Dec 23, 2014

Top 20 Songs 2014: Hurray for the Riff Raff - The Body Electric


Small Town Heroes may not sound like what you’d expect from a New Orleans album, yet it is anchored in that city’s sense of musical adventure. Segarra learned her trade playing in street bands and busking on corners, which has given her a broad musical vocabulary. She arranges and produces these songs as eloquently as she writes them, often using just a few instruments to convey a surprisingly full sound. “Blue Ridge Mountain” opens the album with her clawhammer banjo and what sounds like a clogger working together as a makeshift rhythm section, with Yosi Perlstein’s spry fiddle dancing around them. “No One Else” is built on a folk-rock foundation, yet it pitches and yaws on a rolling piano bassline that might have been learned from an old Fats Domino or Professor Longhair record. PF




Said you're gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river
Shoot me down, put my body in the river
While the whole world sings, sing it like a song
The whole world sings like there's nothing going wrong

He shot her down, he put her body in the river
He covered her up but I went to get her
And I said, "My girl, what happened to you now?"
I said, "My girl, we gotta stop it somehow"

Oh, and tell me what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's so sick and sad?
Tell me what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's so gone mad?

He's gonna shoot me down, put my body in the river
Cover me up with the leaves of September
Like an old sad song, you heard it all before
Well, Delia's gone but I'm settling the score

Oh, and tell me what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for a world that's just dying slow?
Tell me what's a man with a rifle in his hand
Gonna do for his daughter when it's her turn to go?

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