Tracy Chapman

Between working there for several years, commuting through there on the T, and just generally liking to hang out there before it became all gentrified, I have spent a lot of time in Harvard Square over the past several decades.

There have always been buskers performing for basket-cash in Harvard Square, but most of them were just part of the eclectic scene. You might catch part of a lyric that sounded familiar or some really good guitar playing, but then you’d walk on to wherever it was you were headed.

But there was one busker I do remember who stopped me dead in my tracks one day until she had finished her song, and I was reminded of her by Walter Panova’s Facebook post:

“Singer/songwriter Tracy Chapman (b. 1964) is pictured here busking in Harvard Sq. while attending nearby Tufts University in 1985. She also played in some of the nearby coffee shops where she was discovered and ultimately signed to a record deal after graduating. By 1988 she had recorded a successful album and was a multi-Grammy winner.”

The voice, the command of her instrument, and especially her presence stopped a lot of people that day and even now when I hear one of her songs I recall that sunny afternoon in Harvard Square and the discovery of an artist whose presence and power will always be part of my life.

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Happy Birthday, Bob

My Back Pages

Crimson flames tied through my ears, rollin' high and mighty traps
Pounced with fire on flaming roads using ideas as my maps
"We'll meet on edges, soon, " said I, proud 'neath heated brow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

Half-wracked prejudice leaped forth, "rip down all hate, " I screamed
Lies that life is black and white spoke from my skull, I dreamed
Romantic facts of musketeers foundationed deep, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

Girls' faces formed the forward path from phony jealousy
To memorizing politics of ancient history
Flung down by corpse evangelists, unthought of, though somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now

A self-ordained professor's tongue too serious to fool
Spouted out that liberty is just equality in school
"Equality, " I spoke the word as if a wedding vow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand at the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy in the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats, mutiny from stern to bow
Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking I had something to protect
Good and bad, I define these terms quite clear, no doubt, somehow
Ah, but I was so much older then I'm younger than that now

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Bob Dylan

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Lydia Pense And Cold Blood

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​“LYDIA PENSE -1970s - Celebrating 50 years with Cold Blood, Lydia Pense is one of San Francisco's great soul shouters who has never received her due. She was City born and bred until age 10 when she moved to the peninsula. Janis Joplin suggested that Pense audition with the band Cold Blood for promoter Bill Graham, and the band was one of his first signings to Fillmore Records (issued on the San Francisco label). Their initial eponymous album "Cold Blood," was hugely successful landing at #23 on Billboard magazine's album charts in December 1969. There were five more albums that gained national attention: "Sisyphus," (1971); "First Taste of Sin," (1972); "Thriller!" (1973); "Lydia," (1974), and "Lydia Pense & Cold Blood," (1976) In terms of live performances, Pense and Cold Blood opened for some big names including Canned Heat at Fillmore West in late 1968; Albert King at Fillmore West in February 1969; Iron Butterfly in July 1969; Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young at Winterland in November 1969, Lee Michaels at Winterland in April 1972, It's a Beautiful Day in February 1973, and Lee Michaels again in June 1973 among other gigs. Cold Blood broke up in the late 1970s and Pense took several years off to raise her daughter. She revived the band in 1988 and has been recording and touring ever since. I recall seeing Cold Blood at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young show, at Winterland, where Pence and the band tore the sucker down. Why she wasn't more of a star is a mystery to me, because she possessed the chops and the swag to rock with the best of them. Is it possible that she got lost in the shadow of Janis Joplin whose meteoric rise swept away virtually everyone in her path in the late '60s? Whatever the case, Lydia Pense has a legion of fans out there ready to show her the love, and they have over a half century.”

Tim Henneberry/San Francisco Music

The Summer Knows

 

 

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The summer smiles

The summer knows

And unashamed

She sheds her clothes

The summer smoothes

The restless sky

And lovingly

She warms the sand

On which you lie

The summer knows

The summer's wise

She sees the doubts

Within your eyes

And so she takes

Her Summertime

Tells the moon to wait

And the sun to linger

Twist the world

Round her summer finger

Lets you see

The wonder of it all

And if you've learned

Your lesson well

There's little more

For her to tell

One last caress

It's time to dress

For fall...

 "The Summer Knows"

Marilyn and Alan Bergman