Clothes: Mini Skirt

Esquivel: Mini Skirt

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Not our usual fare, I'll admit. And there's always a risk that the "space age bachelor pad music" which arranger, composer, and bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel defined in the fifties and sixties will come across as something not far from elevator music in the modern ear. But there's a surprisingly complex texture in the better works of the artist generally known simply as Esquivel. And what better tune for a midweek stretch than this lighthearted loungepop shorty, complete with wolf whistles, bouncy piano plunking, and the ubiquitous homophonic chorus?

Clothes: Blue Jeans Blues

ZZ Top - Blues Jeans Blues

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Man. There is so much more to ZZ Top than their early '80's catalog. If I was making a list of the top 10 underrated bands out there I'm guessing ZZ Top would make my list. They recently made news by announcing that they're teaming up with Rick Rubin to record their next album.

"Blue Jeans Blues" comes from ZZ Top's 1975 release, Fandango!. It's the kind of blues song that needs to be listened to in a hot bar on a summer workday afternoon to fully appreciate.

Clothes: Rabbit Fur Coat

Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins: Rabbit Fur Coat

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The title track from Jenny Lewis' first solo album (the second is due out next week) is about a girl and her mother and their story of pride, revenge and redemption and how their fate was sealed all because of her mother's rabbit fur coat.

The song spans over a generation, from mother to daughter, and how their lives changed through the years, and how ultimately her mother's love for that coat led to her downfall.

Clothes: Wedding Dress

Ana Egge: Wedding Dress

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Songwriting challenge: tell a story without using any verbs. In Wedding Dress, Ana Egge sketches three characters, one in each verse. The chorus describes a wedding dress, which is used as a metaphor. Put it together and the listener knows exactly what happened. Amazing!

Clothes: The Fitted Shirt

Spoon: The Fitted Shirt

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This is one of my favorite Spoon songs. What I love about it—other than the way the rhythm throws you at the beginning—is that it's not a song about style. I mean, Spoon is a stylish band, so you'd be forgiven for thinking that. Britt Daniel's delivery oozes swagger, and the band never seems in a rush to rock you. They just do, as coolly as possible. But this song isn't about that. It's about fathers. It's about childhood and the mystery fathers can be to their kids. Dressing up each day and going away until dinner time, then mysteriously putting on a new set of clothes for the evening. It's about nostalgia. It's about growing up and solving the mystery. It's about preserving someone's modest legacy ("I'm gonna find buttons for my dad's old used shirt"). It's about love.

Clothes: You Can Leave Your Hat On

Randy Newman: You Can Leave Your Hat On

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Apparently, there's a rich subset of headgear to be mined in this week's theme. But Randy Newman's classic isn't just about hats. Quite the opposite, in fact: it's about everything one could wear coming off sultry and slow, followed by a series of puppetmaster striptease chessmoves from a narrator obsessed with an unidentified, objectified stripper of some sort. I don't usually go for full-bore lyrics, but these read so perfectly like the mind of a dirty old man they just have to be shared:

Baby, take off your coat...(real slow)
Baby, take off your shoes...(here, I'll take your shoes)
Baby, take off your dress
Yes, yes, yes
You can leave your hat on...

Go on over there and turn on the light...no, all the lights
Now come back here and stand on this chair...that's right
Raise your arms up in to the air...shake 'em
You give me a reason to live
You give me a reason to live...

Suspicious minds are talking
Trying to tear us apart
They say that my love is wrong
They don't know what love is...

I know what love is

As a bonus, here's some great covers, from the slightly gawky adolescent fumbling of Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule to Marc Broussard's sexiest, funkiest Randy Newman cover ever. And, then, of course, there's Tom Jones, being Tom Jones. Not my bag, but apparently old ladies still throw their panties at him.

Paul Curreri and Devon Sproule: You Can Leave Your Hat On
[five free albums of covers]

Marc Broussard: You Can Leave Your Hat On
[purchase]

Tom Jones: You Can Leave Your Hat On
[purchase]

Clothes: She Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina

The Kinks: She Bought A Hat Like Princess Marina

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From what I know about the contributers to SMM I probably won't get any arguments from them if I say that Arthur... is one of the greatest albums of all time.  However, it's not great because of this song.  I suppose this track plays its role in the overall flavor of the LP, but it's probably my least favorite of the bunch.

Unfortunately, none of the really excellent songs have articles of clothing in their titles.

Clothes: Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On

Mel McDaniel - Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On

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Your girlfriend or wife probably has a pair. I know my wife does...That one pair of jeans that make you think about sexy time every time you see her in them.

Oklahoma native, Mel McDaniel wrote a song about it.

Clothes: Pretty Dress

Rosie Thomas: Pretty Dress

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I’m happy that Rosie Thomas has made a bit of a splash on the music blogosphere in recent years. She has a voice that falls somewhere between a young Joni Mitchell and Jane Siberry. (If you’ve never heard of Jane Siberry, stick around. I’ll be posting something by her as soon as an appropriate theme comes along. If you have heard of her, leave a comment.)

Getting back to Rosie Thomas, Pretty Dress is her take on the tale of The Ugly Duckling. Thomas tells the tale eloquently by keeping the lyrics simple; with repeated listenings, you come to realize just how well Thomas has told her tale, with not a word wasted

Clothes: Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat

Bob Dylan: Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat

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My favorite hat song.

You must tell me how your head feels under something like that, under your leopard skin pillbox hat...

Clothes: Polka Dot Bathing Suit

Peter Siegel: Polka Dot Bathing Suit

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Western Massachusetts local hero Peter Siegel made it as far as nationally syndicated roots radio show etown a few years ago after winning first place in our local radio station's singer-songwriter contest, but he's still firmly under the radar as far as name recognition goes. Happily, in this part of the world, a versatile stringman with a good sense of humor and a radical bent towards the same seventies ideals that still linger in the post-Hippie environs of the Pioneer Valley can make a pretty good living hopping from contra dance to small old-timey coffehouse set, with bandmates and as a solo multi-instrumentalist, as long as he keeps his day job teaching music at an elementary school.

Peter's an old, dear friend, and our kids are great playmates, but despite my bias, I genuinely believe this is one of his best songs, a poppy, summery stand-out on his 2004 release The Show -- a solid album with newgrass, folk, psychedelic, and old-timey influences which he bills as a "political Vaudeville experience". For more samples, including a great old ragtime number and a few choice cuts from his newest album, head over to Peter's MySpace.

Clothes: Famous Blue Raincoat

Leonard Cohen - Famous Blue Raincoat

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In my opinion, Leonard Cohen is the very definition of cool. Any one else in this world who may be considered as cool is merely benefiting from the excess of cool falling from Mr. Cohen's coat tails.

Although Famous Blue Raincoat is one of Cohen's best-known songs, it is also one with which he remained dissatisfied. In an interview with Details magazine in 1993 he said:

"I never felt I really sealed that song; I never felt the carpentry was finished. That song and 'Bird on the Wire' were two songs I never successfully finished, but they were good enough to be used. Also, with the poverty of songs I have for each record, I can't afford to discard one as good as that. It's one of the better tunes I've written, but lyrically it's too mysterious, too unclear."

Like many of Cohen's songs it is based on a true story.

Clothes: Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)

Marvin Gaye: Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)

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In Marvin Gaye's second solo album, he left behind his Jazz inclinations of his first record and brought some hard R&B with That Stubborn Kinda Fellow. The background vocals on Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) come courtesy of Martha And The Vandellas. Enjoy some swingin' Marvin!

Clothes: Raspberry Beret

Prince: Raspberry Beret - 12"

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Quite simply put - Raspberry Beret is one of my all-time favorite Pop songs. While the Paisley Underground was exploding in Los Angeles, Prince pulled yet another abrupt style change and delved into Psychedelia with more romance than his typical carnality. It's truly a lovely tune.

Clothes: Dress of Laces

Nanci Griffith: Dress of Laces

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The well-worn metaphor of a well-worn dress speaks to the weary heart of a girl desperate for love from an absentee father and a debauching mother; I won't give away the ending, but I will say that the moral here seems to be that laces let to wear too thin can snap -- revealing, too late, that which would have kept us from an inevitably rash and regretful end.

The song, written and originally recorded by relatively under-the-radar Texas singer-songwriter Saylor White, was given life on a national scale with the release of Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful), Nanci Griffith's second of two bestselling all-coversong tributes to her musical influences and peers. No less an authority than the oft-cited Oxford American Magazine included Griffith's gorgeous countryfolk ballad on their yearly Southern Sampler way back in 1998, and I think it bears repeating. With Lyle Lovett on harmony vocals for that perfect finishing touch.

Clothes: Pink Triangle

Weezer: Pink Triangle

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Well... I thought I'd go ahead and get the obligatory Weezer post out of the way and put up "Undone (The Sweater Song)." Then, I thought I'd go a different way.

"Pink Triangle" is from Weezer's oft-overlooked 1996 album Pinkerton... my favorite Weezer album. Pinkerton was Weezer's ambitious and extremely personal followup to their self-titled debut. Although the album has become a cult favorite, it generally got mixed reviews and was a bit of a commercial failure. "Pink Triangle," the third song released from the album, was actually the band's least successful single.

The story of the song is simple. Guy meets girl. Guy falls for girl. Guy envisions a future with girl involving marriage, children, and white picket fences. Guy sees pink triangle patch on girl's sleeve. Guy is broken-hearted. Her clothes gave her away.

Clothes: Coat Of Many Colors

Dolly Parton: Coat Of Many Colors

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I've always admired Dolly Parton. This song in particular gets to the core of how great a songwriter she is, because it's beautiful, simple, and tells a story, and not just any story, but a very personal story that is also inspirational.

My mother always looks a bit misty-eyed when this song is on. Being a farmer's daughter herself, and being the girl wearing the flour sack dress to school and never feeling like she fit in because of it, and now looking back on it she remembers how hard her parents worked to feed and clothe her and her many siblings, she feels sad she never appreciated when she had it. Now she appreciates the difference, the homemade cookies in her lunchbox instead of the store bought ones, the time in the kitchen with her mother, the cherry picking with her sisters, they are all now experiences that she cherishes and feels blessed to have had instead of feeling like she wishes she were like the other girls as she did back then. Dolly puts her feelings into words and we see just how important and proud an article of clothing can make us.

Clothes: Hand In Glove

The Smiths Hand In Glove

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From their outstanding debut album, Hand In Glove is a strange and dysfunctional love song. Morrissey sounds deeply smitten, so smitten in fact that the sun shines out of his behind; however, he knows his luck too well and believes that he'll probably never see the object of his love again.

Clothes: Flowered Dresses

Slaid Cleaves: Flowered Dresses

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Slaid Cleaves. If it’s folk music you like… he’s your one-stop source. A man well versed in the art of storytelling, Slaid Cleaves evokes that dust-bowl, depression era ambiance as good as anyone. He’s the guy that put music a set of Woody Guthrie lyrics that became the namesake for my blog: This Mornin’ I Am Born Again.

Flowered Dresses was part of Slaid’s most recent (although released in 2006) album, Unsung. It’s a creative concept album in which Slaid worked to compile a group of songs from his peers – artists that opened for him, long time musical friends, etc. – and created an album that sounds as cohesive as any of his own material. Slaid re-tells other people’s songs like they were his own bed-time stories. Flowered Dresses is a song by fellow Austinite Karen Poston – who also penned one of Slaid’s most poignant tunes, Lydia. The two have collaborated often throughout the last decade.

Slaid Cleaves is currently on a West Coast tour and will be back making the rounds in Austin starting with a Halloween gig at the famous Cactus Café on the University of Texas campus. He says he’s got another batch of songs ready for a (partially underway) album tentatively named 'Hard To Believe.' Check out a full Slaid Cleaves artist spotlight here.

Slaid’s Website
Karen’s MySpace

Clothes: I Love My Shirt

Donovan: I Love My Shirt

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Do you have a shirt that you really love? Donovan does, with a tune guaranteed to generate earworms world-wide. You can try hating on this song, but it's not going to chase that melody out of your noggin.