Scott R.

A single from Cher’s 1971 album Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves, “The Way of Love is “a career highlight … The Stillman/Dieval tune was originally a British hit for Kathy Kirby, and both Cher and Kirby drove the song right by the censors,” (AllMusic). “The song is either about a woman expressing her love for another woman, or a woman saying au revoir to a gay male she loved — in either case this is not a mother to daughter heart-to-heart: ‘What will you do/When he sets you free/Just the way that you/Said good-bye to me.'”

The tune “broke the Top Ten in 1972 a few months after ‘Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves’ became her first number one solo hit toward the end of 1971. Both songs lead off this disc with a one-two punch … Cher never minded androgynous or neutral gender identity in her songs; her deep voice could carry both the male and female ranges for the duo with Bono and, musically, her solo material could soar to heights not possible in a partnership — ‘The Way of Love’ being one example.”

After a start in A major, the groove drops out for a grand pause before a huge brass fanfare heralds a shift to D major 1:12. It’s difficult to grasp that a track with such a prodigious sense of drama clocks in at only 2.5 minutes, but somehow it does. Cher’s full-throttle belt technique, easily matching what eventually becomes a full orchestral instrumentation, certainly never sounded better! Many thanks to Scott R. for this wonderful submission to MotD — the second we’ve published, although we’re grateful for the others that are also currently in the queue!

“The Eagles achieved stratospheric success in the 1970s, effectively bridging the country rock and soft rock styles that were popular in the early 1970s,” (Aphoristic Album Reviews). “Songwriting team Don Henley and Glenn Frey pumped out a ton of popular singles, and their Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is one of the highest-selling albums of all time.”

In Rolling Stone, the group’s lead vocalist and drummer Don Henley reflects: “‘The Last Resort’, on Hotel California (1976), is still one of my favorite songs… That’s because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence — by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment … ‘ The song begins in Providence, Rhode Island, and goes all the way across America, wrapping up in the Hawaiian town of Lahaina. Along the way, it chronicles how Americans have exploited and destroyed their own land. ‘We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds,’ Henley sings. ‘In the name of destiny and the name of God.'”

After a gentle solo piano starts the tune in E major, the track gradually grows in intensity over time. At 3:24, an instrumental bridge starts with a shift upwards to G major before the the next verse begins.

Many thanks to our devoted reader Scott R. for this submission — his first!