The thought of remixing this song excited me, those lovely harmonies and stellar guitars over the never too much but sturdy rhythm of "Tin Man". I really feel like this song, a little sad and wistful and got right on it. I wasn't going to upload today as I was going to stop on the 17th, and here it is on the 18th and a late in the day upload. It perfectly compliments my mood these days, feeling calmer bit by bit and remembering how I felt when I first heard this tune.
America has become a pet project of mine on this channel and I have done several of their songs which were popular in my youth at the age of 14. Looking back, I did not have big plans about anything, just getting through school and taking the summers to kick it around with the neighborhood gang. It was like both parents were working and that left four families of kids on their own during the day monday to friday during summer vacation. We pretty much did what we wanted in the big group of us, the oldest was 16 and the youngest was 8, boys and girls almost evenly split.
I was the next oldest at 14 and remembered we all got along really well, there was absolutely no drama when we kids were along. This one came out in August 24, 1974 that time of the year you are reminded that September is coming with cooler nights and school starting up the first Monday after Labor Day. Even at my young age, I felt the song....it was peaceful and thought provoking to use a character from "The Wizard Of Oz" as the subject of a song. The song peaked at #4 in September of 1974 and was a joy to listen to as a freshman in high school.
That is one thing about this channel, is that it is cathartic for me to hear those older songs and it reminds me how hopeful I was. They help to keep me balanced and ground me, as I hope they do you.
This part below is from American Songwriter at this link Click to read entire interview, fascinating!
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DEWEY BUNNELL: “Tin Man” was manufactured from the chunks of thoughts and themes that I was putting together into a kind of mosaic. It wasn’t a common thread.
“Horse With No Name” was a dialogue; it’s a story from the first day to the last day and what it was.
“Ventura Highway” has certainly got a thread, a chain. But with “Tin Man,” I think you have to break it up into chunks that were going through my mind at the time to understand it.
I originally wanted to write a cohesive dialogue about The Wizard of Oz, which I loved. It was my favorite movie as a kid and it’s still one of my Top Ten. I probably even would go so far that if someone said “What’s your favorite movie of all time?” I might go there.
The song is like surrealism, which was a genre of art that was always mesmerizing for me. There’s the whole psychedelic thing, coming out of the Sixties, the Woodstock generation, opening your eyes, expanding your mind and looking at things differently. We really did, we were a straight culture out of the Fifties. It was all black and white.
“Sometimes late when things are real and people share the gift of gab between themselves/ Some take the bait and catch a perfect prize that waits among the shells.”
That was about just sitting around, when things are real and people share the gift of gab. We did a lot of sitting around talking about things and listening to albums.
