New York,
New York
written and performed by Ryan Adams
Well, I shuffled through the city on the 4th of July I had a firecracker waiting to blow. Breakin' like a rocket who makin' its way to the cities of Mexico. Lived in an apartment out on Avenue-A. I had a tar-hut on the corner of 10th. Had myself a lover who was finer than gold. But I've broken up and busted up since And love don't play any games with me anymore like she did before
The world won't wait, so I better shake
That thing right out there through the door
Hell, I still love you, New York
I was always going to have a Ryan Adams song for my second
blog but the song changed late last night when I realised that today is the 11th
September. 12 years on from the 9/11 terror attacks. In remembrance to the
victims of those attacks I changed the song to ‘New York, New York’.
‘New York,
New York’ was the first single
from the Gold album which came out in late September 2001. The video was filmed
4 days before the attacks and features prominently the skyline of New York including the
twin towers. The video is dedicated at the end to the victims of the attacks
and those that tried to save them. Profits from the video were donated to a
September 11 charity.
Ryan Adams is one of my all time favourite artists and Gold in
my opinion is his best album and would still get in my top five best albums
ever. I have the extended addition with an extra disk.
Ryan intended for the album to be a double album but his
record label, Lost Highway
condensed the album into a single disc. According to Ryan:
"the label took the last five songs, made it a bonus disc and put it on the first hundred and fifty thousand copies. F**king my fans over and making them pay extra for a record I wanted to be a double album. They counted that as one record’
This bonus disc is known as Side Four; the disc's
title reflects the fact that the bonus material makes up the fourth side of the
double LP edition of the album.
‘New York,
New York’ was featured in my
favourite ever piece of music writing. Music (The Revelator) was the last page
Screen Door article in the November/December 2001 edition of No Depression the
much missed US
music magazine. Written by 'Silas House' it talks about the 9/11 attacks and how
music can be your balm. Below is the
line talking about ‘New York,
New York?’
‘I listened to everything. I found myself tapping my foot along to Ryan Adams singing “New York New York”. One line in there filled me up with that stubborn American pride again: “Hell, I still love you New York.’
It is the last paragraph of the article that I think sums up my love of
music:
'In fact, all of these songs seemed to say things they hadn’t before. They seemed to be saying all the right things. Music can do that. It can shape itself to the situation; can speak to the listener in their time of need. It can make you want to get up and dance or break down crying or join along to sing for joy. And in doing all of those things, it made me feel better. Just like in that old song “The Balm Of Gilead”, music was the balm to heal my soul. Music did its job. What a power that is. What an awesome power, right there in our record collections'.
I have a framed copy of that article on my desk as I type
this. If you want to read the full article click here:
I am sure I will return to this article over the coming
weeks as I will Ryan Adams. I may even tell you the story of how bad he was
when I saw him live for the only time!
Finally the cast list shows our friend ‘Ethan Johns’ again.
He produced the album as well as playing multiple instruments. Stephen Stills son Chris is on bass guitar.
Hope you read the full ‘Silas House’ article and watch the
video of the song it really is moving to think that four days later two of
those buildings had gone. I dedicate today’s blog to the memory of all those
lost in the attacks on 9/11.
Cast
Ryan Adams –
vocal, acoustic guitar
Richard Causon –
piano
Chris Stills –
bass guitar
Kamasi Washington –
saxophone
Ethan Johns –
electric guitar, Hammond B-3, congas, drums
Use the Mobile Browser link if the video link is not shown.
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