Yes, Jitterbuggers, as promised, we’re having a special weekend featuring night songs about night life by singers who’ve lived the night life and who understood exactly whereof The Who spoke when they spoke in that song, “And when it comes to all-night livin’, I know what I’m givin’.”
We’re talking about featuring great music from the greatest of all night owl and night life bands like the duo of Steely Dan (and especially Steely Dan man Donald Fagen who is so great at writing songs about night owls and night life that are full of wit and humor or pathos and misery and blues and love and love unrequited and cigarettes and booze and crazy people with bags under their eyes and drugs and the misery of drugs and creepy people looking for God and weird and creepy night stuff of all kinds).
And boy, BTW, were we surprised the other day to learn that a physician we work with and like so much at the hospital mentioned the other day that he’s a huge Steely Dan and especially Donald Fagen fan (“Fagen’s a good Jewish boy,” the devout Jewish doc noted).
Enough on Steely though. We’re kicking off the night stuff with this great song from Ray Price and his great “Night Life” album, circa 1963. Ray Price is simply one of the best country/blues/pop singers this country ever produced. We paid tribute to the great one here in a blog posting last year as a remembrance of dances at the VFW where we watched him and the Cherokee Cowboys perform many a Saturday night back home. Dig through the archives and find it; you’ll like it and exploring the archives here at jitterbuggingforjesus.com—-there’s worse ways to spend your time.
With no further of that ol’ ado: Bow down to the great Ray Price with the Cherokee Cowboys and the amazing Buddy Emmons on the steel guitar in this song that is guaranteed to give you goose bumps as we kick off our Night Owl Weekend, yaw.
And know that the singer Mr. Ray doesn’t start singing until about 2 minutes in because of the intro he gives.
(For fellow night owls and Steely Dan fans Chuck and Bubber who yours truly turned on to Ray Price and for that, you’re welcome, guys–and thanks for the Vietnam service and I do understand and I do pray, yes.
