One Word: Hush

Deep Purple: Hush

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Written by Joe South, covered most effectively by Deep Purple. This is one of the great singles of 1968, in my opinion.

One Word: One World Edition

Every week, we find out what the new theme is, and every week there are artists I want to post who don’t have a song that fits. This week has given me the chance to get to some of these artists. Here are three more.

Tish Hinojosa: Rancherita

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Tish Hinojosa is a Mexican-American. The album I have, Homeland, is a celebration of her heritage, so it’s only natural that some of the songs are in Spanish. Rancherita means “little ranch girl”, and here she is serenaded beautifully by the cowboy who loves her. The accordion part, by the legendary Flaco Jiminez, has a bit of a polka feel to it. Settlers from Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe brought their accordions and their polkas with them when they came to Texas. There, Mexican migrant workers heard this new sound, and brought it back with them to Mexico. And that’s how the accordion found its way into norteno music.

Angelique Kidjo: Batonga

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Angelique Kidjo hails from the African country of Benin, but her music is an amalgam of various African styles, as well as being influenced by American R & B and even rock. She has done amazing covers of Jimi Hendrix and the Rolling Stones. Batonga is an original song. Most of the words are in Yoruba, but the title is a word Kidjo made up when she was a girl. She used it to respond to boys who taunted her at school, and they had no response because they didn’t know what the word meant, and they didn’t want to admit their ignorance to a girl. Batonga, to Kidjo, has come to be an assertion of a girl’s right to an education, and it is now the name of a foundation in which Kidjo is very much involved, and which is dedicated to that purpose.

Jim Lauderdale: Whisper

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It’s not that I have anything against the English language. I had better like it, since it’s the only one I speak. And it is certainly possible to express oneself beautifully in English. Take Whisper. In 1978, this song would have been a country chart topper, and regarded as a classic country song ever since. Whisper is a great example of how to say I love you in a country song, and Lauderdale gives a wonderful sincere performance. The production is perfect, with the song having everything it needs and not a trace of the overpruduction that mars so many country songs. The only trouble is, Whisper didn’t come out until 1998. By then, was considered alt-country, and not nearly enough people got to hear it. I’m happy to have a chance to do a little something about that.

One Word: Home

Azure Ray: Home

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I wasn't sure where to go with this theme since there are so many possibilities, but I knew I wanted to choose a word that really meant something, that was important.

"Home" means something different to everyone. Despite my mother living longer in our current house than she ever did in the place where she grew up, that area is still "up home" for her. And then there's people who feel very little attachment to a place but instead feel it to people, either because they moved around a lot, or because they don't have fond memories of where they grew up and therefore feel no attachment to it. But when we do call something "home", it's a good thing, it's the place we want to be, the place we feel safest and more like ourselves. Sometimes it becomes where ever your family is, or sometimes it's a specific house, piece of land, or an area. Where you know the streets by heart, where they sell all the foods you grew up on, and where you can still see your 3rd grade teacher at the grocery store every once in a while.

Next month I am moving. I had moved home and was living with my folks in the house I grew up in the last few years until I saved up some money, and now I am moving to another state, and away from what I call "home", and despite loving where I am moving, and being excited about starting this new venture, I don't think any place will ever be "home" like that old farmhouse I grew up in.

This song is good because it deals with all those feelings of comfort and belonging that come from feeling "at home", and the fact that sometimes that means being around the people you choose to be your family, and not the ones given to you genetically. It's a beautiful, and emotional song that really fits the word.

One Word: Satellites

Rickie Lee Jones: Satellites

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Whatever became of Rickie Lee Jones? She burst on the scene thirty years ago with her huge hit Chuck E’s In Love, and then vanished, never again coming anywhere near that kind of success. Of course, I’m sure many of our readers know that she’s been here all along. Jones has released a steady stream of albums ever since that debut. She has even managed to stay on a major label. And she has proven to be a brilliant songwriter and a very good interpreter of other people’s songs. But Jones has always had a distinct persona, (her detractors call it an affectation), of this jazzy street urchin. Her best songs are poetry with mostly acoustic musical settings that suit the characters and moods perfectly.

All of this is on display in Satellites. The song seems to me to be a celebration of a friendship that is deepening into something more, but, as happens with the best songwriters, other interpretations are possible. The joy of the moment is unmistakable. The musicality of the piece is revealed in Jones’ use of dynamic shifts; the song goes from louder to softer sections in unexpected ways. Get to know the song though, and you won’t be able to imagine doing it any other way.

One Word: The Pearl Jam Edition

Pearl Jam: Porch

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Pearl Jam: Breath

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Pearl Jam: Corduroy

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Pearl Jam: Smile

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Pearl Jam: Wishlist

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Pearl Jam: Sad

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When I first started posting here (thanks, Ramone666!) I was adviced to keep the posts as short as possible. I always try to and I usually fail. I'm a born rambler.

But this time I will keep it short. I will only say that Pearl Jam is the greatest active American rock band, and any other band can only hope to achieve such an impressive body of work.

One Word: Amnesia

Kevin Salem: Amnesia

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I can't remember why I posted this song.

Oh that's right...because it rocks! It's just meat-and-potatoes guitar pop, but that's not a bad thing. This song was part of my personal soundtrack in the mid-'90s, and it still sounds good today. I'm glad I didn't forget about it.

One Word: Penguin Café Orchestra Edition

Penguin Café Orchestra: Milk

Penguin Café Orchestra: Coronation


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When the Penguin Café Orchestra released their more or less eponymous album, Music from the Penguin Café in 1976, the record stores were perplexed. The music was too discordant to be classical, too melodic to be avant-garde, folk wasn’t the word and neither was pop, or prog rock. The state of confusion was perhaps added to by the musicians including Simon Jeffes and Steve Nye whose careers crossed effortlessly between classical and rock. For years the album was hard to find precisely because retailers didn’t know which bin it went into. One sure place to find it was in that category useful for any music that defied labels; contemporary jazz.

More subversive than confronting, Music from the Penguin Café Orchestra is a deceptive album. Some tracks wash over without calling attention to themselves until you take the time to listen closely. Others set you up to sit in a comfortable chair only to whip it away. Emotionally it reminds me of having hangovers on a Sunday afternoon when I was still young enough to have done something incredibly stupid the night before and think melancholic self–reflection was enough to redeem me. With subsequent albums the Orchestra mellowed, by which I mean there were less surprises in the music. About this time it started to be categorized as ‘new age’ and was deemed acceptable for actual cafes, as though it were the perfect music to sip a latte to. That is both wrong and embarrassing

Guest post by John

One Word: Ripple

Jimmie Dale Gilmore: Ripple

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If you have followed my posts both here and on Oliver di Place, you know that I am a great fan of the Grateful Dead. Why then am I posting a cover of Ripple? Simply because Jimmie Dale Gilmore’s version is stunning and will not be denied.

Ripple is a Robert Hunter - Jerry Garcia collaboration, with Hunter responsible for the lyrics. The song comes from the early 70s, a period when many young people were engaged in spiritual searches, and Ripple reflects this. Hunter believes in a higher power, he just hasn’t identified it yet. Some of the lyrics seem to echo Judeo-Christian writings, while other parts of the song hint at Eastern beliefs. The brief chorus is in the form of a haiku. But, whatever the tradition, Ripple is a statement of faith. And that is why the song works as a whole.

For Gilmore, that statement of faith is the key. His delivery of the lines makes it clear that he believes. Gilmore’s arrangement is an added bonus, especially the fiddle solo. This one just shines.

Three Minute Pop Songs / One Word: Days

Kirsty MacColl: Days

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My first post this week featured a perfect Tracey Ullman popcover of a Kirsty MacColl song; I couldn't resist the chance to end the week with an equally perfect cover performed by Kirsty herself.

Days, which first emerged on 1989 hit record Kite, is a lovely, dreamy pop take on a Kinks song that charted third highest of MacColl's lifetime releases. I've always found the song a bit more poignant since the English singer-songwriter's untimely death by speedboat a decade ago at the age of 41. And it makes a great transition song for our upcoming theme, which will feature songs with one-word titles.

Three Minute Pop Songs: What I Like About You

The Romantics: What I Like About You

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I have no idea who The Romantics are... and, to tell you the truth, I really don't *want* to know - all that matters is, every time I hear this song, I think (i.e. fantasize): I am twenty-five... I am a great dancer... I don't have a care in the world...

Seriously (or not)... who can resist the catchy melody, the intoxicating lyrics and the insistent beat - and if you really want to find out more about them, go here or here. Not me - I'm dancing (up, down, jump around, think about true romance, yeah!)

Three Minute Pop Songs: Gene Clark Edition

Dillard and Clark: Radio Song

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Gene Clark: Hear the Wind

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Gene Clark: Rain Song

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Steve Earle famously said he’d stand on Bob Dylan’s Kitchen table in his cowboy boots and declare Townes Van Zandt the best songwriter ever. Well, I don’t own a pair of cowboy boots but I’m prepared to stand on Bob’s kitchen table in my dirty socks and say Gene Clark had a lot of what Townes had and a bit more of something else. Trying to prove the case when the theme is three minute pop songs is tough; not because Clark couldn’t write a great pop song – no one needs to prove that – but because he was inclined to time them around 2:48, 3:17 or, just to be perverse, 3:05. We miss out on some obvious classics; ‘In a Misty Morning’, ‘I Remember the Railroad’, ‘Polly’, ‘Dragon’s Eye’, all of ‘No Other’ and ‘So Rebellious a Lover’ and that was just his solo career, after he’d made it big with the Byrds. In this post we get to hear three tracks – a whole nine minutes - that may have slipped below the radar.

It’s too bad Gene Clark gets lumped into country rock because it’s questionable whether he was either. Sterling contributions to that genre aside, he crafted great pop songs. The tracks here, Radio Song, Rain Song and Hear the Wind are but humble examples. Listen closely to Radio Song and you hear his early days in the New Christy Minstrels. Tune an ear to Hear the Wind and you’ll catch the budding strains of early 70s FM. As for Rain Song? Imagine the Bee Gees circa 68-69 getting their hands on it; not hard to do. It was a tragedy of Clark’s that after success with the Byrds he never cracked it with an audience that really deserved him.

Guest post by John

Three Minute Pop Songs: More Recent Edition

It would be easy to think, from this week’s posts, that the three minute pop song was a phenomenon of the 60s and early 70s, never to be heard of again. Even They Don’t Know, from the 80s, was produced with a certain retro feel, and the same case could be made for the British ska scene in general, if not of Three Minute Hero in particular. But I am here to report that the three minute pop song is alive and well. Here are an example from the 90s and one from 2003. Each has thematic elements that are universal to pop songs throughout the ages, and each, musically, belongs entirely to its time.

Fountains of Wayne: Hackensack

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Hackensack is a beautiful pop ballad, and a love song. The guy pledges devotion to the girl who has left him behind, swearing to be there for her should she ever return. The production is understated for this kind of song, compared to how it might have been done in the sixties or seventies. But the emotion comes through every bit as clearly. For this kind of song to work, every element must be exactly in place, and yet it must all feel effortless. I offer this as a fine example of how it’s done.

Toad the Wet Sprocket: Walk on the Ocean

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Walk on the Ocean is a little more complicated. This is a little gem of songwriting, of the sort that makes the charts only once in a while. Taken literally, the song tells of a couple who make a trip to the seashore, and then come home. If that was all, it wouldn’t be worth remembering the song. But Walk on the Ocean also works on another level. It seems to me that the trip to the seashore is actually a remembrance of the characters’ youth. They remember all of the friends they’ve always said they would get back in touch with, but probably won’t. And they remember an innocence lost that can never be regained.

Three Minute Pop Songs: Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

Looking Glass: Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)

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I was at an acoustic jam last night, and during our dinner break, we started throwing out the names of songs we wanted to learn. Someone suggested "Brandy", and someone else laughed derisively. I came to the aid of the first person, because I've always loved this catchy story song. At some point in the past decade of so, I discovered the Looking Glass formed in New Brunswick, N.J., further endearing the song to me.

Some say the song was inspired by a local oddity: the grave of Mary Ellis. According to local lore, she fell for a sea captain who vowed to marry her, but never returned. Her grave stands on the banks of the Raritan River, where she came to every day to wait for his return. Even though the area surrounding her grave became a flea market, then a movie theater parking lot, her grave remains.

Three Minute Pop Songs: I Want You Back

The Jackson 5: I Want You Back

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The thing about the perfect pop song is how infectious it is, how even if you want to not like it, it will find a way into your veins and make your toe tap without you realizing it, or have you humming it on the car on the way home from work. There is perhaps nothing as saccharine and infectious as the hits the Jackson 5 were putting out in the 1960's and 70's on the Motown label.

"I Want You Back" was released in 1969 with lead vocals by a preteen Michael Jackson and was one of their biggest hits. It is a perfect three minutes of toe-tapping, head bopping joy.

Three Minute Pop Songs: You're the Best

Joe Esposito: You're the Best

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I'm not quite sure why I had this song in my library, but I'm glad to share it here anyway.

This is, of course, the song that played during the tournament montage in the movie The Karate Kid. As a wide eyed Daniel Russo punched and kicked his way through the members of the Kobra Kai dojo, Joe Esposito's lyrics told us all what we already knew. Russo was the best around, and nothing was ever gonna keep him down.

Esposito actually had a fairly long and distinguished career in the music industry. He scored a top 5 single with Donna Summer in 1978 as a member of the R&B group The Brooklyn Dreams ("Heaven Knows"). He is also a three time Grammy nominee and has written songs for artists such as Summer, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, and Stephen Stills.

Still... he'll always be known for these three minutes.

Interesting sidenote... In a 2008 interview with Adam Carolla, Esposito said this song was originally written for Rocky III, but was replaced at the last minute by "Eye of the Tiger." Rocky or Russo, who do you think is the best?

Three Minute Pop Songs: There's Always Something There To Remind Me

Dionne Warwick: (There's) Always Something There To Remind Me

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Three-minute pop songs were a hallmark of the 60's – the length suited AM radio demands, for one thing. Here's a tune from a pair of songwriters who met working in the NYC Brill Building, a music producing center since the 30's. Burt Bacharach, composer and pianist, teamed up with Hal David, who wrote the lyrics, and together they penned dozens of hits for Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, The Carpenters, Jackie DeShannon, The Fifth Dimension, Tom Jones, B.J. Thomas, and others. Their premier vocalist, though, was Dionne Warwick, who had 38 charting singles with Bacharach in the 60's and early 70's. Bacharach-David were so prolific at cranking out the 3-minute pop song that no fewer than 12 unique songs of theirs on my hard drive fall within 5 seconds of the holy 3:00 mark. This hit song from 1967 hits it exactly.

Three Minute Pop Songs: Three Minute Hero

The Selecter: Three Minute Hero

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When I found out what our theme was this week, this is the song I had to post. That it clocks at exactly three minutes is probably not a coincidence, given the subject.

How do we define a pop song? In the 1980s, British ska came out. It was never even remotely popular here in the United States. Sure, Madness had a hit with Our House, but that wasn’t ska any more. But this music came from England, and there it was quite another story. The two-tone ska rode up the British pop charts from the beginning. Still, the members of The Selecter didn’t know that was going to happen when they went into the studio to record Three Minute Hero. So the singer’s hope of singing that one song that could a get a working man through the drudgery of his day was an attempt at irony. The great irony is that it actually happened.

Three Minute Pop Songs: Reach Out (I'll Be There)

The Four Tops: Reach Out (I'll Be There)

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I feel as though I have to hurry up and post a musical apology for that last entry of mine, guys. So let me take you from the ridiculous to the sublime.

In my mind, there are three songwriting teams who were major contributors to pop songs of the 60's. I hope to post about all three in coming days, but let me start off with three hugely talented men who mean a lot to this Detroit-bred gal: Lamont Dozier and Brian and Edward Holland. They were known collectively as Holland-Dozier-Holland, and together they wrote an enormous number of Motown-label hits for Berry Gordy's artists between 1962-1967, names that include Martha and the Vandellas, the Marvelettes, the Supremes, the Miracles, Jr. Walker and the All-Stars, Marvin Gaye, the Temptations, the Isley Brothers, and the group I'm featuring here: the Four Tops. Rolling Stone magazine ranks this #206 of the top 500 rock/pop songs, so there! Hopefully I'm now forgiven for that last tune.

Three Minute Pop Songs: They Don't Know

Tracey Ullman: They Don't Know

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Audiophiles know that 7-time Emmy Award winning actress and comedienne Tracey Ullman - whose late eighties sketch comedy show spawned The Simpsons - was also an international pop star for a short time in the early eighties; her 1983 debut album You Broke My Heart In 17 Places and its 1984 follow-up You Caught Me Out spawned 6 top 100 UK hits, making it all the odder that she would move on from music almost completely, except as a stage-and-screen actress, for the remainder of her long and fruitful career.

Ullman's music tended towards retro Spector-esque 60s and 70s pop with a humorous, over-the-top 80s flair, but this Kirsty MacColl cover, her highest-charting hit, plays it relatively straight. Catchy as hell, and perfectly pop, from swirling intro to short, ringing fade-out.

Three Minute Pop Songs: Gimme Some Lovin'

The Spencer Davis Group: Gimme Some Lovin'

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Steve Winwood was only 17 years old when Spencer Davis recruited him as a vocalist in 1965. Now all of these years later most people don't remember much about Spencer Davis but Winwood went on to have a legendary career that has spanned multiple bands and decades.

The Spencer Davis Group only had a couple of hit songs before Winwood left the band to form Traffic. Without their dynamic frontman SDG foundered and Davis spent much of the rest of his career as a producer for other acts.

Interestingly, the only other major hit that The Spencer Davis Group produced was I'm A Man, clocking in at 3:01. So these guys were true forerunners of the perfect pop song!