Let the air waves flow...

I'm back from my month-long blog hiatus. I had a serious existential (or rather blogistential) crisis in which I questioned the value of blogging, whether I wanted to continue, and tried to figure out why I haven't been listening to that much music recently (one big problem: I have so much music on my computer that the guy at the Apple store said I just shouldn't have iTunes open if I want my computer to run properly. Sigh.)


Not all my questions have been answered, but I didn't like being gone for so long. So, I'm back for now, with a new GOOD SONG!

And miles to go before I sleep...

GOOD SONG: Midnight Mile by Lee Fields & The Expressions (original by the Rolling Stones)


This song is from the Lee Fields & The Expressions album "Faithful Man" which came out just a few weeks ago. He sings with the in-house band of his label (Brooklyn's Truth & Soul), who also have played with Adele, Aloe Blacc, Jay-Z, etc. So they're pretty damn good. Which is fitting, since Lee Fields is into his fifth decade of recording and deserves some good musicians backing him up. It's kinda crazy, since he's been making great music for ages, and yet he doesn't even have his own wikipedia page! How crazy is that? Someone should get on that....


His original songs on the album are really fantastic (like the song "You're the Kind of Girl") but I totally fell for this song Rolling Stones cover. It's from their album Sticky Fingers, and it really works as a soul song, even with it's strange, poetic verses seemingly about isolation on the road. 
I love the lyrics:


"When the wind blows and the rain feels cold
with a head full of snow
with a head full of snow
In the window there's a face you know
Don't the night pass slow
Don't the night pass slow

The sound of strangers sending nothing to my mind
Just another mad mad day on the road
I am just living to be lying by your side
But I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road

Made a rag pile of my shiny clothes
Gonna warm my bones,
Gonna warm my bones
I got silence on my radio
Let the air waves flow,
Let the air waves flow
For I'm sleeping under strange strange skies
Just another mad mad day on the road
My dreams are fading down the railway line
I'm just about a moonlight mile down the road

I'm hiding sister and I'm dreaming
I'm riding down your moonlight mile
I'm hiding sister and I'm dreaming
I'm riding down your moonlight mile
There I go now coming home now baby
Yeah, there I go now coming home now baby
Yeah, I'm coming home 'cause

I'm just about a moonlight mile on down the road
On down the road, down the road."


It's an interesting choice for a R&B artist to cover, and he does it amazingly well. He gives it a sort of haunting feel, with a heartbeat rhythm to it. That quavering flute in the background is supernatural. It definitely feels like a song to listen to it in the car in the rain, with the wipers on. 


If you liked this song, you might also check out:
Al Green
Otis Redding
Sharon Jones
James Brown
Eli Paperboy Reed

Over and out,
Anna