Coming Of
Age – Foster The People
Heard 1/21/2016 around 10:00, at
Wegman’s (Germantown)
Thursday, January 21, 2016
Tuesday, January 19, 2016
#102 Brandy (You’re A Fine Girl) – Looking Glass (1972)
Tagged as
one-hit wonders after this pop classic hit #1, New Jersey’s Looking Glass in
fact put out the equally fine (although less-successful) single “Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne” the following summer. I was seriously tempted to put that one on my
list rather than “Brandy”, but finally decided that being willfully obscure
wasn’t always the best policy.
A long, long
time ago, before the Internet, I remember my college roomie sending me a
lengthy newspaper profile of the band, who felt that they were unfairly
pigeonholed as a “pop” act based on their hit, which really didn’t represent
their sound. I couldn’t locate that article, but did find a nice tribute site
on the web that provides an interesting look at the band.
Glenn Frey
Come on,
folks. If you want me to mention you in my blog, there are less drastic ways to do it.
I was always
most partial to the Eagles' early, more country-rock stuff, having purchased Desperado and On the Border on vinyl. I do have to give “Hotel California” props
for the sly Steely Dan reference, though. If you don’t already have most or all
of the original albums, the two-disc Very
Best Of compilation is definitely the way to go.
Interesting
trivia note – when the band released Long
Road Out of Eden in 2007, it was initially available only through Wal-Mart,
Sam’s Club, and the band’s own web site. Until then, such “exclusive” albums
were not eligible to appear on Billboard magazine’s sales charts. At the last
minute, however, Billboard eliminated this restriction, enabling the album to
debut at #1 on the chart with over 700,000 copies sold. This had the side
effect of keeping Britney Spears’ brand-new CD, released the same week, from
topping the chart. I don’t think Britney has been the same since.
Favorite
songs:
Tequila
Sunrise
Take It Easy
New Kid In
Town
Desperado
Lyin’ Eyes
The Best Of
My Love
Ol’ 55
Peaceful
Easy Feeling
Hotel
California
One Of These
Nights
(seasonal
bonus -- Please Come Home For Christmas)
Monday, January 11, 2016
#101 Tobacco Road – The Nashville Teens (1964)
I used the music
I had in iTunes as the starting point for my favorite 100 songs. This one wasn’t
there, because at that point I hadn’t been able to find the original version,
only some crappy re-recordings. On September 4, 2014, to my great joy, I
checked again, found the original in the iTunes store and promptly purchased
it. Had it been there earlier, it almost certainly would have made my initial
list of favorites.
The two
versions of this often-recorded composition by John D. Loudermilk that I now
have in my music library are both great, but couldn’t be more different. The
Lou Rawls recording runs almost 8 minutes; it’s slow and jazzy, with a long
spoken introduction similar to that on his hit “Dead End Street”. The Nashville
Teens, however, take care of business in a mere 2:29. Despite their name, they were
a British band, and this was their only hit in America. (They had slightly more
success on their side of the pond.) For sheer kick-ass rock and roll, however,
this compares to anything the Who, the Stones or the Kinks ever came up with.
Having Jimmy Page on guitar certainly doesn’t hurt.
More Favorite Songs
Having
completed my first two major projects for the blog (favorite songs and favorite
albums), I needed something to keep me busy in 2016. After careful
consideration (and a beer or two), I decided to come up with another 100
favorite songs.
Unlike my
carefully-considered Top 100 list, this one will be much more off-the-cuff; at
this point I have no idea what all is going to appear. The numbers are for
reference only, and unlike last time I’ll start at the “top” (101) and count up
to 200. I will, however, still honor my previous rule that no performer can
have more than one song in the top 100 (now 200).
David Bowie
Rock icon
David Bowie died yesterday, as you probably have heard by now, after an
18-month battle with cancer, and just a couple days after releasing his final
album. Tributes have been pouring in from people across the musical spectrum,
from Iggy Pop to Kanye West to Cher. WXPN has been wall-to-wall Bowie since
6:00 this morning, 8 hours and counting.
Although
going back through my vinyl collection confirms that I bought the Let’s Dance LP at one point, I have to
admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of Bowie’s work. I think that’s because I
found his frequent changes in persona somewhat offputting – I could never
figure out what if anything was at his core in terms of music. (I occasionally
wondered, semi-seriously, whether “David Bowie” actually existed, or whether
the name was actually handed down from one musician to another at various times
over the years.)
Nevertheless,
I’d have to rate these as my top 5 Bowie tracks:
Let’s Dance (also a great video, which I hadn't seen before)
The Man Who
Sold The World (although I prefer Nirvana’s cover)
This Is Not
America
Modern Love
Suffragette
City
Wednesday, January 6, 2016
Shuffle #80 (January 6, 2016)
Think For A
Minute – The Housemartins
It’s Gonna
Take A Miracle – Deniece Williams
Raise It Up –
The IMPACT Repertory Theatre & Jamia Simone Nash
Trampled
Under Foot – Led Zeppelin
Can We Still
Be Friends – Todd Rundgren
Real Love –
The Doobie Brothers
Driving With
The Brakes On – Del Amitri
Hungry Heart
– Bruce Springsteen
Rattle My
Bones – The Secret Sisters
Monday, January 4, 2016
Favorite 25 + 5 Albums Trivia
Top albums
(25 studio + 5 live) by decade:
1960s – 3
#14
The Temptations – In A Mellow Mood (1967)
#17
Gordon Lightfoot – The Way I Feel (1967)
#24
Cold Blood (1969)
1970s – 11
1980s – 9
1990s – 3
2000s – 3
2010s – 1
#4 [LIVE]
Into the Mirror: Del Amitri Live in Concert (2014)
Top year –
1971:
#10
Carole King – Tapestry
#11
Who’s Next – The Who
#19
John Prine
#2 [LIVE]
The Youngbloods – Ride The Wind
#3 [LIVE]
The Allman Brothers Band at Fillmore East
Natalie Cole
2015 ended
on a sad note with Natalie Cole’s death on December 31st at the age
of 65. She began her career as a successful soul singer – “This Will Be” is one
of the sassiest and best examples of that genre – and later moved on to perform
the standards of an earlier age. For better or worse, she’s probably best known
for her posthumous duet “Unforgettable” with her father, the great singer and
pianist Nat King Cole. I’m normally not a fan of virtual duets, especially when
one of the partners has to be summoned back from the grave, but this one’s a
glorious exception.
My personal
Natalie Cole favorites:
Unforgettable
I’ve Got
Love On My Mind
Inseparable
Someone That
I Used To Love
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Shuffle #79 (January 3, 2016)
Careless
Love – Madeleine Peyroux
Darkest Hour
– Arlo Guthrie
This Is How
It Feels To Have A Broken Heart – Guster
Similar
Features – Melissa Etheridge
Deep &
Wide & Tall – Aztec Camera
Train In
Vain – The Clash
Broken Down
Cowboy – John Fogerty
Scared To
Live – Del Amitri
Let’s Go
Crazy -- Prince
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