Shuffle #51 (March 20, 2015)

My Generation – The Who

Little Red Corvette – Prince

That Girl Could Sing – Jackson Browne

I’m So Gone – Jackie Greene

‘Til Your Fool Comes Home – James Hunter

Bubbly – Colbie Caillat

Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes – Paul Simon

Atlantic City – Bruce Springsteen

Bits And Pieces – The Dave Clark Five

Let Her Dance – The Bobby Fuller Four

Forget You – Cee Lo Green

Kiko And The Lavender Moon – Los Lobos

Beat Crazy – Joe Jackson

Get Off Of My Cloud – The Rolling Stones

LP #18 This Is Ryan Shaw (2007)

Rather than being a man ahead of his time, Ryan Shaw is a man behind his time. He’s a classic soul singer, who probably would have been a big star had he been working in the 1960s. He’s also an incredibly dynamic live performer – after the release of this album, I caught him at a pre-Preakness outdoor show in Baltimore’s Harbor East neighborhood, an outdoor show at Columbia’s Lake Kittamaqundi (on my birthday no less), the WXPN summer music festival in Philadelphia, and a little later at the Birchmere opening for James Hunter.

 

Shaw wrote my favorite song on the album (“Over & Done”), co-wrote two others (“We Got Love” and “Nobody”), and covered three well-known R&B tunes – the classic “Lookin’ For A Love”, which he makes his own; Wilson Pickett’s “I Found A Love”; and Jackie Wilson’s “I’ll Be Satisfied”. He also did some older but obscure soul tracks, most notably “Working On A Building Of Love”, a Holland-Dozier-Holland song that could have been a big hit for the Jackson 5 back in the day.

 

This Is Ryan Shaw got good reviews and a Grammy nomination, but didn’t do much sales-wise. Unfortunately, for 2012’s Real Love Shaw abandoned the canny mix of covers and a few originals that made his debut such a treat, co-writing 9 of the 12 tracks, only one of which (the concluding “Morning Noon & Night”) is particularly noteworthy. Appropriately, he also played Stevie Wonder in Motown: The Musical on Broadway.

 

Favorite tracks:

Over & Done

Working On A Building Of Love

Lookin’ For A Love

We Got Love

I Am Your Man

Shuffle #50 (March 14, 2015)

Cath – The Bluebells

I’ve Got You Under My Skin – The Four Seasons

Walk This Way – Aerosmith

The Love You Save – The Jackson 5

How Deep Is Your Love – The Bee Gees

Love Ain’t For Keeping – The Who

One Toke Over The Line – Brewer & Shipley

The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff

Sweet Surrender – Sarah McLachlan

Do You Love Me -- Guster

An obscure classic lives!

I was overjoyed yesterday to hear for the first time (although almost certainly not the last) the newest Geico TV commercial, “Free-range chicken”, which features my #21 favorite song of all time, the obscure 1965 Roy Orbison classic “Ride Away”.

 

Maybe I’ll have to switch my auto insurance now.   ;-)

Serendipity #31

Low Budget – The Kinks

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ468ibpQ4M

Heard 3/10/2015 around 6:00, at Jerry’s Subs (Shady Grove)

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