Clearly it’s been slightly busy round these here parts. Lots of train commutes. Lots of driving. Here’s the rando music in my collection – eff Spotify – that follows me around.
“Maids of Elfen-Mere” – Tori Amos. I’m hot/cold on her. But this is very good creepy-haunting Tori. With lovely piano. From her album with the great title Unrepentant Geraldines. Will always be happy I went to see her at Park West in the first couple of months I lived in Chicago. I went by myself. It was a symbolic gesture. I had been in a relationship for 4 years and was single for the first time as a grownup. “Oh hey I get to do whatever I want, I don’t have to include anyone else, I can just GO.” I saw her right before Little Earthquakes came out. It was perfect timing. She would be hugely famous in a matter of months. I had read a little interview with her in Interview magazine and had been intrigued.
“Good Rockin’ Tonight” – Elvis Presley. Peter Guralnick writes very well about the effect this song had back in the day. The explosiveness of it, which you can hear in how Elvis sings the first lines. It’s a great track (with great little solo by Scottie Moore.) I think Link Wray’s version is “better” (apples/oranges) and it’s almost scary, like Link is calling you all to a secret midnight “rumble.” Still: both versions are great.
“Cell Block Tango” – from the movie version of Chicago. I bought the soundtrack although I was SO BAFFLED by the FUROR around that movie. Like it was the best thing ever. Oscar-worthy. Gimme a freakin’ break.
“Imagine a Picture” – Pat McCurdy. An old friend of mine, famous in the states of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota. He’s been doing solo gigs – regular gigs every week – where he gets “the door” – in a circuit through those states for 25, 30 years now. He’s amazing. He and I just conversed about Elvis. This is his “country-western song.” Great lyrics: “Imagine a picture of me and you / Only you’re not in it.” He performs it and everyone sings along with the lyrics. Check him out.
“You Can Make It If You Try” – The Rolling Stones. From their first album in 1964.
“Now and Then There’s a Fool Such As I” – Elvis. Covering the Hank Snow hit. One of Elvis’ many many #1 hits. It’s glorious. Elvis is so young and so … insouciant. I also like The Jordannaires’ background arrangement.
“Finale” – from the original Broadway cast of The Boyfriend. I was obsessed with this musical – and all things 1920s – plus boarding school – when I was in middle school. This came about because I had seen 1. Bugsy Malone and 2. a college production of The Boyfriend. Forget it. I was HOOKED.
“I Believe” – Elvis. An emotional gospel recording. He sings the hell out of it.
“Some Kind of Wonderful” – Huey Lewis & the News from his best album, Four Chords and Several Years Ago. I’ve told this story ad nauseum but 1. He was the first concert I attended. 2. Years later, I was an extra in a Huey TV special being filmed in a small studio in Chicago. It was American Bandstand inspired. We had to show up in 1960s clothes. My friend Ann and I were placed on the scaffolding surrounding the stage. And what followed was basically a live concert (with some stop-starts), where Huey performed all these classic r&b and doo-wop tunes with local Chicago bluesmen. It was amazing. Someone recently uploaded the TV special to Youtube (half of it in black-and-white, half in color: B&W for the old songs, color for his contemporary songs) and I scoured it looking for Ann Marie. I found me. Or at least my leg. At one point, my leg looks like it’s touching Huey’s head, a la God and Adam in the Sistine Chapel.
“Come and Get Me” – Timbaland, featuring 50 Cent and Tony Yayo). From Timbaland’s great album Shock Album. My sisters and I were obsessed with this album.
“Horseshoes and Handgrenades” – Green Day. My favorite off of 21st Century Breakdown.
“The Right Words” – Cliff Eberhardt. I’ve been a fan since … the late 80s? He has a way of breaking my heart into a million pieces. If he’s playing in your area, make sure you check him out. Wonderful song writer.
“Bad Moon Rising” – Jerry Lee Lewis. A lot of fun for such a dark song. This is from The Session, recorded in London with a parade of other great singers duet-ing with him. 1973. He’s such a bad boy. The quintessential Bad Boy.
“Freak Show” – Britney Spears. From Blackout, recorded in the middle of her nervous breakdown that took up the majority of a year, where I actually spent serious time worrying like hell about her. I felt so protective of her and thought the reaction to a clear mental health issue was APPALLING. Also from supposedly liberal tolerant “enlightened” people, i.e. some of the people I know. I won’t forget. What on earth do these people think a breakdown looks like? Do they think it looks … sympathetic? Adorable and pathetic? NO. Jerks. Now clearly this album was basically thrown together and she was … her mental state … I can’t imagine how much it took to even get her into the studio. However, there are good songs on this album (although the title: Oy. Art Imitating Life.) Granted, I get it, Brit-Brit’s songs all sound basically the same. I don’t care. It’s a formula that works. And the songs are personal too – “A Piece of Me” especially. I’m in her corner. Always.
“Sing the Girls a Song Bill” – the great great Waylon Jennings.
“The Wonder of You” – Elvis. Live, August 13, 1970, at The International in Vegas. Not my favorite Elvis song, although he always poured his heart into it.
“The First Thing Ev’ry Morning” – Dean Martin. Very few performers are perfect. He’s one of the few. One of his songs comes on, and I almost instantly relax. He’s got it handled. He’ll take me there.
“Wade in the Water” – the incomparable Eva Cassidy. The only one whose cover of “Over the Rainbow” rivals Judy. This is hot.
“Walkin’ In and Out of Your Arms” – k.d. lang. Never really followed her past this album, Absolute Torch and Twang, which I adore.
“Full Moon Full of Love” – k.d. lang. A k.d. lang cluster! She has such a beautiful voice.
“Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore” – Dusty Springfield, from her incredible album Dusty in Memphis. Recorded at the great outfit American Sound Studio, where Elvis recorded his great (ultimately double) album From Elvis in Memphis. Chips Moman was brilliant.
“Good As Gold” – Pat McCurdy, in his first band Yipes! Before he went solo and found his true calling. But he’s great here. I love him. Friend. Friend for decades now.
“Say Yeah” – Pat McCurdy. There’s a whole story behind this song but I ain’t telling it.
“Delta Dawn” – Tanya Tucker. I am loving the Girl Power showing up in this Shuffle! This is an example of one of the great – and weird – and strangely Tennessee Williams-inspired – “story songs” of the 1970s. “Ode to Billie Joe.” “Angie.” and etc.
“Love of My Life” – Queen. So beautiful it’s a swoon.
“Snow Cherries from France” – Tori Amos. This is the kind of Tori that kind of … drives me nuts. I like extroverted angry Tori best.
“They Fucked Our Asses” – Tenacious D. I’m not sure I can sufficiently express my love of these guys. I love the bombastic places they go, like here. It’s NUTS.
“I’m Left, You’re Right, She’s Gone” – Elvis. The story behind this recording session is fascinating. They did it many different ways, trying to click into it. They did it slow, they speeded it up. The “right” choice eluded them. This is the slow version. I think it’s great. Better than the one they ended up going with for the record, which rollicked along with the rhythm of the tracks.
“Why Did I Ever Like You?” – Pink. One of the most cutting breakup songs ever. A classic in the Bad Sport Breakup genre. This is so mean because it’s not just “Screw you for hurting me,” it’s “What on earth did I ever see in you?” A total erasure. Let’s hear it for erasure.
“I Saw Her Standing There” – Little Richard. May be sacrilegious to Beatles fans, but I think his cover rivals the original (and the original is one of my favorite Beatles songs.)
“Sabbra Cadabra” – Metallica covering Black Sabbath!
“I Feel Love” – Donna Summer. Hypnotic. We went to go see her in Chicago, at an outdoor venue. Big grass lawn where you could get up and dance. Which we all did. My favorite part was that she sang “Don’t Cry For Me, Argentina” …. twice. She sang it during the show and then sang it for her encore. Mitchell glanced at me and said, “Twice, Donna?”
“Dear God” – XTC. Got a lotta associations with this song. Boy, is it angry.
“Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” – Beyonce. An instant classic.
“We Shall Not Be Moved” – Mavis Staples. Weird. I just thought about her like 10 minutes ago because I saw a picture of her singing a recent concert with Dylan. She’s the best.
“Washington on Your Side” – Daveed Diggs, Leslie Odom, Jr., Okieriete Onaodowan … from Hamilton. The language is daunting. Love how the three men (Jefferson, Burr, and Madison) switch between distanced sarcasm and growing range – and also the beautiful harmony, male voices harmonizing. The jealousy these three felt – the impotent rage – at upstart Alexander Hamilton being so close to Washington. And the lyrics include stuff about Hamilton’s banking system, and establishing credit, and creating debt … so complex. CRAZY. And it works so well.
“Dance To The Music” – Sly & The Family Stone. As catchy as it was on the day it was released.
“Humours Of Ballyconnell/Reel Eboulement/Richie Dwyer’s” – Trian (traditional Irish folk music, with traditional instruments). I was wondering where the Irish were.
“Step Up and Rescue Me” – Faye Adams. She’s so fabulous. I loved how prominently her music was featured in The Butler.
“Roll Over Beethoven” – The Beatles. I have so many versions of so many people doing this song that honestly … I’m over it. Well, not really. But still.
“Mean Woman Blues” – Elvis Presley. (From Loving You) Tom Petty (RIP) said that the lyric “She kissed so hard she bruised my lips” blew him AWAY. He was a child. He had no idea kissing could be like that. And it was the GIRL who kissed like that? A mind-expanding experience.
“Toxic” – the Glee cast’s fun re-working of Britney Spears’ song (it’s PEAK Brit-Brit). There’s almost no accompaniment at first, just a guitar, and then the background choral voices. It’s fun.
“Finders Keepers” – The Miller Sisters. I just wrote a little thing about these women on Instagram. A trio who got their start singing on the radio out of Tupelo, Mississippi (you-know-who’s birthplace). They auditioned for Sun Records, out of Memphis, already making a name for itself even though Elvis hadn’t come along yet. They cut a couple of tracks but the songs ended up not doing much on the charts. Their fate at Sun was also sealed because a week after their recording session, in July 1954, a shy teenage truck driver strolled in the door, recorded “That’s All Right” and nothing would ever be the same at Sun again. The Miller Sisters continued on though, putting out a couple of albums in the late 50s. They were a short-lived group but thankfully history cares about them enough – because of their association with Sun. Their stuff is still available, showing up on various Sun compilations. They are also interesting because Sun was a bit of a sausage party. But girls DID record there. Sam Phillips adored The Miller Sisters and years later he would still bring them up, in a “Member those pretty little gals with the great harmonies?” way. He remembered them always.
“Wild In the Country” (take 1, 2) – Elvis. The title song to the wonderful 1961 film. This is an interesting out-take: it’s the first take, and it’s pitched too high. Not that Elvis can’t hit the notes: he can and does – but he has to belt them, which ruined the soft whispery vibe set from the first phrases. Elvis stops the session, whistling to himself like, “Whoo … that’s HIGH fellas.” Take 2 is pitched a couple of notes lower so Elvis can sing it all softly, with falsetto, as it would sound in the final version. I love these “outtakes” because it’s Elvis Working. Shows his smarts.
“Papagenu (He’s My Sassafrass)” – Tenacious D. SO DUMB. SO FUNNY.
“Birmingham” – Randy Newman. Impossible to listen to and not sing along. At any rate, if you do listen to this and don’t feel the urge to sing along I don’t trust you.
“Ain’t Killed Me Yet” – Eric Church. It was so much fun seeing him at Outlaw Fest, but it wasn’t until a couple days later when it occurred to me how special – how rare – the show was. He didn’t have his band with him. He played everything acoustic. He admitted to us he was “terrified.” But it was going back to basics. I still would like to see him with his band, because they are awesome, but I feel privileged to have been there.
“Down the Alley” – Elvis. Pure unadulterated sex. It’s almost … embarrassing. Almost. But not really. I must point out that this dirty-sex-fest was recorded in the same 24-hour period as “How Great Thou Art”, the gospel classic and Elvis’ favorite gospel song. I said what I needed to say about this dichotomy at that link.
“The Girl From New York City” – The Beach Boys. Groovy!
“She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye” – Jerry Lee Lewis. Hilarious title.
“Bling (Confessions of a King)” – The Killers. MELODRAMA. He has a great voice.
“Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (take 5) – Elvis. It’s still … startling. 1956 track and you can feel the high wire act going on. He’s really out there on the edge.
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ On” – Jerry Lee Lewis with Keith Richards. From some 1983 TV appearance. I grabbed the mp3 from Youtube, I admit it. Hearing Keith accompanying The Killer is a “thing of beauty and a joy forever.”
“Whiskey River” – Jerry Lee Lewis and Willie Nelson. Gorgeous. Harmonies from two giants. From Jerry Lee Lewis’ Mean Old Man from 2010, which is a lot of fun.
“They Can’t Take That Away From Me” – Robbie Williams and Rupert Everett. Talk about a fabulous pairing. I love men singing together. I wish it happened more often.
“I Remember” – Eddie Cochran. Eddie going all wistful and sad.
“Pickin’ Time” – Tennessee Ernie Ford and Johnny Cash. I swear, my music collection is nuuuuuuuts. You’d never know I was Gen X.
“You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” – The Whirling Dervishes. If you haven’t heard this version, you need to check it out.
“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” – Lou Rawls. Who’s better than him. Such an artist.
“Haxel Princess” – Cherry Glazerr. I dig them. Get LOUD, girls. It’s okay to coo and be sexy and gravelly too. But I “grew up” with LOUD MAD GIRLS. Carry that torch proudly.
“Like Home” – Eminem and Alicia Keys. There’s a reason people are talking about this song. It’s kind of a sequel to his “Trump” rant in the parking garage a while back. Those who are all like, “Oh wow, Eminem is smart now, political now …” … are basically saying, “I haven’t listened to his music.” (It’s like after Lady Gaga sang “Sound of Music” and all these people were like, “Who knew she could sing??” Uhm, EVERYBODY?) I’ve said it a million times: you are not required to like him, or to like hip-hop, or whatever else. His stuff can be very hard to take and not to everyone’s taste. (And often his hard to take stuff is his best stuff.) And of course yes he is totally “offensive” by any rational measuring stick. So it’s fine to ignore what you don’t like. However, I won’t listen to what you have to say if you haven’t listened to him, or are only outraged based on snippets of his stuff taken out of context, since I don’t engage with people who say they “don’t like” something when they haven’t even listened/read/watched. (There was a dumb article on Slate this week where the guy said that although he hasn’t watched A Quiet Passion he’s annoyed at the critical acclaim for it, since it’s clearly a film made for critics, not a regular audience. But he said this without having seen the film. I will never listen to what that person has to say about anything ever again.) Yes, Eminem is far more explicitly political in the current moment. A lot of people are, in case you haven’t noticed. The republic is at stake. People feel the danger. But those who have some concept of Eminem as totally apolitical literally do not know what they are talking about. The Eminem Show is drenched in blistering political speech, one of the clearest examples of an album “responding” to 9/11. All along, one of his main topics has been CLASS. And class is a political issue. Poor people know that. Smug middle-class people don’t. At any rate, “Like Home” is powerful and angry. It actually gives me hope and not much does these days. Just two days ago, the great Greil Marcus wrote a Top 10 for The Village Voice and included Eminem’s new album in it. I can’t tell you how much I love that Marcus says Eminem now sounds like Masha Gessen. It’s hilarious. But true!
“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” – Bette Midler. My cousins and I used to rehearse this song, breaking it down into parts, and then rehearsing it, slowly, each of us taking one of the harmony lines. We were in high school.
“Little Deuce Coupe” – The Beach Boys. Classic.
“Love Me” – Elvis. This is from the rehearsal for his 1968 “comeback special.” Very informal rehearsal: people talking in the background. And in the foreground is Elvis, and he’s at performance-level. Totally casual setting, and there he is: Elvis with a capital E. It’s beautiful.
“Mother Nature’s Son” – The Beatles. Believe it or not, I thought this was a John Denver song until I “discovered” the Beatles at age 9, 10. Beatle Mania SWEPT my grade school. They were long broken up – and my parents had their albums but it hadn’t filtered down for some reason. Our music teacher was an old hippie with a long beard and he told us about driving down to New York with his buddies to try and get a glimpse of The Beatles when they came to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. (Shades of I Wanna Hold Your Hand). Pretty sure that’s how it started. He passed the torch to us. And I was like, “Wait. THE BEATLES WROTE THIS SONG? NOT JOHN DENVER? MY MIND IS BLOWN.”
“There Are Worse Things I Could Do” – Stockard Channing. You tell ’em, Rizzo.
“No Way Back” – Foo Fighters. Who knows why certain groups get under your skin. These guys always have. I think what I sense in them most is Joy. There’s pain too, and anger, and loss … but it comes out in a survivor’s blast of expression.
“If Every Day Was Like Christmas” – Elvis Presley. So beautiful. It starts soft, and then it opens up into power-ish ballad. He’s perfect, what can I say.
“Leaving Home Ain’t Easy” – Queen. So beautiful. The harmonies are piercingly emotional.
“Still Doing Time” – George Jones. Dude, this is a sad sad story. (As all of his stories are.) What a voice.
“Rags to Riches” – Elvis. The man is on fire. He has only 10 years left to live. It doesn’t seem real.
“Pay Me My Money Down” – Bruce Springsteen. This is off maybe my favorite Springsteen album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions. The sound is so huge. And I don’t know about the recording, but these feel like live takes, everyone in the studio at the same time. Anyone have any Intel on that? Regardless: great and vibrant sound.
“Frankie & Johnny” – Brook Benton. Sexy. And the song kind of forces you to snap your fingers, like you’re suddenly Dean Martin embodied.
“Bury Our Friends” – Sleater-Kinney. It’s been a bit of a Boys Club for a bit so it’s good to have fabulous women barge onto the scene. They don’t need permission.
“Away in a Manger” – the Glee cast. Beautiful vocal arrangement.
“I’ve Always Been Crazy” – Waylon Jennings. “I’ve always been crazy but it’s kept me from going insane.” So good.
“I Feel a Sin Comin’ On” – The Pistol Annies. So good. I love them, in general, but this is my #1 of theirs.
“Little Sister” – Asmodeus. This is from a crazy and fun album I tripped over called Psychobilly Tribute to Elvis. And these bands cover the weird songs, the songs nobody would cover … like “Crawfish” from King Creole?? But it’s a lot of fun.
“Say Man” – Bo Diddley. God, you can hear the whole world changing in his music. You can hear the future.
“Blood on the Leaves” – Kanye West. The auto-tune is out of control, Kanye!! But it’s all really rather brilliant. And audacious.
“Thieves in the Temple” – Prince. I still feel like I’m living in a horrible alternate universe where Prince has died, when he should still be alive.
“The House Is Rockin'” – Brian Setzer. From Guitar Slinger. When I think of how long I’ve been listening to this guy I feel like I’m a Biblical character who has reached her 728th year. Stray Cats. And the funny thing is: you might have thought that band was just a fad. The resurgence of rockabilly in the 80s, and they “jumped” on it. Now I realize that they basically created that resurgence themselves, or were the forerunners of something going on in the underground, and here Brian Setzer still is, doing his thing. And he’s still out in FRONT of things. He was a predictor yet again of where things would go, into the new swing dance craze in the 90s. (I read a funny quote somewhere from a music executive saying, “If Brian Setzer told me tuba music was going to be the next big thing, I’d believe him.”) So. Fan for life.
“Too Much Monkey Business” – Elvis, covering Chuck Berry, with Jerry Reed playing guitar. You don’t get much better than that.
Damn. Little Richard singing the Beatles with a horn section. It’s like I just mainlined the coffee pot.
thank you
I’ve been far away from my own site for a week due to 3 deadlines but I’m back and excited to catch up.
“mainlined the coffee pot” – right??
It’s soooo good.
Sheila, may I present another enticement plug aimed straight at you for Jerusalem by Alan Moore? Dusty Springfield encounters Lucia Joyce in the 60 page Lucia Joyce finnegans wake-like section.
Interesting you mention Finnegans Wake – am re-reading right now, for a project. That was basically just offered to me, and it has a long enough deadline I was like, “Well, okay, need to clear the deck and read this again, I guess.”
I have so many thoughts. I do a couple pages a morning and – like I did the first time, like my dad suggested – I read it out loud. This is the benefit of having no roommates.
You need to HEAR this book because it’s in the sounds – and sometimes the puns aren’t apparent unless you hear it out loud.
at any rate, should be a fun couple of months.
I think there’s a documentary covering the recording of that Springsteen album. Your hunch is correct — and I THINK “Pay Me My Money Down” is the song where you can actually hear him calling out key changes. That whole album is a great one for road trips.
Tom – sorry for the delay in responding. I did not realize there was a documentary about the recording of it – I will seek that out! The album has such a big jangly sound – it’s so fantastic.