By: Richard L. King
I’m from the “Rock & Roll” era, boy to have been a song writer back in the day….
Recently, I was listening to Grand Funk Rail road singing a song called “Closer to home.” I’ve heard it hundreds of times and I think it’s a great song, but I had never really listened to it. It sounds like this guy is the captain of his ship and he’s been lost on the ocean for days….. Anyway, as it comes near to the end of the song….. You can hear the waves coming in and he starts singing “I’m getting closer to my home,” I’m getting closer to my home, I’m getting closer to my home,,, over and over… I counted them,,, he sings that same line 22 times.
Makes you wonder, as the guys get together to write that song someone asks, “How do you want to end it? Oh, I’ve got it, we’ll say, “I’m getting closer to my home……” then someone says, “That’s a great line, we should repeat it.” Then they decide to repeat it several more times. It makes you wonder what they must have been smoking, doesn’t it? How do you decide on exactly 22 times to repeat the line…..? Not two, not three, TWENTY TWO TIMES!!!!! One guy says, “I think we should do it one more time, I just don’t think 21 times works out right, we should do it 22.” You think they were trying to set a “Guinness book record?
Or how bout the Almond Brothers song about being, “tied to the whipping post,” repeated over and over so many times. (I didn’t count them)
Then there is Bachman Turner Overdrive and You ain’t seen nothing yet,,,, repeated 9 times.
Or, Golden Earring’s 1982 song Twilight Zone, “Where you gonna go… ‘when the Bullet hit’s the Bone,’ repeated 12 times….
These are all great songs, but who decides that a line is so good that you’re going to repeat it 12 times or 22 times…..
I’m just sayin…. I’m just sayin…. I’m just sayin…. I’m just sayin…. I’m just sayin…. I’m just sayin….
…Maybe I’ve said enough.
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Gramps use’ta say
©R.L.King2012 #209
About: Persevering
“Distressing questions
with depressing options
offer opportunities…
for impressive solutions.”
Am I The Only One 