Street Names: Highways 49 & 61

Howlin' Wolf: Highway 49

[purchase]

Johnny Winter: Highway 61 Revisited

[purchase]

Both of these US highways are odd numbered, which means that they run north-south. Don't say Star Maker Machine never taught you lot anything. If you've ever found yourself scratching your head at the junction of a odd-numbered US highway that you're damned sure you want to take west through town, but the choices offered are north or south, now you know why. We can't help you decide which ramp to pick, though. Crank up your music and maybe you won't care.

US Route 49 runs through Mississippi and eases on into northeastern Arkansas. Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil at the crossroad of Hwys 49 and 61, and I've been told by Mr. Geoviki that this spot is destined to be a future vacation destination. Will there be a Stuckeys there, I wonder? I could Google Earth it, but why spoil the adventure? More importantly, will I have to fall down on my knees? I'd better pack kneepads.

Highway 49, the song, was written by Delta blues artist Big Joe Williams. It's recorded here by electric blues artist Chester Burnett, better known as Howlin' Wolf, which ranks right up there as Best. Musical. Name. Ever. Maybe we'd never have heard of either of them if not for the enthusiastic acolytes made up of British Invasion musicians like The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds, Cream, Fleetwood Mac, The Animals, and Ten Years After, who introduced American audiences in the 60's to their own heritage. This song is from the 1971 London session of Howlin' Wolf plus a few other guys: Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Charlie Watts, and Bill Wyman. Wonder what happened to them? They showed such promise.

US Route 61, aka The Great River Road because it generally follows the Mississippi River, runs from New Orleans to Duluth, Minnesota, which happens to be the home of the next song's composer, Bob Dylan. I haven't heard whether or not I'll be dragged escorted to this highway in my future.

Probably the most well-known cover of this Dylan tune is by electric blues guitarist Johnny Winter. He released it twice: once on this 1970 studio recording and again on a 1976 live album. Johnny's still touring, and he was still featuring this song when I and Mr. Taking-You-To-The-Crossroads saw him last summer.

Street Names: 72 (This Highway´s Mean)

Drive-By Truckers: 72 (This Highway´s Mean)

[purchase]

U.S. Highway 72 is approximately 337 miles long and runs from Chattanooga in southeast Tennessee through northern Alabama and northern Mississippi to Memphis in southwest Tennessee. According to the Drive-By Truckers, my pick when it comes to choosing the finest rock band of the past decade, it´s a mean ole dusty highway. But it´s also the only one that´ll get you there.

"Don't know why they even bother putting this highway on the map,
Anybody that's ever been on it knows exactly where they're at,
Hell´s on both ends of it, and nowhere´s in between,
This highway´s mean..."

Street Names: Conversation Off Floral Street

The Zombies: Conversation Off Floral Street

[purchase]

I considered posting this one during Instrumentals Week but I never got around to it, so here it is now instead. Accompanied by a bit of text copied and pasted from Wikipedia:

Floral Street is a street located in the Covent Garden area of London. It runs east from Garrick Street to Bow Street and contains a number of fashion stores, including Paul Smith.

Originally called Hart Street, it changed to the current name in 1895 to reflect the market trade. However the street itself was mainly used by tradesmen associated with the fruit market. Originally the street was a cul-de-sac and at its peak during the 18th century there were no fewer than eleven pubs on the road and many illegal brothels.

Floral Street was also the Old Compton Street of its time with a lage gay community, a pillory stood in the street which was mainly occupied by carousing homosexuals. Due to its narrowness, the street has never been a sought after residential address in comparison to its surroundings, though Joseph Haines lived and died here in 1701.

Street Names: 'A' Bomb on Wardour Street

The Jam: 'A' Bomb on Wardour Street

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Wardour Street runs through Soho, central London. When this song was released in 1978, Number 90 Wardour Street was home to The Marquee Club and hosted upcoming British groups like The Stranglers, Joy Division, The Buzzcocks, Generation X, The Cure, and our featured band, The Jam.

The Jam were heavily influenced by earlier mod power pop groups like The Who, The Small Faces, and the Kinks, and they led a mod revival in the late 70s. One of the unfortunate side effects of the musical revival was a resurrection of violence among British subcultures who bolstered their identities from the music. The 60s saw mods against rockers (remember Quadrophenia?); in the 70s, that animosity reignited, with skinheads and Teddy boys joining in for kicks.

'A' Bomb in Wardour Street is a diatribe against the skinheads and punks who brought violence into the clubs, and describes an attack by Doc Martin-shod thugs: I'm stranded on the vortex floor/My head's been kicked in and blood's started to pour/Through the haze I can see my girl/15 geezers got her pinned to the door. It's a two-chord rant that borrows more from The Clash than from The Who, harsh and vitriolic—and effective.

A P O C A L Y P S E !

Street Names: Basin Street Ain’t Basin Street No More

Snookum Russell: Basin Street Ain‘t Basin Street No More

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Basin Street was in the heart of Storyville, the legendary “vice district” in New Orleans. Here, before 1917, prostitution and gambling flourished. There were also plentiful gigs for musicians. House of the Rising Sun probably took place here, and of course, Basin St Blues. It’s only natural that there would be lots of songs about places where musicians found work. In 1917, as America entered World War I and patriotism ran high, Basin St was “cleaned up” in a fit of national morality.

I remember visiting another famous “vice district” when I was a child: Times Square and 42nd St in New York City. It was sleazy, dirty, and dangerous, but it was certainly real. Nowadays, that area is a huge animated billboard for Disney and their corporate pals. It looks like something out of Blade Runner. It’s completely artificial, and ought to cause cancer. So something has been gained, but something has also been lost. And that’s how I relate to this song.

Street Names / Off-Genre: Manhattan Avenue

Nellie McKay: Manhattan Avenue

[purchase]

Is is possible to go off-genre just minutes into your first album, in the transition from the first track to the second? Nellie McKay certainly gave it her best shot, opening 2004 debut Get Away From Me - the title a play on Norah Jones' Come Away With Me - with bouncy, radioready Contemporary Pop hit David, then suddenly transitioning from layered vocals and reggae-tinged beat to this torchy and smooth jazz vocal piano-bar tribute to the busy, seedy Brooklyn thoroughfare.

The rest of the album is more like the former than the latter, of course. To put the exception so far forward is shocking, and oh, so perfectly Nellie.

Off-Genre: Calypso Blues

Marvin Gaye: Calypso Blues

[purchase]

Despite a strong performance by everyone this week, this really is a challenging theme. I had to leave the comfort of my own collection, and go shopping on Amazon to find a song for this post. And how do you do that search? I tried searching for tribute albums, and stopped when I found this one.

Many of the songs this week have been cases of artists trying to broaden their appeal once they were established, or to escape the straightjacket of their fan’s expectations. But sometimes, it takes an artist a while to find their sound, and their off-genre work occurs early in their career. Such was the case with Marvin Gaye. By the early 70s, What’s Going On was out, and Gaye’s success was assured. But, in 1965, he was still finding out who he was. That was when he took time out to pay tribute to one of his inspirations, Nat King Cole. I never knew this until I researched this post. Why would an artist do a tribute album when he hasn’t even established his own career yet? Remember that this was 1965, and artists released three albums a year, not the album every three years that is the norm nowadays. Soon enough, Gaye would be able to return to his own music.

My selection of Calypso Blues is intentionally ironic. This one would have been off genre for Nat King Cole as well. There was a calypso craze in the United states in the 1950s. That was when Harry Belafonte rose to fame. As far as I know, Calypso Blues was the only calypso song Cole ever recorded. And if you really want to go far off genre, try this. Years later, Damien Marley took Cole’s original vocal track and created a brand new instrumental track for it. So Nat King Cole became a reggae singer.

Off-Genre: Neil Young Edition

Neil Young: Transformer Man

[purchase]

After a disappointing Crazy Horse album, re*ac*tor, Neil switched labels and signed with Geffen Records for most of the '80s. It didn't take long for the two to butt heads. With it's synths, robotic beats and vocoder-heavy vocals, one can only wonder what Geffen thought when he first heard Trans. Many of the songs stem from Neil's attempts to communicate with his son Ben, who has cerebral palsy. There are some beautiful melodies hidden in the album, like this track, which he would recast in an acoustic setting for his turn at MTV Unplugged eleven years later.


Neil & The Shocking Pinks: Kinda Fonda Wanda

[purchase]

While touring is support of Trans, Neil came up with the Shocking Pinks concept. Talk about a 180-degree turn! After a turn at futuristic electro-rock, Neil set the time machine for the 1950s and gave us a 25-minute album of rockabilly. It could have been interesting, but the '80s production values and the dopey backing vocals really sabotaged the album. But live, the band started to stretch out, and set the seeds for the Bluenotes five years later. But first...


Neil Young: Get Back to the Country

[purchase]

Where to go from there? How about a pure country album? Neil had played country-rock on and off for years, most notably on Harvest, his biggest album. The promise of a return to that sound must have made David Geffen smile, but the more Geffen pushed Neil to make it sound like "Neil", the more country Neil went. Here he pretty much took it to the extreme, with the dopey "boing" of the Jew's harp pushing it over the edge. Live, the band once again started to stretch out and really rock. So naturally...


Neil Young: Weight of the World

[purchase]

...he went all synth-rock on us. Recorded with studio pros Danny Kortchmar on guitar and synths and Steve Jordan on drums and synths. The music can be brutal, with the drums in particular seemingly in your face. It's not an easy listen.


Neil Young & The Bluenotes: Married Man

[purchase]

After that, Neil toured and released an album with his old friends Crazy Horse. But during that tour, he started adding a blues mini-set, and that lead to the Bluenotes. I've written about this before, so I'll just say that this is a very underrated period in Neil's career, and the beginning of Neil getting back on track. (His next album included "Rockin' in the Free World", one of his best songs.)

Off-Genre: Under The Water

Jewel: Under the Water

[Purchase]

Sometimes off-genre goes terribly wrong, and you want to beg the artist to keep their day job, or in musicians case I suppose I mean stick to what they're good at. Unfortunately, Jewel, the folky Alaskan girl known for her hits "Who Will Save Your Soul?" and "You Were Meant for Me" from her crazily popular debut album "Pieces of You", sometimes doesn't listen to the wisdom of sticking with what you know and likes to stray.

Jewel released a whole album of pseudo-dance music in 2003, complete with her in neon clothing on the cover. In interviews she said it was to step out of the box people had put her in and to also be a bit ironic. Unfortunately for her, and for us, putting out ironic music looks more like a sell-out than anything else. What she is good at is stripped-down, acoustic, heartfelt and simple. Things that let her voice and words shine through.

But she's always had a penchant for such behavior. This little gem (yeah, that's sarcasm) is from the soundtrack to the '90s teen flick The Craft, and was released shortly after her debut album came out. The song features retro synth beats that remind me of late 70's soul, and a lovely interlude where Jewel attempts to rap. Any white girl who grew up on a ranch, can yodel, and is married to a rodeo star really doesn't have any business rapping. Alas, she was young when she did this, at least she hasn't tried it again since. Jewel, we love your simple acoustic stuff, please stick with what you do best.

Off-Genre: Easy

Faith No More: Easy

[purchase]

Faith No More is one of those hard-to-pigeonhole bands that peaked in the early 90s and had disbanded by 1998 (although they're back together in concert, at least in Europe). I always scratch my head when I try to fill in the "genre" field on one of their songs. Are they experimental rock? Or are they alt metal? Neither? Both? Maybe it depends on who's in the band at the time: Wikipedia claims they've had 7 vocalists (including Courtney Love at one point) and 10 guitarists, making it a band that needs math done in powers of 2 to wrap your mind around it.

Their sound, however, was never smooth R&B. Except this once. Keyboard, strings, horn, background singers? Check.

Their cover of The Commodores' "Easy" was only released in later versions of their 1992 album "Angel Dust." It's become a favorite and best-seller, though. Instead of changing the genre to fit their normal style, they pretty much record it straight like Lionel (well, except for that quirky exclamation just before the guitar solo). Mike Patton, the vocalist du jour, has a nice, rich voice and he carries the song well. Have a listen.

Off-Genre: The Lady Is a Tramp

Fairport Convention: The Lady Is a Tramp

[purchase]

In the late '60s, Fairport Convention were a pretty eclectic bunch. Still, it's a bit of a shock to hear the originators of British folk-rock tackling one of Frank Sinatra's signature songs. This track was recorded in 1969 for a BCC Top Gear session (though didn't see official release until 2002), with guitarist Richard Thompson on lead vocals, drummer Dave Mattacks on piano, and rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol on drums.

No, Richard doesn't give Frank a run for his money. But considering how long it took Thompson to "find" his singing voice, he acquits himself rather nicely. And it's just a hint of the musical eclecticism that would lead him to the "1000 Years of Popular Music" project more than thirty years later.

Off-Genre: I’m Satisfied

John Hiatt: I‘m Satisfied

[purchase]

Many artists do their thing on their albums, and never go off course. And this is true even for an artist like John Hiatt, whose style is not easy to pin down. Hiatt is known for the amazing wordplay in his lyrics and the clever twists in his storytelling. He’s worth listening to because, for all the cleverness, he never loses sight of the humanity of his characters. And it doesn’t hurt that he is also a fine instrumentalist. But, if you want to hear John Hiatt go off genre, you must leave behind the albums he records in his own name.

Tribute albums are a fine source for material this week. At their best, these albums allow artists to reveal an influence that the listener never suspected. If there is a weakness in the album Avalon Blues, it is that many of the choices of artists are too obvious, The album pays tribute to the music of blues legend Mississippi John Hurt, and the roster contains a mix of artists working in the acoustic blues scene, as well as some artists whose love of the blues is obvious in their work. But there are some ringers, and John Hiatt is one of these. Here he is, with only his own acoustic guitar for accompaniment. I’m Satisfied is a straightforward tale, with no irony involved, and Hiatt’s vocal is low key and radiates warmth. It’s a wonderful performance, and a wonderful surprise from one of my favorite artists. And let me emphasize that the rest of the album is just as good, just not always so surprising.

Off-Genre: Wiggley Fingers

Patty Griffin: Wiggley Fingers

[purchase]

Last time I mentioned Patty Griffin's sophomore album Flaming Red here in these pages, it led to an interesting debate between contributors about the value of the album as a touchstone for the singer-songwriter's evolution. And like Nelson's spouse, I agree that there's much to love about the first half of that album, though I find the songs from it more palatable in their live and stripped-down form.

But love it or hate it, there's no denying that late-album track Wiggley Fingers is a full-blown departure for Griffin, even more than the rest of the heavily-produced album in question. If it weren't for that distinctive voice straining to come clear through the sonic haze, and the oddly, dischordantly Catholic-schoolgirl-esque lyrical impressions under all that bombast, it would be easier to imagine this driving, heavily electronic, beat-heavy track in the hands and voice of a blazing country rocker in full-blown light-show prance-around encore mode. Or even in the sexualized, radio-ready hands of a modern poprock diva, like Pink, Madonna, or Ke$ha - wherein it would sound just right, come to think of it. Check it out, yo.

Off-Genre: Jesus

Velvet Underground: Jesus

[purchase]

On the first album they gave us Heroin and Venus in Furs, on the second Sister Ray and White Light White Heat and on the third we got ... Jesus.

Years ago, whenever I queried this track people would tell me Lou Reed was being ironic. I wasn't sure about that then, less so now. It's too affecting to be ironic, nor does it have the desperation necessary for what some think is a junkie's lament. Lyrically it's a straightforward hymn, musically it's not too far removed from the basic keyboard arrangements the early protestants favoured. All in all it stands up today as a straightforward declaration of Christian love, something Pat Boone (see below) would feel perfectly comfortable crooning. Maybe Lou Reed was daring us to ask what was going on here. No journalist I'm aware of ever put the question to him. Maybe they were scared of the answer they'd get.


Guest post by John

Off-Genre: Crazy Train

Pat Boone: Crazy Train

[purchase]

Pat Boone is best known for turning '50s black R&B into pop music, safe for the white masses. But in 1997, he gave us In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, where he took twelve heavy metal and hard rock classics and gave them a jazzy big-band treatment. The album is an abomination, pure kitsch, but there there is value in finally hearing all the words to "Crazy Train".

Off-Genre: Not Quite Visual Kei Edition

Pata~~Miyavi~~You

X Japan: White Wind from Mr. Martin (Pata's Nap)

[purchase]

Miyavi: Jikoai, jigajisan, jiishiki kajou

Miyavi: Selfish love - Aishitekure, Aishiterukara

[purchase]

Janne Da Arc: Zero

[purchase]

Here are four short tunes from Japanese rock artists who are best known for playing lead guitar in well-known Visual Kei (VK) bands. VK as a genre, which began in the '80s in Japan, is a blend of glam rock, metal, and punk. In its early days, a VK band's appearance was part and parcel of the genre – think the New York Dolls cranked up to 11. These days, most VK bands have toned down the "visual shock." Maybe these aging stars realized that leather hot pants, Audrey Hepburn pearls, and fishnet stockings are no longer quite so flattering.

I mentioned X Japan in my first guest post. This supergroup defined Visual Kei back in the day and remains the stuff of legends. X Japan's sound can be classified as symphonic metal. What it wasn't was anything like this short piece by one of their two lead guitarists, Pata (we're all on a first-name basis with these guys). To me, this song's a little footnote that says, "Hey, when I'm not churning out power chords, did you know I can sound just like Willie Nelson?"

Next up are two tunes by VK artist Miyavi. I dragged my dear husband to see him on our vacation in London last fall, where I judge we were the oldest fans there by a good two decades. He's kind of the new kid on the VK block, and yes, he used to model fashion as well, can you tell from the pose? Such a cutie. Anyway, when he's not flirting with the camera and cranking out rock, he loves American blues. His two songs are meant to be heard as a set. He's a Muddy Waters fan, who these two songs honor by way of Tokyo. Miyavi's on his first US tour this June, mostly along the coasts, so if you have a chance, I heartily encourage you to check him out. Otherwise, look for these songs on YouTube, where he mimics the Mississippi River by flooding the studio.

Janne Da Arc (pronounced Jannu Daruku) is not named after the heroic Joan of Arc but rather after a manga character. To me, it seems like half the VK bands have chosen French names that are basically unpronounceable in Japanese. You, the lead guitarist (his mom knows him as Yutaka Tsuda), clearly released this tune to confuse Jimmy Page, who's probably still wondering when he recorded this.

Guest post by Geoviki

Off-Genre: The Real Thing

Russell Morris: The Real Thing

[purchase]

In 1969 Russell Morris was a pop singer, best known in Australia for some listenable if asinine pop songs, aspiring crooner Johnny Young had been the host of teen pop shows 'Club Seventeen' and 'Go', and Ian Meldrum was a journalist with pop magazine 'Go Set'. Pop was their world, and a pretty little world it was too. When Johnny Young wrote 'The Real Thing' he envisioned a pop ballad; an acoustic guitar, some strings and perhaps a girl chorus wrapped up in a sincerely syrupy declaration of pop love. That's what he was thinking when he gave it to Meldrum, who was also Morris's manager/producer. Maybe Meldrum secretly detested the song, or he had a paticularly inspiring weekend. Whatever, he turned loose on it, blasting away its prissiness with phasing, echo, feedback, demented overdubs, manic choirs and laughter and finishing it off the only way he could, with a massive explosion.

Russell gets the credit for this psychedelic masterpiece but it was always Meldrum's moment. In a few years he'd be the host of 'Countdown' the show that ruled Australian music in the 1970s. Johnny Young would host 'Young Talent Time', a breeding ground for kids who aspired to one day mount Countdown's centre stage. Russell Morris wouldn't go away either, though he'd never quite reach the heights of The Real Thing, but who could?

Guest post by John

Off-Genre: Cha Cha Loco

Joe Jackson: Cha Cha Loco

[purchase]

This week’s theme presents a unique challenge. Often, when an artist steps outside their comfort zone, they fall on their face. So the task is to find the good stuff. That means finding an artist who can stretch out successfully. Joe Jackson is usually one of these. He is known for new wave rock. But Jackson has incorporated reggae into his sound, (Fools in Love), and he recorded an entire album of old jazz songs. Only his sort of new age instrumental album fell flat. Still, Latin jazz?

That’s right. On Cha Cha Loco, Joe Jackson asked his band, normally a great rock group, to go Latin. It didn’t hurt that he was assisted by a great horn section. But any way you look at it, this really worked.

Mothers/Off-Genre: I Want To Be Your Mother's Son-In-Law

Macy Gray: I Want To Be Your Mother's Son-In-Law

[purchase]

Soulful R&B-slash-funk singer Macy Gray - often compared to Billie Holiday due to her airy voice and intonation - jazzes up one of Holiday's classic tunes, going full-blown New Orleans big-band for T-Bone Burnett's deliciously retro Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood soundtrack, and as befits its anachronistic setting, man, does this song swing. Great sentiment, too.

As this week's segue song, the track takes us from our Mothers theme to a dip in the pool of one-off genre switches. Careful not to judge the coming musicians by what you hear here in the next seven days, folks. It may be a blast, thanks to Burnett's prescient production, but this sure as heck isn't Macy's usual setting.

Mothers: The Rooms My Mother Made

Carrie Newcomer: The Rooms My Mother Made

[purchase]

As we journey through life, and as we journey through this week’s posts, we experience a variety of emotions about mothers. From the unconditional love we experience in early childhood, through the resentful feelings that some experience in their teenage years, and on to a bittersweet appreciation and acceptance that hopefully comes in later life, feelings about motherhood are complicated. In The Rooms My Mother Made, Carrie Newcomer doesn’t shy away from any of these feelings and more, But acceptance is her theme, and she expresses it beautifully. So this seemed to me to be the perfect song to bring my posts for this week to a close.

Mothers: "Baking Serving Caring Listening" Edition

The Roches: I Love My Mom

[purchase] - out of stock on their own website


Susan McKeown: Mother of Mine

[purchase]


Rachel Bissex: Dancing with My Mother

[purchase]


Annie Gallup: Blue Dress

[purchase]

I have been a mess for the last week, in anticipation/dread of this holiday that is everywhere (television, radio, newspaper, magazines, e- and snail-mail solicitations promoting gifts and flowers, department stores)... but that pains me so much this year, because it is my first Mother's Day without my mom - she passed away July 19, 2009 and her absence remains heartbreakingly fresh...

I really just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head... but my own children need me, so I will attempt to be the best mother I can be under the circumstances, and they completely understand - inside, I feel lost and frightened and empty (who do I call/mail a card/send flowers to now?)...

I know Mom is with me in spirit, I retain indelible memories and she lives on in my character traits (the good and the bad) - I dream of her often and I realize she'd want me to move ahead and through rather than stay stuck and wounded...

I meant to post these songs throughout the week but it just seemed less wrenching to do it all at once (the band-aid removal theory, you know) - the last one, by definition of our terms (post songs with a word for "mother " in the title) is cheating, but it so suits the intention of the theme that I hope I'll be forgiven...

Mothers: I Had A Good Mother And Father

Washington Phillips: I Had A Good Mother And Father (circa 1928)

[purchase]

Kate Wolf: I Had A Good Mother and Father (1979)

[purchase]

Palace Brothers: I Had A Good Father And Mother (1993)

[purchase]

Gillian Welch: I Had A Real Good Mother & Father (2003)

[purchase]

Newcomers to the folkworld may believe this song is a Gillian Welch original, and it's true that Welch and her partner David Rawlings have a powerful tendency to make the songs they perform their own. But older folkies like myself know it as an old gospel spiritual, first recorded and possibly penned by Washington Phillips in the midst of the Great Depression, which flows down to us through the folkways in many hands and voices, and with variation in the title.

Kate Wolf, for example, takes Phillips' own listing and makes it her own through gentle, loving acoustic treatment in her inimitably beautiful voice. Meanwhile, the Palace Brothers reverse the titular parents and twang it up a bit, adding old timey banjo and slide over guitar strum patterns more akin to that of Phillips' original handmade chord-zither. Alongside these, Welch's slow-picked dustbowl rendition aches with yearning for the promise of Heaven's reunion.

Mothers: Does Your Mother Know

ABBA: Does Your Mother Know

[purchase]

Damn, this is my fourth post this week.

And I'm gonna use it to force some cheesy, ultra-commercial pop down your throats. Pop music of a kind not seen very often on this blog.

Mothers: A Mother's Cry

Loosegoats: A Mother's Cry

[purchase]

A baby bird has left its nest
Staggering like they always do
A mother's cry can cut through any man's chest
And it does
Yes it does

Sometimes I wish that it would be a little easier
'Cause the hardest fall comes when you're on the ground
Sometimes I wish that it would be a little easier
On you
On me

In the evil I see good
Easy to find but often so misunderstood
A mother's cry can cut through any man's chest
And it does
Yes it does

Mothers: Mother Russia

Renaissance: Mother Russia

[purchase]

Tracks like "Mother Russia", from Renaissance's 1974 Turn of the Cards, are why punk rock had to be invented. This is not music that will make you want to join a band. This is music that will turn you into an egghead. Bathe in its orchestral rock excess! I love it.

Mothers: Mama Didn't Lie

Doris: Mama Didn't Lie

[purchase]

Doris Svensson became something of a cult figure in Sweden a few years ago when the TV show Musikbyrån did a half hour special on the music scene in late 60's/early 70's. Before the show, very few had even heard of her, and suddenly her only album Did You Give The World Some Love Today, Baby (1970) sold like crazy.

It was reissued on cd in 1996 with a number of bonus tracks, including this Curtis Mayfield penned number, originally recorded by Jan Bradley and The Fascinations in 1963. There was also a cover of The Band's Whispering Pine, which can be checked out here.

Mothers: Mother's Spiritual

Laura Nyro – Mother's Spiritual

[purchase]

This song comes from one of Laura Nyro's later albums, recorded in 1984 when she was a single mother of a 2-year-old boy. By then, she'd moved away from the jazz and soul–drenched pop that often defined her earlier songs (and made big hits for artists like The Fifth Dimension, Barbra Streisand, Three Dog Night, and Blood, Sweat and Tears). Recorded in her Connecticut home studio and using only a piano and her compelling voice, the title song is a poetic ode to motherhood. And although I love her Brill Building pop sound (she did an entire cover album in 1971 with LaBelle just full of gems from the likes of Martha and the Vandellas, Curtis Mayfield, and Ben E. King), I also love her heartfelt ballads like this one.

Guest post by Geoviki

Mothers: My Mother’s Keeper

Laura Siersema: My Mother‘s Keeper

[purchase]

One of my great pleasures in running Oliver di Place is discovering artists who are new to me. I feature their most recent work, and that usually means I don’t get to share them with you here. That’s because, at Star Maker, we have an informal rule against posting new music. But lately, I have begun to get from my Oliver artists some of their older work. Laura Siersema is one of these, and the first one I am sharing here.

My Mother’s Keeper is from Siersema’s debut album. The song is a beautiful portrait of women who go out on their own, only to discover that they must return home to care for their mothers in later life. Or maybe it isn’t. Maybe the song is about women who find echoes of their mother’s behavior in themselves as they get older. This is one of those lyrics that will start conversations about its meaning. I don’t think there is a single right answer. And it is very difficult to write a lyric like this.

Meanwhile, Siersema sings this one in an intimate alto, although she sings in a warm soprano elsewhere. For accompaniment, there is just Siersema’s piano, but that is all the song needs. You can hear more of Siersema’s early work here. With her latest album, Siersema says she has found her sound. It is built from what she was doing on her debut. You can hear what she sounds like now here.

Mothers: Night Time Was My Mother

Driver Quartet: Night Time Was My Mother

[out of print]

For a few years in the late '90s, Driver Quartet were making interesting sounds in downtown NYC. Bandleader David Driver's mannered vocals were the obvious focus of the group, but the rest of the band were all master musicians, so the backing by keyboardist Fil Krohnengold, woodwind/accordion player Peter Kiesewalter, and bassist Adam Bernstein (yes, him again) was always more interesting than simple backing.

They specialized in digging up obscurities from the American Popular Songbook, and sprinkling them with originals (often from bassist Bernstein), as well as a few more well-known songs. (There reworking of "Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard" is sublime.)

"Night Time Was My Mother" is one of the obscurities. Written by Connie Pearce and Arnold Miller, the liner notes to the Driver Quartet CD Night Time state that the song was "[o]riginally recorded by June Christy in 1958, in an arrangement by her longtime collaborator Pete Rugolo. We have yet to find another version." (I've recently discovered that another artist has since recorded it.)

The band must have really liked the song. They only released one EP (Big and Strong and Lonely) and one full-length CD (the aforementioned Night Time), yet both discs took their titles from its dark lyrics. Both discs also open with a version of the song. I've chosen to share the slightly longer second version, from Night Time.

Mothers: Every Mother's Son

Chris Smither: Every Mother's Son

[out of print; purchase used here]

Today's post marks the fifth Chris Smither post since this blog's inception, though only my second since the man himself moved from his long-time home of Woodstock to our own local area, and I think it's fair to warn all our readers that just as I plan to see him another three dozen times or more before I die, I plan to keep posting and promoting the undersung folkblues poet until I've converted everyone within earshot.

Smither's performance and songwriting prowess have matured and mellowed with age, but this early track from 1972 sophomore release Don't It Drag On is a personal favorite: deep and blue, pensive and peaceful, yet elegantly simple in its structure and lyric. There's also a great live version on his 1991 comeback album Another Way To Find You.

Mothers: Mother of Earth

Mick Harvey: Mother of Earth

[purchase]

There's a story that Billy Idol heard the Gun Club playing Mother of Earth, tried to copy it and came up with White Wedding. Former Bad Seed Mick Harvey simply decided to cover the song. Think of this as a prayer by a man who has used up all his chances. Think of Edward Weston's photograph of a dead drifter he stumbled on in the desert. Think of John Fante's "Ask the Dust" if you want but try not to think of White Wedding. You'll be receiving all the wrong messages.

The 2005 album, One Man's Treasure, slipped under too many radars, maybe because Harvey was covering songs, maybe because it wasn't quite what Bad Seeds fans wanted. Too bad. There isn't a dull moment on this album.

Guest post from John. His blog is One Man’s Treasure. Coincidence?

Mothers: The Bob Dylan & The Band Edition

Bob Dylan & The Hawks: Tell Me Momma

[purchase]


Bob Dylan & The Band: Tough Mama

[purchase]


Bob Dylan & The Band: It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding

[purchase]

Tell Me Momma was the opening song of the second half of Dylan's set during the controversial electric rock band tour of 1966. This take is from the infamous "Judas gig" in Manchester on May 17. The Band, or The Hawks as they were still known from their hellraising years with Ronnie Hawkins, are all present on this track, sans drummer Levon Helm who had chosen to leave the tour because of the overwhelmingly negative response from the audience, and been replaced by Mickey Jones.

Tough Mama is taken from 1974's Planet Waves, the only proper studio album Dylan and The Band recorded together. They had collaborated on Blonde On Blonde in 1966 (again without Helm), but only guitarist Robbie Robertson appeared on the finished album. And of course they had the legendary sessions in Woodstock in 1967, eventually released as The Basement Tapes in 1975, which wasn't originally intended for release but played a big role on Dylan's John Wesley Harding (1967) and The Band's debut album Music From Big Pink (1968).

Following the release of Planet Waves, Dylan and The Band went on tour - Dylan's first in eight years. Before The Flood was recorded during this tour, and it's from this live album the incendiary rendition of It's Alright Ma, I'm Only Bleeding is taken. Although I confess it doesn't entirely fit into this post, as Dylan did it by himself and doesn't feature The Band at all. But it's the only song on there that references a mother in the title, so I'm shoehorning it in.

Hats off to Darius. Photo by Neil Preston.

Mothers: Mother Stands For Comfort

Kate Bush: Mother Stands For Comfort

[purchase]

A mother’s love is a thing of great power. You hear of mothers who are suddenly able to lift cars, because they believe their child lies beneath. As Kate Bush sees it here, a mother protects her child, no matter what he may have done. “Mother will hide the murderer. Mother will hide the madman.” Bush apparently meant for this song to be taken literally.

The melody and some of the instrumental lines have a hymn like quality. But other parts are disorienting. There are odd sound effects, and the music overall has an otherworldly feel. This all creates a dramatic tension that is very powerful.

Oh, before I leave you, let me take a moment to thank David and Geoviki for answering the call, and making sure I had this to post.

Instrumentals/Mothers: Smother Your Mother Tango

Mambo Combo: Smother Your Mother Tango

[purchase]

Surely there's a more appropriate song out there for our transition from one theme to the next this week - after all, we're looking towards Mother's Day, and though my own mother and I have a classically strained and essentially dysfunctional relationship, the titular sentiment here is a bit violent even for me. But I just couldn't resist this joyous faux-latin tango, in no small part because the backstory is delightfully ridiculous.

Mambo Combo was formed when one of its members, a punk guitarist named Bob Friedman, came up with a truly silly name for a band for a small festival that he was promoting, and - purely as a joke - decided to recruit three drummers and two other guitarists, all local punk musicians themselves, to form a band that fit the name, despite having no experience whatsoever with the world of latin music. In 1997, after fifteen years of tongue-in-cheek for-fun-only gigs led to a serious reputation, Mambo Combo recorded their one and only studio album, Mr. Happy; since then, they've leveraged their work into a full-time gig, continuing to perform for parties and at bars in the Baltimore area.

I have no idea how I ended up with this track after all that - must have picked it up on the blogs somewhere - but for what it's worth, it's infectiously fun. The Mambo Combo website is endearingly old-school, too.

Instrumentals: Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder

Quicksilver Messenger Service: Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder

[purchase]

Quicksilver Messenger Service circa 1969, from the one album they made while famed British session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins (a/k/a "Edward") was a member of the band. Hopkins played on hits by just about everyone on both sides of the Atlantic in the '60s and '70s (a partial list includes The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck Group, Rod Stewart, Cat Stevens, Donovan, Jefferson Airplane, The Steve Miller Band, Art Garfunkel, Jerry Garcia, The Beatles, and all four solo Beatles), but here he gets to stretch out on one of his own compositions.

Instrumentals: Synchronicity

Sugizo – Synchronicity

[purchase]

Darius has generously encouraged me to offer up a second post for Instrumentals Week, and since I've been a huge fan of Star Maker Machine these past years, I took him up on it with glee. Besides, I just retired yesterday, so it's not like I don’t have the time. Heh.

There's no one quite so passionate as a convert. And although I have more traditional tastes, and would like to share those with you, I suspect I'll try hard to coax you into following me into my new love of Japanese rock (aka J-Rock or J-Pop). Like most of you, I've liked world music in one incarnation or another for quite a while, but I recently discovered this whole new genre. Don't you just love it when worlds unfold like that? You're all music lovers, so I know you've had it happen, too. Scales falling from eyes!

So. Sugizo. That's him in the photo, looking like he's decked out in Halloween crepe and doing the goth limbo. He plays both guitar and violin, amply on display in this song. He's the lead guitarist for Luna Sea, a big name in the 90's, mainly, but who reform on occasion. At the moment, he's joined X-Japan, one of the biggest J-Rock groups ever. If you like your rock with a side of emo soap opera, come sit by me and I'll fill you in. Or you can Wiki them. And if you happen to live in Chicago, you lucky things, you can see X-Japan reunited at Lollapalooza this summer, an event that has me counting my frequent flier miles. Think The Beatles, if they'd managed to get back together before George died (because oh yes, we also have tragic band member death).

Synchronicity is from the Sugizo-penned soundtrack to the movie Soundtrack (and boy, if you want to confound a Google search, name your movie Soundtrack). Sugizo also stars in this film. I just watched it a few weeks ago and couldn't make much sense of it, to be frank. It's mostly a lot of violent imagery backed with tender violin playing. Still, the music's terrific and the actors are easy on the eyes, so what's not to like?

Guest post by Geoviki

Instrumentals: Pond Crossings II, Folk Dance Edition

It was almost two years ago that I began posting here. And very soon after, Boyhowdy did me the distinct honor of inviting me to do a guest post on his blog, Cover Lay Down. For my theme, I chose to examine how songs from the British Isles changed when the came to the United States. You can still see that post here, although the songs are long gone. I wanted to wrap up my posts for this week with a sequel of sorts to that post. Let’s take a look at how music for folk dancing manages its trip across the pond.

All of the music in this post is instrumental by necessity. Live, there is a caller who announces the steps as they happen. After two or three repetitions of the music, with variations, the caller drops out, and the dance propels itself.

Ted Furey: Saddle the Pony

[purchase]

Irish folk dancing is a lively affair. Often, the music contains a missing percussion part, which is supplied live by the thunderous sound of the dancers’ feet hitting the floor. Thanks to Riverdance, most people know about step dancing, which is strictly for performance. But Ireland has a rich tradition of jigs, reels, strathspeys, and other dance tunes. These are participatory dances; no one is expected to sit still and just watch. Indeed, sitting still when a master is playing one of these tunes is almost impossible.

Ted Furey probably hoped that his children would follow in his footsteps as a musician. In his time, Ted was known as one of the finest traditional Irish fiddlers. Indeed, future generations of Fureys have made their mark as well. I will be looking in on some of them in a Spotlight on Celtic music on Oliver di Place. That’s coming up soon. Watch the sidebar here to find out when I post it, or pay me a visit sooner if you like.

Bonnie Rideout: Mrs Gunn‘s Strathspey- Sweet Molly- Wise Maid

[purchase]

Bonnie Rideout is actually American, but her interpretations are authentic enough that she has won several Scottish Fiddle championships. In Scotland and Ireland both, bands often play “sets” rather than single tunes. The dancers know to expect this, and don’t miss a step. A “set” is what we would call a medley, where one tune blends into the next.

Foxfire: The Introduction

[purchase]

English country dancing is a more stately affair. The music is slower, and there is more of an emphasis on the beauty of the melody and the playing. The dances that go with it reflect this. There are moves and postures that are very specific, and purists will let you know if you miss one.

Foxfire is one of the leading English country dance bands. They are affiliated with the Country Dance and Song Society, which is an excellent resource for more information on the music and associated dances in this post.

Stella Kimble: Cotton Eyed Joe

[purchase]

Based on the results, I’m guessing that more Scottish and Irish that English people settled the American South. Here we find square dancing, not like you learned it in gym class, but as a living folk-dance form. The energy found in Celtic folk dance music is here too, and again, there is a missing percussion part supplied by the thunder of the dancers’ feet.

I cannot find much information about Stella Kimble. I know she was from North Carolina, and she is regarded by many bluegrass musicians as an important pioneer on the banjo. If anyone has more information, please share it in the comments.

Possum Ridge String Band: The Road to Lisdoonvarna

[purchase]

For the section on contra dancing, I knew I wanted a version of The Road to Lisdoonvarna. I think I’ve danced to this at every contradance I ever attended. Contradancing and its music is what happened to all this in New England. It is not quite as energetic as Southern square dancing, which means that an ordinary mortal can hope to get through an entire evening on the dance floor. The music shows more of the English influence than its Southern cousin, with smoother playing and greater variety in the harmonies.

I knew what I wanted this version of Lisdoonvarna to sound like. This is how I remember hearing it at dances. Curiously, The Possum Ridge String Band is based in Virginia.

Instrumentals: Albatross

Fleetwood Mac: Albatross

[purchase]

This haunting Peter Green instrumental is perhaps more well known in the U.K., where it was #1 hit, than in the U.S., where the Buckingham-Nicks version of the band is just about all that people remember. When it was released in early 1969, it was quite a departure from the straight-ahead blues that had been the Mac's bread and butter up until then. Of course it was the first of many musical changes the band would undergo in the following decade.

Reportedly inspired by Santo & Johnny's classic "Sleepwalk" (and in turn an inspiration for the Beatles' "Sun King"), "Albatross" came together not long after Danny Kirwin joined the band as third guitarist. (The band's second guitarist, Jeremy Spencer, had no involvement in this recording.) It was Green's vision, but Danny helped him bring it to fruition, his and Peter's guitars harmonizing beautifully over Mick Fleetwood's muted drums and swelling cymbals and John McVie's simple, pulsing bass line.

In a year when everything was becoming "heavy", it was a gentle, soothing balm. It still is.

Instrumentals: Inspector

Alison Brown: Inspector

[purchase]

Banjo virtuosa, jazzgrass composer, and Compass Records label-founder Alison Brown quite often records with carefully selected special guests from the folk and bluegrass world, including the occasional vocalist; the delightful covers of popsongs which often result - Elvis Costello, Harry Nilsson, and Paul Simon among them - are well worth pursuit, and quite often find their way onto my home blog Cover Lay Down.

But Brown's no lead singer, preferring to speak instead through her instrumental mastery and her ability to construct and compile musicians and song. As such, deeper towards the core of Brown's catalog, we find a stellar, surprisingly diverse collection of original instrumentals that seamlessly blend elements of newgrass, world music, and jazz, like Bela Fleck with less jamband cred and a bit more Contemporary Pop production value.

Inspector is a jazzy, jumpy delight, from her all-instrumental 1994 release Look Left and, later, her highly-recommended 2006 "best of" collection The Vanguard Years, but there's no way to represent her breadth of talent with just a single cut, so definitely check out the rest of her work.

Instrumentals: Release It

Afro Celt Sound System – Release It

[purchase]

Mixing African rhythms into other musical genres wasn't new when Paul Simon did it in 1986 with Graceland. American blues (and its stepchild, rock and roll) traces its roots to western Africa. Much of modern Brazilian music, too, is a fusion of African and Portuguese sources. So when East Londoner Simon Emmerson traveled to Senegal in 1992 to produce an album for worldbeat artist Baaba Maal, he picked up the idea of blending African rhythms with Celtic melodies. The group he gathered, Afro Celt Sound System, formed in 1995 around Irish, English, and African musicians. Emmerson, a guitarist and DJ as well as a producer, didn't stop there, though: He steeped his songs in electro-dance rhythms, especially ambient, trance, and techno. The end result is not only multi-cultural, but also wholly modern.

Release It (1999) is the final song of their second album, which almost wasn't made following the sudden death of their keyboardist. This song is a tribute to their dead friend and celebrates his release from earthly hardships. Some of the more unusual instruments include the Celtic harp, uilleann pipes, kora, talking drum, balafon, bodhran, djembe, and whistle. I think I know what the whistle sounds like, and the rest I'll just have to Wiki.

I think it would be a real honor to have a tribute song like this that makes listeners want to dance.

Guest post by Geovicki. Please give her a warm welcome.

Instrumentals: Tom Waits Edition

Tom Waits: Cinny's Waltz

[purchase]


Tom Waits: Rainbirds

[purchase]


Tom Waits: Good Old World (Gypsy Instrumental)

[purchase]


Tom Waits: Knife Chase

[purchase]


Isn't that an amazing photo at the top of this post? I don't think I've ever seen a picture of Tom Waits that looks exactly the way his music sounds. A hobo breaking into a carnival in the middle of the night, having the time of his life.

At first glance it might look like an odd choice for Instrumentals Week to pick an artist who's so known for his voice, but his wordless pieces are not to be missed. He (and his wife/collaborator Kathleen Brennan) have always had a knack for creating haunting images with their sonic landscapes.

It's no wonder he's contributed to so many movies over the years, both as a songwriter and as an actor - a more cinematic performer is hard to find.

Instrumentals: R.E.M. B-Sides

R.E.M.: Fruity Organ

R.E.M.: Mandolin Strum

R.E.M.: Memphis Train Blues

R.E.M.: New Orleans Instrumental #2

R.E.M.: Tricycle

R.E.M.: Winged Mammal Theme

[purchase]

At the risk once again of becoming the guy who only posts R.E.M. songs... here's another post full of R.E.M. songs. The difference in this post being that most of these are rarities that only the most hardcore fans know about. These are all non-album tracks that mainly appeared as B-side recordings to singles the band put out at various points in their career. They mostly exist just to show a different side of the band that didn't always make it to the records. The "purchase" link for this post simply points to the R.E.M. store at Amazon.com.

R.E.M.'s studio sessions typically yield many of these types of recordings. Peter Buck says he writes hundreds of songs every year, and many of them end up as nothing more than musical workouts for the band in the studio. Buck has also said that recording sessions for each R.E.M. album can produce roughly 20 or 30 of these "unfinished songs."

Some of these musical nuggets are born out of other songs... "Memphis Train Blues" was an improvised piece performed in the studio after the band grew tired of playing the repetitive chord structure of the song "Hairshirt" from Green. Drummer Bill Berry plays mandolin.

Some of them started out as jokes and just kept hanging around... "Tricycle" was a goofy exercise that grew out of sound checks during the Monster tour. Guitarist Peter Buck says the song kept getting "stupider and stupider" as they worked it out, but they were having too much fun to stop playing it. Buck originally wanted to call it "Four Wheels to Hell" but felt "Tricycle" was much less melodramatic.

Some are self explanitory... "Fruity Organ" and "Mandolin Strum" would seem to need no explanation.

Others just kind of appeared and had no where else to go... "New Orleans Instrumental #2" came out of the Automatic for the People sessions and was recorded the same day as that album's "New Orleans Instrumental #1." "Winged Mammal Theme" was submitted to Tim Burton for inclusion on one of the Batman movie soundtracks. It didn't make the cut.

Instrumentals: Punchdrunks Edition

Robert Johnson And Punchdrunks: Buzz Aldrin

[purchase]


Robert Johnson And Punchdrunks: Stuck In Tunisia

[purchase]

When told this week's theme would be instrumentals I immediately thought of surf rock. The next logical step was to think of my favorite band in this genre: Robert Johnson And Punchdrunks. A band whose "tropical exotic rock" I once described on my blog as:

"...sweaty, feverish, horny, violent, furious and ferocious. It's surf rock all coked up and with a thirst for blood.

Imagine four people losing their minds on a mezcal & tequila binge being so pissed off at their instruments they're trying to beat them to death while the tape's running.

Imagine the motion picture soundtrack to Tony Montana vs. James Bond.

Imagine the sound of Lux Interior and Larry Parypa taking turns buggering Link Wray behind a burning whorehouse in Shanghai."

Pretty accurate if I may say so myself.

Lately the band has for some reason evolved into some sort of electronic dub thing that I find hard to maintain interest in, but between circa 1994 and 2004, Robert Johnson And Punchdrunks were the kings of underproduced, roughneck surfabilly.

Instrumentals: I Miss You Kate

Sting: I Miss You Kate

[purchase]

Near as I can tell, in the two years since Star Maker Machine opened for business, we've never posted two separate posts by the same artist in a single week. To post two consecutive posts by the same artist is just plain weird, a rarity in the blogosphere at large.

But I'm doing it anyway. Because this particular instrumental is hauntingly beautiful, and though its middle section contains a hint of the same jazz modality that underlies Dream of the Blue Turtles, and the first and last sections coincide audiographically with Sting's Contemporary Pop period, in many ways, this carefully constructed composition - a piano-led jazz ballad, with subtle bass and drums, and a swelling string section to support it all -sounds utterly nothing like Sting in any other guise.

I did a genuine double take when I first encountered the track, purely by accident, as a b-side to the CD single for All This Time, which I purchased upon its release in '91. For a long time, I Miss You Kate was a mainstay of my mixtape compilation catalog, and I still treasure its very existence. Fair warning, though: the other b-side on the single - an 8 minute live take of King of Pain, sans the other members of The Police - goes on a bit long.

Instrumentals: The Dream of the Blue Turtles

Sting: The Dream of the Blue Turtles

[purchase]

The statement of our theme clearly states that there are to be no voices at all. I hope I may be forgiven for the laughter at the end of this one. It has everything to do with how this song came to be.

Sting said in interviews at the beginning of his solo career that he had come to feel stifled in the Police. He was seeking a spontaneity he had been missing. So he sought to put together a band of jazz musicians for his first solo album. They all said yes, and what a band it was! Drummer Omar Hakim came from Weather Report. Sax Player Branford Marsalis was a well known bandleader, and he brought with him his keyboard player Kenny Kirkland. And bassist Darryl Jones had just finished a stint with Miles Davis. All took the music seriously, but they had a lot of fun together as well. One day in the studio, the band was just jamming for fun, but the tape was rolling. This was where the song The Dream of the Blue Turtles came from. Sheet music had to be written up afterwards, because this one just happened. I suppose, for Sting, the song epitomized the spontaneity he was looking for, because this became the title track of the album.

Instrumentals: Journey in Satchidananda

Alice Coltrane: Journey in Satchidananda

[purchase]

There aren't enough harpists in jazz these days.

Alice Coltrane may have never completely escaped the shadow of her iconic husband, but she did create some fascinating music. Conversant on piano and harp, she uses both to good effect on this funky bit of free jazz. (And let me just say...a bit of funk goes a long way towards making free jazz more accessible, IMHO.)

With a few of her late husband's former sidemen on board (Pharoah Sanders on soprano sax and Rashied Ali on drums), Cecil McBee holding everything together with a slow, funky bass line, Tulsi providing the tambura drone, and Majid Shabazz sprinkling the works with Middle-Eastern percussion, "Journey in Satchidananda" sounds better than the sum of its parts might suggest.

Satchidananda, by the way, may be a reference to Swami Satchidananda, whom Alice had become a disciple of, but it is also an Indian compound word for a concept that is (very) roughly akin to the Buddhist concept of Nirvāṇa.

Instrumentals: Whiplash

101 Strings: Whiplash

[purchase]

Think of 101 Strings and you are thinking of elevators or shopping centres or people your parents didn't like very much. !01 Strings - the orchestra used up to 142 Strings but that didn't sound so catchy - took schmaltz down to new depths, then along came Astro Sounds from Beyond the Year 2000. In reality (if that's the word to use here) this was an album by Jerry Cole, session musician with the Byrds and on Pet Sounds, with 101 Strings layered on top. Still, they got the credit for it. One can wonder what their loyal fans thought when they heard Whiplash. As for the album title's claim; in so many ways it stands up.

Guest post by John from One Man’s Treasure. Please give him a warm welcome.

Instrumentals: Swan Lake

Madness: Swan Lake

[purchase]

First of all, thanks to both BWR and Bert. Swan Lake was the first song I thought of for our Instrumentals theme, but I didn’t have it. So, I put out a call, and both of these fine gentlemen answered.

Why Swan Lake? First, because it’s just so much fun. Just imagine the black and white checked tutus that go with this version. Yes, this is Swan Lake as in the ballet, but is also pure ska in this version. It comes from Madness’ debut album, and shows what wonderful musical imagination they had from the start. And the talent to back it up.

Instrumentals: Duane Allman

Duane Allman: Little Martha

[purchase]

My fave instrumental just might be the only song brother Duane Allman ever wrote in his too-short life. Significant detail: the instrument Skydog achieved so much well-deserved fame with, the slide guitar, is nowhere to be found here. Little Martha is a timeless acoustic ode to an extramarital girlfriend who in real life was called Dixie.