Footwear: Walk A Mile

Holly Golightly: Walk A Mile

[purchase]

This is the fabulous first track from Holly Golightly's fantastic 2003 album Truly She Is None Other. The entire album is great, but is just one of her 14 full-length releases (and that's not including two live records and a compilation!). For those who do not yet know Holly, this album would be a great place to start.

You might also want to know that she was in Thee Headcoatees, a female offshoot of Billy Childish's The Headcoats, and that she has collaborated with Childish, Rocket From the Crypt, The Greenhornes, and appeared on The White Stripes' album Elephant.

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Footwear: Shoe Clearance

These are leftovers that I'd thought worth posting. It's too hot to trot out a few paragraphs, so I'll let the music do the talking.


Graham Parker: Socks 'N' Sandals

[purchase]

Sonic Youth: Dirty Boots

[purchase]

The Reverend Gary Davis: Got On My Traveling Shoes

[purchase]

Kevin Ayers: Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes

[purchase]

Steel Pulse: Roller Skates

[purchase]

John Lee Hooker: No Shoes

[purchase]

Footwear: Boots or Hearts

The Tragically Hip: Boots or Hearts

[purchase]

A song about the end of a relationship and the now insurmountable distance between the two people:

See when it starts to fall apart
Man, it really falls apart
Like boots or hearts, oh when they start, they really fall apart.

Footwear: "You'd know what a drag it is to see you" edition

Bob Dylan: Positively 4th Street [purchase]

No survey of footwear in song could be complete without a nod to the greatest lines ever written featuring shoes. Now, this song doesn't actually include footwear in the title nor highlights footwear in any other respect, so I've excerpted the brief, shoe-centric bit of genius.

On a totally self-indulgent note, when I was a senior in high school I was a delivery guy for Lino's Pizzeria in Huntington Beach, and my co-worker, Steve, quoted this exact verse as an example of Dylan's brilliance. So, upon his hearty recommendation, I went to Licorice Pizza the next day, bought the Greatest Hits, and was summarily hooked on the Bobster. So, here it is ... the verse that turned me into a Dylan fan and showed every songwriter how to properly say, "Fuck You!"

Footwear: Burgundy Shoes

Patty Griffin: Burgundy Shoes

[purchase]

The hot weather has finally hit SoCal - I find myself unable to sleep and writing a post about Patty Griffin. In Burgundy Shoes, she sings about her mom - since I'm in the throes of heat prostration, I'll let her describe it:

"'Burgundy Shoes' was really trying to find a moment in my memory that I could really feel joy in and I went back to one of my earliest memories of waiting for the bus in the town that I grew up in. It was a big, exciting trip to the big city that was Bangor, Maine with my mom on a really beautiful spring day. When you grow up in the Northeast, you have to wear big boots for the whole winter and then suddenly your mom says it's OK to take your boots off and you feel like you're walking on air 'cause your feet are in these shoes. And they’re pretty shoes, not ugly boots. It was just that simple moment - having that time with my mom and thinking about I used to think she was the most beautiful woman in the world. When you start digging back into being really little, you find all these memories that are very pure and aren't crowded by anxiety or anything like that. I was trying to write that song from the point of view of who I was then." - Patty Griffin

From NPR: "Griffin's songs are often shot through with a big streak of melancholy — so much so that a friend challenged her to write a 'happier song.' That challenge resulted in 'Burgundy Shoes,' a song on her new CD." Hear all about it in the interview.

I know "advice" was last weeks theme, but let me tell you, if someone gives you a free air conditioner in November, for god's sake, put it in before a high pressure system parks itself over your burgh and you find yourself posting to the Internet at 2 ayem. I think my next move is mixing up some saline solution. Damn you, global warming!

Footwear: Dames, Booze, Chains & Boots

The Cramps: Dames, Booze, Chains, and Boots

[purchase]

Some call it psychobilly, Some call it garage rock... Others could call it something else but I can't tell: I've got the volume cranked!

A slab of dedicated rock and roll madness, courtesy of The Cramps. It's what they do. They do it well.

Footwear: Daddy's Workin' Boots

Dolly Parton: Daddy's Workin' Boots

[purchase]

Aside from liking country music, Dolly Parton and I have nothing in common.

If the popular mythology is to be believed, she grew up in a run-down cabin the backwoods hills of East Tennessee. I grew up in suburbia. Her mama sewed colorful biblical coats out of scraps of fabric. My mom made brownies for the cub scout troop. Her daddy worked his fingers to the bone doing whatever it took to make an honest day’s pay. My dad was a dentist. Dolly’s a Hollywood star with platinum blonde hair and a giant bosom. I’m—well, never mind… You get the picture.

I have nothing in common with this lady. So I really don’t know what to make of this song. But at least it’s about footwear...

Footwear: Hockey Skates

Kathleen Edwards: Hockey Skates

[purchase]

One of my favorite artists to have emerged into the alt-everything stew since the millenium, Canadian folk/alt-country singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards has a gorgeously tuned, slightly hoarse folkvoice, and an incredible knack for saying complicated things with few words, a couple of simple images, and not much more. Add an instinct towards thump and twang, and the perfect radio-ready folkpop production, and you've got a hitmaker whose music stays on the shuffle mix pretty much permanently.

Here, on one of three rising-star singles from her 2003 major label debut, she brings the weary weight of an age-old complaint -- same old bar, same old defensive pose, same old guy who loves the bar more than he loves her -- to new heights. This track is a little slower and a little more alt-Nashville than some of her others, but to me, the choice of pace and production is stunningly apropos: the dragging, exhausted voice, the wailing slide and fiddle, and the slow alt-country beat combine to make the song a perfect barroom soundtrack to its own narrative.

Footwear: Cowboy Boots

Backsliders: Cowboy Boots [purchase]

Once again mining the classic era of alt.country ... 1997 for those of you keeping score at home ... here's North Carolina's Backsliders with a certifiable honky tonk classic. Sure, the lyrics won't confuse anyone with Harlan Howard, but killer harmonies and Chip Robinson and Stephen Howell on guitar duel more than make up for that. "Cowboy Boots" is the final track on the sadly neglected, Throwin' Rocks At The Moon, an album that gets bonus points for being produced by Dwight Yoakam's right-hand man, Pete Anderson.

Say, where in the hell ARE my cowboy boots???

Footwear: Shoes

[purchase]

Shoes: Running Start

I'm a big fan of technological advancement, but not when it comes to music technology. Vintage gear is still where it's at, from a Vox guitar amp to a Studer mixing console, all the way to the end user with a fine Thorens turtable. Towards the late 70s and 80s producers were so busy looking for the next new sound that the equipment from the previous decade was replaced with solid-state amplifiers and digital recording systems. It is my opinion that popular music production has suffered since.

Luckily there were bands like Shoes, who recorded their 1977 debut on a 4-track in their living room, and were happy with a lo-fi sound and subpar equipment. This classic album would influence tons of bands from the jangle and indie rock scenes and go down as their best. So much for hi-fidelity.

Footwear: Fairies Wear Boots

Black Sabbath: Fairies Wear Boots

[purchase]

Okay, enough with all the folk and country: it's time to give this blog some balls.

Footwear: Just Walk In My Shoes

Gladys Knight and the Pips: Just Walk In My Shoes

[purchase]

One of the best Motown soul singles ever recorded, period.

Though the song is pretty straightforward, lyrically speaking, Gladys Knight's young powerhouse vocals bring an incredible sense of empowerment to a message of outrageous post-breakup pain. The quick, almost gospel a capella "break" from the company assembled gets us from verse to chorus so effectively, it gives me goosebumps both times we hear it.

Imagine what this must have sounded like, back when the Motown sound was new. Almost makes me wish I had a real time machine, rather than just the record of it.

Footwear: Fuck Me Pumps

Amy Winehouse: Fuck Me Pumps [purchase]

While Amy's life has become a pathetically public shambles, this tune was recorded when she was still a fresh face in the British hip-hop/soul scene. Still showing the Lauryn Hill love, but on her way to the slinky sound perfected on Back To Black, "Fuck Me Pumps" is actually a clever (and quite funny) dig at the superficial singles scene.

You can't sit down right,
'Cause your jeans are too tight,
And you're lucky it's "Ladies Night."

With your big empty purse,
Every week it gets worse,
At least your breasts cost more than hers.

I would like to add that I doubt I'll have as much fun searching for thematic pictures like I did for this post. HA.

Footwear: Flyin' Shoes

Townes Van Zandt: Flyin' Shoes

[purchase]

Townes Van Zandt wrote a lot of songs about leaving. Here is one of the best.

Days full of rain
Sky’s coming down again
I get so tired of these same old blues
Same old song
Baby it won't be long
Before I’ll be tying on my flying shoes
Flying shoes
‘Til I’ll be tying on my flying shoes...

Footwear: Blue Suede Shoes

Carl Perkins: Blue Suede Shoes

[purchase]


Blue Suede Shoes is an important song in Rock's history. It's considered one of the first Rockabilly records and simultaneously rose to number one on the R&B, Country and Pop charts its day. Johnny Cash gave Perkins the idea for the tune - Wikipedia has an outstanding write up of the history of Blue Suede Shoes, be sure to check it out. From the History Of Rock website:

Blue Suede Shoes song put 23-year old Carl Perkins in the national spotlight. Appearances were arranged for the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como TV shows, but while traveling to New York for those engagements he was involved in a terrible automobile accident. The driver, Dave Stewart fell asleep at the wheel and the car ran into a pick-up truck near Dover, Delaware. Stewart was killed, Carl suffered a fractured skull and broken arm. His brother Jay's neck was broken from which he would never recover. Eventually Elvis Presley, covered Blue Suede Shoes, which became Elvis' third top forty hit. These events served to steal some of the his thunder and Perkins never quite recovered his momentum in the world of pop, although his place in music history was assured.

Things that you can do instead of stepping on Carl's blue suede shoes:

Knock him down, step on his face

Slander his name all over the place

Burn his house

Steal his car

Drink his liquor from an old fruit jar

Footwear: Big Shoes

Jill Sobule: Big Shoes

[purchase]

A sweet, funny and heartbreaking tale about having to wear orthopaedic (yes, we use extra letters here in the UK!) shoes in school...

"When everyone wore loafers
I needed more support
I'd always hide when we take a drive
To that awful store
I had a choice of black or blue
The biggest ugliest ass shoes
but what could I do
My feet they came out funny

Mary McKay she had Mary Janes
With that patent leather shine
She was known as Tinker Bell
And I was Frankenstein

Big shoes before they were big
Big shoes I'll never forgive
My mother made me wear big shoes

In my school when Spring came
Sandals they were all the rage
With plastic beads on straps to match
Their painted nails
Heavy-footed in the hall
What I wanted most of all
Was red ball jets
So I could get over the schoolyard fence

Kip O'Neil she had high heels
She went all the way
By the time I got up to bat
They called off the game

Big shoes everyday
You can hear them coming a mile away
Outside you hear them say
Here comes Big Shoes

And when I could go to the real shoe store
On the shelves I looked in horror
On display were combat boots and platforms
Here comes Big Shoes

Big shoes before they were cool
Wanted feet so miniscule
I even wore them at the swimming pool
Here comes Big Shoes

Big shoes everyday
You can hear them coming a mile away
Outside you can hear them say
Here comes Big Shoes"

Footwear: The Other Shoe

Old 97's: The Other Shoe [purchase]

They may be pop stars now, but back in the day the Old 97's were the little alt.country band that could, with a clever spark plug of a frontman in Rhett Miller. I think this stands as one of their best early tunes, a riff of sorts on Jimmy Webb's classic song, "By The Time I Get To Phoenix." In this one, the protagonist lies underneath the bed while his wife and her lover do the deed. This being a country song, I think you can figure out what happens next. Kin to songs like "Hey Joe" and "Miller's Cave," "The Other Shoe" is an example of country music's basic thematic sturdiness. Give us some hurt feelings, a little gunplay, and Old Testament vengeance and we're happy.

One old brown shoe falls in slow motion,
And the bedsprings hover right above your head,
As bedsprings do, when you're beneath them.
Someone else just climbed into your bed.

By the time she thought you'd probably got to Phoenix,
She'd arranged for your shoes to be filled.
Well, you've got your pride, and a blue-steel .45,
And you're waiting for the other shoe to fall.

You'll dig a double grave out in the meadow,
And you'll curse the rain that turns the dirt to mud.
You'll take I-35 south towards Laredo,
Then you'll try to find a doctor who can prescribe an elixir
That'll make everything better, except your late wife and her lover.

By the time she thought you'd probably got to Phoenix,
She'd sealed her fate and gotten herself killed.
Well, you've got your pride, and a blue-steel .45,
And you're waiting for the other shoe to fall.

Footwear: Turtle Shoes

Bobby McFerrin: Turtle Shoes

[purchase]

Long before he crashed the Pop party with Don't Worry, Be Happy, Bobby McFerrin was a true-blue jazzman, pushing the envelope with innovative bodysound and a voice that could imitate pretty much any instrument. His second album, "The Voice", is notable for being the first jazz vocal album recorded without accompaniment or overdubbing; on Spontaneous Inventions, the primarily live and improvised third album on which today's track emerged, he pairs his four-octave range with the likes of Manhattan Transfer, soprano saxophonist Wayne Shorter, comedian Robin Williams, and Herbie Hancock (that's Herbie on piano in the track you hear here).

You may remember Bobby for his Grammy-winning earworm, but it's worth noting that he won five of his eight Grammys before that song was even recorded: four of them in the Vocal Jazz category, two of them alone for his work with Manhattan Transfer and scatman Jon Hendricks on Night in Tunisia from this 1985 release. Turtle Shoes may be short, but it's a masterpiece of slow jazz improvisation, a playful, slippery ditty on the back of a turtle's plodding, shod baseline. So stop saying "ick", and listen to the damn track already.

Bonus trivia points: McFerrin came from a seriously musical family; his father, operatic baritone Robert McFerrin Sr., provided the vocals for Sidney Poitier in the cinematic version of Porgy and Bess.

Footwear: Red Ball Jets

Steve Goodman: Red Ball Jets

[purchase]

What are Red Ball Jets?

Just let Steve Goodman tell you…

If you want to read a great book about the amazing Steve Goodman, check the comments to this post for info! (And maybe even the comments to this post if Clay is on his game.)

Footwear: Red shoes edition

We've already had two posts on red shoes (Loretta Lynn's Little Red Shoes and Elvis Costello's Red Shoes), but there are plenty more out there. Quite why the fascination with red I do not know, but it's certainly a popular colour when it comes to footwear songs! I like to think, as a 'friend of Dorothy' that it's all about the magical ruby slippers in The Wizard of Oz...but, then again, perhaps not.

Whilst there are a load of songs about red shoes in particular, possibly the most famous 'shoe song' features a different colour...I'm truly surprised that no-one has posted it yet!

Chris Rea: Red Shoes [purchase]
(Not so much because it's a great song as because he comes from my home town!)

Tom Waits: Red Shoes By the Drugstore [purchase]

Sawyer Brown: Ruby Red Shoes [purchase]

Elton John: Ballad of the Boy in the Red Shoes [purchase]

Kate Bush: The Red Shoes [purchase]

Throwing Muses: Red Shoes [purchase]

David Bowie: Let's Dance [purchase]



N.B. The Raincoats also did a song called Red Shoes, but it's pretty awful, so that's why I didn't include it here!

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