It's always intriguing when a seemingly impossible task is accomplished. Inspiring too. "Philadelphia Freedom", the 1975 single by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, written at the request of tennis star and friend Billie Jean King, has always struck me as a good example. The task at hand was to write a song for a tennis team (!) with an unsubtle name (to say the least), while incorporating the sound of the r&b for which the city was famous - all without being corny. And they did it. First of all, it's not about tennis, but so what, because it sounds like it could be. Second, its lyrics are ambiguous enough to be about whatever the listener wants (like freedom itself, I guess). Third, the music speaks for itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXbsNw1spWA.

David Ackles, the singer-songwriter from Rock Island, Illinois, made four albums in his short but artistically successful career. Like the Velvet Underground, albeit in a different genre, he had more influence on other artists than sales. Two of the singer-songwriters that are indebted to him, Elton John and Elvis Costello, got a chance to say thanks and to sing one of his songs on Costello's Spectacle in 2008. That song, "Down River" is a very great one that features a lyric with a one-sided and rueful conversation between the narrator and a character named Rosie, whose contributions to the dialogue have to be inferred. The chorus reveals that the title is a beautiful metaphor for things gone by. The song's introduction is also masterful, as a seemingly slightly out-of-tune piano plays a figure based on the overtone series (the natural extra pitches that are heard above a note), then, when Ackles' educated vocal begins, the piano suddenly sounds strong and resonant (as does the voice). It is very interesting to compare the song with Costello's "Alison" and John's "Your Song" (co-written with the lyricist Bernie Taupin, who produced Ackles' third album American Gothic from 1972), because so many of the elements that they contain are also found in the Ackles masterpiece. They (Costello and John) were right; Ackles was indeed a major influence on them. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iBb5EXi8h0&feature=related