Showtime Bar, 2/27/2014

https://www.facebook.com/showtimebardc  

Four of us had a great time on our field trip this past Thursday evening to the Showtime Bar, on Rhode Island Avenue in the Bloomingdale neighborhood of DC.

Back story – one Friday morning last July I was eating breakfast and browsing through the Weekend section of the Washington Post when I noticed the headline “Looking for the best jukebox in D.C.? It’s at Showtime.” Glancing at the article, I saw that the bar was owned by Paul Vivari, aka DJ Soul Call Paul and with a surname that is familiar to the vast majority of us Westatians. Visiting the establishment and checking out the jukebox immediately went onto my bucket list, and I finally got the chance to make my first trip down there (although it’s unlikely to be the last). 

The place definitely lived up to its reputation for a convivial atmosphere and good cheap beer – business was booming. Paul’s expertise in old R&B tunes far surpasses mine; I think I recognized maybe 3 of the 24 tracks on one of the compilation CDs in the jukebox. However, since I grew up in Harrisburg PA, I was delighted to find “Karate” by the Emperors, a local band who had a #1 local hit with the song back in the mid-60s when I was in junior high. Needless to say, this became our first selection on the box. Fear not, though – if you’re familiar with the likes of Aretha, James Brown, Otis Redding, or Wilson Pickett, you will find some tracks you know and love.

#75 The Boys Are Back In Town -- Thin Lizzy (1976)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbYPfbNR7KE

This is certainly one of the great rock anthems, but what most people don’t know is that the album from which it was taken (Jailbreak) is quite a good one overall. Many years ago I was in a used CD store in Rockville and was impressed by the music they were playing, which turned out to be the Jailbreak album. Unfortunately the clerk was playing his own copy, which was not for sale, but I kept it in the back of my mind and later picked up the CD elsewhere.

#76 Trust In Me -- Etta James (1961)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwWJgHEcMrs

Yes, there is that other Etta James song, but Barack and Michelle seem to own that one.   ;-)

Seriously, “Trust in Me” (which was released as a single a couple months after “At Last”) is also a great song, and is well worth a listen. Along with Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing” and Taylor Dayne’s “Love Will Lead You Back”, it’s a fine example of what I think of as a “diva song”: mostly slow and smoldering, but with a big climax near the end.

Quite a few years back (apparently 1991), I was fortunate enough to catch LaVern Baker, Ruth Brown, and Etta James in a triple-header at Wolf Trap. Unfortunately none of these R&B pioneers are around anymore, but they certainly combined to make a lot of fine music.

#77 I Loved And I Lost -- The Impressions (1968)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TKJCnCajB0

I’ve always felt that Chicago soul music never got the credit it deserves. In terms of soul music, you hear much more about Detroit for Motown, Philly for the Gamble and Huff days, Muscle Shoals, and Memphis. Even when it comes to Chicago, people think much more about Chicago blues than about soul. Yet Chicago produced some of the greatest R&B music of the 1960s and 1970s. In addition to the Impressions, you had former Impression Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, Major Lance, Alvin Cash, Billy Butler, the Dells, the Chi-Lites, the Marvelows, and I’m sure some folks that I’m forgetting.

Curtis Mayfield, of course, was the driving force behind much of this success. In addition to writing nearly all of the Impressions’ material, he wrote hits for fellow Chicagoans Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, and Major Lance, as well as for Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers. He also was a producer, started his own successful record label (Curtom), and had a notable solo career in the 1970s.

Picking just one song by the Impressions was even harder than picking just one Steely Dan tune. Most of the album cuts that Mayfield wrote for the Impressions are just as strong as the tracks that got released as singles, in sharp contrast to the filler that mars so many 1960 albums. If you like this one, be sure to check out their other stuff – you’ll be glad you did.

#78 A Dream Goes On Forever -- Todd Rundgren (1974)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAezJqZYHkU

Todd Rundgren may have been one of the most ambitious and eclectic musical figures of his generation (note-for-note recreation of “Good Vibrations,” anyone?), but he was never better than when he was crafting great classic pop songs. “A Dream Goes On Forever” was never a big hit, perhaps because it was not nearly as catchy as “I Saw the Light” or “We Gotta Get You a Woman”, but it’s one of his most affecting efforts. A close second would be “Love Is the Answer,” whose incredibly soulful cover version by England Dan and John Ford Coley (of all people) deservedly hit the top 10 in 1979.

All in all, I guess I can forgive him for producing Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell album.   ;-)

Serendipity #9

Pay Me My Money Down – Bruce Springsteen (2006)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fTnD9j82cs

Heard 2/19/2014 around 6:10, Potbelly (downtown Rockville location)

#79 My Old School -- Steely Dan (1973)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sq8OU-7JDFA

Picking just one Steely Dan song was really difficult, but I remember this one being our favorite back when I was in college. When I moved down to the DC area I was intrigued by the Annandale reference, but later learned that it referred to Annandale-on-Hudson in New York, rather than to the town in Northern Virginia. Oh well.

On the other hand, R.E.M.s “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” really does refer to Rockville MD.

#80 Nothing But a Breeze -- Jesse Winchester (1977)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKAOalE_jm0

I had always liked a lot of Jesse Winchester’s material, but remember being frustrated many years ago because the domestic Best-Of compilation didn’t include this song, despite it being one of only two songs he ever did that cracked the U.S. Hot 100 chart (albeit only very briefly). I was delighted one day when, browsing through the bins of a now-defunct used CD store in Silver Spring, I found a 25-track imported compilation that did include “Nothing But a Breeze,” as well as my other favorites by him. I brought the jewel box to the counter and paid for the CD, not knowing that this was one of those places that kept the actual CDs behind the counter. Naturally I was unpleasantly surprised when I got home to find nothing but an empty box, and highly irritated that, despite a couple of calls to the shop, I had to drive back down to the store to pick up the actual CD. (I never went back there again.) It was well worth the wait, however, and as far as I know is still the only Jesse Winchester collection containing this classic.

#81 A Quiet Place -- Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters (1964)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06WFEb39jYc

Although I listened to Top 40 radio almost constantly from the age of 12 and fairly often even afterwards, only once can I remember actually requesting a specific song. WBT radio (1110) out of Charlotte NC could be heard easily in Pennsylvania after dark, and at one point I frequently listened to Rockin’ Ray’s “Sunday Night Hall of Fame,” which was on the air from 1971 through 1995. On one show he played “A Quiet Place”, which I had never heard before. I liked it so much that I sent in a postcard requesting the song the next week. What I can’t remember is whether or not he actually played it again.

The song is widely considered to be a classic example of “Carolina Beach Music”, although it’s much slower and more melancholy that most other CBM songs.

#82 Any Day Now -- Chuck Jackson (1962)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPgE991VDwM

Soul singer Chuck Jackson had a long recording career without a lot of big hits – “Any Day Now” was his biggest, and it didn’t even make the top 20. It’s a great song nonetheless, even if more people may be familiar with Elvis Presley’s cover version.

This past Tuesday, which was the 50^th anniversary of the Beatles’ first American concert (at the Washington Coliseum), the Smithsonian presented a program featuring Mark Lewisohn, who has published several books on the Fab Four, including the recently-released first volume of a planned three-volume biography of the group. He noted that at one point while visiting America, the Beatles sat in on a broadcast by famous DJ Murray the K, who let them request songs to play. Lewisohn presented slides featuring the songs, which included a variety of both well-known and obscure Motown tunes, along with songs by Chuck Berry, Richie Valens, and the Ronettes. “Any Day Now” was among the songs on their request list.