Author Archives: Tom Muscarella

Song of the Week – Travelin’ Shoes, Elvin Bishop

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Back in the early 70s the Macon, Georgia based Capricorn Records was the home to the country’s best Southern rock bands. The kings of Phil Walden’s label were the Allman Brothers, but it was also the label for The Marshall Tucker Band, The Outlaws, Wet Willie, Grinderswitch and Cowboy. Country bluesman Elvin Bishop joined their roster for his fourth album, Let It Flow (1974).

The best song on Let It Flow was the 7+ minute “Travelin’ Shoes”, today’s SotW.

On “Travelin’ Shoes” Bishop makes use of the twin lead guitar style that was the Allman’s trademark.

The album’s liner notes credit a who’s who of rock stars — Dickey Betts (Allman Brothers), Toy Caldwell (Marshall Tucker), Charlie Daniels, and Sly Stone! – but doesn’t specify who played on which cuts. It has to be Betts playing that second lead guitar on “Travelin’ Shoes” but I can’t discern if any of those others also play on it.

Some of you may recognize Bishop from his 60s work with The Butterfield Blues Band and his collaboration with Michael Bloomfield/Al Kooper, when he was steeped in traditional blues. Others may be more familiar with his #3 commercial hit “Fooled Around and Fell in Love” (1976). “Travelin’ Shoes” finds him covering the territory somewhere smack in between.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year), Regina Spektor

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Today’s SotW post is short and sweet. It’s a sentimental toast to the New Year by Regina Spektor, “My Dear Acquaintance (A Happy New Year).”

Raise your glass and we’ll have a cheer
For us all who are gathered here
And a happy new year to all that is living
To all that is gentle, kind, and forgiving
Raise your glass and we’ll have a cheer
My dear acquaintance, a happy new year

And what’s wrong with a little positivity in these troubled times? Nothing. So as twenty-fifteen comes to an end and you reflect on the events of the past year – personally, politically, globally – have faith that the next one may be more “gentle, kind, and forgiving.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Heavy Weather Traffic, Katydids & Idea, Bee Gees

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My car still has a cassette deck in it. Really. Yeah, I’m not a car guy. I buy something reasonable and drive it into the ground. My 2006 Toyota has 120,000 miles and is still chugging along.

About a month ago I was rooting around in my music cave and found a big, old box of cassettes. I decided to plop it into my backseat and reach back to randomly grab something to listen to on my work commute. (An old school version of shuffle play.)

One day I played an album by the early ‘90s British band Katydids. They were formed by the duo of Susie Hug (vocals) and Adam Seymour (guitars). The first song on their eponymous, first album is today’s SotW – “Heavy Weather Traffic.”

Katydids, was produced by the great Nick Lowe. We all know that he only associates himself with quality projects. In this case it’s just solid guitar rock with top notch vocals and clever lyrics.

As I listened to “Heavy Weather Traffic” for the first time in about 20+ years there was something about its main riff that seemed very familiar to me. It was bugging me for hours. I finally decided that it reminded me of the Bee Gees “Idea” from their 1968 album of the same name.

I’m still not 100% sure this is the song I was trying to place, but now that I reacquainted myself to “Idea” I really liked what I heard. I didn’t intend for this post to feature more than one song but “Idea” is too cool not to share. If you only know the Bee Gees from their Saturday Night Fever incarnation, you’re in for a big surprise.

Put this one into the book as RESTORED.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Day Tripper/We Can Work It Out, The Beatles

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beatles

Today’s SotW is about the most popular songs I’ve ever posted about. The occasion is the 50th anniversary of one of my favorite singles releases evah! On December 8, 1965, The Beatles released the double A-sided single “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out.”

The songs were recorded during the Rubber Soul sessions.

“Day Tripper” was written specifically to be released as a single. Recording for it occurred on October 16th and was completed that day. They rehearsed in the afternoon and then they recorded the rhythm track in three takes. Vocals were overdubbed in the evening.

The opening riff is a variation on Bobby Parker’s “Watch Your Step” (which was also the inspiration for “I Feel Fine”). The energy builds quickly as bass, a rhythm guitar and tambourine enter, capped off by a drum roll and cymbal crash. (The tambourine was used extensively on the Rubber Soul sessions.)

“We Can Work It Out” was recorded four days later on October 20th and nearly completed save for some final vocal overdubs recorded on October 29th. It is special in that it is one of a very few true Lennon/McCartney collaborations written after their very early days together.

Who wrote what is easy to discern as it plays right into the boy’s reputations – Paul’s positive, upbeat verse/chorus set against John’s cynical middle eight.

One of the things that we Beatlemaniacs love about their music is that almost every song is like a box of Cracker Jacks – it has a “surprise” inside. On “We Can Work It Out” it is the shift to waltz time in the section that bridges back to the verse. That was George’s contribution.

When the sessions began it was assumed “Day Tripper” would be the A-side. But everyone was so pleased with the way “We Can Work It Out” sounded that they changed their minds… except John. He wanted to lead with “Day Tripper” and lobbied hard for it. The compromise was to release the double A-side. Genius!!!

You’ve got to admit, they just don’t make them like this anymore.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Outta My Mind, The Arcs

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As we get close to the yearend I start to think about some of my favorite albums of the last 12 months. One of the recordings on my list for 2015 is Yours, Dreamily by The Arcs.

The Arcs is a side project by The Black Keys front man, Dan Auerbach. The restless Auerbach – he’s also kept busy by producing albums for Dr. John and Lana Del Rey – pursued this to fill two weeks he suddenly had on his hands after Black Keys bandmate Patrick Carney separated his shoulder, forcing some tour date cancellations. (Auerbach also produced Bombino’s 2013 album Nomad, featured as the SotW August 31, 2013.)

For The Arcs, Pitchfork reported that Auerbach recruited “Truth and Soul Records founder Leon Michels, Black Keys touring bassist Richard Swift, Menahan Street Band member Homer Steinweiss, Amy Winehouse collaborator Nick Movshon, and guitarist Kenny Vaughan.”

This larger group allows Auerbach the space to “do his thing” outside the confines of the two piece, guitarist/drummer limitation he faces with The Black Keys. And it works. The basic DNA of the “Keys” is still there but the songs have more depth with the added instruments.

Today’s SotW is “Outta My Mind.”

Selecting this cut, the album opener (after a short instrumental intro), is a little bit of a cop out since it is the song that sounds most like The Black Keys – albeit with more instrumental depth and a tighter arrangement.

Auerbach exclaims:

I heard I lost my self-control
But everything I did just went and turned to gold
and
I’m old enough to know the game
But pushing buttons now is all that keeps me sane

Clearly he has something to say about his own success in “the business.”

The rest of the album breaks out of this blues/garage rock mold and is worth checking out.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – I’m in Love with My Car, Queen

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Today is the 40th anniversary of the release of Queen’s classic album, A Night at the Opera. Everyone is most familiar with the first single from the album that also happens to be their signature song, “Bohemian Rhapsody.” But for those of you that have been reading the SotW for a while, you know I’m not going there. Instead, let’s listen to the b-side, “I’m in Love with My Car,” which was written and sung by the band’s drummer, Roger Taylor.

As the story goes, the song was written for Johnathan Harris, one of the group’s roadies, who was a car buff. (A note on the album cover says the song is “Dedicated to Johnathan Harris, boy racer to the end”.)

I always heard the song’s reference to an automobile as a metaphor for a woman, combining two of the most popular subjects in rock ‘n’ roll, cars and girls. But hey, what do I know… maybe I just have a dirty mind.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Brickyard Blues, Frankie Miller

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If you’re even a casual music fan (and you’re more than that if you’re reading this) you already heard that Allen Toussaint died last Monday, November 9th.

Toussaint, the legendary New Orleans musician, songwriter and producer, was responsible for many of the most important songs in the canon of rock and soul.

The list goes on and on. Here are a few of the most important and memorable.

Mother-in-Law – Ernie K-Doe
Working on a Coal Mine – Lee Dorsey, Devo
Ooh Poo Pah Doo – Jesse Hill
Southern Nights – Glen Campbell
Java – Al Hirt
Fortune Teller – The Who, The Rolling Stones and many others
What Do You Want the Girl (Boy) To Do – Boz Scaggs, Lowell George, Bonnie Raitt
A Certain Girl – The Yardbirds, Warren Zevon
Yes We Can Can – The Pointer Sisters

… and there are so many more.

Today’s SotW is another one of his great compositions – “Brickyard Blues.” This is another song that’s been recorded by many groups. “Brickyard Blues” was covered by Maria Muldaur, Levon Helm, B.J. Thomas and Three Dog Night (as “Play Something Sweet”). But my favorite is by the Scottish, white soul singer, Frankie Miller.

Maybe I’m partial to Miller’s version because it came from the album High Life (1974) that was produced by Toussaint and included renditions of seven of his songs. My first exposure to it came from the Warner Brothers “Loss Leader” album, Deep Ear. (Remember? You could send a couple bucks into Warner’s marketing department and they’d send you back a two disc sampler.)

Miller was a musician’s musician. His songs were covered from everyone from Etta James to Johnny Cash. Heck, Ray Charles recorded Miller’s “I Can’t Change It!” Otis Redding’s widow Zelma said of Miller “That little ole white boy has the blackest voice since Otis.”

Unfortunately Miller never had the level of success he deserved. In 1994, as he was planning a comeback with Joe Walsh, he suffered a brain aneurysm in New York. He was in a coma for five months, lost his speech and some ability to move, and racked up huge medical expenses (he was uninsured).

But we can still have his work with Toussaint to enjoy.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Unbroken Chain, Grateful Dead

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Magoos Pizza 1970-81 (GS Troup 19)I’ve got a confession to make… and it’s very difficult to admit now that I live in the San Francisco Bay area. I’m not much of a Grateful Dead fan. There, I said it.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike the band. It’s just that I’m far from a “Dead Head.” I love Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty. But they’re so accessible that even people that aren’t music buffs like them. I also like some of the later cuts on albums like Wake of the Flood, Blues for Allah and Terrapin Station. And I must admit I get a kick out of the fact that my current home is just a little over a mile from where The Dead (as The Warlocks) played their first gig — Magoo’s Pizza.

But I’ll cement my status as a non Dead Head with my choice for today’s SotW – “Unbroken Chain” from From the Mars Hotel (1974) – which, according to some sources, was the song that was least played live in concert by the group.

Maybe it wasn’t included in the live repertoire because it was written by Phil Lesh and Robert Peterson rather than by the main songwriters – Garcia/Hunter or Weir. Or maybe it was left out until 1995 because it is so musically complex, an attribute that I find attractive. (Blogs report that they did a bad job performing it and dropped it permanently after about 10 attempts.)

So why do I like this cut? Here a few reasons: The opening with a beautiful guitar figure reminiscent of the intro to “Stairway to Heaven.” Phil Lesh’s vocal and Donna Godchaux’s harmony. Ned Lagin’s use of an Arp Odyssey synthesizer to create that eerie sound that sounds like a plane taking off. And, of course, the awesome, jazzy Garcia solo that starts about 3 minutes in.

The philosophical lyrics are interesting too.

I’m not alone in my fondness for this song. The band Animal Collective chose a sample from “Unbroken Chain” (with unprecedented permission from the Grateful Dead) to use in their song “What Would I Want? Sky.”

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Harvard, Diet Cig

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Today’s SotW is by a band from New Paltz, in the Hudson Valley of NY, where I grew up. It is the duo of Alex Luciano (vocals, guitar) and Noah Bowman (drums), gigging under the name Diet Cig.

(I saw many of my earliest rock concerts at SUNY New Paltz including the memorable 1972 Kinks show with a Boston based warm up band I’d never heard of called Aerosmith!)

Earlier this year they released their first proper recording, an EP called Over Easy. The last song on the disc is today’s SotW, “Harvard.”

It’s a pretty funny song… and a nice kiss-off to an Ivy League jerk of an ex-boyfriend who ditched the edgy girl that turns him on for the nice girl he wants to “bring home to mom.”

How’s your new Ivy League girlfriend?
Is she boring too in the way I couldn’t stand?
And I’m not sorry
I just hope you trust her more than me

You never wanted to date a college girl
Well, I hope you got something out of that deal
Or made your parents proud
I bet she’s not as loud

Does it feel better
To be in an Ivy League sweater?
Put your work shoes on
And talk about her at your shitty job
Does it feel better
In that cold Boston weather?

Fuck your Ivy League sweater
You know I was better
Fuck your Ivy League sweater

The music is pretty basic 90s style indie rock. Guitar based, straight ahead rock with heavy drumming. Throw in a little of the Pixies/Nirvana soft/loud dynamics and, viola, the magic begins.

Enjoy… until next week.