John Stewart's "Gold" - Classic or Dud?

Classic...

sidenote: what about a Lindsey Buckingham "Trouble" C/D thread?

Grizzle: there IS a "Trouble" thread, as well as several Buckingham and Fleetwood Mac threads. You'll find precious few Buckingham apostates on this site.

That's my 25-year old memory of it. Funny how most would today think it's a cover of that Spandau Ballet song done by the Daily Show guy.

(If anyone could hook me up with a Why-Ess-Eye of this song, I'd be happy to trade.)

Knowing this, it's kinda ironic that he finally hit paydirt with a song ABOUT the music industry. Probably explains why he sounded so bitter.

I consider "Gold" of a piece with "Drivers Seat"...so, classic...

Sniffin' the Tears?

drivers seat
oo woo oo woo
drivers seat
yeah ah ahh

Stevie Nicks at 1:51 going "ooh-woo-woo-ooo..."

Great idea to revive this.

I finally found it. I badly butchered the lyrics upthread.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Long_Beach,_CA_at_night.jpg

GREAT SONG.

When the lights go down in the California town
People are in for the evening
I jump into my car and I throw in my guitar
My heart's beating time with my breathing
Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

Oh, my buddy Tim Bass he's working pumping gas
And he makes two fifty for an hour
He's got rhythm in his hands as he's tapping on the cans
Sings rock and roll in the shower
Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

Oh California girls are the greatest in the world
Each one a song in the making
Singing right to me, I can hear the melody
The story is there for the taking
Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

When the lights go down in the California town
People are in for the evening
I jump into my car and I throw in my guitar
My heart's beating time with my breathing
Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold

Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul
There's people out there turning music into gold
People out there turning music into gold
People out there turning music into gold

Kanan Road:
http://billfabian.com/images/513_DSC_0045a.JPG

My dad loved this song to pieces back when the radio played it every half-hour, here 4000 miles away from Kanan. I probably haven't heard it in the quarter century since. ItS a good song but his singing always irritated me, all gruff and stentorian. It's like somebody told him he kinda looked like Johnny Cash and he felt he had to try to SING like him too but had no idea how.

Angelenos, is their any actual significance to Kanan Road (nice photograph!) music-biz wise? I've never heard of it.

s

[sorry! finger slipped]

Myonga OTM on Stewart's singing. I've never been a fan of this one, and whatever bitterness is inherent in the record isn't interesting enough to hold me. As for the "people out there turnin' music into gold," that didn't impress me much, as Shania Twain would say, when I was listening to this on the radio as a kid. For Buckingham/Nicks guest shots, gimme Zevon and Walter Egan.

Credit on Warren Zevon, by the way, is to "Stephanie Nicks." As in "Lindsey and Stephanie appear courtesy of Warner Bros. Records and Fleetwood Mac."

Anybody here ever heard this one?:

http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I/515BTBtB8tL._AA240_.jpg

I've always been somewhat curious about it.

I don't get bitterness in this song at all. It's just a portrait of a gold rush, and a guy who wants to make it, maybe giving himself a pep talk driving to open mic night at the Troubadour.

REVIVE

Anyone heard 'lost tapes' disc? The :30 sample for the first song -- American Way, which is also a Stewart/Buckingham collaboration -- sounds intriguing, if obviously the lessor effort compared to Gold (which is utterly classic, BTW).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPjhHcLpfr4

love this song. it's a really lightweight lyric, almost a throwaway, until you get to the mysterious chorus (is he bitter? yearning? sarcastic? is he just observing?) which suddenly make it sound almost epic, and which casts a sexy shadow over those lightweight verses. the F# to Fm chord change ("Driving over Kanan, singing to my soul") is weird and unexpected, and only adds to the mystery.

also strangely, it's not available on itunes or anywhere else legal on the internet as far as i can tell. you can find a much later re-recording in a lower key which isn't very good, but not the original hit. and there's plenty of other john stewart stuff legally available.

he wrote the monkees' sublime "daydream believer," by the way. you probably already knew that, but it hasn't come up on the thread so, um, now it has.

xpost. American Way on Wires From The Bunker, and it's a pretty great Fleetwood Mac song...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-CJji921gM

sorry, this vid's MUCH better

For those who know music, can you tell me what parts of this song are in minor keys? I ned to know this for something I'm writing.

Lyrics and chords here: http://www.californiabloodlines.com/displaytab.lasso?-KeyValue=62&-Token.Action=Search%20Records

Very interesting, I always thought the "Driving over Kanan" part was minor key but I guess not.

It took until about five years ago before I found out that "Gold" was being done by THAT John Stewart. As a lifelong Kingston Trio fan (but never much of an admirer of the post-Guard years) it completely blew my mind to find these were the same guy. Classic tune though - and one that always conjures snapshots of my youth. Also, I appreciate the insights and images of Kanan - that was news.

I find it difficult to articulate, but what future classic songs are today's kids listening to? Back in the day there were plenty of ugly mugs making fine pop tunes. Will a future scenario include some forty-something individual going all glassy-eyed and nostalgic over some (enter the name of any generic cookie-cutter song-by-committee studio product)?

Is this a serious question?

Plenty of great songs are generic cookie-cutter song-by-committee.

Your other question about ugly guys getting hits on MTV is legit. I do miss Phil Collins types.

I find it difficult to articulate, but what future classic songs are today's kids listening to? Back in the day there were plenty of ugly mugs making fine pop tunes.

Kids who love songs sure seem into Josh Ritter. And the Once guy.

I was kinda referring to the pre-MTV days. Seemed like those days had a lot more variety than you might see on the charts these days (not that I've listened to more than 10 minutes of Top 40 radio in the last decade).

By that Once guy do you mean Glenn Hansard? Kids hear that?

Music is all relative. When I was a teenager in the late '70s, I was always lamenting that music was crap, this little number by John Stewart being the exception rather than the rule. I longed for the "old days" of the music of the late sixties, early seventies. Little did I know what was in store for me over the next 30 years...

Music got awesomer!

wow, this song. i think i might not have heard it since i was a kid.

there's definitely something kind of creepy about it. i guess "driver's seat" was mentioned upthread, and i agree that they are similar in that respect. both have that been up all night, feelin' a little too wired vibe. i think "couldn't get it right" by climax blues band has a similar sound, but sans the vaguely sinister undercurrent at work in the other two

also i agree with whoever upthread expressed frustration with the vocals. they do strike me as being gruffer than they need be

Wow, you think this song is creepy? I don't see that. Now you want to hear creepy, how about Papa Was a Rolling Stone, now THAT is creepy. Creeps me way the hell out.

btw the whole album is available on iTunes.

...and also in most of your finer $1 vinyl bins.

Why does it say it shows new answers but there are no new answers?

brodie

Great song, although I always thought its becoming a hit had alot to do with radio programmers looking for anything that sounded like Fleetwood Mac while waiting for the follow-up to Rumours. Anyway it's still a great tune in its own right.

Coincidentally, my roommate at the time this was a hit was a guy named Tim Bass!

Spent the weekend in LA so I took a drive over to Agoura Hills to check out this Kanan Road. Started where it begins on N. Westlake Blvd. in Thousand Oaks and drove the whole stretch, about 20 miles, all the way into Mailbu where it ends on PCH. Had the MP3 player blasting "Gold" as I was driving to see if I could get the feel for "flyin over Kanan" (flyin is actually used in one of the verses although not written in the lyrics). It is a beautiful stretch of road, very smooth in spots, windy, you do get a sense of exhilaration and you can go long distances without any lights. At one point there is a breathtaking vista of mountains. Towards Malibu the road changes to "South Kanan Dume Rd." I'm not sure which stretch of the road the song is referring to, but I'm glad I took the trip and even stopped and bought a souvenir hat on the way which I call my Kanan hat.

*like*

The other thing to mention is that at the end of the road there's Runaway Vehicle lane in the middle of the highway with warning signs telling you it's coming up. Then that section turns to gravel and there's a bunch of yellow trash cans at the end for you to crash into. Nice of the city to do that for folks who run into trouble.

Eazy otm

Which came first: This or "Sisters of the Moon"?

Stewart released it first at the height of FM's imperial phase when "Magnet and Steel" and "Whenever I Call You 'Friend'" and Bob Welsh's songs turned into hits when Buckingham produced and/or played on them.

I'm not sure which stretch of the road the song is referring to

In 1979, the only part of Kanan worth driving was the route between 101 & 1*, which was opened in 1974 by blasting through the sheer rock cliffs to form the tunnels to connect the valley canyons to the coastal beaches. The area to the north of 101 was mostly cattle ranches and a couple suburban tracts, a gas station and a skate park.

*It's the same vibe as "Drive on West on Sunset to the sea".

From a 1979 interview with John Stewart re Tusk:

"I don't think they need any plugs, but I'll just say it's a terrific album and not at all like 'Rumours.' 'Tusk' is great. It's really a good laxative for the radio constipation of the world. It's really back to what rock'n'roll started as . . . fun. Where music should be. It is not like anything else on the album. The album sounds nothing like 'Tusk,' and that's the reason they put it out - just let people have no idea what the album is like. They took a real chance with the album and I'm gonna have to hand it to them, they were very courageous. It would have been very easy to go in and do another 'Rumours' with the same format and have guaranteed sales.

They're the hardest working people I've met in my life and Stevie Nicks is one of our finest songwriters who is never given any credit for the amount of incredible songs she's written. I think she puts most of the singer/songwriters in the toilet. She's got a song called 'Angel' which is the best one she's ever written. She's got a song called 'Sisters of the Moon' which is a killer - absolute killer. Lindsey has some really bizarre good songs and Christine came through with some good things. A much different album. I can't even tell you what it's like, but it's nothing like 'Rumours' and it's definitely Fleetwood Mac."

Hmmmm....

SotM first demo'd in 1975, shopped around a bit (including Walter Egan!, who recorded it in 1977 but never released it)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJlr1vHf2lc

judging from that interview it seems that LB/SN let superfan John Stewart take some creative license with it, then FM released it in it's intended form for Tusk in 1979.

Stewart's The Phoenix Concerts, with some good musos, Nashville Cat Dan Dugmore etc.: 1974 double, reissued w bonus tracks, 18 here---haven't heard the whole thing yet, but some of my friends got good chills from it:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kSARypBcbf-PMX4Wm6_Pj4JQOw9mPQUdQ

I'm driving over Kanan rn

https://i.imgur.com/fghz9VR.jpeg

Was thinking about this thread driving home, listening to AM radio when this song started playing. Got all excited! Until

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBQItc0fj7Q

Oh, it's that Alice Cooper song.

i threw on "California Bloodlines" because i saw this thread bumped. struck me as too mannered for my taste. reminded me a bit of Mickey Newbury in that sense. some nice moments, though. "July, You're a Woman" was driving me crazy because I couldn't figure out what tune it reminded me of. then i realized it was "Some of Shelly's Blues" by Michael Nesmith

as for "Gold," i can't really say i like this song. i listened to it yesterday and dimly remember hearing this growing up but assuming it was Fleetwood Mac for some reason (well, reading the thread it doesn't seem as random; I'd guess that others make that mistake)