Guy Clark is in the Country Music Songwriters Hall of Fame and was a beloved artist during his long career. At the same time, he was a big star. His talent was big, but his shadow was small and intense.
I saw him at Joe’s Pub in NYC a ways back, before he got sick. It was a terrific show, full of gee whiz moments when songs you knew took you by surprise, and songs you didn’t know made themselves feel familiar and important.
Like this one.
Whenever I listen to these guys, I think perhaps they’re the best punk band ever – or at least they may have been in their prime. You need either The Unboxed Set CD or the Back From Samoa album and the Inside My Brain EP.
To steal from Tom:
Fuckin’ sheep I’m on the rag
They got my balls in a plastic bag
Best minute you’ll spend today:
While you were hating Nirvana and Pavement and actual crap indie bands in the 90s, the Moldy Peaches advanced.
A suburban rock guy with a love of noise meets a socially challenged preschool teacher who is a great song writer, what can happen?
Great songs can happen. (Though the record that made their names, as it were, wasn’t out until 2001.)
This video was made by fans, which makes it especially valuable. But I like the song.
Not classic, but awfully good.
Darren Viola posted this song on Facebook today. I’d totally forgotten about these guys, though I’m pretty sure I have the vinyl of this one in the boxes in the basement. I happen to have the poster for the movie The Long Riders in my office. No direct relation, but Ry Cooder did the music for that classic film, and these guys took their name from the movie.
Dreamy.
Might be my favorite album of the decade. Dee Lite’s World Clique
Japan. 1971. Have a yodel.
Imaginary grace.
When A Man Loves a Woman is such a giant song, it dwarfs everything else. But Percy Sledge was a working singer and musician and was no one hit wonder.
The song I thought of when I heard tonight that Percy Sledge died was this one, a simmering ballad with a heart felt and gorgeously emotional (and nakedly emotional) refrain.
