Dueling Hits - Anne Murray | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: I have initiated this new segment on BCN, where I determine the Best Music Ever ... and, 'with a little help from my friends'. I do this from my opinion, for what that is worth, where I will measure the best music that I am familiar with.

    I do this for two reasons: 1) I want to expose the best music that I know to the rest of us. 2) Popular Music today may be the very worst it has ever been, and that is saying much, since I lived through Disco.

    For a list of all of the contributions to this series, please click here.

    As previously mentioned, there will be others who share their favorites with our BCN readers, in particular here, Bobby Tony.

Dueling Hits – Anne Murray

   I rarely listen to my playlist of songs even though the entire library is in my front pocket most of the time.  Music has always been a grounding force for me. For years, it took the place of actually feeling emotion. A song can cover the range of emotions in about three minutes and then move on.  That was about all the time I devoted to contemplative thought before retirement.

   Least I give the wrong impression, I have always been somewhat of a below the surface thinker, it is just that I did not devote much time to it.  This Dueling Hits series started out as a written reflection of certain songs and / or artist that played a part in my life.

   For the last few years, I have enjoyed researching and reading about the story behind artist and songs.  I have always been amazed at the ability of songwriters, poets and professional writers ability to "Turn a Phrase."

   Anne Murray is a Canadian Singer who is only a month or so older than I.  She was very popular in the 1970's.  She is one of the few who was able to leave the music and entertainment business on her own terms. She has not toured or sang in public for almost ten years.

   So, if you are still with me, what prompted me to write this article on Anne Murray. I woke up early this morning like I usually do (3:00AM) and sat at the keyboard writing free form thoughs while waiting for the coffee. I usually have a news show on for background. I guess I am afraid of the "Sounds of Silence." One news story after the other was bad news. My habit of rotating between left and right political channels only served to reinforce the fact that there is just too much bad news.

   Then, it hit me.  A few seconds later, Itunes was open on the computer and Anne Murray was singing “A Little Good News” one of her last hist in 1983. The song is one of those songs that was coined by three professional songwriters during a lull in their writing session

Rory Bourke wasn't even supposed to be working with Charlie Black and Tommy Rocco the morning they wrote "A Little Good News", but his scheduled writing partner canceled at the last minute. When Bourke joined the other two, they were watching Bryant Gumbel on "The Today Show." Black remembers that on that particular day, every news story was worse than the one preceding it. The three tunesmiths were sitting around with their first cup of coffee, watching the program and shaking their heads about how bad things were (just like now, over thirty years later) and Charlie said, “Wow, we sure could use a little good news today.” With that utterance, the guys started coming up with the lyrics for “A Little Good News.   Classic Country Music Stories

   Below is a quote from an article in August 2017.

"Performing really lost its joy. I always loved the recording studio, but even that became a chore," Murray says.
She did one last tour in 2008 and that was it.
"It was a very good career, but it wasn't noisy. It was just … work. Just work. I wanted to go out quietly."

At root, this is about the two children whose childhoods she missed while out on the road. Long before anyone was talking about women having it all – career and family – Murray had to make that choice.At root, this is about the two children whose childhoods she missed while out on the road.
"I don't believe it can be done," Murray says. "When my son was in his teens, he was a really fine drummer. He was asked in an interview if he would consider going into the business. And he said, 'Why would I ever go into the business that took my mother from me?'"     Canada's Song Bird sings a happy tune

   Here is Anne singing that song in 2003 twenty years after it became a hit. Her voice had not diminished during that twenty years and the news has not changed. I sure could use a little good news this morning.

I rolled out this morning

Kids had the mornin' news show on

Bryant Gumbel was talkin' 'bout the fighting in Lebanon

Some senator was squawkin' 'bout the bad economy

It's gonna get worse you see, we need a change in policy

There's a local paper rolled up in a rubber band

One more sad story's one more than I can stand

Just once how I'd like to see the headline say

"Not much to print today, can't find nothin' bad to say", because

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town

Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down

Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain

We sure could use a little good news today

I'll come home this evenin'

I'll bet that the news will be the same

Somebody takes a hostage, somebody steals a plane

How I want to hear the anchor man talk about a county fair

And how we cleaned up the air, how everybody learned to care

Whoa, tell me

Nobody was assassinated in the whole Third World today

And in the streets of Ireland, all the children had to do was play

And everybody loves everybody in the good old USA

We sure could use a little good news today

Nobody robbed a liquor store on the lower part of town

Nobody OD'ed, nobody burned a single buildin' down

FADE

Nobody fired a shot in anger, nobody had to die in vain

We sure could use a little good news today