song of the day – “Let My Love Open The Door” (E. Cola Mix) | PETE TOWNSHEND | 1996.

In the history of music, some of the best love songs ever recorded don’t even have “love” in the title.  Some great examples include Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” The Beatles’ “Something,” and prolly the best example of this, “Ring Of Fire” by Johnny Cash. 

In 1980, The Who’s Pete Townshend wrote a song that did include the word love in the title, but was never meant as a love song.  That came later.

Inbetween 1978’s WHO ARE YOU and 1981’s FACE DANCES albums, Pete Townshend put together his third studio effort away from his band, his first album comprised of all original songs.  The album was called EMPTY GLASS, and featured future Big Country members Mark Brzezicki and Tony Butler.   

One of the songs on the album was “Let My Love Open The Door,” a song Pete Townshend once referred to as a song about “the power of God’s love,” and later wrote off as “Just a ditty.”  But, it paid off, becoming a Top 10 hit in the U.S. and Canada, his biggest solo hit away from The Who.

Fast forward to April 1996, and THE BEST OF PETE TOWNSHEND compilation album was released.  A new remix of “Let My Love Open The Door” appeared on the compilation (along with the 1980 original), that Pete called The E. Cola Mix.  He remixed this slower, ballad version of the love song along with Chris Thomas (who co-produced EMPTY GLASS and many INXS albums), producer Tim Oliver, and Jack Hues of Wang Chung. 

A year after the compilation’s release, GROSSE POINTE BLANK, the brilliant 1997 John Cusack film set around an 80s high school reunion, was released, and it was the first film or TV show (of many) to feature the beautiful E. Cola Mix of “Let My Love Open The Door.”  I couldn’t find any info to confirm, but I’ve always wondered if the E. Cola Mix was commissioned for GROSSE POINTE BLANK.  Regardless, its use in the film just felt right and it was a nice moment in the movie.  Now I want to watch it again. 

A scene from the high school reunion in 1997’s brilliant GROSSE POINTE BLANK, with John Cusack and Minnie Driver, and the E. Cola Mix of “Let My Love Open The Door” playing in the background…

For those keeping track, this is my first blog post in about nine months.  All apologies for the extended and unintended hiatus from the bloggy thing here.  A couple things happened while I was away from writing FOREVER YOUNG.  

First, a truly amazing thing happened to me last Summer – I fell in love with Maryhope, my superfriend, my sassy radio co-host for so many years, my yoga coach, my running partner, my writing hero, the reason this blog exists, and my best friend.   

The beautiful Maryhope, Old Orchard Beach, Maine, 8.6.2017.

That first weekend in August 2017, we stayed in Old Orchard Beach, Maine at the height of the summer, and a busy weekend at the Summer vacation destination that included a Salvation Army band by the pier playing Journey, three women dressed as leprechauns (really? in August?!?!), a swim in the cold Atlantic that changed my life forever, and the moment where I proclaimed my love for Maryhope, which was long overdue. 

That’s my pre-running tubby self, blowing a kiss to the gorgeous Maryhope, OOB 8.6.2017.

My baby brother Mark, Thanksgiving 2013.

That weekend, Maryhope got to meet my baby brother, Mark, and I’m forever grateful for that, because four and a half months later, just before Xmas, Mark passed away unexpectedly at the age of 47.  Mark was responsible for us staying in OOB that weekend, was very instrumental to that entire weekend, and he was so happy for us, and I was so happy to see him, in his element, in his town.  I miss him terribly, and I’ll miss him forever, and I promise to dedicate a blog post to him soon.  I love you, Mark.

David Bowie once said, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.”  It took me a long time to figure that out.  Almost too long.  Maryhope figured it out right away, and was in love with me long before I figured it out.  In July 2017, after an incredible weekend together, she texted me a line from my favorite David Bowie song, “Absolute Beginners”: “I absolutely love you.”  And, for reasons that still boggle my mind, my not-so-great reply (I think) was, “Oh yeah, I love you too!”  What she realized (and I yet hadn’t) is that WE were the “Absolute Beginners” David Bowie was singing about.  I didn’t hear from her for two days and I thought I had lost her forever.  And I couldn’t get “Absolute Beginners” out of my head.  And, between “Absolute Beginners” and my embarrassing admission of jealousy towards a friend of hers, I finally figured it out.  And a week later, I told Maryhope I was in love with her!  

The amazing Maryhope and a very happy yours truly, Kettle Cove, Cape Elizabeth, Maine, 9.2.2017.

In the 12 years I’ve known Maryhope, and especially these last four years, I can say absolutely and unequivocally, Maryhope has always challenged me and pushed me to become the person I am today, the person I was all along and didn’t see it.  But she knew.  She knows me better than I know myself.  We have consistently said we had a hand in saving each other’s lives, and we certainly did.  When all this started, I just hadn’t realized how much my life was truly in need of saving.  I’ve gone from being the guy who crashed on MaryHope’s couch all those years ago to now, a man who has discovered and embraced the joys of running, growing out my natural hair (without the not-so “subtle highlights”), pot, vegetarian cooking, tea, yoga, meditation, reading Rumi, listening to the brilliance that is Bruce Springsteen, T. Rex and Janis Joplin, letting out my inner hippie, looking and feeling better at 51 than I did at 41 or 31, and all the while being madly in love with the most gorgeous and beautiful and funniest and brilliant and sexiest and truly amazing woman in the universe!  I am the happiest and luckiest man in the history of men.  

Maryhope, I absolutely love you!  It’s absolutely true! 

Me and the enchanting Maryhope, Kettle Cove, 12.17.2017.

 

To those folks reading these words, and who are on the verge of love, and someone says to you, “I absolutely love you,” DO NOT hesitate to respond back with those same four beautiful words.   

Apart from a truly beautiful thing happening in my life, and a truly heartbreaking loss in my life, I think that’s one of the reasons why I couldn’t write anything for awhile – I couldn’t find the right words.  Don’t wait too long to say the right things.  I waited a long time, and often stumbled over saying the wrong things.  I still do.  But, as Maryhope has reminded me often, sometimes saying something, anything – even if it might not be the right thing – is often better than not saying anything at all.  

Life’s too short.  If someone says to you, “Let my love open the door,” you walk – or run, without hesitation – right through that open door and quickly close the door behind you.  Don’t look back; look forward.  What’s waiting for you there I can’t tell you, but if it’s anything like what I’m experiencing right now with Maryhope, there will be joy and tears of joy, laughter, dancing, extraordinary adventures, a bond like no other, and a strong, precious, beautiful love that will keep those love songs flowing for all time… 

Two stunning hippies enjoying a sensational Spring day at Boston Common, 4.28.2018.

“Let my love open the door / Let my love open the door / Let my love open the door / To your heart…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f4Jtm4hTAU 

Evolution of a couple friends / DJs / best friends / two sexxy people in love: WMPG-FM, Portland, Maine, April 2013 (left) and New Year’s Eve 2017-2018.

 

 

song of the day – “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky” | OUTLAWS | 1981.

On June 15, 2014, Casey Kasem, host of the longtime countdown program, AMERICAN TOP 40, passed away at the age of 82.  From my first blog post (and prolly some more inbetween then and now), I explained how, in 1979, I was a geeky, lanky and somewhat lost 12-year-old living in Central Maine, had a few friends and not a lot of interest in much of anything, but at some point early that year, I discovered AMERICAN TOP 40, and was glued to it every weekend.  Not only could I hear the 40 biggest songs in the country every week, but also Casey’s cool trivia and facts about the songs and the artists, a trait I treasure to this day.  For me, the show was No. 1 with a bullet.  And still is (thanks to the re-airing of broadcasts of AT40 on iHeart Radio).

In honor of my radio hero, Casey Kasem, for the entire month of June, I will be highlighting a song each day (some days will have two songs!) that peaked in the Top 40 of the BILLBOARD Hot 100 (including five (real) one-hit wonders of the 80s), and with every blog post, just like on AMERICAN TOP 40, the hits will get bigger with each post.  On June 1, 2017, I featured a song that peaked at No. 40.  On June 30, I’ll feature a “song of the day” that went all the way to No. 1. 

As Casey used to say on AT40, “And on we go!”

There are some songs in the history of music that just keep coming back and back and back again.  If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then the late songwriter and actor, Stan Jones (who died of cancer in 1963 at the age of 49) would be flattered to the moon and back and then some.

“(Ghost) Riders” writer and originator, Stan Jones.

When Stan Jones wasn’t acting in Westerns directed by the legendary (and Portland, Maine native) John Ford, he was writing songs, and one of those songs, a 1948 composition (written at the time he worked for the National Park Service in Death Valley, California) titled “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky: A Cowboy Legend” became a legend all its own.

Stan Jones recorded his original version of “(Ghost) Riders” in late 1948, and from there, it became one of the most-covered songs in history.  Bing Crosby, Burl Ives, Peggy Lee, The Ventures, Bob James and Dick Dale have covered it.  So have Tom Jones, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Duane Eddy and Peter, Paul & Mary.  Deborah Harry of Blondie recorded a trance version of it in 1998, and more recently, Judy Collins, Concrete Blonde and various Death Metal bands have covered this classic.

Pretty bleepin’ cool.

“(Ghost) Riders In The Sky” has even reached the BILLBOARD Hot 100 in four different versions.  In 1961, The Ramrods (an Instrumental Rock band out of Connecticut) reached No. 30, and Lawrence Welk reached No. 87 with his version.  In 1966, the Baja Marimba Band took it to No. 52.  And, in 1981, Southern Rockers the Outlaws scored the second-highest charted version in BILLBOARD Hot 100 history with their cool, rockin’ 6-minute cover.

The Outlaws, formed in Tampa, Florida in 1967,  released their sixth studio album, GHOST RIDERS, in late November 1980.  The band had some moderate success in the 70s with their 1975 hit, “There Goes Another Love Song,” reaching the Top 40 of the BILLBOARD Hot 100.

The single released from GHOST RIDERS was “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky.”  It made its Hot 100 debut at No. 83 on the last chart of 1980, a couple of days after Xmas.

Throughout the first weeks of 1981, the Outlaws steadily climbed the Hot 100, entering the Top 40 on Valentine’s Day 1981.  “(Ghost) Riders In The Sky” reached No. 31 in early March 1981, but fell out of the Top 40 the following week and left the Hot 100 in early April 1981 after 15 weeks on the chart.  It was the last time the band would reach the Hot 100.

Bruce Willis as John McClane singing “(Ghost) Riders?”  It could happen!

DREAM COVER: Someone should get Bruce Willis to cover this song, but as his famous character from the DIE HARD films, John McClane – “Yippe-ki-yay (motherfucker)!  Yippie-ki-yo (motherfucker)!”  Wouldn’t that be fun?

The Outlaws have been around for the better part of 50 years, with a long list of lineup changes that would take up another post entirely.  None of the original members are still with the band (a couple of them died in 1995, another in 2007).    They released their last studio album, IT’S ABOUT PRIDE, in 2012, and their fifth live album, LEGACY LIVE (a 2-CD set), in 2016.

It’s hard to believe that I had nearly forgotten about this amazing cover from the Outlaws when Hope brought it to my attention years ago.  Long story longer, I fell in love with this version all over again and played it on STUCK IN THE 80s often during the show’s last several years.

And if I were a betting man, I think Stan Jones might have have been much more than flattered when he heard The Outlaws version, and I think he would have raised his fist up and started jammin’ to it, or at the very least, tipped his cowboy hat in appreciation.  Yippie-yi-yaaaay.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmpvpypXKf0

song of the day – “Me Myself And I” | DE LA SOUL | 1989.

On June 15, 2014, Casey Kasem, host of the longtime countdown program, AMERICAN TOP 40, passed away at the age of 82.  From my first blog post (and prolly some more inbetween then and now), I explained how, in 1979, I was a geeky, lanky and somewhat lost 12-year-old living in Central Maine, had a few friends and not a lot of interest in much of anything, but at some point early that year, I discovered AMERICAN TOP 40, and was glued to it every weekend.  Not only could I hear the 40 biggest songs in the country every week, but also Casey’s cool trivia and facts about the songs and the artists, a trait I treasure to this day.  For me, the show was No. 1 with a bullet.  And still is (thanks to the re-airing of broadcasts of AT40 on iHeart Radio).

In honor of my radio hero, Casey Kasem, for the entire month of June, I will be highlighting a song each day (some days will have two songs!) that peaked in the Top 40 of the BILLBOARD Hot 100 (including five (real) one-hit wonders of the 80s), and with every blog post, just like on AMERICAN TOP 40, the hits will get bigger with each post.  On June 1, 2017, I featured a song that peaked at No. 40.  On June 30, I’ll feature a “song of the day” that went all the way to No. 1. 

As Casey used to say on AT40, “And on we go!”

An ad for AMERICAN TOP 40 with Shadoe Stevens, 1988.  Nothing against Shadoe, but this made me sad.

By the Fall of 1988, due to contractual issues with ABC Watermark, Casey Kasem sadly left the show he created in 1970 to start another show, Casey’s Top 40.  With no 29-year-old offense intended at AT40’s replacement host, Shadoe Stevens, I listened for one or two weeks after Casey left, and it just wasn’t the same.  But for this tribute to Casey, I’m still sticking with the 80s format, and will feature a number of songs from August 1988 through December 1989, or post-Casey on American Top 40.  Here’s one of those songs. 

De La Soul, the Hip Hop / Rap trio formed Long Island, New York, in 1987 (while still in high school) and are still together 30 years later.  Consisting of members Posdnous (real name Kevin Mercer), Dave (David Jude Jolicoeur) and Maseo (Vincent Mason), De La Soul came onto the music scene a couple of years later with their debut album, 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING, and right out of the gate, they were heralded for their impressive contributions to Jazz Rap and Alt-Hip Hop, their fun wordplay and their revolutionary sampling (on this album alone, they sample anything from Daryl Hall & John Oates to Johnny Cash to Steely Dan to The Turtles to Richard Pryor to Liberace to Wilson Pickett to Billy Joel).

3 FEET HIGH AND RISING was one of the most critically-acclaimed albums of 1989, making it onto many publications’ Top 10 lists that year, including ROLLING STONE (#5), MELODY MAKER (#10), plus other notable accolades from SPIN (#7, 100 Greatest Albums, 1985-2005), VILLAGE VOICE (“The Sgt. Pepper of Hip Hop”), NEW MUSIC EXPRESS (NME) (“One of the greatest albums ever made”) and famed music critic Robert Christgau said 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING was “unlike any rap album you or anybody else has heard.”

Another thing that 3 FEET HIGH AND RISING had in its favor was its tone.  In 1989, Gangsta Rap was taking off, and De La Soul went in a different direction, a more positive spin on Rap, promoting peace and harmony, as opposed to violence and substance abuse and then some.  And, because of it, both De La Soul and the album were well-received.  3 FEET HIGH AND RISING was certified Platinum and spent five weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s R&B / Hip Hop chart.  In Robert Christgau’s VILLAGE VOICE review of the album, he said that De La Soul is “New Wave to Public Enemy’s Punk.”

3 FEET HIGH AND RISING was released in mid-March 1989, but it took about three months for the album’s first single, “Me Myself And I,” to reach the BILLBOARD Hot 100.  On June 3, 1989, the week it debuted on the Hot 100, it was No. 1 for a week on BILLBOARD’s Dance chart.  The following week, it was No. 1 for a week on BILLBOARD’s R&B / Hip Hop chart. 

Prior to its Hot 100 debut, “Me Myself And I” was the second song to reach No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s then-new Rap Singles chart.  It spent eight weeks at No. 1 on that chart.

“Me Myself And I,” with its quirky video set in a high school guidance office and then a classroom, helped propel the song up the Hot 100, though it was an unusual chart run.  Just three weeks on the chart, it jumped from No. 72 to No. 49.  But, for whatever reason, the following week, it quickly held the No. 49 position, only to move back up the week after.

QUIRKY FUN FACT: The MTV character, Randee of the Redwoods (played by actor and comedian Jim Turner from 1987 through 1990) appears briefly in the music video for “Me Myself And I.”  Q-Tip and Ali Shaheed Muhammed of A Tribe Called Quest also make cameo appearances. 

In its sixth week on the Hot 100, “Me Myself And I” was already certified Gold (pretty impressive for a song that hadn’t yet reached the Top 40), but retreated back from No. 43 to No. 45.  And, once again, the following week, it regained its bullet and climbed back up.

Eight weeks into its chart run, in late July 1989, “Me Myself And I” bounded into the Top 40 at No. 34, but that is where it would peak for one week, and it spent three total weeks in the Top 40.  “Me Myself And I” (which incorporates five samples of songs from Funkadelic to Ohio Players) bowed out of the Hot 100 after 17 weeks.

“Me Myself And I” picked up an audience around the globe as well, reaching No. 1 in Holland for two weeks, plus No. 7 in Belgium, No. 16 in Germany, and the Top 30 in the U.K., Austria and Switzerland.  It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance.

The legacy of “Me Myself And I” in the history of Rap / Hip Hop and music altogether continues today.  In addition to being featured in commercials and video games, the song is included in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock And Roll.”

De La Soul, still together 30 years later…

De La Soul has now released a total of nine studio albums, including 2016’s AND THE ANONYMOUS NOBODY… album, which featured a number of guest performers, including David Byrne.  One reviewer called the album “one of the most thrilling, wide-ranging Rap releases of the year,” and this year, it gave the trio their first Grammy nomination since 2006.

Those who know me know I’m not really into most Rap music, so I never really kept up on De La Soul, but I’m so glad they are still together and still promoting that more peaceful, traditional Hip Hop alternative to Rap from a lot of the (C)rap that’s out there.  And, though I don’t really know them, from what I’ve read, they seem like the real deal.

As for “Me Myself And I,” I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this song.  I know folks were into Goth back then and who loved this song.  There was just something about it, and still is…

“De La Soul is from the soul / And this fact I can’t deny…”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJEzEDMqXQQ

song of the day – “Redemption Song” | BOB MARLEY & THE WAILERS | 1980.

Hard to believe it’s been 35 years today since we lost the amazing Bob Marley.  I didn’t know much about Bob until years after his passing, but before the 80s were done, I made sure he had a spot in my record collection.  And, he’s still there.

Released in the Summer of 1980, Bob’s 12th album UPRISING was the last studio album he & The Wailers put out while he was still alive.  From that album is the incredible “Redemption Song,” which he wrote in 1979, around the time he was diagnosed with cancer.  According to his widow, Rita Marley, “he was already secretly in a lot of pain and dealt with his own mortality, a feature that is clearly apparent in the album, particularly in this song.”

But, for many months, the cancer didn’t stop Bob from touring in support of UPRISING.  He and his band had played to 100,000 people in Milan, Italy, and then they toured America, including two shows at Madison Square Garden.  Bob’s last performance was at the former Stanley Theater (now The Benedum Center For The Performing Arts), in Pittsburgh, PA, on September, 23, 1980.

While a full band recording of “Redemption Song” exists and appears on the 2001 remastered edition of UPRISING, the gorgeous original version of “Redemption Song” was just Bob and his acoustic guitar.   

“Won’t you help to sing / These songs of freedom? / ‘Cause all I ever have / Redemption songs, Redemption songs.”

U2’s Bono once said, “I carried Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ to every meeting I had with a politician, prime minister, or president.  It was for me a prophetic utterance or as Bob would say ‘the small ax that could fell the big tree.’  The song reminded me that freedom always comes with a cost, but for those who would prepare to pay it, maybe ‘emancipation from mental slavery’ would be our reward.” 

Mutabaruka, a Jamaican musician, dub poet, actor and broadcaster, who put out 14 albums between 1982 and 2009, chose “Redemption Song” in 2009 as the most influential recording in Jamaican music history. 

“Redemption Song” is one of the most-beloved songs of all time, and in ROLLING STONE’s 2004 list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, it was ranked at No. 66.  It has been covered by the likes of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, Stevie Wonder, The Chieftains (with Bob’s son, Ziggy Marley), Afropop artist Angélique Kidjo, and prolly the two most famous versions, by The Clash’s Joe Strummer in 2002 before his death, and a version featuring both Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash (and both songs were produced by Rick Rubin).  In Paris in December 2015, Madonna, along with her son, David, did a live cover version of “Redemption Song” to pay tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks there a few weeks before.

I know “Redemption Song” is prolly most-referred to as a protest song, but for me, it’s one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard – a song not just of freedom, but encompassing hope, peace, faith, love and yes, redemption.  Bob would have been 71 this year.  Sometimes I catch myself wondering what life would have been like if cancer hadn’t taken him at such a young age.  Would their be so much anger and hate and violence and negativity around the world if he were still here?  Hard to say, but I’m betting my record collection and yours that the world would be a better place today if he was here to have a say in it.

But, since the DeLorean can’t help me out this time, for now, all I’ll ever have (of which I’m grateful) is this “Redemption Song,” and many more.  (I just had an image of Bob and Joe Strummer and Johnny Cash and David Bowie and Prince and The Ramones sitting around a huge campfire upstairs, while Bob plays his guitar and sings this song.  Wow…)  Thank you Bob.  Miss you, wherever you are…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFGgbT_VasI

song of the day – “Pancho And Lefty” | MERLE HAGGARD & WILLIE NELSON | 1983.

Country music legend Merle Haggard passed away today (4.6.2016), from complications of pneumonia.  It was his 79th birthday.

If you ever thought (like I did) that Merle Haggard looked a bit weathered, it’s because Merle led a hard life, at least in the beginning.  When Merle was 8 years old, his father died of a brain hemorrhage, and he never really recovered from it.  Merle’s brother, Lowell, gave Merle his first guitar at age 12, but within a couple of years, music took a back seat to committing crimes, from shoplifting to larceny to assault to attempted robbery.

A couple of bright spots during this early and troubling time for Merle involved music.  First, at an early 50s concert for one of Merle’s music heroes, Lefty Frizzell, Lefty heard Merle singing to his songs backstage and got Merle to come out onstage.  Merle’s performance was well-received, so much so that Merle decided to give music a shot. 

A few years later, after being transferred to San Quentin Prison for another crime, Merle heard Johnny Cash perform at the prison and ultimately joined the prison’s Country music band.  In 1960, Merle Haggard was released from San Quentin (he got a full pardon in 1972 from then-Governor Ronald Reagan).  Within 3 years of being a free man, he scored his first BILLBOARD Top 40 Country hit, “Sing A Bad Song.” 

By the end of the 60s, Merle Haggard had racked up 8 (of 38) No. 1 BILLBOARD Country hits.  That total of 38 ranks him third of all-time on that chart, behind Conway Twitty (40) and George Strait (44). 

Merle’s last No. 1 Country hit of the 60s turned out to be not only his signature song, but a nickname as well – “Okie From Muskokee,” which sparked debates about the Vietnam War, and has since cemented its place in pop culture, from being featured in Oliver Stone’s PLATOON to a 2015 episode of the popular TV show, MAD MEN.  The song spent 4 weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s country chart, and just missed the Top 40 on the BILLBOARD Hot 100, stopping at No. 41.

In 1983, Merle Haggard recorded a Honky-Tonk album with another fellow Country outlaw – Willie Nelson.  PANCHO & LEFTY was a huge album for Country music that year, spending 8 weeks at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Country album chart between April and October 1983.  The title track was written by Folk and Blues legend, Townes Van Zandt, who first recorded it in 1972.

Emmylou Harris covered “Pancho & Lefty” in 1977, as did Hoyt Axton (who appeared on 2 episodes of WKRP IN CINCINNATI in 1979).  But, it was the 1983 version by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard that gave the song its biggest audience (there’s a live, later version of the song for you at the end of the post).  It spent a week at No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Country singles chart in July 1983, and was one of an impressive 14 No. 1 Country songs Merle had in the 1980s (to compare, Michael Jackson, the biggest Pop star of the 80s, tallied 9 No. 1 songs on the BILLBOARD Hot 100).

Merle and Willie teamed up for a total of 6 albums, the sixth of which was released just last year, DJANGO & JIMMIE.  It was Merle’s last album, and yes, it did find its way to No. 1 on BILLBOARD’s Country Albums chart, as it should have.

To be honest, I’m not a big Country music fan, but, I can say I have a lot of respect for Merle Haggard.  And, so did other folks, especially fellow musicians like The Grateful Dead.  The Dead covered “Mama Tried,” Merle’s No. 1 hit from 1968, nearly 300 times. 

R.I.P. Merle, and many thanks…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iloyyrVt7EM