"Rimmel"

Francesco De Gregori - "Rimmel" (1975)

In Italy, the call him 'The Poet Prince'



Italian singer-songwriter De Gregori was born in Rome in 1951. He was fascinated by American music, particularly folk rockers like Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. As the 70s opened and James Taylor and Neil Young topped the charts he grabbed his guitar and began recording. His first few albums were moderately successful but the album Rimmel was a huge success. He began to include other instruments and write more love songs, including the title track "Rimmel". It's a ballad, sung to a former lover. Rimmel means mascara in Italian. It's hard to make out meaning in a poetic foreign language song, but it seems like he is sad that it is over, and perhaps she is sad as well.

The piano is a different instrument for De Gregori, but the song carries it well; makes it sound like a Billy Joel song from the same time period. There's also a quiet organ playing in the background, which along with the quiet background singers makes me think of Dylan. He ties the whole song together with his own simple acoustic guitar, another Dylonesque touch. Francesco calls the ex his Venus of Mascara, when she is standing in the rain, which gives you an idea of how creative his lyrics can be. This moment in the song comes when she asks him if he still has a photograph of her where she is smiling, but not looking. He responds yes, quickly and without thought, which leads to the last lines of the last verse, and the saddest couplet I've heard in a while. "/you said: 'it is all that you have of me,'/ it is all that I have of you." (De Gregori).

"It's Too Late"

Carole King - "It's Too Late" (1971)

The debut single from Tapestry the album that kicked off the Singer-Songwriter boom of the 70's.



Wikipedia points out (with no citation) the the piano part is reminiscent of "Magic to Do" from  Pippin. Go ahead and listen to the first thirty seconds or so, I think you'll agree. My mind always turns to the Dusty Springfield cover of Spooky. The bongos and keyboard opening, plus the same chords changes, means that anytime one song comes on the radio; I always think it's the other one until the vocals turn up. Speaking of the vocals, Carole King really gives us a feeling of realness here. Her voice is professional without sounding over polished. The use of background vocals on this track do hearken back to the 60s girl groups with the "do-do-dos" and use of harmony; but King's voice is not overproduced. Producer Lou Adler was a big name in the 60s, so those holdovers make sense in context, also 1971 is not really that far removed from the height of the popularity of the genre. King actually wrote at least three big hits for girl groups in the 60s with her husband and writing partner Gerry Goffin. Adler won two Grammy awards for this; one for the song, the other for the album.

The jazz nature of the tune comes in right around the minute thirty mark, which is right at the "do-do-do" part. The guitar solo is jazzy, not rock, and segues into a sax solo, all of which has electric piano flourishes under it. the whole middle section is sort of a proto-smooth jazz style, no improvisations, and played in a down tempo with layers of sound all of which are generally pleasant without being too challenging to the listener. The Latin percussion instrumentation (bongos) are also very smooth jazz.

Often forgotten when people talk about this track is King's collaborator Toni Stern. Stern wrote the lyrics for this and about half a dozen of King's songs in the first half of the 70s. She's a painter from Los Angeles who also wrote the lyrics for "Where You Lead" the song used as the theme song for Gillmore Girls. The lyrics are about a relationship that is over, but hasn't ended yet. King is singing to her partner letting them know that nothing can save the relationship but she isn't mad about it, just letting him know. Rumors persist that the song was about an affair between Jams Taylor and Carole King before Taylor married Carly Simon, but as we know Toni Stern wrote the lyrics, maybe the relationship with Taylor was hers?

"Suzanne"

Leonard Cohen - Suzanne (1967)

Arlo Guthrie does not get mention in this book. So I chose another story song by a distinctive voice released in 1967. Happy Thanksgiving 2011

Leonard Cohen is a tough man to pigeon hole. This song in the opening track off of his debut album. What style is it? The album is often classified as Folk, because it's from the 60's and it's basically one man who writes his own songs with subtle background music. But it's not folk. It's more like the singer-songwriter trend that came out of country and folk in the late 60s early 70s. But he doesn't have that country influence either. He's from Montreal; and this song was written in the early 60s, he just didn't have a record contract. Producer John Simon worked with Cohen on the entire album. They fought over Suzanne quiet a bit. Cohen remembers "He wanted a heavy piano syncopated and maybe drums and I didn't want drums on any of my songs, so that was a bone of contention". There are drums on other tracks on Songs of Leonard Cohen but it looks like Cohen got his wish on this track.

The song is all about a woman that Cohen was infatuated with. It's basically a love song. but they only really saw each other twice after the song was released. The relationship in as much as it was, was over by the time he had become a recognized artist. My favorite lyrics don't really have a connection to the love story. It's the segment that begins "And Jesus was a sailor When he walked upon the water". It makes you think about G-d without being sacrilegious or too dogmatic.

There is a female backup singer, and a string quartet. The most prominent instrument though is the quietly plucked Spanish guitar. The most interesting cover (there have been many) is a jazz performer named René Marie who, taking a cue from the Spanish guitar combines Bolero and Suzanne.