Perfect Albums No. 4: Stones in the Road (and Happy Independence)

Warning: much spew-y admiration and lyric-quoting to follow, but deal with it. I do it because I love you all. Perfect Album No. 4 is Stones in the Road by Mary Chapin Carpenter. Oh it's about time, you say. I'm kind of a big Chapin fan. I have been since I was twelve. I remember the day it happened clearly, too. I was riding around the neighborhood on my bike, listening to the local country station on one of those hip headphone-radio-things (why I never got hit by a car because I couldn't hear traffic, I'll never know). "He Thinks He'll Keep Her" came on the radio, and I don't know if you can skid to a halt on a pink Murray bike, but I probably did. The voice, the words, the jangly guitars and absence of...yes, the almost ANTI-twang. I said, "Whoa." Not long after that mom and dad bought me my first guitar, and I started lessons. The first song ever charted out for me was "He Thinks He'll Keep Her." That was in 1994, the year that Stones in the Road came out. MCC was riding the waves of Grammy awards and CMA awards and anything else they could throw at her, and here comes this decidedly non-country-dare-we-say-FOLKISH album. It changed my life. I devoured every song and every lead part I could figure out on that CD, and I do believe it has played a huge role into how I look at songwriting to this day. "Why Walk When You Can Fly?" - an anthem. A means and a mantra to live by. Why take when you could be giving? Why watch as the world goes by? It's a hard enough life to be living... Why walk when you can fly? Hm. Reminds me of a quote from President Kennedy: "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too." Except with music, haha. "Stones in the Road" (the song itself) -- probably would be classified as top o' the list for Perfect Song as well. It was the first song I ever played at a guitar recital. I played and sang (gasp!) with accompaniment from my guitar teacher. I thought I was one bad-arse 7th grader. It gave me the bug which enables me to be writing this blog post today from Austin. Wow. Anyway, "Stones in the Road" is what is so great about Mary Chapin. It's melodic and gorgeous for one, but it addresses things our society needs to be aware of...and does it with a historical perspective. Check out a verse about the assassination of Robert Kennedy: When I was ten my father held me on his shoulders above the crowd To see a train draped in mourning pass slowly through our town His widow kneeled with all their children at the sacred burial ground And the TV glowed that long hot summer with all the cities burning down And the stones in the road, flew out beneath our bicycle tires Worlds removed from all those fires as we raced each other home FYI: it is flippin' HARD to write something about a turning point in national history like that, and to pull it off with grace. Sakes alive. Oh there are groovin' tunes on here, too. "Shutup and Kiss Me" was kind of a Number One on the charts. "Tender When I Want to Be" makes me want to dance (which if you know me, is kind of a miracle). "The Last Word" is a bitter diatribe against someone on the wrong end of a failing relationship, and the genius here is that the title of the song...is never said in the song itself. You can have it I don't want it And when you've got it I'll be gone. Mmmhmm. Don't tick a songwriter off. Actually, go out of your way to tick a songwriter off...maybe you'll spur a Grammy. So after this whole roller-coaster of a mantra-igniting, history lesson-giving, foot-tapping, bitterness-brewing, grace-giving record is over, you're left with "This Is Love." If you ever think of me let it be around twilight When the world has settled down and the last round of sunlight Is waning in the sky, as you sit and watch the night descending A car will pass out front with lovers at the wheel A dog will bark out back and children's voices peal Over and under the air, you've been there lost in the remembering And if you ever wish for things that are only in the past Just remember that the wrong things aren't supposed to last Babe it's over and done and the rest is gonna come when you let it And this is love. Thanks, MCC, for lighting that spark of independence in a kid with a pink bike. Happy July 4th from Austin. Here's He Thinks He'll Keep Her from...probably about the time I discovered the song. Nice.