Friday, April 21, 2006

Song of the Week 4/21/06

George Harrison - "Cheer Down"

I have sold a lot of CDs over the years to a) pay for beer; b) pay for moving to New York; c) to pay for vodka; d) to clear space out of my tiny apartment and e) to pay off my credit card debt. The biggest regret I have in selling discs over the past 13 years is selling George Harrison's Best of Dark Horse 1976-1989. At the time I sold it to my co-worker Sal I had no idea it was out of print, and worth much more than the 7 bucks I sold it for. I kicked myself a few times (especially when Harrison passed away in 2001), but when we reported that his back catalog was being remastered I was happy. I became very upset when that remastering did not include the three new songs that were on Best of Dark Horse. "Poor Little Girl" and "Cockamamie Business" are good songs, considering they were recorded specifically for the compilation. And "Cheer Down," well, that's one of my favorite Harrison solo songs ever. It came out a few months before the compilation on the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2. That summer was my first away from home, as I worked at the college station in Ithaca. I listened to a lot of music that summer when I was not on the air, and I couldn't get enough of "Cheer Down."

Finally this week I asked Sal if he could bring Best of Dark Horse back in so I could burn it into my Itunes. He just so happened to have it in his desk, so I snatched it and walked briskly to my computer. A few minutes later I was never so happy to hear the slide guitar of George Harrison. Pardon the cliche, but cheering down never cheered me up so much.

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