Cats and Skunks

T-Bone Burnett recently discussed the making of "Crazy Heart" in an interview with NPR and said that even though Jeff Bridges isn't a professional musician, he was able to pull off the role because he has an innate musical sense.

"One person could sit down at a piano and hit three notes and it sounds like a cat on the keys," Burnett said. "Another person could sit down at the piano and play the same three notes and it sounds like music. Jeff is one of the latter people."

I have only one thing to say to that: Meow ...

My criteria for a good song have changed. Now, a "good" song is one that I can play. How else could I explain my newfound appreciation for "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" by Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show. It was a goofy Shel Silverstein novelty song that was played incessantly on the radio in 1973 and lost its charm after about the second listening. Now, however, it's a staple of my repertoire.

(Historical note: Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show did eventually make the cover of Rolling Stone in March 1973. And, yes, that eye patch is legit. The lead singer lost an eye in a car crash.)

Lately I've also been enjoying playing another novelty song from the '70s (I think it's very important to be up-to-date with my song selections) -- "Dead Skunk" by Loudon Wainwright III, who's probably better known these days as the father of Rufus Wainwright. It's very simple, which is more than enough to put it on my personal hit parade.

There was a theory going around at the time that Wainwright wrote the song as a metaphor for the Nixon presidency but when he was asked about that by an interviewer, he said: "Well, OK, but for me it was just about a dead skunk lying there in the highway."