tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post3266319962818696313..comments2024-03-19T19:34:23.525-07:00Comments on Comparative Video 101: Remembering John Stewart #2 - "Chilly Winds"Jim Moranhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14198555155411979643noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-39961380540592884932021-12-04T14:26:32.935-08:002021-12-04T14:26:32.935-08:00Thanks for the reflections "never", and ...Thanks for the reflections "never", and delighted that you're with me in the "can't" camp. It just makes so much more sense that way. I share the same reactions, including thinking of John as "new" - and though most of us would never try to identify a single "favorite song," this one would be on any sort of list that I'd ever make up of tunes that have meant the most to me through my lengthening life. <br /><br />Regards, <br />Jim Jim Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198555155411979643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-3963201192212883702021-11-23T13:19:05.261-08:002021-11-23T13:19:05.261-08:00Came across this wonderful blog when a line from C...Came across this wonderful blog when a line from Chilly Winds came to me out of nowhere and I felt the need to go back in time. I am old enough that I still think of John Stewart as the "new" member of the KT, but my teenage self appears with full intensity to say that only "can't" fully expresses the song's poignance and longing. If he "can" forget, the singer can ramble along happily to a new life, but if he "can't" he can travel forever but is always bound to the loss.neverreallyleftthesixtieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01860667714309952952noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-32492641408995326272017-10-16T11:59:48.724-07:002017-10-16T11:59:48.724-07:00Hi George - This has been an ongoing conversation ...Hi George - This has been an ongoing conversation with my folk friends and me as well. So - Stewart and Nick Reynolds ran a "fantasy camp" in Scottsdale, AZ between the years 2000 and their deaths in 2008 (the camp has continued under sole surviving original KT member Bob Shane), and I've been a part of it every year since 2003. Naturally, I asked John Stewart this very question, and his reply doesn't resolve the issue, exactly. His response was to the effect that he wrote it as "can't" but that the KT's 1962 <i>College Concert</i> recording used "can" - and that as you note both work well with different shadings of meaning. His last word on it was "Sing it the way it means the most to you."<br /><br />And I too regard it as one of the loveliest songs I've ever heard, 55 years after I first heard it.<br /><br />Regards,<br /><br />Jim MoranJim Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198555155411979643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-3830088990508205512017-10-13T04:52:41.695-07:002017-10-13T04:52:41.695-07:00Playing "Chilly Winds" with a couple of ...Playing "Chilly Winds" with a couple of friends yesterday led to a difference of opinion over whether the correct lyric is "If I can forget you" or "If I can't forget you" (I've always thought "can't"). There is a kind of logic to either of the options if you think about it carefully. Nearly all lyrics on the web give "can" if you look under Kingston Trio, but some of the John Stewart lyrics give "can't" and a few give "can". Has anyone seen the official and original score? Listening to the KT3 sounds a bit like "can" but that may just be a short, hard "a" vowel in "can't". Whatever, it's one of the most beautiful songs of all time in its own genre, I feel.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07504909421494218263noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-83903692999542813292017-02-12T15:34:50.089-08:002017-02-12T15:34:50.089-08:00Any Chance you've got Revenge of the Budgie an...Any Chance you've got Revenge of the Budgie and could do a show on it?Jim Fixhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04332280258839337117noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-71132087834035838642011-01-14T18:10:07.879-08:002011-01-14T18:10:07.879-08:00I think in this thoughtful piece, that the CW vers...I think in this thoughtful piece, that the CW version is the best-since I think this is a melancholy song-and should be sung that way-like a dirge-not a ballad or a love song-slan, Jim H.greenhawk46https://www.blogger.com/profile/06438613343195105866noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-43196164827240482942011-01-14T06:54:30.931-08:002011-01-14T06:54:30.931-08:00Agreed Pete - and I remember you making similar co...Agreed Pete - and I remember you making similar comments about fiften years ago when we talked on the phone a few times. I felt the same way about a number of JS's best songs - though on a this one and many of the later ones (see his last CD "The day The River Sang from 2006) he hit some home runs with complete songs of substantial length.Jim Moranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14198555155411979643noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1875980412212682099.post-30918405037434592872011-01-14T03:47:35.254-08:002011-01-14T03:47:35.254-08:00Most interesting thing about this to me is the com...Most interesting thing about this to me is the completeness of the song and the number of verses Stewart and Phillips came up with. My ex was a John Stewart fan and had four of his early solo albums -- One I think was eponymous, then Willard, Through a Glass Darkly (?) and Lonesome Picker. <br /><br />I liked his songs and played a couple of them myself, but I always thought he left too many songs uncompleted -- once you looked beyond intros, repetitions and breaks, you realized that he'd really only written two verses and a bridge. Sometimes not "two." Great hooks but not much meat.<br /><br />I always wanted to pair him up with Phil Ochs, who would go just the opposite direction, writing long, drifting songs that were brilliant but needed to be cut by about a third.<br /><br />Without having heard all those CDs, I can't make a sweeping comment on his entire corpus of work, but, based on this, I'd say Phillips made a good partner.Mikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16807727819590358834noreply@blogger.com