Going The Distance: You Had Time

Ani Difranco: You Had Time
[purchase]

Physical distance isn't always the most difficult to traverse.  Sometimes the greatest distance lies in the gulf between two people in the front of a car, traveling from one place to another but going nowhere.  And as space warps, so do time and meaning - two people speak but neither hears the other, time has been spent on nothing at all.  Some things are just doomed from the start.  This is the way some worlds end: with a smile, a shrug and the devastating sting of someone trying not to do too much damage but knowing they will fail.

Going the Distance: I Can See For Miles

The Who: I Can See for Miles

[purchase]

In the absence of other input and in a continuing effort to ascertain the file hosting limits (this being yet another renamed file) … one more 60’s song without much comment. There are 3 groups from the 60s that still resonate for me: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. Sure … I’ll listen to lots of others (even Herman’s Hermits), but these 3 maintain their staying power over the years.

Going the Distance: 4 Miles

Pee Shy: 4 Miles

 [Purchase]

 It's been so long since I've posted here that I sort of forget how to do it, so forgive me. But I've seen that there's been infrequent posts lately and thought I'd see if I can help with a post or two in the interim. I've posted songs from this album before. It's a great little album by a Tampa, Florida based band started by two ladies who were spoken-word artists who decided to start a band with their clarinet and accordion and brought along a bass player and a drummer for the ride. They use guitar and other more conventional rock instruments as well, but the addition of the clarinet and accordion adds something different to the mix.

Who Let All The Monkeys Out is their debut album and came out in 1996, though they only ever made two albums as a band. Like their unconventional name and instruments, the subject of their songs is often quite different from the normal love song as well. "4 Miles" is one of the more conventional songs, though still not ordinary. I love the sound of it.

Going the Distance: Moonlight Mile

Rolling Stones: Midnight Mile

[purchase]

The “Moonlight Mile” will likely conjure up different memories for each of us, for me it harks back to my first years living on my own. Granted, I purchased my first Stones LPs several years earlier: on a family trip to Greece (where albums were more available for purchase, I had scored Between the Buttons and Aftermath – must have been about ’69). I have been a Stones aficionado ever since. The two words [Moonlight Mile] evoke a night-time mood (in this case, a bit ethereal) and distance (would that I could run a mile in the 5.55 minutes it takes to play this song!)

So what is a Moonlight Mile? Here, we’ve got a piece from 1971’s Sticky Fingers. There’s acoustic guitar that builds into a slightly heavier electric atmosphere, but in this case, with lots of other orchestration: extensive use of strings, and a dreamy style that evokes later works like Goats Head Soup (Angie?) and at the same time presages in style what is coming next in Exile on Main Street. We’ve got Mick Taylor (before he quit! the Stones) doing some really nice slide guitar work. The piano playing in the back is amazing. Serendipitously, Bill Janovitz (a recent post of mine) comments on this beautiful piano work by Jim Price among the other positive critique he offers at Allmusic.com . Apparently Mick Jagger plays a lot of the acoustic guitar here.

(In this post we continue to push the limits to see if my hosting service is using file names or embedded file info or text in the blog to ID files for deletion!!)

Going The Distance: Miles and Miles of Texas

Dave Alexander : Miles and Miles of Texas

[purchase]

“Ah haaaa,” as Bob Wills, King of Western Swing, used to say to express his joy and pleasure from the melodic or improvised sounds coming from his sidemen. One’s gotta love that eclectic genre with its elements of pop, jazz, blues and folk. At the same time, the genre maintains a link to its traditional string band roots. Western Swing is both freewheeling and entertaining.

I still remember that day in the early-1970s when an old-time fiddler I knew introduced me (as a young college student) to the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Back in the 1940s, that band was very popular, and the musicians in Wills’ band were some of the finest of their era. I first learned the song, “Miles and Miles of Texas” from Asleep at the Wheel, the Western Swing revivalist band that helped re-popularize the genre in the 1970s. Texas guitarist/singer Ray Benson and his band have been swinging ever since, and they never cease to put on a great upbeat live show.

Another contemporary Western Swing band is Dave Alexander and his Big Texas Swing Band. Alexander has also been at it for quite awhile, and he’s garnered such awards as induction into the Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame, as well as both Male Vocalist and Entertainer of the Year Awards from the Academy of Western Artists. He’s performed with some big names in country music, and he often invites former members of the Texas Playboys to join him in his shows. As a former member of the Texas Playboys himself, four-time Grammy nominee Dave Alexander is on a mission to perpetuate the Western Swing sound and to acquaint people with an important and exciting aspect of our American musical heritage.

Going the Distance: Come A Long Way

Michelle Shocked: Come A Long Way

[purchase]

I’m trying a new file hosting service, so I hope the link stays live.

Music can be escapism. It isn’t always, but I suspect that is why a 50+ professional who has lived his whole life in either New York or New Jersey and has a pretty quiet family life likes to listen to music about people living on the edge, drinking, carousing, ramblin’. I know that I never will ride a motorcycle, get into a bar fight, hitchhike across the desert, or be a rock star. And, honestly, I don’t really have any interest in doing so.

But it is fun to listen to music that is about things that are outside your experience. I remember once reading an article that said that people like roller coasters, or eating spicy food, because it gives the illusion of danger, without real risk. That your body reacts by producing adrenalin and endorphins that give you that edge and pleasure, without having to worry about actually getting beat up or killed.

Which is why, I guess, I have always liked this song, by Michelle Shocked. Her narrator rescues her motorcycle from the repo man and drives it around Los Angeles, referencing a number of local landmarks and noting that she has driven 500 miles, but never left the city.

Shocked is an interesting artist—uncompromising and demanding of creative freedom. Her first few albums were incredible, and the album that this song comes from, Arkansas Traveler, is both brilliant, and controversial. In great part, it is a reworking of traditional folk and country songs, with all-star guests including Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, Hothouse Flowers, Uncle Tupelo (which included her brother), Taj Mahal, Pops Staples, and others, and there are many, many good songs. But Shocked insisted on appearing in blackface on the cover, to highlight her interest in blackface minstrelsy, and her label refused. The album was barely promoted and failed to sell, leading to the end of Shocked’s major label career. I did buy her next album, but have kind of lost track of her, although I know that she has been recording gospel music. She is someone who has simply done what she wanted, and damn the consequences. Another thing that I don’t think I could ever do, even though I respect her for doing it.

I’ve been to L.A. a few times, mostly on business, and recognize some of the places mentioned, but they are really meaningless to me. But there is something about the song, the music and the lyrics, that makes me want to jump on a bike, a hog, a chopper, or whatever the cool people call it, and head out on an adventure. It isn’t going to happen, and that’s OK, too. But it can be fun to live vicariously.

Rings: SIngle Ladies (Put A Ring...)

Party Ben: Mashup (Single Ladies/Andy Griffiths Theme)

Purchase (Download free from Party Ben's site)

I, too, have been away from my computer and music collection and so missed the chance to post recently. As for the mp3 files issue, although I am using the same maligned hosting service (and I know I am tempting fate here), my previously posted songs seem to still resolve. It may be because many/most are creative commons legal. It could be because I rename them. So here goes yet another posted mp3 in the hopes that it, too, resolves for you…

One category of music I collect and enjoy are mashups. There are several places online where you can find years’ worth of downloads if you want to get/explore more. For anyone who doesn’t already know this genre, a mashup involves mixing two or more songs, generally adjusting the timing and using just a part of the songs in order to get them to fit just right: some do it better than others.

This mashup, by Party Ben from San Fransisco, is a good example of his skills (also check out his version of Rehab/Can’t Help Myself). In it, he deftly combines Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) with the theme from the Andy Griffith’s show - hence the tie in to this week’s theme.

As to the legality of mashups, it is a hotly debated topic. Since a mashup generally uses little more than the established “fair use” short selection of a copyrighted work, as well as being a creative original interpretation, it is an art form that seems to survive take-down requests. I would say: not unlike the kind of creativity that Weird Al Yankovitch is known for (the link should provide you with a short version of his "Ringtones".)

Rings: Hurricane

Bob Dylan: Hurricane

[purchase]

As an initial matter, I know that we have been having a big “dead link” issue on the blog, and I hope we can figure out a way to stop that from happening. There have been lots of emails behind the scenes. But I am going to post, and link, and hope that you can listen. If not, I expect that most readers are savvy enough to find a version of this song somewhere. In fact, I bet that many of you already own this one.

Since I started writing for this blog, I have posted every week, sometimes twice, and often first. But this past week, I was on vacation, and am glad that the theme has been extended. I was at the Newport Folk Festival last weekend with my wife, and stayed in Newport for the rest of the week. It was our first time at the festival, and it was incredible. The first day was wonderful, and we heard some incredible music, including the incendiary Alabama Shakes, Dawes, Apache Relay, Patty Griffin, First Aid Kit, and the closer, My Morning Jacket. During which, the skies opened up, and the torrential downpour led to a Dunkirk-esque evacuation from the concert for those of us who used the ferry.

When I saw the theme, on Sunday morning, I thought that I could post this song, about boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, by Bob Dylan, in honor of Dylan’s legendary electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. I was planning on trying to post during the week, but it never happened. Sunday was another full day of music, including Sara Watkins, New Multitudes (with Jay Farrar, Jim James, Will Johnson and Anders Parker), the amazing Gary Clark, Jr., Conor Oberst and tUne-yArDs. We also caught the last song of Tom Morello’s set, “World Wide Rebel Song,” which he played with the stage filled with spectators, and during which he taunted the security and police for trying to clear the stage. After the set was over, the announcer said, “The Newport Folk Festival is still political.”

Maybe, but certainly not as much as it was back in the sixties, when folk music was a vanguard in the civil rights and antiwar movements, and Dylan’s desire to play electric could become an international incident. Reading accounts of that day, it is pretty clear that the myth, that Dylan decided to play an electric set, was booed by the crowd, and that Pete Seeger used an axe to cut the electricity, is not really accurate, and what really happened is subject to interpretation and opinion. In fact, there are those who believe that Dylan wasn’t booed at all, but that the crowd was upset that his set was so short.

Similarly, the facts about Rubin Carter’s murder charges are unclear. Dylan’s song takes the position that Carter was innocent and framed, and convicted due to racism. It is an incredibly powerful protest song, and it is easy to understand why critics considered it a return to form for Dylan after a long stretch away from political music. Or why it resonated so strongly in the mid-70’s. And yet, despite the ultimate overturning of Carter’s conviction, there are many who believe that he was guilty, and a simple Google search will uncover many sites that still argue both sides.

I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to say definitively what happened at Newport on July 25, 1965, or in Paterson, New Jersey nearly a year later, on June 17, 1966. And maybe that should make us think before we rely blindly on reports of events that we did not experience ourselves.

Rings: Wedding Ring

Adrienne Young & Little Sadie : Wedding Ring

[purchase]

Adrienne Young has a unique flair in her music that’s an enchanting mix of old-time and pop with 21st century musical keenness and business acumen. Young's astute approach involves consummate musicians, charged-up arrangements, thoughtful messages, and bright, breezy vocalizing. Like her 2004 debut album Plow to the End of the Row, Young's sophomore effort in 2005, The Art of Virtue, was on her own Addiebelle Records. I appreciate this talented, young lady's self-confidence as she continues to build her resume in a competitive field.

The Art of Virtue was inspired in part by Ben Franklin's 'virtues of man' writings and stories. Songs on her album like "My Sin is Pride" and "My Love Will Keep" and "Wedding Ring" emphasize themes of morality, goodness, and integrity. While some messages might have a nostalgic look back to yesteryear, her music is contemporary and soothing. It's a thematic album that appeals to us in a visceral way "down where the roots grow deep."

Her 2005 album features Young's proficient songwriting, some reinvented old-time fiddle tunes, a Gospel standard, a Grateful Dead classic, and the Zydeco-flavored "Wedding Ring" with its spirited performance that gets us up and cutting a bean. Young's lyrics offer mature and solid advice, usually gained from a lifetime of experience. Her smarts and wisdom belie her age.

A Belmont University music business program graduate, Young's career took off after winning the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest. Her 2004 CD earned a Grammy nomination for album design. On her 2005 The Art of Virtue, Young's songwriting exhibits honesty and a natural inclination to create lyrical and melodic treasures. Her singing shines with its greatest lustre on the slower songs, while a few pieces (like "Wedding Ring") portray a more arduous side to her voice. She’s a young storyteller of original folk tales, and her parables put to music are very likeable.

Hot: Too Darn Hot

Ella Fitzgerald: Too Darn Hot

[purchase]

I'm not a Broadway musical enthusiast. But, the vast majority of our daughter's waking hours are spent either in dance class or talking about dance. So, on a recent trip to New York, we met up with some friends, and we all went to see an old-fashioned Broadway musical, Anything Goes. "Too Darn Hot" is not from that musical, but was penned by the same songwriter, Cole Porter.

My daughter was thrilled by the dancing. But, what struck the non-dancers among us was how incredibly well-written the songs were. In particular, we were struck by the memorable music and genuinely witty lyrics that Porter created.

His "Too Darn Hot" is in that same tradition. Almost effortlessly, it shifts from a laundry list of things you can't do when the thermometer soars to analysis of the Kinsey Report. Amazing.

"Too Darn Hot" was featured in the Cole Porter musical, Kiss Me Kate, written in 1948 -- the same year the Kinsey Report was issued. Most of the great vocalists of that era have sung it, but the best-known rendition comes from Ella Fitzgerald, who first recorded "Too Darn Hot" for her 1956 album, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. This smoking hot live version is from her 1960 record, Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin, an outstanding record that was eventually enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Hot: Andas Solsken

Ida Olsson: Andas Solsken
[purchase]

 There are no clouds.  The sun smiles down, filling you with light, with life - all is well and you are loved.  You breathe deep, the simple act of respiration drawing in every atom of sunlight, of reciprocated emotion.  The colours are sharp, the summer bouquets bleed into one heady aroma and you lift your face to smile into the rays.  Everything is right: of course it is.  Of course it is.

But if one day the sun doesn't catch you smiling, if a love reciprocated is too detached from a sense of self to allow the light and heat to penetrate pale skin and cold bones - what then?  Perhaps you breathed in enough summer to last you through the winter.  Perhaps the only warmth you need is the warmth you deny yourself.  Perhaps...

For now, though, the sun is shining.  Close your eyes.  Breathe deep.

Hot: 92 Degrees

Siouxsie & The Banshees : 92 Degrees

[purchase]

The hottest temperature I’ve ever experienced was 121 degrees in the Mojave Desert near Palm Springs during the summer of 2009. It was too sizzling to move. To tell the truth, I'm uncomfortable at anything over a tepid 85. Siouxsie and the Banshees tell us about a day that “drags by like a wounded animal,” and she refers to the “approaching disease” and “approaching unease” of exactly 92 degrees.

During their twenty years together (1976-96), Siouxsie and the Banshees were a band that emerged from the London punk community. As they developed with more sophistication, they seminally influenced the goth-rock movement. The blistering “92 Degrees” is on their recommended and stylistically consistent 1986 Tinderbox project that reached the Top 100 album chart in the U.S. (largely due to the excellent single “Cities in Dust”).

There's some rather unsettling narration that introduces the song. “Do you know that more murders are committed at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy going. Over 92, it’s too hot to move. But just 92, people get irritable!”

I start to perspire as Siouxsie vocalizes these lyrics:

The blood in our veins and the brains in our head,
The approaching unease, 92 degrees.
Long ago in the headlines, they noticed it too,
But too late for the loved ones and nearly for you.

Shaky lines on the horizon,
Snaky thoughts invade each person,
Watch the red line creeping upwards,
Watch the sanity line weaken,
The volcanic depths of Hades’ ocean,
Bubble under, these crazed eruptions,
It wriggles and writhes and bites within,
Just below the sweating skin.

I wondered when this would happen again,
Now I watch the red line, reach that number again,
The blood in our veins and the brains in our head.

Drink the water with jagged glass,
Eat the cactus with bleeding mouth,
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees.

Shaky lines on the horizon,
Snaky thoughts invade each person,
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees.

Whether it’s fact or fiction, I’ve read that that when the temperature reaches 92 degrees in the U.S., the crime rate rises by 200 percent. A little research indicates the red line hit 96 degrees in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, 2012. My heart and most sincere sympathy go out to the victims of that horrific tragedy.

Hot: Hot Fun in the Summertime

My Morning Jacket: Hot Fun in the Summertime

[purchase link - free Creative Commons download at archive.org]

Here's a 4-5 year old version of a song originally recorded by Sly and the Family Stone back in '69. The band performing this version is My Morning Jacket and it's a live version from (once again) the Creative Commons servers at archive.org.

This is just one of about 20 songs from what appears to have been a legendary set from this band out of Kentucky (you can check out the rest of the set via the "purchase" link above).

Hot: Heat in Harlem

Graham Parker & The Rumour: Heat in Harlem
[purchase]

How could I be so wrong? I consider myself a reasonably discerning critic, and I like this song, “Heat in Harlem,” by Graham Parker and the Rumour. No, it isn’t the greatest song they ever did, but it is perfectly fine and fits our theme. So, when I decided to write about it, I did some research and found out something troubling—two of the most well-known and respected rock music critics, Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh, absolutely hate the song. Not as in “don’t like it,” but “hate” it.

Understand that the critics absolutely loved Parker’s first two albums, and there was a time that some believed that he was going to be huge, instead of becoming the cranky brilliant cult figure that he ended up as. But his third album, Stick to Me, was somewhat of another story.

In his Consumer Guide in 1977, Christgau gave the album an A-, but still called it a “disappointment.” And he said that “Heat in Harlem” was “vapid and overblown.” Marsh, in his Rolling Stone review in December, 1977 referred to the song as a “dire failure.” Marsh, who is a huge Springsteen fan also said, though, “Graham Parker is unquestionably the most exciting new rock performer since Bruce Springsteen,” and that Stick to Me was the most anticipated rock record since Born to Run.

Read that paragraph again. In 1977, the man known as the Dean of Rock Critics gave Stick to Me an A-, even though it was a disappointment, and a major rock critic for the most influential music publication in the country put Graham freaking Parker in the same league as Springsteen, and said that Stick to Me was the most anticipated album since Born to Run. I understand that those two critics have many critics of their own, but my point is that these two leaders in the field of rock music criticism loved Parker but hated “Heat in Harlem.”

I listened to the song again today, and to me, it still doesn’t stink. It shows Parker trying out a little more of an R&B inspired sound, but I don’t really see it as that much of a stretch from his prior album, “Heat Treatment.” And I agree that the production is muddy, but the album, as we know it, was re-recorded in a week after the original master tapes were damaged. But the song really isn’t bad. Maybe it goes on a little long, but “vapid and overblown”? A “dire failure”? I beg to differ.

So, what’s the point? Either Christgau and Marsh, famous professional critics, considered to be leaders in the field, are wrong about this song and I, J. David, unknown, amateur blogger, considered to be the best music blogger named J. David, is right. Or people should listen to music and make their own decision. Or both.

Hot: Summer in the City

The Lovin' Spoonful: Summer in the City

[purchase]

You can feel the 1960s heat rising off of The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City." The band's first #1 single, the song started as a poem by John Sebastian's brother, Mark. All that remains from the original is the chorus (which sounds more like a typical Spoonful song than the rest of the song). John Sebastian toughened up the lyrics to reflect the sweltering tensions in American's urban areas. The mid-song sound effects further set the mood. "We hired an old sound man, obviously from the radio era," Sebastian says in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "He had old acetates of traffic jams and car horns. We listened for hours to various traffic jams and car horns and selected the ones we wanted. We found a pneumatic hammer...to provide the payoff for that section and bring it all together."

Thanks to central air conditioning, and improvements in urban planning and social services, summers in the city often don't seem as menacing these days. Though, that hasn't been the case in this summer of 2012, with record heat around the world, power outages, fires, droughts and derechos (I never even heard that meteorological term before one descended upon us in the D.C. area last month). Forty-six years after "Summer in the City" was first recorded, the imagery of "people looking half dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head" seems quite contemporary.

Elvis Covers Part II: Girls Talk

 Dave Edmunds: Girls Talk

[Purchase]

Elvis Costello gave Dave Edmunds this song in "a moment of drunken bravado" as he put it in the liner notes of  Rhino's reissue of Get Happy!! In 1979 Edmunds scored a UK#4 hit with the hard charging song which he recorded with Nick Lowe ( whom you can hear chanting "girls talk" at the end) and Rockpile. (The same bunch of pub crawlers who recorded Lowe's Jesus Of Cool that year). The result is power pop perfection. Costello was at the very height of his snarky word-playing powers:

There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder
I thought I heard you mention my name, can't you talk any louder?

It was far too late for EC to take back the song by the time he recorded his own version later that year with The Attractions. The two minute version is more herky jerky, sounds a bit like a throw-away, and got stuck to the B-side of the 1980 Get Happy!! single "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down".

Even an alternate version Costello recorded can't match Edmunds's straight ahead approach.

Linda Ronstadt has always known a good song when she heard one. She covered "Girls Talk" and two other Elvis Costello tunes for her new wave album Mad Love. An almost instant million seller, that 1980 album is out of print.

And yet Billy Joel's new wave recording Glass Houses is not. I know I've run off topic but really!! Is this justice? Discuss below.

Elvis Covers II: The Big Light

Johnny Cash: The Big Light

[purchase]

Elvis Costello on Johnny Cash, from the June Carter Keep on the Sunnyside compilation Joe Ross wrote about a few weeks back:

Being pals of their son-in-law, Nick Lowe, seemed to afford us some kind of "friend of the family" status with Johnny and June, and they extended a very generous welcome to a group of pale and trembling young men who had been tearing it up every night of their stay in town.

Before dinner, John took us on a tour of the grounds and property...Struggling to find anything coherent to say, I spied a Sun 45 of "Cry, Cry, Cry" propped up on an old-fashioned display stand. I told Johnny that we had just cut a version of this song of his. He promptly snatched up the disc and signed it -- "To Elvis" at the top of the label and "Your friend, Johnny Cash" just under the title -- and handed it to me...

Needless to say, the minute I got it home, I had the record frame and hung it on the wall. A few months later, June was visiting London again and I happened to drop in at the Carter/Lowe household. During her visits June could sometimes be found "improving" on the housecleaning of this rather rock and roll abode...On this occasion, she stopped her labors to say that she was mad at "Johnny Cash," as she always seemed to call him. Apparently, the Sun 45 had been a gift to June, long before their romance...Naturally I offered to return the memento, but June said I should keep it as it was now dedicated to me.

Elvis Covers Part II: Indoor Fireworks

Nick Lowe: Indoor Fireworks

[purchase (album only)]

In the early days, Elvis Costello covered Nick Lowe ("What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding"). Nick Lowe was the bigger name. By the time Lowe's Rose of England came out in 1985, the tables had turned. Lowe recorded his first Costello cover on that album, "Indoor Fireworks."

Lowe and Costello have collaborated for decades, beginning with Lowe serving as producer for Costello's first five albums. Earlier this year, while promoting his latest CD, That Old Magic, Lowe appeared on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast. He spoke of his relationship with Costello with affection and a dollop of good humor.

Maron: Did you find Elvis Costello?

Lowe: No, not really. He used to come and see our group, Brinsley Schwarz, especially when we played in the northwest toward Liverpool....We always used to notice him at the gigs....[I] thought "Well, he turns up all the time." So I went and said hello to him. A few years later he went into Stiff records...and I was sort of the house producer...

I thought his songs were too complicated, too many words, too many chords. When I was doing [My Aim Is True], I was sort of in charge. He did what I said, I was the producer. It didn't take very long for slowly the scales to tip, until I found myself tugging the forelock and saying, "Um, Mr. Costello what do you got in mind for today, sir?"...

Elvis's stuff was always very sophisticated. As I said, it was chord-y. But if you corralled it, it was fantastic. He's written some sensational songs....I can't really remember what I did [as Elvis's producer]. He kept on asking me back, and I would always turn up and say, "Oh yeah, very nice."

Maron: ...Would you put him in the same arena as Bob Dylan?

Lowe: Well...he certainly puts himself in the same arena as Bob Dylan. Don't get me wrong. I'm very fond of him. We get along great. I always feel with him, as I describe it, as rather like a slightly disapproving elder brother. He works so hard, and whenever I see him, he always comes up come up to me and says something like..."Oh yeah, well Bobby DeNiro and I went out with so and so." And, I find myself saying, "Well, Robert DeNiro. He hasn't really made a good film for quite a long time, now has he?" I find myself slagging off whatever he says. But I really am ever so fond of him. He's a great fellow.

Elvis Covers Part II: Oliver's Army

Bill Janovitz: Oliver's Army

[download from Janovitz's blog]

A number of years back, I located a copy of Almost Beating, a Bill Janovitz piece he played with Crown Victoria, one of several groups he has been involved in. It's a song that I have moved from one music playing device to another - just love the drive of the guitar and vocals. Although this song isnt the subject of this post, here's a link to a streamed version of the song which I first found on the now-changed music.download.com website many years back

Being physically distant from places where I might have the chance to see him play live, I periodically go searching online for more Janovitz. I hadn't previously noticed Janovitz's own blog, "Part Time Manof Rock", but in digging for Elvis Costello covers, I was elated to see that not only has Janovitz covered Costello, but he also writes specifically about it in his blog about the covers he has done.

About Oliver's Army, Janovitz says what I myself felt about his work: the lyrics are important, but "the music always has to hit me first." Costello is well known for his lyrics-writing abilities: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic notes both Costello's writing skills as well as his ability "to re-invent the past in his own image" - the Buddy Holly appearance brought to the 80s.

Elvis Covers Part II: Watching the Detectives

The Henry Girls: Watching the Detectives

[purchase]

“Watching the Detectives,” Elvis Costello’s 1977 first hit single in the U.K. (reaching #15), was also his first single to credit his backing band, The Attractions. The song appeared at #354 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I’ve always liked hearing it as the theme song when I tune into the show called “History Detectives” on PBS. But it’s actually a cynical statement about a girlfriend who is investing more in her relationship with the television. As the chorus declares:

She is watching the detectives,
"Ooh, he's so cute,"
She is watching the detectives,
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.

“Watching the Detectives” is Costello’s favorite song from the first five years of his career. He once said that he’d written the song after staying up for 36 hours, and then listening all night to The Clash’s first album.

For a cover of the song, I’ve chosen one from The Henry Girls’ new album called “December Moon.” From County Donegal, The Henry Girls (Karen, Lorna and Joleen McLaughlin) personalize their music with crystalline vocals, lilting melodies and eclectic influences. Karen plays fiddle, viola, guitar, banjo and even some ukulele. Joleen is a harper, but she also adds a little mandolin and piano to the mix. Lorna’s instrumental contributions are more understated, with some piano, accordion and chimes on a few tracks. All three women have music degrees, teach regularly, and have toured for years.

This cover of Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” is a good choice for these musicians who appreciate the English singer-songwriter’s literate lyrics and eclecticism. The girls have Celtic roots so they downplay any punk rock style in favor of a more relaxed, albeit sophisticated, acoustic folk arrangement. Besides their own originals, this cover by The Henry Girls is a good selection for airplay. The Henry Girls are touring the U.S. this summer of 2012. Here are some of their planned stops:

August 10, Live on the Levee, West Virginia
August 15, Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music
August 16 – 19, Milwaukee Irish Fest

I wonder if they like old detective shows and if they're anything like Costello’s lead-off lyrics: “Nice girls, not one with a defect. Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct …”?