LP #19 John Prine (1971)

Like Sade, John Prine went on to have a long and reasonably successful musical career, but never managed to top the magic of that debut album. Prine certainly never got much airplay on the radio, but I’d bet that most of what he gets these days (on adult-alternative and Americana stations) comes from songs on this record.

 

Fun fact – “Illegal Smile” was the theme song for a 1974 sitcom on ABC called “The Texas Wheelers.” Despite (or perhaps because of) the music, the show only lasted for 8 episodes, despite starring Jack Elam, Gary Busey, and Mark Hamill.

 

Favorite tracks:

Paradise

Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

Angel From Montgomery

Sam Stone

Illegal Smile

LP #20 Sade – Diamond Life (1985)

Great sound, great voice, great material – what’s not to like? The material wasn’t as consistently strong on their later albums, but this one’s a classic.

 

Interesting note about “Smooth Operator” – the playing time on the back of the CD is listed as 4:16, so when I went looking for it on YouTube, I checked for versions with about that length. Trying three of them, however, I discovered that all of them were missing the great spoken-word intro that is such an essential part of the album version. I finally figured out that the CD listing lied; the album version really runs almost 5 minutes, while 4:16 is the length of the single version that has the intro cut out. Keep this in mind if you ever decide to buy the track from iTunes or Amazon.

 

Favorite tracks:

Smooth Operator

Your Love Is King

Hang On To Your Love

I Will Be Your Friend

Shuffle #49 (March 7, 2015)

New Attitude – Patti LaBelle

Louisiana 1927 – Randy Newman

If Love Was A Train – Michelle Shocked

Man In The Mirror – Michael Jackson

You Better Believe It, Baby – Joe Tex

True Love – Pink

Lonesome Town – Ricky Nelson

Love’s In Need Of Love Today – Stevie Wonder

Maybe I Know – Lesley Gore

LP #21 The Pretenders – Learning To Crawl (1984)

I remember going to a Nats game several years ago with some friends, and the conversation for some reason turned to the subject of female rockers (possibly because the Nats weren’t all that good back then). Can’t remember who all was mentioned – Patti Smith and Joan Jett, I think – but I was pretty vocal in my support for the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde as the best female rocker of all time.

 

This is an opinion I still hold today. Hynde can rock with the best of them (“Middle Of The Road” and “Time The Avenger” being among the best examples here), do scathing social commentary without getting preachy (“My City Was Gone”), and has the voice to do a knockout job on ballads (“Thin Line Between Love And Hate” and “2000 Miles” here, “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” and “Windows Of the World” elsewhere). Learning To Crawl throwaways like “Watching The Clothes” would be among the highlights of many other LPs.

 

Favorite tracks:

My City Was Gone

Back On The Chain Gang

Show Me

Thin Line Between Love And Hate

Shuffle #48 (March 2, 2015)

Wooden Ships – Jefferson Airplane

I Believe – The Bachelors

Why Do Lovers Break Each Other’s Hearts – Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans

Dead And Gone – Gypsy

Hate To Lose Your Lovin’ – Little Feat

Tom Dooley – The Kingston Trio

Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough – Michael Jackson

LP #22 Elton John – Tumbleweed Connection (1970)

I really liked Elton’s “Your Song” when it came out in late 1970, and I remember in early 1971 going to Murphy’s 5&10 in downtown Harrisburg to check out the album. When I got there, however, I found two Elton John LPs: the self-titled one that had “Your Song” on it, and another one, called Tumbleweed Connection. I’m not sure exactly what made me decide to buy the latter instead of the former (which I picked up later) – probably the cover art, possibly the song titles. Something must have attracted a lot of purchasers in addition to myself, as the album managed to hit the top 10 on both the U.S. and U.K. album charts without having any of its tracks released as a single.

 

It’s pretty impressive that two Brits could come up with such a great concept album about the American West before either Elton or lyricist Bernie Taupin ever set foot in the States. Apparently the work of The Band was a major influence.

 

Favorite tracks:

Burn Down The Mission

Come Down In Time

Where To Now St. Peter?

Country Comfort

Lesley Gore

Lesley Gore died yesterday at the relatively young age of 68. Of course, she also got her musical start young, hitting #1 at the tender age of 17 with “It’s My Party”. While she was best known for that song, the follow-up “Judy’s Turn To Cry”, and the feminist-before-its-time “You Don’t Own Me”, my personal favorite was always “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows” (which I learned just today was featured prominently in the hit animated movie Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs).

Was able to see her 8 years ago at BlackRock in Germantown, so I’ll have to add her to the list of performers I was fortunate enough to catch while they were still with us.

 

 

 

Shuffle #47 (February 17, 2015)

The Cheapest Key – Kathleen Edwards

How Deep Is Your Love – Bee Gees

Angel From Montgomery – John Prine

Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart – Stone Temple Pilots

No Smoke Without Fire – James Hunter

He’s A Rebel – The Crystals

Song For A Winter’s Night – Gordon Lightfoot

Gotta Travel On – Joe & Eddie

The White Collar Holler – Stan Rogers

Ruby Tuesday – The Rolling Stones

Serendipity #30

Watershed – Indigo Girls

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mut_T0GcehI

Heard 2/13/2015 around 12:30, at Wegman’s (Germantown)

Arlo Guthrie – Alice’s Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour, Weinberg Center for the Arts (Frederick MD), 2/5/2015

Wonderful show by Arlo and band (including his son Abe) this past Thursday – highly recommended even if you’re not a huge fan. (You will come out a bigger fan.) Started by performing “Motorcycle Song” along with a cartoon version from the 60s that recently turned up. Anecdotes abounded, from Woodstock to Rambling Jack Elliott “keeping an eye on him” when he made his first trip to California to perform. Kicked off the second set with “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”, synced to scenes from the movie of the same name, and encored with a touching audience sing-along to “Peace Song”, for which Arlo had written a tune to go with his father’s lyrics. Other highlights included “Coming into Los Angeles”, “Me And My Goose”, “City of New Orleans” (which according to Arlo was turned down by Johnny Cash), and of course “This Land Is Your Land”.

 

We decided to go to the Weinberg rather than to one of the two shows at the Birchmere since they offered reserved seating. We were in the left orchestra section on the aisle in row T – not bad, but a little distant. Lucked out a bit dinner-wise at Sumittra, a nice Thai restaurant a block away, by getting two seats without having made a reservation. Hadn’t expected a big crowd on a Thursday evening, but it’s not a large place.