DON’T KNOW WAY

NORAH JONES
SONGWRITER: JESSE HARRIS
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: COME AWAY WITH ME
LABEL: BLUE NOTE RECORDS
GENRE: JAZZ-POP
YEAR: 2002
 
          "Don't Know Why" is a song written and composed by Jesse Harris that originally appeared on his 1999 album, Jesse Harris & the Ferdinandos. A cover of the song was the debut single of American singer Norah Jones from her debut studio album, Come Away with Me(2002).
          Jones' version of "Don't Know Why" was released on January 28, 2002, peaked at number 30 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was a critical success. The single went on to win three Grammy Awards in 2003 for Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. It remains Jones's biggest hit single in the United States to date, and her only one to reach the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. "Don't Know Why" was also a modest hit abroad, reaching number five in Australia, number 24 in New Zealand, and number 59 in the United Kingdom. The song was ranked number 459 in Blender magazine's "500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born".
Jones' piano-playing has been compared to that of Floyd Cramer, having a "style and grace, a musical maturity not found in many keyboard players today."

I waited 'til I saw the sun
I don't know why I didn't come
I left you by the house of fun
Don't know why I didn't come
Don't know why I didn't come
 
When I saw the break of day
I wished that I could fly away
Instead of kneeling in the sand
Catching tear-drops in my hand
 
My heart is drenched in wine
But you'll be on my mind forever
 
Out across the endless sea
I would die in ecstasy
But I'll be a bag of bones
Driving down the road alone
 
My heart is drenched in wine
But you'll be on my mind forever
 
Something has to make you run
I don't know why I didn't come
I feel as empty as a drum
I don't know why I didn't come
Don't know why I didn't come
I don't know why I didn't come.

MORNING HAS BROKEN

CAT STEVENS
SONGWRITERS: CAT STEVENS & ELEANOR FARJEEN
COUNTRY: U. K.
ALBUM: TEASER AND THE FIRECAT
LABEL: A & M RECORDS
GENRE: FOLK ROCK
YEAR: 1971
 
       Yusuf Islam(born Steven Demetre Georgiou; 21 July 1948), commonly known by his stage names Cat Stevens, Yusuf, and Yusuf/Cat Stevens, is a British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His musical style consists of folk, pop, rock, and, later in his career, Islamic music. He returned to making secular music in 2006. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
          His 1967 debut album and its title song "Matthew and Son" both reached top ten in the UK charts. Stevens' albums Tea for the Tillerman(1970) and Teaser and the Firecat(1971) were certified triple platinum in the US. His 1972 album Catch Bull at Four went to Nº 1 on Billboard Pop Albums and spent weeks at the top of several major charts. He earned ASCAP songwriting awards in 2005 and 2006 for "The First Cut Is the Deepest", which has been a hit for four artists. His other hit songs include "Father and Son", "Wild World", "Moonshadow", "Peace Train", and "Morning Has Broken".
          In December 1977, Stevens converted to Islam and adopted the name Yusuf Islam the following year. In 1979, he auctioned all of his guitars for charity, and left his musical career to devote himself to educational and philanthropic causes in the Muslim community. He has since bought back at least one of these guitars as a result of the efforts of his son Yoriyos. He was embroiled in a long-running controversy regarding comments he made in 1989 about the death fatwa on author Salman Rushdie. His current stance is that he never supported the fatwa: "I was cleverly framed by certain questions. I never supported the fatwa." He has received two honorary doctorates and awards for promoting peace as well as other humanitarian awards.
         In 2006, he returned to pop music by releasing his first new studio album of new pop songs in 28 years, entitled An Other Cup. With that release and subsequent ones, he dropped the surname "Islam" from the album cover art – using the stage name Yusuf as a mononym. In 2009, he released the album Roadsinger and, in 2014, he released the album Tell 'Em I'm Gone and began his first US tour since 1978. His second North American tour since his resurgence, featuring 12 shows in intimate venues, ran from 12 September to 7 October 2016. In 2017, he released the album The Laughing Apple, now using the stage name Yusuf/Cat Stevens, using the Cat Stevens name for the first time in 39 years. In September 2020, he released Tea for the Tillerman 2, a reimagining of his classic album Tea for the Tillerman to celebrate its 50th anniversary.
         Teaser and the Firecat is the fifth studio album by Cat Stevens, released in October 1971.
       At the Australian 1972 King of Pop Awards the album won Biggest Selling L.P.
          English keyboardist Rick Wakeman played piano on a song, "Morning Has Broken." Linda Lewis also contributed female vocals on "How Can I Tell You".
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world
 
Sweet the rains new fall, sunlit from Heaven
Like the first dewfall on the first grass
Praise for the sweetness of the wet garden
Sprung in completeness where His feet pass
 
Mine is the sunlight, mine is the morning
Born of the one light, Eden saw play
Praise with elation, praise every morning
God's recreation of the new day
 
Morning has broken like the first morning
Blackbird has spoken like the first bird
Praise for the singing, praise for the morning
Praise for them springing fresh from the world.

BE THE RAIN

NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE
SONGWRITER: NEIL YOUNG
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: GREENDALE
LABEL: WARNER BROS
GENRE: ROCK
YEAR: 2003
 
           Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, and activist. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay and others. Since the beginning of his solo career with his backing band Crazy Horse, Young has released many critically acclaimed and important albums, such as After the Gold Rush, Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and Harvest.
         Young has received several Grammy and Juno Awards. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted him twice: in 1995 as a solo artist and in 1997 as a member of Buffalo Springfield. In 2000, Rolling Stone named Young #34 on their list of the 100 greatest musical artists. According to Acclaimed Music, he is the 7th most celebrated artist in popular music history. His guitar work, deeply personal lyrics and signature high tenor singing voice define his long career. He also plays piano and harmonica on many albums, which frequently combine folk, rock, country and other musical styles. His often distorted electric guitar playing, especially with Crazy Horse, earned him the nickname "Godfather of Grunge" and led to his 1995 album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam. More recently he has been backed by Promise of the Real. 21 of his albums and singles have been certified Gold and Platinum in U.S by RIAA certification.
           Young directed (or co-directed) films using the pseudonym "Bernard Shakey", including Journey Through the Past (1973), Rust Never Sleeps(1979), Human Highway (1982), Greendale(2003), and CSNY/Déjà Vu (2008). He also contributed to the soundtracks of the films Philadelphia (1993) and Dead Man(1995).
           Young has lived in California since the 1960s but retains Canadian citizenship. He was awarded the Order of Manitoba in 2006 and was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2009. He became a United States citizen, taking dual citizenship, in 2020.
        Greendale is the 25th studio album by Neil Young. Young and Crazy Horse's Greendale, a 10-songrock opera, is set in a fictional California seaside town. Based on the saga of the Green family, the "audio novel" has been compared to the literary classics of Thornton Wilder's Our Town and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio for its complexity and emotional depth in exploring a small town in America.
    Greendale combines numerous themes on corruption, observation of the passing of time, environmentalism and mass media consolidation. The album, concert, film and DVDs have produced a vast divergence of critical opinion ranging from being called "amateur" to being voted as one of the best albums of 2003 by Rolling Stone magazine music critics.
Save the planet for another day.
("Attention shoppers,
Buy with a conscience and save.")
Save the planet for another day.
("Save Alaska!
Let the caribou stay.")
Don't care what the governments say.
("They're all bought
and paid for anyway.")
Save the planet for another day.
("Hey Big Oil!
What do you say?")
We were runnin' through the night,
Never knowin' if we would see the light.
Paranoid schizophrenic visions,
Livin in fear of the wrong decisions.
 
We got to wake up,
We got to keep goin.
If they follow us
There's no way of knowin'.
 
We got a job to do.
We got to save Mother Earth.
 
Be the ocean when it meets the sky.
("You can make a difference.
If you really try.")
Be the magic in the Northern lights.
("Six Days...
Six nights.")
Be the river as it rolls along.
("It has three eyed fish.
And it's smellin' strong.")
Be the rain you remember fallin'.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
 
Yeah rain was fallin' and we're soakin' wet.
Hail is beatin' down on our head.
The wind is blowin' through our hair,
Faces frozen in the frigid air.
 
We got to get there...
Alaska.
We got to be there,
Before the big machines.
 
We got a job to do.
We got to save Mother Earth.
 
Dream the hunter on the Western plain.
("The birds are all gone.
Where did they go?")
Dream the fisherman in his boat.
("He's comin home empty.
He's barely afloat.")
Dream the logger in the great Northwest.
("They're runnin out of trees.
They got to give it a rest.")
Dream the farmer in the old heartland.
("Corporate greed and chemicals
Are killin' the land.")
 
Next mornin' Sun was up at dawn.
She looked around and Earth was gone.
Dark visions he had last night.
He needed peace, he needed light.
 
He heard the rumble
And he saw the big machines.
The Green Army rose
And it was a bad dream.
 
He had a job to do.
He had to save Mother Earth.
 
Be the ocean when it meets the sky.
("Greek freighters are dumping
Crap somewhere right now.")
Be the magic in the Northern lights.
("The ice is melting!")
Be the river as it rolls along.
("Toxic waste dumpin'
From corporate farms.")
Be the rain you remember fallin'.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
 
Save the Planet for another day.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
 
Be the river as it rolls along.
("Be the rain.
Be the rain.")
 
"Be the rain.
Be the rain."

AMERICAN PIE

DON MCLEAN
SONGWRITER: DON MCLEAN
COUNTRY: U. S. A.
ALBUM: AMERICAN OIE
LABEL: UNITED ARTISTS
GENRE: FOLK ROCK
YEAR: 1971
 
          "American Pie" is a song by American singer and songwriter Don McLean. Recorded and released on the American Pie album in 1971, the single was the number-one US hit for four weeks in 1972 starting January 15 after just eight weeks on the Billboard charts (where it entered at number 69). The song also topped the charts in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. In the UK, the single reached number 2, where it stayed for 3 weeks, on its original 1971 release and a reissue in 1991 reached No. 12. The song was listed as the Nº. 5 song on the RIAA project Songs of the Century. A truncated version of the song was covered by Madonna in 2000 and reached No. 1 in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia. McLean's combined version is the fourth longest song to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (at the time of release it was the longest), in addition to being the longest song to reach number one. Due to its exceptional length, it was initially released as a two-sided 7-inch single. American Pie has been described as "one of the most successful and debated songs of the 20th century", with college courses taught on its lyrics.
         The repeatedly mentioned phrase "the day the music died" refers to the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll stars Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper, and Ritchie Valens, and ended the era of early rock and roll; this became the popular nickname for that crash. However the overall theme of the song goes beyond its superficial semblance of mourning McLean's childhood music heroes, and reflects the deep cultural changes and profound disillusionment and loss of innocence of his entire generation–the early rock and roll generation – that took place between the 1959 plane crash and either late 1969 or late 1970. The meaning of the other lyrics, which cryptically allude to many of the jarring events and social changes experienced during that period, have been debated for decades. McLean repeatedly declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned; he eventually released his songwriting notes to accompany the original manuscript when it was sold in 2015, explaining many of these.
         In 2017, McLean's original recording was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant"
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music
Used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they'd be happy for a while
 
But February made me shiver
With every paper I'd deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn't take one more step
I can't remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
Something touched me deep inside
The day the music died
 
So, bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now, do you believe in rock 'n' roll
Can music save your mortal soul
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
 
Well, I know that you're in love with him
'Cause I saw you dancin' in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage bronckin' buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died
 
I started singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
Now, for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin' stone
But that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
 
Oh, and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned
And while Lenin read a book on Marx
A quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died
 
We were singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
 
Now, the halftime air was sweet perfume
While sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance
'Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?
 
We started singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So, come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
'Cause fire is the Devil's only friend
 
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
 
He was singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
 
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried, and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
 
And they were singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die
This'll be the day that I die"
 
They were singin', bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good ol' boys were drinkin' whiskey and rye
Singin', "This'll be the day that I die".