Going the Distance: Come A Long Way

Michelle Shocked: Come A Long Way

[purchase]

I’m trying a new file hosting service, so I hope the link stays live.

Music can be escapism. It isn’t always, but I suspect that is why a 50+ professional who has lived his whole life in either New York or New Jersey and has a pretty quiet family life likes to listen to music about people living on the edge, drinking, carousing, ramblin’. I know that I never will ride a motorcycle, get into a bar fight, hitchhike across the desert, or be a rock star. And, honestly, I don’t really have any interest in doing so.

But it is fun to listen to music that is about things that are outside your experience. I remember once reading an article that said that people like roller coasters, or eating spicy food, because it gives the illusion of danger, without real risk. That your body reacts by producing adrenalin and endorphins that give you that edge and pleasure, without having to worry about actually getting beat up or killed.

Which is why, I guess, I have always liked this song, by Michelle Shocked. Her narrator rescues her motorcycle from the repo man and drives it around Los Angeles, referencing a number of local landmarks and noting that she has driven 500 miles, but never left the city.

Shocked is an interesting artist—uncompromising and demanding of creative freedom. Her first few albums were incredible, and the album that this song comes from, Arkansas Traveler, is both brilliant, and controversial. In great part, it is a reworking of traditional folk and country songs, with all-star guests including Levon Helm and Garth Hudson, Hothouse Flowers, Uncle Tupelo (which included her brother), Taj Mahal, Pops Staples, and others, and there are many, many good songs. But Shocked insisted on appearing in blackface on the cover, to highlight her interest in blackface minstrelsy, and her label refused. The album was barely promoted and failed to sell, leading to the end of Shocked’s major label career. I did buy her next album, but have kind of lost track of her, although I know that she has been recording gospel music. She is someone who has simply done what she wanted, and damn the consequences. Another thing that I don’t think I could ever do, even though I respect her for doing it.

I’ve been to L.A. a few times, mostly on business, and recognize some of the places mentioned, but they are really meaningless to me. But there is something about the song, the music and the lyrics, that makes me want to jump on a bike, a hog, a chopper, or whatever the cool people call it, and head out on an adventure. It isn’t going to happen, and that’s OK, too. But it can be fun to live vicariously.

Rings: SIngle Ladies (Put A Ring...)

Party Ben: Mashup (Single Ladies/Andy Griffiths Theme)

Purchase (Download free from Party Ben's site)

I, too, have been away from my computer and music collection and so missed the chance to post recently. As for the mp3 files issue, although I am using the same maligned hosting service (and I know I am tempting fate here), my previously posted songs seem to still resolve. It may be because many/most are creative commons legal. It could be because I rename them. So here goes yet another posted mp3 in the hopes that it, too, resolves for you…

One category of music I collect and enjoy are mashups. There are several places online where you can find years’ worth of downloads if you want to get/explore more. For anyone who doesn’t already know this genre, a mashup involves mixing two or more songs, generally adjusting the timing and using just a part of the songs in order to get them to fit just right: some do it better than others.

This mashup, by Party Ben from San Fransisco, is a good example of his skills (also check out his version of Rehab/Can’t Help Myself). In it, he deftly combines Beyonce’s Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It) with the theme from the Andy Griffith’s show - hence the tie in to this week’s theme.

As to the legality of mashups, it is a hotly debated topic. Since a mashup generally uses little more than the established “fair use” short selection of a copyrighted work, as well as being a creative original interpretation, it is an art form that seems to survive take-down requests. I would say: not unlike the kind of creativity that Weird Al Yankovitch is known for (the link should provide you with a short version of his "Ringtones".)

Rings: Hurricane

Bob Dylan: Hurricane

[purchase]

As an initial matter, I know that we have been having a big “dead link” issue on the blog, and I hope we can figure out a way to stop that from happening. There have been lots of emails behind the scenes. But I am going to post, and link, and hope that you can listen. If not, I expect that most readers are savvy enough to find a version of this song somewhere. In fact, I bet that many of you already own this one.

Since I started writing for this blog, I have posted every week, sometimes twice, and often first. But this past week, I was on vacation, and am glad that the theme has been extended. I was at the Newport Folk Festival last weekend with my wife, and stayed in Newport for the rest of the week. It was our first time at the festival, and it was incredible. The first day was wonderful, and we heard some incredible music, including the incendiary Alabama Shakes, Dawes, Apache Relay, Patty Griffin, First Aid Kit, and the closer, My Morning Jacket. During which, the skies opened up, and the torrential downpour led to a Dunkirk-esque evacuation from the concert for those of us who used the ferry.

When I saw the theme, on Sunday morning, I thought that I could post this song, about boxer Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, by Bob Dylan, in honor of Dylan’s legendary electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. I was planning on trying to post during the week, but it never happened. Sunday was another full day of music, including Sara Watkins, New Multitudes (with Jay Farrar, Jim James, Will Johnson and Anders Parker), the amazing Gary Clark, Jr., Conor Oberst and tUne-yArDs. We also caught the last song of Tom Morello’s set, “World Wide Rebel Song,” which he played with the stage filled with spectators, and during which he taunted the security and police for trying to clear the stage. After the set was over, the announcer said, “The Newport Folk Festival is still political.”

Maybe, but certainly not as much as it was back in the sixties, when folk music was a vanguard in the civil rights and antiwar movements, and Dylan’s desire to play electric could become an international incident. Reading accounts of that day, it is pretty clear that the myth, that Dylan decided to play an electric set, was booed by the crowd, and that Pete Seeger used an axe to cut the electricity, is not really accurate, and what really happened is subject to interpretation and opinion. In fact, there are those who believe that Dylan wasn’t booed at all, but that the crowd was upset that his set was so short.

Similarly, the facts about Rubin Carter’s murder charges are unclear. Dylan’s song takes the position that Carter was innocent and framed, and convicted due to racism. It is an incredibly powerful protest song, and it is easy to understand why critics considered it a return to form for Dylan after a long stretch away from political music. Or why it resonated so strongly in the mid-70’s. And yet, despite the ultimate overturning of Carter’s conviction, there are many who believe that he was guilty, and a simple Google search will uncover many sites that still argue both sides.

I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to say definitively what happened at Newport on July 25, 1965, or in Paterson, New Jersey nearly a year later, on June 17, 1966. And maybe that should make us think before we rely blindly on reports of events that we did not experience ourselves.

Rings: Wedding Ring

Adrienne Young & Little Sadie : Wedding Ring

[purchase]

Adrienne Young has a unique flair in her music that’s an enchanting mix of old-time and pop with 21st century musical keenness and business acumen. Young's astute approach involves consummate musicians, charged-up arrangements, thoughtful messages, and bright, breezy vocalizing. Like her 2004 debut album Plow to the End of the Row, Young's sophomore effort in 2005, The Art of Virtue, was on her own Addiebelle Records. I appreciate this talented, young lady's self-confidence as she continues to build her resume in a competitive field.

The Art of Virtue was inspired in part by Ben Franklin's 'virtues of man' writings and stories. Songs on her album like "My Sin is Pride" and "My Love Will Keep" and "Wedding Ring" emphasize themes of morality, goodness, and integrity. While some messages might have a nostalgic look back to yesteryear, her music is contemporary and soothing. It's a thematic album that appeals to us in a visceral way "down where the roots grow deep."

Her 2005 album features Young's proficient songwriting, some reinvented old-time fiddle tunes, a Gospel standard, a Grateful Dead classic, and the Zydeco-flavored "Wedding Ring" with its spirited performance that gets us up and cutting a bean. Young's lyrics offer mature and solid advice, usually gained from a lifetime of experience. Her smarts and wisdom belie her age.

A Belmont University music business program graduate, Young's career took off after winning the Chris Austin Songwriting Contest at Merlefest. Her 2004 CD earned a Grammy nomination for album design. On her 2005 The Art of Virtue, Young's songwriting exhibits honesty and a natural inclination to create lyrical and melodic treasures. Her singing shines with its greatest lustre on the slower songs, while a few pieces (like "Wedding Ring") portray a more arduous side to her voice. She’s a young storyteller of original folk tales, and her parables put to music are very likeable.

Hot: Too Darn Hot

Ella Fitzgerald: Too Darn Hot

[purchase]

I'm not a Broadway musical enthusiast. But, the vast majority of our daughter's waking hours are spent either in dance class or talking about dance. So, on a recent trip to New York, we met up with some friends, and we all went to see an old-fashioned Broadway musical, Anything Goes. "Too Darn Hot" is not from that musical, but was penned by the same songwriter, Cole Porter.

My daughter was thrilled by the dancing. But, what struck the non-dancers among us was how incredibly well-written the songs were. In particular, we were struck by the memorable music and genuinely witty lyrics that Porter created.

His "Too Darn Hot" is in that same tradition. Almost effortlessly, it shifts from a laundry list of things you can't do when the thermometer soars to analysis of the Kinsey Report. Amazing.

"Too Darn Hot" was featured in the Cole Porter musical, Kiss Me Kate, written in 1948 -- the same year the Kinsey Report was issued. Most of the great vocalists of that era have sung it, but the best-known rendition comes from Ella Fitzgerald, who first recorded "Too Darn Hot" for her 1956 album, Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook. This smoking hot live version is from her 1960 record, Mack the Knife: Ella in Berlin, an outstanding record that was eventually enshrined in the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Hot: Andas Solsken

Ida Olsson: Andas Solsken
[purchase]

 There are no clouds.  The sun smiles down, filling you with light, with life - all is well and you are loved.  You breathe deep, the simple act of respiration drawing in every atom of sunlight, of reciprocated emotion.  The colours are sharp, the summer bouquets bleed into one heady aroma and you lift your face to smile into the rays.  Everything is right: of course it is.  Of course it is.

But if one day the sun doesn't catch you smiling, if a love reciprocated is too detached from a sense of self to allow the light and heat to penetrate pale skin and cold bones - what then?  Perhaps you breathed in enough summer to last you through the winter.  Perhaps the only warmth you need is the warmth you deny yourself.  Perhaps...

For now, though, the sun is shining.  Close your eyes.  Breathe deep.

Hot: 92 Degrees

Siouxsie & The Banshees : 92 Degrees

[purchase]

The hottest temperature I’ve ever experienced was 121 degrees in the Mojave Desert near Palm Springs during the summer of 2009. It was too sizzling to move. To tell the truth, I'm uncomfortable at anything over a tepid 85. Siouxsie and the Banshees tell us about a day that “drags by like a wounded animal,” and she refers to the “approaching disease” and “approaching unease” of exactly 92 degrees.

During their twenty years together (1976-96), Siouxsie and the Banshees were a band that emerged from the London punk community. As they developed with more sophistication, they seminally influenced the goth-rock movement. The blistering “92 Degrees” is on their recommended and stylistically consistent 1986 Tinderbox project that reached the Top 100 album chart in the U.S. (largely due to the excellent single “Cities in Dust”).

There's some rather unsettling narration that introduces the song. “Do you know that more murders are committed at 92 degrees Fahrenheit than any other temperature? I read an article once. Lower temperatures, people are easy going. Over 92, it’s too hot to move. But just 92, people get irritable!”

I start to perspire as Siouxsie vocalizes these lyrics:

The blood in our veins and the brains in our head,
The approaching unease, 92 degrees.
Long ago in the headlines, they noticed it too,
But too late for the loved ones and nearly for you.

Shaky lines on the horizon,
Snaky thoughts invade each person,
Watch the red line creeping upwards,
Watch the sanity line weaken,
The volcanic depths of Hades’ ocean,
Bubble under, these crazed eruptions,
It wriggles and writhes and bites within,
Just below the sweating skin.

I wondered when this would happen again,
Now I watch the red line, reach that number again,
The blood in our veins and the brains in our head.

Drink the water with jagged glass,
Eat the cactus with bleeding mouth,
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees.

Shaky lines on the horizon,
Snaky thoughts invade each person,
Not 91 or 93, but 92 Fahrenheit degrees.

Whether it’s fact or fiction, I’ve read that that when the temperature reaches 92 degrees in the U.S., the crime rate rises by 200 percent. A little research indicates the red line hit 96 degrees in Aurora, Colorado on July 20, 2012. My heart and most sincere sympathy go out to the victims of that horrific tragedy.

Hot: Hot Fun in the Summertime

My Morning Jacket: Hot Fun in the Summertime

[purchase link - free Creative Commons download at archive.org]

Here's a 4-5 year old version of a song originally recorded by Sly and the Family Stone back in '69. The band performing this version is My Morning Jacket and it's a live version from (once again) the Creative Commons servers at archive.org.

This is just one of about 20 songs from what appears to have been a legendary set from this band out of Kentucky (you can check out the rest of the set via the "purchase" link above).

Hot: Heat in Harlem

Graham Parker & The Rumour: Heat in Harlem
[purchase]

How could I be so wrong? I consider myself a reasonably discerning critic, and I like this song, “Heat in Harlem,” by Graham Parker and the Rumour. No, it isn’t the greatest song they ever did, but it is perfectly fine and fits our theme. So, when I decided to write about it, I did some research and found out something troubling—two of the most well-known and respected rock music critics, Robert Christgau and Dave Marsh, absolutely hate the song. Not as in “don’t like it,” but “hate” it.

Understand that the critics absolutely loved Parker’s first two albums, and there was a time that some believed that he was going to be huge, instead of becoming the cranky brilliant cult figure that he ended up as. But his third album, Stick to Me, was somewhat of another story.

In his Consumer Guide in 1977, Christgau gave the album an A-, but still called it a “disappointment.” And he said that “Heat in Harlem” was “vapid and overblown.” Marsh, in his Rolling Stone review in December, 1977 referred to the song as a “dire failure.” Marsh, who is a huge Springsteen fan also said, though, “Graham Parker is unquestionably the most exciting new rock performer since Bruce Springsteen,” and that Stick to Me was the most anticipated rock record since Born to Run.

Read that paragraph again. In 1977, the man known as the Dean of Rock Critics gave Stick to Me an A-, even though it was a disappointment, and a major rock critic for the most influential music publication in the country put Graham freaking Parker in the same league as Springsteen, and said that Stick to Me was the most anticipated album since Born to Run. I understand that those two critics have many critics of their own, but my point is that these two leaders in the field of rock music criticism loved Parker but hated “Heat in Harlem.”

I listened to the song again today, and to me, it still doesn’t stink. It shows Parker trying out a little more of an R&B inspired sound, but I don’t really see it as that much of a stretch from his prior album, “Heat Treatment.” And I agree that the production is muddy, but the album, as we know it, was re-recorded in a week after the original master tapes were damaged. But the song really isn’t bad. Maybe it goes on a little long, but “vapid and overblown”? A “dire failure”? I beg to differ.

So, what’s the point? Either Christgau and Marsh, famous professional critics, considered to be leaders in the field, are wrong about this song and I, J. David, unknown, amateur blogger, considered to be the best music blogger named J. David, is right. Or people should listen to music and make their own decision. Or both.

Hot: Summer in the City

The Lovin' Spoonful: Summer in the City

[purchase]

You can feel the 1960s heat rising off of The Lovin' Spoonful's "Summer in the City." The band's first #1 single, the song started as a poem by John Sebastian's brother, Mark. All that remains from the original is the chorus (which sounds more like a typical Spoonful song than the rest of the song). John Sebastian toughened up the lyrics to reflect the sweltering tensions in American's urban areas. The mid-song sound effects further set the mood. "We hired an old sound man, obviously from the radio era," Sebastian says in The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. "He had old acetates of traffic jams and car horns. We listened for hours to various traffic jams and car horns and selected the ones we wanted. We found a pneumatic hammer...to provide the payoff for that section and bring it all together."

Thanks to central air conditioning, and improvements in urban planning and social services, summers in the city often don't seem as menacing these days. Though, that hasn't been the case in this summer of 2012, with record heat around the world, power outages, fires, droughts and derechos (I never even heard that meteorological term before one descended upon us in the D.C. area last month). Forty-six years after "Summer in the City" was first recorded, the imagery of "people looking half dead, walking on the sidewalk, hotter than a match head" seems quite contemporary.

Elvis Covers Part II: Girls Talk

 Dave Edmunds: Girls Talk

[Purchase]

Elvis Costello gave Dave Edmunds this song in "a moment of drunken bravado" as he put it in the liner notes of  Rhino's reissue of Get Happy!! In 1979 Edmunds scored a UK#4 hit with the hard charging song which he recorded with Nick Lowe ( whom you can hear chanting "girls talk" at the end) and Rockpile. (The same bunch of pub crawlers who recorded Lowe's Jesus Of Cool that year). The result is power pop perfection. Costello was at the very height of his snarky word-playing powers:

There are some things you can't cover up with lipstick and powder
I thought I heard you mention my name, can't you talk any louder?

It was far too late for EC to take back the song by the time he recorded his own version later that year with The Attractions. The two minute version is more herky jerky, sounds a bit like a throw-away, and got stuck to the B-side of the 1980 Get Happy!! single "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down".

Even an alternate version Costello recorded can't match Edmunds's straight ahead approach.

Linda Ronstadt has always known a good song when she heard one. She covered "Girls Talk" and two other Elvis Costello tunes for her new wave album Mad Love. An almost instant million seller, that 1980 album is out of print.

And yet Billy Joel's new wave recording Glass Houses is not. I know I've run off topic but really!! Is this justice? Discuss below.

Elvis Covers II: The Big Light

Johnny Cash: The Big Light

[purchase]

Elvis Costello on Johnny Cash, from the June Carter Keep on the Sunnyside compilation Joe Ross wrote about a few weeks back:

Being pals of their son-in-law, Nick Lowe, seemed to afford us some kind of "friend of the family" status with Johnny and June, and they extended a very generous welcome to a group of pale and trembling young men who had been tearing it up every night of their stay in town.

Before dinner, John took us on a tour of the grounds and property...Struggling to find anything coherent to say, I spied a Sun 45 of "Cry, Cry, Cry" propped up on an old-fashioned display stand. I told Johnny that we had just cut a version of this song of his. He promptly snatched up the disc and signed it -- "To Elvis" at the top of the label and "Your friend, Johnny Cash" just under the title -- and handed it to me...

Needless to say, the minute I got it home, I had the record frame and hung it on the wall. A few months later, June was visiting London again and I happened to drop in at the Carter/Lowe household. During her visits June could sometimes be found "improving" on the housecleaning of this rather rock and roll abode...On this occasion, she stopped her labors to say that she was mad at "Johnny Cash," as she always seemed to call him. Apparently, the Sun 45 had been a gift to June, long before their romance...Naturally I offered to return the memento, but June said I should keep it as it was now dedicated to me.

Elvis Covers Part II: Indoor Fireworks

Nick Lowe: Indoor Fireworks

[purchase (album only)]

In the early days, Elvis Costello covered Nick Lowe ("What's So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding"). Nick Lowe was the bigger name. By the time Lowe's Rose of England came out in 1985, the tables had turned. Lowe recorded his first Costello cover on that album, "Indoor Fireworks."

Lowe and Costello have collaborated for decades, beginning with Lowe serving as producer for Costello's first five albums. Earlier this year, while promoting his latest CD, That Old Magic, Lowe appeared on Marc Maron's "WTF" podcast. He spoke of his relationship with Costello with affection and a dollop of good humor.

Maron: Did you find Elvis Costello?

Lowe: No, not really. He used to come and see our group, Brinsley Schwarz, especially when we played in the northwest toward Liverpool....We always used to notice him at the gigs....[I] thought "Well, he turns up all the time." So I went and said hello to him. A few years later he went into Stiff records...and I was sort of the house producer...

I thought his songs were too complicated, too many words, too many chords. When I was doing [My Aim Is True], I was sort of in charge. He did what I said, I was the producer. It didn't take very long for slowly the scales to tip, until I found myself tugging the forelock and saying, "Um, Mr. Costello what do you got in mind for today, sir?"...

Elvis's stuff was always very sophisticated. As I said, it was chord-y. But if you corralled it, it was fantastic. He's written some sensational songs....I can't really remember what I did [as Elvis's producer]. He kept on asking me back, and I would always turn up and say, "Oh yeah, very nice."

Maron: ...Would you put him in the same arena as Bob Dylan?

Lowe: Well...he certainly puts himself in the same arena as Bob Dylan. Don't get me wrong. I'm very fond of him. We get along great. I always feel with him, as I describe it, as rather like a slightly disapproving elder brother. He works so hard, and whenever I see him, he always comes up come up to me and says something like..."Oh yeah, well Bobby DeNiro and I went out with so and so." And, I find myself saying, "Well, Robert DeNiro. He hasn't really made a good film for quite a long time, now has he?" I find myself slagging off whatever he says. But I really am ever so fond of him. He's a great fellow.

Elvis Covers Part II: Oliver's Army

Bill Janovitz: Oliver's Army

[download from Janovitz's blog]

A number of years back, I located a copy of Almost Beating, a Bill Janovitz piece he played with Crown Victoria, one of several groups he has been involved in. It's a song that I have moved from one music playing device to another - just love the drive of the guitar and vocals. Although this song isnt the subject of this post, here's a link to a streamed version of the song which I first found on the now-changed music.download.com website many years back

Being physically distant from places where I might have the chance to see him play live, I periodically go searching online for more Janovitz. I hadn't previously noticed Janovitz's own blog, "Part Time Manof Rock", but in digging for Elvis Costello covers, I was elated to see that not only has Janovitz covered Costello, but he also writes specifically about it in his blog about the covers he has done.

About Oliver's Army, Janovitz says what I myself felt about his work: the lyrics are important, but "the music always has to hit me first." Costello is well known for his lyrics-writing abilities: Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic notes both Costello's writing skills as well as his ability "to re-invent the past in his own image" - the Buddy Holly appearance brought to the 80s.

Elvis Covers Part II: Watching the Detectives

The Henry Girls: Watching the Detectives

[purchase]

“Watching the Detectives,” Elvis Costello’s 1977 first hit single in the U.K. (reaching #15), was also his first single to credit his backing band, The Attractions. The song appeared at #354 on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I’ve always liked hearing it as the theme song when I tune into the show called “History Detectives” on PBS. But it’s actually a cynical statement about a girlfriend who is investing more in her relationship with the television. As the chorus declares:

She is watching the detectives,
"Ooh, he's so cute,"
She is watching the detectives,
When they shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
They beat him up until the teardrops start,
But he can't be wounded 'cause he's got no heart.

“Watching the Detectives” is Costello’s favorite song from the first five years of his career. He once said that he’d written the song after staying up for 36 hours, and then listening all night to The Clash’s first album.

For a cover of the song, I’ve chosen one from The Henry Girls’ new album called “December Moon.” From County Donegal, The Henry Girls (Karen, Lorna and Joleen McLaughlin) personalize their music with crystalline vocals, lilting melodies and eclectic influences. Karen plays fiddle, viola, guitar, banjo and even some ukulele. Joleen is a harper, but she also adds a little mandolin and piano to the mix. Lorna’s instrumental contributions are more understated, with some piano, accordion and chimes on a few tracks. All three women have music degrees, teach regularly, and have toured for years.

This cover of Elvis Costello’s “Watching the Detectives” is a good choice for these musicians who appreciate the English singer-songwriter’s literate lyrics and eclecticism. The girls have Celtic roots so they downplay any punk rock style in favor of a more relaxed, albeit sophisticated, acoustic folk arrangement. Besides their own originals, this cover by The Henry Girls is a good selection for airplay. The Henry Girls are touring the U.S. this summer of 2012. Here are some of their planned stops:

August 10, Live on the Levee, West Virginia
August 15, Chicago Old Town School of Folk Music
August 16 – 19, Milwaukee Irish Fest

I wonder if they like old detective shows and if they're anything like Costello’s lead-off lyrics: “Nice girls, not one with a defect. Cellophane shrink-wrapped, so correct …”?

Elvis Covers Part II: Veronica

Dust Poets: Veronica

[purchase]

Why this, when there's so much broken beauty in the songs of Elvis Costello?

Because my own personal journey through the work of this incredible artist began with the 1989 release of Spike, which included it - a co-write with Paul McCartney that's awfully upbeat for a song about the inner life of the aging invalid.

Because Entertainment Weekly voted it as one of Costello's top ten greatest tunes. Really.

And because it's awesome. I mean, how often do you find an "eclectic chamber folk ensemble" that can transform an already underrated sociopolitical poke into an exceptional acoustic polka?

If The Dust Poets don't tour as much as they could, it's because their members are spread out across the various provinces of Canada; they even went on hiatus for most of last year, though they seem to be gearing up for a few north of the border tour dates, and a few September showcases in the NY / New England region. But see 'em if you can, because seeing them together is a revelation. The rest of their work - which includes songs nominally about cows and magicians, but actually about fairness and just desserts - is equally irreverent, and equally recommended.

Elvis Covers Part II: Shipbuilding

Robert Wyatt: Shipbuilding
[purchase]

When I heard that this week’s theme would be covers of Elvis Costello songs, two ideas jumped into my head. The first was a song that I have listened to many, many times, which I heard on the radio, played on the radio, saw on MTV and which is fun and rocks. The other was a song that I rarely listened to, never hear on the radio, probably never played on the radio, and is a slow, kind of depressing ballad. Of course, I chose the second song to write about.

“Shipbuilding” is a brilliant anti-war song written about the Falklands War of 1982. The one between the UK and Argentina over a few small islands in the South Atlantic which lasted 74 days and caused all sorts of patriotic fervor to rise up in both countries. Ending with the UK regaining control over the islands (in other words, nothing changed), it led to the death of 649 Argentine military personnel, 255 British military personnel and three Falkland Islanders. As dumb as most wars are, this was amongst the dumber ones, certainly of the modern era.

The tune was written not by Costello, but by Clive Langer, best known as a producer, but he couldn’t come up with good lyrics. He played it for Costello, at a party hosted by Nick Lowe, and Elvis came up with a set of lyrics that he once described as the best he’d ever written. Which, considering the body of his work, is pretty impressive. Although clearly anti-war, the song does recognize a contradiction—the war helped to bring back prosperity to depressed shipyards and provide jobs to their workers. Thus, the first line—“Is it worth it?”

The song was written for Robert Wyatt, a musician who is lionized in the UK, pretty much unknown here, and who was politically to the left of the left-wing Costello. Wyatt was best known as a drummer and major force in the Canterbury scene (which I have previously written about in my Gong post). He was probably most famous as a member of Soft Machine, but after leaving that band in 1971, he released solo albums and formed a band called Matching Mole (which is a pun based on the French translation of “Soft Machine”). Unfortunately, in 1973 Wyatt got drunk at a party, fell out of a fourth floor window and became a paraplegic. To give you a sense of his place in the British music scene at the time, Pink Floyd played two benefit concerts to raise money for his care, supported by Soft Machine.

Wyatt’s injury didn’t end his musical career, and he continued to drum, obviously without using his feet, sing and play other instruments on solo records and with others. Some of his collaborators include Mike Oldfield, David Gilmour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd, Brian Eno, Phil Manzanera of Roxy Music, and, on “Shipbuilding,” Elvis Costello. The musicians on this version of the song include Steve Nieve, of The Attractions, and Mark Bedford, of Madness. The spareness and simplicity of the arrangement, and Wyatt’s reedy but empathetic vocals give the song a power that continues to haunt.

Costello’s version, released after Wyatt’s on the Punch the Clock album, produced by Langer and his producing partner Alan Winstanley, is also quite good, if maybe a bit over produced, and features a beautiful trumpet solo by Chet Baker, but I agree with the consensus that Wyatt’s version is the better one.

Coincidently, the other song that I was considering writing about is one where I like the cover better than the Costello version (and Nick Lowe plays on it). And if no one else posts it, I will try to do so before the end of the week.

Elvis Covers, Part I: Love Me Tender

Beth Nielsen Chapman: Love Me Tender

[purchase]

Like so many of The King's greatest hits, Love Me Tender is a many-covered thing, a gem in the collections of crooners Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennet, an R&B charter in the hands of Percy Sledge, a slight and subtle soundtrack whisper in the sultry tones of Norah Jones, a piano bar swan song from the waning days of Scatman John. (Not all covers are so successful, of course; though Willie Nelson's more recent live versions of the song are as heartfelt and poignant as you might imagine, his studio version, recorded for 1985 frat-boy film Porky's Revenge, oozes with orchestral smarm.)

Which is to say: I've heard this song done soaringly, and with broken wisdom; with disdain, and with tenderness. So have you, I warrant. But sometimes, simplest is best. And so as we approach the end of our thematic journey, we turn to one of our favorite lullaby collections for this Beth Nielsen Chapman gem, soothing as a mother's arms. So are great love songs transformed, in service to our parental dreams.

Elvis Covers Part 1 : Kissin' Cousins

The Saints : Kissin' Cousins

[Purchase]

Bob Geldorf said "Rock music in the seventies was changed by three bands - The Sex Pistols, The Ramones and The Saints".

Blasting out of Australia with loud guitars and a snarling vocalist named Chris Bailey, The Saints learned their chops by playing sped up raucous versions of tunes by Connie Francis, Del Shannon and Ike and Tina Turner.  In September of 1976, they put out a self-pressed single, "(I'm) Stranded",  before either the Pistols or The Clash. A reviewer from Sounds called the tune the "single of this and every week" and they promptly landed a three record deal with EMI.

Elvis fans from back in the day when they called themselves Kid Galahad and The Eternals, the lads decided to record one of the King's cheesiest tunes for their debut album."Kissin' Cousins",  a celebration of incest made somehow more palatable by the line "She's a distant cousin/But she's not too distant with me", gets the full punk treatment. The Saints had a long career and were inducted in the Australian versions of its Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

Elvis Covers Part I: Heartbreak Hotel

Doc Watson: Heartbreak Hotel

[purchase]

We speak so much and so well of Arthel "Doc" Watson's ethnomusical prowess with the fiddle tunes of hill and holler, it's easy to forget he fed his early ear on radio, and got his start as a barroom player in a country and western swing band.

But Watson never forgot his other roots. Although a number of his earliest recordings mine Appalachia almost exclusively, his overall body of work - over fifty LPs in all - is peppered with here-and-there coverage of contemporary songs, their tunes and tenor popping through the surface of tradition like errant wildflowers in a field of wheat.

Docabilly, his late career tribute to his early influences, is an extreme case, and quite produced in places, as it should be - Doc's trip down memory lane is paved with smooth studio versions that lean heavily on brushed drums, bluegrass pickin' and slippery slide guitars even as their settings veer from true-blue blues to high-concept country. At its worst, this gives Docabilly a bit of a "novelty album" feel, and it's tempting to argue from a purist's perspective that Doc fails to give this song the gravity it deserves, given its narrative origin in the true tale of a man who jumped out of a hotel window. But there's something tender about the way the aging cowboy baritone takes on these mid-century rock and country hits from Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, The Everly Brothers, and The King himself - he loves these tunes, and you can hear it.