Tag Archives: song of the week

Song of the Week – Guarda Come Dondolo, Edoardo Vianello

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The Emmy Awards were announced last Sunday and I was again reminded that we are in a golden age of television. The quality of the programing, on cable, HBO, Netflix, and now Hulu and Amazon Prime, is outstanding. It seems like every week someone is recommending a “must see” series for me to binge watch. I have a long list and too little time.

One show that I did watch this year was (both seasons of) Master of None. The romantic comedy/drama was created by Aziz Ansari and Alan Yang, and stars Ansari. It is well written and performed and totally charming. It was nominated for Emmys in eight categories last weekend and was the winner for Outstanding Single-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series, and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series (Aziz Ansari and Lena Waithe).

One category the show was nominated for but didn’t win was Outstanding Music Supervision. It was for the hour long episode called “Amarsi Un Po.” I have to admit, the show used music from many different genres to great effect – each song perfectly selected to enhance the emotion that was unfolding on the screen.

That leads me to today’s SotW – “Guarda Come Dondolo” by Edoardo Vianello.

The scene is set when Dev (Ansari) and Francesca (Alessandra Mastronardi), who is engaged but is developing feelings for Dev, are stuck at his apartment during a blizzard. She reluctantly agrees to spend the night at his apartment, but she really has no choice due to the severity of the storm. They get ready to go to sleep – she in his bed, he on the sofa – but neither can sleep; the situation causing a degree of anxiety. They agree to get up and dance. Francesca chooses the Italian pop song “Guarda Come Dondolo” (1962). The scene flawlessly conveys how they break the romantic tension by dancing to this goofy song. It’s perfect!!!

Here’s a clip of the scene:

“Guarda Come Dondolo” doesn’t translate to anything that really makes sense in English. Suffice to say that it is an Italian version of “The Twist.” So rock on!

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Mandinka, Sinead O’Connor

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In 1987 Sinead O’Connor burst onto the music scene with her debut album The Lion and the Cobra. The 20 year old Irish lass with the shaved head and tattoos made it clear from the start that she would be an unconventional force to be reckoned with. That album did OK in the US, reaching #36 on the Billboard album chart and spawning a couple of singles that were popular on modern rock radio and in dance clubs.

A few years later O’Connor scored big time on MTV with Prince’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” from her second album, I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got. Everyone remembers the video close ups with her striking blue eyes and the tear drops that delicately roll down her cheeks toward the song’s sad conclusion.

But let’s get back to The Lion and the Cobra for today’s SotW, “Mandinka.”

“Mandinka” reached #14 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play chart at a time that I was a club DJ in Boston. It was one of my favorite tracks to spin.

Some people have interpreted the song to be a protest against the African Mandinkan tribe’s tradition of female genital mutation.

I have refused to take part
I told them “drink something new”
Please let me pull something through

I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t

It would be no surprise if that wat the topic given O’Connor’s penchant for courting controversy. In 1992 she appeared on Saturday Night Live and tore up a picture of the Pope and tossed it at the camera to protest sexual abuse in the Catholic Church.

In the late 90s she was ordained a priest in Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church, which is not part of the Roman Catholic Church (that does not allow women to become priests).

As recently as 2014/15, O’Connor has released new music that has received nominations for music industry awards.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – My City of Ruins, Bruce Springsteen

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All of the recent natural disasters – multiple hurricanes and a huge earthquake off the coast of Mexico – have caused me to think about Bruce Springsteen’s “My City of Ruins,” today’s SotW.

“My City of Ruins” was included on Springsteen’s album The Rising (2002). The Rising was The Boss’s answer to the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center although “My City of Ruins” was actually written a couple of years earlier about Asbury Park.

In Springsteen’s autobiography Born to Run, he describes “My City of Ruins” as “the soul gospel of my favorite sixties records, speaking not just of Asbury Park but hopefully of other places and other lands.”

“Soul gospel”… that’s just how I always heard it. Let’s call it a distant cousin to Curtis Mayfield’s (The Impressions’) “People Get Ready,” a long time favorite of mine.

Springsteen is one of the few artists whose later albums speak to me as completely as his early albums. There aren’t many.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Hard Work, John Handy

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A few weeks ago I picked up a vinyl copy of an album called Hard Work (1976), by John Handy. The saxophonist had an early career in the 50s and 60s working with some serious jazz heavyweights such as Charles Mingus.

He took a hiatus from performance to become an academic – teaching music at several prestigious San Francisco area schools such as Stanford, UC – Berkeley, SFSU and the SF Conservatory of Music.

Hard Work was only Handy’s second album since the late 60s. By this time he was incorporating more R&B into his work, perhaps due to exposure from his young students. This isn’t pure jazz, it’s a 70’s jazz/funk hybrid that is similar to the work of contemporaries like the Crusaders or Weather Report.

The dorian mode title track is today’s SotW.

As soon as I heard this dance floor groover I knew it had to secure a spot as a SotW. What better time than Labor Day weekend?

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Push Push, Herbie Mann

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In Mojo #282, writer Michael Simmons opens an article about Delaney & Bonnie with this anecdote:

It’s a steamy August night in New York City, 1970, and Herbie Mann is in his pad when he hears equally hot music blasting from nearby Central Park. The veteran jazz flautist, bandleader and sessionman for Sarah Vaughn, Count Basie and Chet Baker, is bewitched. A female voice – as sultry as the weather – oozes carnality, while a guitarist bends blue notes like an electrified Robert Johnson. Behind them, a fiery band blends southern R&B and rock’n’roll.

Mann grabs his axe, heads for the park and, squeezing his way on-stage, joins the dozen-strong cast of crack instrumentalists. Hey! – says the look on their delighted faces – it’s Herbie Mann! The female voice, Mann discovers, belongs to blond bombshell Bonnie Bramlett; on the other vocal mike is her handsome, bearded husband Delaney, dispensing cues with the neck of his guitar. The collective crew are Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, the Friends tonight including transcendent slide guitarist Duane Allman – whose own Allman Brothers Band is just taking off – plus King Curtis – hands down the greatest soul saxophonist of all time.

This story led me to recall that Mann recruited Allman to play guitar on the sessions for his breakthrough album Push Push in 1971. I wonder if the Central Park concert is where they first met and decided to work together.

Today’s SotW is the title track “Push Push,“ the album cut that leaves the most room for some tasty Allman guitar work.

But Allman wasn’t the only stellar musician to play on these dates. Mann’s backers also included Chuck Rainey (bass), Bernard Purdie (drums) and Ralph McDonald – all who later would play on sessions for Steely Dan. And let’s not fail to mention Donald “Duck” Dunn (bass) and Al Jackson Jr. (drums), both from the famous Stax studio house band.

Unfortunately, any article about Push Push has to make mention that is has one of the worst album covers of all time. Here’s one article that makes that case:

Bad Album Covers Exposed! The Music Behind the Worst Vinyl Art Of All Time

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Bigelow 6-2000, Brenda Lee; Beachwood 4-5789, The Marvelettes; 6060-842, B-52s; 853-5937, Squeeze

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Ever since the telephone became an essential appliance in homes, it has also found a place in music… in the form of songs referencing telephone numbers.

The earliest example I know of is “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” the Glenn Miller Orchestra’s 1940 hit (though I’m sure there are even earlier ones). Does anyone remember the scene form Twin Peaks when Leland Palmer puts it on his Victrola then dances with his murdered daughter Laura’s photograph? Creepy in that Twin Peaks way.

By the mid 1950’s a phone number was used in the Brenda Lee rockabilly hit “Bigelow 6-2000.” Brenda is impatiently sitting by her phone, waiting for her “baby” to dial her number. (If he doesn’t, she’ll call him!)

Motown got into the act in 1962 with the release of “Beechwood 4-5789” by the Marvelettes. In this one the singer wants very badly for a guy she’s eyeing at a dance to take her number and give her a call.

In 1979 The B-52s released “6060-842” on their debut album, a song about a disconnected number. (It starts off the same way Tommy Tutone’s “867-5309” does, with “a number on the wall.”)

“853-5937” was released by Squeeze in the late 80s on their album Babylon and On. It’s about a guy who is frustrated because he gets Angela’s voice message machine every time he calls her. In the end, the jealous and paranoid guy thinks his friend – who also isn’t answering – may be hooking up with Angela.

Of course there are many others including the aforementioned “867-5309,” Wilson Pickett’s soul classic “634-5789,” Etta James’ sweaty R&B on “842-3089 (Call My Name)” and the funky “777-9311” by Morris Day. And these are just examples of songs that have the phone number in the title! There are probably countless others that have a number in the lyrics but not the title. Alicia Key’s “Diary” (489-4608) comes to mind. My daughter informed me that (678) triple 9-8212 is referenced in Soulja Boy’s “Kiss Me Thru the Phone.”

Can you think of any others?

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Pattern Against User, At the Drive In

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One of the most popular SotW posts I’ve written was for “L’Via L’Viaquez” by the Mars Volta (August 30, 2014). It has received over 800 hits on this Rock ‘n’ Roll Remnants blog.

The Mars Volta rose out of the ashes of another punk band called At the Drive In, so it was only a matter of time before I posted about them. AtDI recently reunited, 17 years after their initial break up (and released a new album called in•ter a•li•a) making now as good a time as any to delve into their history and music.

In the early 90s, guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez met singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala at an El Paso punk club called the Dead End. Cedric formed several bands before recruiting Jim Ward and Omar to form AtDI. Over the next few years and multiple line ups (Ward joined and left the band several times) the group settled with the original three plus the rhythm section of bassist Paul Hinojos and drummer Tony Hajjar.

Fighting over artistic direction, exhaustion from relentless touring and the scourge of excessive drug use all converged to cause the band to call it quits in 2001.

Today’s SotW is “Pattern Against User” from AtDI’s 2000 album Relationship of Command.

According to Wikipedia, “Relationship of Command is now seen as one of the most influential rock albums of the decade, receiving accolades such as being ranked 47th in the 50 Greatest Albums of the 21st century in Kerrang!, number 83 on Spin Magazine’s 100 Greatest Albums 1985–2005, as well as number 90 on MTV2‘s greatest albums ever list.”

The new album has the band back in form and is worth checking out on Spotify.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Chitlins Con Carne, Kenny Burrell

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86 year old Kenny Burrell is one of the most influential guitarists in jazz history. His crisp clean tone was influenced by Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt but also has one foot in the door of the blues.

Perhaps his most important album was Midnight Blue, recorded for the renowned Blue Note label in 1963. On this album Burrell is backed by Stanley Turrentine (sax), Major Holley (bass), Bill English (drums) and Ray Barretto (conga).

Midnight Blue contains today’s SotW, “Chitlins Con Carne.”

A blog called Jazz Rock Fusion Guitar has a posting that describes the song very well:

… “Chitlins con Carne”… is the low-key original that set the standard for this now standard Latin-tinged blues. The eight-bar intro lays down a pulsing Latin clave, with Holley pedaling the bass as Barretto takes liberties on the congas. Turrentine’s matter-of-fact statement of the melody establishes his by turns lugubrious and diaphanous sound.

Burrell’s sparse comping sets the album’s precedent for succinctness, one of his hallmarks. His deceptively clean guitar solo walks a tightrope between endless space and airtight rhythmic motifs; a devil-may-care attitude in the face of death that comes from having been down and out and having lived to tell about it. Turrentine plays foil, Captain Kirk to Burrell’s Spock, singing the blues right out of the gate, but the two show their psychic connection when seamlessly trading not fours, but ones, until the blistering out chorus.

This song has been covered numerous times by artists as diverse as Horace Silver and Junior Wells. But perhaps the most familiar cover was by Stevie Ray Vaughan. If this song sounds familiar I’ll bet it’s because you’ve heard Vaughan’s version, even if you don’t specifically recall it.

It’s pretty clear that Burrell influenced many blues guitarists that followed him – Hendrix, Santana and of course, Vaughan.

He must have even made some impression on Elvis Costello. Check out the tribute paid with the cover to his album Almost Blue.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Way Down Now, World Party

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Today’s SotW was written by another guest contributor, Steve Martin (no, not that one!). Steve moved to SF from Staten Island, New York in 1979 (which pert near makes him a CA native) to attend San Francisco State University where he had a college radio show called the “Esoteric Dinosaur.” His favorite musical experience is the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. His musical interests cut across many different genres but tend more recently toward “Americana.” When he’s not listening to music he is working at the Oakland Coliseum where he has been a Facility Manager for the last 26 years.

World Party is a “band” started by Karl Wallinger in 1986 after 2 years as a member of The Waterboys. World Party is essentially a Wallinger solo project. He plays most of the instruments himself in the studio and tours with a variety of different musicians.

They had a string of FM radio friendly hits in the late 80’s and 90’s that showed Wallinger’s influences including The Beatles, The Beach Boys and Prince. (They recorded a version of John Lennon’s “Happiness is a Warm Gun.”) He wrote and recorded the original version of “She’s the One” that later became a hit for Robbie Williams.

Goodbye Jumbo was World Party’s second album (1990) and featured many of Wallinger’s signature catchy hooks, including “Way Down Now” that reached #1 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart.

The sardonic lyrics are sung with a voice mildly imitative of Bob Dylan. The music drives a solid beat all the way through and culminates just past the 3:00 mark with “whoo-whoos” that are a direct link to the Stones “Sympathy for the Devil.”

In 2001 Wallinger suffered a brain aneurysm but he was able to return to musician’s work again after 5 years of rehabilitation. He is currently writing and recording at his studio in England.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Easy Street, Edgar Winter Group

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Brothers Johnny and Edgar Winter were born in Texas and encouraged by their parents from an early age to pursue musical interests. They performed together as children. The elder, guitarist Johnny, was the first to break out with a recording contract with Columbia Records in the late 60s.

Edgar (keyboards and sax) played in Johnny’s bands but struck out on his own in 1970 when he received his own recording contract and formed Edgar Winter’s White Trash. In 1972 he formed a different group, The Edgar Winter Group, that included guitar hero Ronnie Montrose and singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Dan Hartman. The album they released, They Only Come Out At Night, reached #3 on the Billboard Album charts and spawned two hit singles – “Frankenstein” (#1) and “Free Ride” (#14).

For the follow up album, Shock Treatment, Winter recruited Rick Derringer who had the hit “Hang on Sloopy” as a teenager with the McCoys to replace the departed Montrose. This album has gone down in rock history as a disappointment. But that’s really unfair! Not only is it a very good album all the way through, it actually reached #13 and had a top 40 single (“River’s Risin’”).

My favorite song on Shock Treatment is “Easy Street”, today’s SotW.

“Easy Street” was written by Hartman but includes one of Winter’s best performances, both vocally and on alto sax. The sax solo perfectly embodies the sleazy, swagger of the bluesy rhythm (in 6/8 time) and nighthawk lyrics. Hartman’s bass is solid too.

Enjoy… until next week.