“I Have Loved You So Long”: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen & “Greensleeves”

In 1974, at the height of their songwriting powers, both Leonard Cohen and Neil Young recorded their own versions of “Greensleeves,” each with new lyrics to the folk song standard. Their draw to the song is understandable as its words of lost love and beguiling melody have been played and recorded hundreds of times.  TheContinue reading ““I Have Loved You So Long”: Neil Young, Leonard Cohen & “Greensleeves””

Summer Painter

In a 2019 interview, Bill Callahan was asked by The Creative Independent about the act of songwriting and if it had altered for Callahan since he first started: “I think for me that’s something that has never changed. When I’m in the flow of writing, I feel like I’m working on my first record allContinue reading “Summer Painter”

Mr. Tambourine Man

Bob Dylan recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man” in January 1965 as the first track on the acoustic side of Bringing It All Back Home, which was released in March 1965. By all accounts, Dylan had written the song a year previously in the first months of 1964 until it was recorded during the Another Side ofContinue reading “Mr. Tambourine Man”

Mississippi

Written by Bill Halley, Jimmie Rodgers recorded the song “Miss the Mississippi” a year before his death in 1933: The song must have had some relevance for the so-called Father of Country Music as he was born and raised in Mississippi before setting off for a life on the road. The song is sentimental asContinue reading “Mississippi”