(12-20-2022, 06:02 AM)A51Watcher2 Wrote:
Regarding the title of the OP, I call it the "Dead Horse Blues" (but I grew up in Wyoming, so I'm allowed! LOL!)
(boing, bwang, twang, boiiiing)
'Woke up cold
Feelin' really old
Found my trusty steed
Dead...down in the gulch
Only friend I need
Now covered in mulch
Ohhh-O-oooohhhhh, I got the Dead Horse Blues!'
(boing, bwang, twang....boiiiing)
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Regardng Kenny Wayne Shepard and the song 'Blue on Black', here's a funny factoid about that song. (Love KWS by the way!) A lot of people try to find some deep meaning to the words of 'Blue on Black', but the real story is quite different. Anyone who is familiar with Shepard will know that he writes most songs with the melody and rhythm first, and then he puts lyrics to the songs last. Well, Shepard wrote Blue on Black, but couldn't think of any lyrics, so as he sat there in the studio he noticed a set of drapes (or something like this) which were blue with some kind of black on the design. So, "Blue on Black" it was, and that became the lyrics.
Shepard doesn't particularly care for singing in general. He's a guitar virtuoso, not a singer. This is why you'll notice he rarely performs lead vocals on a song. I wouldn't say he 'can't' sing, just that he doesn't particularly care to sing. Although, to hear him say it, he says he can't sing.
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edit - Maybe some clarification is required on the Dead Horse Blues subject (above), and why I call it that. In order to understand, you have to rewind your brain to the late 70's and early 80's and what Country music was back then. Almost every popular song had the exact same ingredients and same recipe back then. It was enough to make even the most hardened Country music lover go insane. It was this whiny, drawn out, complaint about wives leaving them, failed relationships, dead people, living in the past and just plain unhappy, depressing, themes. There's all sorts of social parallels which you can draw from this period in Country music, but I think the one which resonates with me the most clearly is this. ... When you consider the 1980 motion picture 'Urban Cowboy', it was the personification of two concepts. The first was the "Cowboy is cool" concept, meaning the whole cowboy motif was trendy at the time. And second, the movie embodied the Country music style which led up to it. And, if you really think about it (and this is bizarre), Country music was the equivalent of the "Emo" and "Goth" cultural revolution which would come after it. The clothing was different, but the mentality and emotional aspect of the music was very similar.
Thus the notion (and my calling it)...The Dead Horse Blues.