"From Texas": The Moody Blues, Tuesday Afternoon

I was watching TV and suddenly, during the commercial for Visa's Check Card, a particular sound caught my attention. It was the beginning of an absolutely amazing song I’d never heard before.
I couldn’t recognize the band and I didn’t understand the words (so I couldn’t look for it on the web), so I had to ask to an American friend of mine for a suggestion.

The song is “Tuesday Afternoon”, composed by the British band The Moody Blues in 1968 (on the album this song was listed as “The Afternoon: Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)", at the insistence of the producer).
The Moody Blues were born as a blues band, but after the introduction of orchestral arrangements and the tones of mellotron, they set the stage for the progressive rock movement.
In fact the strange sound I was listening to was produced by the “mellotron”, an electronic keyboard invented some years earlier.

This band composed the only song by them I knew: “Nights in White Satin”, of which the Italian band I Nomadi performed a cover called “Ho difeso il mio amore”.

According to an interview with Justin Hayward, he wrote "Tuesday Afternoon" while sitting in the middle of a field near his home in England on a beautiful spring afternoon. He claims that he had his acoustic guitar in hand and the song just came to him.

The use of mellotron fits the poetry of the lyrics and the daydreaming atmosphere and it’s like getting captured in this fantastic and relaxing world, a place where you can find your peace of mind.
Was the writer under the effects of any drugs or does this song reflect the habits of that period? In the 60’s and 70’s the use of hallucinogens and psychedelic drugs became a very popular means to find a new realty and to reach the truth.

“I'm just beginning to see, now I'm on my way
...
Something, calls to me,
The trees are drawing me near, I've got to find out why?
Those gentle voices I hear, explain it all with a sigh.”

“From Texas”: Billy Joel, Piano Man

Yesterday evening I was going to a grocery with a friend of mine, and his mp3 player started playing a nice song called “Piano Man” by Billy Joel.
He was surprised when I told him I didn’t know that song, although I knew the author and other songs by him.
Actually, to be sincere, I was confusing him with Roy Orbison (‘cause I was thinking of “Pretty Woman”, “Anything you want you got it” and “California blue”…yes, that moment Roy wasn’t existing in my mind)…I apologize to him.
Anyways, Chris continued complaining about the fact I didn’t know one of his most beautiful and famous song (together with “She’s Always a Woman to Me” e “Uptown girl”).

The song was written in 1973 and gives the name to the whole album, which has been his first real success.
It’s got the fascination of most of melancholic song, underlined also by the use of the mouth organ (that reminds me Bob Dylan).
It can be read as a complaining about the loneliness of one’s life, ‘cause ruts get you miss something (such as a wife, or any plan), taking as examples customers lives who’re drinking in the bar where the singer is playing the piano.
They seem to find a bit of consolation by listening to the song though.

What can I say? It is a sadly true song. You spend most of your time working, and you have to work if you want to survive, but it steals your free time and, with it, part of your life. And meanwhile time passes…

"From Texas": Rod Stewart, Baby Jane

Finally I’ve found out the name of the song by Rod Stewart I’ve listened to a lot of time on the radio; I listened again to it a couple of nights ago, in a bar in Bryan (Texas), and lots of guys were singing it.
It took me about a couple of hours to get the name, I opened several videos on Youtube trying to find which one it was.

It’s “Baby Jane” (1986), a song with a particular rhythm that make you dance while you’re listening to it and sing it the whole day after you’ve listened to it.
It talks about the end of a love story with a woman who “threw” him away once she reached for the high society and got what she needed for.

I’m not really keen on Rod Stewart, the song mentioned is one of the few songs by him I know, so I cannot say that I really like him, but for sure I’m in love with his voice.
It’s a distinctive “rasping”, hot and sexy voice, immediately recognizable...once you’ve got Rod Stewart’s existence! In fact at first I confused it with the voices of other great singers, especially with Roger Taylor (Queen’s drummer)’s one. Actually, they are pretty similar.

I’ve read that Belle and Sebastian performed a cover of this song. I haven’t found it on the web, so please, if someone have it, upload it! Thanks!