Making the music perfect

My blog 1PerfectSong.com is about the music that I love. Though I set out to write about musicianship and songwriting craft, I often find myself talking just as much about my own life. Where I was when I first heard a song, or what was happening in my life at the time. My life informs […]

Please, please, please do not go

Research tells us that the music a person likes when they are 17 to 21 years old is the music they will most likely listen to the most for the rest of their life. Though in my case, I believe the music of my late teen/early adult years formed more of a basis for music […]

The perfect cover of “Different Drum”

Even after all these years, I am still not sure what to make of Linda Ronstadt, who began her career in the 1960’s as part of the southern California country/folk rock scene that also produced artists like Jackson Browne, The Eagles and Warren Zevon. Ronstadt had early success with her band The Stone Poneys, […]

The Very Most Perfect “Respect”

“That girl done stole my song!” The truly great songs are fluid. They mean different things to different people. They have an identity that changes over time. What might at first be revolutionary may live long enough to become staid, and comfortable. What was at once edgy and transformative may become stale and stodgy. “Respect” […]

The Perplexing Zeitgeist of “A Friend of the Devil”

I have been forever perplexed by The Grateful Dead. Coming out of the San Francisco Haight-Ashbury hippy, rock music scene of the late 1960’s, The Grateful Dead is a huge, monster band that plays quiet, lovely little songs. For decades, they have sold out major arenas around the world with top grossing tours. Fans, or […]

The Weird, Eternal Truth of “Surrender”

Some people think the band Cheap Trick is just an unhappy reminder of a misspent decade listening to bad music. Some people think that Cheap Trick is nothing more than a Midwestern bar band that slipped through the cracks while no one was watching and somehow found their way to the top ten Billboard charts. […]

Perfectly Mad

Sometimes, a song is just so lovely. Even for Elton John. Many of Elton John’s songs are lovely. Early in his career, in partnership with lyricist Bernie Taupin, John would release sparse love songs and ballads, a troubadour sitting at his piano delivering songs that were at once lush and sparse, ethereal and dense. There […]

The Saga of Billy Joel, and “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”

I am not the Billy Joel fan I once was. Back in the 1980’s, I was a big Billy Joel fan. Big. I first learned about Billy Joel with the release of The Stranger. My brother Jimmy introduced me to him, and the songs ranged from rough hewn rock songs to lovely ballads, all tinged […]

Perfectly “Tempted”

High school was a funny time. Well, at least it was a funny time for me. Girls confused me. Classes challenged me. Music entertained me. Books engaged me. I was discovering who I was…what I liked. What I cared about. What caught my attention. It was during my murky teen years that MTV was […]

The Perfect Warning of “Gimme Shelter”

On the occasion of my youngest daughter turning 20 years old last week, I found myself reflecting on my own 20th birthday. Isn’t that what parents do? It was 1988, and I was living in Hughes Hall at the American University in Washington D.C. I had a room at the end of the hallway on […]