music: actually I really do know

“Ride Line the Wind” is the hit Christopher Cross song with the incomparable Michael killing it on “background” vocals, but I think this album track is even better. It took years to track it down because I assumed it was a Doobie Brothers song with McDonald, but after listening to all their albums with him I realized it must be another artist, and eventually found it.

The early digital production is so densely (but cleanly) compressed that producer Michael Omartian’s “blue” piano chord at 1:22 leaps out. The chorus is so good that Christopher Cross overuses it, but the way MM is double-tracked with an added “(I really don’t) KNOW” harmony from the third chorus on is 😘. The song’s anxious uncertainty treads novel ground compared with rote “Baby I love you” songwriting, and the fantastic guitar solo by another L.A. studio legend Larry Carlton fits the mood perfectly. If Christopher Cross had come up with a bridge it would be a perfect song.