This week's mix is bookended by alternate versions of songs by two curiously paired artists: Johnny Cash and David Bowie. It reminds me of a friend from high school who was a big music fan but had an inexplicable hatred of David Bowie's music. To the point where others of us would goad him into at least admitting what his favorite Bowie song would be, then admitting at least the craft of said song.
We didn't have much luck. I suppose my friend's rather narrow-minded grudge against Bowie was that he was "fake" or somehow not authentic. I was reminded of that as I put together this mix and had two live versions of his hit "Changes" abut the artist who get the freest pass for authenticity: Johnny Cash. I stumbled upon his obscure but beautiful "Sing A Traveling Song". In the live version I have here supplementing his studio cut, he tells the tragic story of the teenager who wrote this song before he died. Authentic? Sure. But he probably was more high on drugs as he told this story on stage than Bowie was during either of his live performances of that eternal high school prom theme that I've included on here.
Authentic? I think, as artists, they are both deeply authentic.
The live Cash and Bowie kick off a mini concert of sorts as I included several live tracks, some of song I included earlier this year on various mixes. We start with Morrissey's live cover of T.Rex's "Cosmic Dancer", then Stevie Wonder's live cover of the Jimmy Webb standard "By The TIme I Get To Phoenix", followed by an acoustic guitar-driven live version of "Imagine" by John Lennon. The concert continues, perversely, with Fear's hippie-baiting live version of "I Don't Care About You", then a live MTV Unplugged version of "Izzo (H.O.V.A.)" by Jay-Z with The Roots, followed by a loungey live version of "Just Like A Woman" by Bob Dylan from his infamous Budokan concert, a live version of "Let Me In Your Life" by Bill Withers with a charming spoken word introduction, a spare live version of "It's Too Late" by Carole King, and finally Otis Redding at The Whiskey A Go Go with "I've Been Loving You Too Long".
The rest, in studio: Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hzaelwood's mellow cover of The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'", a gentle cover of Bowie's "Changes" by Los Chicros, Wu-Tang Clan's confident "Bells Of War", Don Covay's determined "If There's A Will There's A Way", Jurassic 5's upbeat "Quality Control", the frantic "I Ran" by A Flock Of Seagulls and Al Jolson's sunny "Liza (All The Clouds Roll Away)".
