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Fine anni '90: periodo di massimo fulgore per la dittatura musical-mediatica di MTV: gli anni di Britney Spears, degli Nsync, dei Backstreet Boys e via discorrendo; anni in cui i Blink-182 conquistavano i cuori dei teenagers "ribelli" e band di talento come i Fastball venivano allegramente sfanculate dopo un singolo: in quel periodo era davvero raro che gente dotata di reale talento riuscisse ad arrivare alle vette più alte della popolarità musicale, e giustamente chi ci è riuscito aveva il sacrosanto diritto ad un'autocelebrazione anche sfarzosa e ostentata.
Prendiamo ad esempio Sheryl Crow: nata nel 1962 a Kennett, Missouri, nel cuore della provincia USA ed arrivata al successo all'età di 31 anni dopo una lunga e difficile gavetta, con tre album in studio all'attivo e più di otto milioni di dischi venduti, cifra forse mediocre per una parvenu burinotta che gira video seminuda ansimando come una vitella in calore ma di assoluto valore per una cantautrice, musicista ed interprete con i controfiocchi (tristissimo ma vero) nel 1999 decide di celebrarsi in sede live, e fin qui tutto normale: il primo album da vivo della carriera della signora Crow è registrato a Central Park, NYC, e già la scelta di questa prestigiosa locazione fa capire le mire e le intenzioni della Diva del Missouri; nella scaletta del live figurano canzoni come "Gold Dust Woman" (Fleetwood Mac), "Happy" (Rolling Stones), "White Room" (Cream) e "Tombstone Blues" (Bob Dylan), guest star dell'evento le Dixie Chicks, Sarah McLachlan, Stevie Nicks, Eric Clapton e Keith Richards.
Tutto questa parata di stelle presentata così può anche sembrare un inutile esibizione perfino un po'arrivista, se non si considera in fatto che qui abbiamo a che fare con Sheryl Crow, una che tutto il successo a cui è arrivata l'ha arpionato con le unghie e con i denti, e che anche in sede live sa esprimere tutto il suo carisma e il suo personale credo artistico: sostenuta da un'ottima band, SC (voce, chitarra acustica, chitarra elettrica, basso, armonica) dà vita ad una spumeggiante performance in cui si esalta in "White Room", canzone già di per sé potente ed evocativa che acquisisce un particolare tocco quasi esotico grazie alla voce di Sheryl che si amalgama alla perfezione con quella del mitico Slowhand e nello sferzante epilogo "Tombstone Blues", tributo ad uno dei suoi più grandi ispiratori interpretato con la giusta energia e carica abrasiva; ma questo è soprattutto un concerto di Sheryl Crow, che si mostra in tutta la sua poliedricità, con la sua voce inimitabile che spazia da un registro all'altro con lo stile e il savoir faire tipico dei più grandi, esprimendo di volta in volta diversi stati d'animo: ci si trova davanti la coinvolgente carica di energia dell'opener "Everyday Is A Winding Road" e i ritmi più sporchi e sfacciati di "A Change Would Do You Good", "There Goes The Neighborhood" e di "All I Wanna Do", riletta in chiave talking-blues e molto più matura e graffiante rispetto alla versione in studio, e se non stupisce affatto la perfetta riuscita di un anthem da arena come "If It Makes You Happy", con la sua intelaiatura chitarristica che quasi incita l'ascoltatore a seguire SC nel cantare a squarciagola quel chorus memorabile sorprende in positivo una stupenda ed autoironica "Leaving Las Vegas", interpretata con leggerezza, come una soffice cantilena quasi parlata dal retrogusto dolcemente etilico, che strappa un sorriso ed un piacevole senso di appagatezza, quasi di pace interiore.
Ovviamente non possono mancare manifesti come la dolcissima "Strong Enough", qui sostenuta dai cori della Dixie Chicks, che conquista fin da subito con la sua schietta e fresca semplicità e come "My Favorite Mistake", a mio parere una delle canzoni più elegantemente sexy e conturbanti di sempre sia a livello musicale che di testo, che viene affiancata da due gioielli meno conosciuti come "It Don't Hurt" e "The Difficult Kind", magistralmente duettata con Sarah McLachlan, entrambi provenienti da "The Globe Sessions", l'album più difficile dell'intera carriera di Sheryl Crow; probabilmente il sottoscritto avrebbe preferito un live che fosse solo ed esclusivamente di SC, magari che includesse piccoli capolavori come "Solidify", "The Na-Na Song", "Oh Marie" e "Free Man", tanto per citarne alcune; concepito son la formula "Sheryl Crow and Friends" questo album perde forse un po' di unicità, ma va interpretato con una precisa chiave di lettura; ovvero come la dimostrazione di forza di un'artista nel pieno della carriera, che con uno show maestoso e infarcito di ospitate illustri vuole dimostrare che è ancora possibile fare della bella musica, della musica vera, e riuscire ad arrivare ad un grande pubblico (purtroppo mai abbastanza grande, soprattutto nel vecchio continente di Katy Perry e Amy Winehouse), questa è una mia personale interpretazione, ma a ben vedere sarebbe tipica dello stile di Sheryl Crow, uno stile che da quando ho avuto modo di conoscere non ho più smesso di amare e apprezzare, per cui almeno per oggi né Whiskey ne Cointreau, sono ubriaco di Sheryl Crow.
Elenco tracce e testi
01 Everyday Is A Winding Road (05:29)
I hitched a ride with a vending machine repair man
He said he's been down this road more than twice
He was high on intellectualism
I've never been there but the brochure looks nice
Jump in, let's go
Lay back, enjoy the show
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low,
These are the days when anything goes
[Chorus]
Everyday is a winding road
I get a little bit closer
Everyday is a faded sign
I get a little bit closer feeling fine
He's got a daughter he calls Easter
She was born on a Tuesday night
I'm just wondering why I feel so all alone
Why I'm a stranger in my own life
Jump in, let's go
Lay back, enjoy the show
Everybody gets high, everybody gets low
These are the days when anything goes
[Chorus]
I've been swimming in a sea of anarchy
I've been living on coffee and nicotine
I've been wondering if all the things I've seen
Were ever real, were ever really happening
[Chorus]
03 The Difficult Kind (05:56)
I think I was wrong
I think you were right
That all my angry words
Will keep me up at night
And through the old screen door
I still can hear you say
Oh, Honey won't you stop
Treating me that way
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
Cause babe I've changed
Tell it to me slow
Tell me with your eyes
If anyone should know
How to let it slide
I swear I can see you
Coming up the drive
And there ain't nothing like regret
To remind you you're alive
Chorus
I crossed the canyon a thousand times
But never noticed what was mine
What you'll remember of me tonight
Well, it almost makes me cry
Yeah, it almost makes me cry
Oh ballbreaking moon and ridiculing stars
The older I get, the closer you are
Don't you have somewhere that you need to be
Instead of hanging here making a fool of me
If you could only see
What love has made of me
Then I'd no longer be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see the change in me
If you could only see
What love has made of me
But I'll forever be in your mind
The difficult kind
But you won't see
No you won't see
The good in me
But babe I've changed
Cause babe I've changed
05 There Goes The Neighborhood (05:32)
Hey let's party, let's get down
Let's turn the radio on, this is the meltdown
Get out the camera, take a picture
Drag queens and the freaks are all out on the town
And cowboy Jim's in bed
Nursing a swollen head
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene anyhow
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the fuss was about
Now there goes the neighborhood
Photo chick made to look sickly
Is standing in her panties in the shower
She plays the guitar in the bathroom
While the police dust her mother's plastic flowers
And Schoolboy John's in jail
Making a killing through the U.S. Mail
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene anyhow
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the fuss was about
Now there goes the neighborhood...
Neighborhood...
Well there goes the neighborhood
This is the movie of a screenplay
Of a book about a girl who meets a junkie
Messenger gets shot down
Just for carrying the message to her flunkie
We can't be certain who the villains are
'Cause everyone's so pretty
But the after-party's sure to be a wing-ding
As it moves into your city, oh...
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene anyhow
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the stink was about
Sunshine Sally and Peter Ustanov
Don't like the scene anyhow
I dropped acid on a Saturday night
Just to see what the fuss was about
Now there goes the neighborhood...
Hood...
Now there goes the neighborhood
There goes the neighborhood
08 Leaving Las Vegas (07:21)
Life springs eternal
On a gaudy neon street
Not that I care at all
I spent the best part
Of my losing streak
In an Army Jeep
For what I can't recall
Oh, I'm banging on my TV set
And I check the odds and I
And I place my bet
I pour a drink
And I pull the blinds
I wonder what I'll find
I'm Leaving Las Vegas
Lights so bright
Palm sweat, blackjack
On a Saturday night
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving for good, for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm leaving for good
Used to be I could drive up to
Barstow for the night
Find some crossroad trucker
To demonstrate his might
But these days it seems
Nowhere is far enough away
So I'm leaving Las Vegas today
I'm Leaving Las Vegas
Lights so bright
Palm sweat, blackjack
On a Saturday night
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving for good, for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm standing in the middle of the desert
Waiting for my ship to come in
But now no joker, no jack, no king
Can take this loser hand
And make it win
I'm Leaving Las Vegas
Lights so bright
Palm sweat, blackjack
On a Saturday night
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving for good, for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm leaving for good
I quit my job as a dancer
At the Lido des Girls
Dealing blackjack until one or two
Such a muddly line between
The things you want
And the things you have to do
I'm Leaving Las Vegas
Lights so bright
Palm sweat, blackjack
On a Saturday night
Leaving Las Vegas
Leaving for good, for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm leaving for good
I'm leaving Las Vegas
And I won't be back
No I won't be back
Not this time
09 Strong Enough (03:36)
God, I feel like hell tonight
Tears of rage I cannot fight
I'd be the last to help you understand
Are you strong enough to be my man?
Nothing's true and nothing's right
So let me be alone tonight
Cause you can't change the way I am
Are you strong enough to be my man?
Lie to me
I promise I'll believe
Lie to me
But please don't leave, leave, don't leave
I have a face I cannot show
I make the rules up as I go
So try and love me if you can
Are you strong enough to be my man?
My man......
Are you strong enough? (to be my man....)
Are you strong enough? (to be my man....)
Are you strong enough? (my.....man)
When I've shown you that I just don't care
When I'm throwing punches in the air
When I'm broken down and I can't stand
Would you be man enough to be my man?
Lie to me
I promise, I'll believe
Lie to me
But please don't leave
10 It Don't Hurt (05:56)
It don't hurt like it did.
I can sing my song again.
It don't hurt like it did.
I can sing my song again.
I scraped the paper off the wall.
I put down carpet in the hall.
I left no trace of you at all.
And I can sing my song again.
I don't dream 'cuz I don't sleep.
The moon is hanging like your hat.
The sun comes up, well I don't see
Curtains tied up like a bat.
The electric man looks good today.
Maybe not, well I'm trying hard.
Trying hard to feel that way,
The electric man's a good place to start.
Took your paintings off the wall.
That one of me that you called doll.
I added on 'cuz the house was feeling small.
Now I can sing my song again.
I don't think of you no more
Except for everyday or two.
I don't think of you no more
Except for in between the sun and moon.
Packed up and moved out after all.
Bulldozed the house and watched it fall.
That blessed sight I still recall
I can sing my song again
I can sing my song again
It don't hurt like it did, it hurts worse.
Who do I kid?
(Sheryl Crow/Jeff Trott)
11 A Change Would Do You Good (05:18)
Ten years living in a paper bag
Feedback baby, he's a flipped out cat
He's a platinum canary, drinking falstaff beer
Mercedes Ruehl in a rented Lear
Bottom feeder, insincere
Profit low-fi pioneer
Sell the house and go to school
Get a young girlfriend, daddy's jewel
A change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
God's little gift is on the rag
Poster girl person in a fashion mag
Canine, feline, Jekyll and Hyde
Ya wear your fake fur on the inside
Queen of South Beach, aging blues
Dinner's at six, wear your cement shoes
I thought you were singing your heart out to me
Your lips were syncing and now I see
A change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
''[Interlude]''
A change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
Chasing dragons with plastic swords
Jack-off Jimmy everybody wants more
Scully and Angel on the kitchen floor
And I'm calling Buddy on the Ouija board
I've been thinking 'bout catching a train
Leave my phone machine by the radar range
"Hello it's me, I'm not at home,
If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone"
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
"Hello it's me, I'm not at home,
If you'd like to reach me, leave me alone"
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
Oh I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
Oh I think a change (a change'd do you good) would do you good
(A change'd do you good)
13 If It Makes You Happy (05:03)
I've been long, a long way from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos,
And drank til I was thirsty again
We went searching through thrift store jungles
Found Geronimo's rifle, Marilyn's shampoo
And Benny Goodman's corset and fan
Well, o.k. I made this up
I promised you I'd never give up
Chorus:
If it makes you happy
It can't be that bad
If it makes you happy
Then why the hell are you so sad
You get down, real low down
You listen to Coltrane, derail your own train
Well who hasn't been there before?
I come round, around the hard way
Bring you comics in bed, scrape the mold off the bread
And serve you french toast again
Well, o.k. I still get stoned
I'm not the kind of girl you'd take home
Chorus x2
We've been far, far away from here
Put on a poncho, played for mosquitos
And everywhere in between
Well, o.k. we get along
So what if right now everything's wrong?
Chorus
14 All I Wanna Do (05:59)
This ain't no disco
It ain't no country club either
This is L.A.
All I wanna do is
Have a little fun before I die
Says the man next to me
Out of nowhere
It's apropos of nothing
He says his name is William
But I'm sure he's Bill or Billy
Or Mac or Buddy
And he's plain ugly to me
And I wonder if he's ever had
A day of fun in his whole life
We are drinking beer
At noon on Tuesday
In the bar that faces
The giant car wash
The good people of the world
Are washing their cars
On their lunch breaks
Hosing and scrubbing
As best they can
In skirts and suits
And they drive their
Shiny Datsuns and Buicks
Back to the phone company,
Record store too
Well, they're nothing like Billy and me
Cause all I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up
Over Santa Monica Boulevard
I like a good beer buzz
Early in the morning
And Billy likes to peel the labels
From his bottles of Bud
He shreds them on the bar
Then he lights every match
In an oversized pack
Letting each one burn
Down to his thick fingers
Before blowing and
Cursing them out
He's watching the bottles of Bud
As they spin on the floor
And a happy couple enters the bar
Dangerously close to one another
The bartender looks up from his want ads
But all I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up
Over Santa Monica Boulevard
Otherwise, the bar is ours
The day and the night
And the car wash, too
The matches and the Buds
And the clean and dirty cars
The sun and the moon
But all I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling I'm not the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
I got a feeling the party has just begun
All I wanna do is have some fun
I won't tell you that you'e the only one
All I wanna do is have some fun
Until the sun comes up
Over Santa Monica Boulevard
Until the sun comes up
Over Santa Monica Boulevard
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