Blind Faith

Heard this song on an NPR show - World Cafe, if I'm not mistaken.

I came back from the Big Tub and was eating and doing errands around the house while the stream played from WUMB. I was preparing to record Afropop on that station because I was planning to be out when it would air. This song came on with just the intro that it was a song from the days when Steve Winwood was with Blind Faith.

When it came on, I recognized it as something I heard long ago and didn't really get to know. The vague memory of it was there, though.

It also conjured thoughts of a song I heard on a documentary on free-styling. It was the closing song that mellowed the mood after all the aggressive improvising. I found out that it was a tune by Minnie Riperton (who happens to be Maya Rudolph's mother - I huc 'em both) called Les Fleurs, which, I believe, has the same chord progression in it as the Blind Faith song. It's that descending bass line that nabs me. The song is called Can't Find My Way Home. My kind of tune. Tinted with a touch of melancholy, it takes me away somewhere beyond time and space. These are the songs that appeal to me most. Some people see them as sad, but for me they fill me with empathy, nostalgia, and longing. I guess feeling that way. It's a kind of joy, for me.

I learned the song from this version done by Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, and Nathan East singing the lead.



Here are other versions, including one by Blind Faith live in London's Hyde park back in '69.