Back when I was writing songs with the Carrie Nation band, there was no set rule to go by. Sometimes the musicians would come to me with a tune and I would fill in the lyrics. Other times I would write the words down in a notebook and give it to the band. That’s how it was with Goodnight Farewell. I had written the words and forgot about them, until one night at Charlie Williams’ cottage in the Ben Hill neighborhood of Atlanta. Charlie picked up an acoustic guitar and played this song. I was blown away by the originality of it. It wasn’t anything like what I had imagined.
Unfortunately, we never recorded the song in the studio. Only a few live versions, of which this is the best, have survived the years. As with The War, this was recorded straight off the sound board at the Electric Ballroom, so the mix is not the best. Enjoy…
In the context of that time period this is first rate material. If it were to be released today it would need more production, with a richer panoply of instruments.
Yeah. It’s a shame that this is the best version that survived. I posted it so that it wouldn’t just fade into the ether. Who knows? Maybe someone will do a new polished version someday.
Bob,
Who was it that wrote “Lacy”? It sounds like a Doc song. Just curious, as it’s one of my favorites from back then. When he belted out the line, “And I believe” it gave me goosebumps.
Lacy was written by Jon Schwartz and Art Mommi. As I recall, Jon wrote the first part after reading about a groupie by the same name in Rolling Stone. Art wrote the “I was a soldier” part.