Merle Haggard

Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez Cover “Sing Me Back Home” (Merle Haggard)

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

The warden led a prisoner down the hallway to his doom
I stood up to say goodbye like all the rest
And I heard him tell the warden just before he reached my cell
“Let my guitar playing friend do my request”

Merle Ronald Haggard (April 6, 1937 – April 6, 2016) was an American country singer, songwriter, guitarist, and fiddler.

“Sing Me Back Home” is a song written and recorded by American country music artist Merle Haggard and The Strangers. It was released in November 1967 as the first single and title track from the album Sing Me Back Home. In 2019, Rolling Stone ranked “Sing Me Back Home” No. 32 on its list of the 40 Saddest Country Songs of All Time.

Bob Dylan

Dylan covered this song in September 1985 – Farm Aid Rehearsals – with Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers.
Tracks from this rehearsal first started circulating in June 2016.

This is a pretty good performance, even though he doesn’t remember a lot of the lyrics.

Continue reading “Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Gram Parsons, Joan Baez Cover “Sing Me Back Home” (Merle Haggard)” →

21 Great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

I’m goin’ to Memphis where the beat is tough
Memphis, I can’t get enough
It makes you tremble and it makes you weak
Gets in your blood, that Memphis Beat
~Jerry Lee Lewis – Memphis Beat

I love Memphis and there many great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics.

Here are 21 wonderful songs… Memphis it is.

1. Bob Dylan – Stuck Inside Of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

Oh, Mama, can this really be the end
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again

Continue reading “21 Great songs with “Memphis” in their lyrics” →

1976: 20 Songs you Must hear from 1976

Posted on by Egil Mosbron


Alldylan / Borntolisten @ Facebook

Check out:

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The Year 1976 summary

  • Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot becomes prime minister (and virtual dictator) of Cambodia after Prince Sihanouk steps down (April 2).
  • Israeli airborne commandos attack Uganda’s Entebbe Airport and free 103 hostages held by pro-Palestinian hijackers of Air France plane; one Israeli and several Ugandan soldiers killed in raid (July 4).
  • 19-month civil war ends in Lebanon after threatening to escalate to global level (Nov.).
  • US: US Supreme Court rules that blacks and other minorities are entitled to retroactive job seniority (March 24).
  • US: US Supreme Court rules that death penalty is not inherently cruel or unusual and is a constitutionally acceptable form of punishment (July 3).
  • US: Jimmy Carter elected US President (Nov. 2).
  • –
  • Movies: Rocky, Taxi Driver, Network, All the President’s Men
  • Deaths: Agatha Christie, Andre Malraux

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My rules:

  • Only one song per artist/group
  • The song must be released that specific year
  • Songs from live albums not allowed
  • Restricted to only 20 songs

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As usual.. a lot of wonderful music was released in 1976, again hard to pick only 20.

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January 2: Merle Haggard released Sing Me Back Home (album) in 1968

Posted on by Hallgeir Olsen

Sing Me Back Home is the fifth studio album by singer and songwriter Merle Haggard, released in 1968 on Capitol Records.

“Sing Me Back Home follows the blueprint of Merle Haggard’s first three albums, balancing a hit single with album tracks and a couple of covers, but there is a difference. Where the previous album Branded Man was a transitional album, hinting that Haggard’s talents were deepening substantially, Sing Me Back Home is the result of the flowering of his talent.”
– Thomas Erlewine (allmusic)

Merle Haggard appeared on Austin City Limits nine times over the course of his legendary career. Here’s “Sing Me Back Home” from his appearance in 1978:

A little slowed down beautiful version! Continue reading “January 2: Merle Haggard released Sing Me Back Home (album) in 1968” →

1968: 20 Songs Released in 1968 You Must Hear

Posted on by Egil Mosbron

My rules:

  • Only one song per artist/group
  • The song must be released that specific year
  • Songs from live albums not allowed
  • Restricted to only 20 songs

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A shitload of great music was released in 1968, here are my 20 chosen songs.

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  • Madame George – Van Morrison

    Madame George is the album’s whirlpool. Possibly one of the most compassionate pieces of music ever made, it asks us, no, arranges that we see the plight of what I’ll be brutal and call a lovelorn drag queen with such intense empathy that when the singer hurts him, we do too.
    -Lester Bangs

    A song from the album Astral Weeks, released in 1968. It was recorded during the first Astral Weeks session that took place on September 25, 1968 at Century Sound Studios in New York City with Lewis Merenstein as producer.

    In 1974, after he had recorded eight albums, Morrison told Ritchie Yorke when he asked him what he considered his finest single track and the one that he enjoyed the most that it was: “Definitely ‘Madame George’, definitely. I’m just starting to realize it more and more. It just seems to get at you… it just lays right in there, that whole track. The vocals and the instruments and the whole thing. I like that one.”
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    Down on Cyprus Avenue
    With a childlike vision leaping into view
    Clicking, clacking of the high heeled shoe
    Ford and Fitzroy, Madame George
    Marching with the soldier boy behind
    He’s much older now with hat on drinking wine
    And that smell of sweet perfume comes drifting through
    The cool night air like Shalimar
    –

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    Continue reading “1968: 20 Songs Released in 1968 You Must Hear” →

1967: 20 songs released in 1967 you must hear

Posted on by Egil Mosbron




Our series of posts on the best music from specific years continues.. this is 1967.

Alldylan / Borntolisten @ Facebook

Check out:

My rules:

  • Only one song per artist/group
  • The song must be released that specific year
  • Songs from live albums not allowed
  • Restricted to only 20 songs

–

A lot of wonderful music was released in 1967, here are my 20 chosen songs.

–

  • All Along the Watchtower – Bob Dylan

    Written and recorded by Bob Dylan. The song initially appeared on his 1967 album John Wesley Harding, and it has been included on most of Dylan’s subsequent greatest hits compilations. Since the late 1970s, he has performed it in concert more than any of his other songs. Different versions appear on four of Dylan’s live albums.
    –
    There must be some kind of way outta here
    Said the joker to the thief
    There’s too much confusion
    I can’t get no relief
    –

    Continue reading “1967: 20 songs released in 1967 you must hear” →