For our second installment of the Greatest Song of All Time, we have an Old School Face-off. It’s Jackson Browne’s 1974 classic, Fountain of Sorrow (no relation) versus the Heat Miser’s eponymous ditty.
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Lyrics
Fountain of Sorrow has some of my favorite opening lines of any song:
Looking through some photographs I found inside a drawer
I was taken by a photograph of you
There were one or two I know that you would have liked a little more
But they didn’t show your spirit quite as true
You were turning ’round to see who was behind you
And I took your childish laughter by surprise
And at the moment that my camera happened to find you
There was just a trace of sorrow in your eyes
After six beers and listening to this song fifteen times in a row, JB’s intelligently sad lyrics will have you curled into a ball or crawling on your stomach in the closet under your dirty laundry.
Advantage Jackson Browne.
Presentation
Jackson Browne is often seated behind a piano or organ when he performs. The Heat Miser, on the other hand, was trained by Vaudeville song and dance men.
Jackson Browne has accomplished back-up singers and band members that also play with artists like Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty.
The Heat Miser has 6 smaller clones, who do a perfect soft-shoe while touting the praises of their boss and catering to his every whim.
Advantage Heat Miser.
Grooming and Attitude
JB has the silky long hair that many women find attractive (at least they did in the 70’s and 80’s). A mature star, he’s sure of himself on stage.
Heat Miser gets mucho props for the pre-Clash (1974) spiky orange hair. Boasting that he essentially can control the weather and prevent a White Christmas while belting out a song that’s a cocky testament to himself, he rivals the bravado of legendary rappers Digital Underground and Young MC. Not content to have critics like me pigeonhole him, The Heat Miser crafts his identity right in the song – he’s “Mister Heat Blister. He’s Mister Hundred and One.”
Advantage Heat Miser.
This one’s too close for me to call.