Independence: The Sun Hasn't Set On This Boy Yet

Nils Lofgren: The Sun Hasn't Set On This Boy Yet

[purchase]

Could one of rock's great declarations of independence have really come from one its most famous sidemen? Absolutely!

Before he joined Springsteen's E-Street Band or toured with Neil Young, Nils Lofgren was a 17 year old B-average senior who dropped out of his suburban Maryland high school to become a rock star.

As he recently told The Wall Street Journal, "Nobody dropped out of school where I was, except the juvenile delinquent that was pumpin' gas and had knocked up his girlfriend and his life was already over." Lofgren's life was just beginning. By age 18, he was living in Topanga Canyon, playing piano and singing harmonies with Neil Young on After the Gold Rush . He parlayed the Neil connection into a record deal for his own band, Grin ( returning to record with Neil on Tonight's the Night). When Grin broke up in 1974, Nils recorded his self-titled solo debut--a critically acclaimed gem featuring a Keith Richards mash note, "Keith Don't Go", as well as a number of radio friendly songs, including this autobiographical statement of self-determination which reminds all of us of our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Guest post by 1001 Songs

Independence: Chimes of Freedom

Bruce Springsteen: Chimes of Freedom (Bob Dylan cover, live)

[purchase]

Earlier today [July 3, 1988] Amnesty International announced a worldwide tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Declaration Of Human Rights. The Declaration Of Human Rights is a document that was signed by every government in the world* 40 years ago, recognizing the existence of certain inalienable human rights for everyone regardless of your race, your color, your sex, your religion, your political opinion, or the type of government that you're living under. I, I was glad to be asked to participate… in a tour that's gonna begin in early September…. So, I'd like to give, dedicate this next song to the people at Amnesty International and their idea. And so when we come to your town, come on out, support the tour, support human rights for everyone now, and let freedom ring.

* not precisely: 48 members of the UN General Assembly voted for it; the Soviet bloc countries, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia abstained.

Independence: Independence Day

David Byrne: Independence Day

[purchase]

I am a firm believer that “none of us is truly free until all of us are”. From this point of view, the process of achieving our nation’s independence is ongoing. This week, an important step was taken. New York became the first state in the United States to legalize gay marriage by a legislative act. The states which previously recognized this right did so by court order. David Byrne’s song Independence Day, from 1989, is set in New York City, and it looks forward to this day. But in 1989, legal gay marriage seemed like an impossible dream. So, I thought this song was a perfect way to launch our weeklong celebration of independence here on Star Maker. New York State, I salute you. Let me be the first to wish our American readers a happy and safe Independence Day. To our Canadian readers, a belated happy Canada Day. And to all others, my best wishes for your independence and freedom, in what ever form they take.

Reproductions: The Dawntreader

Joni Mitchell: The Dawntreader

[purchase]

This week, we have looked at songs that were reimagined in cover versions. But there are also times when an artist radically reimagines their own song. Perhaps the most remarkable of these is Joni Mitchell. Over the course of her albums Both Sides Now and Travelogue, Mitchell revisited her songbook to create fully orchestrated versions of her songs. This is disconcerting enough when it happens to her later songs, which were at least done originally done with some kind of band. But The Dawntreader comes from Mitchell’s first album, and was originally arranged for just voice and acoustic guitar. Now it has a lush orchestral setting. The original had a stark quality, which is mostly gone, but amazingly enough, the intimacy of the song is preserved in the new version. The original was a dream of love in black and white. Now it’s in full color, but the dream is still very much there, now in rich detail.

Reproductions: Comfortably Hot in Herre

Scissor Sisters: Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd cover)

[purchase]

Tiga: Hot in Herre (Nelly cover)

[purchase]

Some people can dance to anything: wind chimes, lawn mowers, ring tones. Others need the help of a strong and audible beat. These two cuts are guaranteed to have you shaking your booty in no time!

The nu-disco version of the Pink Floyd chestnut rocketed the Scissor Sisters to stardom in Europe in 2004 (they're lagging a bit in their home country, the USA). Their version was nominated for a Grammy as Best Dance Recording, and even the members of Pink Floyd have confessed that they enjoy it.

Yes, it has a high-pitched male vocalist, why do you ask?

That vocalist, Jake Shears, is featured in the cover from his buddy Tiga, a Montreal-based DJ/producer/performer. Jacking up the tempo and tossing in a lot more synthesizers has turned Nelly's hip-hop classic, Hot in Herre, into an electro-house barn burner.

Reproductions: Every Little Thing

Yes: Every Little Thing

[purchase]

Some strains of psychedelia where turning into prog rock in 1969, and Yes' self-titled debut shows a band pointing towards prog. Their take on the Beatles' "Every Little Thing" follows the mold of Vanilla Fudge and the early Deep Purple, who both created such elaborate arrangements of other people's songs they were almost new songs. But where both of those bands had a tendency to slow down faster songs, Yes come out firing on all cylinders. It's a tour de force that was probably a calling card for the band in their early days.

Over the top? Yes. But you have to admit, it has an energy that matches the lyrics much better then the comparatively tame original.

Reproductions: The Lounge Version

Pat Boone: Enter Sandman (Metallica cover)

[purchase]

Richard Cheese: Baby Got Back (Sir Mix-a-Lot cover)

[purchase]

Mike Flowers Pops: Velvet Underground Medley

[purchase]

Pastel Vespa: White Wedding (Billy Idol cover)

[purchase]

Bad cover songs are nothing new. While poking around some of my more horrible examples, I uncovered a multitude of 60s easy listening groups who tried to emulate the groovy sound of what those crazy kids are listening to now! We had the Four Freshmen doing Hurdy Gurdy Man in a pretty funereal style; the Lettermen butchering a Doors medley; the Johnny Mann Singers crooning an utterly soulless take on the Yardbirds' Heart Full of Soul; and an appalling adaptation of Sly and the Family Stone's Everyday People by the Ray Bloch Zombies Singers. I'm sure there are many, many more "hits" on this wall of shame. Any PBS rerun episode of the Lawrence Welk show will have at least one or two.

Deliberately bad cover songs, though, they're more recent. I'm trying to remember when I first noticed it. Maybe Bill Murray's memorable "Nick the Lounge Singer" character – his first appearance on Saturday Night Live was in 1977; his most famous cover was the Star Wars Theme (with lyrics!).

White-buck-wearing Pat Boone made his career in the 50's covering (some say "ripping off") R&B songs of black artists when radio was segregated. In 1997, he unexpectedly released In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy, an album of metal band covers. Needless to say, it deeply shocked his fans and got him kicked off a gospel show for a time.

Other artists began to embrace satirical stylings, blithely covering alt rock, industrial, hip-hop, metal, or grunge in a deliberately retro style – usually lounge. One well-known singer is Richard Cheese, who probably comes closest to the "Nick" sound. Mike Flowers Pops goes for that immortal Ray Bloch Singers approach, and Pastel Vespa takes it from the female angle.

Reproductions: Fly Like an Eagle

Jaymz Bee & the Royal Jelly Orchestra w/ Elizabeth Shepherd: Fly Like an Eagle

[purchase, price in Canadian dollars]

In my roamings looking for music for my own blog, Oliver di Place, I have found out a little about the music scene in Toronto Canada. From what I can tell, the musicians there feel free to ignore genre boundaries, and make whatever music they feel. So it isn’t that surprising that a Toronto jazz band would consider the song Fly Like an Eagle fair game. So imagine what might have happened if the classic Miles Davis quintet heard on the album Kind of Blue had had a singer, and you will have some idea what to expect here.

As far as I can tell, Jaymz Bee is strictly a local act in Toronto. As such, you can only get this album from the American version of Amazon at a collectable price. The more economical option by far is to get the album from Amazon’s Canadian site, so that is the link I have provided. As a solo artist, singer Elizabeth Shepherd is evidently better known. Her albums can be found on the US Amazon for a reasonable price, and they are well worth seeking out.

Reproductions: Let 'Em In

Billy Paul: Let ‘Em In

[purchase]

When Paul McCartney sang Let ‘Em In, he issued a roll call of family members, friends and musical inspirations. There was Sister Suzie (Linda McCartney, who once recorded as Suzie And The Red Stripes), Brother John (Linda’s sibling, John Eastman), Martin Luther (John Lennon, whom the Beatles used to call Martin Luther Lennon), Phil & Don (Everly), Brother Michael (Mike McCartney), Auntie Gin (Paul’s aunt), Uncle Ernie (Keith Moon’s character in The Who’s rock opera Tommy), and Uncle Ian (Auntie Jin's son). It’s all a bit a folky scene, even with that martial drum beat. You could bake white bread to it.

Billy Paul quickly covered the song, and gave it a bit of funkified political spice, with an urgent bassline, disco strings and insistent horns. The singer, who once alienated record execs by calling an album Am I Black Enough For You?, sets out his stall early as a recording of Malcolm X intones: “You’ve been had, you’ve been misled, you’ve been took.” We immediately develop a hunch that kindly Auntie Gin won’t get much of a look-in on this version.

In the Philly Soul man’s take, we are asked to let in a succession of black icons, not all of whom are widely known today. He seems to have a special place for Louis Armstrong, though. It’s interesting that Satchmo, often derided as an Uncle Tom figure by some people, makers it into Billy Paul’s pantheon, alongside MLK and Malcolm X. The song is interspersed with soundbites from Martin Luther King Jr, some eight years after his assassination.

Reproductions: Your Cheatin’ Heart

James Brown: Your Cheatin' Heart

[purchase]

Good God!

In 1969, coming off five singles with the word "popcorn" in the title, James Brown teamed up with a 20 piece big band to try a brand new bag.

‘At heart,” James told jazz writer Leonard Feather, “I’ve always been a jazz man. When I was just a kid in Macon, Ga., doing amateur shows, I went up on the stage with some of those great name bands that passed through town. I’ve never forgotten the impression those big band sounds made on me.”

With arrangements by Oliver Nelson and an orchestra led by jazz drummer Louie Bellson, JB brought his larger-than-life "soul power" to showtunes, jazz standards, a couple originals and this 1952 Hank Williams classic. Best known as a slow burning country blues ballad, "Your Cheatin' Heart" gets the full Godfather of Soul treatment with special thanks to Maceo Parker, Jr. for his incendiary sax solo. Pretty sure there isn't a version anywhere of Hank Williams singing "Can you.Gotta,Gotta,Gotta,Woah,Ow!"

Guest post by 1001 Songs

Reproductions: Alma Mater/Tusk

USC SoCal VoCals: Alma Mater/Tusk

[purchase]

This week features a more complicated theme than last week's; therefore, this complicated song also takes a bit of background info to appreciate its full effect.

The USC (University of Southern California) SoCal VoCals is a collegiate a cappella group, a genre growing in popularity in the US. A lot of the boom can be attributed to the switch from more sedate (read: dated) songs to pop, rock, hip-hop and other current styles more in sync with the students' usual musical preferences. In addition, a competitive annual championship drives groups to come up with more creative, complex arrangements than those other schools. This song is a great example: it's a clever mashup of old- and new-style a cappella music, with a highly structured arrangement. Also showcased is the beatboxing percussion – all human-vocalized, of course, in keeping with the non-instrumental requirements of the style. Note: this song is best heard loud!

Some of you old timers will remember what makes Fleetwood Mac's Tusk a perfect choice for this group. That 1979 platinum hit prominently featured the USC Trojan Marching Band, making that song as much a part of the school's heritage as the more traditional Alma Mater.

Incidentally, USC, a private Los Angeles university, has a cross-town rivalry with UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Listen for an "acknowledgement" to said rivalry in the ending lyrics.

Acoustic Versions => Reproductions: Stairway to Heaven

Dolly Parton: Stairway to Heaven

[purchase]

Of course, the original Stairway to Heaven started with a folk feel, and then erupted into rock, with Robert Plant going from his calmer lower pitch singing to the screaming almost-falsetto for which he was best known. At the same time, the acoustic guitars vanish, overwhelmed by the roar of the electric ones. Result: rock classic. Dolly Parton reimagines the whole thing, and does it entirely with acoustic instruments. Now the song begins as a bluegrass ballad, and swells with arrival of a gospel choir and some intense fiddle. Parton also adds drums for the song’s climax.

For me, these different approaches yield different meanings. The Led Zeppelin original comes off as an example of mystical seventies rock. But Dolly Parton makes the song an affirmation of faith, Southern style. For sheer volume, Zep wins hands down. But for power, my vote goes to the Parton version.

Acoustic Versions: Double Shot of Townes Van Zandt

Townes Van Zandt: The Hole

Townes Van Zandt: Marie

[purchase]

This song is from 'No Deeper Blue', one of the post-Poppy Records albums of Townes Van Zandt's that shines very brightly.for me. There's a one-two punch here for me. 'The Hole' and 'Marie'.

'The Hole' is easily one of the scariest songs I've ever heard. ..not its SOUND (which IS kind of ominous on his Sugar Hill CD) but the words that do it for me. It's a harrowing archetypal parable that cuts right through flesh to the living bone.
Though I love the studio/band version to death, (Phillip Donnelly's guitar playing is terrifying in its dark majesty), it's hearing Townes solo and
unadorned playing & singing his words and music that opens up a different meaning to his words. I played this song in Drug Rehabs by myself for a couple of years when I was doing 'Special Population' shows. It was part of an hour presentation I did of songs and received wisdom. This was my peak; the next to last song in the set. The words have deep connection to anyone who has been a slave to an addiction of ANY kind.

'Marie' on the other hand, maybe one of the SADDEST songs I ever heard, a small cinematic portrait of a proud but beaten homeless man and his love. It gives us a list of situations not unknown to those of us who have been homeless, even briefly. If you've been lucky enough not to be so down that you got THERE, maybe this won't hit you at all. On the other hand, if you have even half a heart
you'll feel this one, deep.

Townes' legacy is dark, sad and scary sometimes.

Guest post by Duncan

Acoustic Versions: You Can All Join In

Traffic: You Can All Join In

[purchase original version, acoustic version unavailable]

Guest poster Duncan joins us again after a long absence, with not one but two posts. Please make him feel welcomed.

This was a total revelation to me, a live version of my favorite song on the second self-titled Traffic LP. This LP (as I first knew it) was my first Stevie Winwood album after scoring all the important four Spencer Davis singles (think you know them?). The LP was also my introduction to Dave Mason, who wrote this song.

This particular version has even more of an acoustic feel than the released version; it swings a little harder also. I know, I've listened to it about 50 times in the last two months because my band has been learning to play it. We were drums guitar, keys and me on bass and vocals (I never play bass, but worked hard on getting it right in sync with the drummer) and though it worked, something was missing until I heard this version two weeks ago, culled from BBC sessions. I realized, it was just drums, acoustic guitar & lead guitar with vocals. Once we got that rhythm, it all clicked on the acoustic guitar. It's also cool that you can just feel the joy of the band, deep into their second record and what a record it is, too. Not a duff song on there, though if you're gonna listen to it, make sure you listen to the original sequence of ten songs a couple of times.

Though Stevie had done more than okay with the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic was where he started to fly and I place this LP as the main exhibit as to why Eric Clapton pursued him so hard to be in Blind Faith and why they've reunited over the past few years. It's also the start of my fondness for Dave Mason.. He outright wrote four of the songs on the LP including this one and the now standard 'Feelin' Alright'. He was barely visible on the first Traffic LP (sometimes known as “Dear Mr.
Fantasy'), TOTALLY a part of this one, gone for most of the remains on Last Exit and back for a second on 'Welcome to The Canteen'. His real moment in the sun was (I believe) predictable after this set and this tune in particular. I would have had no problem seeing this included on his masterpiece, 'Alone Together'.

Guest post by Duncan

Acoustic Versions: Smells Like Teen Spirit

Tori Amos: Smells Like Teen Spirit

[purchase]

I’m sure most of our readers know that Nirvana recorded an Unplugged album for MTV. However, Smells Like Teen Spirit was not on that album. Instead, Tori Amos was the one who remade the song as a solo piano ballad. The lyrics are all over the place, suggesting two or more teens who have gotten together to do… something. In Nirvana’s original version, the music suggests a rage that must soon boil over. But Amos finds the searching, and the fear that drives that rage. There is a lot of space in the music, and the narrator feels the urge to fill it with something. The listener is no closer to knowing how this will end, but we have more of an idea of how it started.

The image I have chosen for this post comes from a manga called Teen Spirit. The picture seemed perfect to me, but I have never read, (or even seen), the manga, so the picture might not be appropriate to the song at all. If Geoviki can’t fill us in, maybe a reader could tell us more in the comments. Thank you.

Acoustic Versions: This Woman's Work

Maxwell: This Woman's Work (Kate Bush cover)

[purchase]

Remember how I told you last week that I love guys who sing in their highest ranges? Well, Maxwell, the NYC-based neo-soul artist, does that in spades in this Kate Bush cover, rivaling Smokey Robinson for his raw emotional falsetto. This is from the MTV series Unplugged (insert obligatory generic comment re: memories of MTV playing, yanno, actual music) and it stole the show in 1997, along with his unplugged version of Nine Inch Nail's Closer. It's definitely one of my all-time favorite acoustic versions of any song. Hope you enjoy.

Acoustic Versions: Ever Fallen In Love

Thea Gilmore: Ever Fallen In Love

[Purchase]

I am crazy about acoustic versions of songs that weren't originally acoustic. I'm also crazy about unconventional covers of songs, namely, ones that give a song a whole new perspective than the original gave it.

This cover of the Buzzcocks classic track "Ever Fallen In Love" gives it a whole new feeling, a feeling that almost feels more natural considering the subject matter. It is song about falling in love with someone inappropriate, whether it be because they're your friend, or they are married or in some way unavailable. It's an emotional and somber thought that many people have felt before. And yet the British punk band Buzzcocks made this rockin' song about the subject. Admittedly, I had known and enjoyed the song for a while, but hearing this emotional interpretation of it by British singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore gave me a whole new appreciation for it. I love it when that happens.

Acoustic Versions: I Need Love

Luka Bloom: I Need Love

[purchase]

Boyhowdy posted a track from this various-artists live CD, In Their Own Words, Vol. 1, last year, but it's one of those albums that always seems to pop up when I'm searching for songs for the weekly themes here. So I hope you don't mind me revisiting it, because just about the whole album is perfect for this week's theme.

For those of you who have never heard of this album before, it is a collection of highlights from a series of shows that NYC radio DJ Vin Scelsa hosted at the now-defunct Bottom Line nightclub back in the '90s.

The series was called "In Their Own Words: A Bunch of Songwriters Sittin' Around Singin'", and that pretty much tells you want it was, except that they would talk, too, about the craft of songwriting and their inspirations. Each evening featured four songwriters, and they would often play on each other's songs. (I wish I could have been there for the night Barrett String, Richard Thompson, Dave Alvin, and Shawn Colvin shared the stage!)

One night Luka Bloom was part of the roundtable, and during the portion of the show where each songwriter is asked to play a cover song, he pulled out his reinvention of LL Cool J's "I Need Love". He released a studio version of it on his Acoustic Motorbike album, but this live version is the one to have. It's a revelation. The dated synths and beats on LL Cool J's original don't do much for me, but Luka's version is timeless. It makes my heart melt, and there are very few male singers who can do that to me.

Acoustic Versions: Mountain of Love

The Beach Boys: Mountain of Love

[purchase]

Twenty-two years before Jethro Tull performed "Skating Away (On The Thin Ice Of A New Day)" unplugged on MTV, The Beach Boys recorded an obscure set of mostly acoustic covers for their third album of 1965, Party! The cover claims the album was "recorded 'live' at a Beach Boys' Party!" and we hear a lot of giggling women, handclaps and background chatter. Sounds like a fun spontaneous hootenanny! Only we've learned since then that Party! was actually recorded in a studio and the background noises were added later. Today Party! is mostly a curiosity, featuring three Beatle covers, Dylan's "the Times They Are a-Changin'," and the Top 5 international hit "Barbara Ann". One of the highlights--and by that I mean one of the performances you'd want to hear more than once-- is this cover of the Johnny Rivers Top 10 hit "Mountain of Love".

Guest post from 1001 Songs

Acoustic Versions: Post Grunge hits

Dishwalla: Angels or Devils (acoustic)

[purchase]

Live: Lightning Crashes (MTV unplugged)

[purchase]

Pearl Jam: Black (live, acoustic)

[purchase]

Good things come in threes, right? So with this terrific theme of the week, I thought I'd do a little post-grunge triplet featuring three of rock's most melodic male vocalists: J. R. Richards of Dishwalla, Ed Kowalczyk of Live, and Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. I went through an intense year of oscillating between these three groups and hoovering up all of their music. There's something about all these guy's rich, powerful voices that sends chills up my spine, and I think that these acoustic versions of their 90's hits allows them to really belt 'em out of the park. My favorite, I think, is the Dishwalla number because I'm a real sap for piano.

The Night Sky => Acoustic Versions: Under the Milky Way

The Church: Under the Milky Way

[purchase]

I have to admit that I never got into the music of The Church. I must have heard the original version of Under the Milky Way in its year, 1988, but I can’t say that I remember it. Listening to the originally released version now, I can hear the tell-tale signs of 80s productions, although they were done about as tastefully as possible. But there is the standard 80s drum beat, and there are the synthesizer fills for emphasis.

This acoustic version comes from a recently reissued version of the album Starfish. I don’t know the background of how this reissue was done, but what had been a single disc of ten songs has swollen to a double-disc set with 22 songs in all. From the sound of this acoustic Milky Way, I’m guessing that it may have been a demo. Instead of that 80s drum part, we have hand percussion. You might mistake the chord fills towards the end for a synthesizer part, but listen more closely and you find that it is actually a melodica. The guitar parts here are looser. But what I like best in this acoustic Milky Way is the way the vocals are recorded. They have a wonderful immediate quality that is missing from the version that was originally released. The differences between the two versions of Milky Way are subtle, almost like finding the hidden pictures in Highlights For Children. But the cumulative effect is remarkable, in favor of the acoustic version.

The Night Sky: Unfunky UFO

Parliament: Unfunky UFO

[purchase]

“Objects, natural or artificial, real or imagined…” When I posted this week’s theme, I implied that songs about UFOs were fine, but nobody took the bait. Instead, we stuck to natural celestial objects. It made for a great week, but here’s a little taste of what might have been.

When Parliament went out on their 1976 tour for the album Mothership Connection, they created a spectacle. Each show opened with a spaceship landing on stage. A hatch opened, and the band in their outrageous costumes emerge from a cloud of dry ice. I never saw any of these shows, but I heard about them later, and I have seen some pictures. Unfunky UFO could have been their theme song. In the lyric, grooveless aliens from a planet that is dying of unfunkiness come to earth in search of a life-saving groove. Judging from the sound, I would say that they found what they were seeking.

The Night Sky: J-Rock version

Hideto Matsumoto, wearing heat-trapping vinyl

hide: Rocket Dive

[purchase]

Buck-Tick: Jupiter

[purchase]

Kiyoharu: Venus (Shocking Blue cover)

[purchase]

It's the space-age J-Rock entry you've all been dreading anticipating!

I've posted all these Visual Kei artists before, and I know you remember them all really well, right? The first is by guitarist nonpareil (and romanticized dead rock icon) hide (say it "hee-day"). It's a full-out speed metal tune best enjoyed at full volume while roaring down the highway. The second is a more ethereal song by long-time rockers Buck-Tick. The third is one you'll actually recognize – it's the Shocking Blue song. Like Antony Hegarty, who I posted earlier this week, Kiyoharu has an unusual voice: kinda strangled and with lots of vibrato. His Engrish admittedly doesn't add much to his appeal, either. Nothing anyone can say, though, will dim my love for him.

The Night Sky: Jupiter Rising

Emmylou Harris: Jupiter Rising

[purchase]

Emmylou Harris is still probably best known as the woman who sang back-up for Graham Parsons, and then went on her own, helping to establish the sound we now call alt-country. But, especially in her later years, Harris has refused to be tied to any single musical genre. Jupiter Rising is a playful and flirty pop song, and its beat almost qualifies it as ska. It’s not the most profound thing Harris has ever done, but it may be the most fun.

The Night Sky: Galaxies

Laura Veirs: Galaxies

[Purchase]

I too feel like I have so much more to share now that we've expanded the year range to include up through 2005. This song appears on Laura Veirs 2005 album "Year of Meteors".

Laura Veirs is an American singer-songwriter, but beyond that I have a hard time catagorizing her music. Depending on the song and album she's somewhere between folk, indie rock and even the occasional ambient sound. She's an artist I was never able to get into as much as I thought I would, but like with many artists, their whole catalog might not grab you, but sometimes there's a song or two which wow you. "Galaxies" is one of those songs.

When you sing, when you sing
The stars fill up my eyes
Galaxies pour down my cheeks
Galaxies, they flood the street

The Night Sky: Soft Black Stars

Antony and the Johnsons: Soft Black Stars

[purchase]

We've ticked up the latest year that we search for songs to bring you to 2005-ish, which makes me very happy because I can share one of my favorite newer vocalists. Let me state straight up that he's pretty much an acquired taste. I think I've mentioned, though, that I love high-pitched male voices. I also have a bit of a thing for androgyny. So we've got a sure-fire Geoviki kink in Antony Hegarty, an award-winning yet little-known British transsexual artist. (I believe that 'he' is his preferred pronoun; if not, I'll modify it).

Antony usually pens his own music but this ballad/lullaby is a cover of a Current 93 song that he released on an EP in 2001. The piano and violin accompaniment melds beautifully with Antony's intense, intimate vocals, and the delicate lyrics sooth us into contemplating the children and the night sky he sings about.

I'd love to know if you like it too.

The Night Sky: The Comet, The Course, The Tail

Peter Hammill: The Comet, The Course, The Tail

[purchase]

"While the comet spreads its tail across the sky, it nowhere near defines the course it flies, nor does it find its own direction..." In the old days, a comet was usually seen as a bad omen, a phenomenon heralding coming catastrophes. Progrocker and erstwhile Van Der Graaf Generator frontman Peter Hammill was well aware of this of course when he wrote this impressive existentialist song back in '74. "There is a time set in the calendar when all reason seems barely enough to sustain all the shooting stars: times are rough..."

The Night Sky: Black Star

Gillian Welch: Black Star (Radiohead cover)

[live & unavailable]

Blame it on the black star
Blame it on the falling sky
Blame it on the satellite
That beams me home...

In Radiohead's universe, it seems perfectly natural for a couple's growing distance to be projected into the night sky. After all, Thom Yorke is well known for his tendency towards pensive and disconnected first-person narrators struggling with ways to make sense of a topsy-turvy world, their alienation couched in skewed, cryptic lyrics.

But where the sonic build of spit and static crashes through the original recording [purchase], thickening it with angst, bass and drumbash, in Gillian Welch's universe, intimacy brings the sky close. Gentle guitar lines stream out like cosmic rays of acoustic goodness. Voices shimmer and soar as they intertwine. The world is right. The combination is exquisite. It is, without question, one of my top ten favorite covers, ever.

The Night Sky: Southern Cross

Ozark Mountain Daredevils: Southern Cross

[purchase]

Please join me in welcoming our newest poster here on Star Maker Machine, 1001 Songs.

Last week Aimee Mann tweeted " I think it's time I started really listening to some Ozark Mountain Daredevils." Some of us couldn't agree with her more. The original OMD were a fun loving country pop outfit made up of talented songwriters who wore their hair a bit too long for hometown Springfield, Missouri. That, apparently, was what made them daredevils. They scored a worldwide Top 5 hit in 1975 with "Jackie Blue" but instead of making the expected move to LA, the Daredevils stayed home to record the follow-up, The Car Over The Lake Album. "Southern Cross" is the story of a delirious road/air/sea trip taken by a lost soul who finds "the secret of navigation and the mystery of the Milky Way" on Easter Island. Yes, the Southern Cross is a big deal down under. The stars making up the constellation are represented on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Brazil and Papua New Guinea.

Guest post by 1001 Songs

The Night Sky: Planet Claire

The B-52s: Planet Claire

[purchase]

From 1967, we now jump ahead 11 years to 1978. But, in a sense, we also jump back to the 1950s, at the drive-in. Planet Claire opens the B-52s debut album, and the sound is all fifties science fiction movie organ, played on top of the Peter Gunn Theme. Half way through the song, Fred Schneider enters with a profoundly silly lyric about a visitor from another planet. And somehow, this was all cool. The B-52s wanted you to know that you should not take their songs very seriously, and that reminded the listener to lighten up. Maybe there were other things they were taking too seriously as well. So much of the more portentous music from the 80s sounds dated today, but Planet Claire sounds as good to me now as it did then.

1967: White Rabbit

Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit

[purchase]

As FiL reminded us, 1967 was the year that psychedelic music arrived, led by Magical Mystery Tour, but with many artists ready and able to follow. Alice in Wonderland was a natural reference point for a generation whose motto was, “tune in, turn on, drop out”. And no one expressed the Alice connection better than the Jefferson Airplane and lead singer Grace Slick, with White Rabbit. But of course, this is also a 1967 song that has endured, and that means that it has been played to death. So I switched it up a bit. White Rabbit as usually heard has a running time of 2:30, and indeed, this version goes silent at that point. But then the band comes back in without the vocals, and does an extended jam on the tune that extends the playing time by almost three more minutes. This is not the aimless noodling that jam bands are so often accused of these days; rather , this is a tightly imagined instrumental variation on a theme, with almost jazz-like flourishes. Amazon calls this the “mono single version”, which explains the sound quality. I don’t know how this version came to be. If any reader has that information, please share it in the comments. Thanks.

1967: Psychedelic Bandwagon Edition

Chad and Jeremy: Rest in Peace

[purchase]

The Hollies: The Maker

[purchase]

The Pretty Things: Defecting Grey

[purchase]

The Beau Brummels: Magic Hollow

[purchase]

1967 is a year that resonates strongly with me, even though I wasn't born until the following year. As others have mentioned a lot of great music was released that year.

It was the year psychedelic rock went mainstream, and there was no shortage of groups jumping on the bandwagon. Here are four groups who donned kaftans, dug up sitars, and went all day-glo on us for a year.

1967: Sock It To Me, Baby!

Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels: Sock It To Me, Baby!

[purchase]

I'm not actually around; I'm in Detroit and posting this through time slip.

In honor of this, I'm sharing a 1967 hit by Detroit homeboys, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. In my fuzzy memories of the 60s, I remember that it was much easier for local groups to get airplay on the radio. Mitch was pretty popular there. Here. You know what I mean.

I never quite caught some of the lyrics to this song, and the ones my sister confided to me that he was singing were 1) not included in any version Mitch actually recorded, and 2) pretty obscene.

1967: In the Dark

Nina Simone: In the Dark

[purchase]

So far, our survey of 1967 has focused on male rock and pop singers. I’m using the terms “rock” and “pop” as broadly as possible, and we could stay in that vein and still present an amazing week, because there is plenty of material. Partly, that’s because the music business was very different in those days. Where a major artist now might make an album every three years, in 1967 The Beatles made two classic albums, and that put them behind the pace. Nina Simone made three albums that year, and that was the norm.

In presenting Nina Simone, one might think that I am turning my attention to the year in jazz. That was indeed what I originally had in mind, and Simone is rightly considered one of the greats of jazz. But Simone’s second album of 1967 caught my eye. It’s called Nina Simone Sings the Blues. One of the amazing things about Simone was her ability to sing masterfully in so many different styles, and here she showed herself to be a fine blues singer. To me, In the Dark is much more a blues song than jazz, and Simone approaches it that way. The darkness in this song focuses senses other than sight, particularly hearing and touch. Simone took that idea, and created one of the most sensual pieces of music I have ever heard.

1967: Omaha

Moby Grape: Omaha

[purchase]

1967 was indeed one of the better rock years. My esteemed collegue Geoviki already mentioned several groundbreaking albums below, and I could add at least twenty more. But I'll lift out just one that has always been especially dear to me: Moby Grape's eponymous debut. A remarkably consistent psychedelic masterpiece with countryrock and folk influences, it should have been a huge succes. But as their record company overhyped the band, releasing five singles at once, and their manager meant trouble, too, this was sadly not to be. Moby Grape only reached #24 on the Billboard album charts. As a consolation prize, it is now widely regarded as an influential classic. "Listen, my friends..."

1967: One-Hit Wonder Version

The Music Explosion: Little Bit O' Soul

[purchase]

The Soul Survivors: Expressway To Your Heart

[purchase]

The Five Americans: Western Union

[purchase]

The Chambers Brothers: Time Has Come Today

[purchase]

I agree with Darius: the music from 1967 made a huge impact on me. I was old enough to really start to "get" it, I think, and spent a lot of hours listening to the radio, mostly.

Dozens of hugely influential albums were released in 1967, and this post would be pages long if I even tried to touch on half of them. The Beatles released both Sgt. Pepper's and Magical Mystery Tour, The Doors had a double header, too, with The Doors and Strange Days, as did Jimi Hendrix with Are You Experienced? and Axis: Bold As Love. Cream, Jefferson Airplane, Pink Floyd, The Who, Velvet Underground, Big Brother and the Holding Company…

I can't pick even a single song from these terrific albums without feeling overwhelmed. Instead, I'm going for one hit wonders, but ones that I particularly am fond of. It makes me want to dig out my Nehru dress and granny glasses! Groovy, man.

1967: Ha! Ha! Said The Clown

Manfred Mann: Ha! Ha! Said The Clown

[purchase]

This was one of my mother’s records (I still have it, with the sleeve pictured above). She had a few singles I loved when I was a little lad of four, five, six. Gilbert Bécaud’s “Natalie” was another. The Peels “Juanita Banana”. Jane Birkin’s orgasm feast (my mom either didn’t know or didn’t care that I was playing it; not that I would have known why the lady was making these funny noises). Al Martino’s “Spanish Eyes”. Chris Andrews’ “Pretty Belinda”. And, of course, all manner of German stuff, what with us being Germans. But “Ha! Ha! Said The Clown” was my favourite.

Of course a small kid will be attracted by the idea of a song about clowns, especially laughing ones (the kid need not be aware that the protagonist wanted to bang the wife of the clown). But two other things attracted me to the record: the cover, with a rather cute little girl, and the Fontana label, with the record company’s rather excellent logo. I had an interest in record labels as soon as my love affair with vinyl began. And the Fontana one appealed to me greatly. I loved all black labels, it seems (though on the UK release, the label is blue). The song itself is brilliant; it features the flute, whistling and a bass drum!

1967: White Summer

The Yardbirds (Jimmy Page): White Summer

[purchase]

The British blues-rock group The Yardbirds launched the careers of three terrific guitarists: Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, and Jimmy Page. For the longest time, I had mistaken this instrumental tune for a Jeff Beck song, and couldn't ever find it again as a result. But after decades, I learned the truth and now can share it properly.

Based on the Celtic melody of "She Moved Thro' The Fair", Page blended his arrangement with an Indian raga, which was a popular genre in 1967 (The Beatles were doing the same; for example, Baby, You're a Rich Man; Eric Burden, too, with When I Was Young). It first appears as a Yardbirds tune on their final LP, Little Games, but Page often played it live with Black Mountain Side during his Led Zeppelin days.

1967: The Supernatural

John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers: The Supernatural

[purchase]

I grew up in a small town. The only merchant in town was a general store that did not sell records. The nearest town of any size was five miles away. And, in 1967, I was seven years old. Yet, I heard many of the newest rock albums the day they were released. How? My oldest brother was twelve, and that nearby town had a Woolworth’s that sold records. They were very inexpensive by today’s standards, even adjusting for inflation. And my brother had a talent for begging my mother to take him into town the day the new albums came out. So I was naturally steeped in the blues-rock of the day, especially what was coming out of England. But not John Mayall. The music of John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers was something I had to go back for years later.

As 1967 dawned, Eric Clapton had left the Bluesbreakers for Cream. His replacement was Peter Green. In addition to Mayall, the other long term member of the band was bass player John McVie. Drummer Mick Fleetwood did not play on Mayall’s new album, A Hard Road, but Fleetwood did play on some of the sessions that were discarded, and he also played some live dates with the group. The Supernatural was one song that Peter Green wrote for the Bluesbreakers, and it may sound familiar. By 1969, Green and McVie would leave the Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac with Mick Fleetwood and Jeremy Spencer. Green would rework The Supernatural, adding lyrics and vocals, and tweaking the instrumental part. The result was Black Magic Woman.