For a Song: You Can Not Win If You Do Not Play

Steve Forbert: You Can Not Win If You Do Not Play

[purchase]

I’m posting this song now for two reasons. Of course, one is that I really like it. The other is that the title expresses a good part of how I was feeling during my recent forced shut-down. Thank goodness that’s over.

Steve Forbert arrived on the music scene full of optimism and eager for the future. His first album was even called Alive on Arrival, and it fits. You Can Not Win… closes the album, and sums up its sentiments nicely. There is no thought here of the fact that you also can not lose. But Forbert would go through the classic music biz ordeal of having his label fail to support him, and even of being dropped, The optimism that was such a delight on his debut is gone now, but Forbert is still a fine musician and songwriter. And his voice is still an acquired taste, but I have always been fine with it.

Incidentally, in researching this post, I learned that Forbert has just gotten the right to release what was to be his fifth album with Sony, his original label. I would tell you the whole story, but fellow blogger Doug Heselgrave, at Restless and Real, has already done a fine job of that here. Restless and Real is new to me, and I’m not adding it to the sidebar because he does not post songs for listening and downloading. But I am impressed with his writing, and happily recommend checking this blog out on this basis.