451. Roberta Flack, "First Take"

 


Wow this album starts off with a blast.  "Compared to What" is a horn-fueled jazzy swing with some truly dark lyrics:

Slaughterhouse is killin' hogs
Twisted children killin' frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin' logs
Tired old ladies kissin' dogs
Hate the human, love that stinking mutt (I can't stand it)
Try to make it real, compared to what?

The rest of the record is quite a bit mellower.  After several listens, the description that keeps coming to mind is "sparse."  The songs are open, airy, sometimes too much.  There's a lot of sadness, a lot of empty space.

The famous song here is, of course, "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."  It wasn't a huge hit at first but then took off after it was featured in the Clint Eastwood film "Play Misty for Me."  WARNING; clip contains surprisingly explicit scene of Clint Eastwood having outdoor sex.


Yikes.  But see what I mean?  There's almost no actual song there.  It's more a gossamer thread, a wisp of a song, than an actual song.

I also must confess I did not understand the lyrics to "I Told Jesus" AT ALL.

I told Jesus be alright if you change my name
I told Jesus be alright if you changed, changed my name
I told Jesus be alright be alright be alright
I told Jesus be alright if you change my name

I don't know if Jesus is running a Witness Protection Program or what.  The whole song is like this!  Just Roberta going on and on about the potential implications of Jesus changing her name.  Was there a big name changing thing among Christians that I don't know anything about?  There are many mysteries in this world.

And that concludes the first 50!  We are....oh my god, 10%????  THAT'S IT?  We're 10% done here.

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