Spitball Army

Here is the second playlist inspired by my reading of David Browne’s Fire and Rain: The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, James Taylor, CSNY, and the Lost Story of 1970. The following five written excerpts correspond to the first five songs on this playlist. There are numerous more tidbits of information about these songs and others nestled within the pages of Browne’s book, which I highly recommend.

One day in the summer of 1969, [Art] Garfunkel showed [Charles] Grodin an envelope with [Paul] Simon’s handwritten lyrics to “Bridge Over Troubled Water” scrawled on the back. “Too simple,” Grodin cracked, although Garfunkel told him it would sound better with music around it.

By the time of the Déjà vu sessions, [Graham] Nash and [Joni] Mitchell were living a hippie-domestic life at Mitchell’s house, a life Nash immortalized in “Our House”…

…“Maybe I’m Amazed,” an expression of love and devotion that showcased both McCartney’s most earnest singing and his prowess as a lead guitarist…

“I went into a big discourse about religion,” [Arthur] Janov recalled of one conversation there, “and he [John Lennon] said, ‘Well, God is a concept by which we measure our pain.’ He would take all these complicated things we were talking about and put them into very simple terms, which was his genius.”

[James] Taylor had begun writing another new song, “Fire and Rain,” in London, under less than pleasant circumstances. During the making of James Taylor, a friend from McLean [Hospital] and the Manhattan druggy period, Susan Schnerr, had intentionally overdosed on pills.

Approximate playing time: 50 minutes.

1. Simon & Garfunkel  “Bridge Over Troubled Water”  (1970)
2. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Our House”  (1970)
3. Paul McCartney  “Maybe I’m Amazed”  (1970)
4. John Lennon  “God”  (1970)
5. James Taylor  “Fire and Rain”  (1970)
6. Ringo Starr  “Silent Homecoming”  (1970)
7. George Harrison  “Behind That Locked Door”  (1970)
8. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Helpless”  (1970)
9. Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young  “Ohio”  (1970)
10. David Crosby  “Cowboy Movie”  (1971)
11. James Taylor  “Sweet Baby James”  (1970)
12. Simon & Garfunkel  “For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her”  (1969)
13. Graham Nash  “Simple Man”  (1971)