“Kid” is quite the malleable word when you think about it. It can cover a wide range of ages. The word can signify deep affection or blatant disrespect. You can even use it as a verb if you choose to do so. Perhaps that versatility is why the word keeps popping up in the titles of great songs. These four outstanding cuts from the classic rock canon with “kid” in the title prove it. We kid you not.
“Kid Charlemagne” by Steely Dan
Nobody wrote songs in the 70s featuring as wide a panoply of characters as Donald Fagen and Walter Becker, the mischievous mavens of Steely Dan. “Kid Charlemagne” centers on a fellow who once ruled the streets thanks to his entrepreneurial utilization of the illegal drug trade. But Fagen and Becker catch him on his way out, scrambling to avoid the law and obsolescence all at once. By the time they released this song on the 1976 album The Royal Scam, the duo had settled on their strategy of finding the best players for each song rather than going with a set lineup. On “Kid Charlemagne”, Larry Carlton delivers a guitar solo for the ages.
“The Ballad Of Billy The Kid” by Billy Joel
Sometimes, if the public isn’t responding, an artist has to build up their own legend. Billy Joel did that on the 1973 album Piano Man. The title track positioned Joel as the balladeer for the everyman. “The Ballad Of Billy The Kid” turned him into a Western hero of sorts. He admitted afterward that the biographical details he included for the historical outlaw William Bonney were completely fabricated. And he denied that the fellow from Oyster Bay, Long Island, was meant to be an autobiographical sketch. Nonetheless, the song helped mythologize Joel’s exploits before he had quite achieved the success to match. And it’s a good showcase for his compositional skills to boot.
“New Kid In Town” by Eagles
Eagles made it a point as their career progressed to take more of a mainstream rock approach. But they were also savvy enough to realize that the country rock sound of their early days sometimes proved a better fit for AM radio. Hence, even on the harder-edged Hotel California album, the band included the wide-open spaces of “New Kid In Town”. Rumors have persisted for years that songwriters Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and JD Souther were referencing the rapid ascent of Bruce Springsteen in the song’s lyrics. Whether or not that’s true, you can’t deny the beauty of the bittersweet harmonies backing Frey’s effortlessly soulful lead vocal.
“Slip Kid” by The Who
The Who By Numbers, released in 1975, represented the band stepping back from the conceptual trappings they loved to become a more conventional, so to speak, song-based rock band. But Pete Townshend actually began writing “Slip Kid”, one of the LP’s best tracks, when he was attempting to craft his Lifehouse concept. Most of the songs for that abandoned plan ended up on Who’s Next, but “Slip Kid” made it a bit further down the line. You can easily imagine the band expanding the story of this character over the course of a larger project. An interesting recording for sure, one where Keith Moon’s walloping drums are replaced by handclaps and a shaker.
(Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
The post No Kidding: 4 Fantastic Classic Rock Songs With the Word “Kid” in the Title appeared first on American Songwriter.
Go To Source | Author: Jim Beviglia