What I just found out is that the first song the Stones played at their July 5, 1969 free concert in Hyde Park was a cover of the same Johnny Winter song I posted about last night. The original reason for the show was to introduce Mick Taylor as the band’s newest member, but Brian Jones died two days before, and the concert became something of a send off memorial for him. It seems his favorite song at the time was this Johnny Winter tune.

It’s totally fitting that the song shows just how tough a guitar player Mick Taylor was, and serves as a precursor to his fantastic work throughout the Stones’ Golden Years. May Brian Jones roll over, and tell Ronnie Woods the news.

Shonen Knife dig Redd Kross, which led me to this bit of fun.

This Carpenters song, which is treacle, turns into this Redd Kross rock mockup of the Carpenters, and both make sense! And both are terrible. Here’s the Carpenters.

But Redd Kross had better values.

What were they thinking?

I’ve been listening to Roxy Music lately and their version of Wilson Pickett’s In the Midnight Hour is notable for a total lack of dirtiness. The blurps and beeps in the arrangement, which float far in front of a very solid sounding horn part, render this modern, even though Ferry plays it straight. This came shortly after Elvis Costello’s fairly triumphant cover of Pickett’s I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down, and an Englishy buzz about Stax and Atlantic soul. I may not be totally cool with the sound, is it gimmicky? But I like it.

But not as much as I like the first version I knew. Which had nothing on what I later heard from Pickett himself, but which is an exemplar of the blue-eyed sound. The Rascals were great.

I was working this morning and the Mamas and Papas came up in the mix. I didn’t know they did so many covers. They did a killer “Dancin’ In The Street,” for example, though it’s hard to hurt that song. They also a version of Do You Wanna Dance, a song I always associate with the Ramones, though it was written by Bobby Freeman, who recorded it in 1958. Cliff Richard who had the first hit with it, and the Beach Boys had the biggest hit, at least until Bette Midler recorded. The Mamas and Papa’s version is slowed down, the melody is shifted a little, not unpleasingly.

But what jumped out for me was the instrumental break, which features some cheesy strings that I knew from a song called Maple Leaves, Jens Lekman. Lekman is a Swedish singer-songwriter who I discovered after he became a more traditional performer, but who got started building songs on other people’s recordings. Perhaps his biggest hit is a song called Maple Leaves, which is about a misunderstanding and has some very clever lyrics and booming drums.

While looking for this recording I found a version of Jens performing live in Gothenberg in 2003. He starts the song singing Do You Wanna Dance, making the connection explicit.

Steve wrote a while back about how some of the best rock today is country. With that in mind I listened to the new Lydia Loveless EP and was not impressed. A pop move, it has some rock and country sounds, but it sounds crafted for the radio.

But tonight, when I called up Google Music All Access, her last album, Indestructible Machine, was in the queue. For some reason I played it and there’s a world of difference. The first song on side one is called Bad Way to Go and it is one of a bunch of drinking and drinking some more songs, and not always regretting how things worked out. On YouTube I couldn’t find performances of any of the songs with the album arrangements, but I did find this live performance at SXSW from a few years back of the second song, Can’t Change Me.

Not as hot as the album version, and not a perfect song, but very driven and likeable. And the guitarist is sharp.

There are a lot of references on Indestructible Machine (Can’t Change Me uses the ringing guitar sound from London Calling, though I think that was actually originally on a Blue Oyster Cult song, but she doesn’t appear to be aping anyone. And with the hard guitar and drum attack she reminded me some of Chrissie Hynde (with less melody). On other songs though, when the country sound played fast peeks through she reminded me most of Exene Cervenka and the music she made with the Original Sinners.

Country coming from a different place.

This band, if I recall right, was kind of a misanthropic joke at the time. But I was looking for clips of the old days and they all seem to have been deleted for copyright reasons from YouTube. But I did find this 2011 reincarnation, which does a pretty good impersonation of the Tubes.

But the original young Fucks were similarly theatrical. I think this is the original recording. Time is a bitch.

I may have had this thought before, but this song from the Heartbreaker’s LAMF is basically the same song as Richard Hell and the Voidoid’s Love Comes in Spurts.

Hell was in the Heartbreakers, but left. One Track Mind is credited to Walter Lure (who sings) and Jerry Nolan. Love Comes In Spurts is credited to Richard Hell.

Here’s a live version of the Heartbreakers with Hell playing Love Comes in Spurts. Interesting how similar the arrangement is to the album version recorded with Richard Gottehrer later.