Sometimes I forget how many songs I've forgotten. Literally. I was just over in the "G's" of my library looking for something else and on the end of the row was a band I had long since forgotten about called The Grapes of Wrath. I knew they had a great song I hadn't heard in years, but for the life of me I couldn't quite remember what it was. I hadn't yet digitized the CD so I grabbed it and fired it onto my hard drive. Another one behind me. If you do these right they are fairly time consuming and I'm always happy to have whatever I was just working on behind me. I will be ecstatic when I get to the end. Bands that I only have one CD of are kind of the best because I know it won't take me long. I procrastinate over the big boys believe me. I'm dreading going back over my Rolling Stones or Who catalogues and upgrading their quality. Unfortunately it must be done.I'm not going to take up a lot of space today on The Grapes of Wrath. Fortunately I don't have to do a book report on John Steinbeck's famous novel here, just piece about a folk rock band that had a great song that made me buy their record back in 1991. These guys were Canadian Folkies that rocked a tad. They were from British Columbia and had released five studio albums before breaking up in 1992. They also released a greatest hits record in 1994 and reunited for a sparkless record called Field Trip in 2000, but it wasn't to be as they broke up again soon afterwards. I know I listed this band under my One Track Mind feature, but they were actually pretty good through and through. I've got a well documented thing for Folk music as we know. I didn't blog about the recent passing of Mary Travers of Peter, Paul & Mary fame recently, but I probably should have and kind of regret it.
Ironically, I hadn't heard "Leaving On a Jet Plane" in decades when I was in the famous ski resort town Killington, VT over the weekend at one of the clubs at the foot of the mountain seeing a great cover artist called Joey Leon (I hope I have that right Joey!). The reason I tell the story is that they took a half hour break between sets and "Leaving On a Jet Plane" magically appeared in their between set music mix. The drunken crowd, admittedly hanging around all day without a flake of snow to exercise their brains with, all started singing along with Mary. I started feeling guilty about being so lazy regarding her passing and was even enjoying the song myself, which as we know is very uncool. Joey, who let some seven songs play in the interim between sets, actually took the time to go back up on stage, short circuit the song mid crowd vocal and declare his hatred for it. Even though she just passed away! We'd been cheering him all night, but we had to boo him then...
It was kind of a bummer, but he may not have realized that she just passed away. It'll probably be another decade until I hear it again, but Peter, Paul & Mary were pretty big in the late 60's. Between your Bob Dylan covers, your Puff The Magic Dragons, your I Dig Rock & Roll Musics, Your This Land is Your Lands, your If I Had a Hammers, your Lemon Trees and your Jet Planes this folk trio was all over the convergence of Folk and Rock. By the time Rock was in charge, Peter, Paul & Mary were fairly passe. However, they went down kicking and screaming with 1970's (technically December 1969, but who's counting?) "Jet Plane." Even though it was written by John Denver and had to be re-released two years after it first appeared on their album 1700 in 1967, it was to be PPM's only number one hit. Nevertheless, they had a wonderful legacy. R.I.P. Mary...what a voice...
I guess my point is between Bob Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel I really developed a love for Folk music early on. I followed it right into rock behind bands like The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and later, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. When a band adroitly combines Folk and Rock I'm usually a soft touch. The Grapes of Wrath did just that. I guess Sarah McLachlan once warmed up for them on one of their tours. Oh those crazy Canadians looking out for each other huh? I thought that was pretty cool actually. Kind of like when Joni Mitchell and Neil Young shared the stage for a song or two in The Last Waltz. Anyway, I'm intentionally cutting this post right here so I can catch the one game baseball playoff this afternoon. I love those one game Game Sevens! I Hope you enjoy my posting of "You May Be Right." I really loved this song when it was on that old fangled thing known as the radio way back before the turn of the century. If you are going to call yourselves The Grapes of Wrath you'd better be good huh? I'd say this song qualifies. Hopefully you agree.
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