Someday, Someway – Marshall Crenshaw
Heard 7/23/2014 around 6:00pm, at California Tortilla
(downtown Rockville)
Thursday, July 24, 2014
#39 Don't Worry Baby -- The Beach Boys (1964)
My iTunes
library contains more songs by the Beach Boys than by any other artist except
Springsteen (although the ones by the Boss are considerably longer), ranging
from big hits such as “Help Me Rhonda” and “Barbara Ann” through some relative
obscurities – you probably didn’t know they recorded a version of “Cottonfields”
that made the top 5 in the UK. This one fits somewhere in the middle of the
continuum; a lot of people know it even though it wasn’t a huge hit. It’s
always had a deeper resonance for me than a song that superficially is just
about young love and drag racing.
#40 Don't Ask Me Questions -- Graham Parker (1976)
Graham
Parker has put out a lot of great material over the years, but I consider his
first album, Howlin’ Wind, to be his
finest work. While the LP contains a number of memorable uptempo songs, “Don’t
Ask Me Questions” winds things up with a snarling, incredibly powerful blast of
righteous anger. Not necessarily for the faint of heart, but well worth a
listen.
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Huey Lewis & The News w/ Marc Broussard, Wolf Trap Filene Center, 7/20/2014
Lewis and
band put on a very professional show – if it sounded like they’d done the whole
thing a thousand or so times before, it’s probably because they had – with the
main set running from about 9:05-10:15, followed by a three-song encore (“Power
Of Love”, “Doing It All For My Baby”, and “Workin’ For A Livin”). They didn’t
pull any punches from the beginning, starting the show with “The Heart Of Rock
& Roll”, the little-known but excellent “My Other Woman”, “If This It It”,
and “I Want A New Drug”. They also threw in such other hits as “Jacob’s Ladder”
and “Heart And Soul”, with a pair of “a cappella” numbers (vocal harmonies were
featured, but there was some accompaniment) in “Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um” (a 1964
hit for Major Lance) and “Little Bitty Pretty One” (Thurston Harris, 1957) midway through. They
ended their main set with an extended version of “We're Not Here for a Long Time
(We're Here for a Good Time)”, from the neglected 2001 Plan B album.
(Note – if
you haven’t seen Lewis before, be aware that he has the largest, blackest
eyebrows you are ever likely to see.)
Marc
Broussard, who has one of the greatest blue-eyed soul voices of our time, did a
nice 40-minute opening set, playing acoustic and electric guitar and
accompanied by a bass player and a percussionist. His set featured “Try Me” and
“Lonely Night In Georgia”, as well as a couple of songs (“Weight Of The World”
and “Hurricane Heart”) from his about-to-be-released album. He ended with his
breakout hit “Home” from his 2004 major-label debut CD.
Sunday, July 20, 2014
#41 Never Surrender -- Corey Hart (1985)
I fell in
love with many of the songs on this list the first time I heard them. This one
does not fall into that category. I hadn’t particularly liked Hart’s first big
hit (“Sunglasses at Night”), and so his subsequent efforts just sort of went
past me at the time. However, I used to watch “Cold Case” on TV fairly
regularly, and “Never Surrender” ran over the closing credits in one of the episodes. That did it. I’m still not all that fond of “Sunglasses”, or any of
Hart’s other stuff, but this one is great.
Shuffle #20 (July 20, 2014)
Pumped Up
Kicks – Foster The People
Runaway –
Del Shannon
Angel –
Aretha Franklin
Boot-Leg –
Booker T. & The MG’s
Dedicated
Follower Of Fashion – The Kinks
Get Off Of
My Cloud – The Rolling Stones
Sweet City
Women – The Stampeders
Private
Life – The Pretenders
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