My Brother Jake - Free

My favourite popular song of all time is a 1971 single by the British band Free called "My brother Jake". It reached number 4 in most charts. I'm not really sure how I came to hear it first or why I like it so much. It's not because of any fond memories or conscious identification with the words at all. It certainly has an excellent delivery from Paul Rogers on vocals, excellent piano and guitar work, judicious use of mellotrons, etc, yet nothing that makes it an obviously great song. Perhaps the key is the way it builds - often a very important element in popular song. Each time you hear it you start off liking it, if you are anything like me, and then you are carried along by the song so that by the end of it, you feel something of an emotional high, which is one of the most obvious things that popular songs have to offer. The repeated "Jake, Jake, Jake, don't you wait, wait, wait" is especially effective. I usually sing along and often get the words wrong, which doesn't matter too much. Pertinently, many of us find our head is often "in a daze" I guess and sometimes perhaps your head is "down, it's a scrapin' the ground" and perhaps subliminally the idea of your candle burning as "the wheels of time are turning" towards an infinite eternity gets to you and I think of "changin' my ways" and how one might "give a whole lotta people some ... soul". Some songs are easier to analyse than others.