Sunday Shuffle

Beautiful fall weather. Busy as hell. Here’s some music. Shuffle never ceases to delight me. It forces me to accept what comes. Playlists are great, too. But the randomness of Shuffle is so pleasing.

“If Teardrops Were Pennies” – Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton. CLASSIC. Foot-tapping! The blend of their voices! But I must defer to the great Kim Morgan.

“Between My Legs” – Rufus Wainwright. One of my favorites of his. Up there with “14th Street” and “I Don’t Know What It Is”.

“Where Could I Go But to the Lord” – Elvis Presley. With the snapping fingers, the church-y piano … and the slow build. Featured in his NBC comeback special, with the church ladies in white heels coming down the staircase behind him. Elvis is thrilling when he’s Godly. I mean, he’s always thrilling. But I love him in the Gospel Realm.

“Never Going Back Again” – Fleetwood Mac. Perfection.

“Ain’t That Loving You Baby” (take 10) – Elvis Presley. The arrangement ended up totally changing over the course of the session. The early version was much faster, almost manic (and Elvis would burst out laughing on occasion because it was so damn fast). There are hand-claps, boogie woogie piano, it’s nuts.

“Window to the World” – Shawn Colvin. This is from her cover album. My dear friend Kate gave it to me on a tape as a departure gift from Chicago, lo, so many years ago. I was driving to the East Coast to start up grad school. I was in a STATE. Kate and I had JUST become friends that summer, and then, boom, I had to move. Luckily our friendship survived! I didn’t know anything about Shawn Colvin, so Kate gave me a tape with both Polaroids and Cover Girl on it. I listened to it as I drove from Chicago to New York. It seemed to speak exactly to the experience I was having in that moment: loss, hope, grief, broken heart, new beginnings … all at the same time. I still get a flashback to that time when I hear anything from those two albums.

“Thistle & Weeds” – Mumford & Sons. Not really on the Mumford & Sons Crazy Train, but I like some of their stuff.

“Here Comes the Sun” – the Glee cast, featuring Demi Lovato. You know, she does a lovely job. Keeps it simple.

“Born to Hand Jive” – the Glee cast covers the giant Grease production number. Anyone of my generation was born to hand jive.

“Tony” – Patty Griffin, from Flaming Red. The song is killer, makes me cry. I have just learned from the aforementioned friend Kate that Griffin and Robert Plant are in a relationship, and I could not be happier to hear that news. It’s HOT to even contemplate.

“Across the Universe” – The Beatles. That guitar that opens it … Wow.

“Move” – from the movie Dreamgirls. Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, and the other Dream-ettes. It’s almost unfair: Listen to both versions of the song, the movie version and the Broadway version. Holliday blows Hudson out of the water. You can’t even compare the two. Not even in the same universe.

“Going Under” – Evanescence. Boy, there was about a year where I could not stop listening to this album. I still love it, and them. She’s got a hell of a voice.

“Scorpion” – Lucy Kaplansky. She’s so great. I’ve seen her live a bunch of times. The last time Siobhan and I went and saw her at City Winery. Wonderful show.

“Reminiscing” – Buddy Holly. Sexy, with the jammin’ sax accompanying his vocals.

“I’ve Lost You” – Elvis. This is live, from the That’s the Way It Is album. He sings the hell out of this song. I mean, he GOES there. Listen to how he wails “Ohhhhh, I’ve lost you!” His pain is palpable.

“Please Come Home for Christmas” – Bon Jovi. Hahaha. Bluesy, sexy, although not as sexy as Elvis’ Santa Claus is Back in Town. But it is in that ballpark.

“Saints” – The Breeders. Such a great album.

“Low Hangin’ Fruit” – Tenacious D, from their new album. It is rockin’. And ridiculous. The video is awesome.

“Blue Moon of Kentucky” – Wanda Jackson, singing one of Elvis’ first Sun hits. This is from her album called I Remember Elvis. I still feel so fortunate that I saw her live. She’s still going strong.

“Mailman’s Son” – Bleu. I’ve written about him before. That pretty much says it all, in terms of my response to this guy and his music. This is a beautiful song. He’s incapable of writing a boring song.

“Hit the Lights” – Metallica. Speaking of which …

“Who’s the Thief?” – the cast of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Ridiculous: from Metallica to this. I love it. Joseph’s sleazy brothers set off for Egypt (“And if we have the time, we can see the Sphinx!”) to find Joseph, whom they threw into a pit not so long ago! Jeez! I don’t blame Joseph for not welcoming them back with open arms.

“We Hate to Leave” – Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra, from the wicked fun Anchors Aweigh (Dean Stockwell’s debut!)

“I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Elvis Presley, at Madison Square Gardne, afternoon show, June 10, 1972. From the brilliant Prince From Another Planet. He’s so fantastic. He wails this one, and you can hear the crowd going insane. Here’s an excerpt from a New Yorker review of that Madison Square Garden concert. The sound is crystal-clear. It’s like you’re back in time, actually at that concert.

“Money Honey” – Elvis. Rehearsing, messing around, getting ready for Vegas, if I recall correctly. I love it because he’s covering one of his early Sun hits, and you can tell he can’t remember how it goes. He forgets the lyrics, hums along.

“Canary in a Coalmine” – The Police, from Zenyatta Mondatta. This is the first time I heard the phrase “canary in a coalmine” and asked my Dad what it meant. He explained it to me. He knew everything.

“Disaster Girl” – Pat McCurdy. One of his most popular songs. I asked him once if it was about me and he laughed in my face. “She’s the Hindenberg, the Titanic, Mt. St. Helens, and the Bank Panic … she’s my-y-y … my Disaster Girl.”

“Cool Love” – the great Wanda Jackson. SWING IT. It’s sexy, having a woman lead singer, and a big male chorus behind her. I love that choice. And the hand claps. You must dance when you hear this song, preferably with a guy who can throw you around.

“Raspberry Swirl” – Tori Amos. I have a love-hate relationship with her. I like her best when she is hard, angry and sexy. I have a real issue with some of her more introspective songs. In other words, I dig “Raspberry Swirl”.

“Life Has Been Good To Me” – Bonnie Raitt and Randy Newman and James Taylor and others, in Randy Newman’s great musical version of Faust.

“Alison” – Elvis Costello & The Attractions. Once upon a time, I listened to Elvis Costello every single day. I listened to him too much. I’m still tapped out.

“Hero of the Day” – Metallica, from “Load”, that controversial 6th album. I guess everything they do is controversial. That’s what happens when your fans love you the way Metallica fans love them. I love “Load”. But the sound of it was like a bomb going off in the fan base. What the hell is this shit??

“Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” – Trans-Siberian Orchestra. I went and saw them this past year at Nassau Coliseum. It’s one of the weirdest things I have ever seen in my life. I have nothing to compare it to. Since I’m reading Sarajevo: A War Journal right now, it is an odd counterpoint.

“Go, Go, Go Joseph” – Laurie Beecham, as the Narrator in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and the rest of the cast. Okay, enough of that, Shuffle.

“Without Love” – Elvis Presley. Gorgeous. I think it’s one of his best performances. He blows me away.

“Murder Incorporated” – Bruce Springsteen. Love that opening.

“Tuxedo Junction” – Tony Burgos & His Swing Shift Orchestra. Swingin’.

“Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” -Lea Michele, from Glee. Girl can sing.

“Talk About the Good Times” – Elvis Presley, from Promised Land. It’s so adorable that people continue to insist that the 70s were a total wash in terms of Elvis’ creativity and productivity. Adorable! Look at you being adorably totally WRONG!

“Ebony Eyes” – The Everly Brothers. Devastating!

“Three Cool Cats” – The Beatles. I’m obsessed with the Beatles Anthology. It’s a goldmine. They’re so confident here, so filled with life, youth, fun. Great sound.

“The Pop Singer’s Fear Of The Pollen Count” – The Divine Comedy. He is such a weirdo and I love his songs. My favorites of his are “National Express”, “Your Daddy’s Car” and “Gin-Soaked Boy”. He’s got a hell of a voice. Siobhan saw him play in Ireland.

“Hope Alone” – Indigo Girls. I can only take them in small doses, but I am glad that they were not a one-hit wonder, that they are still around, still putting out albums. Very cool. Longevity.

“I’ll Get You” – The Beatles. Exciting: “It’s not like me to pretend … but I’ll get you … I’ll get you in the end!” That SOUND.

“Colored Spade” – from the Broadway revival of Hair. I did not see the production, but love the cast recording. Great ensemble.

“As Long As He Needs Me” – Shani Wallis, as the tragic Nancy, from Oliver! With her blunt-cut 1960s bangs! “In SPOIT of wot you see …”

“A-Roving” – The Raunch Hands. My parents had this on vinyl and we all were OBSESSED with it as kids. They were a folk group, all guys, and I think they all went to Harvard. We all still sing their songs, we know all the lyrics.

“Live With Jesus” – Wynonna Judd. Great. You can hear the Elvis influence in her voice (which is not surprising, seeing as her mother is married to Larry Strickland). Gospel, country, blues … all mixed together.

“The Scientist” – the Glee cast version of the Coldplay song. I dislike Coldplay, and so it’s nice to hear someone with some … heat … sing the song. Cory Monteith (R.I.P.) is the lead here, and he’s lovely.

“Keep a-Knockin'” – Little Richard. He is so ferocious. Some of the stories about him in the Sam Cooke biography were so hilarious.

“Hash Pipe” – Weezer. It starts so heavy, those guitars. And then this little falsetto comes in … It’s ridiculous. I like them, only have the one album though.

“Soul of a Man” – Stark Sands, from the new Broadway show Kinky Boots (written by Cyndi Lauper). I have not seen the show, but seeing the number on the Tony’s as well as my love for Lauper that goes back decades, I had to buy it. It’s amazing! Stark Sands is wonderful, great pop voice.

“Stuck On You” – Elvis Presley. He’s sexy here. I know. What a shock.

“Mother Nature’s Son” – John Denver’s cover of The Beatles song. I grew up listening to John Denver, my parents had a couple of his albums. We loved Grandma’s Feather Bed, and Matthew, and all that. It’s all a bit too sweetsy for me now (due to the fact that I am dead inside), but I still think of my childhood when I hear him, and remember how much I loved him. He does a beautiful cover of this song, with a slight echo on his voice, making it sound like he’s singing it in the mountains.

“Zoot Suit Riot” – Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. They were a huge part of that big swing revival, that was really hitting its stride when I first moved to New York. I used to go to swing clubs and lindy hop the night away with strangers. It was awesome.

“Anna Mae” – Brownie McGhee. Jammin’. I am pretty sure the harmonica here is his longtime collaborator Sonny Terry.

“Hold Out” – Jackson Browne. I was a senior in high school and my new friend Liz (who was in college) played another song from this album for us all in the dressing room while we got ready to do Picnic. I was so taken with it that I went out and bought the cassette tape. I was never a big Jackson Browne fan, but I love this album, mainly for its personal associations.

“Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me and My Monkey” – The Beatles. This is best blasted at top volume as you drive to the beach. Sing along at the top of your lungs.

“When It Rains It Pours” – Billy Emerson. Another Sun Records artist. It’s still mysterious/wonderful to me that you can still, so many years later, pick a Sun Records track from out of a lineup. Nothing else sounds like it, regardless of the artist. There’s that slight echo, first of all, which befuddled RCA engineers when they tried to re-create it for Elvis. They couldn’t get it quite right, and most of Elvis’ early RCA stuff sounds like he is trapped at the bottom of a well. But it’s more than the sound with those Sun tracks. It’s the FEEL.

“Climbing Up the Walls” – Radiohead. I went through a pretty serious phase with this album. I sort of fell in love with someone while I was into my heavy Radiohead rotation. So I always associate Radiohead with that guy. This does not make me want to listen to them.

“You Can’t Hurry Love” – The Stray Cats. I don’t know if I can sufficiently describe how awesome it is that this sort of novelty act from my high school years is STILL around and still doing cool stuff. I’ve always got my ear to the ground for what he is up to next.

“Hindi Sad Diamonds” – Jim Broadbent, John Leguizamo, Nicole Kidman – from Moulin Rouge. The big production number that closes the Spectacular Spectacular!

“The Flesh Failures / Eyes Look Your Last / Let the Sun Shine In” – another one from the Hair Broadway revival. Okay, that’s enough, thanks!

“And She Was” – Talking Heads. This album was so huge for us in college.

“Mobile Home” – Pat McCurdy. An early one of his in his solo career. He still plays it at his shows. “Got Elvis on the stereo …”

“The World Isn’t Fair” – Randy Newman. A Socialist manifesto via Tin Pan Alley. I love him.

“Walk a Mile In My Shoes” – Elvis Presley, live, from That’s the Way It Is. What an album. He’s on fire. This song is really personal for him. But he made everything personal.

“Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey” – from Paul McCartney’s great album Ram. My brother gave this album to me a couple of years ago. I never owned it.

“Ants Marching” – Dave Matthews, from that double live album he did Live at Luther College. I like this acoustic solo version better than the actual recorded version. Not a huge Dave Matthews fan but this is a catchy song.

“Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” – Pat McCurdy, from The Sound of Music. This entire album reminds me of the first 3 or 4 months I spent in Chicago, when I first discovered Pat McCurdy and bought this album from the Virgin Records down in Lincoln Park.

“Interview: 1962” – a fascinating 14 minute interview with Elvis, on-set. He was so rarely interviewed that this is a goldmine. He sounds serious and sincere. He talks for 14 minutes straight. You can hear the voices in the background, banging, etc. He is out in the middle of it. He is quite philosophical about his fame. He thinks he needs a certain amount of privacy, but he also sees that he owes so much to his fans, and tries to always be polite, sign autographs, and be kind. He says that he has tried to “remain the same through this whole thing”, and act the way he was raised. Again, we so rarely hear directly from the guy that the entire thing is fascinating.