{"id":8236,"date":"2011-07-20T06:35:48","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T10:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=8236"},"modified":"2011-07-20T06:30:06","modified_gmt":"2011-07-20T10:30:06","slug":"midweek-music-break-bettysoo-never-knew-no-love-and-boxcars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2011\/07\/midweek-music-break-bettysoo-never-knew-no-love-and-boxcars\/","title":{"rendered":"Midweek Music Break: BettySoo, &#8220;Never Knew No Love&#8221; and &#8220;Boxcars&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Like Patty Griffin (to whom I&#8217;ve seen her compared), <a title=\"BettySoo's home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.bettysoo.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">BettySoo<\/a> knows how to love a musical note, how to hold it, shake it, and\/or bend it for maximum emotional effect. Like Griffin, she specializes in a genre which both <em>is<\/em> and <em>is not quite<\/em> country, folk, pop, and\/or rock. And like Griffin, the woman knows how to write a song.<\/p>\n<p>All of which triggers a bit of cognitive dissonance when you find out that BettySoo is a five-foot-tall, apparently twenty-something Korean-American. Say what?!?<\/p>\n<p>Let&#8217;s start this off with one of her own tunes, the driving &#8220;Never Knew No Love.&#8221; The video&#8217;s unofficial; while L.A.-noir-style film stills at first glance might seem a long distance away from the lyrics, the combination (&#8220;Never knew no man like the one you been missing \/ Never knew no love could break love&#8217;s vow&#8221;) actually works pretty well.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/YrceiPbAlMk?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"499\" height=\"284\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lyrics:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>Never Knew No Love<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em> (BettySoo)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>When the sun&#8217;s still beating down September<br \/>\nCan\u2019t touch your toes to the pavement in the afternoon<br \/>\nSwinging out front, wondering whether<br \/>\nSins of the summer gonna come<br \/>\nCatch up with you soon<\/p>\n<p>Never knew no dirt didn&#8217;t come off in the kitchen<br \/>\nNever knew no stain like the one you&#8217;re hiding now<br \/>\nNever knew no man like the one you been missing<br \/>\nNever knew no love could break love&#8217;s vow<\/p>\n<p>Fan my face but the moving just makes me hotter<br \/>\nTry to sit still as the creek down by the way<br \/>\nThat dry bed ain\u2019t seen no fresh water<br \/>\nSpent the last two months drying out without the rain<\/p>\n<p>Never knew no dirt didn\u2019t come off in the kitchen<br \/>\nNever knew no stain like the one I&#8217;m hiding now<br \/>\nNever knew no man like the one I been missing<br \/>\nNever knew no love could break love\u2019s vow<\/p>\n<p>Can&#8217;t go back to the water&#8217;s edge<br \/>\nain&#8217;t no water&#8230;<br \/>\nCan&#8217;t go back to his arms<br \/>\nain&#8217;t no water&#8230;<br \/>\nCan&#8217;t go dip beneath the glass surface<br \/>\nain&#8217;t no water&#8230;<br \/>\nCan&#8217;t dry off in the summer sun<\/p>\n<p>Never knew no dirt didn&#8217;t come off in the kitchen<br \/>\nNever knew no stain like the one I&#8217;m hiding now<br \/>\nNever knew no man like the one I been missing<br \/>\nNever knew no love could break love&#8217;s vow<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now dial the energy way down. Here she is with dobro-\/guitarist Doug Cox, in a twosome they call <a title=\"Across the Borderline: home page\" href=\"http:\/\/acrosstheborderline.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Across the Borderline<\/a>, performing\u00a0<a title=\"Butch Hancock's home page\" href=\"http:\/\/www.butchhancock.net\/\" target=\"_blank\">Butch Hancock<\/a>&#8216;s &#8220;Boxcars.&#8221; Again, this does not appear to be an official video: it&#8217;s barely a video at all, just a single still photo which gradually fades in from a black background (and eventually fades back out). I think this helps to focus the mind on the lyrics, the shambling-blues rhythm, and the undiluted <em>talent<\/em> running out of the speakers.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NBCsT1bZGxE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"499\" height=\"284\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Lyrics (note: these are the original lyrics; BettySoo throws in numerous free-form twists and swirls of her own):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><em>Boxcars<\/em><\/strong><br \/>\n<em> (by Butch Hancock; performance by Across the Borderline)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, I gave all my money to the banker this month<br \/>\nNow I got no more money to spend<br \/>\nShe smiled when she saw me comin&#8217; through that door<br \/>\nWhen I left, she said &#8220;Come back again&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Well I watched some lonesome boxcar wheels turnin&#8217;<br \/>\ndown the tracks out of town<br \/>\nAnd it&#8217;s on that lonesome railroad track<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna lay my burden down<\/p>\n<p>I looked for my little lady in the lost and found<br \/>\nBut she had already been claimed<br \/>\nI&#8217;m gonna find me a ticket to ride<br \/>\nThrough a town that never had no name<\/p>\n<p>Nobody may care where I go tonight<br \/>\nBut baby if the truth be told<br \/>\nI&#8217;m goin&#8217; down to the railroad tracks<br \/>\nWatch them lonesome boxcars roll<\/p>\n<p><em>[instrumental break]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I was raised on a farm the first years of my life<br \/>\nAnd life was pretty good, they say<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll probably live to be some ripe old age<br \/>\nIf that dirty dog death won&#8217;t stay outa my way<\/p>\n<p>This world can take my money and my time<br \/>\nBut it sure can&#8217;t take my soul<br \/>\nAn&#8217; I&#8217;m goin&#8217; down to the railroad tracks<br \/>\nWatch them lonesome boxcars roll<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s some big ol&#8217; Buicks by the Baptist Church<br \/>\nCadillacs at the Church of Christ<br \/>\nI parked my camel by an ol&#8217; haystack<br \/>\nI&#8217;ll be lookin&#8217; for that needle all night<\/p>\n<p>You know there ain&#8217;t a gonna be no radial tires<br \/>\nturnin&#8217; down the streets of gold<br \/>\nI&#8217;m goin&#8217; down to the railroad tracks<br \/>\nWatch them lonesome boxcars roll<\/p>\n<p><em>[instrumental break]<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Have you ever hear the whistle on a fast freight train<br \/>\nbeatin&#8217; out a beautiful tune<br \/>\nIf you ever seen the cold blue railroad tracks shinin&#8217;<br \/>\nby the light of the moon<\/p>\n<p>If you ever felt the locomotive shake the ground<br \/>\nI know you don&#8217;t need to be told<br \/>\nWhy I&#8217;m goin&#8217; down to the railroad tracks<br \/>\nWatch them lonesome boxcars roll<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I know even less about playing or singing music than I do about why music works. But really, that is some stringwork there. And that is\u00a0<em>some<\/em> voice.<\/p>\n<p>___________________________<\/p>\n<p><strong>Addendum:<\/strong> Something about &#8220;Never Knew No Love&#8221; sounded familiar to me&#8230; not the lyrics but the actual sound, the <em>music<\/em>. I might be thinking of\u00a0early-1990s Melissa Etheridge. &#8220;<a class=\"hidden\" title=\"5.3MB - you sure about this?\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/audio\/2001_melissaetheridge.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">2001<\/a>,&#8221; maybe. Or, no, even more, &#8220;Ain&#8217;t It Heavy&#8221;:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center; font-size: 90%; line-height: 1.25em;\"><em>[Below, click Play button to begin <\/em>Ain&#8217;t It Heavy<em>. While audio is playing, volume control appears at left &#8212; a row of little vertical bars. This clip is 4:24 long.<a class=\"hidden\" title=\"5.2MB - you sure about this?\" href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/audio\/aintitheavy_melissaetheridge.mp3\" target=\"_blank\">]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"border: 1px solid silver; margin: 0.25em 0.5em 0.5em; padding: 1em 0.5em 0pt; width: 400px; float: none; text-align: center;\" title=\"Click Play button to hear 'Ain't It Heavy'\">[audio:aintitheavy_melissaetheridge.mp3|titles=&#8217;Ain&#8217;t It Heavy&#8217;|artists=Melissa Etheridge]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like Patty Griffin (to whom I&#8217;ve seen her compared), BettySoo knows how to love a musical note, how to hold it, shake it, and\/or bend it for maximum emotional effect. Like Griffin, she specializes in a genre which both is and is not quite country, folk, pop, and\/or rock. And like Griffin, the woman knows [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2252,74],"tags":[1948,2464,2465,2466,2467,2468],"class_list":{"0":"post-8236","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-midweek-music-break","7":"category-music","8":"tag-patty-griffin","9":"tag-bettysoo","10":"tag-butch-hancock","11":"tag-doug-cox","12":"tag-across-the-borderline","13":"tag-melissa-etheridge","14":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-28Q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8236"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8237,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8236\/revisions\/8237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}