I first heard the song when I was 23, barely out of my teens, just two years after I first heard Born To Run and got all uptight about growing up too soon and becoming like “them.”

OK, maybe both songs are based on the same sentiment: don't let 'em getcha / I think I might be getting got. But one looks forward with anxious rebellion, the other looks back with regret (well, maybe it looks forward with fear because the end is nigh).

I guess in the end it doesn't matter whether you're too old or too young to relate to a song. If you do, you do. And that what's inside all great art: making you say, "That's how I feel."

People need some reason to believe.