“Long May You Run” is written by Neil Young. The song came alive for me when I heard Emmylou Harris and her band perform it. Now in her seventies, Emmylou is still beautiful and sings like an angel, as attested to in the video I’ve included.

After hearing Miss Harris’ version of the song, I began listening to many of her other reels on YouTube. She is a consummate, unique performer, not to mention beautiful. Emmylou’s music has remained consistently excellent throughout her forty-year career. Willie Nelson is quoted as saying, "There are two types of people in this world...those who love Emmylou and those who have not met her."

Harris has released more than twenty-five albums. She was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and earned a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

Here’s my cover.

The Beatles have produced a motherload of work in the thirteen* albums they released. Within their massive discography, there are bound to be songs that the band members liked or disliked in varying degrees. Lennon and McCartney wrote “It’s Only Love” in 1965. The song is about a complex relationship that is ultimately worth it because, after all, “It’s Only Love,” and that’s the way it often goes.

I was surprised to learn that John Lennon thought the song was “pure rubbish,” meaning that it was only a filler song created to feed the hounds of commerce. Paul McCartney had a more optimistic view: “Sometimes we didn’t fight it if the lyric came out rather bland on some of those filler songs like ‘It's Only Love.’ If a lyric was really bad, we'd edit it, but we weren't that fussy about it because it’s only a rock ‘n’ roll song. I mean, this is not literature.”

Most fans, like myself, can relate to the song, finding the lyrics acceptable and the melody beautiful.

Here’s my cover.

Jackson Browne has always been a brilliant lyricist, singer, guitarist, and songwriter. I have enjoyed playing many of his songs on this blog. All of them are my favorites, and “Enough of the Night” is no exception.

Written when he was turning forty, Browne originally thought he was writing about someone else, until he realized that “Enough of the Night” was about himself. He had grown tired of a destructive lifestyle that mostly involved drugs (Cocaine). He decided the time had come for a change, and Browne writes about it poignantly in his lyrics. Listen closely, and you’ll see what I mean. “Enough of the Night” is also reminiscent of Jackson’s sister, but that’s another story entirely.

Here’s my cover.

• (00:00:08) - Enough for the Night