Two albums down, someothersizablenumber left to go! So where are we on Song by Song? How's it going? What's the 411?
Well, from our point of view things are pretty positive. We've listened to two albums which, while we never thought badly of them, weren't our particular favourites, and come to appreciate them in a different way. For me, that's the most interesting things about the whole project - it's easy to fall into habits, but there are fascinating and obscure gems mixed in with the more famous tracks. I've heard Depot, Depot and Lonely many times, but clearly never listened to them properly (or maybe "fully" is a better term) until we talked about them here.
I'm certain that there are die-hard fans of Closing Time and Heart of Saturday Night who find the whole idea of re-appraising them slightly farcical, and I totally sympathise with that. I anticipate difficulties for myself with Nighthawks - I've listened to it so often over the years that finding new things to say seems almost... bizarre? But with luck the chronological approach will reveal journeys, shifts and progressions that we all may find interesting.
And that's where you folks come in - we've led the discussion up until now, but the input of our guest hosts has really given the show much more breadth, and we'd love to broaden even further by including your thoughts more actively in the recordings. So consider this...
an invitation!
Our email, twitter and the comments on this very blog can, could and should be used to flag up questions, theories and observations about tracks from Nighthawks; weird notes and phrases that have made you question what the song is actually about, the noise that makes you wonder if someone was kicking a cat outside the studio, or the buried meaning that you think everyone else is missing. There's so many associations we tie up with music, especially things we listen to over and over again, and if you've found anything we've talked about interesting, I'm certain that there are perspectives you have which we will find equally engaging.
While me and Martin don't record that frequently, we've talked a lot about how much fun we've been having on this project, and how much we're looking forward to ploughing on with it, into Nighthawks and beyond. I leave you with an odd little discovery - the YouTube playlist of a PBS broadcast from 1975, the year Nighthawks was released, featuring old favourites filmed in... some unusual ways.
Thanks for listening, and we hope to hear from you soon.
Sam