Tuesday August 10, 2021 “Downtown Train” Rod Stewart
We are getting off the Jethro Tull locomotive and onto the downtown train, a song originally written and recorded by Tom Waits but like so many Tom Waits songs they always seem to sound better when someone else records them so we’ll go with Rod Stewart’s top ten version.
Other popular covers of Waits' songs include "Tom Traubert's Blues" also by Rod Stewart, "Jersey Girl" by Bruce Springsteen, and "Ol' 55" by the Eagles.
And I do always enjoy knowing what the songwriter had in mind when they were creating these tunes and for “Downtown Train” Tom Waits has indicated exactly what he was thinking about when he said, "Everybody's on their own road, and I don't know where it’s going."
Although Rod Stewart did record some terrible albums -- and he has admitted that freely -- he will always be remembered as one of rock & roll's best interpretive singers as well as an accomplished, innovative songwriter, creating a rare combination of folk, rock, blues, and country that sounded like no one else.
Today’s song of the Day comes from one of Rod Stewart’s 'best of 'offerings, the four disc “Storyteller”, and this last minute addition became one of Stewart’s best selling singles.
Stay safe and well...and Rod Stewart's vocal interpretation and Tom Waits' poetic lyrics make a great combination.
Stay safe and well...and who is Jethro Tull, aside from the theatrical rock band featured today? He was an eighteenth century lawyer, inventor and agronomist who helped bring about the British Agricultural Revolution.