Music Before the Money

One of the watershed albums of the early 1970’s was the release of Desperado by The Eagles. A band put together by Linda Ronstadt’s manager it was originally made up of Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner. Leadon named it The Eagles as a tribute to his relationship with The Byrds. It was his country-rock influence from The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers that started the band’s ideology. They needed a drummer so Frey contacted Don Henley, a session drummer.

Desperado was a concept album like a shorter Tommy by The Who. It compared the life of rock stars to those of the old outlaws and although Tequila Sunrise and Outlaw Man were chosen as the singles, the song Desperado became a hit when their greatest hits album came out in 1976.

After Frey and Henley began taking the group toward a more rock sound Leadon and Meisner left the group and were replaced by Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit.

The album contained many soulful songs helped out in a few by Jackson Browne. Lyrics like “. . . Like graveyards full of tombstones, waitin’ for the names.” It also featured the Doolin-Dalton Gang’s exploits and the shoot-outs that led to their demise. The banjo is as haunting as Henley’s voice.

Like Sweetheart of the Rodeo this is an important country-rock album and, when you think of it, two members of The Eagles were either in The Byrds or The Flying Burrito Brothers.

“First day in August Last rain was in May
When the rainmaker came to Kansas
In the middle of a dusty day
The rainmaker said to the people
Tell me what you are prepared to pay”
The rainmaker said to the people
“Well, I’ll conjure up a rain today”

Harry Nilsson, Bill Martin: Summer, 1969

Every August 1st I think of this song and Harry Nilsson, of whom a lot of people have never heard. However, along with Gordon Lightfoot, Al Stewart and a few others, Nilsson’s music was the soundtrack for my life for almost 3 years.

My friend, Dave Dixon, was a Nilsson fanatic and had many of his albums: Aerial Ballet, Pandemonium Shadow Show and Harry. I had Nilsson Schmillson and A Little Touch of Schmilsson in the Night. For you are are not familiar with this guy he won a Grammy for Without You in 1972 and wrote One for Three Dog Night.

We had Harry on 8-track and sang along to his songs on our road trips to the U.S., Alberta and other parts. If I sang them now few people would know the songs. but that’s just like a lot of artists. We all know the hits but not the “fillers” and many of these songs are the writes’ best works.

Rainmaker, from his album Harry, is a haunting song about a town that has been through a terrible drought and hires the services of a rainmaker to help restore their dried up crops and lives. The rainmaker uses his supernatural powers to bring rain but when he goes to get his pay the people refuse. Instead of getting angry he laughed and drove away in wagon. In that instant the people and the listener know that the rain would never stop.

” Then the people of the town heard the sound of his laughter
And they knew the rain had come to stay .

Rain rain go away
Come again another day , hey,
Rain rain go away
Come again another day, hey.”

So, for those of you who want to get in touch with a few nuggets of memory take out an old piece of vinyl or search for the lyrics of an old song. I’m not kidding. It’s like a time machine!