Grateful Dead - Ripple (1970)

The Grateful Dead began recording their American Beauty album just a few months after the band had released Workingman’s Dead. The close proximity of the two works has led many Deadheads to consider the two albums as a pair. Some of the notable aspects of the album were its abundant folk influences, as well as its improved and more complex harmonies. The latter was in thanks to Crosby, Stills & Nash, who had been giving the Dead tips on how to harmonize and sing together. The two bands had had their social circles intersect more and more at that time, as CSN had been recording their album Déjà Vu at Wally Heider Studios, the same place the Dead were recording American Beauty.

With music written by Jerry Garcia and lyrics by Robert Hunter, the song below was released as the opening track to Side Two of American Beauty. And when the group’s famed “Truckin’” was chosen from that album to be released as a single, it was the song below which accompanied it as its B-Side. Hunter’s lyrics were said to have been written after drinking half of a bottle of retsina; and much of the lyrics seem to have been influenced by the 23rd Psalm of the Bible.



Grateful Dead - Ripple (1970)

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Lyrics:

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

It’s a hand-me-down; the thoughts are broken
Perhaps they’re better left unsung
I don’t know- don’t really care
Let there be songs to fill the air

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

Reach out your hand if your cup be empty
If your cup is full, may it be again
Let it be known there is a fountain
That was not made by the hands of men

There is a road- no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night
And if you go, no one may follow
That path is for your steps alone

Ripple in still water
When there is no pebble tossed
Nor wind to blow

You who choose to lead must follow
But if you fall, you fall alone
If you should stand, then who’s to guide you?
If I knew the way, I would take you home

The Hollies - Separated (1970)

Graham Nash (b. 1942) and Allan Clarke (b. 1942) began singing together when they were schoolmates in Salford, Lancashire, England. Together- and with others- they formed The Hollies and found a great deal of success on both sides of the Atlantic. But near the end of the sixties, Nash was disappointed with the artistic direction of the band and their reluctance to use less pop-oriented and more adult-oriented themes in their music. This major artistic divide led Nash to leave the band and pursue a new musical direction with what would become Crosby, Stills & Nash.

Meanwhile, The Hollies continued without Nash, replacing him with Terry Sylvester. Without Nash, the band continued to be successful, releasing popular songs such as “Sorry Suzanne,” “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother,” “The Air That I Breathe,” and many others.

The song below was released in 1970 on the UK-titled album, Confessions of the Mind; but was not included on the US version, titled Moving Finger. The song was written by Allan Clarke.



The Hollies - Separated (1970)

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Lyrics:

Why- why ignore me?
And keep me out all the time?
Do you think I don’t love you?
It’s only in your mind

(¡Vamo! ¡Vamo!)

You don’t give me a reason
You don’t explain all your ways
It must be the change of the season
That’s all I can say

(¡Vamo!)

Was it something that I said
That made you stop loving me?
I only want for the best
Not to see you in my life
Makes me so unimportant
I can’t live with myself

Gone- gone is tomorrow
I’m only living for today
I never thought you’d ever leave me
Now you have gone away

(¡Vamanos!)

Bob Dylan - Boots of Spanish Leather (1964)

Lyrically, the song below is rumored to have been inspired by the separation of Bob Dylan and his girlfriend of the time, Suze Rotolo. In June 1962, Rotolo left New York and traveled to Perugia, Italy with her mother to study art for six months at the University of Perugia. Besides the song below, the separation of the two is also said to have inspired the songs “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright,” “One Too Many Mornings,” and “Tomorrow Is a Long Time.”

Later in 1962, Dylan traveled to England to fulfill contractual obligations. Once his obligations had been completed, Dylan traveled to Italy, hoping to find Rotolo. Unfortunately, she had already returned to New York- to the apartment they shared together- around the same time that Dylan had left New York bound for England. It was in Italy, alone, where Dylan wrote the song below.

And although Dylan and Rotolo would be reunited in 1963, fate was not kind to their union. In 1963, Rotolo became pregnant, but had an abortion. Between this, Dylan’s affair with Joan Baez, and Dylan not getting along with Rotolo’s family (whom she was quite close with), the couple ended their relationship. The breakup resulted in Dylan’s bitter song “Ballad in Plain D.”

Musically, the song below borrows its melody from English folk singer Martin Carthy's arrangement of the traditional ballad “Scarborough Fair.” Lyrically, it tells a tale loosely inspired by the events above, in which a woman is leaving her lover; and, in an effort to cheer him up, offers to purchase him a gift from where she’s going. Her lover responds by telling her that all he’d like is for her to return to him. But, as time goes on, she informs him that she may not return. And, presumably becoming bitter, he asks her for the expensive “Spanish boots of Spanish leather.”

The first six verses of the song alternate between the dialogue of the man and the woman, beginning with the woman leaving. The last alternating verse (the sixth), as well as the seventh, eighth, and ninth verses, are all from the man who has been left.



Bob Dylan - Boots of Spanish Leather (1964)

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Lyrics:

Oh, I’m sailing away, my own true love
I’m sailing away in the morning
Is there something I can send you from across the sea
From the place that I’ll be landing?

No, there’s nothing you can send me, my own true love
There’s nothing I’m wishing to be owning
Just carry yourself back to me unspoiled
From across that lonesome ocean

Oh, but I just thought you might want something fine
Made of silver or of golden
Either from the mountains of Madrid
Or from the coast of Barcelona

But if I had the stars of the darkest night
And the diamonds from the deepest ocean
I’d forsake them all for your sweet kiss
For that’s all I’m wishing to be owning

That I might be gone a long, old time
And it’s only that I’m asking
Is there something I can send you to remember me by?
To make your time more easy passing

Oh, how can- how can you ask me again?
It only brings me sorrow
The same thing I would want today
I would want again tomorrow

Oh, I got a letter on a lonesome day
It was from her ship a’sailing
Saying, “I don’t know when I’ll be coming back again”
“It depends on how I’m feeling”

If you, my love, must think that a’way
I’m sure your mind is roaming
I’m sure your thoughts are not with me
But with the country to where you’re going

So take heed- take heed of the western winds
Take heed of the stormy weather
And yes, there’s something you can send back to me
Spanish boots of Spanish leather