Flashing back to teenage years and memories of listening to The Guess Who at a friends house. Two songs have always stood out ..... The classic and beautiful, "
These Eyes" and the possibly haunting and frightening, "
Friends of Mine" which despite being ten minutes long, and despite lyrics describing a condemned man walking to his hanging (we probably thought that the lyrics were cool), would often get repeat listenings. It was one of those songs that would get an after school playing/listening before my friends parents arrived home from work so we could crank up the volume. Certainly not a tune that you would ever hear on the AM radio top-40 weekly hit list being counted down by Casey Kasem. I'm not sure but we may not have listened to anything else from the album? It was likely an eye opener for a young teenager just released from eight years of Catholic School. I recall a teacher who let us play "
Atlantis"
by Donovan and Simon and Garfunkels, "
The Sounds of Silence" in the classroom but I suspect that "
Friends of Mine" just might not have been allowed.
When I think of the conclusion of the 1960's and the transition into the 1970's, this record always comes to mind. Sitting on the floor listening to it on a portable turntable. Quoting lyrics. Pondering the meaning of
Friends of Mine. Forty-six years later though, it's the heartbreak described in
These Eyes that stands out. I used to assume that it was a love song .... possibly because those two words, "these eyes," was the vision taken and absorbed from the song but the rest of the lyrics are about heartache.
Friends Of Mine Lyrics
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