Your absolute, favorite song

Had this one on vinyl forever:



Off the top of my head, the only song I remember from it is "Let My People Go-Go."

 

With all these meaningful and well-known songs, mine pales in comparison.

I was a freshman at Fresno State when this came out. Gene Cotton had a fairly pedestrian run as an artist, with the better known "Before My Heart Finds Out" and a duet with Kim Carnes. This song barely broke the Top 40 and it's rare to hear it played on SiriusXM, let alone terrestrial radio. A forgettable little folk rock ditty with some strings and sappy lyrics. But it is my earworm and the meaning of the lyrics have changed for me as I've grown older and wiser.

I bought the 45, found the album in the bin of a radio station a few years later and eventually found his website where I bought a CD.

If there's a No. 2, it's W*O*L*D by Harry Chapin, which perfectly sums up what it's like to try and make a living in radio.

 

That Rainmakers cover is like a bastardized version of a Bingham painting.

The other band was something like Bob, Dave and Rich — something like that.

 

Underrated. But brilliant.

 

I also recall their song “Government Cheese,” a Reagan-style take on welfare. I disagreed with their take on things, but at least the lyrics were a bit deeper than “Talk Dirty to Me.”

 

The Rainmakers were previously Steve, Bob and Rich. They added drummer Pat and became The Rainmakers. They were the soundtrack to my early adulthood.

 

I didn't realize they became The Rainmakers, but I do remember liking some of their songs, the titles of which escape me. Hell, it's been 40 years.

 

Interestingly enough, they’ll still do that song at shows (they get back together for a few gigs in Kansas City and Springfield every year), and Bob Walkenhorst actually kind of apologizes for it. “I wrote that song when I was an angry young man, and looking back, I don’t even really know what I was angry about.” That song is almost always followed in the set list by Spend It On Love.

 

It’s a Thomas Hart Benton painting, but I forget which one.

 

Well, I had two choices there.

Artist David Spear takes after Benton and is really, really good.

 

I know I’m more than a month behind on the Jackson Browne discussion, but one of my faves is Lawyers in Love. I’ll even play it when I try to speed walk on the treadmill.

 

That was right around the time he switched from personal singer/songwriter style to political topics in an 1980s-rock style. Strong album, too.