School Days: What Did You Learn in School Today?

Tom Paxton is a folk singer who I’d like you all to meet. He is what is sometimes referred to as a songwriter’s songwriter. This means that you may very well have heard versions of his songs without ever knowing who wrote them. There are three distinct aspects to his craft.

Tom Paxton: What Did You Learn in School Today?

[purchase]

As a political songwriter, he makes his points with humor and irony. “What Did You Learn in School Today?” is a perfect example of this. It is also one of Paxton’s most timeless political songs; many of his political songs are topical, and have not aged well.

I do not have an example of his relationship songs that fits this week’s theme. These songs are poignant and full of emotion, and have held up very well over time. A good example would be “The Last Thing on my Mind”.

Paxton has also composed many children’s songs. The best known would have to be “The Marvelous Toy” But just for fun, I wanted to offer this little ditty, in keeping with our theme.

Tom Paxton: Barney Ate My Homework

[purchase]

School Days: Rah Rah Rah Rah Sis Boom Bah

The Beach Boys: Be True To Your School (Live)

[purchase]

The Beach Boys: Be True To Your School

[purchase]

When some loud braggart tries to put me down, and says his school is "great," I tell him right away: "Now what's the matter buddy, ain't you heard of my school? It's number one in the state."

The Beach Boys are so talented they can make a dorky song like this sound wonderful. Gotta love the Beach Boys!

(Note: The college fight song featured in the guitar solo is "On Wisconsin," about a second-rate University affiliated with the Big Ten Conference...)

School Days: Wonderful World

Sam Cooke: Wonderful World [purchase]

During the time Lou (Adler) and Sam had roomed together, they'd tossed "Wonderful World" back and forth, Sam playing the few chords he knew on the guitar and messing with both lyrics and melody. Cooke fiddled with it as he did with all his material: trying it out on various people, announcing it was his latest hit, showing off to women by claiming he'd written the tune right there, for them. It took shape over a long time and a lot of partying.

"Then what happened," says Adler, "is we were in the back of Keen Records on 3rd Street, and he decided he wanted to cut some things, but we couldn't get the normal drummer that we used. We were cutting them more or less as demos, because Bumps (Blackwell) wasn't there ... We got a drummer that was 15 or 16 years old and was a nephew of one of the musicians." The session on March 2, 1959, could hardly have been more bare-bones. As Adolphus Alsbrook laid down a rhumba bass line, the teenage drummer tracked along, and Cliff White picked a pretty, high guitar line. Behind Sam, hitting the last, rhymed word in each line, is Lou Rawls; Deano Lappas (Keen's house engineer) remembers him standing about a foot and a half behind Sam, singing into the same mic.

--Excerpt from Daniel Wolff, You Send Me: The Life & Times Of Sam Cooke, pp. 220-21

School Days: School Days

Loudon Wainwright III: School Days (live, 1978)

[purchase]

Loudon Wainwright III: School Days (2008)

[purchase]

I would say all these great things about School Days, a poignant song of the crisp passions and purpose of youth which originally appeared as the very first track of Loudon Wainright III's self-titled 1970 debut. But Loudon -- who, as father of Rufus and Martha, ex-husband of folksinger Kate McGarriggle, and father of new folkblood Lucy with eerie harmony-singer Suzzy Roche, has been a unifying element (and, given the family tendency to mine their own family relations for lyrics, the subject) of a veritable dynasty of folk and fringemusic for over 35 years -- said it all himself, with the help of his agency, just a few months ago in the promotional material for Recovery, a sweet, brand-new release which features powerful new takes on some of his classic material.

Here's the money quote, on this year's most recent incarnation of School Days:

"School Days" [is] a wry slice of collegiate bravado that imbues Recovery with musings about scenarios that played out “in Delaware when I was younger” -- a notion that’s all the more intriguing when one realizes the words were written by a 23-year-old whippersnapper.

“Like most overly dramatic twentysomethings, I thought I’d burn out quickly,” [Wainwright] says of the tone expressed on that song, and several of Recovery’s other offerings. “I certainly didn’t think I’d be around any longer than Jim Morrison. But somewhere along the way, I changed my mind. I got interested in being old when I was fairly young, and wrote from that perspective. So songs about getting old had one kind of resonance for me then, and another kind now.”

It has been my experience that such a change in resonance flavors performance; I had hoped to be able to share the original, sparse album version of the song today, as well as the two versions featured above. Sadly, however, though Loudon Wainwright III the original album has recently been rereleased after years out of print, I couldn't find a pre-digitized copy anywhere. Still, the theory plays out, at least in part: though the differences between his 1978 official live recording and the 2008 version off of Recovery are primarily a matter of production choices, those willing to listen carefully will indeed find 30 years worth of wisdom flavoring the second, all remnants of earlier versions' overearnest concert braggadocio gone, the memories made more bittersweet and mellowed with age and studio setting.

Bonus: here's a look at the Wainwright dynasty through cover songs which includes another, totally different version of School Days recorded by Loudon's ex-wife, their son, and her sister a few years back. Pretty sure that's Loudon himself on background vocals, too. How odd it must have been, there in the studio, listening in the background while his exes and kids sang out his memories.

School Days: Tony

Patty Griffin: Tony

[purchase]

I know everyone is probably looking for the peppy little "rah rah" high school songs here, but I'm going to get a little heavy with Patty Griffin.

The story behind this song goes that "Tony" was a high school classmate of Griffin's who took his own life when he was in his early 20's. In hindsight, Tony is remembered as a quiet kid who kept to himself. Maybe he reached out for help, maybe he didn't. High school being what it is, everyone else was so wrapped up in their own problems that they barely noticed Tony's.

There is some strong language in this song.

School Days: Teacher Teacher

Rockpile: Teacher Teacher

[purchase]


Class, today's lesson is minimalism.

Horns: Wild Billy's Circus Story

Bruce Springsteen: Wild Billy's Circus Story

[purchase]

Even though The Boss has been already featured for the horn topic, I'm going to post up one more...

This was one of the songs that first popped to my brain for this theme. Is it because I'm unfathomably attracted towards the squishy rhumphas from a tuba? Perhaps. Is it because I've always wanted to run away to the circus? Well, who don't? But, it's probably just that it's a great song from a great songwriter.

Word.

Horns: Jazz Trumpeters

You can't talk "horns" in pop music without mentioning the jazz trumpet player, perhaps the most iconic of all horn blowers.

Here are a four of my favorites from the golden age of jazz:

MILES DAVIS



Miles Davis: 'Round Midnight

[purchase]

Mile Davis is a true jazz giant and the only jazz trumpeter who can stand shoulder to shoulder with Louis Armstrong in the hall of jazz imortals. This recording of Thelonious Monk's 'Round Midnight (with John Coltrane on Tenor Sax) is stunning.

[Read Miles Davis Bio]

FREDDIE HUBBARD



Freddie Hubbard: Delphia

[purchase]

Freddie Hubbard may not be as well known as the other jazz icons featured in this post, but he certainly qualifies as one of the all-time greats. Before his solo career he played on such seminal albums as Eric Dolphy's Out To Lunch and Herbie Hancock's Maiden Voyage. This one comes from my favoite Freddie Hubbard album, Red Clay (1970). It's nice and funky.

[Read Freddie Hubbard Bio]

LEE MORGAN



Lee Morgan: Since I Fell For You

[purchase]

Lee Morgan is maybe the most accessible jazz trumpeter for those new the genre. He started playing as a professional while still a teenager. Tragically, Lee Morgan was murdered by his common-law wife at the young age of 33.

[Read Lee Morgan Bio]

CLIFFORD BROWN



Clifford Brown: Joy Spring

[purchase]

Clifford Brown was another brilliant trumpeter who tragically passed away at a young age. He was only 25 years old when killed in a traffic accident. His recorded work is wonderful but who knows what might have been...

[Read Clifford Brown Bio]

Horns: Jock-A-Mo/Iko Iko

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford: Jock-A-Mo (1953) [purchase]

Larry Williams: Jockamo (aka Iko-Iko) (Late '50s) [purchase]

Dr. John: Iko Iko (1972) [purchase]

Dixie Cups: Iko Iko (1965) [purchase]

I posted the Dr. John version of "Iko Iko" last week in my tribute to Jerry Wexler, but I'm including it here to put the song in context. As it happens, Dr. John tells the "Iko Iko" story in the liner notes to Gumbo, his 1972 album that was produced by the late, great Mr. Wexler. Says Mac:

"The song was written and recorded back in the early 1950s by a New Orleans singer named James Crawford who worked under the name of Sugar Boy & the Cane Cutters. It was recorded in the 1960s by the Dixie Cups for Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller's Red Bird Records, but the format we're following here is Sugar Boy's original. Also in the group were Professor Longhair on piano, Jake Myles, Big Boy Myles, Irv Bannister on guitar, and Eugene 'Bones' Jones on drums. The group was also known as the Chipaka Shaweez. The song was originally called 'Jock-A-Mo,' and it has a lot of Creole patois in it. Jock-A-Mo means 'jester' in the old myth. It is Mardi Gras music, and the Shaweez was one of many Mardi Gras groups who dressed up in far out Indian costumes and came on as Indian tribes. The tribes used to hang out on Claiborne Avenue and used to get juiced up there getting ready to perform and 'second line' in their own special style during Mardi Gras. That's dead and gone because there's a freeway where those grounds used to be. The tribes were like social clubs who lived all year for Mardi Gras, getting their costumes together. Many of them were musicians, gamblers, hustlers and pimps."

James "Sugar Boy" Crawford addressed his original in a 2002 interview with OffBeat Magazine:

How did you construct "Jock-A-Mo"?

It came from two Indian chants that I put music to. "Iko Iko" was like a victory chant that the Indians would shout. "Jock-A-Mo" was a chant that was called when the Indians went into battle. I just put them together and made a song out of them. Really it was just like "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." That was a phrase everybody in New Orleans used. Lloyd Price just added music to it and it became a hit. I was just trying to write a catchy song. Leonard Chess (president of Chess & Checker Records, then Sugar Boy's label) contacted me and arranged for me to go to Cosimo's (J & M Studio) and record it. That was in (November) 1953.

Listeners wonder what "Jock-A-Mo" means. Some music scholars say it translates in Mardi Gras Indian lingo as "Kiss my ass," and I've read where some think Jock-A-Mo was a court jester. What does it mean?

I really don't know (laughs). It wasn't my idea to call the song "Jock-A-Mo," Leonard Chess did that. If you listen to the song, I'm singing C-H-O-C-K, as in Chockamo. Not J-O-C-K, as in Jock-A-Mo. When Leonard listened to the session in Chicago, he thought I said, "Jock-A-Mo." When I saw the record for the first time I said, "That's not the title. It's 'Chock-A-Mo'."

Finally, I realize that The Dixie Cups version of "Iko Iko" doesn't actually have horns, but I couldn't NOT include it. It might be my favorite version, simply because of its simplicity. According to Dixie Cup, Barbara Hawkins, "We were just clowning around with it during a session using drumsticks on ashtrays. We didn't realize that Jerry (Lieber) and Mike (Stoller) had the tapes running." Leiber and Stoller, producers of their version of "Iko Iko," later overdubbed a bass and drums and released it.

Horns: It's All Over Now

Dirty Dozen Brass Band: It's All Over Now

[purchase]

Though the brass band sound of the second line originated in the funeral traditions of New Orleans -- the term refers to the line of musicians who followed the "first line" of mourners in traditional procession -- its association with New Orleans culture has long brought the syncopated beat and marching brass band sound to a vast array of cultural events which profess to celebrate the great city. In turn, as the musical form has found its way from the funeral to the stages and parades, and as generations of musicians have grown up absorbing its distinctive patterns as one of many influences, it has intermingled with other sounds, becoming a rich part of the tapestry of popular music.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, which fuses traditional second line cadences and instrumentation with the loose energy and tempo of funk, was one of the first and longest running groups to use this second line style as a platform for greatness beyond the confines of Louisiana, and thus is one of the best known; their sound was forged in the late seventies and early eighties, when an ebb in popularity for brass bands in general left them free to experiment with the form. It's All Over Now is from their Columbia Records debut, the hugely popular Voodoo, which featured horn players Dizzy Gillespie and Branford Marsalis, among others; I heard them perform this song at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival a few years later, with Dr. John sitting in as special guest, just like in the original version, and it was an incredible party.

Horns: Retro-swing Edition

For no apparent reason, the year 1998 seemed to see the sudden emergence of a number of bands playing what the music press would label swing revival music, or Retro-swing. In fact, these bands had toiled in obscurity for most of the 1990s, but why they all captured the popular imagination in 1998 in particular is a mystery. Soon enough, obscurity would welcome them back. Within a year or two, the style, and the bands that played it, had largely disappeared from view. But for that year or two, the music they made was great.

Brian Setzer Orchestra: You‘re The Boss

[purchase]

Brian Setzer was somewhat of a pioneer of this sound. Going solo in the early 1990s, after the breakup of the Stray Cats, he began experimenting with adding horns to his music almost immediately. By 1998, he had arrived at a hybrid of rockabilly and big band music. Here he slows it down,(and incidentally gives us what I believe is the first muted trumpet we’ve heard this week.)

Squirrel Nut Zippers: Suits Are Picking Up The Bill

[purchase]

Squirrel Nut Zippers are the only other band I’m featuring who had much impact with more than one album. This track comes from their album, Perennial Favorites. The follow-up, Hot, received play on MTV, and gave Hell week its title track.

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy: Minnie The Moocher

[purchase]

To my ear, the horn charts used by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy make their music the closest to the big band sound of any of the bands I’m featuring here. “Minnie the Moocher” is a classic tune from the big band era.

Cherry Poppin‘ Daddies: Zoot Suit Riot

[purchase]

Finally, I couldn’t leave this topic without posting “Zoot Suit Riot” by Cherry Poppin’ Daddies. This song knocked me out when I first heard it, and it still does. I don’t have much else to say about it. Just listen.

Horns: Dance The Night Away

The Mavericks: Dance The Night Away

[purchase]

Floridian alt-country band The Mavericks rose quickly in the nineties, recording six albums, charting 14 singles, and winning several Country Music Awards and a Grammy. Their reign, however, was surprisingly short-lived: though founding singer-songwriter Raul Malo's solo output remains heavily blogged and in-demand, much of the end-run output from the Mavericks was weak; they broke up in 2003 after their last two albums failed to chart in the US.

The Mavericks are well known to me as a cover blogger; in fact, the success and failure of their many cover songs provides a fairly clear exploration of their rise and fall. Their early take on Hank Williams classic Hey Good Looking, on sophomore outing From Hell To Paradise, helped sustain the buzz from their first, self-titled album, bringing their early work to light. Later that decade, their cowboy-paced big band cover of Blue Moon, which appeared on the Apollo 13 soundtrack, was a relatively successful single in North America.

The Cat Stevens cover on their 1999 greatest hits compilation would eventually chart at #42, but the writing was on the wall. Their cover of Hot Burrito #1 was a decent if unexceptional addition to Gram Parsons tribute Return of the Grievous Angel, but didn't stand out as anything special. And soon would come sappy, too-jazzy covers of CCR classic Down on the Corner from the King of the Hill TV show, and a seriously disappointing big-band version of Elvis standard Are You Lonesome Tonight, which appeared on the soundtrack to Babe: Pig in the City, as harbingers of the end. Meanwhile, Raul Malo's decent cover of Springsteen's Downbound Train, on 2000 tribute Badlands, anticipated both the band's dissolution, and Malo's successful solo career.

Happily, their 1998 original single Dance the Night Away remains a stellar stand-out, cheerful and bright-sounding, reminiscent of their early work fusing southern swing, swamp rock, country, rockabilly, and big band arrangements, easily worth placement on the always-excellent Oxford American Southern Sampler series from that year. Malo's work as frontman always reminds me of Roy Orbison in his later, high-country rock days, which isn't a bad thing at all. Thanks to JerseyCynic for reminding me that I had this truly majestic dance number on tap for this week's theme. Meanwhile, here's one for die-hard Elvis fans only:

The Mavericks: Are You Lonesome Tonight

[purchase the Babe soundtrack!]

Horns: Gill Landry

Gill Landry - Lonliness

[purchase]

I originally described Gill Landry's 2007 effort, The Ballad of Lawless Soirez, as "the soundtrack for a lost Quentin Tarantino film" and "a mixture old country blues, jazz and songster music of the 20's and 30's perfect for a quite night with a warm glass of whiskey and a little sweat."

He's currently on tour with Old Crow Medicine show.

Horns: Blues Edition

In the 1930s, at the height of the big band era, there were (especially black) bands that featured blues singers. This meeting of blues and swing was called “rhythm and blues”, and billboard’s first R&B charts were for this music. Later this style became known as “jump blues”.

During and after World War II, two things happened that changed the sound of the blues: one, there was a mass migration of workers to the industrialized northern states, which resulted in acoustic blues players from the south plugging in and creating electric blues; and two, wartime shortages made it prohibitively expensive for large swing bands to tour, and the bands responded by shrinking. Over time, the electric blues and jump blues styles collided, and there began to be bands with drums, electric bass, maybe piano, electric guitar, and two or three horns. At this point you get what we think of today as R&B, and along the way you also get some great blues.

Wynonie Harris: Bloodshot Eyes

[purchase]

Wynonie Harris began his career as one of those big band singers, but found his greatest success after the war as a jump blues singer. “Bloodshot Eyes” was not one of his biggest hits, but it has endured. The song has been covered by everyone from Asleep at the Wheel to Pat Benetar.

Willie Mabon: Seventh Son

[purchase]

Willie Mabon migrated from Memphis to Chicago during the war. There he met Willie Dixon, who wrote “Seventh Son” for him. This is a boasting song, which is thematically related to the better known “Hochie Coochie Man.”

Roomful Of Blues: Walkin' Slow Behind You

[purchase]

Roomful of Blues are a band that sought to bring back the jump blues style long before the recent wave of neo-swing bands. (I don’t mean to knock the neo-swing bands. Look for a post on these bands from me later.) Roomful of Blues did their best work with their original lineup, including guitarist Duke Robilard; his solo work is also well worth seeking out.

B B King: Caldonia

[purchase]

Finally, no presentation of horns in blues would be complete without B B King. “Caldonia” is a classic jump blues tune that many people had recorded before, but B B King changed the balance of horns and guitar, and defined the sound of horns in blues for those who have come after him.

Horns: Cure For Pain

Morphine: Cure For Pain

[purchase]

I know that saxophones are a reed instrument, so are not a horn, by definition.
I know that SMM is a malleable invention, allowing bendings (and shatterings) of rules.

So there.

Horns: Two Cow Garage

Two Cow Garage - Mediocre

[purchase]

Well, I guess since the owner's of The Star Maker Machine went and made me an "official" contributor I could make an effort to contribute 2 posts to each theme. I wish I could do more but I have a hard enough time posting once a day to ninebullets.net. This is a particularly difficult week cause, well, to be honest, I just don't listen to that much shit with horns. Fiddles, banjos, harmonicas, even freaking washboards and I could post 20 songs without even having to think about it. But horns? I've been marinating on it and I've found a few songs. I'm gonna try to get to them all and I am gonna start with one from one of my very favorite bands, Two Cow Garage.

Two Cow Garage is a band I can root for. Four completely awesome guys who write completely awesome rock music and play it with everything in them, regardless of the size of the crowd behind the monitors. If you can’t get behind that, then I gotta admit, I don't really like you. This song is the Two Cow version of a balld. It comes from their 2007 effort, "III" which was released on Suburban Home Records. Their 4th Album, titled "Speaking in Cursive", is scheduled to be released this October.

Horns: LA-Memphis-Tyler

Dale Hawkins: LA-Memphis-Tyler

[purchase]

Dale Hawkins hit it big in '59 with Suzie Q, but created his roots rock masterpiece 10 years later. Recorded in three cities, the album title pays them tribute: "LA, Memphis & Tyler, Texas." It was finally put out on CD two years ago and it's a real cooker, featuring two tracks penned by fellow swamp rocker Bobby Charles.

A few cuts have killer horn charts, the instrumental Back Street, Little Rain Cloud, and the title track above. I wonder in which town they were recorded.

Horns: Jump in the Line

Harry Belafonte: Jump in the Line

[purchase]

Like my first post this week, this song is just pure joy. It's one of the first songs I reach for when I just want to hear something to make me happy.

Horns: Oo La La La

Cheap Trick: Oo La La La

[purchase]

So, whaddya do when your career is on the slide, your bass player quits, and you've just blown two great songs on a movie soundtrack? (A great movie soundtrack, but still...)

Well, you could have your iconic lead guitarist play the bass parts on the next album, hire a new guy to tour with you (but cleverly obscure his face on the album cover, hoping the casual fan doesn't notice), and press on...

Ah, what the heck. In addition to all that, replace the guitar on one of those new album tracks with a horn section, but don't let them sound like a horn section... have them follow the guide guitar track to the note, and mix it just like a guitar, too.

Yeah, that's what you do.

(Realizing that snark doesn't always translate to the internets well, let me state - for the record - that Cheap Trick is my all-time favorite rock band - not counting The Beatles, of course - and even their 'low points' are some of the best rock and roll I've ever enjoyed.)

Horns: Cobwebs And Strange

The Who: Cobwebs And Strange

[purchase]

If you're looking for some horns, here's John Entwistle on trumpet, Roger Daltrey on trombone, Pete Townshend on penny-whistle, and Keith Moon on drums. They're performing one of Keith Moon's rare contributions to the band's oeuvre.