Monday’s Music Moves Me – The Kaleidoscope of Color Series – The BLUE Edition: PART 1

Today’s Monday’s Music Moves Me is a freebie theme, meaning we can post anything. Well, guess what I’m going to do mine on today? If you guessed another edition in my Kaleidoscope of Color Songs Series, you’d be right! Surprise! BUT this is the FINAL color in my series: BLUE. There are so many of my favorite songs that have blue in the title, I am going to do this last edition in two parts so the post isn’t too long (“too long” being subject to interpretation).

Here is The BLUE Edition: PART 1 playlist. Below is a list of the songs along with some information about each song that I found interesting. Hopefully you will find it interesting as well. Oh yeah, and some cool info about the color Blue is at the end. Enjoy!

Baby Blue by Badfinger – “Baby Blue” is a song by the band Badfinger from their 1971 album, Straight Up. The song was written by Pete Ham, produced by Todd Rundgren, and released on Apple Records. The “Dixie” addressed in the song’s lyrics was a real person, a former girlfriend of singer/songwriter Pete Ham. The woman was Dixie Armstrong, who Ham had dated during Badfinger’s last US tour.

Badfinger 1971

The last US Top 40 hit for Badfinger, this song would mark the beginning of a devastating decline for the band. They were signed to The Beatles’ Apple Records – Straight Up was their third album on the label and featured contributions from George Harrison. With “Baby Blue” and “Day After Day” getting a steady stream of airplay and Beatles comparisons, they toured twice in 1972 to packed houses.

All was not well behind the scenes, however, as Apple Records was on shaky ground. Badfinger recorded their fourth album, but their negotiations with Apple got snarled and a lawsuit prevented its release. These legal entanglements kept Badfinger from touring or recording while they were at the peak of their powers, and also drained them financially. In 1973, they signed to Warner Brothers and recorded their fifth album. Nearly two years after Straight Up hit the racks, Apple finally issued Badfinger’s fourth album, titled Ass, in the US in November of that year. Their self-titled Warners album came out in February 1974.

By this time, the band’s sound had fallen out of favor, and both albums underperformed. With their legal and financial problems becoming even more burdensome, Pete Ham hanged himself in 1975. His suicide note made it clear that the business dealings were his undoing; he expressed hopes that his death would serve as a cautionary tale for aspiring musicians. He was 27.

FUN FACT: The chaos that was enveloping the Apple UK operation at the time was strongly evident with regard to this song. While Apple US gave the song a picture sleeve and a remix to ensure that it was a hit, Apple UK remained unaware of its commercial potential. Although the single was even assigned a release number for the UK (Apple 42), “Baby Blue” was never actually released as a UK single.

FUN FACT: “Baby Blue” regained fame four decades later upon being featured in the 2013 series finale of AMC’s Breaking Bad, which, as reported by the show’s creator Vince Gilligan, uses the track’s title lyric as a reference to the special and iconic blue methamphetamine produced by main character Walter White. It was played in the show’s final minutes, that iconic closing scene. (BTW, I was a huge fan of Breaking Bad. I featured this scene in a “Blood, Boobs and Carnage” blog-hop a few years ago. You can check it out here).

Or you can see this final scene that includes the very end, when the Baby Blue song plays (the video below does NOT include the carnage in the mind-blowing ending as shown in the link above):

Online streams increased in popularity immediately following the broadcast. According to Nielsen Soundscan, 5,300 downloads were purchased the night of the broadcast. The song appeared on the Billboard Digital Songs chart at No. 32 the week ending October 19, 2013. Joey Molland, the last surviving member of the classic line-up of Badfinger, took to Twitter to express his excitement at the song’s use in the finale and subsequently began to retweet news articles about the song’s usage in the finale. It became a top-selling song on iTunes following the broadcast. As a result, the song charted in the UK for the first time, reaching No. 73. It also charted at No. 35 in Ireland.

Jackie Blue by Ozark Mountain Daredevils – “Jackie Blue” is a single by The Ozark Mountain Daredevils from their 1974 album, It’ll Shine When It Shines. The song reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spent two weeks at #1 (May 10-17) on the Cashbox Singles Chart in the U.S. It was also a hit internationally in 1975: #2 in Canada, #9 in New Zealand, #10 in South Africa, and #27 in Australia. The song was sung by the group’s drummer, Larry Lee.

This song is about a woman who is in pursuit of happiness but never gives anything a long enough time to make her happy. She gets bored too easily – she’s flighty, or indifferent. This was written by band members Steve Cash and Larry Lee. It’s inspired by someone they met in Los Angeles who was strung out on drugs.

Radio stations usually played an edited version omitting the last verse. This verse pretty well sums up what the whole tune is about…

“Everyday in your indigo eyes

I watch the sunset but I don’t see it rise

Moonlight and stars in your strawberry wine

You’d take the world but you won’t take the time”

Blue Morning, Blue Day by Foreigner – “Blue Morning, Blue Day” is the third single from Foreigner’s second album, Double Vision.

This sinister-sounding song takes us inside the head of a guy who can’t sleep and is desperately pleading with his girl, trying to keep her from leaving. The song was written by Foreigner’s songwriting team of lead singer Lou Gramm and guitarist Mick Jones.

In our interview with Gramm, he said: “It talks about a young musician that’s burning the candle at both ends. He has a lot on his mind, and walks the street at night.”

Blue is a versatile color for Lou Gramm, who uses it here as a metaphor for misery. He used the color in a different context on his 1987 solo hit “Midnight Blue”; he also has a song on his 1989 solo album called “True Blue Love.”

This single from Double Vision followed “Hot Blooded” and the title track. Critical adulation eluded the band (witness their snub from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), but the group earned legions of fans around this time: each of their first four albums sold at least 5 million copies.  “Blue Morning, Blue Day” reached number 15 in the charts in the U.S. and 45 in the U.K.

Suite Madame Blue by Styx – “Suite Madame Blue” is from Styx’ fifth album Equinox, released in December 1975. The album marked the final appearance of original Styx guitarist John Curulewski who left the band abruptly following the release of Equinox. The band went into a frantic search to find a replacement for their upcoming tour to support Equinox. Soon after, they found Tommy Shaw.

The album’s biggest hit was the track “Lorelei” (another favorite of mine) which was Styx’s second US Top 30 hit. The other well-known song in the album was “Suite Madame Blue” (the title of which has a play on the word “sweet” to refer to the musical term of “suites”, i.e. unrelated instrumental successions) which was written about the upcoming Bicentennial of the US.

Dennis DeYoung wrote this in 1975 as America was gearing up for its Bi-Centennial celebration in 1976. The song is not a celebration of the event, but a look at how it was being exploited. He explained in Classic Rock Revisited:

“The 200th anniversary of America was being totally taken over by commercialization in a rather unceremonious fashion. I had a moment of reflection. I had grown up in the so called glory days of the United States of America, which was post World War II until 1970. To live in this country at that time was really the golden age. The fallibility of the United States was something that struck me and that set the tone for ‘Suite Madam Blue.’ Maybe I was fearful of being literal – I think I probably was.”

The track became a staple for all Styx tours with Dennis DeYoung. It’s a rare example of a Styx song that (briefly) requires four voice parts; during the Return to Paradise tour in 1996, the “America” bridge would be sung by DeYoung, Shaw, James Young and the usually silent Chuck Panozzo.

Although the Equinox album stalled at #58, it went Gold in 1977 shortly before the release of The Grand Illusion (1977).

Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby Stills & Nash (CSN) – “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” is a suite of short songs written by Stephen Stills and performed by Crosby, Stills & Nash (CSN). It appeared on the group’s self-titled debut album in 1969 and was released as a single, hitting #21 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. In Canada, “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” peaked at number 11. The song is a suite in the classical sense, i.e. an ordered set of musical pieces.

This wasn’t their first single, or even their biggest, but certainly one of Crosby, Stills & Nash’s most well-known songs. It established the harmony style that would be the group’s trademark for years to come. Nash revealed to Rolling Stone that of the CS&N trio, Stills was the only to play on this song. All three contributed vocals.

CSN performed “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” at the Woodstock and Live Aid festivals, and their performance at the former is featured in the film Woodstock (1970).

The title “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” (a play on words for “Sweet Judy Blue Eyes”) refers to Stephen Stills’ former girlfriend, folk singer/songwriter Judy Collins, and the lyrics to most of the suite’s sections consist of his thoughts about her and their imminent breakup. Collins is known for her piercing blue eyes.

In their 1991 boxed set, Stills said:

“It started out as a long narrative poem about my relationship with Judy Collins. It poured out of me over many months and filled several notebooks. I had a hell of a time getting the music to fit. I was left with all these pieces of song and I said, ‘Let’s sing them together and call it a suite,’ because they were all about the same thing and they led up to the same point.”

During a July 15, 2007 interview for the National Public Radio program Just Roll Tape, Stills revealed that Collins was present in the studio when the demo tapes were recorded. Collins had advised Stills “not to stay [at the studio] all night.” Stills later commented that “the breakup was imminent…we were both too large for one house.” Stills said that he liked parts of this demo version of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” better than the released version.

Collins and Stills had met in 1967 and dated for two years. In 1969, she was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival musical production of Peer Gynt and had fallen in love with her co-star Stacy Keach, eventually leaving Stills for him. Stills was devastated by the possible breakup and wrote the song as a response to his sadness. In a 2000 interview, Collins gave her impressions of when she first heard the song:

“[Stephen] came to where I was singing one night on the West Coast and brought his guitar to the hotel and he sang me “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” the whole song. And of course it has lines in it that referred to my therapy. And so he wove that all together in this magnificent creation. So the legacy of our relationship is certainly in that song.”

“Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” has four distinct sections (on the full album version). The shortened version released as a single cut several verses out. The final section is the only part that stayed fully intact on the single.

The final section (the coda) is sung in Spanish, starting at 6:34 until the song concludes. The “doo-doo-doo-da-doo” backing vocals are the best known segment of “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes”, with Stills singing Spanish lyrics in the background.

This last verse in Spanish is about Cuba. It was sung in Spanish because Stephen Stills didn’t want it easily understood since it had little to do with the theme of the song. Stills put that part in simply because the song had gone on forever and he didn’t want it to just lay there at the end.

The Spanish lyrics are as follows: “Que linda me recuerdo a Cuba. La reina de la Mar Caribe. Quiero solo visitarme ayí. Y que triste que no puedo vaya.”

Here’s the translation:

“How nice it will (or would) be to take you to Cuba The queen of the Caribbean Sea I only want to visit you there And how sad that I can’t, damn!”

Indigo Blues by the Smithereens – The Smithereens are an American rock band from Carteret, New Jersey. The group formed in 1980 with members Pat DiNizio (vocals & guitar), Jim Babjak (guitar & vocals), Mike Mesaros (bass guitar & vocals), and Dennis Diken (drums & percussion).

The band is perhaps best known for a string of modest hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s, including “Only a Memory”, “A Girl Like You” and “Too Much Passion”. The Smithereens have collaborated with numerous musicians, both in the studio (Belinda Carlisle, Julian Lennon, Lou Reed, Suzanne Vega) and live (Graham Parker and The Kinks). The band’s name comes from a Yosemite Sam catchphrase, “Varmint, I’m a-gonna blow you to smithereens!”

The Smithereens are known for writing and playing catchy 1960s-influenced power pop. The group gained publicity when the single “Blood and Roses” from its first album was included on the soundtrack for Dangerously Close, and the music video got moderate rotation on MTV. “Blood and Roses” was also featured on the 1980s TV show Miami Vice during the episode ‘The Savage’ (first aired February 6, 1987).

The group spent some of its initial semi-celebrity phase defending itself in Rolling Stone against thinly-veiled accusations of sounding too much like the Byrds and the Beatles. Along with a basic Eastern-coast roots-rock sound that owed much to the inspirations of DiNizio, including the Who, the Clash, Elvis Costello, and Nick Lowe, the Smithereens deployed a uniquely retro obsession with Mod, the late British Invasion pop of John’s Children and the Move, and other artifacts of 1950s and 1960s culture that lent its music substance. But DiNizio has stated that his single biggest influence was Buddy Holly: “Listening to Buddy Holly, I rediscovered my enjoyment of simple pop structures and pretty melodies….I’ve always thought of him as a kindred spirit.”  And kindred they may now be: Pat DiNizio died on December 12, 2017.

I became familiar with the “Indigo Blues” song from listening to the Smithereen’s fourth studio album Blow Up. Released in late 1991, the album charted at #120 in the U.S. The second single, “Too Much Passion”, became the group’s second top-40 single, peaking at #37. “Top of the Pops” was released as the first single of the album.

I picked up a CD of the album one night while poking around in a used record shop. I listened to that album over and over and over while going through a tough break-up. I can truly say I like every song on the entire album (especially “Tell Me When Did Things Go So Wrong” and “Get Ahold of My Heart” and “Too Much Passion” and “Anywhere You Are”). It’s a deviation from my typical taste in music (and maybe that’s why it grabbed me so much) but it’s an excellent album.

Blow Up’s eye-catching cover design is by movie poster/title sequence artist Saul Bass (“Vertigo,” “West Side Story,” “North by Northwest,” “Psycho”).

Tangled Up in Blue by Bob Dylan – “Tangled Up in Blue” is a song by Bob Dylan. It appeared on his album Blood on the Tracks in 1975. Released as a single, it reached #31 on the Billboard Hot 100. Rolling Stone ranked it #68 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Dylan wrote this in the summer of 1974 at a farm he had just bought in Minnesota. He had been touring with The Band earlier that year. The song was influenced by the art classes Dylan was taking with Norman Raeben, a popular teacher in New York. Dylan credits Raeben for making him look at things from a nonlinear perspective, which was reflected in his songs.

“Tangled Up in Blue” is one of the clearest examples of Dylan’s attempts to write “multi-dimensional” songs which defied a fixed notion of time and space. Dylan was influenced by his recent study of painting and the Cubist school of artists, who sought to incorporate multiple perspectives within a single plane of view. In a 1978 interview Dylan explained this style of songwriting: “What’s different about it is that there’s a code in the lyrics, and there’s also no sense of time. There’s no respect for it. You’ve got yesterday, today and tomorrow all in the same room, and there’s very little you can’t imagine not happening.”

The Telegraph (aka The Daily Telegraph, a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London) has described the song as “The most dazzling lyric ever written, an abstract narrative of relationships told in an amorphous blend of first and third person, rolling past, present and future together, spilling out in tripping cadences and audacious internal rhymes, ripe with sharply turned images and observations and filled with a painfully desperate longing.”

As Neil McCormick remarked in 2003: “A truly extraordinary epic of the personal, an unreliable narrative carved out of shifting memories like a five-and-a-half-minute musical Proust.”

The lyrics are at times opaque, but the song seems to be (like most of the songs on the album) the tale of a love that has, for the time being, ended, although not by choice; the last verse begins:

So now I’m goin’ back again,

I got to get to her somehow…

(and ends):

We always did feel the same,

We just saw it from a different point of view,

Tangled up in blue.

This is a very personal song for Dylan. It deals with the changes he was going through, including his marriage falling apart. Dylan has often stated that the song took “ten years to live and two years to write”. Regarding the song and the album Blood on the Tracks, Dylan has said, “A lot of people tell me they enjoy that album. It’s hard for me to relate to that. I mean, it, you know, people enjoying the type of pain, you know?”

Dylan and his first wife, Sara Lowndes, divorced in 1977. As part of the settlement, she got half the royalties from the songs Dylan wrote while they were married, including this one.

When Dylan performs this song in concert he uses the third person perspective (He and She) that is on the version found on The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 album instead of the first person perspective that is on Blood on the Tracks. He also alters some of the lyrics, for instance: “One day the axe just fell” is changed to “One day it all went to hell.”

FUN FACT: According to novelist Ron Rosenbaum, Bob Dylan once told him that he’d written “Tangled up in Blue”, after spending a weekend immersed in Joni Mitchell’s 1971 album Blue.

Behind Blue Eyes by The Who – “Behind Blue Eyes” is a song by the English rock band The Who. It was released in October 1971 as the second single from their fifth album Who’s Next and was originally written by Pete Townshend for his Lifehouse project. The song is one of The Who’s best-known recordings and has been covered by many artists.

Pete Townshend originally wrote this about a character in his “Lifehouse” project, which was going to be a film similar to The Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia. Townshend never finished “Lifehouse,” but the songs ended up on the album Who’s Next.

Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey both have blue eyes, but the song is not autobiographical. Townshend has said that he wrote it to show “How lonely it is to be powerful.”

Townshend has explained that he never behaved like a typical rock star when he was on tour, especially when it came to groupies, which he tried to avoid. He says it was a run-in with a groupie that was the impetus for this song. Townshend, who got married in 1968, was tempted by a groupie after The Who’s June 9, 1970 concert in Denver. He says that he went back to his room alone and wrote a prayer beginning, “If my fist clenches, crack it open…” The prayer was more or less asking for help in resisting this temptation. The other words could be describing Townshend’s self-pity and how hard it is to resist.

Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain by Willie Nelson – “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” is a song written by songwriter Fred Rose. Originally performed by Roy Acuff, the song has been covered by many artists, such as Hank Williams Sr. and Charley Pride. Also the song was later recorded by Willie Nelson as part of his 1975 album Red Headed Stranger. Both the song and album would become iconic in country music history, and jump start Nelson’s success as a singer and recording artist.

Prior to the success of “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain,” Willie Nelson had enjoyed widespread success primarily as a songwriter, with such songs as “Crazy” (Patsy Cline) and “Hello Walls” (Faron Young). As a performer, meanwhile, Nelson had hit the Top 10 of the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart just twice; it had happened in 1962, once as a solo artist (“Touch Me”) and again as part of a duet with Shirley Collie (“Willingly”). Thereafter, Nelson had approached the Top 20 on occasion, but went 13 years without a Top 10 hit.

In October 1975, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” became Nelson’s first No. 1 hit as a singer, and at year’s end was the third-biggest song of 1975 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart. In addition, the song gained modest airplay on Top 40 radio, reaching number 21 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Even by the standards of sorrowful country songs, “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” is one somber tune. The singer kisses his love goodbye, knowing he’ll never see her again. As he sings it, he’s now an old man who never found true love again and looks forward to meeting her in heaven.

Singing the song night after night took an emotional toll on Nelson, who was a notorious drinker in the late ’70s. He explained in a Hot Press interview: “It’s really difficult to sing ‘Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain’ or ‘Always On My Mind’ without getting emotionally involved, especially when the audience gets emotionally involved and you feel their feelings. You can only wallow in your own misery for so long without saying, ‘Wait a minute, I want a drink!'”

Nelson acclaimed as a songwriter, but he didn’t write this one. It was composed by Fred Rose, whose country hits include “Crazy Heart,” “Don’t Bring Me Posies,” “Take These Chains From My Heart” and “Kaw-Liga.”

Roy Acuff, who was Rose’ partner in the music publishing company Acuff-Rose Music, was the first to record the song, releasing it as a single in 1947 credited to Roy Acuff And His Smoky Mountain Boys. In ensuing years, many other artists recorded the song, including Roger Whittaker, Gene Vincent and Slim Whitman.

Willie Nelson recorded the song for his concept album Red Headed Stranger, which is based on a song of the same name written by Carl Stutz and Edith Lindeman and recorded by Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith. In that song, a mysterious rider comes through town leading a horse that belonged to his dead lover. Nelson revised the tale to make the stranger a preacher who killed his lover because she was cheating on him. “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” fit the concept of the album, as it finds the stranger thinking back to his lost love.

Willie Nelson first made the Hot 100 as a songwriter in 1961 with “Crazy” (#9, recorded by Patsy Cline) and “Hello Walls” (#12, recorded by Faron Young), but this was his first trip to the chart as an artist. It was also his first #1 country hit, and it earned him the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance. Nelson’s singing career took off, and he soon became a household name.

Fun Fact: This was the last song Elvis Presley played before he died. In the early morning of August 16, 1977, he played it on his piano in Graceland. Later that day, he died from an overdose of prescription drugs.

Blue Eyes by Elton John – “Blue Eyes” is a song performed by Elton John with music and lyrics written by Elton John and Gary Osborne. It was released in 1982, both as a single and on the album Jump Up!, which reached No. 8 in the UK. In the US, the song spent three weeks at No. 10 on the Cash Box Top 100; it also went to No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100, and spent two weeks at No. 1 on the adult contemporary chart.

The music video for the song was filmed in Australia, on Sydney’s famous Bondi to Bronte walk. The exact location is at the most easterly point of Marks Park, Tamarama, where a low, sandstone turret rests on the top of the cliffs and overlooks the Tasman Sea. The white grand piano was positioned right in the middle of the turret. The song and video was in dedication to Elizabeth Taylor.

There wasn’t much info about “Blue Eyes” in the spots where I normally look for info but I managed to find a book that remarks about the song. In His Song: The Musical Journey of Elton John by Elizabeth J. Rosenthal, the chapter was discussing the making of the Jump Up! album and its various songs. About “Blue Eyes”, it reads:

“Blue Eyes” is the one song on Jump Up! that proves Elton wasn’t just reading water. It is more than just one of the many pleasingly seamless ballads that Elton continued to churn out the way Pete Rose got hits. “Blue Eyes” features…some of the most sophisticated chord sequences that Elton John has ever written,” observed Thomas Ryan in his book American Hit Radio. “With a progression steeped in complex jazz changes and a melody that resonates with blue notes, it’s anything but ordinary for early 80s pop music …Unlike much of its competition, it seems destined to become an evergreen among a field of annuals.”

Many of Elton’s seamless ballads have become evergreens, but “Blue Eyes” is something more – a twist of sadness housed in the wise cadences of jazz and set against a gentle landscape of unobtrusive, countrified blues. Osborne’s words are subsumed in the music, as well they should be, since Elton had started the ball rolling. “Blue eyes, baby’s got blue eyes,” he’d cooed as he composed the music. Osborne had taken it from there, with the musician throwing in another line or two, entrapped in the song’s jazz cadences. Although Elton later mused that, before getting it right, he’d kept singing the song like Dean Martin, what finally emerged was not Dino’s debonair, whiskey-laced voice but a new Elton John sound. Instead of the sophistication of his singing on “Idol” or the sensuousness of “Shooting Star,” “Blue Eyes” get the balladeering of someone no longer interested in playing lovers’ games. The singer caresses the melody in a protective coating of honest intimacy, girded by deep-note delving.

Apparently people were taking note of this as 1983 saw Elton John receiving his thirteenth and fourteenth Grammy nominations: for Best Pop Vocal Performance, Male for “Blue Eyes” (and the other for Video of the Year for Visions).

Blue Jean Blues by ZZ Top – ZZ Top is a rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. The band has, since 1970, consisted of bassist and lead vocalist Dusty Hill, guitarist and lead vocalist Billy Gibbons (the band’s leader, main lyricist and musical arranger), and drummer Frank Beard. “As genuine roots musicians, they have few peers”, according to former musician, critic and collector Michael “Cub” Koda. “Gibbons is one of America’s finest blues guitarists working in the arena rock idiom […] while Hill and Beard provide the ultimate rhythm section support.”

“Blue Jean Blues” is a song from Fandango!, the fourth album by that Texas Trio, released in 1975. Half the tracks are selections from live shows, the rest are new songs from the studio.

The only single released from the album was “Tush”. The single peaked at #20 on the US Billboard Hot 100, making it the band’s first top 40 single. “Blue Jean Blues” didn’t get a ton of airplay so you may not be familiar with it unless you’ve spent some time with the album. My brother introduced me to the Fandango! album when it first came out and this song is one of my favorites from the album. Get comfortable, grab your headphones, crank up the volume and kick back. It’s a good trip, I promise.

Blue Sky by The Allman Brothers Band – “Blue Sky” is a song by the American rock band the Allman Brothers Band from their third studio album, Eat a Peach (1972). The song was written and sung by guitarist Dickey Betts, who penned it about his girlfriend (and later wife), Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig. The track is also notable as one of guitarist Duane Allman’s final recorded performances with the group. The band’s two guitarists, Duane Allman and Betts, alternate playing the song’s lead: Allman’s solo beginning 1:07 in, Betts joining in a shared melody line at 2:28, followed by Betts’s solo at 2:37. The song is notably more country-inspired than many songs in the band’s catalogue.

His debut as a vocalist for the band, guitarist Dickey Betts composed “Blue Sky” about his Native American girlfriend, Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig, whom he later married. The lyrics leave out any references to gender to make it nonspecific: “Once I got into the song I realized how nice it would be to keep the vernaculars—he and she—out and make it like you’re thinking of the spirit, like I was giving thanks for a beautiful day. I think that made it broader and more relatable to anyone and everyone,” he later said. Betts initially wanted the band’s lead vocalist, Gregg Allman, to sing the song, but guitarist Duane Allman encouraged him to sing it himself: “Man, this is your song and it sounds like you and you need to sing it.”  This was the first time Betts sang lead on an Allman Brothers song. He also sang lead on their biggest hit, “Ramblin’ Man.”

Allman Brothers Band 1972

Betts and Sandy “Bluesky” Wabegijig married in 1973 and divorced two years later. For a while after his 1975 divorce from this song’s muse Sandy, Dickey Betts refused to perform this song.

The track is also notable as one of guitarist Duane Allman’s final recorded performances with the group. It was released after Duane’s death on the Eat A Peach album. The album is dedicated to him. “As I mixed songs like “Blue Sky,” I knew, of course, that I was listening to the last things that Duane ever played and there was just such a mix of beauty and sadness, knowing there’s not going to be any more from him,” said Johnny Sandlin.

Betts and Sandy Bluesky had a daughter, Jessica, on May 14, 1972. Betts wrote “Jessica” about her a year later.

Duane Allman and Dickey Betts played on the bridge solo – one playing “lead” lead, the other playing “rhythm” lead. They switch up half way through – listen very carefully and you will hear them synch up on a riff for two measures or so right around 2:30 into the track.

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That’s it for PART 1 of the BLUE Edition. Were some of your favorite blue songs here? If not, be sure to check out PART 2, coming in two weeks…

Here is some fun information on the meaning of the color blue, taken from the Bourn Creative’s Color Meaning Blog Series:

Blue represents both the sky and the sea, and is associated with open spaces, freedom, intuition, imagination, expansiveness, inspiration, and sensitivity. Blue also represents meanings of depth, trust, loyalty, sincerity, wisdom, confidence, stability, faith, heaven, and intelligence.

The color blue has positive affects on the mind and the body. As the color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming and exude feelings of tranquility. Blue helps to slow human metabolism, is cooling in nature, and helps with balance and self-expression. Blue is also an appetite suppressant.

However not all blues are serene and sedate. Electric or brilliant blues become dynamic and dramatic, an engaging color that expresses exhilaration. Also, some shades of blue or the use of too much blue may come across as cold or uncaring, and can dampen spirits.

Blue can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Blue is used to symbolize piety and sincerity in heraldry. The color blue in many cultures is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away. In Iran, blue is the color of mourning while in the West the something blue bridal tradition represents love.

The blue color communicates significance, importance, and confidence without creating somber or sinister feelings. This is where the corporate blue power suit and the blue uniforms of police officers and firefighter came from. Considered a highly corporate color, blue is often associated with intelligence, stability, unity, and conservatism.

Too much blue can create feelings of melancholy, negativity, sadness, self-righteousness, and self-centeredness. Too little blue brings about qualities of suspicion, depression, stubbornness, timidity, and unreliability.

Blue gemstones are believed to aid in creating calm and relaxation in crisis situations or chaotic situations, to open the flow of communication between loved ones, to feel genuinely inspired, and to gain the courage to speak from the heart.

Different shades, tints, and hues of blue have different meanings. For example, dark blue can be seen as elegant, rich, sophisticated, intelligent, and old-fashioned, royal blue can represent superiority, and light blue can mean honesty and trustworthiness.

Other meanings associated with the color blue:

• Combining the colors red, white, and blue create a patriotic color palette for the United States, mirroring the colors in the American Flag.
• Navy blue and white, when used together, create a nautical, oceanic color palette that often represents sailing, and sailors.
• The terms “feeling blue” or “getting the blues” refers to the extreme calm feelings associated with blue, such as sadness and depression.
• The saying “out of the blue” is used in reference to something unexpected.
• The expression “singing the blues” references a person who is complaining about their circumstances.
• The phrase “true blue” stands for someone who is loyal, trustworthy, and faithful.
• The term “blueblood” refers to a person of royal, noble, or superior birth.
• The saying “baby blues” is used to describe the sadness that women feel after giving birth. It is often used in reference to post-partum depression.
• A “blue ribbon” represents the best, first place, top prize, or number one.
• The expression “into the blue” means entering the unknown or uncertainty, not knowing what you’re walking into.
• The phrase “blue Monday” means feeling sad, often the feelings experienced when the weekend is over and the workweek begins.
• The term “blue laws” refers to laws that were originally passed to enforce specific moral standards.
• The saying “blue language” refers to using profanity.
• The “Bluebook” is known as a register of people of significance in social standing. Later, the term Bluebook was adapted by the car industry as the name of the registry listing vehicle values.
• The Blues is a music style characterized by the sometimes sad or down focus and melancholy melodies.

Additional words that represent different shades, tints, and values of the color blue: sapphire, azure, beryl, cerulean, cobalt, indigo, navy, royal, sky blue, baby blue, robin’s egg blue, cyan, cornflower blue, midnight blue, slate, steel blue, Prussian blue.

Monday’s Music Moves Me (4M) is a blog hop hosted by Marie of X-Mas Dolly, and co-hosted by Cathy of Curious as a Cathy and Stacy of Stacy Uncorked Two other co-hosts recently joined the fun: Alana of Ramlin’ with AM and Naila Moon of Musings & Merriment with Michelle. Be sure to stop by and visit the hosts and the other participants listed below:

1. Musings & Merriment with Michelle

2. XmasDolly

3. Callie – JAmerican Spice

4. Stacy Uncorked

5. Cathy – Curious as a Cathy

6. Alana: Ramblin with AM

7. Angels Bark

8. Jingle Jangle Jungle

9. Mikes Ramblings

10. CREATE WITH JOY – LINK UP

11. Adventures in Weseland: Music Monday

12. VandyJ

13. Stunning Keisha

14. Golch Centrals Rambling Stuff