Category: Music
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Nonsense Titles and Lyrics
I'm a serious man, as serious as cancer some would say. But it's Saturday night, a night on which I allow myself a drink or two and some nostalgic indulgence. Tonight, the unseriousness of nonsense titles and lyrics. The Rivingtons, Papa Oom Mow Mow The Trashmen, The Bird is the Word. It is not about Bird's Opening.…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: ‘Babe’ and ‘Baby’ Songs
With half-apologies to overly sensitive feministas. Look, real men love and respect women and they use these words as terms of endearment. Take a powder! Sonny and Cher, I Got You Babe, 1965. Don't let them say your hair's too long! Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, It Ain't Me Babe, 1964. Note how Joan mothers…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Dylan on Rick Nelson and James Burton
Bob Dylan, Chronicles, Volume One (Simon and Shuster, 2004), p. 13: He was different from the rest of the teen idols, had a great guitarist who played like a cross between a honky-tonk hero and a barn-dance fiddler. Nelson had never been a bold innovator like the early singers who sang like they were navigating burning…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Kitsch, Sentimentality, and Dylan
April Stevens' and Nino Tempo's version of Deep Purple became a number one hit in 1963. I liked it when it first came out, and I've enjoyed it ever since. A while back I happened to hear it via Sirius satellite radio and was drawn into it like never before. But its lyrics, penned by Mitchell Parish, are pure…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Beethoven, Billy Bob, and Peggy Lee
The Man Who Wasn't There is one of my favorite movies, and the best of Ludwig van Beethoven is as good as classical music gets. So enjoy the First Movement of the Moonlight Sonata to the masterful cinematography of the Coen Brothers. Here is the final scene of the movie. Ed Crane's last words: I don't know where I'm…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Route 66 and Kerouac’s Favorite Song
Jack Kerouac in a letter from 17 January 1962: "Everybody is making money off my ideas, like those "Route 66" TV producers, everybody except me . . . ." (Selected Letters 1957-1969, ed. Charters, Viking 1999, p. 326; see also p. 461 and pp. 301-302.) Here is the Nelson Riddle theme music from the TV series. …
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Weather Conditions
Earl Scruggs and Friends, Foggy Mountain Breakdown Ella Fitzgerald, Misty. Beats the Johnny Mathis version. A standard from the Great American Songbook. Jimi Hendrix, Purple Haze. Not from the Great American Songbook. And presumably not about weather conditions. 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky? Or: 'Scuse me while I kiss this guy? Cream, Sunshine of Your Love Tom Waits, Emotional…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Songs with ‘When” in the Title
B. B. King, Nobody Knows You when You're Down and Out John Fogerty, When Will I Be Loved? This cover of the old Everly Bros. tune is now my favorite. Beach Boys, When I Grow Up (to be a Man) Bob Dylan, When the Ship Comes In Clancy Bros., When the Ship Comes In Laura…
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Colander Girl
With apologies to Neil Sedaka, Calendar Girl. A 'pastafarian' idiot was allowed to wear a colander in an official DMV photo in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Bring on the hoodies, the sombreros, the ski masks . . . . Story here. Does this have anything to do with the decline of the West? Something. It is…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: ‘In’ Songs
Are you 'in' with the 'in crowd'? Ramsey Lewis Trio, The 'In' Crowd Dobie Gray, The 'In' Crowd Glenn Miller, In the Mood Beach Boys, In My Room Beatles, In My Life Suzi Quatro, Stumblin' In Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind Kansas, Dust in the Wind Bob Dylan, Stuck Inside of Mobile with the…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: More Messages, Letters, etc.
Marvelettes, Please Mr. Postman. Elvis Presley, Return to Sender Joan Baez, Rock Salt and Nails. "The letters you wrote me were written in shame/And I know that your conscience still echoes my name." Son House, Death Letter Blues Elvis Presley, The U. S. Male Larry Finnegan, Dear One. If you remember this one, I'll buy…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Messages, Letters, Epistles, Novels and such
Bob Dylan, Take a Message to Mary. I prefer it to the Everly Bros. effort. Boxtops, The Letter R. B. Greaves, Take a Letter, Maria Beatles, Paperback Writer Dinah Washington, I Could Write a Book Donovan, Epistle to Dippy 10,000 Maniacs, Hey Jack Kerouac Simon and Garfunkel, I am a Rock. "I have my books…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: Varia
A mixed bag for your enjoyment, but mainly mine. I post what I like and I like what I post. And I post what I've posted before. Links go bad, and even when they don't I never get tired of the old tunes I like. It's Saturday night, friends, pour yourself a stiff one and…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: September Songs
September already. A transitional month leading from hot August to glorious October, Kerouac month in the MavPhil 'secular liturgy.' Dinah Washington, September in the Rain Rod Stewart, Maggie May. "Wake up Maggie, I think I got something to say to you/It's late September and I really should be back at school." Carole King, It Might as Well Rain Until…
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Saturday Night at the Oldies: An Alternative Dylan Top Ten
As promised last week. Baby Let Me Follow You Down, 1962. From Bob's first album. Lord almighty it is good to hear this again. Dylan played better guitar and harmonic in the early days. The surging, full-throated harp beats the sometimes-annoying tweets and toots of his later harmonic playing. Dylan opens by telling us that…