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Tag: Blaze Foley

2020

Tuesday, May 12th

sounds of Austin

Blaze Foley (aka Michael David Fuller, 1949-1989), “If I Could Only Fly” (B. Foley), live (Duct Tape Messiah, 2011)

 

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Another take.

Merle Haggard, live (TV show, performance starts at 1:15), 1986

 

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What makes this song work? As is often the case, it comes down to small sonic details. Listen, for instance, to the first line of the hook (also the title):  “If I could only fly . . .” Repeated f’s (“If,” “fly”), echoing vowels (“I,” “fly”): so much repetition in so few words, yet it sounds so natural. Listen, too, to the small step up, melodically, from the first to the second syllable of “only,” enacting what it would have felt like to fly—”if . . . only.”

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lagniappe

random sights

yesterday, Chicago (Columbus Park)

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2013

Tuesday, January 29th

two takes

“If I Could Only Fly” (B. Foley)

Merle Haggard, TV show (music starts at 1:15), 1986


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Blaze Foley (1949-1989)


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What makes this song work? For me two things stand out; both relate to the first line of the hook (“If I could only fly . . .”). One is the sounds of the words: the repeated “f’s,” the long “i” and the “y.” The other is what happens with the melody: the little step up on the second syllable of “only.” To me it suggests, fleetingly, what it might feel like, as imagined by the singer, to take flight—”if only.”

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lagniappe

Here’s one more take—Blaze, boozy, somebody’s backyard, 1985.

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