Chip Moman was a guitarist who got his start at Stax, then founded his own studio (American Sound Studio), and wrote, produced and/or played on an impressive body of work. You can read the NY Times obit here.
Moman wrote The Dark End of the Street with Dan Penn, and produced James Carr’s recording of it.
It’s one of my favorite songs.
Might be my favorite album of the decade. Dee Lite’s World Clique
This shouldn’t be on YouTube. Prince doesn’t like that. I think it must be slowed down a little, to fool the piracy software.
It was scheduled to go up on the 25th, last in my Seven songs from the 80s set, but dangit, I just read that Prince died last night.
My friend Angela found a version of the Modern Lovers’ Old World today which is pretty swell. I mean the video. This is one of rock’s greatest albums, and Warren Loft’s videos, at least the three I’ve seen, capture the music’s kinetics and precision and depth. I’ll be watching the rest of them, but what better way to start than Roadrunner.
Nostalgia, pure, simple, awesome.
Bruce Springsteen: 41 Years on Thunder Road from Phil Whitehead on Vimeo.
When I was in high school I could be an asshole. My friends could be assholes, too. We hated this song, which seemed like the ultimate in cheese. That is errant and random emotional expression without a regulator.
But children should not always be believed.
I spent yesterday in the car, driving many hundreds of miles, sometimes listening to my phone, and sometimes tuning in the radio. Sometime in mid afternoon, this giant hit came up.
It was a giant hit because of the melody and the Pips, but it is also a fabulously complex statement of ambiguous love and, ultimately, devotion. With awesome hooks and smart lyrics. Wow.
Lee Hazlewood wrote some songs that turned the world on its ear. This was one of them.
Frank and Nancy Sinatra.
A tuff song, a fantastic video. Enjoy!
This is what you should buy everyone on your list.
Soul Manifesto 1964-1970 (12CD)
Included in this massive set is one of my favorites, King & Queen, with Carla Thomas. Redding and Thomas was an arranged match, the notion of producer Jim Stewart to pair Otis’s country grit with Thomas’s schooled chops, working off the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell template. That may be the charm, but what I hear on these recordings is lots of air in the arrangements, sharp tough playing (dig the crazy drums on Lovey Dovey) and singers who love singing. Thank you very much.
Some of my very favorite albums are produced by Rick Rubin – Master Of Reality’s debut, Danzig’s debut, The Cult’s Electric, the great live Red Devils album King King to name a few.
In fact, there was a time years ago when I would take a chance on albums specifically because Rick Rubin produced. Can’t say that about any other producer.
Which brings us to ZZ Top’s La Futura. As one of the Amazon reviews says, “How many times have we heard ZZ Top has gone back to their 70’s sound only to be disappointed?” Desperate for something new to me, I checked this out, sampling a couple tunes. It sounded pretty damn good. I ordered it.
“Blown away” is all I can say after playing it three times yesterday. This is back to the old 70’s sound as far as I’m concerned. No crappy processed, compressed guitars, no electronic drums, no fucking stupid synthesizers. This is dirty boogie blues in the spirit of those early gem albums, stripped down and in-your-face in usual Rick Rubin style. This album kicks ass.
And funny, as much as I hate slow songs, I’m gonna give you the only slow one on the album, which I actually like. Call me crazy, but this song reeks of Phil Lynott/Thin Lizzy and perhaps that’s why I love it so much. Everything else on the album is straight-ahead and upbeat. I highly, highly recommend it.
I was thinking this was my favorite album of 2015, but it came out in 2012. Oh well. My loss for not finding it until now.
Leave it to Rick Rubin.
