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.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
#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
Saturday, July 19, 2014
Shuffle #19 (July 19, 2014)
Fat Boy –
Billy Stewart
Don’t Know
Why – Norah Jones
Throwing
Stones – Grateful Dead
Be My
Downfall – Del Amitri
You’ve Got
It – Simply Red
Never Be Anyone
Else But You – Ricky Nelson
Morningtown
Ride – The Seekers
Holiday –
Madonna
Only The
Strong Survive – Jerry Butler
Goodbye
Train – Grayson Hugh
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Shuffle #18 (July 17, 2014)
Monterey –
The Animals
Strange I
Know – The Marvelettes
I Want To
Make The World Turn Around – Steve Miller Band
Who Let
The Love Out – Swing Out Sister
Fall On Me
– R.E.M.
Baby
Workout – Jackie Wilson
Light
Shine – Jesse Colin Young
Can’t Help
Falling In Love – Elvis Presley
Angel From
Montgomery – Bonnie Raitt w/ John Prine
Fade Like
A Shadow – KT Tunstall
Don’t
Sleep In The Subway – Petula Clark
Chasing
Pavements – Adele
Wednesday, July 16, 2014
#42 Harvest For The World -- The Isley Brothers (1976)
The Isley
Brothers covered a wide variety of stylistic territory during their lengthy
career – it’s hard to find a lot of similarities between “Shout”, “This Old
Heart Of Mine”, and “That Lady”, for instance – but this mid-tempo plea for a
better world is my personal favorite (although it was by no means an easy decision).
Sara Bareilles w/ special guests Lucius and Emily King, Wolf Trap Filene Center, 7/14/2014
Coming off
two Grammy nominations (Album of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance), Sara
Bareilles is definitely in the big leagues now. Her performance Monday night
featured elaborate yet tasteful lighting and a video projection system that was
used advantageously on a number of songs. She began her 90-minute set with
“Little Black Dress”, and ended on a high note with “Love Song”, a well-chosen
En Vogue cover in “My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It)”, “King of Anything”
(where she directed a two-part audience singalong), and “Brave”. She just had
time for one encore prior to the Wolf Trap curfew. In between, she featured a
number of other cuts from her latest album, including “Hercules”, “I Choose
You”, and “I Wanna Be Like Me”. I was impressed overall – great voice, which
she’s smart enough not to get too fancy with, and a good rapport with the
sold-out audience, many of whom seemed to be enthusiastic hard-core fans. My
one complaint was that the bass was mixed up so high that it was physically
painful – I could feel my chest vibrating on all but the most subdued numbers.
Emily King
started things off with a 25-minute neo-soul set that was pleasant if not particularly
memorable. (She does have the Janelle Monae hairstyle down though.) Lucius then
followed with an enthusiastically-received 38-minute set – the other 3 members
of my group all got copies of the CD. I had earlier bought “Turn It Around” in
iTunes after hearing it a few times on WXPN. (They’re also playing at the
station’s upcoming Exponential Music Festival.) My feelings about their set
were a little more mixed; except for “Turn It Around” and one or two other
songs, I felt a disconnect between their material, much of which featured
lovely vocal harmonies by group co-founders Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, and
the arrangements, where the “driving indie-pop percussion” (according to the
blurb in the program) featured as many as 4 members of the band simultaneously banging
on various drums, in an apparent effort to beat the defenseless melodies and
harmonies into submission. At its peak, it reminded me of nothing so much as
Adam Ant’s body of work from the 1980s.
Much of
the area had rain in the afternoon, but fortunately the weather had calmed down
for the show. It took us an hour both to get from Rockville to the Panera on
Leesburg Pike (really slow traffic on the Beltway), and to get back to
Rockville after the show (mainly the 38 minutes before we finally got out of
the far parking lot). It was good that I had read Wolf Trap’s “friendly event
reminber” email last week, since it revealed that the show would start at 7:30
rather than the originally-scheduled 8:00.
Serendipity #17
Have A Little Faith In Me – John Hiatt
Heard 7/14/2014 around 6:00pm, at Panera (Leesburg Pike)
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