The blogger MDS from Pantheon Songs – check out his sites if you like music – wants to know:
1) what are some of the books that you’ve wanted to read but never got around to reading because of whatever reason or circumstance?
So many…let me limit this list to books that are actually in my possession, and specifically in the office of the house, as opposed to the living room or the attic:
Personal History – Katharine Graham
The Brethren (re: Supreme Court) – Woodward and Armstrong
Wired – Bob Woodward
Crossfire (re: JFK) – Jim Marrs
Undaunted Courage – Stephen Ambrose
The World Is My Home – James Michener
As a member of the board of the Friends of the Albany Public library, I would buy a book from each of the authors. But I hadn’t read any of them until I read Wicked by Gregory Maguire last year. I’ll be reading some of them.
Then there is Shakespeare. I’ve seen so many productions of his comedies that I no longer remember which ones I’ve actually read, aside from The Merchant of Venice. I’ve read none of the histories or romances. I’ve read most of the tragedies, though not Titus Andronicus or Timon of Athens.
2) “Fortunate Son” or “The Weight”?
Interesting question. Never thought of Fortunate Son [listen] as more than an excellent song by a very good band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, though I agreed very much with its sentiment. The group had more number 2 hits on the US charts without having a number 1 hit than anyone, I believe. I never had any CCR albums until they broke up.
I owned The Band’s first four or five albums more or less when they came out, though I did get the second album (the brown album) before the first. The Weight [listen] was on their first album, Music from Big Pink; I’ve been by the actual pink house in Ulster County, NY. The song appears in the movie Easy Rider. For reasons of commerce, their version does not show up on the movie soundtrack, replaced by an iteration by a group called Smith [listen].
For my taste, the song was covered too often, and the song started to get on my nerves, though I like Aretha’s version [listen].
Time passes and I can appreciate The Weight for the great, no, anthemic, tune it is.