Our friend Mike Massey often prefaces his rendition of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel" by saying it's the world's saddest song.
I'll always add a couple of other friends' work to my Top 5 list. Dave Rudolf penned "Jericho" decades ago and I still stop when it shuffles forward in my playlist. And, then there is "Maybe" from my former next-door neighbor Ari Herstand. That's the song that always plays in my head and brings a tear to my eye when I've been away too long from my love.
And then, there is the often forgotten "Come Away, Melinda," originally performed by Harry Belafonte but more powerfully rendered by (I can't believe I'm about to say this) Uriah Heep.
On this Music Friday, we offer up another in the Top 5. A great piece from Ozy opens with this: "In a trashed-up empty lot in Nashville, Big John sat. Clean-shaven and looking sharp, he proceeded to drink about three bottles of Thunderbird — and change music forever."
Big John was just divorced from a woman he loved madly and on the streets. A reporter from the Tennesseean hung with him and his friends for a story she was doing about homelessness. When he shared his story of loss, another from the group, his name lost to history, quipped, "You can’t make a damn woman love you, if she don’t.”
Songwriter Mike Reid saw that quote and the seed of the song was planted. It's Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me."
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