Nine Lives: The Lovecats

The Cure: The Lovecats

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When The Cure released The Lovecats in 1983, the song rose to number seven on the British singles chart. So it’s kind of hard to believe that the album it appeared on at the end of that year, Japanese Whispers, was a holding action, a single and flip sides compilation to keep the fans happy until the next official album came out. At that time, The Cure had just changed bass players, and they or their label seem to have decided to release Japanese Whispers because they weren’t sure when the next album would be ready. Even more remarkable: nowadays, Japanese Whispers is only available as an import.

As for the song, The Lovecats may be described as a love song where the lovers are feral cats. Or maybe fans of The Cure really did court each other this way in 1983. Either way, the song sounds like cats, and not just because of the feline vocalizations. It also has a great beat.

Nine Lives: Big Cat

The Clean: Big Cat

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How do you know if your cat is overweight? You should be able to feel the backbone and ribs. If you can't feel the ribs without pressing, you may have a fat cat. If , viewed from the side, your cat has no noticeable waist but just a mass of belly fur sweeping the floor, you may have a fat cat. Finally, if you wake up each night wondering if someone is pushing a large boulder down the stairs -THUD THUD THUD--only to discover that it's your cat seeking a midnight snack, you may have a fat cat.

Nine Lives: Tom Cat Blues

Jorma Kaukonen: Tom Cat Blues (orig. Jelly Roll Morton)

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No, it's not a cover of Tom Scott title cut Tom Cat - it's a cover of a Jelly Roll Morton tune from singer-songwriter Jorma Kaukonen.

Though he once made his name on the electric scream of the sixties, the Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna alum has become a well-deserved staple of the modern contemporary acoustic set in his old age thanks to a mellow, fatherly voice, a campfire wizard's hands on the strings, and a penchant for Piedmont style acoustic blues fingerpicking.

His transformation of Morton's ragtime protojazz, off 2002 roots radio chart-topper Blue Country Heart, features fellow heavyweights Sam Bush and Jerry Douglas on Mando and dobro, respectively; the track, like the rest of the album from which it springs, is effortless and epic, proving that the man's still got the stuff. Kudos, Kaukonen.

Nine Lives: Black Cat Bone

Albert Collins, Robert Cray, Johnny Copeland: Black Cat Bone

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This version of Black Cat Bone begins with Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland talking about hearing the song played by Hop Wilson, who wrote it. As nearly as I can tell, that would have been in Houston Texas, in about 1950. Very quickly, the song became a blues classic, and it was recorded in the 50s by Lightning Hopkins, Muddy Waters, and many others. By 1985, the song had become one of Albert Collins’ signature tunes, and he was the one who brought it to the sessions for the album Showdown! This was one “super group” album that lived up to its billing. The idea was to bring together three of the biggest names in blues at the time and let them make magic. Albert Collins, Johnny Copeland, and Robert Cray did just that.

In African-American folk belief, a black cat bone is a lucky charm, with the power to render the bearer invisible or bring about the return of a lost love. Here however, the singer is the victim of extraordinary bad luck, and he believes that his girlfriend has used a black cat bone to put a curse on him. There is a rather gruesome ritual for the proper making of a black cat bone charm. I will spare you the details, but you can find a description if you are curious in Zora Neal Hurston’s Mules and Men.

Nine Lives: The Wild Cats Of Kilkenny

The Pogues: The Wild Cats Of Kilkenny

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‘The Wild Cats Of Kilkenny’ appeared on The Pogues’ epic 1985 album Rum, Sodomy And The Lash. The instrumental track was written by the dentally-challenged frontman Shane McGowan, whom everybody knows, and the band’s multi-instrumentalist Jem Finer, who is rather more obscure. Still, every Christmas you’ll hear one of his songs…

Kilkenny is, of course, a town in Ireland that also lends its name to the county in which it is located (we could also make up, if we so wished, an urban legend that the name also served to inspire the makers of South Park). There is a poem about the cats of Kilkenny, titled without much prevarication “The Cats of Kilkenny”:

There once were two cats of Kilkenny
Each thought there was one cat too many
So they fought and they fit,
And they scratched and they bit,
Till excepting their nails
And the tips of their tails,
Instead of two cats, there weren't any.

The Pogues in the title of their song probably referred to the epic cat fight of the poem (for there is no doubt that the two protagonist felines were indeed of wild temperament), which is believed to be an allegory for a bloody and self-destructive territorial dispute between Kilkenny and Irishtown. That conflict gave rise to the phrase “Kilkenny cats”, to describe, as wordsmith.org puts it, “people who fight relentlessly till their end”.

Mutual destruction seems to be a badge of honour in some quarters: Kilkenny’s local hurling team (that’s the sport, not the post-drinking activity) is dubbed “The Cats”.

Nine Lives: Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

David Bowie: Cat People (Putting Out Fire)

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With the release of the post-disco classic Let's Dance in 1983, David Bowie took another trend-leading musical shift. Produced by Chic's Nile Rogers, it also features Stevie Ray Vaughan on lead guitar. Four hit singles came out of this album, including this re-recorded version of Cat People (Putting Out Fire), from the 1982 erotic thriller of the same name. Bowie begins the song in a slow, goth-y baritone (and when did his voice get that low? It used to be pretty airy in the 70s, I remember), and then he kicks up the beat so you can, yanno, dance to it. This is one song where the producer's skill really stands out. So does the percussion.

My absolute favorite manga artist, Miyamoto Kano, drew this charming catboy (or nekomimi), which is a fashionable Japanese trope in both manga and cosplay. Half the fun is plotting out exactly how one has become a nekomimi, and I won't elaborate about how much other characters really, reaaaally like those ears and tail.

Nine Lives: The Kitty Cat Song

Lee Dorsey: The Kitty Cat Song

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A New Orleans native who once boxed as "Kid Chocolate", Lee Dorsey was already in his 40's when he started pummeling the pop charts with hits like "Ya Ya" and "Working In a Coalmine". For the B-side to his 1966 single "Ride Your Pony", Lee recorded this infectious little kitty ditty.  A lot of Dorsey's songs back then were produced by Allen Toussaint with his house band, The Meters, providing instrumental backup.

That same year, The Troggs recorded "The Kitty Cat Song" for their debut album "From Nowhere...The Troggs".

Nine Lives: Nashville Cats

Lovin' Spoonful: Nashville Cats

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The Del McCoury Band: Nashville Cats (Lovin' Spoonful cover)

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I always heard a short lick of tongue-in-cheek in the original slinky, funky take on this mid-sixties tune from Lovin' Spoonful, though I don't think it was purposeful: it's a wry tune to begin with, but Darius wasn't wrong way back in 2008 when he described the song as an honest homage from lead songwriter John Sebastian to the band's country and bluegrass influences.

But in the hands of twangy honkytonk bluegrass icon Del McCoury, the word "cats" rings especially true, as a reflection of the compatriots he knows well from his long career in the Ole Opry and beyond, just over the border from his native North Carolina. And dig those bluegrass harmonies, from the man and his sons.

Nine Lives: Tom Cat

Tom Scott and the L.A. Express: Tom Cat

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For a while in the 70's, it seemed like Tom Scott was everywhere. Movie scores? He scored or performed on Uptown Saturday Night, Stir Crazy, Taxi Driver, Bladerunner, and Heaven Can Wait. TV themes? He wrote 'em for Family Ties, Starsky & Hutch, and The Streets of San Francisco. (it was a family business – his dad also scored a ton of things in his day, including the theme from Dragnet). He featured on other artist's stuff, like Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark, Carole King’s Jazzman, Paul McCartney’s Listen To What The Man Said, Rod Stewart’s Do You Think I’m Sexy, and Blondie’s Rapture, but he's best known for his collaborations with Steely Dan, including the songs Babylon Sister, Deacon Blues, Peg, Black Cow, and especially the album Aja, for which he arranged and conducted all the horns. If that didn't make him cool enough, he was also one of The Blues Brothers.

Tom Cat is from the 1974 album of the same name, featuring Tom and the L.A. Express: electric guitarist Robben Ford, keyboardist Larry Nash, bassist Max Bennett (who wrote this tune), and drummer John Guerin. It's got that horn-dominated pop-jazz sound that reminds me of so much L.A. music of the time, maybe because Tom Scott was clearly playing on all of it.

Nine Lives: Big City Cat

Steve Forbert: Big City Cat

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I’m sure there will be a stronger feline presence here as the week goes on. The “cat” in Big City Cat is thoroughly human, and the word only comes up at the end of the lyrics. But Big City Cat is a song about beginnings, so it seemed like a good place to start. Steve Forbert arrived in New York City from Meridian, Misissippi, intent on making a living as a musician. His material was well suited to the New York City music market of the late 70s, and he did eventually break through and get a major label contract. But Big City Cat describes his feelings on stepping onto the surface of a new planet at the start of this journey. New York City was a new world to Forbert, and not entirely a good one. But Forbert was able to maintain a sunny outlook that wound up being so appealing on his first album. Ironically, it wound up being his treatment at the hands of that major label that finally washed that optimism away. But that is a tale for another time.

Alphanumeric: Hello Cruel World

E: Hello Cruel World

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Mark Oliver Everett may have wanted to escape the shadow of his father, physicist Hugh Everett III when he began his musical career. Maybe that’s why he decided to simply call himself E. I must say, however, that I doubt that many music fans would have made the connection; I had to look it up. Regardless, E it was, and E it remained when he later formed the band Eels. The music of Eels had a darker sound, but E as a solo artist was a master of pop hooks. Hello Cruel World sounds like it should have been a major hit until you listen to the lyrics. The song sets out a series of somewhat surreal scenarios, connected tenuously at best. The writing contains great imagery, and a slide show goes by in my head whenever I hear the song. I don’t claim to be an expert on the music of Eels, but I have never heard anything of theirs that affects me in the same way.

Alphanumeric: Mesopotamia

The B-52s: Mesopotamia

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This seems to be one of those weeks when my fellow Star Makers and I avoid obvious choices in favor of lesser known ones. I can think of several well known groups that would fit our theme, and I really thought someone would have posted them by now. I can’t completely resist the urge to share lesser known music myself, so here is my solution: a lesser known song by one of those obvious bands.

In the early days of this band, Kate Pierson and Cindy Williams wore their hair in a style known as a bouffant, or a b-52, and that is where The B-52s got their name. Of course, the band burst on the scene with one of the first new wave hits, Rock Lobster. Their first two albums continued with that basic sound, but there were no other hits as big as Rock Lobster. So, for their third album, the band changed their sound. I don’t know if they decided to do this themselves or were told to by their record company, but the result was that they found themselves working with David Byrne of Talking Heads as their producer. Mesopotamia was supposed to be a full length album of ten songs, but disagreements arose between the band and Byrne, and what was finally released was a six song EP. It may be telling that Byrne only ever produced one other album for an artist other than himself, Fun Boy 3’s album Waiting. So Mesopotamia, the album and the song, may not be the music The B-52s wanted to make, but I have always found the song irresistible. I hope you will as well.

Alphanumeric: Drivin' Now

J: Drivin' Now

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You can't get more succinct (or any harder to Google) than using a single English letter as an artist name. J is the bassist for J-Rock band Luna Sea, a band I will miss seeing by one week during my upcoming trip to Japan. (Not that I had a snowball's chance in hell of getting tickets—Saitama Arena, which seats about 37,000, sold out in five minutes for this charity concert.) As is the way of many Japanese bands, the members of Luna Sea wander off into other group and solo releases without a lot of drama. J released this album, Unstoppable Drive in 2002 during Luna Sea's longest hiatus. It's pretty straightforward hard rock, and you'll enjoy it if you like yours bass-heavy like I sometimes do.

Alphanumeric: Oh Effendi

10cc:Oh Effendi

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I remember spiritedly arguing with a high school classmate once that 10cc was a better group than Led Zeppelin. 10cc --named for the average amount of semen in a male ejaculation--was certainly one of the most inventive bands in rock n roll. Literally. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme invented "The Gizmo",  an effects box that could make an electric guitar sound like a strange symphony. Godley and Creme were the art schoolers in 10cc, always pushing the boundaries. Bandmates Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman were the hit-makers. ( Stewart as a member of The Mindbenders and Gouldman as songwriter of The Yardbirds' "For Your Love" and The Hollies' "Bus Stop" among others.) As 10cc they combined forces, often creating powerful pop songs that suddenly shifted into parody. What other group it its right mind would confess they were "The Worst Band in the World"?

From that same 1974 album, Sheet Music, comes "Oh Effendi", a rare Godley-Stewart composition which shows the best sides of both sides of 10cc. Most rock snobs would suggest you start your 10cc collection with Sheet Music. That's fine with me but I confess to having a soft spot for How Dare You!, the last album on which all four original members played.

Alphanumeric: Endless Dark

HIM: Endless Dark

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Like many currently alpha-named bands, the letters making up the band name HIM stood for words (in this case, His Infernal Majesty) that were lost early on.

HIM (or H.I.M.) is a Finnish goth-metal band (or, as they describe it, "love metal"). They formed in 1995 behind vocalist Ville Valo, who also pens their songs, apart from some awesome covers (such as Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game," which takes on a more ominous feel in their hands). I posted a Ville Valo cover of the classic duet Summer Wine about a year ago.

This version of 'Endless Dark' is from their 2003 album Love Metal. You can see their trademark "heartagram" from that album cover in the above image.

And I know where I belong
Away from your gods
That heal all wounds
And light this endless dark,
That shine on you and tame your burning heart
That bury my truth right into your arms
That worship the tomb of our forlorn love.

Alphanumeric: Me and the Boys

                                             
NRBQ: Me and the Boys

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               On one of their good nights NRBQ (New Rhythm and Blues Quartet) was the best bar band in the world--or as their fans would put it, the best band in the world--bar none. For twenty years pianist Terry Adams, guitarist Big Al Anderson, bassist Joey Spampinato and drummer Tom Ardolino toured together, performing everything from jazz, to 12 bar blues to Beatlesque ballads and crunchy power pop like "Me and The Boys". Always in the spirit of good goofy fun.

   The list of famous NRBQ fans reads like a Who's Who of the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame. I caught the band at an obscure club in NYC in '99 and ran into the guys from Del Amitri. There were Posies and Young Fresh Fellows at a Seattle show a year later. Makes me wonder whom I didn't recognize at the New Orleans shows I saw in the 80's.

  Eventually all eyes fall on the shaggy keyboard player who always seemed to be pounding the keyboards with the flats of his hands instead of his fingers. Terry is touring as NRBQ these days with three young musicians. Big Al is sought after country music songwriter and Joey and Tom are still playing around. No, they never sold a million records but they've been featured both on The Simpsons and by Connie Chung.

Vocal Harmonies => Alphanumeric: The Disappointed

XTC: The Disappointed

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XTC does not stand for anything. Say the letters out loud, and you get the word ecstasy. I don’t know if the name was intended as a drug reference, but I prefer the older meaning of the word, because the band’s music has always given me intense pleasure. The Disappointed is a sort of negative example of the power of vocal harmony. Almost half way through the song, all you have heard is Andy Partridge singing lead and some oohs, but never at the same time. Suddenly, Dave Gregory comes in with a low note on one word, “disappointed”. From there, the vocal arrangement becomes gradually more complex, and it helps the song build to a great climax. So, by leaving the vocal harmonies out of so much of the song, XTC gives a great demonstration of their power once they arrive.

Vocal Harmonies: Steely Dan Edition

Steely Dan: Show Biz Kids

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Rickie Lee Jones: Show Biz Kids

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Steely Dan: Home at Last

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This week, we have heard duets and group vocals. But there are also artists and groups who are justly well known for their use of background singers. Surely Steely Dan would be one of these. When I think of Steely Dan, the first things I hear in my head are those wonderful horn charts and vocal harmonies. But Steely Dan was not born sounding that way. The sound developed over time. Show Biz Kids offers an early example. There are no horns here at all. The background singers have only one line, which they repeat throughout the song, turning it into a chant. In interviews, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker have always been coy about the words they are chanting. Is it “Las Vegas” or “Lost Wages”? You be the judge. The other feature of the vocal harmonies that is notable in Show Biz Kids is Becker joining in with close harmonies on the chorus.

Now listen to Rickie Lee Jones’ version of Show Biz Kids. She uses the chanted vocals only part of the time, (and the words are definitely, “Las Vegas”). She uses a more complex vocal harmony on the chorus. And she has stripped out the screaming guitar that was so much a part of Steely Dan’s early sound. In short, with the exception of the stand up bass, she has recorded the song as Steely Dan might have if they had done it later in their career. Listen to Home at Last, from Aja, and you will see what I mean. Here are the horn charts, which Jones doesn’t use on Show Biz Kids, but which are certainly part of her sound as well. And, on the chorus of Home at Last we hear vocal harmonies as done by a mature Steely Dan.

Discographers note: the piano and background vocals on Jones’ version of Show Biz Kids is by Joe Jackson.

Vocal Harmonies: Bohemian Rhapsody

The Ten Tenors: Bohemian Rhapsody

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Darius was mentioning our lack of vocal groups so far for this week's theme, so I hope this group fits the bill. The Three Tenors in 1990 started a run on various assemblages of classical vocalists performing pop hits to great fanfare (Wikipedia lists the Irish Tenors, Tenor Australis, the Three Canadian Tenors, Three Tenors and a Soprano, the Three Sopranos, The Sopranos, Three Mo' Tenors, Three Countertenors, the Three Chinese Tenors, and Il Divo, among others). The Ten Tenors are a young Australian ensemble who've put out quite a few CDs since their beginnings in 1998. And of course, you can't go wrong with Queen, like, ever. I love how they slip in a bit of ABBA too in their live performance.

Vocal Harmonies: Love Hurts

Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris: Love Hurts

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First there was the Everly Brothers version of the song written by Boudleaux Bryant (actually, there were two: the slow original from 1960 and an upbeat take in 1965). Then there was the appalling cover by Nazareth that became a hit. And shortly before the Scottish rockers violated this most tenderly angry heartbreak songs of all, Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris did it perfect justice.

Perhaps they did so not only because both were exquisite vocalists (and Emmylou Harris is, of course, a supreme harmonist), but perhaps it was also because they were experiencing the cruelty of love – maybe of the impossible variety, or perhaps unrequited.

Gram and Emmylou are said to have felt a strong attraction to one another. Harris certainly was in love with him, but insists that there never was a romance because Gram was married, even though that marriage was on the rocks. Whatever Parsons felt for Harris (and he had a relationship with a woman called Margaret Fisher), when he died on 19 September 1973 – before ‘Love Hurts’ was released in 1974 on the Grievous Angel LP – his wife Gretchen Burrell barred Emmylou from his funeral.

Gram and Emmylou might never have been together in a physical sense, but ‘Love Hurts’ unites them forever. Note this bitter line: “Some fools think of happiness, blissfulness, togetherness. Some fools fool themselves I guess, but they’re not fooling me. I know it isn’t true.” And then rewind, and hear how Gram and Emmylou harmonise the word “togetherness”; the preceding words are mocked, but the word togetherness soars with longing. As they re-enter the stream of disillusion, their sweet harmonies are drenched in the hot blood of a broken heart.