I'm Going to Roam No More

Artist: Jeanie Greene
Album: Mary Called Jeanie Greene
Song: "Going Home"

Someone named RomeoSidVicious wrote an entry at the Nine Bullets blog about funeral songs. As in what songs you would have played at your funeral. A morbid playlist to be sure, but being someone who plans to micromanage the set list at his wedding, selecting the soundtrack for my great sendoff doesn't seem unreasonable.

The Nine Bullets post directed readers to choose five songs, and the first four I chose were:

"Meet Me in Heaven" by Johnny Cash
"Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" by Willie Nelson
"When I Cross Over" by Tift Merritt
"Shooting Star" by Bob Dylan

I knew the fifth song would be "Going Home," which has an entire backstory that can be read here. Annie Haslam's bombastic performance is my favorite, but I want to share another version I found during a recent rummaging of dollar bins. Jeanie Greene, wife of Marlin Greene, used "Going Home" as the caboose track to her lone LP, and this rendition befits the album's substantial Muscle Shoals roots.

When You Go Away, That'll Be Too Soon

Artist: Steve Young

Album: To Satisfy You

Song: "The River and the Swan"

For hours, for days, for weeks I packed. Record crates, poster tubes, cartons of books, hangers full of jackets, suitcases crammed with clothes, piles of photographs, stereo equipment, towers of compact discs, bed, dresser, and nightstand. The night before the move to California I still found myself playing God with stray belongings, what to bring and what to leave behind. When the bric-a-brac became too minute, my knees buckled and I collapsed on the staircase leading to my mom's basement, a barnacle-crusted anchor colliding with water's sandy bottom. I heaved heavy tears into the crook of my arm. Appearing in the frame of the staircase, my mom wanted to know why I was crying. Was I OK? I wondered how I would find homes for the last details in these dwindling minutes and was I insane for deciding to move so far west, a plan that still carried the fragrance of wet paint?

Mom had found a few issues of Playboy in a gym bag the first time we talked on the creaky and carpeted stairs. That incident was a dozen years prior. I felt embarrassment then; now I felt doubt's tugging undertow. Sitting at my side, mom reassured me that I was making the right decision to try something bold, to see another place in this world. If the noble adventure ever stopped being fun or meaningful, she would still be here to welcome me in her arms.

Perhaps I cried enough for mother and son. Mom remained of resolute voice even as she helped send her only child out into the great expanse. I'm sure her tears fell hard after I set out the next morning, car and trailer rumbling for parts unknown and future unimagined. This particular Steve Young song, "The River and the Swan," reminds me of the stoic facade a parent must have when the nest becomes too small, but the love remains unconditional.

Pass That Pipe

Artist: Bob Frank

Album: Bob Frank

Song: "Judas Iscariot"

In his book God Is Red, Vine Deloria Jr. noted:

Theories abound as to the exact origin of the Jesus movement, but at least one reputable theory is that it came as a desperate effort by young people to get off drugs....Jesus became a drug substitute for a significant number of people....Jesus was a perpetual "high"...

Perhaps Bob Frank was a free-spirited archaeologist, unafraid to dirty his patched bellbottoms as he explored damp caves and forgotten city sites. He seems to have brushed stringy hair from his eyes long enough to discover an unknown gospel, one written by one of Jesus's more progressive disciples. In this little-studied manuscript, Jesus did not just turn water into wine. He also may have turned grass into, um, hash.

Pushin' That Diesel Since Early Dawn

Artist: Bud Brewer
Album: Big Bertha, the Truck Driving Queen
Song: "Caffein, Nicotine, Benzedrine (and Wish Me Luck)"

Corduroy Mountain is overdue for another truck-driving song, so let's turn to Mr. Bud Brewer and this ode to one long hauler's favorite passengers. Notice the energetic pedal steel seems to personify the frantic pump of an overworked heart, and the sawing fiddles imply the motion of a forearm wiping a torrent of sweat from the brow. Please forgive the misspelling in the song title; your spell checker would be fried too with a highway diet consisting of such a copious amount of stimulants. Listen to his story and wish the man good luck. Sounds like he needs it.

No Need to Take No for an Answer

Artists: Bread

Album: On the Waters

Song: "Blue Satin Pillow"

I'm posting this fine example of firm rock for my friend Josh. During a recent brunch at Langer's Deli, he expressed his desire to hear Bread rocking out harder than their classic singles would allow. Josh mentioned scouring the blogs for concert bootlegs where he rightly expected the band to get fuzzier and wilder. But I think "Blue Satin Pillow" off of Bread's sophomore platter is downright thunderous make-out music.

Offer on a Hundred Beautiful Memories

Artist: Wayne Parker

Album: Oklahoma Twilight

Song: "This Van's for Sale"

Boogie vans crisscrossed America in the 1970s. The shaggy occupants searched for another breathtaking sunset, keg party, or airbrush competition. These rectangular steeds with their shag interiors were the first hybrid vehicles, running on a mixture of gas, grass, or ass. That last ingredient surely sparked many impromptu romances and road trips. The great Sammy Johns memorialized this bellbottomed era with his classic "Chevy Van." But what happened when the gas tank of love hit "E" and there were no more tokes to be had on the romance roach? Wayne Parker gives us the tragic answer song.

You Don't Hear My Voice

Artists: Black Grass

Album: Black Grass

Song: "Lock, Stock, and Barrel"

For someone whose patron saint of losers and unrequited love is Paul Westerberg, the soaring beauty of "Lock, Stock and Barrel" hits like the surprise of finding a $50 bill on the ground. My soundtrack for desperate yearning has always been hoarse, bleary-eyed, and coated in stubble, but Black Grass offers a compelling flipside that shows even wallflowers can stand elegant and proud.