The Americana and roots music authority

What song changed your life?

Granted, most of us get our life-changing experiences in adolescence when everything weighs in so much heavier. Growing up in St. Louis, the late-night DJ on K-SHE would play "Desolation Row" each night at about 3 a.m. When I was about thirteen I'd wake up every night to listen to it.

It taught me how layers of meaning could come from strong imagery and metaphor in songs and poetry and that nobody need ever settle for the cliche, even among simple chords.

What song changed your life?

Tags: AOR, Bob, Desolation, Dylan, K-SHE, Louis, Radio, Row, St.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Shaw on July 27, 2010 at 7:25pm

Return of the Grievous Angel ... overheard from a window while at a BBQ in Edmonton in 1978 ... although I'd heard Sweetheart of the Rodeo when it first came out (thanks to a prophetic instructor) and I'd heard the Flying Burritos a time or two on AOR radio, it wasn't until Grievous Angel that I "got" it. I was disheartened to learn that the common denominator — Gram Parsons — had died back in 1973. This didn't stop me from becoming a diehard Gram and Emmylou fan and I bought lots of related vinyl ... then I bought tapes and eventually moved to CD ... Gram led me to Jason and the Scorchers, Long Ryders, Green on Red, Lucinda Williams, Alejandro Escovedo, Jayhawks, Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, Son Volt, Tom Russell, Rosie Flores, Steve Earle and so much more. More than 30 years and counting ... Cosmic American Music Forever! (Along the way I designed fanzines for a GP organization and appeared twice on Canadian radio spreading the word and playing the disks.)