Happy New YEAR Top Ten: Seven Year Ache (#1)

Tweet

Here it is, Saturday night, the end of the first week of 2018. It’s also the end of my countdown of favorite songs that have “year” in the title. Here’s wishing everyone a happy and musical 2018. Here’s my #1 song on the list. #1: Seven Year Ache - Rosanne Cash Why don’t I watch the Grammys? Rosanne Cash is a good reason. She won three Grammys a couple of years ago...and got them before the televised show began. The folks at CBS think people would rather tune in to see Miley Cyrus licking a hammer than a real singer/songwriter...even if the singer/songwriter happens to be Johnny Cash’s daughter. Maybe “they” would, but I’d rather see Rosanne. Despite being country music royalty Rosanne Cash hasn’t taken the easy route. She writes great songs (and also picks terrific songs to cover); and she can sing the daylights out of a song in one minute and break your heart with a pained delivery the next. Did I mention “she writes great songs”? She wrote this gem, her first #1 hit. It is loaded with lines that many songwriters probably wish they’d originated with. It opens strongly enough: “You act like you were just born tonight, face down in a memory.” Then it gets better. “Heartaches are heroes when their pockets are full” is one terrific line. “Seven Year Ache” is one very angry woman chastising her man (she’s since admitted this has more than a little autobiographical tint to it, thanks to her marriage to fellow singer/songwriter Rodney Crowell at the time) who’s out for a “lost weekend” of sorts (“you’re still uptown on your downhill swing”), preferring “sleeping downtown” to coming home. She’s letting him have it with both barrels (“who does your past belong to today? Baby, you don’t say nothin’ when you’re feelin’ this way”...”there’s plenty of dives to be someone you’re not”). I always thought that Rodney Crowell’s 1986 song “Past Like a Mask” was his apology of sorts to Rosanne for the way he acted that prompted her to write this song. Too little, too late, as they divorced in the early 90s. They do still perform together professionally, so the wounds aren’t as deep as they were. One of the best songs in the career of a great songwriter who lives up to her dad’s name. Thanks for reading. Seven Year Ache Written by Rosanne Cash Recorded by Rosanne Cash From Seven Year Ache, 1981 When is gonna give us some room: