Sunday, March 1, 2009

03-01-07: Love Is That Mountain We Must Climb

Pacific Gas & Electric's Vietnam war anthem "Are You Ready?" kicks off this mix from a couple years ago, and is aptly followed by "Foreign Policy", which is Cousin Cole's mashing of "B.O.B." by Outkast over The Cure's "Killing An Arab".

Things move along with the punky "Trash" by The New York Dolls, then some of the music that inspired them, early Rolling Stones, with "You Better Move On". That song was a cover of an early 60s Arthur Alexander song.  He is here with the sweet "Soldier Of Love".

Then, a soulful cover by Lee Moses of the Mama & Papas hit "California Dreaming". Which segues into a clip of Henry Mancini's hypnotic soundtrack work for The Return Of The Pink Panther movie, "Here's Looking At You". "Brooklyn Hard Rock" by Thirstin Howl boasts an insane cockney hook for a chorus. "It's The Same Old Song" by The Four Tops is a catchy 60s throwback that leads nicely into J Dilla's re-working of James Brown's "It's A Man's Man's Man's World", called "This Is Dilla's World".

There are two versions of the distrubing "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)", the original Phil Spector production by The Crystals and a live cover by Hole.  In between: Kelis' swirling "Young, Fresh N' New", Hi-Tek's percussive "March" featuring Busta Rhymes, and Lou Reed's blithe "New Sensations".  Many years ago, I remember putting that on a mix tape for a girl, full of otherwise more romantic songs.  I still laugh as I remember her reaction, something like, "what the hell was that?"  That was always the one I fast forwarded through.  Easy to understand why all these years later, but I still like the detached cool vibe of Lou's little story.

"Talkin' To Your Mama" is sly blues by the incomparable Blind Willie McTell.  And "Blind Willie McTell" is the heartbreaking story of his life, as told by Bob Dylan. It's one of his best songs of the 80s, inexplicably left off any official album.

Emm Gryner's Def Leppard cover "Pour Some Sugar On Me" is either really funny or really touching.  I am still a sucker for Def Leppard's ballad "Hysteria" which was ubiquitous in dorm rooms when I was in college.

Finally, Iron & Wine does a lovely cover of The Four Tops' "It's The Same Old Song", and then "Give Me Just A Little More Time" by Chairman Of The Board. It's such an odd, happy little song. The singer is actually trying to tell the girl to wait before they get too involved, physically or perhaps otherwise. He sees a bigger future ahead of them.

This one actually did very recently make it onto a mix for a girl.  And I think it was better received than that Lou Reed song so many years ago.

Posted by at

Saturday, February 28, 2009

02-28-08: And I'm So Pilled Up That I Rattle

"Revolution" by The Beatles as a non-album single seems to owe it's guitar lick to an obscure R&B songs called "Do Unto Others" by Pee Wee Crayton.  The slower, acoustic version of "Revolution" is titled "Revolution 1", off the Beatles "White" album.  Complete with Paul McCartney's Beach Boys-like backing vocals.  Nina Simone's bizarre and spirited cover, "Revolution (Parts 1 and 2)" is also on this mix.

Also here: late 70s Rolling Stones countryish bootleg "Do You Think I Saw Her", Syreeta's playful "Come And Get This Stuff", an early demo of "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson, Patti Smith's cover of Paul Simon's "The Boy In The Bubble", break dance anthem "The Bubble Bunch" by Jimmy Spicer, the mellow hip hop of Underground Kings' "It's Supposed To Bubble", reggae-infused "Revolution Rock" by The Clash, Betty Wright's classic deflowering ballad "Tonight Is The Night", and Mirah's sly "Dreamboat".

Nas' "N.Y. State Of Mind" from his debut album Illmatic samples both Donald Byrd's jazzy "Flight Time" and Joe Chambers' spooky "Mind Rain". All three of those tracks are here.

Johnny Cash's outlaw tale "Don't Take Your Guns To Town" is one of my favorites here. But I like Hopeton Lewis' cover even more. The guitar, beat, vocals and the bells all fight through a swampy production to create something both happy and hypnotic.

Posted by at

Thursday, February 26, 2009

02-26-04: Surrender All Your Dreams To Me Tonight, They'll Come True In The End

This mix from 5  years ago starts off with Bob Dylan's magnificent "The Man in Me".  Next is Cher's equally magnificent "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves."

Other stuff: Pixies obscurity "Havalina", the rollicking "Scrub Board" by The Trammps, Pavement's live version of "Box Elder", the ass-kicking thump of "The Hardest Button To Button" by The White Stripes, my old college staple "Reptile" by The Church, Dyke And The Blazers' funky "We Got More Soul" and Big Audio Dynamite's "Rush", which was constantly played at the campus bar I worked at way back when.

Similarly titled songs:  The Velvet Underground's unusually sunny "Beginning To See The Light", Duke Ellington's lilting "I'm Beginning To See The Light (Take 2)", and Ted Hawkins's stirring Creedence Clearwater Revival cover "Long As I Can See The Light".

Also on here is the joyful "Oh Yoko" by John Lennon, Diana Ross' elegant "Theme From Mahogany (Do You Know?)", Chubby And The Turnpikes' northern soul ballad "I Know The Inside Story", The Pioneers' bouncy "Long Shot", the spooky "Cruiser" by The Cars, Clipse's driving "When The Last Time", and the soaring "Sweet Inspiration" by none other than...The Sweet Inspirations.

Bob Dylan reappears with the lovely non-album song "Lay Down Your Weary Tune".  And lastly, a couple of my all time favorites, both 80s songs.  "Love My Way" by The Psychedelic Furs might be my favorite song ever. It's hard to describe why, but for me it has a dark and melodic beauty. It's so incredibly romantic and yet also very melancholy. Yearning and transcendent. It is one of those songs I can never get sick of, and could play a dozen times in a row.  Pat Benatar's "Shadows Of The Night" also recalls an iconic video from the video age.  But it, too, is such an incredibly moving and romantic song.  I know to some people her music might be tacky or bombastic.  To others, of course so are The Psychedelic Furs.  But I find her song so brave, so big and so inspiring.  Like the other one, there are times in my life, when I just want to play it at full blast. This is one of those times.

Posted by at

02-26-09: I Only Pray That I Have Shown You A Brighter Day

The wise and wistful "Love Hurts" anchors this week's mix. Originally only a very minor hit for The Everly Brothers, it has been covered by dozens of artists. I have the melenacholy original as well as covers by Roy Orbison, Kim Deal & Rob P0llard, Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris and the hit version by Nazareth, which like half a dozen other songs, reminds me of the great movie Dazed and Confused.

Also here: Q-Tip's lively "Vivrant Thing", The Emeralds' sweet "Wanna Make Him Mine", the rustic "All Night Long" By Blue Ridge Mountain Entertainers, the insistent "Can't Explain"by The Who, Lil Wayne's swaggering "Talkin About It", Wise Intelligent's buoyant "Go With Me", Lionel Richie's ebullient "You Are", and a live BBC version of "Monkey Gone To Heaven" by The Pixies.

The Rolling Stones do an early Buddy Holly cover with "Not Fade Away", followed by Buddy's own "Soft Place In My Heart".

I love the atmospheric "Among The Olive Trees" by Solo Andata, which flows nicely into Van Morrison's "Beside You". Billy Paul's "Me And Mrs. Jones" sounds better than ever, and is followed by Stevie Wonder's staggering "You And I", maybe the best of the many great love songs he wrote. Bob Dylan wrote a few good ones too, and "Just Like AWoman" takes on new meaning in Niona Simone's hands.

I have two versions of "Goodbye Girl" by Squeeze. The Uk version is the one I knew from listening tom records as a kid, but the lyrics of the "American" version are slightly different. In the third stanza, the phrases my silver razor, money in the waistcoat and my wife moved to Jersey are Americanized with my silver bracelet, money in the billfold, and my wife moved to Boston.

Finally, "You Are So Beautiful", written by Billy Preston but here in its biggest hit version by Joe Cocker. Growing up, I found this song so impossibly cheesy. But I must be getting soft in my old age. Because right now it just slays me.

Posted by at

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

02-24-05: Should I Leave Them By Your Gate, Or, Sad-Eyed Lady, Should I Wait?

"Pop Shots" is yet another posthumous release from the resident clown of The Wu-Tang Clan, Ol' Dirty Bastard.  His spiritual godfather might be Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who follows the opening track of this mix with "Frenzy".

Next is a remix of Goldfrapp's "Lovely Head".  Then, Serge Gainsbourg's sexy duet with Brigitte Bardot on "Initials BB". 

The Clash's live cover of The Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought The Law" is followed by Rachid Taha's cover of their "Rock The Casbah", here titled "Rock El Kasbah".

The hard-driving "Bring Da Ruckus" by The Wu-Tang Clan and Ultramagnetic MC's "Kool Keith Housing Things" give way to Al Wilson's playful "Show And Tell" and Outkast's equally fun "Humble Mumble".

Dr. Hook's "When You're In Love With A Beautiful Woman" is a warm breeze of 70s mellow pop.  Wise words spoken, too. I know what he is saying here now more than ever.

The next few songs are bookened by two lovely versions of  the yearning "Wichita Lineman", by Ray Charles and Johnny Cash.  In between, Stevie Wonder's sassy "He's Misstra Know It All", Josh Rouse's buoyant "Winter In The Hamptons", and Neil Young's poignant "Tell Me Why".

Ending the mix are Bob Dylan's odd "All The Tired Horses" sung by his back up singers, Altyrone Deno Brown's innocent "Sweet Pea", Bob Dylan's epic "Sad Eyed Lady Of The Lowlands" and John Coltrane's peaceful "Dear Lord". Faith, in life and love, were the themes that ended this mix from four years ago and seem more relevant than ever to me right now.

Posted by at

Monday, February 23, 2009

02-23-06: If I Worked My Hands In Wood, Would You Still Love Me?

"Everybody's Talkin'" was a huge hit song for Harry Nilsson off the soundtrack for the film Midnight Cowboy. On this mix there are covers by Bill Withers, John Holt, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes as well as the Nilsson's original.

Other stuff: an instrumental version of The Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash" by the German band Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, "The Less You See" by the fantastically named I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness, The Cure's punky "Plastic Passion", Travis Biggs' spacey take on The Steve Miller Band's "Fly Like An Eagle", Ramsey Lewis' deep instrumental cover of The Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry", Darondo's funky "Legs (Part 1)", The Originals with a song written and produced for them by Marvin Gaye: "Baby I'm For Real", Q-Tip's bouncy "Let's Ride", Prince Paul's odd pastiche "My Friend The Popmaster", Pat Benatar's ass-kicking "Heartbreaker", Paul Westerberg's live take of his old band The Replacements' "Adrogynous", Billy Paul's bizarre and uplifting version of Paul McCartney & Wings' "Let 'Em In". The civil rights sounds bites are either trivialized by their inclusion or rather, the meaning of the song takes on new profundities without losing a bit of fun.

Franz Ferdinand's ubiquitous but enduring "Take Me Out" is here as well as Mark Ronson's mash up of this song with Outkast's "B.O.B." and "Roses", called "Take You Home". 

There are two versions of the old Bobby Darin hit, written by Tim Hardin, "If I Were A Carpenter": one by The Four Topps, the other by Johnny Cash with June Carter Cash.

Also: a live Dean Martin medley used on a season-ending episode of The Sopranos called "Drink To Me With Thine Only Eyes/Pennies From Heaven (Bourbon)/ Hello Dolly (Heaven)".

Fuckintosh mixes Johnny Cash and AC/DC to hypnotic effect on "Track 19".

Goldfrapp's "Mum 1" remix of "Number 1" is also hypnotic in its beauty and aching romanticism.

Speaking of that: back to the Cash/Carter version of "If I Were A Carpenter".  This is deeper than any wedding vow they took.

Posted by at

Sunday, February 22, 2009

02-22-07: We Build Excitement

This mix from a couple years back starts off with the groovy "Green Eyed Lady" by Sugarloaf. Yet, as much as I enjoy it, I agree with De La Soul that "It Ain't Hip To Be  Labelled A Hippie".

Other stuff on here: The Rolling Stones acoustic take of "Cocaine", early rap single "Rapping Dub Style" by General Echo, the swinging "Kiss Me Cindy" by J.E. Mainier's Mountaineers, Jens Lekman's droll "Black Cab", a demo version of The Pretenders' "Brass In Pocket", the Police-sampling "Let The Words Flow" by Chill Rob G, Van Morrison's rare "Bit By Bit",  Paul Weller's Neil Young cover "Out On The Weekend", Clipse's wry "Mr. Me Too" and early Motown single "The Chaperone" by LaBrenda Ben & The Beljeans.

Songs that repeat: Led Zeppelin's "Since I've Been Loving You", which get a nice reading by Corrine Bailey Rae; Frank Sinatra singing "My Way" with a cover by 70s soul singer Major Harris; and another song associated with Sinatra, "Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words)", here done by Bobby Womack and The Roy Haynes Quartet.

To the theater of the bizarre: two more on the mix. Noted schizophrenic Wesley Willis is here with a police procedural over a drum machine called "He Goes To Prison".  Equally crazy is award-winning political cartoonist Justin Bilicki. We worked together and around the time of this mix, he took a break from his band to create a dissonant track with my work nickname "clar" repeated over and over.

The recorded song was presented to me in my office, among other parting gifts, as a little joke after five years of having, when I could, a blast at work.   It's totally silly and you probably won't enjoy it but it means a lot to me.

Posted by at

Saturday, February 21, 2009

02-21-08: No More Will I Run And Hide

Last year's mix kicks off with the mellow dirty old man tale "Hey Nineteen" by Steely Dan.  The titular object of interest is not familiar with Aretha Franklin.  What an impoverished childhood. But by my math, she must be around 48 by now. Lot of music to learn by then...

Next, The Ikettes with the catchy "I'm Blue (The Gong-Gong Song)", Bob Dylan and George Harrison goofing around in the studio with a cover of "Da Doo Ron Ron", Stevie Wonder's Latin-tinged "Don't You Worry 'Bout A Thing", and Mick Boogie remixing Kanye West's "Flashing Lights" with a guest appearance by 50 Cent.

I finally got to see Slumdog Millionaire today before tomorrow's Oscars.  Great music.  Along those lines, here "One Two Three" by Asha Bholse & Mahendra Kapoor is a breathlessly fun track from a late 60s Bollywood film.

"Code Of The Streets" by Gang Starr is more evidence of DJ Premier's genius.  Then modern funk from Dudley Perkins with "That's The Way It's Gonna Be". I have both The Staple Singers and then later on Willie Nelson singing his song "Uncloudy Day".  Bruce Springsteen's yearning "Hungry Heart" precedes underground hip hop from The Coup, with "Me And Jesus The Pimp In A '79 Granada Last Night".

Screaming Lord Sutch was a very eccentric British rock performer in the 60s and 7os.  He is the guy who shows up uninvited to Mick Jagger's room "all dressed up like a Union Jack" in the song "Get Off My Cloud". "Flashing Lights" features guitar by Jimmy Page.

"Throw Some D's" is Them Jeans backing Rich Boy with Spinto Band.  For any reader who is not normally a fan of rap, this song needs to be heard. It's soaring, funny and makes you want to turn the dial to eleven.

Also here: old gospel blues from Mother McCollum with "Jesus Is My Air-O-Plane", Van Morrison's recent take on "There Stands The Glass", an alternate version of the Donovan hit "Epistle To Dippy", and the church organ of Bjork B-side "Lilith/Plaid".

Billy Joel albums were constantly played by my father and his new wife in our house during my 70s/early 80s youth. Much of this music seemed barf-worthy by the time I was in college, but for my money "Just The Way You Are" is his prettiest and most enduring tune.  I used versions by Frank Sinatra and Barry White in other mixes, and finally got around to this. The lyrics can be a little revealing about some meat-headed notions of the ideal woman, like his aversion to "clever conversations". I guess that's why he married Christie Brinkley?  Regardless, it's a pretty song.

So is, in its own poignant way, the posthumously leaked "Wastin' Time No More" by Ol' Dirty Bastard, where he makes promises to change his life over the haunting piano of Billy Joel's "The Stranger".

Alas, like the title of the melancholic Tom Waits instrumental that closes this mix, he was "Just Another Sucker On The Vine".

Posted by at

Thursday, February 19, 2009

02-19-04: Then We Sat On Our Own Star And Dreamed Of The Way That I Was For You And You Were For Me

Just a bunch of random stuff on this old mix.  The sweet and cheesy "Whenever I Call You Friend" by Kenny Loggins & Stevie Nicks is followed by the punky Replacements single "I'm In Trouble". And it gets more incongruous from there.

Wu-Tang Clan's "Rules" is followed by 50 Cent's leaked battle track "5o Cent Dissin' Ghostface".  I let Ghostface Killah have the last word with "My Guitar".

The melodic but stinging "Washington Bullets" by The Clash is followed by ex-Replacement Tommy Stinson's cover of The Clash's "Hateful".  

The Band's stately "Bessie Smith" was recorded as part of the Basement Tape sessions with Bob Dylan.  I have a lovely live cover of that by Norah Jones as well as "Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out" by Bessie Smith herself.

"Jesus Walks" was a big hit for Kanye West around this time.  Shuggie Otis was a belated cult star rediscovered several years ago after recording the incredible 70s soul album Inspiration Information. From that, the beguiling "Aht Uh Mi Hed". "Retro Godfather" is Method Man's charming salute to old school hip hop. 

"Hey Love" By The Delfonics is almost as pretty as their bigger hit "Didn't I Blow Your Mind." "The Way Young Lovers Do" by Van Morrison is so sweeping in its romanticism.  

Joan Jett & The Blackhearts' "Crimson And Clover" brings back memories of junior high slow dances.  It's a cover of Tommy James & The Shondells, who are here with the groovy "Crystal Blue Persuasion".

A few pretty acoustic songs: The Kinks' rarity "There Is No Life Without Love", Jack White of White Stripes with "Never Far Away", "Tell Her No" by The Zombies, and one of my favorite songs by Richie Havens, "What About Me".

The last couple songs are Rod Stewart's outstanding reading of the Etta James hit "I'd Rather Go Blind" followed by The Zombies again, with a home demo: "One Day I'll Say Goodbye". Not to be grim, but one day we all will.  I have recently been very keen on the "life is short" line of thinking.

Posted by at
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)