After Midnight: After Midnight

JJ Cale: After Midnight

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I'm unafraid to post the obvious this week, given how rare it is after all these years: JJ Cale's '71 version of his own composition After Midnight, first recorded as a demo in '66 and subsequently made famous by Sir Eric Clapton.

Thanks to pop radio repetition, After Midnight generally clings to the cultural memory in Clapton's fast-paced runaway train cocaine tones, but Cale's take on the song remains my favorite by far: bluesy and blurred with muted tictoc drumkit and guitar strings, aided and abetted by subtle barrelhouse piano, yet quiet enough not to wake the house. If you've never heard the "original", prepare to be surprised by its sultry subtleties.

After Midnight: The Vampire Edition

Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Vampire

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Toadies: Possum Kingdom

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I am attempting to be healthier in all areas of my life, so a midnight bedtime these days is my attempted-but-not-always-achieved goal - however, my true nature is noctural, long after everyone else has gone to bed. In the wee hours of 2 and 3 a.m., I can more easily tap into my full creativity and inspiration - I've always called it keeping "vampire hours"...

Given the fascination lately with "creatures of the night", Buffy Sainte-Marie's eerie and mysterious melody, with her vibrato voice telling a story of innocence turned to desolation, is goosebump-inducing - it's a cautionary tale to keep one's rosary close at hand...

I always thought Possum Kingdom was about a vampire, but read recently that's not the case - I will continue to believe my theory, immersing myself in the insistent beat and the erotic pull of danger... and promises of eternity...

After Midnight: The Nightfly

Donald Fagen: The Nightfly

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I’m not sure where everyone is this week, but this post proves that, notwithstanding our theme, posts can be done in daylight hours. The Nightfly was the first song I thought of for this week’s theme. Donald Fagen recalls a time when a late-night DJ was a friend who informed his audience and played music you wouldn’t get to hear otherwise. It’s the same role we bloggers try to fill now.

After Midnight: Green Door

Cannonball Adderley with Ernie Andrews : Green Door

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I usually tell my mother-in-law about our new theme every week. She often has suggestions for songs, and I almost never take them. But we have fun with it. She has a remarkable memory for hit songs from the late 50s and early 60s, songs she often has barely heard since then. This is one of those, sort of.

Green Door was a #1 hit for Jim Lowe in 1956. His version, in the way it is performed, is a plea from an innocent teen who wonders about a party at a club he isn’t old enough to enter. But I went looking to see who might have covered it. It turns out that the song has become a signature tune for Chrystal Gayle. There are also versions by Shakin’ Stevens and The Cramps. But I was most intrigued by this jazz version by the great Cannonball Adderley, with Ernie Andrews. In these hands, the song depicts a man who doesn’t have the password to enter a speakeasy. Not a word of the lyrics has been changed, but Adderley and Andrews have given the song a completely new meaning just because of how they perform it. This flexibility probably explains why the song endures.

Cannonball Adderley was one of the best known jazzmen of the 1950s. Ernie Andrews is not nearly so well known, but he is still at it.

I hope I may be permitted a brief moment of self-promotion. If you enjoy this music, you should know that I just launched jazz singers week on my blog, Oliver di Place.

After Midnight: Pissed Off 2 A.M.

Alejandro Escovedo & Vin Scelsa: Spoken Intro

Alejandro Escovedo: Pissed Off 2 A.M.

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I have a lot of friends who are really into music, and they've turned me on to a lot of great stuff over the years, but the person who is responsible for the biggest chunk of my music collection is probably New York radio legend Vin Scelsa. His long-running weekly free-form radio show, "Idiot's Delight" is a beacon of light in New York City's radio wasteland.

Since at least the early '90s, his show has been on at night, starting at 8pm. These days, it's a comparatively concise four hours, but in it's heyday, it would often run until 2, 3, or 4 in the morning. And those long after-midnight sets were always the most magical. So somehow it's appropriate to include something from his show this week.

In the mid-'90s, Vin also curated a CD series, Grooves, of current-but-under-appreciated music that lasted all of 14 volumes. At some point during the series, he started tacking on a bonus track to each CD, recorded live on Idiot's Delight (or "Vin Scelsa's Sunday Night", as it was called for a short time). Vol. 13 featured this late-night rocker's lament from Alejandro Escovedo, just one of the many musicians Vin has turned me on to. It's from Al's June 16, 1996 visit to the show, promoting his then-current album, With These Hands (which is what the "purchase" link will take you to, and the Grooves CDs were only available through a subscription service).

I don't need to say much about the song itself, as Vin and Al do a fine job of summing it up in the intro. I will say this: It's a beautiful song for such and angry title.

After Midnight: Walkin' After Midnight

Patsy Cline: Walkin' After Midnight

[Purcase]

Somebody needed to get this late night party started, and the obvious (and perhaps namesake of the theme) choice is this Patsy Cline classic. I was surprised to see that Patsy hadn't been posted at all here already, so it's certainly due, and what better chance than the perfect theme for my favorite song of hers.

The song is odd in theme, really. A woman walking along the highway in the middle of the night searching for her man. Not sure what she's trying to find, but it makes for a catchy song, and one of my all time favorite car sing-a-longs.

Erin Go Bragh: Last Call at the SMM Pub

The Waterboys: Why Look At the Moon

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Mary Black: Columbus

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We're nearing Last Call at the Star Maker Machine Pub - I offer up two more raised glasses of mayhem and melody to help close out this festive St. Patrick's Day week!

Mayhem comes in the form of The Waterboys - I was not familiar with them until I bought the Sweet Relief tribute, which I wrote about here... but I'm so glad I educated myself. This song immediately comes to mind any time I'm outside at night looking skyward, which is often - no matter the phase (full, half, crescent or new), I can't help but sing this to myself (and sometimes out loud, depending on my company and condition). Catchy and fun - I predict it will become an earworm for many of you as well...

Melody can't come much sweeter than Mary Black - although she doesn't write much of her own material, she is a song stylist extraordinaire. Her gorgeous voice has you believing every word - this tune is one of the most melancholy I know... and I use it as wallowing therapy when I really just need to feel something in my heart... before I move on to process it in my head...

May you have warm words on a cold evening,
a full moon on a dark night,
and the road downhill all the way to your door.

Erin Go Bragh: Hollywood

Thin Lizzy: Hollywood

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Seventies hard rock icons Thin Lizzy sound so americanized in songs like classic radio staple The Boys Are Back In Town, with blazing riffs, driving drums, and stereotypically anony-metal vocal accents, it's easy to forget that bassist, primary songwriter, and lead singer Phil Lynott formed the band in his native Dublin. Late-career album Renegade, which came out in the early eighties, is not always considered the most cohesive remnant of their sound, but the core that made them famous is still there in spades in Hollywood.

Certainly, the early-era Thin Lizzy version of traditional Irish pubsong Whiskey In The Jar would seem to better befit our theme. The '73 release was, after all, their first real hit on the European charts. And adoption of a tradsong fits the founder's backstory: Lynott - born of an Irishwoman and an African-Brazillian father, and as such, one of few black men to make it in the world of hard rock - was born and died in England, but he was raised by his Irish grandparents, and always identified himself as such. But fittingly, the band itself generally disdained the cover, claiming it was not representative of their sound or their image. See if you agree.

Thin Lizzy: Whiskey In The Jar

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Erin Go Bragh: The Green Blues Edition

Despite his oh-so-appropriate last name, Peter Green is not from the Emerald Isle. But a couple of Irish covers seem appropriate this week.


Rory Gallagher: Leaving Town Blues

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Irish blues guitarist Rory Gallagher died well before his time in 1995. He sold millions of albums, but remains relatively unknown in the U.S. Like many guitarists from the British Isles who learned their craft in the late '60s, Gallagher was influenced by Fleetwood Mac founder (and Eric Clapton's replacement in John Mayall's Bluesbreakers) Peter Green.

Not long before Gallagher passed away, he recorded two tracks for Rattlesnake Guitar: The Music of Peter Green, a tribute album (and a benefit album for Wille Dixon's Blues Heaven Foundation) that was released in 1997. "Leaving Town Blues" is my favorite of the two. His singing is rough but right, and his playing (on mandolin and slide guitar) is magificent.


Gary Moore: The Supernatural

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Two years prior to the release of Rattlesnake Guitar, Irish blues/rock guitarist Gary Moore released his own album of Peter Green covers, Blues for Greeny. Like Gallagher, he fell under Green's spell in the late '60s. Moore spent much of the '70s and '80s playing hard rock (including a couple of stints with Irish rockers Thin Lizzy), but in the '90s, Moore returned to the blues and has since released a string of successful albums in the genre.

For Blues for Greeny, he played Green's legendary Gibson Les Paul, and with it faithfully covered ten clasics from the early days of Fleetwood Mac, plus "The Supernatural", Green's instrumental showpiece from his days with the Bluesbreakers.

Erin Go Bragh: No Mermaid

Sinead Lohan: No Mermaid

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Earlier this week, our own Boyhowdy presented a cover version of No Mermaid here. He did an excellent job of introducing Sinead Lohan, so I will not repeat his comments here. Suffice it to say, her absence from the music scene is sorely felt.

The song itself presents a portrait of tension in a relationship between a risk-taking woman and a play-it-safe man. This tension is represented musically by a setting which evokes the ebb and flow of the tide. Lohan’s use of percussion particularly enhances that effect, and really puts the whole thing over.

Erin Go Bragh: Snakes/Mná na hEireann

Susan McKeown: Snakes/Mná na hEireann

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Happy St. Patrick's Day to all - wishing you beer and shamrocks and corned beef and cabbage, oh my!

I have written of Susan McKeown before - she is from Dublin, Ireland and, although I do not consider myself a fan of traditional Celtic music, her style is more contemporary... and there's just something about her rich voice, layered phrasing/instrumentation and mysterious lyrics that captivate me...

The song Snakes weaves together vivid imagery of desire... plus, the lyric "gone where the goblins go" makes me think of Ding Dong!, The Witch is Dead - I also love the Gaelic chanting at the end...

I chose this photo because Susan is wearing a green sweater - Erin Go Bragh!

Erin Go Bragh: Western Culture Collector

Compulsion: Western Culture Collector

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Before Garrett "Jacknife" Lee produced everyone from U2 and R.E.M. to The Hives and Weezer he played guitar in experimental punk rockers Thee Amazing Colossal Men, a merry bunch who in 1992 changed their name to Compulsion.

Western Culture Collector is in my humble little opinion the standout track from their second album The Future Is Medium, released on One Little Indian in 1996. It is a wildly uneven album with sixteen tracks ranging from Beatles-esque melodies, stomping rockers, raging punk and sonic experiments.

Western Culture Collector would fall somewhere inbetween "stomping rockers" and "raging punk" with its heavy drumming, screamed chorus and bulldozer riff. A most excellent song, one I always seemed to include whenever I made a mixtape back in the day. Especially those I made for other people whom I wished to impress with a cool track by an artist they had never heard of.

This song and a couple of others on The Future Is Medium demonstrate just what a great band Compulsion could have been if only they had focused and tried a little harder.

Erin Go Bragh: The Limerick Rake

Mick Moloney (with Eugene O‘Donnell): The Limerick Rake

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Yes, I know. Music this week can be in any genre. But that doesn’t mean that traditional Irish folk shouldn’t be represented. The key is to avoid the corny pseudo folk one hears so much of this time of year. So Mick Moloney and Eugene O’Donnell strike me as an excellent choice.

Moloney grew up in County Limerick, and began his musical career there. In 1973, he moved to Philadelphia, where he remains to this day. Moloney, in addition to his music, has also made himself an expert on Irish music in the United States. His recent albums have featured songs about the immigrant experience in America, but The Limerick Rake, from 1978, presents a tour of part of Ireland in the company of a rascal.

Incidentally, I saw Moloney and O’Donnell perform this song in 1979, so my memory may be faulty. But, as I recall, the one line in Gaelic, “Agus fagaimid siud mar ata se”, roughly translates as “We must all take things as they are.”

1979 / Erin Go Bragh: Alternative Summer

The Undertones: Here Comes The Summer

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Stiff Little Fingers: Alternative Ulster

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It´s an easy step from last weeks theme to the current one, as two polar opposites from Northern Ireland released their excellent full-lenght debuts in 1979. Stiff Little Fingers from Belfast took the political route, commenting ferociously on all that was rotten in their troubled country. Meanwhile in Londonderry, the Undertones opted for escapism and sang perfect punkpop songs about anything but politics. Clever punters simply enjoyed both.

1979: Robert Fripp Edition

The Roches: Hammond Song

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In 1979, King Crimson's Robert Fripp produced the first trio album of New York City folkie sisters the Roches. Fripp mostly keeps the production simple, focusing rightly on their signature vocal harmonies, but on the mesmerizing "Hammond Song", Fripp's guitar occasionally weaves its way into the musical tapestry.

Robert Fripp (ft. Daryl Hall): North Star

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Here's another seemingly unlikely collaboration. In 1977, Daryl Hall recorded a solo album with Robert Fripp as producer. Hall's record label refused to release it (though they relented in 1980). Hall then sang on Robert Fripp's first solo album, Exposure, but Hall's record company once again got in the way. When it was released 1979, only two Hall vocals remained on the album. "You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette" is a '50s rock'n'roll thowaway, but "North Star" is another matter altogether. It's a beautiful, mesmerizing (there's that word again) melding of Hall's voice and Fripp's production.

1979: Sorrow in the Wind

Emmylou Harris (with The Whites): Sorrow in the Wind

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To be sure, 1979 was a tremendously exciting year in punk and new wave music, as documented here all week so wonderfully by everyone. The overproductions of the 70s invited a backlash that changed the sound of popular music. But, there was other music that year. In country music, there was also a backlash against the same kind of production and commercial influences. The difference was that the backlash in country music never took hold.

This was the neotradtionalist movement. Perhaps it would have been more enduring if someone had found a better name for it. The idea was to go back to simpler, more acoustic-based music. And some of the results were stunning. The Whites had a wonderful album out that year, More Pretty Girls Than One. Unfortunately, that one has become impossible to find. But Emmylou Harris also had an album out that year, and she captured the sound perfectly on Sorrow in the Wind, with The Whites on guest vocals.

The album was Blue Kentucky Girl, and it is notable as well for a reason no one appreciated at the time. 1987 would see the release of Trio, a group consisting of Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton. That album proved so popular that a sequel was released in 1999. But Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, on Blue Kentucky Girl, was the first song they did together.

I should note that the neotraditionalist movement did not disappear altogether. Ricky Skaggs has kept alive first in his own work, and also more recently with his record label, Skaggs Family Records. The roster of artists includes The Whites.

1979: Jimmy Jazz

The Clash: Jimmy Jazz

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I know that everyone who is even remotely interested in The Clash already has London Calling. In that sense there's little reason to post a song from the album. But can we close off a week about 1979 without paying tribute to what is, in my opinion and that of many music journalists and bloggers, the greatest record to come out of that year? Everyone already knows all the stories about this record so all I can add is my personal experience: John Cusack said that The Clash taught him how to "think for himself, to rebel and to work at being his own man". I don't think I can quite say that, but The Clash definitely taught me that there was an entire world of music that I had never imagined. To this day, thirty years later, I probably never go a month without listening to them. Hail to 1979, if for nothing else, for producing London Calling!

1979: Chemistry Class

Elvis Costello: Chemistry Class (Live Solo)

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The music on Elvis Costello's third album, Armed Forces, is probably a little more accessible than that of his first two which was much more spare and angry. However, while the music of Armed Forces is more accessible and new wave, the lyrics were, if anything, more angry. This is where we begin to see the Elvis Costello we would see more of in the coming years. With references to torture tables, the final solution, Hitler, Checkpoint Charlie, the Murder Mile, and much more on this album, this is Costello at his angry best.

However, all of these references can also be viewed as metaphor for difficult relationships. The working title of the album was Emotional Fascism.

This is the album that introduced me to Elvis Costello, and I still love it today. This is a live version of Chemistry Class that's worth checking out.

1979: Bird Song

Lene Lovich: Bird Song

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If you’ve seen my blog, Oliver di Place, you know that I do album reviews. If you check back, you might think that the first review I ever did was of Annabelle Chvostek. But it goes back much further.

I started college in 1979, and in my second semester, I joined the school newspaper as a music reviewer. As I started thinking about this post, I realized something for the first time. As the staffer with the least seniority, I must have been in line for the albums nobody else wanted. Indeed, the image above was waiting for me in the slush pile. And Lene Lovich certainly looks scary. So I don’t know what possessed me, but Flex was the first album I took to review. I opened it up when I got back to my dorm, and found diagrams of calisthenic exercises. What had I gotten myself into? Well, there was nothing for it at that point, so I put the album on. And Bird Song was the first song that greeted me. What was making those weird bird noises? Eventually, I realized that Lovich made those sounds with her voice, unaided by technological trickery, with just a touch of reverb. And I realized that I really liked the album. I still do. Lovich doesn’t sound so strange now, in a world with Bjork in it. And I can trace the lineage of this one back to Yoko Ono’s work in the 60s and 70s. But I loved the fact that Lovich was not afraid to be different. Those are still the kind of artists I look for.

Before I go, let me say a word about those calisthenics, and a final word about that slush pile. Later in the semester, Lene Lovich came to play at our school. She did jumping jacks as she performed, while her pigtails flailed about like weapons. And it didn’t mean anything to me at the time, but her keyboard player was Thomas Dolby. As for the slush pile, I continued to have good luck with it. My next review was of The Tourists; the band included Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox before they left to form the Eurythmics. I discovered ska with reviews of the Specials, Madness, and The English Beat. And finally, I reviewed Tommy Tutone an album before they had their hit with 867-5309 (Jenny).

1979: The Droid

Jerry Goldsmith: The Droid

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Ridley Scott's Alien is one of my favorite films of all times. While often labelled a science fiction film, it's really just a classic haunted house horror slasher in disguise.

Jerry Goldsmith's ingenious score plays a huge part in giving the film its harrowing quality, and when trying to think of ways to describe it all I could muster were random words such as oppressive, claustrophobic, chaotic, unpredictable, discordant, terrifying and sneaky.

Listen to the soundtrack really loud in headphones all alone in dark and you can almost feel the physical presence of alien itself in the room.

Scary stuff.