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March 23rd, 2009
10:45 pm - feel like going home
Decided to go back home after all. I don't see many advantages to being on Live Journal as opposed to Blogger, and frankly, I've encountered a few disadvantages: posting pics always seems to screw up for me here (note that I'm not entirely html-deficient, you might even say I'm "lightly skilled" in the area), plus there's no place for sidebar links, I cant' really tweak the template to my exact needs, hate the embedding process for youtubes, etc etc etc. (Also, one thing I love about blogger: under one account you can have multiple blogs.) Sorry LJ creators... some honest feedback for you. I'll keep the Stranded thing up here (may eventually post a much-streamlined version on blogger), and I'll hang on to my account so I can comment on other peoples LiveJournals -- my original reason for signing up in the first place -- but the point is, I'm fine where I was.
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March 18th, 2009
12:53 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Young to Zurvans... over and out
  
Young Rascals, “Good Lovin’” (1966) - Didn't know this was a doo-wop cover, but it sounds pretty faithful to the original (sung by the Olympics). I'm too bored of YR's version to think about either of them right now.
Kathy Young and the Innocents, “A Thousand Stars” (1960) - Dream pop teen girl ballad, and since we're on the topic, here's some other girl groups I love which didn't make the discography: the Paris Sisters ("Dream Lover" or "I Love How You Love Me"), the Jaynetts ("Sally Go Round the Roses"), the Essex ("Easier Said Than Done"), the Cookies ("Chains," "I'm Into Something Good"), the Exciters ("Tell Him"), the Velvelettes ("Needle in a Haystack") and a bunch of others I can't think of right now.
[CLIP]
Timi Yuro, “What’s a Matter Baby” (1962) - The genius of Greil Marcus's Stranded discography -- and probably the key reason why I conducted this long-winded exercise in the first place -- is that it shores up gems like "What's a Matter Baby," which is as perfect as any other pre-Beatles pop song I can think of. In many ways, Timi Yuro is a sadly typical case here in that she had a brief though not insignificant run at the pop charts (four years worth of chart hits, 11 in the Hot 100, three in the Top 40) and yet, she barely seems to exist at all today outside of the borders of the Stranded discography. She's not mentioned in Dave Marsh's singles tome, she's not reviewed in any of the Rolling Stone Record Guides or in the Rolling Stone Illustrated History, not referenced by Nik Cohn in Pop: From the Beginning, not listed in the overflowing and almost always reliable indexes of Chuck Eddy's Accidental Evolution or Meltzer's Aesthetics of Rock. There is of course a brief writeup about her in Whitburn's Top Pop Singles ("White female soul singer" -- could've fooled me on at least two counts there; I had her pegged as "easy listening pop vocalist in a Gene Pitney mold"), and yes, like everyone else in the universe who's ever committed a note of music to tape, she does have an entry in Wikipedia and a tribute website (she died in 2004) presided over by the Official Timi Yuro Association. But for all intents and purposes -- certainly at least as far as rock criticism is concerned -- Yuro, like I said, barely exists. And she is hardly an anomaly in this regard; the same can basically be said of several if not dozens of other artists listed in the discography: from the Cellos and Five Du-Tones to the Spikedrivers and Hot Legs (for a long time I assumed "Neanderthal Man" was some kind of Marcus in-joke) to Paul Kelly and Joyce Harris to the Dovells and Faye-not-Fay Adams to... I think you get the idea.
I started this project purely on a whim, without much forethought about the 'why' or 'how' or 'what.' The idea was always to race through the list -- to listen, jot down my impressions, and see where it took me. I really just wanted to chase down all these weird and wonderful and sometimes-just-okay (but hardly ever unlistenable) little pop songs -- these "strange, mysterious sounds" to quote the Spikedrivers -- especially those not previously familiar to me. Having gone through it all now, I can honestly say I'm more and not less intrigued than ever by Marcus's playlist, and at least a little more in awe than I was the day before I started about the enduring majesty and abundance and unfathomability of pop music. Case in point: "What's a Matter Baby."
A note about the two clips: I'm not sure which is the "correct" version of the song. I discovered that there are two mixes floating around on YouTube and some disagreement among commenters over which is the real deal. The consensus (based on an extremely quick glance) seems to favour a mid-tempo version that sounds more consciously arranged as a soul track; on the other hand, a few commenters dismiss a slightly more sped-up version, which is more along the lines of chipper vocal pop (hence my referencing Gene Pitney). The version I've been listening to obsessively in my iPod is the chipper pop one.
[CLIP - mid-tempo soul version]
[CLIP - sped-up chipper-pop version]
Zurvans, “Close the Book” - Recording date unknown, official release date still pending, but thanks to the miracle of downloading, a rough and scratchy version of this 13-minute slow doo-wop masterpiece circulated online a few years back, and file sharers lucky enough to obtain a copy are still trembling over its impact. Self-described right off the top by lead bassman Mickey Zurvan as "a trilogy in five parts," and marked with a searing intensity (not to mention a superlative hiss track) not heard since Hackamore Brick's One Kiss Leads to Another, "Close the Book" is a secret history of the death of print culture -- which is to say a secret history of history itself -- replete with references to the Monotones ("Who cares who wrote the dang thing?/Close it already!"), The Gutenberg Galaxy, War and Peace, The Old Testament (just try to imagine the fun these pranksters have with "Deuteronomy"), "Surfin' Bird," and various and sundry Zoroastrian sacred texts far too advanced for any mere rock critic to decipher. Completely gorgeous.
[No CLIP available but there is a 33-second excerpt of Henry Zurvan's eerie follow-up solo bid, "We Are Not Alone."]
[Full list of the Stranded singles available here.]
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Kraftwerk, "Franz Schubert"
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March 17th, 2009
03:11 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: White to Wray
Tony Joe White, “Roosevelt and Ira Lee” (1969) - Storytelling swamp-pop, marked primarily by White's husky baritone and an organ climb in the chorus fresh out of "Gimme Some Lovin'." Follow-up to the virtually identical Top 10 hit, "Polk Salad Annie," though this only reached #44.
[CLIP]
Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs, “Stay” (1960) - According to Wiki, the "shortest single ever to reach the top of the American record charts, being only 1 minute and 37 seconds long." Like many others my age, I was first introduced to it in the '70s by Jackson Browne (whose version I don't much care for), but by the time I started DJing in the late '80s the Zodiacs' version was once again a Top 40 club staple via its inclusion on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack (which I already noted in the entry for Solomon Burke's "Cry"). The Hollies' version is fast and odd and not great (though worth a quick preview anyway).
[CLIP]
Chuck Willis, “It’s Too Late” (1956) - No YouTube clip, thus ensuring its highly coveted status (at least for the time being) as one of two or three singles from the discography I still haven't heard. At least in its original form: I know and like Derek & the Dominoes version from Layla just fine.
Willows, “Church Bells May Ring” (1962) - Fast doo-wop and yet another in the Stranded matrimonial sweepstakes (cf. "Hey Paula," "Down the Aisle of Love," maybe even "Divorce Court"; though not, sadly, "Chapel of Love").
[CLIP]
Bill Withers, “Lean on Me” (1972) - The "Smoke on the Water" of early seventies soul in that it was the first melody many kids learned to plink away on their parents piano. cf. the equally great "Lovely Day" and (especially) "Use Me." (And, um, oh yeah, Club Nouveau!)
[CLIP]
Link Wray and His Wray Men, “Rumble” (1958) - Rockabilly tearing up a path straight to "Sex Bomb" (do not pass "Sister Ray," do not collect $200), and the only instrumental I'm aware of to (apparently) be banned in some markets.
[CLIP - 1977, live, raw, and sexy, though this Springsteen live tribute from a few years back is also effective.]
One more post and you can make like a Zurvan...
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March 16th, 2009
11:54 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Valens to Welch
[Thought I'd be able to wrap this up, but it looks like there's another post -- possibly two more -- after all.]
Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” (1959) - I tried for a long time to erase this from my memory following overplay of the Los Lobos version from the soundtrack of the Silliest Rock and Roll Biopic Ever Made, but luckily I gave this version a go again on the weekend and was reminded of just how terrific and trebly (big fan of the treble here) and full of fire it really is. And you know, I'm sure the LL version is much better than I recall as well; in fact, listening to the Valens' I found myself waiting for the traditional little coda LL added at the end of theirs.
[CLIP]
Bobby Vee and the Shadows, “Suzie Baby” (1959) - Easy to confuse with Robin Luke's "Susie Darlin'," though to my ears it's not as quirky or as brilliant a Buddy Holly hiccup. FWIW I also really like Tommy Roe's "Sheila."
[CLIP]
Ventures, “Walk Don’t Run” (1960) - Classic surf instrumental with a title that's never made a lick of sense to me. If anything they sound like they're in a hurry, not the other way around. cf. "Hawaii Five-0," also essential (and featuring... Paul Schaefer).
[CLIP - in which they do the right thing by putting the drummer front and centre]
Vibrations, “My Girl Sloopy” (1964) - No relation to the Vibrators, though when I listened to it this morning, I realized it would not be impossible to sing "Baby Baby" over top of this (a must-have in my discography btw; tearjerking punk at its most bubblegummy)... so it all coheres, sort of.
[Weirdly, no CLIP, at least not by the Vibrations]
Volumes, “I Love You” (1962) - Exuberant doo-wop marked by a piercingly beautiful, almost eerie falsetto.
[CLIP]
Jerry Jeff Walker, “Mr. Bojangles” (1968) / “L.A. Freeway” (1973) - I like "L.A. Freeway" which is like Eagles or Jackson Browne from the country side of the tracks, but I confess I don't understand the appeal of "Bojangles" at all. I listened to it a few times, and it just seemed kind of boring and to go on for a long, long time. What am I not getting here? (Words, I assume?)
Junior Walker, “Shotgun” (1965) - Saxy beat, heard a million times though not to its detriment.
Joe Walsh, “Life’s Been Good” (1978) - One of the great hard rock riffs, with a lot of bubblegummy appeal as well (I'm thinking of that loopy synth-pop bridge).
[CLIP]
War, “Slippin’ into Darkness” (1972) - Love the hardness and the expert choppiness of the rhythm here, with accented beats and noise chords dropping in and out all over the place (in fact, it just occurred to me how much the rhythms here are indebted to Miles Davis's On the Corner). And of course, great words and scary mood. Pretty sure I could justify War's Greatest Hits in my own discography; they have at least four or five or six that I love ("Summer" for its breathtaking beauty, "Low Rider" for its salacious beat, etc.).
[CLIP]
Dionne Warwick, “Don’t Make Me Over” (1962) - I think of all the artists in the book represented only by a single, Warwick might be the one I disagree with most; it just seems unfathomable to me that Golden Hits or some such isn't in there... six or seven classics, at least (and weirdly, "Don't Make Me Over," to my ears, doesn't even rank among the strongest of them).
[CLIP - live 1967 version]
Gino Washington, “Gino is a Coward” (1964) - Not to be confused with Geno Washington, which must've been fun to explain if you were a radio jock. Terrific, blazing, finger-snapping soul dance with an opening vocal cry that I always confuse for a saxophone.
[CLIP]
Johnny “Guitar” Watson, “Cuttin’ In” (1962) - Hard electric blues, polished somewhat around the edges by soul-drama strings. Not entirely my thing, though I wouldn't mind hearing (or at least seeing) more like this and like this from the guy named after one of Nicholas Ray's most popular movies.
[CLIP]
We Five, “You Were on My Mind” (1965) - Cute-beat bizarre-love-triangle San-Fran hair pop, though technically, this can also be added to the Can-Con pile as it was penned -- and also performed --by Ian and Sylvia Tyson. (To qualify as Can-Con, a song has to only fulfill two out of four obligations: Music/Artist/Production/Lyrics; unfortunately, style of hair is not a prerequisite.) West coast, North Coast, whatever -- it's perfect. And it's perfect.
[CLIP - live, introduced by Fred Astaire!]
Lenny Welch, “Since I Fell for You” (1963) - Years ago, when I worked at HMV, I used to help out a customer who came in fairly regularly to look in our big yellow song catalog (you know, the book with song listings that's approximately the size of five New York telephone books) for versions of "Since I Fell For You." I think he told me he owned something like 75 versions and that he was on a mission to collect them all. At the time, it struck me as both an admirable and loony project, and I've often wondered since if he's still going at it (he was quite a bit older, and this was 12, 13 years ago). I also can't help think how much more blasé projects like that seem in the era of everything's-available-online (I've embarked on many such song-finding missions myself in the last ten years, including, of course, collecting all the songs from the Stranded discography). Oddly, I think I've only heard two or three versions of this, including Welch's (which, as rather speciously noted in the YouTube link, hit the charts the day after JFK was assassinated... and what to make of that?).
[CLIP]
Current Mood: indescribable
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March 12th, 2009
07:44 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Tex to Twitty
Joe Tex, “Hold What You’ve Got” (1964) - Soul ballad in the Sam & Dave mold, quite pretty. "Gotcha" is a little more up my alley, though the verdict's still out on "Ain't Gonna Bump No More with No Big Fat Woman" (which was the first song I heard by him).
B.J. Thomas, “Rock and Roll Lullaby” (1972) - Pop-country ballad with a dollop of Beach Boys harmonies -- and a major revelation. I vaguely remember it from the time, and certainly had an awareness of B.J. "Somebody Done Somebody Wrong" Thomas as a radio presence, but wow, this is perfect right this minute.
[CLIP]
Carla Thomas, “Gee Whiz (Look at His Eyes)” (1964)
Irma Thomas, “Wish Someone Would Care” (1964) - Two soul ballads from two different Thomases.
[Carla CLIP]
[Irma CLIP]
Junior Thompson, “Raw Deal” / “Mama’s Little Baby” (1956) - Rockabilly, good, but have only heard "Raw Deal."
[CLIP]
Trashmen, “Surfin’ Bird” (1963) - cf. the Rivingtons and The Aesthetics of Rock.
John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, “You’re the One That I Want” (1978) - A.k.a "You're Da Won a Da Want." Travolta's vocals here are ridiculous, but they're ridiculous in the same way that the vocals in "Little Darlin'" might be called "ridiculous." Let's just say it's a real stretch what he does.... and it works. Especially going toe to toe with Olivia, who, vocally, shows wonderful poise.
[CLIP - " Tell me about it, stud."]
Troggs, “Wild Thing” (1966) - cf. "Love is All Around."
Doris Troy, “Just One Look” (1963) - Without which Rubber Soul would be unthinkable? I think I've played this at 150 weddings and it still sounds good.
Tubes, “White Punks on Dope” (1975) - I remember seeing their pictures splashed about the pages of Creem circa '76 or so and even at that impressionable age thinking their vaudeville act highly annoying, but though I "heard" this song many dozens of times shortly thereafter, I think this was the first time I actually listened... it'll stay on my iPod, I'm shocked that it's as good as it is. Shtick rendered genius by synths. Also, the Hollywood Dolls.
[CLIP]
Tommy Tucker, “Hi-Heel Sneakers” (1964) - Rockabilly. Er, wait... blues? Both?
[CLIP]
Turbans, “When You Dance” (1955) - Doo-wop. cf. "Save the Last Dance For Me." *
[CLIP]
Joe Turner, “Shake, Rattle and Roll” (1954) - R&B.
[CLIP - I wish there was a little more of the clapping beat from the start]
Ike and Tina Turner, “River Deep - Mountain High” (1966) - #88 in Billboard.
Conway Twitty, “It’s Only Make Believe” (1958) - #1 in Billboard. First heard via Robert Gordon.
* This entry dedicated to Ann Coulter.
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04:01 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Starr to Swingin'
Edwin Starr, “War” (1970) - Powerful stuff, but I've not had a desire to hear it in eons. Springsteen's live version (the single/video from his mammoth '80s box set) kind of torpedoed my disinterest.
Ringo Starr, “It Don’t Come Easy” (1971) - Every time this starts up, I'm expecting it to turn into a Neil Young song, though I can't determine which one ("Needle and the Damage Done"?). I like it, but it's no "Photograph."
[CLIP]
Billy Stewart, “Summertime” (1966) - Exuberant, fun to sing along with, even more fun to fantasize about being able to sing along with.
[CLIP]
Stories, “Brother Louie” (1973) - One of the scariest-sounding radio songs of the era, but I'm not sure why it doesn't hold up all that well for me. Main Talking Point circa 1973: This isn't Rod Stewart? No way!
Barrett Strong, “Money (That's What I Want)” (1960) - Between this, the Beatles, and the Flying Lizards... forgive me for taking the Flying Lizards. Though I wish I could find this really terrific clip of the young Beatles, in a New York niteclub, dancing to the Barrett Strong version; it's from a documentary about their first U.S. tour (thing is, I don't know if their dancing to it comes before or after they decided to cover it; after, I'm pretty sure).
[CLIP]
Surfaris, “Wipe Out” (1963) - Key track for the Instrumental Drum Hits CD I've been slowly compiling over the years (note that I have a pretty wide definition of the word "hit"), plus the insanest laugh in the history of pop.
Donna Summer, “Hot Stuff” (1979) - I couldn't only choose one Summer track, by any means -- her double LP comp, On the Radio, is as good a disco album as exists, and Bad Girls is pretty great as well -- but if forced this would be the one. "I Feel Love" has the hotter reputation these days, and I do love it, but there's something about the hot metal thrust of this that still kills me everytime. (I'm only disappointed that Marcus didn't think to draw a Stones connection in his entry, i.e., "She made the Stones sound like little kids," "the Stones would've killed to make this record," etc.)
[CLIP]
Swingin’ Medallions, “Double Shot (of My Baby’s Love)” (1966) - 96 Tears... of joy. The sort of hangover in which you're still essentially drunk and for which you don't want no cure.
[CLIP]
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08:34 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Simon to Spirit
Carly Simon, “You’re So Vain” (1972) - The first (I'm pretty sure) 45 I ever owned, and what mattered more to me than any of the controversy regarding its putative subject (which, 37 years later -- yawn -- people are still debating) was the hypnotic effect induced by what seemed like hours watching the Elektra caterpillar spin round and round on the turntable (that, and discovering a few listens in, that my sister was right, that is Mick Jagger singing in the background).
Skyliners, “Since I Don’t Have You” (1959) - It was a neat move for Guns N' Roses to cover this doo-wop classic, esp. on an album otherwise full of punk retreads, though "Speedo" would've been more appropriate, no?
Small Faces, “Here Comes the Nice” (1967) - One undercurrent running through the disocgraphy is that of choosing second-tier singles over acknowledged masterworks: cf. "Wishing Well" over "All Right Now," "Never Marry a Railroad Man" over "Venus," "Pretty Ballerina" over "Walk Away Renee." I may or may not agree with each of those individual choices, but it's an impulse I'm entirely sympathetic to. (In my own discography, I'd pick Inner City's "Big Fun" over "Good Life," the second Technotronic single over the first, "Lithium" over "Teen Spirit.") Sometimes the impulse just doesn't make sense to me, though, and here's one such example. "Here Comes the Nice" has an okay-b-side quality about it, but repeating it for a dozen plays on my iPod has simply made me anxious to hear "Itchyoo Park" again.
[CLIP - unfortunately badly truncated]
Sonny and Cher, “But You’re Mine” (1965) - Nice cavernous but warm Spector sound, and I like Meltzer's point about how they do a nice gender-confusion thing by sounding so much alike (I'd make the same point about Christine McVie & Lindsey Buckingham in "Don't Stop," which to this day confuses me regarding who's singing what), but the song doesn't ultimately thrill me. Again, I'll go for the obvious here: "I Got You Babe" and "The Beat Goes On" both still sound pretty fresh to me. And yes, just for the record: I do believe in life after love.
[No available CLIP]
Jimmy Soul, “If You Wanna Be Happy” (1963) - Perfect garage-soul novelty, covered well (in the version I heard first) by Kid Creole & the Coconuts.
[Speaking of Cher... CLIP]
Joe South, “Games People Play” (1969) - Sitar gospel-soul that I hear in tandem with a few other records in the discography: Clarence Carter's "Patches" and Pacific Gas and Electric's "Are You Ready" are the first that come to mind. Great, though not as perfect as the Spinners' (unrelated) "Games People Play."
[CLIP]
Spikedrivers, “Strange Mysterious Sounds” (1967) - As you may have guessed, I've been hit hard by the recession: fewer clips this time around and probably from here on in (it feels pointless linking to stuff that's familiar, though except in the most obvious cases I have no idea of course what is or isn't familiar to anyone who might be reading this; I'm like the employer who downsizes prior to conducting any research). Anyway -- this is something I'd certainly provide a clip for if I could locate one. It's really great: Detroit psychedelia with shades of Eric Burdon and country blues. Trippy, swampy stuff, one of my favourite Stranded discoveries.
Spirit, “I Got a Line on You” (1969) - Hard riff masterstroke that I tired of some time ago. I prefer "Nature's Way" and suspect I should feel a bit guilty for admitting as much.
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March 11th, 2009
08:55 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Shirley to Silhouettes
Shirley and Lee, “Let the Good Times Roll” (1956)
Shirley and Company, “Shame, Shame, Shame” (1975)
A.k.a. Shirley Goodman, possessor of one of the more distinctive and affecting voices I've ever heard, though how on earth does one describe it? An elfin blues wail? The missing link between Bessie Smith and Cyndi Lauper? You could argue that "Good Times" and "Shame" are essentially the same record, 20 years removed from one another, though I have to say that "Shame" is one of my favourite dance beats ever (a swampy, funky-tempo, murky-disco stomp, similar in feel to Disco Tex's "Get Dancin'"). I've thrown it on at a few weddings over the last few years -- usually early into the night, during that uneasy hour when people can't decide whether they should get on the dance floor, go talk to the relatives from Barrie they've thus far managed to avoid, or quietly pick up their coats and go home -- and it almost always registers a mild shockwave, like they think I must be kidding ("you aren't really playing this, are you?"). Most of the people laughing are also dancing, though, or anyway, shaking their hips at the bar.
["Good Times" CLIP]
[Live "Shame" CLIP - I guess the white guy is "Company"??]
Shocking Blue, “Never Marry a Railroad Man” (1970) - Dutch rock-pop from the masterminds behind "Venus" (yeah, I'm sick of it too). Sold a million copies in the Netherlands, bombed in North America, one of the few tunes in Stranded that wouldn't be out of place on a K-Tel compilation (cf. Blue Swede, and, um, “Shame, Shame, Shame”). An odd brew of non-expressive Euro-robo vox (pity auto-tune hadn't been invented yet) and sweet Español guitar licks.
[CLIP]
Troy Shondell, “This Time” (1961) - Exaggerated sob story, the sort of thing Nik Cohn may have had in mind with his genre designation "high school" (if I had time, I'd confirm that this is the sort of thing he meant, but I don't have time, and anyway, it suits my purposes right this second to remember it that way). I almost made a silly "no relation to Tommy James & the..." joke, but the joke's on me: according to Wiki, James actually dubbed his band such in honour of the original Mr. Shondell himself.
[CLIP]
Showmen, “It Will Stand” (1961) and “Country Fool” (1961) - R&B/doo-wop outfit featuring vocalist General Johnson, who later led Chairmen of the Board. "It Will Stand" carries anthemic power (you can probably guess what the "it" is), but the never-before-heard-of "Country Fool" is the sort of perfect and quirky choice the discography exists for, and if you'd told me it was 1968 rather than 1961 I wouldn't have questioned you (maybe because it reminds me of some of Elvis's Memphis Sessions-era recordings?).
["Stand" CLIP]
["Country Fool" CLIP]
Silhouettes, “Get a Job” - Dip-dip-dip-dip-dip-dip-dip-dip... you know the rest. See as well the English Beat's 1981 update (from their underrated 1981 LP, Wha'ppen), where the only jobs available are making nuclear weapons, dumping poison into rivers, and "manufacturing rubbish."
[CLIP]
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March 10th, 2009
12:28 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Seger to Shields
Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band, “Night Moves” (1976) - A chronicle of getting laid, situated historically and psychologically somewhere between the Jamies' "Summertime Summertime" and Elvis Costello's "Mystery Dance." I honestly hadn't thought about this song in years, but it holds up extremely well. I also like "Hollywood Nights" from this era.
[CLIP]
Ronnie Self, “Pretty Bad Blues” (1957) - Non-charting rockabilly, slappy and acoustic and thus much more up my alley than Jerry Byrne's "Lights Out" or Billy Lee Riley's "Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll," both previously somewhat dismissed by me.
[CLIP]
Sensations, “Let Me In” (1962) - Another on-the-outside-looking-in lament, similar to Claudine Clark's "Party Lights," and just as vibrant. The beat, in its garage-presaging monotony, almost verges on polka.
[CLIP]
Shangri-Las, “Leader of the Pack” / “I Can Never Go Home Anymore” (1965) - You know, I've thought and read so much about them in the last several years I don't know what to add right now. They're one of my all-time favourite singles groups, and, at least among their Top 40 entries, they rarely uttered a false note. I have no idea how to write about them, though.
Shep and the Limelights, “Daddy’s Home” (1961) - Slow doo-wop that almost verges on too-slow for me. The syrup's poured on pretty thick here, though that's more of a warning than a complaint.
[CLIP]
Shields, “You Cheated” (1958) - Slow, musically sparse doo-wop with a falsetto that'll melt your brain.
[CLIP]
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March 9th, 2009
02:28 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Safaris to Sedaka
Safaris, “Image of a Girl” (1960) - Not to be confused with the Surfaris (still ahead). Transcendently wimpy and yearning white vocal ballad (a #6 hit), something Brian Wilson surely had stuck on the brain when composing "Surfer Girl" (though it feels more desperate, more transfixed, more obsessive than that, it's closer in mood perhaps to "In My Room"). Notable as well for the effectively torturous tick-tock-of-the-clock beat, which prefigures (of all things) the Chambers Brothers' "Time Has Come Today."
[CLIP]
Santo and Johnny, “Sleep Walk” (1959) - Instrumental Hawaiian-steel surf hit, #1 and employed endlessly since in various movies, usually over top a scene in slo-mo. A gravity-defying, sinuous slow dance, and probably the birth of Eno.
[CLIP]
Linda Scott, “Don’t Bet Money Honey” (1961) - Pizzicato-string girl-pop ballad, faintly in the mold of "You Don't Own Me." Given my affection for the genre and for this sort of sound in general, I'm surprised I don't care for this more than I do; I've listened a dozen times hoping it would break through, but for some reason it still just kind of sits there. (No CLIP, sorry.)
Searchers, “Needles and Pins” / “Ain’t That Just Like Me” (1964) - As with Bobby Freeman's "Do You Wanna Dance," I knew "Needles and Pins" as a Ramones song first rather than the other way around, but although the Ramones do a decent enough version, I doubt anything could top the Searchers' for brevity and control, not to mention their cute let's-cash-in-on-our-Britishness accents (so that, for instance, "her" becomes "hair"). "Ain't That Just Like Me" is inspired, rambunctious nursery rhyme-quoting silliness with (as noted by Richard Meltzer) an orgasmic breakdown at the end, a tribute perhaps to Ray Charles.
["Needles" CLIP]
["Ain't That" CLIP]
Neil Sedaka, “Calendar Girl” (1960) - Sedaka was obviously a brilliant writer, and I like "Breaking Up is Hard to Do" (the '62 version, I mean, not the bland slow-crawl seventies remake), but... I dunno, this one's always been just a bit much for me. A bit too much what, you ask? Too chipper, maybe? A bit too bobbysox-ish? I've come across some critics online in the last few years who have outright dismissed pre-Beatles rock 'n' roll (and probably pre-Rubber Soul Beatles), presumably because it strikes them as too "corny," which of course I think is utter nonsense (nonsense in that I don't agree that it's any more corny than lots of other stuff but more to the point, nonsense in that corniness is in itself an aesthetic virtue), but I have to admit I wouldn't exactly use "Calendar Girl" to make my case. (The CLIP is something else, though, especially the lighting and makeup; Sedaka appears to be covered in wax, looking like he stepped right out of the pages of Nik Cohn and Guy Peelaert's Rock Dreams.)
[CLIP]
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March 8th, 2009
09:47 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Robinson to Rush
Vicki Sue Robinson, “Turn the Beat Around” (1976) - This brings the disco head count up to five, but -- not to split too many hairs here -- it differs from the previous picks (Commodores, George McRae, MFS, and O'Jays) in that it's the first from what could be rightly labelled the "disco era," and even that might be pushing it a little (I'm pretty certain that by 1976 music fans en masse were talking about "disco"; that wasn't the case at all when "Rock Your Baby" or "Love Train" were hits, I don't think). Robinson's lone hit is an astonishingly tactile performance, an electrifying embodiment or internalization of her own beat, with her vocals providing polyrhythmic flavouring -- the scrat-scrat-scratching of the guitars and the rat-tat-tatting of the drums -- to a track already overflowing with them. (Carbon-copied 18 years later by Gloria Estefan, whose version was fine if a little pointless.)
[CLIP]
Rods, “Do Anything You Wanna Do” (1977) - A.k.a. Eddie & the Hot Rods. Lump-in-your-throat power pop-via-pub rock that somewhere along the way (cf. Mink Deville) was determined by whoever determines these things as having something to do with punk, which isn't to say it had nothing to do with punk but maybe to suggest that "punk" is and was as slippery a term as anything else out there. I love this song lots, but the wannabe producer/arranger in me has been registering the same (admittedly nitpicky) complaint about it for 30 years: some of the drum rolls are really irritating.
[CLIP]
Linda Ronstadt, “You’re No Good” (1975) - Historically speaking, Ronstadt strikes me as a really interesting performer -- there weren't many other female rockers doing what she was doing while she was doing it -- but my response to most of the music I've heard by her has always been kinda lukewarm (two major exceptions: her terrifically alive cover of the Everlys "When Will I Be Loved" and the Stone Poneys' harpsichord-driven "Different Drum"). "You're No Good" is a fine single, striking in the same don't-fuck-with-me way as Aretha's "Chain of Fools," but I'm still somewhat aloof in my appreciation of its bluesy swagger (ditto "Chain of Fools").
[CLIP]
Rosie and the Originals, “Angel Baby” (1960) - A #5 hit, and maybe the greatest one-shot of all-time (Rosie only reached the lower reaches of the Hot 100 on one other occasion, with "Lonely Blue Nights"). As ethereal, otherworldly, and transporting as pop gets... I don't know how better to describe it.
[CLIP]
Merrilee Rush and the Turnabouts, “Angel of the Morning” (1968) - Another great "Angel"-oriented one-shot, though Rush hit the lower reaches of the Hot 100 on three other occasions. Heartbreaking country-soul ballad with post-"Bolero" snare rolls and chord changes straight out of "Wild Thing," which makes sense given that both songs are credited to the same writer, Chip Taylor.
[CLIP]
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March 4th, 2009
10:20 am - Three Solitudes
Further to my Top 10 Can-Con list posted a couple weeks back: I revised my list slightly before actually submitting it for the to-be-published book, and the revised version is now over on Phil's page. What I changed: I realized that my initial Pagliaro pick ("What the Hell I Got") was a bit of to-the-left-of-center cleverness on my part. The truth is, all three Anglais singles by Pagliaro are more or less equally worthy, but "Some Sing, Some Dance," mostly because of its great arrangement, edges the other two out ever so slightly; it's also the sentimental favourite. As well, I replaced Ginette Reno's "Beautiful Second Hand Man" with Kon-Kan's "I Beg Your Pardon." Again, I'd be happy listing either, but I was inspired by some Facebook friends (I posted my initial list there as well) to re-consider Kon Kan, and I did just that, re-listened to it, and the thing is still great, it's like New Order lifting the shade on a sunny day, and it just feels more right being on my list..
I love Phil's and Tim Powis's lists also. From Phil's extended list, I'm pretty sure I've never heard the Andy Kim (#2) or the Ugly Ducklings tracks, and I know I've never heard the Viletones song. I'm in agreement with Phil's perhaps implicit argument that there's lots of good Canadian punk, but none of it is quite good enough for Top 10 status. (In regards to Phil's Treble Charger comment about its possible disqualification: he may be literally correct that "Even Grable" wasn't released as a single, however, I can verify for certain that it was released as a video and as a key track to sell the record from which it appeared. I worked at HMV when it came out, and it was clearly the song being pushed by the label at that time... in my book that counts.)... There are four or five I haven't heard from Tim's extended list, including his #1, but I'm really glad he got in the Terry Black at #3 (a fetching Peter and Gordon-ish kind of trifle that Tim turned me on to, actually), and I'm especially curious about "Charlena" and "Feel It." Also: seeing Tim's BTO choice at #15 does make me slightly regret not finding a place in my Top 10 for "Hey You."
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08:26 am - As the world awaits my innermost thoughts on "Night Moves"...
Topsy-turvy week here, with lots of baby activity and no at-home web access since Monday (still pending), plus lots of catching up on Season 3 of Friday Night Lights, which I can now confirm is the greatest television show since whenever, even with its sometimes enormous flaws (I hope to write something about it eventually). Hence the temporarily stalled Stranded project, which I'll hopefully get back on track soon, either later this week or early next week. The idea was (and still is) to race through the entries, but that doesn't mean commenters have to, and if you haven't been paying attention, I direct you to the Gene Pitney fireworks display currently being resided over by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) koganbot and dubdobdee -- I haven't even been able to read all of that yet, and this is supposed to be my journal! Anyway....
Current Mood: Disconnected
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March 2nd, 2009
10:33 am - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Rivingtons to Robins
Rivingtons, “Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow” (1962) - A mostly intelligible riff on unintelligibility by doo-woppers described as one of the genre's "loudest and most raucous" outfits (though based on "Papa" alone, I don't think the Rivingtons are necessarily any more raucous than, say, the Cellos, or the Chips... and come to think of it, why no "Rubber Biscuit" in the discography?). Often cited as a key moment in the history of nonsense lyrics, no doubt because it's as much about the genre as it is of the genre (remarkably, this 2005 Guardian piece on the history of nonsense lyrics -- which I've only skimmed -- manages to ignore it entirely). Of course, the crux of the issue re: nonsense lyrics isn't their intelligbility/unintelligibility ("I can't understand a word he says") but whether doo-doo wop-wop shama-lama ding-a-dong actually means anything: "If he's serious or if he's playing/Woo-my-my it's all he's saying." Covered well by the Beach Boys and horribly by Gary Glitter; expanded on/sampled/immortalized by the Trashmen; lip-synched on YouTube by scores of kids young enough to be grandchildren of a Rivington, but you'll have to look those up yourself. (cf. Finnegan & the Wakes.)
[CLIP]
Marty Robbins, “El Paso” (1960) - Tex-mex via country-pop (the delicious guitar parts remind me a bit of Guns N' Roses "Patience") and a #1 hit. Also, one of pop's earliest story songs/epics, apparently initially rejected by Robins's label due to its unseemly (at the time -- i.e., pre-"Like a Rolling Stone") length of 4:30. Notes a commentor on SongFacts: "Ask any disc jockey from that era, this was the only record we could play that could give us a decent bathroom break...because of the length. When you heard, 'The white smoke from the rifle,' you better be running back down the hall. Not until the long versions of 'Light My Fire' and 'American Pie' did we have such a break." Heh, in my time and milieu it was Arrow's "Hot Hot Hot" that did the trick. Mostly, though, I just held it.
[CLIP]
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February 27th, 2009
12:50 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Rays to Rivers
Rays, “Silhouettes” (1957) - Slow-ish doo-wah reverie -- a dreamer's paradise -- written by Bob Crewe, covered by several others, including Herman's Hermits (who somewhat ill-advisedly turn it into a brisk, bubbly jaunt), Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers (who harden the beat a little), and, most improbably, the Ronettes (I dunno... to me it's a song that just doesn't work so well from the other side of the aisle). Whenever I hear it, I can't help but think of Martin Scorsese's great cameo in Taxi Driver: "See the woman in the window? Do you see the woman in the window? You see the woman. Good. I want you to see that woman 'cause that's my wife. But that's not my apartment. It's not my apartment.")
[CLIP]
Rebels, “Wild Weekend” (1962)
Mac Rebennack, “Storm Warning” (1960)
Revels, “Church Key” (1961)
Three of a kind: raunchy, surfy, surly pre-punk instrumentals, all simpleminded and fantastic, though "Church Key" (a post-"Tequila," more or less) is probably my favourite of the bunch. Until I learned what the hell was meant by "church key" the thing made no sense to me whatsoever, and it still kind of doesn't. (According to a YouTube commenter: "I have a CD that contains this song, and the liner notes mention that 'church key' is slang for a device used for opening beer cans. It's possible that it's a soda can being opened on the record, but it also may be a beer can. I would guess that the device itself could be used for either beer or soda cans.")
[Rebels CLIP]
[Revels CLIP]
(No clip for Mac Rebennack -- a.k.a. Dr. John -- unfortunately)
Paul Revere and the Raiders, “Just Like Me” (1965) - Elvis Costello has mentioned often that the blueprint for This Years Model was Aftermath, but three minutes of "Just Like Me" come much closer to prefiguring the sound he ended up with: lyrics, phrasing, farfisa punkbeat, it's a virtual blueprint to my ears. Despite my earlier dismissal of the Raiders' version of "Louie Louie," I can't stress enough how important their Greatest Hits album is to me; it was the first album I obsessed over, and I still love at least three-quarters of the thing (in short, I couldn't, in good conscience, whittle my Raiders love down to a single track).
[CLIP]
Jody Reynolds, “Endless Sleep” (1958) - More death rock (#5 hit) from a recently deceased rockabilly figure, and one of my favourite discoveries via the discography. According to the NYT obit, "Endless Sleep" "kicked off the melodramatic teenage-tragedy genre, including Mark Dinning’s 'Teen Angel,' Ray Peterson’s 'Tell Laura I Love Her,' Dickey Lee’s 'Patches' and the Shangri-Las’ 'Leader of the Pack.'"
[CLIP]
Righteous Brothers, “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” (1964) - Hard to endure more than a few seconds at this point.
Billy Lee Riley and His Little Green Men, “Flying Saucers Rock ‘n’ Roll” (1957) - I've liked most of the rockabilly encountered in the discography so far, but maybe I'm not as partial to the more electric-oriented stuff like this? (This might make sense, as I also much much prefer pre-electric guitar blues to electric guitar blues.) Anyway, the lyrics are pretty cool (but no CLIP, sorry).
Johnny Rivers, “Secret Agent Man” (1966) - As with Gene Pitney, I feel like Rivers is a kind of important gap in my collection. He strikes me as someone with potentially a bunch of great songs I'm not familiar with. I love how overdriven the guitars sound in the CLIP below. (I also still like Devo's version a lot, though am not entirely convinced by David Hasselhoff.)
[CLIP]
Current Mood: indescribable
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February 25th, 2009
10:23 pm - 'STRANDED' SINGLES: Pitney to Quin-Tones
Gene Pitney
- “Every Breath I Take” (1961) - Perfect for the drum breaks alone.
[CLIP]
- “Mecca” (1963) - Get ur freak on. (I don't have much to say about Pitney right now; he's someone whose music I need to investigate, and promptly.)
[CLIP]
Platters, “My Prayer” (1956) - This is apparently used in Benjamin Button? "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" would be on my list (not "The Great Pretender," though, which I've never liked).
[CLIP]
Police, “So Lonely” (1978) - Sting's typically hard to take, esp. in the vampy stuff towards the end, but it's one of their better early tracks.
Poppy Family, “That’s Where I Went Wrong” (1970) - Fifth Can-con pick (cf. the Diamonds, Guess Who, Ronnie Hawkins, and Gordon Lightfoot), though I hadn't even heard of it prior to reading the discography. A pretty sound, but I prefer Susan Jacks's solo track (a minor hit in Canada), "I Want You to Love Me," one of the earliest pop records with a synthesizer hook.
[CLIP]
Lloyd Price, “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” (1952) / “Stagger Lee” (1958) - New Orleans soul. Like them both, nothing to say right now.
P.J. Proby, “Mission Bell” (1965) - Second version in the book (cf. Donnie Brooks). This one's wilder, more lavish. Not sure I care too much for Proby's voice, but years ago I greatly enjoyed reading Nik Cohn's chapter on the guy in Pop: From the Beginning. Should pull that off the shelf to find out what I'm missing here.
[CLIP]
Procul Harum, “A Whiter Shade of Pale” (1967) - Everyone's favourite song at some point in their life, I know it was mine. Nothing else to say right now.
Professor Longhair, “Bald Head” (1950) - Big gap in my pop knowledge. I don't know any of the Prof's music, aside -- right now -- from this. Has a teeter-tottery way of turning a phrase here, which I like (he reminds me of a more vocally unhinged Elvis.... but again, I'm out of my depth here).
Quin-Tones, “Down the Aisle of Love” (1958) - Another one blurring the distinction for me between doo-wop and girl groups.
[CLIP]
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12:48 pm - 'STRANDED' Singles: Pacific to Phillips
Pacific Gas & Electric, “Are You Ready” (1970) - Multiracial gospel-metal (Godspell-metal, even), reveling in its own healing-force schlockiness and utilizing the same driving-beat energy that propels the Temptations "Get Ready," though I have to say, PG&E lack for some of the Tempts' innate melodic prettiness.
[CLIP]
Bill Parsons, “The All American Boy” (1958) - Just-this-side-of-sardonic talkabilly that charts Elvis's meteoric rise to fame and sudden fall off the map at the finger of Uncle Sam ("Take this rifle, kid / Gimme that guitar"). Some confusion as to whether the artist is actually Parsons or Bobby Bare, a convoluted case I haven't taken the time to figure out (the version linked to below is the version I'm familiar with, the same one that's in my iTunes).
[CLIP]
Passions, “Just to Be With You” (1959) - Awesomely beautiful and ethereal white doo-wop ballad with a key shift near the end that always stuns me (the music seems to shift up while the vocals shift down.... or something). Also quite good: the 1978 new wave single, "I'm In Love With a German Film Star" by a later, completely unrelated UK incarnation of the Passions.
[CLIP]
Paul and Paula, “Hey Paula” (1962) - More ethereal whiteness, though this one takes place outdoors with crickets chirping away, while Paul and Paula -- vaguely creepy dating concept, but whatever -- profess their eternal everything for one another.
[CLIP - note: you can hear the crickets in this version]
Penguins, “Earth Angel” (1954) - I'm surely not alone in having first heard this song via New Edition's 1986 cover, from their doo-wop tribute LP, Under the Blue Moon. At the time that album seemed like an odd and even slightly bold gesture from the group responsible for "Candy Girl" and "Cool It Now," but I'm guessing it wouldn't hold up so well. Anyway, I don't blame Bivins and Devoe and Co. for any of this, but weirdly enough, "Earth Angel," as prototypical a doo-wop track as exists, has never been a favourite. I've just never fallen under its sway the way I have so many other ballads in this vein.
[CLIP]
Peter and Gordon, “I Go to Pieces” (1965) - Written by Del Shannon, shimmering and lovely.
[CLIP]
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, “American Girl” (1977) - I've developed an irrational though rather intense dislike of Tom Petty over the years (not always to do with his music, though when he's bad, as he is on singles like "Don't Do Me Like That" or "Don't Come 'Round Here No More", he turns my indifference into out-and-out hate), but occasionally he pulls out something so good I'd be foolish to resist it, and "American Girl" is one of those somethings. First album Byrds meets second album Clash? Tune was used effectively in The Silence of the Lambs, playing loud on a car radio.
[CLIP from "Midnight Special" in 1978... I didn't know the show was still on then, either!]
Phil Phillips, “Sea of Love” (1959) - Is it sacrilege to state a preference for the Honeydrippers 1984 version? Granted, it was overplayed and I got tired of it, but what they did with the song was fairly remarkable, not merely dripping honey over the track but submerging the song in vats of the stuff. (Unfortunately, you'll have to take my word for it, as there's a copyright issue with their version on YouTube.) I'm undecided-but-verging-on-indifferent to Cat Power's version. Only reason I mention it (there are loads of other versions as well) is because I've used it twice in the last few years as "first dance" songs at weddings, always at the request of the bride and groom, of course.
[CLIP]
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09:15 am - 'STRANDED' Singles: O'Jays to Orlons
O’Jays, “Love Train” (1973 / 2008)
Olympics, “Dance by the Light of the Moon” (1960) - Fast doo-wop with a propulsive, hard-as-nails dance beat.
[CLIP]
Orioles, “It’s Too Soon to Know” (1948) - Here we have it, I'm near certain: the earliest entry in the book (Wiki fittingly describes the Orioles as "R&B’s first vocal group"). If I had Lipstick Traces in front of me I'd simply quote Marcus, who writes great about this stuff, but some descriptive passages from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame site will have to do: "The Orioles established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound: wordless, melismatic harmonies..." Also: "The Orioles differed from groups like the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots in that they made purely vocal music without orchestration and accompanied only by the solo guitar of Tommy Gaither."
[CLIP]
Orlons, “Don’t Hang Up” (1962) - Great, sassy girl group sound, as fast as anything by Black Flag, from the makers of "The Wah-Watusi".
[CLIP from Dennis the Menace]
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/sad.gif) thirsty
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08:33 am - 'STRANDED' Singles: Nash to Nutmegs
Johnny Nash
- Some of Your Loving” (1960) - Rare, non-charting pop-soul ("pretty big in the Bay Area," according to the YouTube intro), produced with typical grandiosity -- though somewhat unremarkably -- by (pre-Wall) Phil Spector. Nice, but to me it sounds like a warmup for Gene Pitney's "Every Breath I Take" from '61 (and still ahead in the discog).
[CLIP]
- “I Can See Clearly Now” (1972) - #1 for four weeks, and for my money the surest and subtlest pop-reggae confection ever created. Its secret rhythmic weapon? An accordion.
["Midnight Special" CLIP]
Ricky Nelson, “Garden Party” (1972) - #6 comeback smash by former teen idol, conversant with a bunch of other Top 40 singles of the period, including some in the discography: like "I Can See Clearly Now" it showcased a newly assured musical direction from a guy whose career stretched back a couple decades; like "You're So Vain" it was a pop song much enhanced by the intrigue surrounding its back story; like "American Pie" and "All the Young Dudes" it made canny references to the Beatles and Dylan; like Ringo's "It Don't Come Easy" it was an attempt to "Forget about the past..." -- or anyway, to come to grips with it and move forward. A penultimate 1972 moment, in other words.
[CLIP]
Nervous Norvus, “Transfusion” (1956) - "My red corpsuckles are in mass confusion..." The most outrageous of fifties rock novelties, unsurprisingly censored in some markets, and maybe the greatest sound effects record of all -- certainly, it's right up there with George 'Shadow' Morton's Shangri-Las epics -- with shards of glass and splatters of blood piling in mounds as the thing races to the finish. (A finish, by the way, which is more than a little absurd -- a don't-try-this-at-home-kids PSA that comes well after your brains have already been fried.) Shame Keith Richards never saw fit to cover this.
[CLIP]
[Punkabilly Cover Version by I don't know who, with pre-ordained noisiness and distortion that's nonetheless fairly impactful]
Thunderclap Newman, “Something in the Air” (1969) - Protégés of Pete Townshend with a would-be-perfect one-off (a "natural hit," as it were), marred somewhat by a meandering, unnecessarily artful middle bit. Still... I can think of a lot of great pop vocalists who'd have difficulty finding their way through this ("And you know that IT'S RIGHT").
[CLIP]
Nutmegs, “Story Untold” (1955) - Slow, out-there doo-wah-wah, highly (and rightfully) regarded among afficionados, all swooping male voices in-and-out of gorgeously crafted caramel-coated unison , etc.
[CLIP]
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/mood/classic/tired.gif) groggy
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