MORNING GLORY
To me, it is positively criminal that there are still some rock music fans out there who do not know about the debut 1968 album by Blood, Sweat and Tears, Child Is Father to the Man. Besides being one of the first rock bands to have a full brass section (there are also frequent strings plus an Ondioline, a precursor to modern synthesizers), Child Is Father to the Man has a classically based structure, with an “Overture” and an “Underture” and songs that flow from one into another covering rock, country, pop, jazz, blues, folk . . . there is even a fugue section. The songs are mostly original but include some real beauties among the cover songs: Randy Newman’s “Just One Smile”, Harry Nilsson’s “Without Her” and Tim Buckley’s “Morning Glory”. The Stone Poneys also recorded the latter song, though with the title “Hobo” instead; it is my favorite Poneys song (even beating “Different Drum”) and one of my very favorite Linda Ronstadt songs.
(September 2012)
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On the Stone Poneys album, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Volume III, Linda Ronstadt was already showing her gift for spotting excellent songwriting by including no less than three songs by Tim Buckley, including “Hobo” (which Buckley called “Morning Glory”), which might be my very favorite Linda Ronstadt song of them all.
(October 2013)
