"Stand Alone"

On my way into work this morning I was treated to "Stand Alone" by Bob Marley & The Wailers, a true bachelor manifesto. A celebration of man freed from the snares of depleting feminine entanglement yet haunted nonetheless by the "missing-half," "Stand Alone" can be found on the two-disk Trojan Records collection Bob Marley & The Wailers: Trenchtown Rock (Anthology '69 - '78). I found a used copy of this about ten years ago. It is one of the best purchases I have ever made.

Stand Alone

There you are, cryin' again/But your loveliness won't cover your shame/There you are, you're takin' true love/And while you're takin' true love, you given the blame 

(How could I ...) Could I be so wrong/To think that we could get along?/Days I wasted with you, child/If I count there'll be a million or two 

Now I stand alone through the memories/That haunts me, that haunt/Yeah, and I walk alone through the rhapsodies/That taunts me, that taunts me, me

There you are, cryin' again/But your loveline-ness won't cover your shame/There you are, you're takin' true love/And while you're takin' true love, given the blame

(How could I ...) How could I be so wrong/To think that we could get along?/Days I wasted with you, child/If I count there'll be a million or two 

Now I stand alone through the memories/That haunts me, that haunts (... me)/And I walk alone through the rhapsodies/That taunts me, that taunts me

Now, there you are, cryin' again/But your loveline-ness won't cover your sham-ame, hey/There you are, you're takin' true lo-love/While you're takin' true lo-love, given the blame

(How could I ...) How could I ...

Steady Rollin' Blues: The Blues Of Memphis Slim

I'm going to try to be more disciplined about posting music that, in the spirit of "Trenchtown Rock" -- "One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain."

When I'm not at work or sleeping, I'm listening to music. The other day I heard Memphis Slim's "Big Legged Woman." The song can be found on his Steady Rollin' Blues: The Blues Of Memphis Slim (1963) album, a cassette tape of which I purchased from the music vendor's kiosk in Manhattan's Union Square.

I was newly divorced and exploring the blues. This guy, a nice guy, an aging Hippie, sold good-quality tapes -- I don't think he had vinyl or compact disks -- of jazz and the blues. I learned a lot by frequenting his kiosk in the park during my lunch hour.

"Sweet Root Man" is also a track which appears on Steady Rollin' Blues. Very distinctive. In my youth I was of course aware of the double entendre; now it strikes me as so powerful that it nearly blots out everything else about the song.

Anyway, in my twenties I was entranced by Steady Rollin' Blues. All the organ work is incredible. The album has an amazing amount of sonic space that it occupies considering how spare the arrangements are -- just Memphis Slim singing along with the piano or the organ.