Tag Archives: song of the week

Song of the Week – Joke, Chastity Belt

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Being provocative is a cornerstone of rock and roll. Pre rock and roll R&B had salacious lyrics imbued with sexual innuendo. Elvis shook his pelvis, Little Richard was a gender bender, and Jerry Lee married his 13 year old cousin (once removed). The MC5 preached revolution, Alice Cooper used a guillotine and snakes as props, and Johnny Rotten spit on his audience.

chastity beltOne of today’s most provocative bands is an all-woman quartet out of the Seattle area called Chastity Belt. If the name itself doesn’t leave you uneasy, how about their early publicity shot with band member Julia Shapiro lifting her skirt to expose a raw steak covering her private parts?

The band met at Whitman College and formed a group to write songs that celebrate the rights of women to party and have casual sex. Their first album, No Regerts (sic), included song titles such as “Seattle Party,” “Pussy Weed and Beer,” “Giant Vagina,” and “Nip Slip.”

Their second album, Time to Go Home, is a little tamer lyrically though it does have a song called “Cool Slut” (Ladies, it’s OK to be/OK to be slutty). But they’ve compensated with more sophisticated music.

Today’s SotW is “Joke.”

I’m not quite sure if this is an ode to pyromania or a simple story about getting stoned and crackin’ up. Either way, it’s not the lyrics – it’s the Television-like (Richard Lloyd & Tom Verlaine) guitar interplay that really makes the song work. It nimbly straddles the line between indie pop and jam band.

This is a band to keep your eyes on in the next few years.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Something on Your Mind, Karen Dalton

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Tim Hardin: “She’s an incredible broad.”

Fred Neil: “… the greatest female singer I’ve ever heard.”

Bob Dylan: “… a voice like Billie Holiday’s and played the guitar like Jimmy Reed and went all the way with it.”

Who are these icons of the folk world showering with compliments? The best folk singer you’ve never heard – Karen Dalton.

Dalton was one of the most original folk singers in the early 60s Greenwich Village scene but languished in obscurity – mostly of her own doing. Opportunities were frequently presented to her but she was always reluctant to take advantage of them. She didn’t release an album until 1969 and by then she’d missed the opportunity to connect with a broad audience that was by then listening to more rock oriented music. And she hated public performances. Carlos Santana met her at Woodstock and invited her to tour with him in Europe. She accepted and appeared in a few cities but refused to come out of her dressing room (paralyzed with fear) for the rest of the tour. She died in 1993 at the tender age of 55 from an AIDS related illness, destitute and homeless.

The SotW is the Dino Valenti (Valente?) penned “Something on Your Mind” from her 1971 album, In My Own Time.

What grabs you first is the quality of Dalton’s voice. Sharp as shard glass; yet fragile and vulnerable too. But let’s not overlook that she’s a pretty damned good guitar player too.

Thom Jurek at allmusic.com summarizes the song nicely:

The material is choice, beginning with Dino Valente’s gorgeous “Something on Your Mind.” [Harvey] Brooks’ rumbling single-note bassline opens it with a throb, joined by a simple timekeeping snare, pedal steel, and electric guitars. When Dalton opens her mouth and sings “Yesterday/Anyway you made it was just fine/Saw you turn your days into nighttime/Didn’t you know/You can’t make it without ever even trying/And something’s on your mind…,” a fiddle enters and the world just stops. The Billie Holiday comparisons fall by the wayside and Dalton emerges as a singer as true and impure as Nina Simone (yet sounds nothing like her), an artist who changed the way we hear music. The band begins to close in around her, and Dalton just goes right into the middle and comes out above it all. She turns the song inside herself, which is to say she turns it inside all of us and its meaning is in the sound of her voice, as if revelation were something of an everyday occurrence if we could only grasp its small truth for what it weighs.

Dalton was recently honored with a tribute album – Remembering Mountains: Unheard Songs by Karen Dalton – that includes Sharon Van Etten, Patty Griffin, Isobel Campbell, Julia Holter, Marissa Nadler and Lucinda Williams performing her own compositions.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Tighten Up, Archie Bell & the Drells; Dance to the Music, Sly & the Family Stone; Memphis Soul Stew, King Curtis; Reggae Recipe, Desmond Dekker; The Intro and the Outro, The Bonzo Dog Band

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I like a lot of songs where the band leader introduces each of the instruments into the song, one by one. I’ll call them “instrument intro songs.” For some reason they remind me of summer, though when I researched the actual release and peak chart position dates, I’m not sure any of my favorites were actually summer hits. But who cares about accuracy? In my mind these oldies are perfect songs to wrap up the summer of 2015.

First up is “Tighten Up” by Archie Bell & the Drells… from Houston, Texas.

“Tighten Up” peaked in the US at #15 in May of 1968. It does double duty as a song with a dance that goes along with it (like The Twist or The Mashed Potatoes). The song is just plain fun. Other hip bands including R.E.M and Yo La Tengo must agree since they’ve covered the song.

Sly & the Family Stone contributed the great “Dance to the Music.”

I was surprised to find that “Dance to the Music” actually came out just a little before “Tighten Up.” Its chart peak was at #8 in late April 1968. In my mind’s eye “Dance…” came out after “Tighten…” I was surprised to see they were on the airwaves at the same time.

I didn’t discover the next two instrument intro songs until well after their original releases.

“Memphis Soul Stew” is a funky number by saxophonist King Curtis from the late 60s.

When “Memphis Soul Stew” was released Curtis was recording for Atlantic Records. But he had a long and storied career. He warmed up for the Beatles at their historic Shea Stadium performance that just had their 50th anniversary on August 15th. He played that famous sax break on Aretha’s “Respect.” He recorded a cool cover version of Joe South’s “Games People Play” that featured Duane Allman on guitar. But he died tragically at the age of 37 in 1971 having been stabbed near his NYC apartment after an argument with a pair of drug dealers.

Desmond Dekker gives us a reggae instrument intro song called “Reggae Recipe.”

Dekker is best known for his #1 hit from 1969, “The Israelites.” “Reggae Recipe” is far less popular but ought not to be. I’m not sure, but I think this song came out later in the same year. The reggae recipe for this song is pure delight!

And of course I have to end with the greatest instrument intro song – The Bonzo Dog Band’s “The Intro and the Outro.”

This is really a parody of the Part One finale of Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” where there is a pompous introduction of the many instruments used in its orchestration. No time here for the full album side of “… Bells” just to hear that one section, but the Bonzo’s parody is beautiful! In fact, it’s the Bonzo’s Viv Stanshall that calls out the instruments for both recordings.

I tried to think of a contemporary example of an instrument intro song but couldn’t come up with one. Can you?

Enjoy… until next week.

Correction:

Lawr pointed out “Slight correction, Tommy. “The Intro and the Outro” was released on “Gorilla” in 1967, while “Tubular Bells” was in 1973, What “The Intro and the Outro” really riffs on is Duke Ellington’s “C-Jam Blues.”

He’s right! My bad. I need a better fact checker.

TM

Song of the Week – Jardin du Luxembourg, Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger

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Sean Lennon (son of Beatle John) and his model/musician girlfriend Charlotte Kemp-Muhl record together under the name The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger (GOASTT).

I’m not that familiar with all of their work but I’ve always liked their first single – the Mick Ronson produced “Jardin du Luxembourg.” Ronson, you may recall, was also the producer of Amy Winehouse’s perfect album Back to Black.

If there’s one thing that’s for certain it’s that Sean, like his half-brother Julian, inherited his daddy’s vocal chords. He may also have picked up at least a whiff of his father’s knack for psychedelic (e.g. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”) lyrical imagery.

People say your brain is like cream cheese
Takes the shape of anything you please
The dust from the trails under your fingernails
The leaves in the Luxembourg garden
Are showing their true colours
They’re blushing, they’re begging your pardon
Cause time’s a jealous lover

The lyrics, vocals and instrumentation all hang together as GOASTT delivers a fine piece of modern pop with a touch of late 60s flair.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – I’m All You Need, Spanic Boys

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If you like the variety of Americana made by artists like the Jayhawks, Los Lobos, the BoDeans, Marshall Crenshaw, Steve Earle and the Blasters, you must also be a fan of the Spanic Boys. Huh!?! Yeah, the Spanic Boys – the best roots rock band you’ve never heard of.

The Spanic Boys are the Milwaukee based father and son team, Tom and Ian Spanic. Tom was a self-taught guitarist that loved the instrument so much that he worked to become classically trained. (He even earned a position as a guitar instructor at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.)

Later, when it was time for son Ian to learn to play guitar, Tom made sure he was trained in the classical method on an acoustic guitar before letting him have his own Fender.

Middle aged, overweight and bespectacled; the Spanic Boys are not your stereotypical rock stars. But man, can those two sing and play.

Today’s SotW is “I’m All You Need” from their 1991 album on Rounder Records, Strange World.

The influences are obvious – Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, the Everly Brothers, etc. – yet their sound is contemporary… much like Nick Lowe’s and Dave Edmund’s Rockpile. Telecaster guitar riffs, a tight rhythm section and close harmony vocals with rockabilly influences – that’s all they need.

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A bit of trivia about the Spanic Boys is their connection to Saturday Night Live. They’re often credited as being the most obscure musical act ever to perform on the show (though some will dispute that). They appeared on the episode hosted by Andrew Dice Clay in May 1990. The scheduled musical act, Sinead O’Connor, refused to appear with Clay because she felt he was vulgar and misogynist (he was). Her boycott left SNL’s bandleader and musical director, G.E. Smith, in a bind for a last minute replacement. He got permission to call the Spanic Boys, a band that he really liked at the time, and the rest is history.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Big Bird, Eddie Floyd

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One of the great Stax soulmen of the 60s was Eddie Floyd. His most popular song was “Knock on Wood” which hit #1 in the US in 1966. He also had modest chart success with “Raise Your Hand”. That one only reached #79 in the US but was further popularized through cover versions by Janis Joplin and Bruce Springsteen.

Here’s a cool version of Janis singing it with Tom Jones.

Dig the groovy 60s outfits and dance moves.

But today’s SotW is about my favorite Eddie Floyd song – “Big Bird” (1967).

Floyd delivers a passionate vocal and is supported by the famous Stax/Volt rhythm section (Booker T. Jones, Steve Cropper, “Duck” Dunn) and the Memphis horns. Check out Cropper’s blistering guitar riff – it drives the song.

The backstory adds a little poignancy to this otherwise upbeat song. It’s been often repeated that Floyd wrote the song from Heathrow Airport in London while waiting for his flight back to the US for Otis Redding’s funeral. Hearing that his plane needed some maintenance before it would be ready to fly, he had a justifiable concern that it might not get off the ground.

“Big Bird” went virtually unnoticed here in the US but later became a Northern soul favorite in England. UK bands, like The Jam, still do cover versions.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Do It Clean, Echo and the Bunnymen

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Echo and the Bunnymen was a post punk, new wave band from Liverpool, England. The band earned very favorable critical notices here in the US, but never seemed to make a really big splash even though they received some considerable airplay from college and alternative rock radio stations.

Does anyone remember the ads for their fourth album Ocean Rain that boldly claimed it was “the greatest album ever made?” US record buyers felt otherwise – it only reached #87 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums chart.

Despite that over exaggeration, Echo was a very good band with a bunch of songs that I really like. Their first album, Crocodiles (1980), contained my favorite and today’s SotW, “Do It Clean.”

Ian McCulloch was the artistic leader of the group, but as this garage rocker shows, it was the rhythm section of drummer Pete de Freitas and bassist Les Pattinson that really had the balls.

And that’s important because the lyrics are pretty weak — a lot of gibberish that’s probably a drug reference. But this song is really all about getting the body to move, and that it does (at least for me).

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Better Man, Leon Bridges

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For several months my daughter Abby has been imploring me to listen to the music of Leon Bridges. I wasn’t intentionally dismissing her suggestion; it was more a case of my early onset Alzheimer’s that was keeping me from checking him out. But eventually I got with it and gave him a listen.

Have you heard him yet?

Bridges is a 26 year old, Texan soul singer in the mold of 70s era Al Green. He was pretty much unknown just a few months ago, but a popular performance at SXSW and May spot on Later… With Jools Holland helped push him into the spotlight.

His debut album, Coming Home, was recorded at home in Fort Worth, before he signed with Columbia – some of it recorded on an artificial putting green in a local bar – with the help of White Denim’s Austin Jenkins and a few other home town pals.

Today’s SotW is “Better Man.”

It is a smooth soul ballad about a man pleading for a second chance after doing his woman wrong (a well-worn theme in R&B). The record is captivating in its simplicity and openness, giving it a timeless gospel/soul feeling.

In a time when so much popular music is dependent on synthetic beats, it is refreshing to hear some real music.

Thanks, Abby, for hipping me to Leon Bridges. You know your daddy’s taste in music very well.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Solitary Man, Chris Isaak & Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon, Urge Overkill

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My appreciation for Neil Diamond has always been a mixed bag. The sequin jump suited performer of the 70s always struck me as tacky and cornball. His invitation by The Band’s Robbie Robertson to perform at The Last Waltz seemed out of place. (Robertson was his neighbor in Malibu and produced his 1976 album, Beautiful Noise.) He was the one guy that didn’t seem hip enough to fit in with the rest of the musicians on the bill. That Neil Diamond – to me – is just karaoke kitsch.

On the other hand, he wrote some songs that I really like and respect; especially some of his mid-sixties songs recorded for the Bang label. Today’s write up features two of them as covered by other artists.

The first is “Solitary Man” by Chris Isaak from his album San Francisco Days (1993).

The original by Diamond was released in 1966 but didn’t make the Top 40 until it was re-released in 1970, when it reached #21.

In an interview in the July 2008 (#176) issue of Mojo, Diamond discussed how producers Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry prodded him to write songs with more depth:

“Solitary Man was my first song where I tried to really raise the level of my songwriting. It was inspired by the Beatles’ song Michelle, which was also written in a minor key. I don’t think I’d ever written a song in a minor key before, it was the first and it kind of broke the dam for me.”

The next SotW is Urge Overkill’s version of “Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon” that was featured in the film Pulp Fiction.

Diamond’s original hit #10 in 1967. The Urge Overkill version and its association with Quentin Tarantino and Pulp Fiction gave Diamond some badly needed hip credibility.

In the late 2000s, Diamond dialed up his cool factor even further by working with producer Rick Rubin to record a couple of critically acclaimed albums – 12 Songs and Home Before Dark. You probably recall how much Rubin’s golden touch helped Johnny Cash reach a larger, younger, hipper audience in the latter years of his career.

Enjoy… until next week.

Song of the Week – Sweet Lucy & I Paint a Design, Michael Hurley

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Michael Hurley has been making traditional American folk music since the mid 60s. So then, how is it possible that you (probably) never heard of him? Well that just ain’t right.

He’s 73 years old and has been putting out albums consistently from 1964 up to present day, mostly on small independent labels.

He was one of the three acts on the 1976 compilation album Have Moicy! that also included cuts by the Unholy Modal Rounders and Jeffrey Frederick & The Clamtones. This album has earned massive critical acclaim – most famously selected by the Village Voice’s music critic Robert Christgau as “the greatest folk album of the rock era.”

To be honest, I did not become familiar with the record back in the bicentennial year. In fact, I really can’t remember exactly when or how I finally got acquainted with it. But it is one of those records that you can listen to a thousand times and it never lets you down. A couple of the most popular songs on the album are “Midnight in Paris” and “Griselda.” But my favorite song, and one of today’s SotW, is “Sweet Lucy.” (And I swear that has nothing to do with the fact that I named my older daughter Lucy.)

It’s a funny story about a guy and his “old lady” (sorry for the anachronistic expression, but hey it’s 1976 remember) going on a bender.

In 1994 Hurley released his 13th album, Wolfways. That album contains today’s second SotW, “I Paint a Design.” It first appeared on Hurley’s 1988 album Watertower as a solo performance. But he decided to redo it with a full band on Wolfways and I like the newer version better.

Christgau weighed in again. This time he panned Wolfways, but awarded “I Paint a Design” his Choice Cut designation – defined as “a good song on an album that isn’t worth your time or money.” Kind of harsh on the album but the song does get into your head and won’t leave. The female background vocals kill it.

The song is used very effectively over the closing credits of Ray McKinnon’s Academy Award winning short film The Accountant (2001). It can be viewed in three parts on YouTube starting here:

Any of you under 30 years old might relate to the comparisons made between Hurley and Devendra Banhart. In fact Banhart is a fan and Hurley released two of his more recent albums on Banhart’s Gnomonsong label. Hurley’s songs have been recorded by several other more current acts that are also fans – Cat Power, Espers, Vetiver, and The Violent Femmes among them.

He does most of his own album cover artwork too. Check it out.

Enjoy… until next week.