December 1, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from LaBelle, Shakira, Norah Jones, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
If you're wondering why Jerry Lee Lewis opened both nights of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary celebration (with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" the first night and "Great Balls Of Fire" the next), look no further than his recent duets album, Last Man Standing. The folks he corralled to collaborate with him are not the typical tribute fare -- in fact, most of them are either pretty picky or exclusionary when it comes to melding voices. The roster includes Jimmy Page, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, Neil Young, Robbie Robertson, John Fogerty, Kid Rock, and Toby Keith among others.
And if we still can't convince you based on Lewis' impressive affiliations, then look beyond his two biggest hits and check out "It'll Be Me" and "Big Blon' Baby" -- a couple of his best sides (as good as any of the hits) from the Sun era. In "Big Blon' Baby" you can hear Jerry using the phrase "Jumpin' Jehosaphat" effectively in a rockabilly record -- didn't think that was possible. In "It'll Be Me" we get Jerry the unrelenting pursuer of (hopefully) the object of his affection. That's just a small sample of a two-decade country career that we're barely touching on. So if you're willing to give those recommendations a try, click on "What Made Milwaukee Famous" on the podcast playlist, "Another Place, Another Time", or virtually anything on Killer Country, a near perfect collection of Jerry Lee's best tracks.
November 23, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from the MTV Unplugged series, 50 Cent, Carrie Underwood, and Janet Jackson.
If you love Nirvana's version of David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World", we encourage ... no, we demand you to check out the original: a truly scary sci-fi styled song in the vein of Ziggy Stardust about a guy who no longer recognizes himself (he's in a dress on the album's cover); a kind of glitter rock take on Elvis Costello's "Stranger In The House. "If you're a Bowie fan but just own a best of, don't miss out on what many consider one of his best songs from one of his best albums -- the first to feature his famous Spiders From Mars lineup (as well as other crucial early sides "The Width Of A Circle", "All The Madmen", and "The Supermen"). The constantly repeated guitar riff, courtesy of Bowie collaborator Mick Ronson, is, despite the song's melodic quality, the real hook and one of rock's greatest riffs ever. Which would explain its presence on Guitar Hero 5. There's also a version by Lulu (a forerunner to the R&B-fueled songstress Duffy best known for the hit "To Sir With Love") with Bowie playing sax and Ronson playing guitar that's worth discovering.
November 16, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from the Pixies, Roy Orbison, Juan Gabriel, Calle 13, Luis Fonsi, Bobby Fuller Four, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys.
The virtues of The Rolling Stones' tracks Wes Anderson has chosen for his latest film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, aside, we'd like to use this opportunity to talk about the time in the Stones' career when they stopped being the white British R&B Stones, but well before they became the Rock (with a capital R) Stones of Sticky Fingers, Exile On Main St., and practically everything that came after. We call it The Great Lost Middle Period. December's Children (And Everybody's) showed the beginning of some cracks in their original model. Rockers and R&B covers like "Talkin' About You," "She Said Yeah," and "Route 66" were joined by very atypical quiet, poppier, more introspective sides like "The Singer Not The Song," "Blue Turns To Grey," and especially "As Tears Go By."
That burgeoning style broke open full circle on their next album, Aftermath (the UK version), when for the first time Jagger/Richards penned every single track. Aftermath is arguably on a level with Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, and Exile On Main St. for the music's variety and stunning consistency in quality. Hits like "Mother's Little Helper", "Stupid Girl", "Lady Jane", and "Under My Thumb" are balanced by the aforementioned "I Am Waiting", The Searchers and Hollies friendly "Take It Or Leave It", and their own stabs at rhythm and extended blues on the 11-minute "Going Home".
Aftermath's high point is the 5-minute version of "Out Of Time", which lyrically belongs in the company of "Mother's Little Helper", "Get Off Of My Cloud", and "Nineteenth Nervous Breakdown" -- songs sung from a superior and critical point of view. That "Time" is sung with more gentle musical underpinnings doesn't make it any less powerful.
The Stones' least appreciated album, Between The Buttons, soon followed. Sure, it had hits like "Let's Spend The Night Together" and "Ruby Tuesday", but the majority of its tracks rarely scrape the sounds of oldies AM radio or hipper-than-thou FM stations that choose to dig back. It's a shame, though, because tracks like "My Obsession", "Complicated", and "Miss Amanda Jones" that straddle the style between beauty, vulnerability, and exalted superiority continue to be overlooked.
This period was bound to end, and it did with Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones' psychedelic record and, attempt to match The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's. The album didn't meet those standards, but its four best songs, "Sing This All Together", "2000 Man", "Citadel", and "She's A Rainbow", are up there with the best psychedelic hippy-era pop of its time.
If you like this forgotten nether land in the Stones' career, skip all the way up to their highly underrated (and best '90s-era album) Voodoo Lounge and check out "New Faces", a song with noted harpsichord accompaniment that seems like Mick plucked directly from this under-appreciated and often ignored period.
November 9, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Yoko Ono, Cornelius, Guitar Wolf, Yo Gabba Gabba!, Owl City, and Kris Kristofferson.
We've been mentioning the great American songwriters from pre-rock giants Cole Porter and George and Ira Gershwin to Brill Building greats like Goffin/King, Greenwich /Barry and such Motown staples as Holland-Dozier-Holland and Whitfield/Strong, yet have given short shrift to country music's equally accomplished class.
Let's begin to rectify this and talk about Kris Kristofferson's legacy as a songwriter. There's the trilogy that introduced him to pop audiences in a one-year period between 1970-71 that included Sammi Smith's "Help Me Make It Through The Night", Ray Price's "For The Good Times", and Janis Joplin's "Me And Bobby McGee". Let's also add "The Talker", popularized by Waylon Jennings, "If You Don't Like Hank Williams", Kristofferson's defense-of-country-music manifesto performed by -- of all people -- Hank Williams, Jr., "Nobody Wins", an early '70s hit for Brenda Lee, and Ronnie Milsap's "Please Don't Tell Me How The Story Ends", just a few more among the 400-plus existing covers of Kristofferson songs out there.
November 3, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Madonna, Monty Python, The RZA, as well as the original artists that Rod Stewart covers on his new album.
You may be a newcomer to Rod Stewart because of his Great American Songbook series, conceiving of him as an apt interpreter of pop and classic rock, but that has really always been the case. Almost from the beginning (around 1969), his first four solo records revealed how great his taste, record collection, and music vocabulary are -- with an early version of the great Irish songwriter Ewan MacColl's "Dirty Old Town" (most of us already familiar with via The Pogues), an early version of Eddie Cochran's "Cut Across Shorty" (back in 1970 when minor '50s rock icons were not so fashionable), great reinterpretations of The Rolling Stones' (actually The Valentinos') "It's All Over Now" and "Street Fighting Man", a terrific cover of The Small Faces' (his Faces' predecessors') "My Way Of Giving", and three of his very best: "Country Comforts" (one of the top early Elton John/Bernie Taupin covers -- possibly even better than Elton's original on Tumbleweed Connection), Tim Hardin's "Reason To Believe" from Every Picture Tells A Story (actually the original A-side of "Maggie May"), and on Never A Dull Moment, his cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind." Again, all of these were done before '50s and '60s R&B/rock rediscovery became hip. That these gems were all in the company of such stellar original compositions as "You Wear It Well," "Every Picture Tells A Story," and "Maggie May" make it all the more remarkable.
October 26, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from The Cramps, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Thalía, Tito El Bambino, Gloria Estefan, Mika, and Michael Bublé.
Where we were extolling the many virtues of this new album "The Boy Who Knew Too Much" we took a shot at describing Mika's sound by referencing Queen, George Michael, Elton John, and ABBA, but we weren't being precise enough. Each of these artists has lengthy careers and the accompanying artistic growth that comes with the territory. So we'll be more specific.
When we mention Queen, we're talking about the early glitter-era Queen (the first four albums) that brought you "Killer Queen" (as opposed to the arena rock Queen of "We Will Rock You").We'll use our George Michael reference as an excuse to talk up the virtues of Wham!, unfairly denigrated as another teen bubblegum band (and what's wrong with that, by the way?) and call attention to their follow-up to "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go": the mid-sized (but mostly forgotten) hit "Freedom," the best song that Holland-Dozier-Holland never wrote that the Four Tops never recorded. Our Elton John reference is meant to point you to his first rush of mass popularity when he was also flirtatious with glitter ala "Bennie And The Jets". Finally, our ABBA reference shouldn't imply the Euro-disco of "Dancing Queen" or the chipper "Take A Chance On Me" but instead point you to their early rock-inspired sides like "Waterloo" or, more specifically, their first single, "Ring Ring."
Put them all together and you have the sound of Mika's first two albums. Well, not exactly. . . He's much more than an amalgamation of his predecessors. But this is something you need to find out for yourselves by catching his current tour in support of The Boy Who Knew Too Much, possibly the best pure/pop celebratory album of the year.
October 19, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Blaxploitation films, the Yacht Rock genre, Toby Keith, and Gustafer Yellowgold.
If your eyes started rolling when we referred to Steely Dan as one of the "roots of punk" artists -- in context of the our yacht rock discussion this week of all things-- you're not alone. It was only after hearing an appreciation of their early/mid-'70s work from people as diverse as Elvis Costello and Steve Wynn (of college rock staple The Dream Syndicate) that many of the knowing fans started to feel validated. Not convinced? Still focused on Steely Dan's jazz licks and smooth harmonies that come first and foremost to mind? Start by taking a look at the lyrics to "Kid Charlemagne", a cynical, unforgiving take on a '60s drug dealer who's fallen on hard times. The song itself works as a pretty savage dismissal of the '60s counterculture (or at least the more naive parts of it), which is an underlying theme in most of the early formative punk sides from the late '70s. Then there's "Black Friday", sung from the point of view of a ruined investor sharing his survival-of-the-fittest strategy after being caught in a mid-19th century stock market crash, or the title cut from The Royal Scam, a dark and disappointing story focusing on the disparity between the truth and the reality of the American immigrant experience in the late '50s. If you step away from the smooth grooves and sing-a-long choruses you'll hear that same wonderful disparity in "Black Cow", "Show Biz Kids", "Hey Nineteen", and, well, a large majority of their entire output. Really, how much more subversive can you get than hiding a bitter pill in a radio-friendly, oh-so-mellow package. But then what did you expect from a band that took their name from an object in a William Burroughs novel?
October 13, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Rosanne Cash, Ziggy Marley, Sonic Youth, Gary Glitter, Billy Idol, and Blur.
If you're as enamored of Rosanne Cash's new album as we are (and why wouldn't you be), we'd like to point you in the direction of the original versions. On the podcast we talked/raved about Lefty Frizzell's version of "Long Black Veil", Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash's duet on "Girl From The North Country", and Merle Haggard's "Silver Wings". We also mentioned our sadness at the passing of Mary Travers, forgetting that her "500 Miles" with Peter, Paul And Mary was yet another wisely chosen song by both Cashes. Because we don't want to leave you hanging or pass up the opportunity to expose you to more music while we've got your attention, here's our version of The List (The Original Versions):
1. "Miss The Mississippi And You" - Jimmie Rodgers
2. "Motherless Children" - Son House
3. "Sea Of Heartbreak" - Don Gibson
4. "Take These Chains From My Heart" - Ray Charles
5. "I'm Movin' On" - Hank Snow
6. "She's Got You" - Patsy Cline
7. "Heartaches By The Number" - Ray Price
8. "500 Miles" - Peter, Paul And Mary
9. "Long Black Veil" - Lefty Frizzell
10. "Silver Wings" - Merle Haggard
11. "Girl From The North Country" - Bob Dylan With Johnny Cash
12. "Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow" - The Carter Family
October 6, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from Jefferson Airplane, Rodrigo y Gabriela, and Noisettes.
While we've got your attention for the Jefferson Airplane thanks to the Coen Brothers prominent use of "Somebody To Love" (and three other Airplane songs) used to great effect in their terrific new film "A Serious Man" let's take a break from pushing our JA Essentials and instead extol the virtues of their first album, The Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, made before Grace Slick joined the band for their acknowledged masterpiece, Surrealistic Pillow.
While original singer Signe Anderson wasn't the icon Grace was, she was every bit the singer. Signe also brought a different, almost folk-inspired quality to the band, who were just finding their psychedelic bearings at the time. Although it could be heretical, it's also arguable that Takes Off is on a par with Pillow and a minor folk-rock masterpiece in a league with classic albums by The Mamas & The Papas and The Lovin' Spoonful.
Comprising the album's core are its first single, "It's No Secret," one of Marty Balin's best vocals ever, and the gorgeous "Come Up The Years," which also shows how well the Balin/Anderson/Kantner harmonies worked from the beginning. Even more revelatory are the album's bonus tracks (usually the source of more interesting than great material) that equal and in some cases exceed the best songs on the original album -- the rock-inspired-Grace-Slick-predicting "Go To Her" and three more folk-rock gems from the long deleted Early Flight rarities set: "That's Alright," "High Flyin' Bird," and "Runnin' 'Round This World-all of it adds up to one of the best debut albums becoming one of the very best.
September 28, 2009
This week, we're listening in on music from U2, Monsters of Folk, LL Cool J, and Fame.
George Harrison was often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", and while he earned that moniker due to his subdued and low-key style, it seems to have unfairly extended to the majority of his post-Beatles solo work -- beyond a handful of hits. But that's all starting to change with the release this year of Let It Roll: Songs By George Harrison, the first comprehensive collection focused on his solo career, and Yim Yames' Tribute To EP (a spare recording of six of his favorite Harrison songs). Both releases show that there's much more to George than "My Sweet Lord", "What Is Life", and "Give Me Love"; both sets go beyond the obvious hits.
But there's even more A-level material that's not covered on either of these titles. Harrison's triple-length debut, All Things Must Pass, gave us the foreboding (but never heavy-handed) "Beware Of Darkness", arguably the centerpiece of his Concert for Bangladesh; the song's been successfully covered by artists as diverse as Concrete Blonde, Joe Coker, Eric Clapton, and Harrison's friend and sometime bandmate Leon Russell. And "Wah-Wah" now feels like a great power pop song just waiting to be rediscovered -- and remade.
His second album, Living In The Material World, showed no drop in quality, featuring the stellar "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" (one of the great anti-music industry songs) and the Spector-influenced (and produced) "Try Some Buy Some", which, not surprisingly, was also recorded by Ronnie Spector. And that's just from the first two albums! Two of his later albums Cloud Nine("Got My Mind Set On You" ) and Thirty Three And 1/3 ("This Song") are well worth checking out and both demonstrate some of his best work in came well in the 80s.
