On some Mondays, I'll post multiple versions of songs. This week, we hear from Mr. Randy Newman, and his ursine companion. Randy Newman wrote this song back in 1965, and took it to his friends in Harpers Bizarre (best known for their cover of "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"). They recorded it in 1967, followed closely by Alan Price , who'd just left The Animals to pursue his solo dreams. Harry Nilsson recorded it in 1969, and then Newman himself finally recorded it in 1972. The [...]
Frank Hutchison was the first white blues singer to make recordings. He only recorded for three years, from 1926 to 1929, but his legacy inspires a lot of blues and folk artists to this day. This version of Stag is odd for folk scholars, as it contains bits from "Frankie and Albert" (AKA "Frankie and Johnnie") and also "Delia's Gone". This is the version Bob Dylan covered when he recorded Stag in 1993, and is the only version on Harry Smith's legendary Anthology of American Folk Music . Frank Hutchison [...]
Smog is a man named Bill Callahan . For some reason or other, he's recently started just using his real name professionally. I first heard Smog on the High Fidelity soundtrack (I get introduced to lots of new-to-me artists through soundtracks -- I can name 3 people I now love whom I heard first on the Big Lebowski soundtrack), with his song "Cold-Blooded Old Times." "Vessel In Vain" used to be my favorite Bill Callahan song, until last year when he released Woke On A Whaleheart , which [...]
This song is not off a Nick Cave album, more's the pity. But this album is excellent. It has live radio recordings of Beck doing his Townes Van Zandt impression, plus John Cale , and Leonard Cohen, and Tori, and Lucinda Williams covering Nick Drake and... y'know what? Just buy it, okay? (While you're at it, check out the other three volumes as well.) All I listened to at work last night was Nick Cave. And I love Murder Ballads with a passion [...]
"Danny Boy" isn't really an Irish song, really. But, hell, it's everywhere on the blogosphere right now, so I might as well post this too. This is, to put it simply, one of the most moving recordings of this song ever. The Leprechaun Brothers - Danny Boy
I know how late I am to this party. Really, I do. But just because this album was all the rage months ago does not mean I suck for just having bought it myownself this week. I've LISTENED to it all, a while ago (thanks, Jen!). But I didn't fall in love with this song till yesterday. This is a Townes Van Zandt song, and I love Townes. (But his version doesn't stand out from his other songs, not for me.) This version stands out from everything, because it has that fiddle. Ms. Krauss plays fiddle [...]
I have lots of versions of "Stagger Lee," and almost every single one is different in some way from almost every other single one. So I'm going to post at least one every week till I run out. This will take several years. You can read about the history of the song, and the two men immortalized, here . In fact, I'm not even going to say much about the song tradition here, so you might as well click that link. Suffice to say, the earliest known recording is from 1928, and the song had been around [...]
So here's my second post about Juno . I first heard of this movie through my daily surfing. Neil Gaiman linked to his free audio stories on last.fm, and also his own playlists there, which I clicked through to see who else was playing The Velvet Underground, and the most-played song that week was " I'm Sticking With You " as a result of it being on this album. (For the record, "...Sticking..." is used well in the movie, but not over a particularly memorable scene.) And then I heard that Jason Bateman and Michael [...]
Anyone who knows my musical taste at all will tell you how unlikely this is: There's an album that contains a Velvet Underground song, but that's not my favorite song on the album. Today and tomorrow, we're looking at two albums that's true of. I love Cat Power. I first heard her cover of "I Found A Reason" (which you've all heard during V for Vendetta ) back in about 2000, but I'd heard "Sea of Love" a year or so earlier . And they're both great, great covers that can -- [...]
So a few months ago my good friend who shall remain nameless (excepting his nickname, which is "Big'un") traveled on business to the city of Chicago. And I spent a few hours before that compiling music to make his trip more pleasant. It's certainly not a complete collection of songs about the city (as he points out, "Bad Bad Leroy Brown" is missing, and that one's just the tip of the iceberg). However, it is a nice collection of blues and indie songs that help to capture, in some small way, the soul of the city. In fact, [...]
" I Wish It Would Rain " has always, always, been one of my favorite hurtin' songs. (Turns out there's a good reason it's so genuinely mournful, as you'll find out if you click that link to Wikipedia there.) The Temptations recorded the original version, along with another favorite hurtin' song of mine, "Just My Imagination." And their recording is so good, a real classic. But until today, I'd never heard this version, or even heard of the singer. O. B. McClinton was an African-American country singer, one of about two in the whole country [...]
I've heard quite a few White Stripes covers in my day, but this is my current favorite (sorry, The Dynamics -- your time will come once again soon, I'm sure). Jack Johnson really brings out the sweetness in Jack White's adorable lyrics. Makes me wanna see if I can find Danette Fisher online, the girl I used to walk to school with as a young man, and reclaim that early friendship. Of course, I know next to nothing about her as a person now, except that she reads a lot and I'll bet [...]
Steven Rusling is the best friend I have that I've never met in person. He has a band. They are called The Sads , and they are based in Prague. Here's a rocking little number from them. The Sads - She'll Grow Back
She'll Grow Back
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