Busy Week Shuffle

It’s been a busy week. Family stuff, work stuff, projects long-term and short. I am working hard to keep the stability going, in the midst of so much flux and change. So far so good. Here are the tracks that followed me around the city for the last 5 busy-ass days.

“Little Doll” – The Stooges. Rough. Epic. That sort of droning insistent background chord progression … It doesn’t change all that much, or at all. Gives the song its drive. Let’s let Lester Bangs take over the narrative.

“Misery” – The Beatles. I love how it starts really strange, and then settles in to a pretty standard pop song (or, as standard as they could get). They were so good at unique “beginnings”.

“You Can’t Do That” – The Beatles. Speaking of cool beginnings. And I love the “nyah nyah” vibe of the whole song. The whole thing feels like a bratty kid repeating everything his brother says, just to annoy him out of his head. “Gonna let you down and leave you flat!” Love this song.

“Chinese Food” – Pat McCurdy. An old friend of mine. Check him out! This is one of his biggest crowd-pleasers, and it’s a live take – sounds like at Summer Fest, the crowd is huge.

“More Than Words” – the Glee cover of that d-bag’s original hit. Basically the message of the song is: “Shut your mouth and fuck me, how about that.” The beautiful melancholy melody is a smokescreen for the date-rapey sentiment. However, this is a beautiful arrangement – I like it better than the original.

“You’re Looking Good” – Pat McCurdy. So it’s gonna be one of THOSE shuffles, Pat, is it? Where I can’t get rid of you? This is a live take.

“Blew” – Nirvana. From Bleach. If you heard Bleach before Nevermind, you would probably have thought: “What the hell is going on in the Pacific Northwest?” It’s rough, he’s screaming, the sound is loud and full and an assault. You can hear so much in it: The Beatles, heavy metal, the Ramones, punk rock, the grinding guitars of the great rock and roll legends in the 60s. But overlaid with a uniquely modern scream. Amazing.

“God Bless the Child” – the exquisite Lou Rawls. He’s perfect.

“Reciprocal Feelings” – Tracey Bonham. I’ve been a fan since I heard “Mother Mother” playing at a Tower Records in Chicago, her shrieking “”Everything’s FIIIIIIIIINE” so powerful that I walked up to an employee and said, “WHO. IS. THIS.” That is still the song she is most known for, but she’s still out there, still creating. Not as pissed, maybe – she’s married and happy now (or last I checked she was). But I love her lyrics and her melodies. Killer voice, too. So distinctive.

“The Hardest Button to Button” – The White Stripes. The bass is sexy as hell.

“Gallant Forty Twa” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. Little fife, marching drum, the beauty and camaraderie of war. I know every word. I sing along, like some crazy old soldier living in my glory days.

“The Way I Am” – Eminem. It was around this time when all oxygen in the culture started getting sucked out by what was going on with Eminem. It started earlier, of course, but this video was everywhere, its ominous sound (those chiming bells), and the personal nature of the lyrics, their self-pity, their refusal to take responsibility. It’s all part of who he was (is), and how he has reacted to such white-hot stardom. It’s controversial, sure. He’s really saying, “Stop looking to me as a role model,” but there are all these other explosive things addressed here. “Oh, you care about Columbine because they’re WHITE kids, suddenly it’s a national crisis when they’re WHITE.” He addresses the snobbery, the adulation, the self-loathing, it’s all there. What can I say. I love the guy. I never get sick of him – which ends up being a lucky thing, because the guy is everywhere. Not so much now, but back around the time of this album, he was everywhere. He’s touring now. Tickets for his New York show go on sale next week. Do I dare? He’s touring with Rihanna. I mean, I think I need to at least try to get my ass there.

“How Come You’re Not Here” – Pink. She’s so hot, so rockin’. And speaking of Eminem: I love the anecdote she shared about how he appeared on one of her albums. How the hell did she get him? Well, he had asked her to appear on HIS album, in the jamming anthem “Won’t Back Down”. She thought about it, and of course, wanted to do it, but figured she might as well go for a little “quid pro quo”. She said, “I’ll appear on your album, if you appear on mine.” Ballsy. But good business. And Eminem said Sure. And he is interjected into her “Here Comes the Weekend”, and it’s SO AWESOME and I love that both of these tracks happened. And I love her for not just falling over herself to be on an Eminem song. She asked for something in return. But back to this particular song in question: “How Come You’re Not Here” – she’s got one of the best voices out there right now. A great ROCK voice. Rough, expressive, flexible, great range – it can be really hard, it can be achingly soft. She’s great.

“Heavy Metal Heart” – Sky Ferreira. I’m not really into new music, or flavor of the week stuff, but her album appeared on enough “Best of 2013” lists that I was intrigued. Listened to a couple of tracks and bought the whole thing pronto. She’s amazing! The songs have a big big sound.

“Trampled Rose” – Robert Plant & Allison Krause. I am just glad that this collaboration even happened. That we have this album now. That it exists. It’s so amazing, so counter-intuitive, so strange on the face of it – but then once you hear the songs, it makes perfect sense. You can’t believe it didn’t happen before!

“Blackwater’s Side” – The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem. Live. I hear this song, and I see my whole childhood. This music was woven into my life from its earliest moments.

“I’m Alive” – ELO. Yay! One of my favorite bands ever.

“Rockabilly Christmas” – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. I just … I have no explanation. I was into that whole swing revival when it happened.

“Sylvia” – Eurythmics. A terrifying song. Not as scary as “Jennifer”, but close.

“I Feel That I’ve Known You Forever” – Elvis Presley, from his vibrantly-titled album …. Pot Luck. Dear RCA, Pot Luck??? A sweet ballad (with a hell of a finish, almost operatic, from The King.)

“Born in the USA” – Bruce Springsteen. The structure of the song is pretty great, that drum, how the real background music doesn’t kick in until almost a minute in. The song is PISSED. The fact that certain folks only heard the title and thought it was a patriotic hymn or even an anti-immigrant statement makes me totally embarrassed for those people. I guess they only heard the title. So embarrassing. Bruce Springsteen is a storyteller. Listen to the stories he’s telling her. It’s important stuff, and “born in the USA” is both true, but also angry and despairing.

“The Wells Fargo Wagon” – the cast of Music Man. Going from Springsteen to THIS is the #1 reason I love Shuffle. It makes no sense. It’s awesome.

“Little Bitty Pretty One” – Huey Lewis & the News. My first concert ever! This particular song is from his really fun tribute album to the doo-wop/blues artists he loved, Four Chords and Several Years Ago. Awesome dovetail on multiple levels: He filmed a bunch of videos for this album in American Bandstand-style, and he did so at a studio in Chicago. My friend Ann Marie and I were extras, dancing around on a scaffold, wearing beehives, pedal pushers, and sleeveless tops. Ahem. Post-filming.

It was a long hard day, but Huey Lewis was right there, 20 feet away, and it was such a fun connection with my very first concert ever. Here is one of the videos. I am on the first level of the scaffold, to Huey Lewis’ immediate right. I sometimes think I can get a glimpse of my striped shirt, but then again, I’m not sure. Still. Totally fun.

“Hills of L.A.” – Mike Viola and the Candy Butchers. He’s one of my favorite guys out there right now. Well, for about 15 years now. He’s awesome. Check out his stuff with the Candy Butchers and also his solo stuff. He also wrote all the songs for Tom Hanks’ That Thing You Do (and then they didn’t credit him at all. Not sure what went on there.)

“Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley, from the “Evening Show” during his 4-concert Madison Square Garden in 1972 – now re-mastered and cleaned up in the phenomenal-sounding box set Prince From Another Planet. The sound is so good you feel like you are actually in the stadium. “Suspicious Minds” is obviously one of his biggest hits, a hit he really needed to have at that time. It’s very grown-up, and complex, and seemed to speak to the nuanced yet cynical Mood of the Time.

“It’s Never Too Late to Fall In Love” – Geoffrey Hibbert and Dilys Lay from the Broadway production of The Boyfriend. I was obsessed with The Boyfriend as a wee child. The 20s, flappers, boarding schools … I was IN.

“Wicked Little Town” – John Cameron Mitchell, from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the original cast recording. I feel so lucky that I saw it when it was still just this weird underground cult hit playing at the Jane Street. You could FEEL the excitement in that audience. The show was incredible. I saw it twice. You felt like you were “in” on a really cool secret. And then, of course, everyone else figured it out too.

“Yesterday” – Ray Charles, who turns The Beatles’ song into a pained howl of loss. He MEANS it. Powerful.

“I Just Don’t Understand” – The Beatles, from Live At the BBC. I love this album. It has such an immediate feel.

“Love Is Only Love” – Barbra Streisand, from Hello Dolly!, the big ballad they wrote for her for the movie version. Of course, the movie was a huge and expensive flop, but I love it. “You salt your beets, I’ll salt mine.” She sings the hell out of this song.

“Hey Little Girl” – poor Elvis Presley, doing his best with this creepy number from Harum Scarum. What on earth were they thinking.

“Lucille” – Little Richard. I love him because he is so NUUUUUUUUTS. How he screams at the end of the word “Lucille”, twisting his voice up into the stratosphere … It comes from a place of sex, lust, rock ‘n roll, and a dirty dirty mind. He’s awesome.

“Ready Teddy” – Buddy Holly. Straight rock ‘n roll. Of course, Elvis did this one, and on the Ed Sullivan Show where the nation really got to see, for the first time, how this country boy MOVED. Buddy Holly is sexy and rough here.

“Sunset People” – Donna Summer. I remember a friend of mine when I was a child had this album. You opened it up, and inside there were all these images of hookers in thigh-high boots, and a guy holding money, and the songs were all on the radio (heh heh), and I was afraid of the album. It was too grown-up. Those images disturbed me.

“Run Run Rudolph” – Kelly Clarkson, from the Christmas album she just came out with. It’s pretty awesome, this track in particular.

“The Bottle Let Me Down” – the great Merle Haggard. His voice melts me.

“Ni Desperandum” – The Monks of Glenstal Abbey. They work alone, and they also collaborate with other artists, either well-known modern proponents of Gregorian chants, or folks such as Sinéad O’Connor. This track has no music. It is a monk talking about what music means, to the monks, and in general. I like these tracks because they almost force me to have to slow the hell down. I was headed home last night and my brain was buzzing with adrenaline, excitement, and emotion. A good thing, and appropriate, but also potentially dangerous for someone like myself. I was almost physically trying to calm myself down. Then this track came on. It’s 3 minutes of a guy talking. And I resisted at first, “Oh shut up, bozo,” but then thought: “No. This is what you need.” And it was. I love the Monks of Glenstal Abbey.

“I Got Stripes” – Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Goosebumps. No matter how many times I’ve listened to the album.

“I Am the Walrus” – The Beatles. The song is a maze. A never-ending maze of associations, inside jokes, and linguistic loops. I love that me and my friends were listening to complicated shit like this at age 8, 9, and singing along at recess huddled over the turntable. We had no idea what we were saying.

“Baby Love” – The Supremes. The clacking of percussion that starts it off, but it sounds like heels, strutting down the sidewalk. Such a great song.

“Astronomy” – Metallica covering Blue Öyster Cult, which basically means I’m happy as I could be. Hetfield sounds great here. He has a wonderful voice, expressive. Not sure how much credit he gets for that, his persona is so damn strong, so macho, so freakin’ Rock God. As it should be. But he’s got a really flexible instrument going on there. (Reminds me of one of my favorite scenes in Some Kind of Monster, when Hetfield described losing his voice on the Black Album tour, and was sent to a voice coach who gave him exercises to do to warm up. Hetfield still uses the same warm-up cassette, so many years later. He’s never lost his voice since. So even though his voice is still rough and hard, he also doesn’t HURT himself. It’s a voice that lasts.)

“My Dark Side” – the Glee cast version of Kelly Clarkson’s song. I love the melody, the chord changes. Something about it gets to me, gets under my skin. I could describe it except I am not a musicologist.

“He Can Be Found” – The Louvin Brothers. I love it when they threaten me using religious lectures! Well, that’s ALL they do. And I love them. The harmonies are as perfect as the Everly Brothers’. Elvis loved these guys. They were all on an early tour together. What’s interesting is that these harmonies are now associated with pop music, but here, they utilize them in religious songs. Yet another example of the tectonic shifts going on in American culture (in music, specifically) mid-20th century: a blurring of the genres, an opening up of space.

“Sing Me Back Home” – The Everly Brothers. Speak of the devil! Very sad prison song.

“The Crystal Ship” – The Doors. I’m not a huge Doors fan. I hesitate to even admit that. Their fans are legion! Nothing against the Doors, the sound is just not my thing so much. But I do love his voice/persona, and he is certainly a compelling figure. This one is pretty haunting.

“Love Hurts” – The Everly Brothers. I am so happy when they show up. Listen to that sound. Long ago (relatively), and yet it still feels fresh fresh fresh.

“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill” – The Beatles. I still resent Charles Manson for co-opting this album, at least a corner of it, in my psyche. I can’t seem to un-loop it. This song scares the shit out of me.

“The River Jordan” – The Louvin Brothers. A small Louvin Brothers cluster! You just want to clap your hands, or shake a tambourine, when you hear them. They’re so intense. They are sincere. And, unlike Elvis’ gospel stuff, which is filled with light, the Louvin Brothers’ stuff is somehow filled with darkness. It comes from the dirt. I love them.

“Maid of the Sweet Brown Knowe” – The Dubliners. Sometimes I get fed up with the Irish stuff. I grew up with all of it. But then there’s always something welcoming and familiar as well. So hello, boys!

“I’ll Remember Jimmy” – Cathy Brasher. One of my favorite pop songs ever written. That and “Runaway” by Del Shannon.

“One Way or Another” – Blondie. Meredith and I were obsessed with this album (well, we were clearly not alone). You could not escape this album at the time, as one song after another (one way or another) became a hit. Of course now I have Lester Bangs’ essay in my mind.

“The Man Upstairs” – Kay Starr. Swing it, Kay! I love her voice, it’s so sweet and sly and feminine.

“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” – Tori Amos, from her strange album where she covered songs written and performed by men (including, truly bizarre, Eminem’s “Bonnie and Clyde”). I have written before about my love-hate thing with her. I was “in” on the Tori bandwagon early, and I have obviously hung in there. But she still sometimes annoys me. So. Here she takes a great Beatles song, overlays it with gun-control voiceovers and clips, and news clips about gun violence, and I don’t know. It’s a bit literal. I know the background to the song and all the different interpretations of it. To me, the song is about sex. It’s a sex manual for (among other things) how to get a woman off. You know, helpful tips to baffled men who don’t know about the “trigger”. Anyway, that’s what I get out of it. Granted, I have a dirty mind. (Or, as I like to think of it, a healthy open mind.) Also, Tori turns it into an almost 10-minute long … moan. Does it need to be 10 minutes long, Tori? Really?

“I’m Lonesome Baby” – Ike Turner, from his 1950s recordings at Sun Studio. Hot. GROOVING. Of course, the legend is that the sound of distortion, now par for the course in rock songs, was “invented” by Ike Turner at Sun Studio because one of their speakers was broken. The distorted sound that resulted (in “Rocket 88”) was so distinct that people started imitating it. When I was last in Memphis, a local school’s art project lined the fence around the dilapidated Hotel Chisca. The kids had to draw pictures of the famous songs that came out of Memphis. Here is one example:

“Rocket 88” is known as the first rock and roll song:

“You’ll Never Walk Alone” – Elvis Presley. No wonder he sometimes would faint or collapse after recording certain songs. He put so much of himself into the songs, that it would leave him weakened. And make no mistake: what he gave away, he would never get back. Of course he would get something back from audiences, but never as much as he originally gave away. But he was an artist. He understood that was the nature of the gig. He understood it better than most. Only Judy Garland gave as much away. I go into that concept here. Listen.

“Army of Me” – Björk. I “came to her” through “Big Time Sensuality”, which was, as I recall, one of THE hits of that particular year. I was basically coerced onto the Björk bandwagon because you could not escape that song. It was go along with the flow or be forever left behind.

“Holding On to Nothing'” – Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton. There is just something about this pairing. They made such a great duet team. It’s like they’re freakin’ talking to each other. And the blend of their voices … heaven. So masculine is he, so feminine is she … and what a blend they find.

“A Woman, a Lover, a Friend” – Jackie Wilson. What a showman. What a voice. Elvis saw him perform in Vegas in 1956, and it pushed him to go deeper, be braver, be bigger and bolder in his presentational style, and his showmanship. And the boy was already wearing pink suits and causing riots. But it was Jackie Wilson (and Elvis didn’t even know who he was at that time) who showed Elvis that there was even more he could be doing, he could be better, he needed to push himself. I LOVE Jackie Wilson.

“Poison Whiskey” – Lynyrd Skynyrd. I’m always psyched when they show up.

“Van Lear Rose” – the great Loretta Lynn, on the album Jack White produced. Incredible. I love the story (perhaps apocryphal?) of how Jack White got her attention. During an entire year of touring, he wore a Loretta Lynn T-shirt. Never took it off. Until finally word must have gotten back to her. “I think he’s trying to tell you something …” Indeed he was. Even if it didn’t go down just that way, I love the story.

“I Found My Way to Wine” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, with a wailing moaning voice straight out of the pits of Hell. My brother gave me a bunch of his stuff for Christmas, and I am still exploring it.

“Fuck Me Pumps” – Amy Winehouse. I still miss her, dammit. She’s left a hole.

“Am I the One” – Beth Hart. A manifesto. I discovered her years ago. I don’t know why she hasn’t become an enormous star, but she hasn’t. Her voice. How personal she is. How brave she is. Her songs are epic journeys. They are usually long. It’s worth it to stop the multi-tasking, put shit down, and just listen to what she’s doing. Because it’s intense.

“Promise Her Anything (But Give Her Love)” – Dean Martin. Good advice, Dino. One of my favorite Guys of All Time.

“Get Your Shit Together” – Beth Hart. Excitement, more Beth Hart! Another epic journey, crammed into less than 5 minutes.

“Dayton Ohio – 1903” – Randy Newman. Almost too sad.

“Crazy” – Lydia Loveless. Charlie and I went to see her at Webster Hall. It was awesome, I adore her. Talk about being honest. She’s still pretty raw. Not overly managed yet, she’s not being “handled”. At least that was not my impression. She’s a Tough Chick (™).

“Rhyme or Reason” – Eminem. From his latest album, where he samples The Zombies in such a fun way. The sample asks the question, and Eminem gives the answer. It’s a fun way to incorporate the sample, not just as background, but as a call-and-response.

“Cannonball” – The Breeders. How many years has it been? And I still am not sick of this album.

“How Far Am I From Canaan?” – Sam Cooke and the Soul Stirrers. Pretty damn far, Sammy, if you keep doing what you’re doing with women. No judgment, but that shit is gonna kill you. Literally. I love the Soul Stirrers’ stuff so much.

“He Gives Us All His Love” – Randy Newman. He’s a genius. I am not always in the mood for poignancy. He’s too intense for me sometimes. I need more armor. So I often find myself skipping his songs. Which, in a way, is a compliment.

“Beidh Aonach Amárach” – The Cassidys. Amazing fiddle/violin.

“Pulling Mussels From the Shell” – Squeeze. THE soundtrack to the party scene in college. Some day I’ll write an essay about the guy who chose NOT to rape me, when he very well could have. I was very very drunk (and had never been drunk before, classic stupid college girl shit). We were making out at a frat party. I would have put up little resistance if he had tried to move things further, but that was because I was too out of it. “No resistance” does not equal “consent”, and I was not at all capable of consent that night. Once he figured out what he was dealing with (a drunk totally inexperienced barely-kissed virgin), he stopped the make-out session, brought me home from the party to my dorm room, literally put me to bed, tucked me in (I remember him pulling my blankets up over me), and then he left. He had thought he would get lucky that night with me, probably. I don’t blame him for getting that impression. I can still see his face in my mind. He looked like a young Peter Horton. Squeeze had been blasting at the frat party I was at. I was wasted. My friends left me there by myself. I shiver when I look back on it, to this day. It could have gone so so bad that night. It went bad for many of my friends in similar situations. And, as we know, then and now, I would have gotten no sympathy from anyone. I would have been “asking for it”. I made out with him, didn’t I? I was wearing a short skirt, wasn’t I? And what the hell was I doing dancing at a frat party by myself, anyway? That girl is basically ASKING to be raped. But it DIDN’T go that horrible route, because of the kind vaguely-Nordic-looking tall 18, 19-year-old boy I met. I was very very lucky that I fell into HIS hands and not somebody else’s. So. That’s what I think of when I think of Squeeze. I think of that guy, and I thank him, whoever he is, across the years. You were raised well, sir. You have good character. My life was in your hands and you actually took responsibility for that, because I couldn’t.