When You Say Nothing at All – Sometimes when you say nothing you manage to say everything #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #AlisonKrauss #DonSchlitz #PaulOverstreet #KeithWhitley #RonanKeating #NottingHill

Happy 50^th birthday to Alison Krauss!

Today’s feature could have been about any number of incredible offerings from this engaging country and bluegrass artist, but I eventually narrowed it down to ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ because of some interesting connections. Here is the story.

Some of you may recall the Ted Tocks feature focusing on ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers. As much as that version of Ted Tocks Covers profiled the legendary artist, it was also about a very humble songwriter named Don Schlitz. Well, we have Don Schlitz to thank for this crossover hit as well. This sentimental love song was written by Schlitz and his regular collaborator Paul Overstreet. The words came to the pair as they were about to pack it in after an unproductive day of writing. Literally nothing was coming their way in terms of ideas. They had pretty much determined that they had nothing to say and in Don Schlitz’s words it was then that the words came pouring out.

As we tried to find another way to say nothing, we came up with the song”

Don Schlitz

Overstreet and Schlitz had many avenues to get their songs across to a receptive buying public, but in the late ‘80s one of these conduits was Keith Whitley. When this rising star heard ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ he wanted to record it immediately for his album ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’. It was released as a single in August of 1988 as a follow up to the album’s title track. By the end of the year, the song had made it to #1 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ was the second of five top selling singles for Keith Whitley. Sadly, he only enjoyed the benefits of one more, because the final two registered posthumously. Whitley died of alcohol poisoning on May 9, 1989, at the age of 34. This sudden death was a tragic loss for the country music community, and it left Overstreet and Schlitz stunned. They often marveled at Whitley’s ability to deliver their words.

Keith did a great job singin’ that song. He truly sang it from the heart.”

Don Schlitz

Here is the Keith Whitley version of ‘When You Say Nothing at All’.

A few years later Alison Krauss and Union Station were approached by producer Randy Scruggs to participate on a Keth Whitley tribute album. After Krauss and her band completed their recording, everyone knew it was something special, but it was not the album’s primary focus. When the tribute was released to country radio stations, program directors gravitated to the Krauss track and by early 1995, BNA Records opted to release the Alison Krauss and Union Station version as a single. Krauss also featured it on a compilation of her early career recordings called ‘Now That I’ve Found You: A Collection’ where it peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart and #2 on the Billboard Sales chart. The success of the cover caught Krauss by surprise.

It’s a freak thing. It’s kind of ticklin’ us all. We haven’t had anything chart before. At all. Isn’t it funny though? We don’t know what’s goin’ on…The office said ‘Hey, it’s charting’, and we’re like, ‘Huh’?”.

Alison Krauss

To add to the power of the release a Milwaukee radio station production director named Mike Cronwell created a duet version of Keith Whitley and Alison Krauss, similar to ‘You Don’t Bring Me Flowers’ a decade previous. This presentation added to the song’s popularity.

Alison Krauss and Union Station went on to win the 1995 CMA award for Single of the Year.

Just before the end of the decade, Irish singer-songwriter Ronan Keating released ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ as a debut single. For his album ‘Ronan’. It was also famously featured in the popular movie ‘Notting Hill’. Here is the Keating version that went to #1 in Ireland, the U.K. and New Zealand.

For good measure, enjoy the famous scene from ‘Notting Hill’. This features Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts as an unlikely couple who fall for each other despite their different lots in life.

The way I see it, saying nothing at all is always better than saying “Whoopsie daisies”. Priceless!

As an added bonus, here is songwriter Don Schlitz playing the song in an honest acoustic form.

For Alison Krauss, ‘When You Say Nothing at All’ was the catalyst to a remarkable career that is still in full swing. Admittedly, she first caught my eye through her association with Robert Plant, but check this out. She has won 27 Grammy Awards which leaves her fourth all time in that regard, just behind Beyonce, Quincy Jones and Georg Solti. She is the second most decorated female artist in the Grammy realm behind only Beyonce. In November of 2019 Alison Krauss received the National Medal of Arts. This presentation was the first since 2017 and the White House occupant of the day managed to misspell Krauss’s name in the official press release.

Sometimes it is better to say nothing at all.

Teach Your Children – 50 years later and the message still rings true. It always will. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #CrosbyStillsNashandYoung #GrahamNash #JerryGarcia #DianeArbus #TheHollies #SuzzyBogguss #AlisonKrauss #KathyMattea #Hanson #SadieJemmett #PlayingforChange #WKRPinCincinnati

It has been 50 years since the classic Crosby Stills Nash & Young album ‘Déjà Vu’ was released. On this day in 1970 it went to #1. The album featured three U.S. Top 40 singles including; ‘Woodstock’, ‘Our House’ and today’s feature ‘Teach Your Children’.

When I wrote ‘Teach Your Children’ and ‘Our House,’ we didn’t know what we were doing. ‘This sounds pretty fun, we can sing this, let’s do it!’ And then all of a sudden people are singing it back to me (fifty) years later.”

Graham Nash

According to songwriter Graham Nash, he wrote ‘Teach Your Children’ while still a member of The Hollies, but it never made it to the studio. It was a period of transition for Nash who was dismayed with The Hollies ‘Bus Stop’ direction. At the same time, he was totally captured by the scene in Laurel Canyon. The result of his period of personal reflection was this classic multi-generational anthem. Nash wrote it while mellowed by a hash high. The unifying theme comes through in the lyrics. As an actual song, Graham Nash, true to his character gives the credit to Stephen Stills.

The idea is that you write something so personal that every single person on the planet can relate to it. Once it’s there on vinyl it unfolds, outwards, so that it applies to almost any situation. ‘Teach’ started out as a slightly funky English folk song but Stephen (Stills) put a country beat to it and turned it into a hit record.”

Graham Nash

Top of mind at the time was a somewhat strained relationship with his father. Although their relationship was distant, Graham Nash had the utmost respect for his father, William. A turning point in his family’s life occurred when the elder Nash gave his son a camera as a gift. It turned out that the camera was actually stolen. The police tracked the item down and questioned its origin. William Nash refused to reveal how it was acquired. As a result, he was sentenced to one year in a Manchester prison. It turns out the camera was stolen by Graham Nash’s aunt. William Nash took the blame to protect a family member. This is the code of honour that Nash is referring to in the opening line of ‘Teach Your Children’. His ‘father’s hell did slowly go by’ but Graham Nash is on record saying William Nash was never the same after that experience.

Before I move on, here are the lyrics that are still so important today. The code Graham Nash refers to has a universal meaning and each listener can apply their own interpretation.

You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye.
Teach your children well,
Their father’s hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.
Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you.

And you, of tender years,
Can’t know the fears that your elders grew by,
And so please help them with your youth,
They seek the truth before they can die.

Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell will slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks, the one you’ll know by.

Don’t you ever ask them why, if they told you, you will cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

Graham Nash

So, for fifty years people have sung along with ‘Teach Your Children’ and attached their personal meaning to the song. To Graham Nash, there is no greater honour.

There are some additional anecdotes related to ‘Teach Your Children’ that are worth sharing.

Getting back to the recording, you may notice the pedal steel guitar part that stands out so effectively throughout the song.  That is Jerry Garcia; who had recently taught himself to play the instrument while working on his side project known as New Riders of the Purple Sage. Garcia recorded a handful of pedal steel parts and spliced them together to blend with the ultimate countrified piece created through Stephen Stills’ vision. The connection to Jerry Garcia and the Grateful Dead is interesting because the legendary guitarist contributed his part as a favour to Crosby Stills and Nash in exchange for the iconic trio providing his ‘Dead’ friends lessons to sing in harmony. The immediate result for music fans were the two groundbreaking Grateful Dead albums ‘Workingman’s Dead’ and ‘American Beauty’.

The motif of photography is also quite significant. While he was formulating the concept of ‘Teach Your Children’, Graham Nash saw a photo in a San Francisco gallery and became captivated by the image and what it was saying to him. He thought it reflected the song’s theme perfectly. It was an image of a disheveled young boy with an angry expression, holding a toy hand grenade. The photo is by Diane Arbus, and it is known as ‘Child with Toy Hand Grenade in Central Park’.

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2001.474/

Here is a passage from an article by Ronald Brownstein in The Atlantic which really speaks to how important this photograph was in moving the song forward.

It was his interest in photography that indirectly inspired him to complete the song, Nash said. Nash collected photographs (and was an amateur photographer himself), and after CSN’s first album hit big, a college museum asked him to provide some works from his collection for an exhibit. When Nash visited the hall, he found the gallery had paired two of the most striking images he owned: a famous Diane Arbus photo that showed a child holding a toy hand grenade in Central Park and an Arnold Newman portrait of the Krupp family,  German arms manufacturers. “Images talk to each other … and when I saw those two pictures together, I realized if we didn’t teach our children a better way of dealing with our world, we were in deep trouble,” Nash told me. “And that caused me to finish that song.”

Ronald Brownstein

It was this connection that became the ultimate message that Graham Nash hoped music fans would consider while listening.

…looking at them together I began to realize that what I’d just written [‘Teach Your Children’] was actually true, that if we don’t start teaching our children a better way of dealing with each other we’re fucked, and humanity itself is in great danger.”

Graham Nash

It is fifty years later and I am concerned the message is still not getting through to enough people.

We definitely need to ‘teach our children’. We also need to be careful of the messages we are sending in our lessons. As Graham Nash stated; “humanity is in great danger.”

I still believe good will prevail. I just despise the purveyors of hatred and the fools that mindlessly follow. The problem is, too often they don’t even know who they are. That is the scary part.

In 2018, Graham Nash created this video with producer Jeff Scher that juxtaposed animated images of the Civil Rights movement with his lyrics. He loved the result because it reflected the ongoing significance of his song for both adults and children.

I wrote Teach Your Children because we have much to teach them. Conversely, I believe we as parents have much to learn from them as well. I think that Jeff Scher did a wonderful job of animating my lyrics and positioning the song in a contemporary setting.”

Graham Nash

There have been some really strong cover versions of ‘Teach Your Children’ presented through the years.

Here are The Hollies doing a live version during a brief reunion in 1983. An interesting way of showing how things circle back.

Let’s move on to the stage of the White House in 1995, with a live version by Suzy Bogguss, Alison Krauss and Kathy Mattea. Some great pedal steel by Steve Fishell who is a long time Nashville player who played with Emmylou Harris among others.

Here is Hanson from 2003. Listen…It is really good, and it speaks to the song’s theme. They bring it to an appreciative new generation. This is important. Great job.

I just want to leave this acoustic version by the masters themselves right here. I have seen them live a few times and their vocal prowess is absolutely stunning.

What a treat this is. Watch as Crosby Stills Nash and Young are joined by Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty, Don Henley, John Fogerty and an energetic Robin Williams. This is priceless.

Here is a cover from a 2011 Crosby Stills Nash and Young tribute album featuring an interesting collection of artists. This is Sadie Jemmett singing a nice, stripped down version of ‘Teach Your Children’.

To close, here is Playing for Change. I thought the fact they cover ‘Teach Your Children’ speaks to the overall theme of today’s post.

In order to end with a smile here is a very touching edition of WKRP in Cincinnati that includes ‘Teach Your Children’. It is an episode called ‘I Want to Keep My Baby’.

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x83n0jh

I never miss an opportunity to include WKRP because it is one of the finest TV series ever created.

Have a great day!

Can’t Find My Way Home – Today’s classic song and a variety of covers performed since it was written 50 years ago. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #BlindFaith #SteveWinwood #EricClapton #YvonneElliman #JoeCocker #AlisonKrauss #Styx #BonnieRaitt

The video for today’s feature is from Blind Faith’s live debut on this day 50 years ago. A half a century later Steve Winwood and Eric Clapton are still touring in various capacities. Sadly, the band’s drummer, the legendary Ginger Baker and their bass player Rick Grech have passed away.

Today’s feature song is the beautifully crafted ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’ which was the flagship song for Blind Faith, who were heralded as the first blues rock super group before disbanding after releasing and touring their self-titled album. While the tour was highly anticipated by fans and the music industry as a whole, it suffered due to a lack of original material for Blind Faith to play. The result of this issue led to Blind Faith falling back on Cream and Traffic material. This created some dissension within the group. Eric Clapton became particularly disillusioned, and as the tour progressed he began to spend more time with the tour’s opening act, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends. This is noteworthy because two members of this act became members of Eric Clapton’s next major project. The critically acclaimed Derek and the Domino would ultimately include keyboardist Bobby Whitlock and bassist Carl Radle.

This restlessness is a pattern that defined the early part of Eric Clapton’s career, but no matter how you slice it some fantastic material emerged. ‘I Can’t Find My Way Home’ was written by Steve Winwood, and Eric Clapton is on record as saying he regrets not putting as much effort into the Blind Faith project as his counterpart. The two have remained steady friends through the years and have toured and performed together on numerous occasions. Here they are playing Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Guitar Festival in 2007 along with Derek Trucks and Doyle Bramhall on guitar. A pretty special performance of a classic song.

Like so many other songs associated with Eric Clapton or Steve Winwood there are numerous cover versions of “Can’t Find My Home’. This speaks to the high regard artists hold these two Rock and Roll Hall of Fame performers.

Yvonne Elliman covered the song in 1972. Yvonne was discovered by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber in a London area club. They asked her to sing Mary Magdalene’s part on the audio version of Jesus Christ Superstar. She was later introduced to Eric Clapton who hired her as a backup singer on his ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ recording. She would subsequently tour as part of Clapton’s band and remain with him through 1977. This was all before she became a worldwide sensation with the disco anthem ‘If I Can’t Have You’. This is her version of ‘Can’t Find My Way Home’. It is a beautiful recording.

Here is the great Joe Cocker performing a live version in 1996. He recorded it as part of his 1991 album Night Calls.

The 2003 Alison Krauss version from the Crossing Jordan TV soundtrack is captivating. Between her angelic voice and the haunting slide guitar by Greg Leisz.

I was intrigued when I saw that Styx covered it in 2005. Tommy Shaw does a nice job on guitar and he does a strong replication of the Steve Winwood vocal style.

And finally, we will close it out with the captivating Bonnie Raitt who recorded it way back in 1972 with Lowell George of Little Feat and John Hammond among others. The brief preamble is cool as the group tunes up, but the crisp recording almost obliterates everything else I have already shared. What a treat this is to hear. It was not released until 2011 because it was lost in a vault. The recording is from a live show in Philadelphia and it was released on a recording called The Lost Broadcast in 2011.