DRAW OF THE CARDS

KIM CARNES

SONGWRITERS: KIM CARNES; BILL CUOMO; VAL CHRISTIAN GARAY & DAVE ELLINGSON

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MISTAKEN IDENTITY

LABEL: EMI AMERICA

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1981

 

           Kim Carnes(/kɑːrnz/; born July 20, 1945) is an American singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, California, she began her career as a songwriter in the 1960s, writing for other artists while performing in local clubs and working as a session background singer with the famed Waters sisters (featured in the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom). After she signed her first publishing deal with Jimmy Bowen, she released her debut album Rest on Me in 1971. Carnes' self-titled second album primarily contained self-penned songs, including her first charting single "You're a Part of Me", which reached No. 35 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart in 1975. In the following year, Carnes released Sailin', which featured "Love Comes from Unexpected Places". The song won the American Song Festival and the award for Best Composition at the Tokyo Song Festival in 1976.

           In her breakthrough year, 1980, Carnes was commissioned by Kenny Rogers to co-write the songs for his concept album Gideon(1980), and their duet "Don't Fall in Love with a Dreamer" hit Nº 4 on the Billboard Hot 100, and earned the duo a Grammy Award nomination. Later that year, her cover of Smokey Robinson's "More Love", from her fifth album Romance Dance(1980), hit Nº 10. The following year, Carnes released Mistaken Identity, which featured the worldwide hit, "Bette Davis Eyes". This became the best-selling single of the year in the United States, spending nine weeks at Nº 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, going Gold, and won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and Song of the Year. Mistaken Identity went to Nº 1 on the Billboard 200, was certified Platinum, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.

           Carnes also saw success with the singles "Draw of the Cards" (Nº 28), "Does It Make You Remember" (Nº 36), "Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes)" (Nº 15), "Make No Mistake, He's Mine" (Nº 51), with Barbra Streisand, "What About Me?" (Nº 15), with Kenny Rogers and James Ingram, "I'll Be Here Where the Heart Is", from the Flashdance soundtrack, and the Grammy Award nominated singles "Voyeur" (Nº 29) and "Invisible Hands" (Nº 40). Her other successes as a songwriter include co-writing the Nº 1 duet "The Heart Won't Lie" with Donna Weiss(who had co-written "Bette Davis Eyes" with Jackie DeShannon), which was recorded by Vince Gill and Reba McEntire, and released on McEntire's 1993 album It's Your Call.

Her distinctive, raspy vocal style has drawn comparisons to Rod Stewart. Her most recent studio album is Chasin' Wild Trains(2004). As of 2017, Carnes was residing in Nashville, Tennessee, where she continues to write music.

            "Draw of the Cards" is a 1981 single release from Kim Carnes's Platinum-plus Mistaken Identity album.

             The single reached #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September 1981. Tampa Bay Times contributor Kevin Wuench felt that the song has a "great '80s synth sound." Music critic Colin Larkin described the song as having a "contagious, swirling organ-dominated sound." Viacom ranked "Draw of the Cards" as Carnes' 10th best song, stating that it was "just as intoxicating in its creepiness" as Carnes' previous single, "Bette Davis Eyes."

         The music video was directed by Russell Mulcahy, who had also directed the video for "Bette Davis Eyes." According to Wuench, the video "has some weird carnival activities and one long tongue by some creature of the underworld."

               The song failed to match the chart success of its predecessor, "Bette Davis Eyes", stopping short of the Top 20 in many of the countries where her previous hit had reached pole position.

Sleight of hand

Hands of Fate

Chance you take

Life's a snake

And it's all in the draw of the cards

Lightnin' strike

Breath of life

Red black or white

Watch 'em fall

And it's all in the draw of the cards

And it's all in the draw of the cards

Drop the cards

Watch the eyes

Down and dirty

Let 'em ride

Boulevard

Small cafe

Cavaliers

Pass the day

The joker laughs

From the street

Weaves his web

Bittersweet

Ace is high

Deuce is low

Take the first

The rest should go

And it's all in the draw of the cards

And it's all in the draw of the cards.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED

BOB DYLAN

SONGWRITER: BOB DYLAN

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: WONDER BOYS – MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE

LABEL: COLUMBIA RECORDS

GENRE: ROCK

YEAR: 2000

 

          Robert Dylan(born Robert Allen Zimmerman; May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter, author and visual artist. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career spanning 60 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind"(1963) and "The Times They Are a-Changin'"(1964) became anthems for the civil rights and anti-war movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.

            Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which mainly comprised traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan the following year. The album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". Many of his songs adapted the tunes and phraseology of older folk songs. He went on to release the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most important and influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home(1965), Highway 61 Revisited(1965) and Blonde on Blonde(1966). His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone"(1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music.

         In July 1966, a motorcycle accident led to Dylan's withdrawal from touring. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were released as the collaborative álbum The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes in John Wesley Harding(1967), Nashville Skyline(1969), and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released a series of albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's 1997 album Time Out of Mind marked the beginning of a renaissance for his career. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since then, the most recent being Rough and Rowdy Ways(2020). He also recorded a series of three albums in the 2010s comprising versions of traditional American standards, especially songs recorded by Frank Sinatra. Dylan has toured continuously since the late 1980s on what has become known as the Never Ending Tour.

          Since 1994, Dylan has published eight books of drawings and paintings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 125 million records, making him one of the best-selling musicians of all time. He has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The Pulitzer Prize Board in 2008 awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power". In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".

A worried man with a worried mind

No one in front of me and nothing behind

There's a woman on my lap and she's drinking champagne

Got white skin, got assassin's eyes

I'm looking up into the sapphire tinted skies

I'm well dressed, waiting on the last train

Standing on the gallows with my head in a noose

Any minute now I'm expecting all hell to break loose

People are crazy and times are strange

I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range

I used to care, but things have changed

This place ain't doing me any good

I'm in the wrong town, I should be in Hollywood

Just for a second there I thought I saw something move

Gonna take dancing lessons do the jitterbug rag

Ain't no shortcuts, gonna dress in drag

Only a fool in here would think he's got anything to prove

Lotta water under the bridge, lotta other stuff too

Don't get up gentlemen, I'm only passing through

People are crazy and times are strange

I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range

I used to care, but things have changed

I've been walking forty miles of bad road

If the bible is right, the world will explode

I've been trying to get as far away from myself as I can

Some things are too hot to touch

The human mind can only stand so much

You can't win with a losing hand

Feel like falling in love with the first woman I meet

Putting her in a wheel barrow and wheeling her down the street

People are crazy and times are strange

I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range

I used to care, but things have changed

I hurt easy, I just don't show it

You can hurt someone and not even know it

The next sixty seconds could be like an eternity

Gonna get lowdown, gonna fly high

All the truth in the world adds up to one big lie

I'm love with a woman who don't even appeal to me

Mr. Jinx and Miss Lucy, they jumped in the lake

I'm not that eager to make a mistake

People are crazy and times are strange

I'm locked in tight, I'm out of range

I used to care, but things have changed.

MISSING YOU

DIANA ROSS

SONGWRITER: RICHIE LIONEL B.

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: SWEPT AWAY

LABEL: RCA VICTOR

GENRE: R & B

YEAR: 1984

 

       Diana Ross(born Diane Ernestine Earle Ross, March 26, 1944) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, born in Detroit, Michigan. She rose to fame as the lead singer of the vocal group the Supremes, who became Motown's most successful act during the 1960s and one of the world's best-selling girl groups of all time. They remain the best-charting female group in history, with a total of twelve number-one hit singles on the US Billboard Hot 100, including, "Where Did Our Love Go", "Baby Love", "Come See About Me", and "Love Child".

            Following departure from the Supremes in 1970, Ross embarked on a successful solo career in music, film, television and on stage. Her eponymous debut solo album, featured the U.S. number-one hit "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" and music anthem "Reach Out and Touch (Somebody's Hand)". It was followed with her second solo album, Everything Is Everything, which spawned her first UK number-one single "I'm Still Waiting". She continued her successful solo career by mounting elaborate record-setting world-wide concert tours, starring in a number of highly watched prime-time television specials and releasing hit albums like Touch Me in the Morning(1973), Mahogany(1975) and Diana Ross(1976) and their number-one hit singles, "Touch Me in the Morning", "Theme from Mahogany" and "Love Hangover", respectively. Ross further released numerous top-ten hits into the 1970s, 80s and 90s. She achieved two more US number-one singles, "Upside Down"(1980) and "Endless Love"(1981), as well as UK number-one hit "Chain Reaction"(1986) and UK number-two hit "When You Tell Me That You Love Me"(1991).

         Ross has also ventured into acting, with a Golden Globe Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated performance in the film Lady Sings the Blues(1972); she recorded its soundtrack, which became a number one hit on the U.S. album chart. She also starred in two other feature films, Mahogany(1975) and The Wiz(1978), later acting in the television films Out of Darkness(1994), for which she also was nominated for a Golden Globe Award, and Double Platinum(1999).

          "Missing You" is a song performed by American singer Diana Ross, taken from her 1984 album Swept Away, the song had been written, composed, and produced by Lionel Richie as a tribute to Marvin Gaye, who was murdered by his father earlier that year. The memorial song was released as the album's fourth single on November 13, 1984, by RCA. Richie also provided background vocals on the song.

Since you've been away

I've been down and lonely

Since you've been away

I've been thinking of you

Trying to understand

The reason you left me

What were you going through?

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns

Ooh ooh

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns

As I look around

I see things that remind me

Just to see you smile

Made my heart fill with joy

I'll still recall

All those dreams we shared together

Where did you run to, boy?

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns

Ooh ooh

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns

Sometimes I've wondered

I didn't understand

Just where you were trying to go

Only you knew the plan

And I tried to be there

But you wouldn't let me in

But now you've gone away boy

I feel so broken hearted

I knew the day we started

That we were meant to be

If only you'd let me!

I've cried so many tears

Gotta face now all my fears

We let time slip away

I need you boy

Here today!

There was so much you gave me

To my heart

To my soul

There was so much of your dreams

That were never told

You had so much hope

For a brighter day

Why were you my flower

Plucked away

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns

Ooh ooh

I'm missing you

Tell me why the road turns.

GOODNIGHT SAIGON

BILLY JOEL

SONGWRITER: JOEL BILLY

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: THE NYLON CURTAIN

LABEL: FAMILY PRODUCTIONS

GENRE: POP ROCK

YEAR: 1982

 

        William Martin Joel(born May 9, 1949) is an American musician, composer and songwriter. Commonly nicknamed the "Piano Man" after his first major hit and signature song of the same name as well as the similarly named 1973 album, he has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album in 2001. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, as well as the seventh-best-selling recording artist and the fourth-best-selling solo artist in the United States, with over 160 million records sold worldwide. His 1985 compilation album, Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2, is one of the best-selling albums in the United States.

            Joel was born in 1949 in the Bronx, New York, and grew up on Long Island, both places that influenced his music. Growing up, he took piano lessons at his mother's insistence. After dropping out of high school to pursue a musical career, Joel took part in two short-lived bands, The Hassles and Attila, before signing a record deal with Family Productions and kicking off a solo career in 1971 with his first release Cold Spring Harbor. In 1972, Joel caught the attention of Columbia Records after a live radio performance of the song "Captain Jack" became popular in Philadelphia, prompting him to sign a new record deal with the company and release his second album, Piano Man, in 1973. After releasing the albums Streetlife Serenade and Turnstiles in 1974 and 1976 respectively, Joel released his critical and commercial breakthrough album, The Stranger, in 1977. This album became Columbia's best-selling release, selling over 10 million copies and spawning several hit singles, including "Just the Way You Are", "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)", "Only the Good Die Young", and "She's Always a Woman"; another song on this album, "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant", is Joel's favorite of his own songs and has become a staple of his live shows.

                 The Nylon Curtain is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter Billy Joel, released on September 23, 1982, and produced by Phil Ramone.

        The Nylon Curtain peaked at Nº 7 on the Billboard albums chart, with two million sales in the U.S. It was one of the first albums to be digitally recorded, mixed, and mastered.

We met as soul mates

On Parris Island

We left as inmates

From an asylum

And we were sharp

As sharp as knives

And we were so gung ho

To lay down our lives

 

We came in spastic

Like tameless horses

We left in plastic

As numbered corpses

And we learned fast

To travel light

Our arms were heavy

But our bellies were tight

 

We had no home front

We had no soft soap

They sent us Playboy

They gave us Bob Hope

We dug in deep

And shot on sight

And prayed to Jesus Christ

With all of our might

 

We had no cameras

To shoot the landscape

We passed the hash pipe

And played our Doors tapes

And it was dark

So dark at night

And we held on to each other

Like brother to brother

We promised our mothers we'd write

And we would all go down together

We said we'd all go down together

Yes we would all go down together

 

Remember Charlie

Remember Baker

They left their childhood

On every acre

And who was wrong?

And who was right?

It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

 

We held the day

In the palm

Of our hand

They ruled the night

And the night

Seemed to last as long as six weeks

On Parris Island

 

We held the coastline

They held the highlands

And they were sharp

As sharp as knives

They heard the hum of our motors

They counted the rotors

And waited for us to arrive

And we would all go down together

We said we'd all go down together

Yes we would all go down together.