Music of the Day, 5 February 2025

rain on the fire in my soul

From our kitchen window, we can see across a plain to a sliver of the northern Sandia Mountains. It isn’t much of a view most of the time, mostly because the foreground is suburban. Sunrises behind the Sandias can be spectacular, as can the sunsets; but one needs to be quick to catch them. Since I usually keep the kitchen blinds closed for privacy, I’d forgotten what else that shuts out.

Last night I had the blinds open and happened to catch the most elusive moment: the setting sun reflecting off the windows of the sparse buildings on the distant, low rise of the plain. Those sparks of orange with the deepening twilight above look like small fires that quickly flicker in to and out of life. It always feels like a privilege to catch them.

Doing so yesterday also cued up a song from my teen years on the radio station in my mind. I didn’t hunt it down last night because I had more pressing things to see to. When it asserted itself first thing today, I knew there’d be no peace until I heard it.

As my memory served up just one line of the chorus, I was completely unprepared for the upbeat intro of “Smoke From a Distant Fire.” Even though I was expecting something more somber, I’m digging the music more than the lyrics today.

Best I can recall, the budding word nerd in me back in 1977 liked the consonance of “mist” and “distant” and the overall wistful feeling of the metaphor. It still evokes a primitive sense of wonder and curiosity: Does that tribe over there have it better than mine does? Maybe I should find out. Being relatively inexperienced in romance—especially cheating—at the time, I understood the lyrics but didn’t feel them the way I do now.

The churchy, soulful sound of the music is what’s driving my repeated listens this morning. The Sanford-Townsend Band was more than the duo implied by the name. Ed Sanford and John Townsend both played keyboards and sang. The other band members were: Otis Hale (backing vocals, guitar, woodwinds); Roger Johnson (lead guitar, backing vocals); Jerry Rightmer (backing vocals, bass); and Jim Varley on drums. Rightmer and Varley really make this song swing.

While Sanford and Townsend never repeated the top-ten success of “Smoke From a Distant Fire,” they’d been successful as session musicians and songwriters prior to it and returned to that work after. For anyone interested in exploring more of their story, REBEAT magazine published an interview of John Townsend 10 years ago. It includes information on their Muscle Shoals days and YouTube videos to enjoy.