FEET/FEAT: FOOTWEAR

Unless you are super hard or super poor, all of us need some shoes on our feet, so as to protect our tootsies from the assaults of hot tarmac, wet mud, ground glass or dog poop. You name it, any of those can make a make a walk in the park anything but a walk in the park, as well as giving ample opportunity to strut your stuff or stamp your style. So, tonight I am going to be looking at the popular topic of shoes through the medium of popular song. (Well, I like 'em.)

Barefoot/Ray Collins Hot Club

Barefoot isn't shoes, but I can't resist this instance of unshoddery, so delightfully kitsch it is. Apparently the title track of a German film, thus Barfüss, it is by the Ray Collins Hot Club about whom I know nothing. So imagine my surprise as I discover they still exist and are still playing, having only come into being this century.

Men in Sandals/Wreckless Eric & Amy Rigby

Ooof! Has there ever been a better exposition of the horror of men in sandals? DOI, here, I am actually quite partial to a sandal in the summer, although only ever paired with shorts or flappy linen trousers, as they don't go with else. And never, absolutely with socks, that peculiarly English affectation that curdles my blood. Wreckless Eric is a chap unlikely to take kindly to the sort of men who rock that particular folly, with his wife, Amy Rigby singing and explaining exactly why.

Bad Sneakers/Steely Dan

I never got the fancy trainers argument, all these megabuck sports shoes worn as a badge of one-upmanship. Wrong generation, I guess, my son still near needing a separate room to house his collection, at 13 his defined go-to essential in a family trip to NY in the 90s being the Nike Store. To me they are just plimsolls or gym shoes, not my bag at all. I don't see Becker and Fagen ever having been that keen either.

New Shoes/Paolo Nutini

Back at the beginning of his career, Scots-Italian singer Paolo Nutini was a simpler soul, the pleasure of some new leather sufficient to give him joy. And inspiration. With his heritage, I can see him in a pair of snakeskin winkle pickers, so his expectation to be walking to the break of dawn, blister free, may be optimistic.

 

Blue Shoes Stepping/The Bible

I have a pair of blue shoes. Not suede, I am afraid, but still quite natty. I like a fancy shoe, having also examples in green and red, but the blue ones were a mistake, pinching my toes and hobbling my gait. The blue shoes quoted here sound a bit more promising. The Bible never got quite as much acclaim as they deserved, despite boasting Kirsty MacColl's brother, Neil, and ace songwriter, Boo Hewerdine in the frontline. 

In These Shoes/Kirsty MacColl

Talking of Kirsty MacColl, perhaps this is the time to veer off into the world of women's shoes, a strange and mysterious money pit where any link between the number of feet and the number of shoes needed is of no connection or relationship. A single pair is never enough and Imelda Marcos the only upper limit. (And, funnily enough, there is a song about Imelda.)

Soul Shoes/Graham Parker & the Rumour

Finally, a song that really makes me smile, especially in this version, filmed decades after Graham Parker and the Rumour originally recorded it, showing exactly my style, a built for comfort ambience embracing the band from head to their soul shoes. Of course, the video never gets around to showing their feet, but I will bet the shoes on show would be well worn and battered, much like the band themselves appear. Marvellous.

It's all cobblers, innit?! My favourite.

May/Might: You Might As Well Pray

Jules Shear (w/ Amy Rigby): You Might As Well Pray
[purchase]

Jules Shear has had a pretty interesting life, for a musician who has never really become famous. He’s released more than 20 albums since 1976, most recently in 2017, as a solo artist and with others. He’s acknowledged as a top-notch songwriter, and has penned hits for Cyndi Lauper ("All Through the Night"), The Bangles ("If She Knew What She Wants") and has had written or co-written songs recorded by artists as diverse as Olivia Newton John, Iain Matthews, Aimee Mann, Art Garfunkel, Alison Moyet, and Roger McGuinn. He dated Aimee Mann, who wrote a song about their breakup. He’s worked with Todd Rundgren, Tony Levin, Elliot Easton, Rick Danko, Jimmy Vivino, Rod Argent, and Chuck Prophet, among many others. Shear was the inspiration for, and host of the first 13 episodes of MTV’s Unplugged. And yet, he is one of those musicians who have had a long career tarred by the phrase “critically acclaimed, but commercially unsuccessful.” Although I don’t know for sure, I’ll assume that Shear has been able to make financial go of it for all these years, but I bet it wasn’t always easy.

I remember seeing his second and third albums, as a member of Jules and the Polar Bears, released in 1978 and 1979, around the WPRB studios, but they made no musical impression on me. I have no recollection of having played them on the radio, but maybe the name was distinctive enough to stick in my brain. I’m also pretty sure that I don’t remember hearing any of Shear’s music until his 1998 album, Between Us. (I wasn’t watching MTV back when Unplugged was on). And I’m fairly certain that I heard songs from the album on WFUV.

Between Us quickly became a family favorite. It is an album of 15 low-key duets between Shear and (mostly) female singers (and one instrumental duet with bassist Rob Wasserman). The songs are charming, interesting, and I remember listening to them in the car as my family sang along (and I kept my terrible voice quiet). Some of the highlights are his duet with Suzzy Roche (“On These Wheels Again”), complete with barking dog, “Who's Dreaming Who,” with Rosanne Cash, and “Betrayal Takes Two,” featuring Angie Hart (best known, I guess, as a member of Australian band Frente).

But another favorite from the album was his duet with Amy Rigby, the wistful “You Might As Well Pray.” I think that it is about a couple looking at the damage they have caused each other, yet hoping that just maybe, with divine intercession, they can work things out. I could be wrong, of course, because the lyrics are a bit vague, but as is common in a Jules Shear song, they are interesting and well chosen.

I’ve picked up a few of his albums over the years, both recorded before and after Between Us, and while I have enjoyed them, nothing of his has stuck with me as much as that album. It’s an interesting thing about music, isn’t it? As good an album as I think Between Us is, it is far from universally appreciated, even among Shear fans (and it doesn’t even appear to be available in downloadable form anywhere). But it was a combination of the music, and the time in my life when it came out, and the fact that my wife loved it (and still plays it from time to time), that has cemented it in my mind. With music, like comedy, sometimes timing is everything. There are times when I hear a song on the radio, and it does nothing for me, but it reminds me in some respects of stuff that I like, and I wonder if I might have felt different about the song if I had heard it, say, 20 years ago. Or conversely, whether music that I love would leave me cold if I heard if first today.

Song Chain: All I Want

Amy Rigby: All I Want

[purchase]

Money may be what the Beatles and the Flying Lizards want, but in her song "All I Want," Amy Rigby longs for something more basic: "Just a little something to show me that you care whether I live or die." On her first records (this one is from 1998's Middlescence), Rigby specialized in these working class love-on-the-rocks songs, some with an alt-country sound, others -- like this one -- with a '60's girl-group feel. Amy Rigby (nee McMahon) launched her career in the aftermath of her divorce from dBs drummer Will Rigby. Though she's never quite broken out as either a singer or songwriter, she released a series of very enjoyable records in the late '90s and aughts, including a couple of duet albums with her second husband, the artist formerly and still known as Wreckless Eric.

Summertime: Summer Dreams Edition

Amy Rigby: The Summer of My Wasted Youth

[purchase] - Middlescence CD

Joni Mitchell: The Hissing of Summer Lawns

[purchase]

It's a Beautiful Day: Hot Summer Day

[purchase]

All three of these summer songs dream of freedom: one of the joy of past adventures... one from the confines of suburban sprinklers... and one of a desire for rekindled love - some people need dreams to escape reality... and others use them to recreate euphoria...

This and That: Beer and Kisses

Amy Rigby: Beer & Kisses

[purchase] (scroll down to Diary of a Mod Housewife)

Yep, I'm still on that Amy Rigby kick - I almost posted Summer of My Wasted Youth for Drugs Week... but I ran out of time!

The backstory comes straight from her introduction of this song at the house concert I presented March 19, 2004:

The next one is one of those marriage songs and this was on my first album, Diary of a Mod Housewife, which came out in 1996. I wanted to make an album about trying to balance being a mother and a wife and still being a rocker at heart. So... the whole marriage thing didn't work out but i'm still a mom and still playing music...

This one was inspired by my daughter. She brought home two drawings from school, portraits of her parents. Her dad was named Beer, and I was called Kisses. That inspired the title for this song. I didn't give her any credit. She's sixteen now and she hates for me to tell this story... but she's not here... so..."

Great Salon article here, which must have been written about the time of the album's release...

Anniversaries: We're Stronger Than That

Amy Rigby: We're Stronger Than That

[purchase] (scroll down to Diary of a Mod Housewife...)

What can I say? - I'm on an Amy Rigby kick!

I very humbly state that I know a bit about anniversaries - I've celebrated 32 of them, all for the same occasion and all with the same partner. I have joked from the beginning that my husband and I do our marriage like AA: One Day at a Time - that would be 11,860 days at this point... but who's counting?!?

You know the list of wedding anniversary gift ideas? (i.e., first year paper, 25th year silver, 50th year gold) - we make up our own, depending on how the day/week/year is going: dueling pistols, tattoos, handcuffs... :-)

So... Happy Anniversary to Star Maker Machine! - although I've only been around six of the twelve months and therefore still qualify as being in the newlywed stage, I can very much find similarities to my long-term relationship: respect and listen to the other person, while attempting to be true to your best self. Balance and compromise are key... with a strong foundation of multi-genred music (the new in addition to the familiar) as the soundtrack - chipped and cracked indicates a life well-lived... and well-loved...

P.S. I am also a regular reader of Amy's blog, and her last post was devoted to the recent passing of Duane Jarvis, a musician with whom I was not actively familiar but, upon further research, find that I very much knew his work - another lovely tribute can be found here...

April Fools: 20 Questions

Amy Rigby: 20 Questions

[purchase]

I've written before about Amy Rigby, my favorite cynic-with-a-heart-of-rose-colored-glass - here, in a jangly, rocking, almost-country style, her female protagonist peppers her partner with open-ended, certain-to-convict-if-admitted-to queries...

I'm still not sure who's the bigger fool: him for coming home so late, so drunk, expecting forgiveness... or her for putting up with what is apparently repeat behavior, as her feistiness so clearly turns to resignation by the end of the song - and yes, if you're counting along, there really are 20 questions!

Duets: The Eleventh Hour Edition

First of all, let me say that I adore this week's theme, as I've always been a harmony voyeur - there's just something about two voices saying so much more than one could, lyrically and sonically. To that end, I fear I am running out of time, as I was out of town for the beginning of the week and too busy to post - hope you all won't mind if I do a bit of a clean sweep here to share some of my other favorites...

Jules Shear and Susan Cowsill: Restaurant Scene

[purchase]

Jules Shear is best known as the author of Cyndi Lauper's "All Through The Night" and the Bangles "If She Knew What She Wants", but I'm particularly enamored with his recording, Between Us, definitely in my Top Ten - his gift for lyric writing is beyond description ("some people are changed by great romances but it's the wounds that make us who we are" and "so try to make it like the dream you had, the peaceable kingdom where no one's betrayed" and so many brilliant turns of phrase too numerous to name) and this CD is composed entirely of duets with such notables as Carole King, Ron Sexsmith, Paula Cole, Freedy Johnston and others. My understanding is that it was written after his break-up with Aimee Mann and each song is more tragic than the next - her side of the story can be heard on I'm with Stupid Now (guess perspective is everything)...

Amy Rigby and Todd Snider: Til the Wheels Fall Off

[purchase]

I loved what Anne said in her Nick Cave/P.J. Harvey post ("when two artists you love do a duet together you feel like the universe is lining up") - that's exactly how I felt when Amy Rigby had Todd Snider join her on a song a few CDs back. I am a fan of both, as their sometimes cynicism belies a true faith that trouble is only temporary - this tune mines the road-trip-as-relationship metaphor ("I guess the path of least resistance wasn't on the map")...

Robert Earl Keen and Margo Timmins: Then Came Lo Mein

[purchase]

When a Texas songwriter teams up with the female lead singer of The Cowboy Junkies, anything is possible - through the use of puns ("I was steamed, I was fried") and interweaving voices, they manage to put a poignantly humorous spin on a nervous breakdown in a Chinese restaurant...

Nanci Griffith and Adam Duritz: Going Back to Georgia

[purchase]

Queen of country-folk meets lead singer of angst-ridden rock band - what could have been a recipe for disaster succeeds beyond wildest expectations. This song is on my funeral tape ("I've been blinded by the sun, washed in the rain, scattered in America, I'm scatterin' again, but if you're goin' south, darlin', I guess I'm travelin' with you") - yep, Georgia's always on my mind....

Silly Songs: Cynically Yours

Amy Rigby: Cynically Yours

[purchase]

I recall buying Amy Rigby’s Diary of a Mod Housewife when it came out in 1996, totally loving it but not understanding why – I’m optimistic, she’s jaded; I’m light, she’s more than a bit darker; I am comfortable in a long-term relationship, and she sings of a variety of not-so-great choices. Then I realized… I might be a Tigger personality… but I definitely have an Eeyore alter-ego – Amy Rigby appealed to the fragile, vulnerable, insecure me… on those days when “I’ve lost my tail”… i.e., my sanity, my self-esteem, my memory, my car keys (need I go on?)…

I back-burnered Amy for a while but, when she appeared on Jules Shear’s Between Us CD (definitely in my Top Ten), I tracked down what I’d missed, as well as kept her in my radar from that point on – it was a wonderfully worlds-colliding moment when she asked Todd Snider to duet on ‘Til the Wheels Fall Off…

She’s recently moved to France and married Wreckless Eric – they just returned from a U.S. tour, and her blog retains the Beer and Kisses sensibility of her bent-but-not-broken songwriting…

Cynically Yours is the meeting place of ennui and desire – insert name here…

Submitted by Susan