Monday, March 23

This Cold War With You (1949)

Tillman 


So let's do right

or let's just say we're through

I just can't stand another

cold, cold war with you



Country legend Floyd Tillman wrote and recorded this song first in 1949, pretty much in the middle of the Cold War between the U.S.A. and the U.S.S.R. Because this stand-off between two power countries so resembles the power struggles that can be seen in a couple's personal relationship, many artists have performed it since then. I first heard John Prine's version in the early '80s. This song is just one of many songs related to the Atomic Age and the foreboding that started then about the fate of the world... it's a foreboding that has never really left us, frankly. And relationships continue to have their stand-offs as well. On that cheery note, don't forget to give a big hug to those you love.



The sun goes down and leaves me sad and blue

The iron curtain falls on this cold war with you


Though you won't speak and I won't speak that's true

Two stubborn people with a cold war to go through


Oh why oh why should love ever come to couples like you and me

Whose cold cold wars are never done

And whose hearts just can't be free


Oh let's do right or let's just say we're through

I just can't stand another cold cold war with you

Saturday, March 7

Hawaiian Wedding Song (1961)

King/Hoffman/Manning


Now that we are one
Clouds won't hide the sun
Blue skies of Hawaii smile
On this our wedding day

The new Baz Luhrmann IMAX concert film Elvis Presley In Concert – EPIC – is out and hopefully is introducing the King to a new generation of fans. With Elvis gone since 1977, it's been more than a generation since he has been a key name in popular music. Much has been written about his circumscribed and sort of sad life, and then there are the many impersonators. Yet he remains one of the best singers of the 20th Century, at least in my opinion. All the films that his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, contracted him into are horrible, and Blue Hawaii is no exception. But his singing is at an apex. Only  Elvis can take a Hawaiian folk song, add a bunch of hokey background singers, and turn it into a love song that will stand through both volcanic and the sands of time. R.I.P. and ELVIS LIVES

This is the moment
I've waited for
I can hear my heart singing
Soon bells will be ringing

This is the moment
Of sweet aloha
I will love you longer than forever
Promise me that you will leave me never

Here and now, dear
All my love I vow, dear

Promise me that you will leave me never
I will love you longer than forever


Ua sila
Pa‘a ‘ia me ‘oe
Ko aloha makamae e ipo

Ka'u ia e lei a‘e nei la


Now that we are one

Clouds won't hide the sun
Blue skies of Hawaii smile
On this, our wedding day
I do love you with all my heart
I do love you with all my heart