It’ll be just like starting over

Posted on by brucehhackett

January 1st, I think, is a terrible time to start a New Year.  We’re exhausted from the Christmas season, it’s cold and dark outside, there’s a long stretch of winter months ahead of us.  I always thought April 1, or May 1, with its blooming crocuses and “hope springs eternal” mindset, would be a far better time for this spiritual, physical and mental renewal.  But January 1 it is, so let’s proceed.

The need for rebirth, for turning over a new leaf, is a strong and beneficial thing.  We all benefit from recharging our batteries, refocusing our goals, and starting anew sometimes.  Maybe every day, or every month, but surely at least once a year.

Today, to commemorate the ushering in of 2025 (even though it’s already January 3rd), I am featuring 15 songs that celebrate New Year’s Day and the opportunity for renewal. Most have lyrics designed to give us all a little motivation to hold our heads up and forge ahead as we turn the calendar once again.

I saw this wish the other day and am embracing it: “A new year is like a blank book; it has 12 chapters and 365 pages, and you are the author. My wish is that, this year, we all write the most beautiful stories for ourselves.”

***********************

“Auld Lang Syne,” Jimi Hendrix, 1969

In 1970, Hendrix reached #5 on the US album charts with “Band of Gypsys,” a live album of performances he did at the Fillmore East in New York on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day as 1969 turned to 1970. Nearly thirty years later, a 2-CD package called “Live at the Fillmore East” was released that contained 16 more tracks of performances from that two-night gig, one of which was an instrumental Hendrix adaptation of the traditional New Year’s tune “Auld Lang Syne,” complete with the crowd counting down to midnight and an emcee’s well wishes.

“New Year’s Day,” U2, 1983

“Though I want to be with you, be with you night and day, nothing changes on New Year’s Day…”  Bono is probably right.  Nothing much changes on New Year’s Day.  It’s usually the day AFTER when we start getting serious about exercise programs, diets, job changes, or whatever high-hopes resolutions we’ve made. Bono’s lyrics were inspired by the fact that the Solidarity Movement in Poland was pressuring the government to lift its martial law, and it ended up doing so on New Year’s Day 1983, only days before the song was released as U2’s first single to reach the Top Ten in the UK (only #53 in the US). The words make a general plea for perseverance and commitment to improved lives.

“New Year’s Resolution,” Otis Redding & Carla Thomas, 1967

Since Marvin Gaye had done so well recording duets with Kim Weston and Tammi Terrell, Otis Redding decided to try the concept with R&B songstress Carla Thomas on “King and Queen,” an album of collaborations of Redding’s grittiness and Thomas’s sophistication. With Booker T and the MGs providing razor-sharp accompaniment, the twosome charted two Top 30 singles, and the album includes “New Year’s Resolution,” a horn-driven, waltz-time tune in which they take turns vowing not to hurt each other in the coming year.

“The New Year,” Death Cab for Cutie,” 2003

In 1998, Death Cab for Cutie was just a struggling US band, working the Seattle area and recording on a small indy label.  Their fourth album, 2003’s “Transatlanticism,” was their first to chart, leading to a new contract with a major label and a Top Five LP, “Plans.” The opening track on “Transatlanticism” was a startling tune called “The New Year,” which offers some universal, sobering lyrics that we can all learn from a quarter-century later:  “So this is the new year, and I don’t feel any different…and I have no resolutions for self-assigned penance for problems with easy solutions…”

“This Will Be Our Year,” The Zombies, 1968

Rod Argent, Chris White and Colin Blunstone founded The Zombies in 1964 and had some good-sized hits (“Tell Her No,” “She’s Not There”) but were ultimately dropped by their label in 1967. On their own, they wrote and recorded the songs for “Odessey and Oracle,” seen decades later as one of the best of the psychedelic rock era. One of the finer tracks is “This Will Be Our Year,” in which a man expresses his gratitude to his woman: “I won’t forget the way you said, ‘Darling, I love you,’ /You gave me faith to go on, now we’re there and we’ve only just begun, /This will be our year, took a long time to come…”

“Celtic New Year,” Van Morrison, 2005

A stunning recorded catalog of nearly 50 albums iover six decades makes Morrison one of the most prolific songwriters of the rock era. He did some particularly fine work in the 2000s, with his 2005 LP “Magic Time” a notable standout with tracks like “Stranded,” “Evening Train” and “Gypsy in My Soul.” Two guitars and a whistle carry the comforting “Celtic New Year,” on which Morrison makes a plea to his Irish lover to return: “I’ve got to see you when it’s raining deep inside the forest, I got to see you at the waning of the moon, /Said ‘Oh, won’t you come on back, want you to be of good cheer, /Come back home on the Celtic New Year…”

“Bringing in a Brand New Year,” B.B. King, 2001

Bluesman Charles Brown is best known for writing the timeless “Driftin’ Blues” and the 1961 Yuletide favorite “Please Come Home for Christmas,” which The Eagles made into a Top 15 hit in 1978. Brown’s own recording of the latter tune in 1964 came with “Bringing in a Brand New Year” as the B-side, and showed up again on his “Cool Christmas Blues” collection in 1994, only a couple years before he died. The great B.B. King recorded a fine cover of it in 2001 for his own holiday package, “A Christmas Celebration of Hope,” and it’s more vibrant than Brown’s understated original.

“This Will Be My Year,” Semisonic, 1998

The Minnesota-based alternative rock band Semisonic had a brief arc of success in the late 1990s, especially the Top 20 single “Closing Time” from their 1998 LP “Feeling Strangely Fine.” I’m partial to a deep track called “This Will Be My Year,” where the narrator bemoans his lady’s penchant for overdoing the partying and crashing her car, and hopes he’ll be better off without her: “One wheel in the ditch,
another spinning in the air, /Put your pedal down to the floorboards, but you’re not getting anywhere, /Then you tell yourself what you want to hear, ’cause you have to believe this will be my year…”

“Funky New Year,” The Eagles, 1978

For the B-side of The Eagles’ 1978 Christmas single “Please Come Home for Christmas,” Don Henley and Glenn Frey channeled Earth Wind and Fire and came up with the aptly titled “Funky New Year,” a song about the consequences of overindulgence and how they offer a sign of a tough road ahead: “Can’t remember when I ever felt worse, nothing matters and everything hurts, /They were passin’ round the bottle, made me feel brand new, trouble with the new man, he wants a hit too, /A party, baby, never again, whose shoes are these?, /What year is this anyway?…”

“Maybe Baby (New Year’s Day),” Sugarland, 2009

The Atlanta-based country music duo of Kristian Bush and Jennifer Nettles debuted in 2002 and have released six successful LPs since then, reaching high on the pop charts as well as the country charts. Their Christmas LP “Gold and Green” in 2009 includes five originals alongside five traditional tunes, and the most touching to me is “Maybe Baby (New Year’s Day),” in which the narrator visits his hometown for the holidays and wonders if he’ll run into his old flame so they could spend New Year’s Day together: “This whole town ringing one more year, I don’t wanna let this feeling disappear, /I pray that you might be here tonight, and there you were standing, shining underneath that light…”

“New Year’s Prayer,” Jeff Buckley, 1998

The premature death of Buckley at age 30 in 1997 brought about a critical reappraisal of his only officially released LP, “Grace,” which had underperformed upon its release in 1994. His cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is widely praised as one of the best records of the last 30 years. In 1998, his label released “Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk,” a compilation of songs Buckley was working on when he died. From that collection comes the rather obtuse and haunting “New Year’s Prayer,” whose central idea seems to be “Feel no shame for what you are.”

“Nothing New for New Year,” Harry Connick Jr & George Jones, 2003

For his second album of Christmas music, 2003’s “Harry For the Holidays,” Connick wrote four original songs to complement the customary traditional and secular seasonal tunes. The most intriguing of the bunch was “Nothing New for New Year,” in which the narrator bemoans the fact that he has no new romantic prospects on the horizon for the new year. He was thrilled to that country music legend George Jones accepted his invitation to join him for a duet on the record. “George Jones is one of my favorite singers, probably the most soulful country singer of all time,” said Connick. “I was so honored that he said yes.”

“Brand New Year,” Eric Carmen, 2014

I couldn’t find much information about this symphonic track, when it was written or why it was never released as a seasonal single, but I do know it turned up as a bonus track on 2014’s “The Essential Eric Carmen” collection. It has a typically quasi-classical Carmen structure and vocal delivery, with lyrics that offer praise for having made it through the previous 12 months and hope for better things in the year to come: “It’s been a long hard year, sometimes it felt like we might not make it, /But baby, we’re still here, we showed the world that our love could take it…”

“Let’s Start the New Year Right,” Bing Crosby, 1942

For the 1942 movie musical “Holiday Inn,” about the goings-on at a former farm turned into a luxury inn and entertainment venue open only on holidays, the great Irving Berlin was commissioned to come up with a dozen tunes for the soundtrack. The most famous was the war horse “White Christmas,” perhaps the quintessential secular Christmas song, and winner of the Best Song Oscar that year. Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire co-starred and sang most of the songs, one of which is this corny but lyrically appropriate track about kicking off the new year on the right foot.

“Auld Lang Syne Rock,” Freddie Mitchell, 1954

Beginning as a pianist and bandleader in the 1930s, Mitchell made records and toured with several different bands into the mid-’40s before forming the Freddie Mitchell Band, in which he made his mark as a stellar tenor saxophonist. He developed a pioneering sound, a honking sax that dovetailed well with Swing, boogie and the emerging rock and roll. His albums never sold much, and by the late ’50s, he retired from the business, but there’s a great collection of his stuff, “Rockin’ Wailin’ Saxophone,” released in 2010, that shows off his instrumental prowess. On the opening track, I dig the way he invigorates the New Year’s standard as “Auld Lang Syne Rock.”

*****************************

Goodbye, so long, baby I’m gone

Posted on by brucehhackett

As 2024 draws to a close, it’s time to reflect on the careers of those high-profile and less prominent musicians who passed away during the past 12 months.

There were eight major pop/rock luminaries who I felt deserved detailed obituaries in Hack’s Back Pages at the time of their deaths — stars like Kris Kristofferson, Dickey Betts, Eric Carmen and Quincy Jones. In addition, though, I’ve singled out 16 other musicians who died whose careers are probably familiar to most readers. Now is the appropriate time to pay our respects to the contributions they made to popular music throughout their lives. I’ve listed them in the chronological order of their deaths.

At the end you’ll find a Spotify playlist with one representative track from each artist’s career.

*************************

Melanie Safka, who was catapulted to fame by her impromptu performance in the rain on the first night of the Woodstock festival in 1969, died January 24th at age 76. She had been playing clubs in Greenwich Village in the ’60s and found an adoring audience in Europe, which won her a slot at Woodstock. That gig inspired her hit “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)” with the Edwin Hawkins Singers, which reached #6 in 1970. Her career peak was the #1 hit “Brand New Key” in 1972. She continued recording and performing (mostly in Europe) well into the 2010s.

Toby Keith, one of country music’s most successful stars of the past 30 years, died February 5th of stomach cancer at age 62. Keith racked up an astonishing 20 #1 hits on country charts between 1993’s “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” and the 2011 pro-USA hit “Made in America.” He also had nine Top 30 singles on the US pop charts, mostly in 2001-2003, topped by the #15 hit “Red Solo Cup” in 2011. Keith developed a reputation as a conservative Democrat, speaking out politically on issues of the day, particularly in support of troops: “If there is something socially incorrect about being patriotic and supporting your troops, then they can kiss my ass on that,” he said in 2003.

Karl Wallinger, the multi-instrumentalist /songwriter behind the ’90s act known as World Party, died March 10th at age 66. He had been in the Scottish band The Waterboys in the mid-1980s before striking out on his own with Beatlesque pop songs under the World Party banner. He produced, sang, wrote and played every instrument on four albums between 1986 and 1997, notably the excellent “Goodbye Jumbo” in 1990. Four singles found their way onto US alt-rock charts — “Ship of Fools” (1987), “Put the Message in the Box” and “Way Down Now” (1990) and “Is It Like Today?” (1993) Tempestuous relationships with record labels and former colleagues soured Wallinger on the music business, causing him to largely withdraw from public appearances after 2000.

Eric Carmen, lead singer and songwriter of the Cleveland-based power pop band The Raspberries, died on March 10th at age 74. Carmen wrote “Go All the Way,” “I Wanna Be With You” and “Overnight Sensation (Hit Record), all of which reached the Top 20 on US pop charts for The Raspberries in the early ’70s. Carmen embarked on a solo career in 1975 with the massive hit “All By Myself” and had five more Top 20 hits on his own well into the 1980s. For more about Carmen, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/03/15/makin-love-was-just-for-fun-those-days-are-gone/

Dickey Betts, who partnered with Duane Allman to create the unforgettable two-lead-guitar sound of The Allman Brothers Band, died April 18th at age 80. Following Allman’s premature death in 1971, Betts became the group’s de facto leader, contributing country-tinged vocals and classic songs like “Ramblin’ Man,” “Blue Sky” and “Revival.” For more about Betts, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/04/26/when-its-time-for-leaving-i-hope-youll-understand/

Mike Pinder, keyboardist and founding member of The Moody Blues, died April 24th at age 82. More than anyone else in the band, it was Pinder’s mastery of the Mellotron, the unwieldy electro-mechanical instrument still in its infancy, that created The Moody Blues’ symphonic sound on their seven core albums between 1967 and 1972. Pinder wrote and sang one or two tracks on each of those LPs, the best known being “Melancholy Man” from “A Question of Balance.” He also narrated the poems that drummer Graeme Edge contributed to the group’s albums.

Duane Eddy, one of the unsung pioneers of the electric guitar sound in rock and roll’s early years, died April 30th at age 86. Eddy had dreams of being one of rock’s first singing guitarists, but he concluded that his voice wasn’t good enough, so he devised a technique of playing lead guitar melody lines on the bass strings to produce a low twangy sound instead. It caught on, resulting in seven Top 20 instrumental hits on US pop charts between 1958 and 1962, notably “Rebel Rouser” and “Because They’re Young.” His style was mimicked by countless artists in the ’60s and ’70s.

Johnny Barbata, who served as drummer on classic records by The Turtles, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Jefferson Starship, died on May 8th at age 79. He replaced The Turtles’ original drummer in time to be on board for their late ’60s string of big hits, notably “Happy Together.” He was then tapped to be part of CSN&Y’s touring band in 1970, performances of which were captured on their 1971 live album “Four-Way Street.” Barbata became the drummer for Jefferson Airplane’s more commercial incarnation, Jefferson Starship, recording and touring with them from 1974 through 1978.

David Sanborn, saxophonist extraordinaire, died on May 12th at age 78. Although he was raised on jazz music, and his solo albums were firmly planted in the light jazz and jazz fusion genres, he is perhaps best known for the outstanding sax solos and riffs he provided for dozens of pop/rock artists from the ’70s onward, including David Bowie (“Young Americans”), James Taylor (“How Sweet It Is to Be Loved by You”) and Pure Prairie League (“Let Me Love You Tonight”). For more about Sanborn, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/05/17/learn-to-work-the-saxophone-i-play-just-what-i-feel/

Doug Ingle, singer and organist for the psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly, died May 24th at age 78. It was Ingle who wrote, sang and played keyboards on the iconic 18-minute “In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida,” the FM radio staple from 1968. A three-minute version made the Top 30 on US pop charts, but the album of the same named reached #4 on US album charts and sold 30 million copies. The song’s title is a wordplay on “In the Garden of Eden” with lyrics that tell a simple love song of Adam and Eve. Iron Butterfly recorded five LPs in the ’60s and ’70s and toured with various lineups well into the 2000s. Ingle left the group in 1971 but rejoined numerous times on various reunion tours.

Dave Loggins, second cousin of Kenny Loggins who had a modest singing/songwriting career of his own, died July 10th at age 76. He is best known for his wistful hit “Please Come to Boston,” which peaked at #5 on US pop charts in 1974. Ten years later, he and Canadian counter singer Anne Murray collaborated on “Nobody Loves Me Like You Do,” which reached #1 on country charts in the US and Canada in 1984. Loggins also wrote “Pieces of April,” the Top 20 single made popular by Three Dog Night in 1970.

John Mayall, regarded as a pivotal inspiration and mentor to some of the best British blues guitarists in rock music history, died July 22nd at age 90. Obsessed with the Delta blues records his father collected in the ’50s, Mayall kicked off a blues revival with his band The Bluesbreakers, whose lineup included Eric Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. For more about Mayall’s career, please check out my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/07/26/baby-its-time-to-close-that-door/

Four Tops (Fakir, second from right)

Abdul “Duke” Fakir, the last surviving original member of The Four Tops, died July 22nd at age 88. Fakir met lead singer Levi Stubbs in a Detroit neighborhood football game and, with Lawrence Payton and Renaldo “Obie” Benson, founding The Four Tops, who went on to become one of Motown’s leading and longest lasting vocal groups. The group reached the Top 20 on US pop charts 16 times between 1964 and 1973 with such classics as “I Can’t Help Myself,” “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” “Standing in the Shadows of Love” and “Ain’t No Woman (Like the One I Got).”

The Zodiacs (Williams, second from left)

Maurice Williams, founder and lead singer of the doo-wop/R&B vocal group Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs, died August 6th at age 86. When he was just 15, Williams tried to convince his girlfriend not to go home for her 10:00 curfew, and although she didn’t relent, it inspired him to write “Stay,” which became an international hit seven years later. At only 1:34, it was the shortest song to ever reach #1, and it turned out to be a one-hit wonder for Williams (though cover versions by The Four Seasons and Jackson Browne both made the US Top 20, and Williams’ original had second life when featured in the 1987 “Dirty Dancing” soundtrack).

Greg Kihn, a rock/power pop practitioner who enjoyed a decent run of chart success in the 1978-1986 period, died August 13th at age 75. As leader of The Greg Kihn Band, he released three play-on-words albums (“RocKihnRoll,” “Kihntinued,” “Kihnspiracy”) that reached the Top 40 on US album charts. Two big singles — 1981’s “The Breakup Song” and 1983’s “Jeopardy” — were in heavy rotation on MTV as well as Top 40 radio. Kihn also emerged as an author of horror novels in the ’90s, winning a Bran Stoker Award for his debut, “Horror Show,” in 1996.

Sergio Mendes, the Brazilian-born pianist, composer and arranger who brought bossa nova music to a global audience in the 1960s through his ensemble, Brasil ’66, died September 5th at age 83. Mendes released more than 30 albums, won three Grammys and a Best Song Oscar nomination in 2012 for “Real in Rio.” Between 1966 and 1972, four of his albums went gold or platinum, and the title track of the group’s biggest seller — their version of the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill,” released in 1968 — sold four million copies. His music was completely different from anything else appearing on the US Top Album charts at that time.

Tito Jackson, second oldest of the five brothers who made up The Jackson 5, died September 15 at age 70. Tito played guitar and did some songwriting in addition to contributing vocals, and was often the spokesperson for the group in interviews and press conferences. The brothers were one of Motown’s most successful acts between 1969-1976, and Tito enjoyed a moderately successful solo career as a blues guitarist and producer in the 2000s. He was a staunch defender of his brother Michael regarding child molestation charges. Tito died of a heart attack while on a business trip in New Mexico.

John David Souther, the talented songwriter and singer with close ties to The Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, died September 17th at age 78. Souther wrote or co-wrote such hits as “Heartache Tonight” and “New Kid in Town” for The Eagles and “Her Town Too” with James Taylor, and also had a Top Ten hit of his own, “You’re Only Lonely,” in 1979. For more about Souther, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/11/08/ive-got-my-finger-on-the-pulse/

Kris Kristofferson, one of the more celebrated songwriters of his generation, died September 28 at age 88. His songs “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Help Me Make It Through the Night” were iconic, and his involvement in The Highwaymen (with Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings) cemented his status in the country music community. For more about Kristofferson, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/10/04/id-trade-all-my-tomorrows-for-a-single-yesterday/

Johnny Neel, keyboardist and songwriter with The Allman Brothers Band in their 1990s lineup, died October 6th at age 70. Neel built a reputation playing with bands in Nashville clubs when he caught the attention of Dickey Betts, who recruited him for his touring band and studio recordings in the late ’80s. He joined the Allman Brothers for their successful reunion LP “Seven Turns” in 1990, co-writing its single, “Good Clean Fun,” as well as “Low Down Dirty Mean” and “Gambler’s Roll.” He also recorded ten albums as a solo artist and contributed songs and keyboard talents to LPs by other artists like John Mayall, The Oak Ridge Boys, Michael McDonald and Gov’t Mule.

Cissy Houston, who sang with many dozens of artists during her 40-year career, died October 7th at age 91. Houston is the mother of ’90s superstar Whitney Houston and aunt of ’60s/’70s star Dionne Warwick, and was a role model to them both. She sang in the gospel/soul vocal group The Sweet Inspirations in the late ’60s and later as a solo session singer for everyone from Paul Simon (“Mother and Child Reunion”) to Beyoncé, from Jimi Hendrix to David Bowie (“Young Americans”), from Wilson Pickett (“In the Midnight Hour”) to Van Morrison, from Bette Midler (“From a Distance”) to Aretha Franklin, and even her daughter (“I Know Him So Well”).

Liam Payne, a founding member of the English-Irish boy band One Direction, died October 16th at age 31 after a tragic fall from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony. Although it was bandmate Harry Styles who went on to superstar success in the years since One Direction’s disbanding in 2016, Payne compiled numerous song writing credits during the group’s six-year run (2010-2016). His solo work fared much better in the UK and Europe than in the US, but he had a solo #10 hit on US pop charts, “Strip That Down,” in 2017. Payne had contended with kidney infections since infancy, and also struggled with mental health issues and substance abuse.

Phil Lesh, co-founder and innovative bass player for The Grateful Dead for its entire 30-year run, died October 25th at age 84. Unique among rock bass players was Lesh’s background as a classical violinist and trumpeter, an orchestral composer and student of avant-garde musical genres in the years preceding his joining Jerry Garcia to form The Grateful Dead. For more about Lesh’s impressive career, please see my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/11/01/let-me-live-in-your-blue-heaven-when-i-die/

Quincy Jones, one of most accomplished producers/arrangers/conductors in the past half-century, died November 3rd at age 91. He worked with industry titans from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson and showed uncommon talent in multiple genres, from jazz to soul to pop. He somehow pulled together more than 35 major stars to work together on the landmark “We Are the World” session. For more about Jones, please check out my earlier tribute: https://hackbackpages.com/2024/11/08/ive-got-my-finger-on-the-pulse/

*************************