As we creep up on history Tuesday, this mix from 2 years ago serves up David Bowie's "Young Americans" right on time.
What can I say about the original if you haven't heard it? Just listen to it again. From Bowie's "plastic soul" period, the arrangement and saxophone and singing are all so tremendous that I never really heard half the lyrics before the more stripped down Danny Michel cover. Also here, The Cure's sly remake, which updates "President Nixon" with "President Clinton". The song itself is a funny and sweet commentary on what being an American is....oh, and we're updating our President in a couple days. Because we can.
Repeating even more often through this mix is the old blues song "Catfish Blues". I first heard Jimi Hendrix's scorching take on his BBC sessions, and found I had a few others laying around: one from Bobo Thomas off a "rude blues" album, another by John Lee Hooker off his Hooker box set and another by Robert Petway off a compilation of Hendrix influences.
Songs that sound good back-to-back: "If You Let Me" by The Rolling Stones, a pensive little ditty left off their Between The Buttons album in the mid 60s, followed by M. Ward's magnificent Daniel Johnson cover "To Go Home", with Neko Case singing back-up. RIAA's sublime remix of the Sex Pistols' "God Save The Queen" with Burt Bacharach leads to Aceyalone's horn-driven "All 4 U". And Django Reinhardt's take of "Beyond The Sea (La Mer)" is followed by Bobby Darin, who had a huge hit with a more vocal take of that song, doing the definitive reading of Tim Hardin's "If I Were A Carpenter".
Mellow hip-hop: Slum Village's "2u4u", followed by some of RZA's Ghost Dog soundtrack score, "Opening Theme (Raise Your Sword Instrumental)", and Kazi's equally cinematic "A.V.E.R.A.G.E."
What's left? Including Pavement's "AT & T" was probably an inside joke to myself as the phone company was, at the time of this mix, about to become an ex-client of mine. The phonetic "Ooh Ah Ee" by the Vern Blair Debate is a very rare funk track. Forgot to acknowledge our opener, Lou Rawls' "Southside Blues/ Tobbacco Road" medley, with the audience rhythmically clapping behind his opening monologue.
Finally, an alternate, non-medley take of "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window" by The Beatles. The slower take here, without blasting by at the end of a breathless medley before "Golden Slumbers", makes it stand on its own as a fantastic song with enigmatic lyrics. The title supposedly refers to fans who would break into Paul McCartney's house to steal souvenirs. But when I hear this version, it seems to say something about the sheer silliness and sadness about how randomly women fall into and out of your life. Even the most modest places I've lived in had bathroom windows and I don't think they were ever locked.
