Category: Music

Hank Williams, Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

Kingston Trio, Tom Dooley

Chuck Berry, Memphis, TN. The Lonnie Mack version sports three chords!

Seeds, Pushin' too Hard.  If you remember this cheesy garage-band number, with its cheesy guitar solo, I'll buy you a beer.

Eric Clapton, Tulsa Time

Sir Douglas Quintet, Mendocino. This one goes out to Joe Odegaard.

Joe Cocker, Feelin' Alright

Beatles, Paperback Writer. Mostly just two chords.

UPDATE (2/17)

Mendocino Joe sends us to Frank Zappa's Camarillo Brillo. "She carried on without a comma . . . ."

Springfields, Silver Threads and Golden Needles

Neil Young, Heart of Gold

Connie Francis, Oh My Darling Clementine

Lee Dorsey, Working in a Coal Mine

Marty Robbins, That Silver-Haired Daddy of Mine

Joan Baez, Silver Dagger

Miranda Lambert, Gunpowder and Lead

James Taylor, Copperline

Allman Bros., Silver Dollar

Bob Dylan, Cold Irons Bound

YouTuber comments:

There's something about not having a perfect voice that lends so much authenticity, sincerity and soul to a particular song. Dylan has it, Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, John Prine, Shane McGowan, Billie Holiday and yeah — even Dean Martin….none are perfect — yet, they are legends. Ha. Because there's a thrill factor to it all. This is one of Dylan's best…this is rock and roll. Don't forget the word "roll" at the end. That guarantees it's the real thing. (There are other singers too…I can't list them all).

Amazing! The concentrated precision on their faces, every note delivered on time, These guys are so tight makes my teeth hurt. Accompanying the most enigmatic, musical artist on the planet, and doing it with grace and style. Of the hundred times I've watched this video masterpiece a percentage has been just for the ending. After the last chord stops reverberating (I can't help but read into the moment) a small but enthusiastic applause breaks out there is a look of enjoyment on their faces, an understated sense of accomplishment. Something has happened here. Something greater than the sum of it's parts.

READERS' RECOMMENDATIONS (2/3)

Keith Richards, You Got the Silver

Loretta Lynn, Coal Miner's Daughter.  This one goes out to Hillary Clinton.

Bill Mize, The Silverplume Waltz. Great solo acoustic guitar.

The Eagles, Silver Dagger

Joan Baez, Silver Dagger (live)

Mose Allison, The Song is Ended

Punch Bros., Dink's Song

Dave van Ronk, Dink's Song

Arlo Guthrie, Percy's Song

Fairport Convention, Percy's Song

Doors, Alabama Song

Roberta Flack, Killing Me Softly with his Song

Bob Dylan, Song to Woody

Chad and Jeremy, Summer Song

Simon and Garfunkel, 59th Street Bridge Song

Brook Benton, The Boll Weevil Song

UPDATE 1/20. A reader asks:

A black dude singing a hillbilly song? Where do you find these things?

That was a big hit when I was a boy, and I never forgot it.  It was played on the rock stations. Another great Brook Benton tune is It's Just a Matter of Time.

Charley Pride is another black guy who sang country songs. Is Anybody Going to San Antone?

Joan Baez, There but for Fortune. Ochs' best song in its best rendition.

Phil Ochs, Changes

YouTuber comment, good except for the exaggeration in the last sentence:

Somewhere, in a parallel universe, in another dimension, where there's musical justice, Phil Ochs wasn't just Bob Dylan's sidekick in the early 60's, who released a bunch of albums that are long out of print, failed to gain international recognition, got choked by muggers and lost his ability to sing, disappeared into alcoholism and severe depression, and hanged himself on his birthday, and is remembered only thanks to documentaries about Greenwich Village and the Folk Revival. No, in some other reality he's remembered as one of the absolutely greatest songwriters, guitarist, and singers in the history of popular music . . . .

Phil Ochs, Pleasures of the Harbor. Brings back memories of '67 and shows that Ochs could break out of the protest/topical rut. 

Christopher Hitchens on Phil Ochs and those days.

Ochs' protest songs were too obvious and bound to the events of the day. Dylan's best protest songs avoided these defects to float free of the specific and enter the ethereal.  This is part of the reason why Ochs is tied to his time and place and remembered only by the aficionados but Dylan has a permanent place in the pantheon of Americana. For example, these great Dylan anthems lay it between the lines and have stood the test of time:

Clancy Bros., When the Ship Comes In

Alanis Morissette, Blowin' in the Wind

Joan Baez, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

And now some great tunes from the ill-starred Tim Hardin. I discovered him in '67 when I bought his Tim Hardin 2 LP.  Still have it in mint condition. Do I hear $10,000?  At the time, I thought that Hardin might displace Dylan in my adolescent affections or else become a sort of second Dylan.  But of course that did not happen since Dylan is on 'a whole other level'  despite Hardin's being a very fine songwriter and performer.

Tim Hardin, Lady Came from Baltimore

Tim Hardin, Reason to Believe

Small Faces, Red Balloon. Great version! I prefer it to Hardin's original. But then, I don't know. Both good.  Hardin died of a heroin overdose in 1980.  'Red Balloon' is a heroin reference. See here:

"Red Balloon" is a confessional song about Tim's mixed feelings toward heroin and its effects upon him. Heroin is often sold in balloons, so the "bought myself a red balloon" line refers to buying and taking heroin. The "blue surprise" is the adverse effects of heroin. One such effect is the loss of libido or sexual desire – "took the lovelight from my eyes." (or possibly mistreating your loved ones) "The pinning of my eyes" is probably some adverse physical effect. In the song he is addressing heroin (according to the magazine's interpretation) when he states "you were so easy to get to know, but will we see one another again…I hope so." The Troubadour version seems to confirm this, talking about running around on the lower East Side, much like in the old Cocaine song talking about going down to Beale and Main looking for the man who sells Cocaine. So though on the surface it appears to be a childlike song about balloons and children, it's actually quite the opposite.

Don't mess with the stuff, muchachos. I speak from experience. It can very easily kill you. This is part of the reason why I have such utter contempt for those obstructionist crapweasels, Nancy the Knucklehead Pelosi, the Botox-ed-up face of the Democrat (Demon Rat?) party, and her sidekick Chucky the Scumbag Schumer who in effect promote open borders and the flow of  drugs into the country.

Tim Hardin, Black Sheep Boy

If you love, let me live in peace/Please understand/ That the black sheep can wear the golden fleece and hold a winning hand.

Tim Hardin, If I Were a Carpenter

There is a lot of talk of walls these days. I need a break. Here are some of my favorite Phil Spector productions.  It wouldn't have been the 'sixties without him. I avert my eyes from his later misadventures and remember him for his contributions to the Boomer soundtrack.

Crystals, Uptown, 1962.

Crystals, He's a Rebel

Ronettes, Be My Baby

Crystals, Da Doo Ron Ron

Curtis Lee, Pretty Little Angel Eyes.

Great dance video. Curtis Edwin Lee, one-hit wonder, hailed from Yuma, Arizona.  He died at 75 years of age on 8 January 2015.  Obituary here. His signature number became a hit in 1961, reaching the #7 slot on the Billboard Hot 100. When I discovered that the record was produced by the legendary Phil Spector, I understood why it is so good.  After the limelight, Lee returned to Yuma for a normal life. This tune goes out to wifey, with love.  When I first espied those angel eyes back in '82, I had the thought, "Here she is, man, the one for you. Go for it!" And I did, and its been very good indeed.

Ben E. King, Spanish Harlem, 1960.

Crystals, Then He Kissed Me

Beach Boys, Then I Kissed Her. With a tribute to Marilyn M.

Paris Sisters, I Love How You Love Me, 1961.

Ronettes, Walkin' in the Rain

Merry Christmas everybody.  Pour yourself a drink, and enjoy.  Me, I'm nursing a Boulevardier.  It's a Negroni with cojones: swap out the gin for bourbon.  One ounce bourbon, one ounce sweet vermouth, one ounce Campari, straight up or on the rocks, with a twist of orange.  A serious libation.  It'll melt a snowflake for sure. The vermouth rosso contests the harshness of the bourbon, but then the Campari joins the fight on the side of the bourbon. 

Or you  can think of it as a Manhattan wherein the Campari substitutes for the angostura bitters.  That there are people who don't like Campari shows that there is no hope for humanity.

I link to what I like, and I like to what I link. And my taste is decidedly catholic.

Billie Holliday, The Way You Looked Tonight. An uncommonly long intro. I first heard this old tune in the The Lettermen version in 1961. YouTuber comment:

Suzanne, the world did get cold after we parted. I got drafted to the other side of it and never could come home again. You eventually married a less adventuresome boy. I haven't seen you in over fifty years, and never will again, but I still feel a glow just thinking of you and the way you looked that night.Your laugh that wrinkles your nose still touches my foolish heart. I still love you, just the way you looked that night.

Mose Allison, The Song is Ended

Arlo Guthrie, Percy's Song

Ry Cooder, Christmas in Southgate

(Last night I had) A Wonderful Dream, The Majors. The trick is to find in the flesh one of those dream girls. Some of us got lucky.

Gary U. S. Bonds, From a Buick 6.  Wow! Undoubtedly the best cover of the Dylan number. And better than the original. Sorry, Bob. Bonds had a number of hits in the early '60s such as Twist, Twist, Senora. Cute video. The girls look like they stepped out of the '40s. They remind me of my aunts.

Beach Boys, 409. With a four-speed manual tranny, dual quad carburetors (before fuel injection), positraction (limited slip differential), and 409 cubic inches of engine displacement.  Gas was cheap in those days. 

A U. K. reader/listener recommends Junior Brown's cover of 409 in which the aging Beach Boys sing backup. Brown wields a curious hybrid axe, half steel guitar and half 'regular' guitar. An amazing, and very satisfying shitkicker redneck version. Check it out! Amazing the stuff the Dark Ostrich digs up from the vasty deeps of the Internet.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Moonlight Sonata.  A part of it anyway with scenes from the great Coen Bros. film, "The Man Who Wasn't There."

Tex Williams, Smoke, Smoke, Smoke that Cigarette, 1947

Joan Baez, Rock Salt and Nails.  "If the ladies was squirrels with high bushy tails/I'd fill up my shotgun with rock salt and nails."  This is undoubtedly (!) the best version of this great Utah Phillips song.

Doc and Merle Watson's version

I post what I like and I like what I post.

Barrett Strong, Money.  Flying Lizards' parody.

Buckwheat Zydeco, Jackpot

Dolly Parton, Silver Dagger.  Great version, but then so is Joan Baez's.

Elmore James, Dust My Broom

Since 1992, the most beat-to-crap broom on my premises was always given the name, 'Hillary's Broom.'  "Wifey, hand me Hillary's Broom.  I got me a dirty job to do."

Canned Heat, Dust My Broom

Ella Mae Morse (1945), The House of Blue Lights.  Shows that 'square' and 'daddy-o' and 'dig' were already in use in the '40s.  I had been laboring under the misapprehension that this patois first surfaced in Beat/Beatnik circles in the '50s.

Bonnie Owens, Philadelphia Lawyer

Curtis Lee, Pretty Little Angel Eyes (the original!)  This one goes out to wifey with love.

Curtis Edwin Lee, one-hit wonder, hailed from Yuma, Arizona.  He died at 75 years of age on 8 January 2015.  Obituary here. His signature number became a hit in 1961, reaching the #7 slot on the Billboard Hot 100. The record was produced by the legendary Phil Spector, No wonder it is so good.  After the limelight, Lee returned to Yuma for a normal life.

Joe Satriani, May This be Love (Waterfall). The Hendrix tune, masterfully done on acoustic guitars.

Doc Watson, Moody River

Dick Dale and the Deltones, Misirlou.  Before Clapton, before Bloomfield, my first guitar hero.   "King of the Surf Guitar."  Pipeline (with Stevie Ray Vaughan).  Nitro (with So Cal scenes).  Let's Go Trippin', 1961.  Not a drug reference. Pre-LSD. The first surf instrumental?

Cowboy Jack Clement, A Girl I Used to Know

Freddy Fender, Cielito Lindo.  Tex-Mex version of a very old song.

Marty Robbins, La Paloma.  Another old song dating back to 1861. 

Barbara Lewis, Hello Stranger, 1963. 1963 was arguably the best of the '60s years for pop compositions. 

Emmylou Harris, Hello Stranger. Same title, different song.  This one goes out to Mary Kay F-D. Remember the Fall of 1980, Mary Kay? 

Get up, rounder/Let a working girl lie down/ You are rounder/And you are all out and down.

Carter Family version from 1939.

Joan Baez, Daddy, You've Been on My Mind. The voice of an angel, the words of a poet, and Bruce  Langhorne's guitar.

Joan Baez, It's All Over Now, Baby Blue. The voice of an angel, the words of a poet, and Langhorne's guitar.

Joan Baez, A Hard Rain's A Gonna Fall. The voice of an angel, the words of a poet, and Langhorne's guitar. The incredible mood of this version, especially the intro, is made by Langhorne and the bass of Russ Savakus, another well-known session player from those days. I've been listening to this song since '65 and it gives me chills every time. 

Carolyn Hester, I'll Fly Away.  Dylan on harp, a little rough and ragged. Langhorne on guitar? Not sure.

Joan Baez and her sister, Mimi Farina, Catch the Wind. Fabulous.

Joan Baez, Boots of Spanish Leather.  Nanci Griffith also does a good job with this Dylan classic. 

Betty Everett, You're No Good, 1963.  More soulful than the 1975 Linda Ronstadt version.

The Ikettes, I'm Blue, 1962. 

Lee Dorsey, Ya Ya, 1961.  Simplicity itself. Three chords. I-IV-V progression. No bridge.

Thomas Merton, though 51 years old in 1966, was wide open to the '60s Zeitgeist – all of it.  The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Six, p. 93, entry of 10 July 1966:

Borrowed  a record player and  played Joan Baez over again — and now really know "Silver Dagger" (before I had the melody confused with "East Virginia"). One record I like more and more is Bob Dylan's Highway 61 [Revisited].  

On p. 324, Merton references Dylan's Ballad of a Thin Man.

In the same volume we find "A Midsummer Diary for M" and on p. 305:

All the love and death in me are at the moment wound up in Joan Baez's song, "Silver Dagger." I can't get it out of my head, day or night. I am obsessed with it. My whole being is saturated with it. The song is myself — and yourself for me, in a way.

Ry Cooder, He'll Have to Go. The old 1960 Jim Reeves country crossover hit.

Ry Cooder, Good Night Irene.  Leadbelly.  Eric Clapton's rendition at a 1982 English Christmas party. 

Ry Cooder, Yellow Roses. The old Hank Snow tune.

Ry Cooder, Maria Elena. An old standard from circa 1932.

Ry Cooder, Paris, Texas. Excellent evocative video.  Great YouTuber comment:

Man I have been gone way too long. I miss America, the open road, the wild west. I remember staying in hotels with just a dozen rooms or so, and only maybe four of them in operation. Twenty seven bucks and bed springs so squeaky we had to make love on the floor. Walking out to the pay phone, a billion stars in the sky, I need to try and find my way back again.