City Songs: Boston

Patty Griffin, Boston

[purchase Flaming Red]
[purchase other Patty Griffin CDs]

I went back to Boston, back to the city you were lost in...

Silver Bell was supposed to be singer-songwriter Patty Griffin's third album, but it got lost in the shuffle when A&M got bought out by Interscope. Shame, that. Many of the songs on Silver Bell were subsequently rerecorded for other albums, and a few became hits for such luminaries as the Dixie Chicks, but this never-released song is one of her hardest rockers; it is both a tour of my childhood haunts and a tour of my adolescent rock-and-roll angst.

Purchase link goes to Flaming Red, Griffin's underrated (if overproduced) second album, which shares the same diverse grungefolk sensibility as much of Silver Bell. You can find a half-dozen folk and country covers of Patty Griffin songs here.

City Songs: New York's Not My Home

Jim Croce: New York's Not My Home

[purchase]

It’s easy to pick songs about New York when the theme is “city songs,” so after this I’ll head west. Actually, this is a fitting song for just such a move. Toward the end of our time living in New York, my wife and I had begun to really hate the place—too crowded, too noisy, nothing is easy. We knew we were planning to move to California and in anticipation of the move I made a “California Mix” – this being the leadoff track. Months later, when the day finally came to make the move, I put the mix on as we drove out of the city. We listened to this song as we passed through the Holland Tunnel.

City Songs: Alberta

Leadbelly: Alberta

[purchase]

Huddie William Ledbetter, Lead Belly, or Leadbelly was a key inspiration for many modern artists, from Dylan, to Elvis Costello, to Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana. He was imprisoned at least three times, once for murder.  According to Wikipedia:

Bob Dylan once remarked, on his XM radio show, that Lead Belly was "One of the few ex-cons who recorded a popular children’s album."

Alabama Bound is the only album of his that I own. Apparently there are literally hundreds of recordings out there, but I've never had the inclination to pursue any others. He's pretty cool in smaller doses, though.

City Songs: Going To Queens and Downtown Seoul

The Mountain Goats: Going To Queens

The Mountain Goats: Downtown Seoul

[purchase]

Mountain Goats mastermind John Darnielle has the gift of painting complete, if often mysterious pictures with just a few carefully chosen words. With some deceptively simple brushstrokes he can actually make you feel the immense heat of Queens in summer, sweat slowly running down your back: "You were all I´d ever wanted, you were all I´d ever need, in New York City in the middle of July." And listening to Downtown Seoul it´s easy to see a movie scene in black and white unfolding before your eyes: "I saw you coming across the square and a white bird broke the dark Korean sky, as the rest of my life went by..."

City Songs: Huntsville, 1969 and Wintering In Brooklyn

The Last Town Chorus: Huntsville, 1969
The Last Town Chorus: Wintering In Brooklyn

[purchase] Amazon
[purchase] Band Site

The first song I heard by Last Town Chorus was a cover of the David Bowie hit "Modern Love", and I was blown away. The arrangement, the performance... everything about it really, totally floored me. This past Christmas-time, from my favorite barista, I recieved Wire Waltz, The Last Town Chorus' second release. The album fully met, from front to back, my high expectations, and I've been gung-ho about them ever since.

Well, "them" is a bit misleading, actually. The "band" is singer/ pedal-steel player Megan Hickey with a variety of backing musicians.

I'd highly recommend this to anyone who likes Neko Case, Wilco, or any such other wide-ranging Americana-type sounds. Both of these songs, incidently, are on Wire Waltz.

There are a bunch more tunes for preview on the official band site, and I'd strongly suggest going over and giving your ears a treat.

The Last Town Chorus is on tour supporting Kathleen Edwards right now: The full schedule is on their site. If you like these songs, or any others you might take a chance on, you should really go see them live. I know where I'll be on the 2nd of April!

City Songs: Hard Times In New York Town

Bob Dylan: Hard Times In New York Town

[purchase]

This is one of the earliest Dylan recordings, from the famous Minnesota Hotel Tape, recorded in 1961 on a hotel bed in Minnesota (although some apparently dispute this - I can't find an authoritative account of the event, can anyone else?). This is not a Dylan original, rather it's a Dylan derivative of another folk tune like so much of Dylan's (very) early work. He put the tune together after visiting Woody Guthrie in a hospital in New York CIty as I understand it (again, I'm lacking authoritative sources here).

The featured track comes from the marvelous Bootleg Series 1961-1991, Volume 1-3. Like all "b-side" and bootleg compilations, there are several forgettable, and even a few bad, songs on the three disc collection, but it's a must for any Dylan fan. You get to hear Dylan in the studio, alternate cuts, and rarities (some of which are just as good as any album cuts).

City Songs: Only Living Boy In New York

Simon & Garfunkel: The Only Living Boy In New York

[purchase]

OK folks, time for a new theme. City songs. Pretty self-explanatory. Just post a song about a city or with a city in the title.

If my No. 1 favorite Simon and Garfunkel song is America, then this one is No. 1-A. Favorite line: "I can gather all the news I need on the weather report."

Spring & Flowers: Poisoned Rose

Elvis Costello: Poisoned Rose

[purchase]

Can I slip one more flower song in under the wire? I've read in a couple of places that King Of America is Costello's favorite album from his own catalogue. If this is the case, then I have to agree with him. His streak from This Year's Model through Imperial Bedroom is almost unmatched in pop music, with Trust and This Year's Model being personal highlights for me. But King Of America is where the Attractions take their leave for the first time, and Costello stands front and center.  The song writing is top notch, and the emotional intensity of the album is, in my opinion, unlike anything that we had heard from him up until this point.

Interestingly, the writing is all credited to Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus. This wasn't just a marketing trick, Costello had legally changed his name back to his birth name, adding Alysius, just prior to the release of the album.

Costello sounds characteristically angry on this record, but there are more subtle and delicate songs too. He was going through a divorce when he wrote the album, and Poisoned Rose is one of the songs where you hear this painful reality come through clearly. It's one of only a couple of slow-tempo tunes on the album. Really beautiful stuff.

Spring & Flowers: Roses In The Snow

Nico: Roses In The Snow

[purchase]

A few days ago it was over 70 degrees in Minneapolis. This morning (read: afternoon) I wake up to snow?!?! Shesh...

Quite disillusioned by that smirking trickster, Mother Nature, I simply don't have much to say. Nico's glacial delivery seems to express my feelings well.
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"Roses In The Snow" is an outtake from either The Marble Index (1969) or Desertshore (1970), released on the 2007 compilation The Frozen Borderline.

Spring & Flowers: When It's Springtime In Alaska

Johnny Cash: When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below) [purchase]
Johnny Horton: When It's Springtime In Alaska (It's Forty Below) [purchase]

Cash's posthumously-released version of the Johnny Horton hit is extremely cool. Horton's version ain't half bad either.

Famous last words: "I didn't know Lil was Big Ed's wife-to-be."

Spring & Flowers: The Flowers Of Guatemala

R.E.M.: The Flowers Of Guatemala

[purchase]

I've been in a real R.E.M. mood lately. Here's an old one that always said "Spring" to me.

For more about Guatemala, see here.

Spring & Flowers: For The Roses

Joni Mitchell: For The Roses

[purchase]

Well, I guess this song oughta get posted, huh?

Here's what Joni, herself, has to say about the song:

"That was my first farewell to show business. I was in Canada, where I have a sanctuary where I still go sometimes, and I had decided to quit show business and get away from all the pressures I felt. To me, this was an unfair, crooked business and it has nothing to do with real talent. ... I was up in Canada about a year and I guess it strengthened my nervous system a little, so I finally came back." - From Here

I'm glad she came back, because her next release was the phenomenal Court and Spark. If she hadn't recorded that album, then we may never have heard a song called "Free Man In Paris." And if we'd never heard that song? Well, you see where I'm going with this...

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Although this song was never released as a single, the album it is from (also named For The Roses) reached #11 on the U.S. charts, #5 on the Canadian charts, and #19 in Australia.

Spring & Flowers: Sunflower

[ purchase ]

The Beach Boys - Cool, Cool Water

Beautiful album, I think I'll listen to it in full as soon as possible. Spring and Summer are finally here and that always piques a little more interest, a little digging deeper still, in my 2nd favorite musical group of all time. Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, Surf's Up... what a run. Thank you summer, thank you Beach Boys.

of note: recordingsunflower.blogspot.com

Spring & Flowers: English Rose

The Jam: English Rose

[purchase]

For me any excuse to feature a song by The Jam is a good excuse. This tune is not about spring, or even really about Roses, but it does have the word Rose in the title and several times in the lyrics. This is one of the more melancholy Jam songs, with Paul Weller traveling the world, but pining for his native land, his English Rose.

Spring & flowers: Sugar Magnolia

The Grateful Dead: Sugar Magnolia

[purchase]

"Sugar magnolia, ringing that bluebell..." One of the highlights on what´s about the only Dead album I can stand: the rootsy American Beauty (´70). None of their endless trademark guitar doodlings here. Written by Bob Weir and Robert Hunter, Sugar Magnolia is a relaxed ode to love in bloom. And hey, who wouldn´t love this girl? "She´s got everything delightful, she´s got everything I need, takes the wheel when I´m seeing double, pays my ticket when I speed..."

Spring & Flowers: The Flower Called Nowhere

Stereolab: The Flower Called Nowhere

[purchase]

Stereolab is, to me, a quintessential springtime group. The light, airy vocals floating above busy, growing-and-flowing soundscapes make it perfect headphone music for meandering walks. It works good as a garden-tending soundtrack, too: I can almost percieve the little flower-shoots and vegetable stalks basking in the glow of this sunny music.

"The Flower Called Nowhere" can be found on Stereolab's 1997 release Dots And Loops, which, as far as I can tell, didn't chart anywhere.

Incidently, flowers are mentioned nowhere in the lyric.

More information on the band can be found on Wikipedia, of course.

*edit* Dots and Loops did chart! It rose to #111 on the Billboard 200.

Spring & Flowers: Good Year For The Roses

Elvis Costello: Good Year For The Roses

[purchase]

This has to be one of the saddest country songs ever written. The poor guy's life is falling apart around him and things that he used to think were important, like gardening or mowing the lawn, now seem menacingly inconsequential.

You can find the George Jones version here.

Spring & Flowers: Daisys Up Your Butterfly

The Cramps: Daisys Up Your Butterfly

[purchase]

This one really needs no further explanation. It's especially Springy because it has both daisies and butterflies. (I've got another great one to post from this album if the theme is ever beachwear or firearms.)

Spring & Flowers: (Nothing But) Flowers

Caetano Veloso: (Nothing But) Flowers

[purchase]

According to Wikipedia, David Byrne wrote these lyrics while admiring the flowers at the Minneapolis Sculpture Gardens. I, too, have been inspired while roaming the grounds down there, but I've never come up with anything like this. I guess that's the difference between a guy that's been the leader of one of the coolest New Wave bands (and a damn-fine solo artist!), and a guy that, well... a guy that basically lives in a closet! Huh. Funny, that.

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Here we stand
Like an Adam and an Eve
Waterfalls
The Garden of Eden
Two fools in love
So beautiful and strong
The birds in the trees
Are smiling upon them
From the age of the dinosaurs
Cars have run on gasoline
Where, where have they gone?
Now, it's nothing but flowers

There was a factory
Now there are mountains and rivers
you got it, you got it

We caught a rattlesnake
Now we got something for dinner
we got it, we got it

There was a shopping mall
Now it's all covered with flowers
you've got it, you've got it

If this is paradise
I wish I had a lawnmower
you've got it, you've got it
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I've always liked the Talking Heads version of this song, which was on their 1988 release Naked, but don't have a copy of it to share, at this time. Fortunately, I've got a most excellent cover version by a gentleman named Caetano Veloso.

I don't know much about the guy, but his Wikipedia page let me know that he is sometimes considered the "Bob Dylan of Brazil", has been releasing albums since 1967, and has won five Latin Grammy Awards. Good enough for me!

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"(Nothing But) Flowers", the Talking Heads version, made it to #73 on the UK Singles Chart.

Spring & Flowers: Wildwood Flower

The Carter Family: Wildwood Flower [purchase]
Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Wildwood Flower [purchase]
Joan Baez: Wildwood Flower [purchase]
Duane Eddy: Wildwood Flower [purchase]

Wildwood Flower is one of the classic American songs. Originally entitled "I'll Twine 'Mid the Ringlets," it was written by Maud Irving Joseph Philbrick Webster in 1860. The song has a very simple melody that will get stuck in your head.

The most popular recorded version is by The Carter Family. The version by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band from the essential album Will The Circle Be Unbroken features Mother Maybelle Carter on vocals.

I like Joan Baez's traditionally folky interpretation from her first album--recorded in 1960 while she was still a teenager. Duane Eddy's twangy guitar rendition is also pretty cool.