Song of the Week 5th April Walking After Midnight/Change

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Richard + Jela
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Location: West Sussex, England

Song of the Week 5th April Walking After Midnight/Change

Postby Richard + Jela » Mon Apr 05, 2010 2:27 pm

Walking After Midnight/Change

I go out walking after midnight
in the moonlight
just like we used to do
I'm always walking after midnight
searching for you

I walk for miles
out on the highway
I guess that's my way
of saying, "I love you"
I'm always walking
after midnight
searching for you

I stop to see a weeping willow
crying on her pillow
Well maybe she's been crying for me
The skies are turning gloomy
the night blooms whisper to me
But I'm just as lonesome as I can be


I go out walking
after midnight
in the moonlight
just hoping that you'll
be somewhere out walking
after midnight searching for me

© 1957 Donald Hecht & Alan Block

There was a dry goods store
a flower shop
a barber with no nose
one alcoholic cop
a beauty parlor
where they sat in chrome chairs
and it smelled just like
they burned some poor lady’s hair

There were toys in the window at the five and dime
little boys stare
little girls whine
at the toys in the window
at the five and dime

Well things change
they change a lot
things change
they blow cold, they blow hot
and if looking back
that's all you got
it don't matter anyway
cause things change
they change a lot

well them same little girls
they went working in the stores
and them same little boys
they got sent off to war
and when they got home
all the jobs had gone away
to the places they were fighting
so far away, things change

© 2004 Sam Baker


If I am not mistaken this is the first time that Ellis has featured a song (songs) that isn’t written by him on a solo studio recorded CD. I know that he and Vance released ‘Side of the Road’, that ‘Essentials’ includes Mark Erelli’s ‘The Only Way’ and the live albums have covers on, so I was particularly pleased to note that the first time so to speak, featured one of my absolute favourite writers ….Sam Baker.

His songs are so beautifully observed and he says so much with so few words….this draws on Sam’s childhood (barber with no nose apparently really existed) and is brought right upto date with the difficulties faced by the troops returning from war ‘all the jobs had gone away, to the places they were fighting so far away, things change’

To combine it with ‘Walking After Midnight’ made famous by Patsy Cline is a master stroke – I don’t know how/why Ellis decided to do that; two songs written almost 50 years apart, but I’m sure pleased he did.

The arrangement has an upbeat feel so despite the messages in both songs, it feels as if everything will be turn out to be ok.

Jela

Patti
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Joined: Wed Aug 09, 2006 7:50 pm

Re: Song of the Week 5th April Walking After Midnight/Change

Postby Patti » Tue Apr 06, 2010 7:23 am

Yes Jela I think it is the first time Ellis has included a cover on a studio album.. Love the song... I knew the Patsy song long before I knew the Sam Baker song.. I love them both and it is hard to stop the foot tapping that always goes along with. I wonder what/why Ellis thinking when he did put these together.. I think I will be seeing him this Saturday, I'll try to ask him and let you know :P
"Embrace what you have in common, celebrate what sets you apart" Ellis Paul

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KarenZ
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Re: Song of the Week 5th April Walking After Midnight/Change

Postby KarenZ » Fri Apr 09, 2010 8:23 am

Patti,

Please do ask if you get the opportunity! :-)

I remember being at the Cactus Cafe in May 2007 with BeckyG when Sam Baker was in the audience. That weekend was when Ellis first started performing "Change".....and frankly, I think the combining of the two songs may have been initially been serendipity/timing....that one immediately followed the other that night.....and eventually the two were joined. I remember smiling alot that night....and when I hear the CD recording, I still smile.....even though the "barber with no nose" always makes BeckyG cringe. :-)

KarenZ

Patti wrote:Yes Jela I think it is the first time Ellis has included a cover on a studio album.. Love the song... I knew the Patsy song long before I knew the Sam Baker song.. I love them both and it is hard to stop the foot tapping that always goes along with. I wonder what/why Ellis thinking when he did put these together.. I think I will be seeing him this Saturday, I'll try to ask him and let you know :P
"Some people are born to make great art and others are born to appreciate it. It is a kind of talent in itself, to be an audience, whether you are the spectator in the gallery or you are listening to the voice of the world's greatest soprano. Not everyone can be the artist. There have to be those who witness the art, who love and appreciate what they have been privileged to see." -- Ann Patchett in Bel Canto.

Richard + Jela
Posts: 1534
Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 3:56 pm
Location: West Sussex, England

Re: Song of the Week 5th April Walking After Midnight/Change

Postby Richard + Jela » Fri Apr 09, 2010 12:13 pm

When I was at a Sam Baker concert here in the UK, I think it was one in 2008, someone from the audience, in response to Sam telling a story about the barber with no nose, shouted out from near the back of the venue 'how does he smell?'

Hee, hee.


Jela


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