Category Archives: song of the week

Song of the Week – L’Via L’Viaquez, The Mars Volta

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Six or seven years ago I was listening to a lot of music by the modern prog rock band The Mars Volta. The song that really captured my attention was “L’Via L’Viaquez” from their well-regarded sophomore effort, Frances the Mute (2005). And that’s today’s SotW.


Frances the Mute is a concept album, of sorts, based on a diary band member Jeremy Ward found in a car he was repossessing. The book told of the author’s search for his biological parents, something Ward could relate to.

The album’s lyrics – part English, part Spanish — were written by Cerdic Bixler-Zavala and the music by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, who also acted as the album’s producer.

It weaves a story about Vismund Cygnus, son of Frances and the product of a rape. He was adopted and is now determined to find out where he comes from.

“L’Via L’Viaquez” is Frances’ sister (Cygnus’ aunt) who witnessed the rape. Miranda is their mother. There’s much more to the story but you’ll have to reach you own conclusions about it.

If you don’t know Spanish (I don’t) there are many translations on the internet to help you understand the lyrics. Here’s a sample:

Lyric:
L’via, hija de miranda
Tu apellido se cambio’
L’via, sin ojos me quieres dar
Una historia sin mi madre
Solo tengo que decirte
El dolor de noche dice
Solo se quedo’ el vestido
Le lave’ la sangre

Translation:
L’via, Miranda’s daughter
Your last name changed
L’via, without eyes you want to give me
A history without my mother
I just have to tell you
The night pain tells
Alone the dress kept
I washed the blood off

This cut isn’t for everyone; I have to tell you that up front. It’s a very challenging 12+ minute piece of music that has more stylistic layers than a Kim Kardashian wedding cake. There’s a healthy dose of Santana, a strong hint of Led Zeppelin, a bit of Chili Peppers funk (John Frusciante provides the first two guitar solos) and a sprinkle of Can.

Sputnikmusic.com’s Jared W. Dillon wrote a very descriptive synopsis of the song’s structure:

Quiet skipping of a record is heard for 40 seconds until John Frusicante comes in with a huge rock riff. Then we break into some classic sounding heavy metal with Spanish lyrics coming from Cedric. While some of Cedric’s slurs and such are not perfect, he still uses Spanish pretty greatly throughout the song. The pretty normal sounding song sticks the same until about 2:40 when it breaks into a small piano beat that has an extremely Latin feel to it. Cedric starts to sing in English in this section sprouting off phrases like ‘With every clamor that they mine’ and ‘I will never forget who I’m looking for’ After the short interlude we come back to some heavy soloing on John’s behalf that brings the song back to the Latin rock feel. There are no changes in this section from the previous except for the solo that started it off and so at around 4:53 it breaks back into the piano Latin section. Cedric’s lyrics have changed here but they are still in English, and eventually he reprises the ‘I will never forget who I’m looking for’ section.

After a minute of piano play we go to another solo who is by Omar this time I believe, and instead of returning back to the similar rock beat of the past two sections we are given a rousing drum beat and some very deep singing from Cedric in Spanish. Soon after the Spanish is complete Cedric breaks into English saying, ‘When all the worms come/Crawling out of your head, Telling you/ Don’t be afraid’ The drumbeat eventually breaks into a short solo and then a gong sounds off the return to the piano section. The reprise of the piano sections is different than the previous two though as it has the sampling of people talking behind it. Although it has this new effect the same chorus is returned but towards the end the vocals of Cedric start to be drowned with effects.

Following Cedric’s vocal arrangement the famous pianist Larry Harlow plays a piano solo, with the help of Omar providing some back up soloing in response to the keys. This goes on for until 11:03 when the song drowns out and we hear a highly distorted Cedric spouting out the chorus of ‘And with everybody that I find/And with every clamor that they mine, I won’t forget who I’m looking for/ Oh mother help me I’m looking for’. After the ending of the small vocal solo, a quiet squeaking is heard that takes us into the next track.

It’s a bit of a challenge, but stick with this and I think you’ll like (or at least appreciate) it.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Lonely Summer Nights, Stray Cats

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In 1982 the Stray Cats released their US neo-rockabilly debut, Built for Speed. The album may be too commercial for many of you – it had two big hits with “Rock This Town” and “Stray Cat Strut” – but I still think it holds up pretty well.

Back in the days of vinyl, some albums were one sided and others were two. You baby boomers know what I mean. Sometimes you would become so enamored with one side of an album that you might never get around to listening to the other side. Built for Speed had that potential with both hits and at least one other very good song (“Rumble in Brighton”) on Side 1.

But buried on Side 2 was the terrific ballad “Lonely Summer Nights”, today’s SotW.

The tenor sax intro sets the stage for a retro sounding, romantic number that you might have listened to with your summer camp boyfriend/girlfriend. (Think “See You In September” or “Sealed With A Kiss.”) It has everything it needs – sad, romantic lyrics, tasty guitar licks, a smooth, jazzy sax solo and a big ending.

So as the summer of 2014 is winding down, this song appeals to me as a fitting conclusion.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Left Hand Free and Something Good, alt-J

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The British indie rock band alt-J has a minor hit on their hands this summer. It’s the single “Left Hand Free” from their latest album, This Is All Yours.

The band’s name is a substitute for their original name which was the Greek letter ∆. They decided to pronounce it alt+J because that’s the keyboard command used to display the symbol on Mac computers.

Now back to the song…

If you read any reviews you’ll quickly learn that “Left Hand Free” isn’t your typical alt-J song. It’s a simpler, more straight ahead psych-pop song than their normal “intellectual” rock fare.

The Guardian’s Sam Richards reported:

Alt-J resolved to write “the least Alt-J song ever”, taking a “joke riff” (guitarist/vocalist) Joe (Newman) had been playing in rehearsals and fleshing it out with the most perfunctory chords and rhythm imaginable. Whereas the band typically spend weeks agonising over every note, Left Hand Free was written “in about 20 minutes”. Needless to say, the US label loved it.

The playful lyrical reference to guns may lead to some to think it’s a pro 2nd Amendment manifesto.

I tackle weeds just so the moon buggers nibble
A right hand grip on his Colt single-action army

Well your left hand’s free
And your right’s in a grip
With another left hand
Watch his right hand slip
Towards his gun, oh no

I think they’re just goofing on us but it’s all good fun.

If you’d like to check out a cut that sounds more like what fans expect to hear from alt-J, check out “Something Good” from their 2012 album, An Awesome Wave.

This is a very good band that I’ll be following for the next few years.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – H2O Gate Blues, Gil Scott-Heron

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Today is the official 40th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s resignation from the Presidency in 1974. But as far as I’m concerned, yesterday, August 8th is the true anniversary because it was on prime time TV the night of the 8th that he announced to the country that he would resign at noon the next day. I remember where I was when that news broke… do you?

I was at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, New Jersey, at the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young reunion tour concert. The band had left the stage abruptly. At a time before smart phones, we in the audience just waited for them to come back out, unaware that something historic was unfolding. At least not until Graham Nash came back out onto the stage and announced “Nixon has just resigned” to the cheers of the largely anti-war crowd.

That 1974 tour was just documented in a new boxed set that was released in July. In a recent interview promoting the recordings Crosby said:

The most memorable moment for me was the Aug. 8 concert at Roosevelt Stadium in Jersey City, N.J. While we were on, President Nixon went on TV and said he was resigning the next day. When we heard backstage, we went bonkers. Graham announced it to the audience and the place went completely up for grabs. It was a moment of complete and utter joy, that a dark cloud was finally lifting and everyone there had somehow been a part of it. We immediately performed my “Long Time Gone.”

If I had a copy of the bootleg from that night (I know one exists) I would make it the SotW. But I don’t so instead let’s give a listen to “H2O Gate Blues” by Gil Scott-Heron.

Scott-Heron was a poet/rap pioneer and improviser with a strong political bent. “H2O Gate Blues” is a classic example of his work. This monologue is 8 ½ minutes of an intelligent and blistering attack on the Nixon administration – its politics and policies.

It’s amazing how so many of his words from 1978 still ring true today and that makes it a perfect SotW for this historic day.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – I Won’t Be Hangin’ Round, Linda Ronstadt

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It’s been a very busy 12 months for Linda Ronstadt. Last summer she revealed she had Parkinson’s disease and is already unable to sing due to its effect. A few months later she began to promote her autobiography, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir, granting a substantial number of media interviews. Oh, and did I mention she was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame this year.

Then just this week, President Obama awarded her a National Medal of Arts and Humanities. At the ceremony, the President said “I told Linda Ronstadt I had a crush on her back in the day.”

Today’s SotW is a Ronstadt song that you all may know, but one that I only recently discovered this year. “I Won’t Be Hangin’ Round” is my new favorite. It’s from her 1972, third solo album titled simply Linda Ronstadt (which I have a copy of) but I only really “heard” it for the first time on a various artist record called Country Soul Sisters. I’ve since learned it’s also on another compilation disc called Delta Swamp Rock Sounds From The South: At The Crossroads Of Rock, Country And Soul.

“I Won’t Be Hangin’ Round” was written by Eric Kaz who also wrote a couple of my favorite Bonnie Raitt songs (that Ronstadt also recorded) – “Cry Like A Rainstorm” and “Love Has No Pride” – among many others.

Ronstadt was fond of covering soul hits on her albums. “Heatwave”, “Just One Look” and “Rescue Me” come to mind. But even though she belted them out with credibility, she still sounded like a white girl singing soul covers. On “I Won’t Be Hangin’ Round” Ronstadt attains a truly soulful performance. The gospel infused background vocals provided by Merry Clayton, Diane Davidson and Miss Ona lend some authenticity to the sound, but it would be unfair to Ronstadt to imply that’s the only reason the performance works. She nails it.

The recording also benefits from the support of the Muscle Shoals house band including Barry Beckett on keys, Weldon Myrick on slide guitar and Roger Hawkins on drums. Those boys know a little bit about soul music.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week Revisited – I’m Hip, Blossom Dearie

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debbie, me and bob doroughIGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED

Today I had the privilege of hearing and meeting a living legend, the 90 year old Bob Dorough. This puts me one degree away from Miles Davis. Check it out and you’ll see. It caused me to remember this SotW posting I originally made on May 30, 2009, soon after Blossom Dearie had passed away. I wanted to repost it to share my appreciation for this great man and jazz musician.

The song of the week is “I’m Hip” in it’s definitive version by “jazz pixie” Blossom Dearie. The song was written by Bob Dorough (music) and Dave Frishberg (lyrics) in the late 50s as the “demolition of a namedropping bohemian poseur” (Stephen Holden – NYT).

Dearie was known for her distinctive, girlish voice and pageboy haircut. Her crisp, impeccable delivery and an irrepressible sense of playful swing are perfect for this song (even though it’s sung from a distinctly male point of view). This version was recorded Live at Ronnie Scott’s in 1966. Sadly, Dearie died on February 7th, 2009, in her apartment in Greenwich Village. She was 84.

The Dearie/Dorough/Frishberg collaboration went beyond “I’m Hip”. All three were involved with some of the best songs in the early 70’s, ABC “Schoolhouse Rock!” series. Dorough wrote and performed about 30 of the songs, including “Three Is a Magic Number” (my favorite). Dearie sang “Figure Eight” and Frishberg wrote “I’m Just a Bill.” Kids are still learning from those songs 35 years later.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken), Drive-By Truckers

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There is a lot of violence in the world right now – in Nigeria, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine and more recently Gaza. “Can’t we all just get along?”

All this fighting got me thinking about one of my favorite antiwar songs. In the early 70s country artist Tom T. Hall wrote “Mama Bake A Pie (Daddy Kill A Chicken)” as his protest of the Viet Nam war. Hall earned the nickname “The Storyteller” for songs such as his most famous – “The Harper Valley PTA.” “Mama…” is another story song that has been covered by numerous artists over the years.

Today’s SotW is the version by The Drive-By Truckers.

The song is about a guy coming home from the war after his legs have been blown off. He’s sarcastic when commenting on his sacrifice.

The war is over for me
I’ve forgotten everything except the pain
Thank you sir, and yes sir, it was worth it
For the ol’ red, white and blue

He’s hiding a bottle of whiskey under the blanket that’s covering his legs and cracking jokes to cover his embarrassment.

I can see the stewardess make over me
And ask, “Were you afraid?”
I’ll say, “Why no? I’m Superman
And couldn’t find the phone booth quite in time”
A GI gets a lot of laughs
He remembers all the funny lines

Then comes the chorus. It describes the banality of how life will go on as it always has – for everyone but him.

Mama bake a pie
Daddy kill a chicken
Your son is coming home
11:35, Wednesday night

But the real tearjerker is in the next verses when the soldier tries to predict how the girlfriend that dumped him when he went to war will react to his plight.

The letter that she wrote me said, “Goodbye”
She couldn’t wait and lots of luck
The bottle underneath the blanket
Feels just like an old friend to my touch

I know she’ll come and see me
But I bet she never once looks at my legs
Now, she’ll talk about the weather
And the dress she wore the July 4th parade
Lord, I love her and I don’t believe
This bottle’s gonna get her off my mind

That is as poignant a sentiment that you’ll hear in any song.

Mama bake a pie, daddy kill a chicken…

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Meeting of the Spirits, Mahavishnu Orchestra

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Today’s SotW was written by guest contributor John Spallone. John and I first met through a mutual friend in the late 70s when he was in Optometry school in Boston. We instantly bonded over our shared interest in great music. We attended many memorable concert performances together (both national and local acts) and couldn’t begin to count the hours spent listening to records. Exposure to new music was a constant part of our lives back then (and still is to some extent). John has been living and practicing Optometry in San Francisco for some 35 years.

The opening track of a number of debut albums have announced, “Fasten your seat belt. You are about to experience something completely like you never have before.” “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin’s “Good Times, Bad Times” are two prominent examples from the 1960s. The SotW for this week was another of those signal moments in the popular music of the late 20th Century.

In 1971, John McLaughlin, a jazz guitarist who had moved from England to New York, decided to form a band. He had cut his teeth on the jazz scene of London in the early 60s, playing with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker in the Graham Bond Organisation. After coming to New York, he teamed up with Tony Williams (drums) and Larry Young (organ) to play innovative music that combined the power of rock with the intricacy of jazz. The Tony Williams Lifetime briefly incorporated Jack Bruce (post-Cream) into the group, before breaking up. McLaughlin then recorded with Miles Davis, in sessions that would yield Bitches’ Brew, A Tribute to Jack Johnson and material that would appear on Miles’ albums for years to come. Miles encouraged him to strike out on his own. McLaughlin recruited: drummer Billy Cobham (who had also recorded with Miles), from Panama; bassist Rick Laird, from Ireland; pianist Jan Hammer, from the Czechoslovakia; and violinist Jerry Goodman, from Chicago (and The Flock, another of the jazz-influenced rock bands the emerged from the Windy City). They created a mix of Indian raga, English folk music, European classical music, funk, psychedelic rock, and high-energy jazz. They initially appeared as an opening act for a number of well-known rock bands. McLaughlin’s white suit and peaceful greetings at the introduction would at first draw hoots and jeers from audiences that were primed to “boogie, man!” Then, the band would launch into a wildly pyrotechnic set, played at a sound level that could become unbelievably loud. The music was sometimes pastoral, however, sometimes shimmering (especially when McLaughlin would play on the twelve string neck of his custom double-neck guitar), and the interplay among the band members was remarkable. At the peak moments, the five musicians would be playing complex, high tempo figures that fit together amazingly well. By the end of the concert, the audience was left limp and cheering for more.

Soon, the Mahavishnu Orchestra was a headline act, and the pressures of touring and big money rapidly took its toll. The first incarnation of the MO disbanded in late 1973. McLaughlin took the Orchestra through a few other iterations before changing directions completely with Shakti. Although jazz-rock fusion music soon took on a reputation for rapid riffing without any real soul, in its early days (i.e. before journalists starting calling it “fusion”), there were moments of the excitement of hearing something that had not been done earlier.

This week’s SOTW, “Meeting of the Spirits”, is the opening track on the first MO album, The Inner Mounting Flame.

The piece opens with power chords by McLaughlin, Hammer and Laird, soon joined by Goodman, with Billy Cobham’s frenetic drum fills between the chords. There is a moment of McLaughlin’s shimmering guitar before the band takes the tune into warp drive. Over forty years later, it can be difficult to remember that there was a time that music such as this could not have even been imagined, much less created.

For those interested in checking out video footage of the band in its early days, the link below takes you to a recording made in April of 1972.

Although the picture quality is not great (washed out black and white), the audio quality is fairly good for a live recording made at that time. Also interesting to see is the interaction among the band members, before the tensions of touring had set in.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Cleveland Rocks, Ian Hunter

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I finally got to Cleveland to visit the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame last week. It lived up to my expectations with tons of cool memorabilia to check out. We spent 5-6 hours there and easily could have gone back the next day to do it all again.

(BTW, Cleveland may get a bad rap, but I found it to be a very nice city. It was clean, has beautiful architecture and artwork, and there were lots of people out for the ballgame versus the Yankees or getting dinner and drinks.)

Of course the city of Cleveland has been all over the news for the past 24 hours due to LeBron “King” James’ decision to return to that city instead of renewing his contract to play basketball for Miami.

So with all this Cleveland stuff running through my consciousness, I’m taking the easy route and making Ian Hunter’s “Cleveland Rocks” today’s SotW.

Conventional wisdom is that Hunter originally wrote the song in tribute to his home country, England, but changed the reference to Cleveland to help improve the city’s self-image. But the leader of Mott the Hoople has been known to tell the story differently in recent years, implying the song was written to give kudos to Cleveland fans for embracing Glam Rock ahead of the rest of the country. In an article by John Petkovic, of Cleveland’s The Plain Dealer, Hunter is quoted as saying:

“I was watching TV one night when this comedian starts making fun of Cleveland… Cleveland had the coolest rock fans in the country — I wrote ‘Cleveland Rocks’ for them, because they were always so great to me.

Cleveland was the first city in America to embrace Mott the Hoople… The East and West coasts had their heads up their [expletive], but Cleveland was hip to us and Roxy Music and David Bowie right away.”

The recording certainly doesn’t suffer from the help Hunter received from Mick Ronson on guitar, and the E Street Band’s Gary Tallent on bass, Roy Bittan on keys and Max Weinberg on drums.

A version of the song by The Presidents of the United States of America is probably familiar to many of you as the theme song to Drew Carey’s mid 90s ABC sitcom.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – California Girls, The Beach Boys

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Today’s SotW is a little out of the ordinary. That’s because it really only focuses on part of a song rather than the whole thing – the intro.

This idea popped into my head recently when I was watching a TV show and a commercial for AT&T Wireless came on. I wasn’t paying much attention but they use the Beach Boys “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” and the song’s intro instantly caught my ear. It’s really nice.

When used correctly, a pop song’s intro acts like a mini overture – it sets the mood for what follows. I’ve read a lot of “best of” lists for song intros on the internet and they’re littered with Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Rolling Stones songs. Don’t get me wrong, they list countless great songs with great guitar “intros” but to my ear they mostly just establish the riff that get played throughout the rest of the song. That may be your criteria for a great intro, but not mine. I want something a little different and more sophisticated.

Brian Wilson was the master. My all-time favorite song intro is on “California Girls.” I know, “California Girls” doesn’t seem to qualify as Ignored Obscured Restored, but the intro certainly does. Beside, what’s more American than the Beach Boys on 4th of July weekend?

Where the hell did that intro come from? It’s so simple yet so perfect. It uses the notes of a B chord, repeated four times – first just guitar and piano, then with bass, then a horn in harmony, then the swell of a horn section in a more complex harmony – before moving down a step to A.

This wistful piece of music is a perfect contrast to the easy rolling feel of the song’s main verse/chorus structure. Brilliant!

In the harder rock genre, Joe Walsh had a good instinct for writing intros. Check out “Funk #49” when he was with The James Gang and “Rocky Mountain Way” for a couple of examples.

Enjoy… until next week.