Try another city babe, another town/
Wherever I have gone the blues keep following down.

“Blues Run the Game” is a song about life on the road being a musician. We’ll encounter several songs with that theme in this list. This is the most bleak. Compare this song with “Breakfast in America” by Supertramp, or Dan Fogelburg’s comments on being on the road in “Leader of the Band”.

Frank was not nearly as financially successful as either Supertramp or Fogelburg, so perhaps that colored his perception of the road. This song doesn’t just seem to be about the road though, Jackson Frank seems depressed, or as he calls it he ‘has the blues’. That is such a cooler way to describe depression.

He talks of crying, drinking, living his life in sin while missing his woman at home. And he doesn’t anticipate the next town will change his habits or mood all that much—it’ll bring more of the same.

“Blues Run the Game” contains all the elements of a great blues song lyrically but also musically: including Franke’s clear deep voice, solid finger-picking acoustic guitar–(an improvised style), a feeling of melancholy and lack of chorus.

Frank died in obscurity. He never really was a road musician for more than a couple years. He was in and out of mental hospitals his adult life and was homeless for some time. He was shot and blinded while homeless. The only surviving video of him performing is a 13 second clip.

There is a beautiful cover version of “Blues Run the Game” by the band Headless Heroes that is a bit more accessible for those who aren’t pure folk fans:

Blues Run The Game Lyrics

Catch a boat to England baby,
Maybe to Spain;
Wherever I have gone, wherever I’ve been and gone,
Wherever I have gone, the blues are all the same.

Send out for whisky baby, send out for gin,
Me and room service, honey,
Me and room service, babe,
Me are room service, well we’re livin’ a life of sin.

When I’m not drinking baby, you are on my mind.
When I’m not sleeping, babe,
When I ain’t sleepin’ mama,
When I’m not sleepin’,
Well you know you find me cryin’.

Find another city baby, another town,
Wherever I have gone, wherever I have gone,
The blues come followin down.

Livin’ is a gamble, baby,
Lovings much the same.
Wherever I have played,
Whenever I throw them dice,
Wherever I have played,
The blues have the run the game.

Maybe tomorrow honey, someplace down the line,
I’ll wake up older,
So much older, mama!
I’ll wake up older and I’ll just, I’ll stop all my tryin’.

Catch a boat to England baby,
Maybe to Spain.
Wherever I have gone, wherever I’ve been and gone,
Wherever I have gone, the blues are all the same.

written by Jackson C Frank

Oh, my sorrows/
Sad tomorrows/
Take me back to my own home.

There are specific, real-life circumstances that set the stage for Marmalade’s “Reflections of My Life”, and help in understanding the meaning. This song was written during the height of the Vietnam War. The song describes a person–probably a soldier–who is sitting somewhere, dying, as day turns to night.

He reflects on the decisions that brought him to this place and what he’d do differently if he could. He wants to go back home. Many of the decisions he has made brings him to tears.  The world is bad and changing but he still wants to live. These reflections make him weary.

“Reflections of My Life” is a sad song sung in a key that is traditionally a happy major key. This creates a really different effect and makes for a unique sounding song that brings about conflicting emotions in the listener.

Marmalade’s “Reflections of My Life” is driven by the rhythm section: the bass and drum both have a solid intro and unique adds throughout. The song sounds like psychedelic rock and it has many of its characteristics. The use of many horned instruments and the harmonies are worth pointing out. The harmonies are excellent throughout, and I consider them the key to the song. The sound is similar to the best the Mamas & Papas put out, but with lyrics that are slightly darker.

Reflections of My Life Lyrics

The changing of sunlight to moonlight
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

The greetings of people in trouble
Reflections of my life
Oh, how they fill my eyes

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

I’m changing, arranging
I’m changing
I’m changing everything
Everything around me

The world is
A bad place
A bad place
A terrible place to live
Oh, but I don’t want to die

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my crying (Oh, my crying)
Feel I’m dying, dying
Take me back to my own home

Oh, my sorrows
Sad tomorrows
Take me back to my own home

Songwriters: William Campbell Jr / Thomas McAleese

Please don’t confront me with my failures/
I had not forgotten them.

Nico is an interesting character and a bit of an enigma. She was a supermodel who took up singing, but she was a real singer…not just someone who was hot. She joined Velvet Underground and was lead singer on some of their best work. She doesn’t have a huge catalog but everything I hear from her sounds good.

“These Days” is a song Nico recorded as a solo artist after leaving Velvet Underground.  Interestingly, this song was written by a 16-year-old Jackson Browne and first recorded by Nico who made it a mild hit. Years later Browne would release his own version, and it was average. Browne would also write another huge Velvet Underground hit higher on this list.

It seems like a lyric about a ramblin’ man might resonate better when sung by Browne, but Nico is the one who captured the heart of the song. Nico sings it like she is down on her luck; she sings it like she wrote it, or at least like she believes the lyrics.

We believe Nico when she says she might not love again, simply due to the tone in her voice. The lyrics tell a tale of a narrator undergoing deep introspection, but Nico’s version comes off more like depressed ambivalence. And it works.

These Days Lyrics

I’ve been out walking
I don’t do too much talking
These days, these days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do
And all the times I had the chance to.

I’ve stopped my rambling
I don’t do too much gambling
These days, these days
These days I seem to think about
How all the changes came about my ways
And I wonder if I’d see another highway

I had a lover
I don’t think I’ll risk another
These days, these days
And if I seem to be afraid
To live the life that I have made in song
It’s just that I’ve been losing so long

I’ve stopped my dreaming
I won’t do too much scheming
These days, these days
These days I sit on corner stones
And count the time in quarter tones to ten
Please don’t confront me with my failures
I had not forgotten them

written by Jackson Browne