About time I put my two cents in.
1. IYCRMM
2. Your Love's Return
3. Minstrel of the Dawn
4. Pony Man
5. Cobwebs and Dust
6. Approaching Lavender
7. SDYS
8. Saturday Clothes
9. Poor Little Allison
10. Baby It's Alright
11. Me and Bobby McGee
A few comments:
1) I first heard IYCRMM when I was not yet 17; I still remember where I was--in a car (1960 Ford Falcon) with a bunch of other kids my age, including, to my left, a girl that I was hoping to have some fun with. When the song came on the radio, I was enraptured, and told the girl to shut up so I could listen. How many times would that happen to a hormonal teenager--to pick a song over a girl? That must have been some song...
2) I imagine that some think that Love's Return is just a little too mushy, with all the strings, but have you ever heard a more beautiful melody? Has Red Shea ever been in better form? Listen to it a few times in a row, and it just gets better.
3) A couple of years ago, the Rez and I batted this song around, when someone asked about the meaning of The Minstrel of the Dawn. You can look up the comments there if you're iterested.
4) Brings back all of the innocence of childhood; my girls used to love it when they were little.
5) Strange...GL's comments in the Songbook are nothing like my impressions of this song ("Breakup of a marriage due to a third person"..."very chauvinistic"). To me it just sounds like someone who's been isolated, whose life has stagnated, and is ready to give it all up to find true love.
6) Very sensual.
7) Fine song, perhaps a little dated now.
8-11) Nothing wrong with any of these songs; it's just that the others are so strong that they pale in comparison. "Allison" is, I'm sure, someone we all knew in high school. "Baby It's Alright" is OK; I like the verse "Your hair is all atangle, your thoughts are all astray". I was never really grabbed by "Bobby McGee"; I find Joplin's version a bit obnoxious (more like the presentation was more important than the song itself), and the ending ("I call him my lover, etc.") just nonsensical in the context of the song. GL's version is lightly melancholy, but he doesn't seem to be putting himself into it--maybe just because the song isn't his.
I'll shut up now.
DQ
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