BARON SATURDAY

Listen to BARON SATURDAY by The Pretty Things.

You can only really blog this song on a Saturday, can't you?

That's fine, because I've been thinking a lot about David Bowie today, and the Pretty Things remind me a lot of him. I couldn't tell you exactly why. It's either because Bowie obviously owes a lot of his Ziggy-era sound to this group, or maybe it's because I first heard about the Pretty Things from some interview where Bowie himself was talking about how important an influence they were on him. (Though I may be imagining that interview.)

It doesn't matter -- you can play this track and hear for yourself why one might hear it and think of Bowie. This whole album, "S.F. Sorrow", is a real classic and you should buy/download it as soon as possible. It's the third and least-well-known record recorded at Abbey Road in the early part of 1967 (the other two being "Piper At The Gates of Dawn" and "Sgt Pepper's")

The band has some great earlier tunes too, that you can hear on the Nuggets II box set, among other places.

SOMETIMES I MAKE YOU SAD

Listen to SOMETIMES I MAKE YOU SAD by Supergrass.

I'm still thinking that a Britpop Christmas CD would be a fun idea, though I haven't done much about it except write the occasional blog post. The other day, though, I did go back and listen to my old Supergrass tracks.

And while I don't think this particular track is significant enough of anything, I sure do like it!

Happy Friday, hope you've got a long weekend going on instead of a bloated day at the office (like me).

EUPHRATES

Listen to EUPHRATES by The Main Ingredient.

Corbett was asking awhile ago if I knew the Main Ingredient, but I forgot to reply to his text. The answer is, Of Course! Euphrates is one of my all-time favorite R&B jams, and I spent a lot of hours last winter trying to squeeze it onto the 2008 Christmas CD, before I finally decided to keep that one a little older and rawer. Not smooth, like the Main Ingredient. Happy Monday, roll on Tuesday...

THE TIME IT IS TODAY

Listen to THE TIME IT IS TODAY by The Association.

One more to tide you over for a few days. Is it just me, or was the Association semi-heavyweights in the classic rock canon, but now they've been relegated to a couple of tracks on oldies stations? I'm not in a good position to judge, given my total lack of interaction with conventional music-playing (ed: do you mean "I don't listen to the radio much," robot?), but this particular song I heard a lot when I was younger but I don't think I've heard it anywhere for years, except on my iPod. Just a (dumb, inarticulate) theory.

Unless John jumps in, this'll be it until I get back from Oklahoma on Sunday, at the earliest. Unless, of course, Liverpool loses on Saturday -- in that case I'll be iPhone blogging to get our next song up here!

WE'LL MEET AGAIN

Listen to WE'LL MEET AGAIN by Vera Lynn.

Rest in peace, Grandma.

SHE TOOK A LONG COLD LOOK

Listen to SHE TOOK A LONG COLD LOOK by Syd Barrett.

Is there anything more to this song than the first line? You know what I mean? It's the only part I really remember. It stays with me. A bunch of his songs are like that. They start with a great line, and then kinda meander. But you only really need that first great line. Not that there aren't other great parts too, just sayin'. Such as: (some reader knowledge assumed here)

"She was long gone long long gone."

"Lucifer Sam, Siam Cat."

"It's an idea someday"

"Wined and dined oh it seemed just like a dream."

"Trip to heave and ho, up down, to and fro" (to be fair there a bunch of great lines in this one...)

"In the sad town, cold iron hands clap the party of clowns outside rain falls in grey far away, please please baby lemonade" (okay some other great lines in this one too!)

"Yes I'm thiiiiiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiiiii-iiiiiiiinking"

"Maaaaaaisie." (Okay maybe that's not such a great line! Great delivery though.)

So concludes half-baked Sunday evening blogging.

CARE OF CELL 44

Listen to CARE OF CELL 44 by The Zombies.

I could scarcely believe it when I checked, and there had never been any Zombies featured on this blog. So I want to play my favorite song, and the best one at that.

Today was a nice day. Perfect weather, and listened to the Flaming Lips and Syd Barrett. Took a bike ride to Staten Island. Lunch in Soho outside with the girls. Good times!

REACHING OUT FROM HERE

Listen to REACHING OUT FROM HERE by The Boo Radleys.

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned doing a Britpop compilation, and Corbett, John, and I have started trading song ideas. The best part being not knowing for sure if a suggestion is serious or a wind up -- we listened to a lot of borderline ridiculous music back then. Part of the charm I guess.

I'd certainly like to stick the Boo Radleys on anything to do with that period. I like the group a lot (though I'm not a "real" fan because their stuff from before Wake Up! tends to bore me), but I started listening through their songs and it's striking how few of them stand on their own. Like, as a single, or something you could stick on a mix tape. Most everything they did have strange interludes and appendages. Part of the charm I guess!

Reaching Out From Here is just about the straightest tune they ever released, so enjoy it and your Friday

LIMELIGHT

Listen to LIMELIGHT by Carioca and His Cuban Percussion Orchestra.

I can't really tell you much about why I decided to blog this, except it never fails to put a smile on my face, a spring in my step. I guess it does have a sort of post-Wes Anderson movie soundtrack potential, but let's not think in those terms. Just a pleasant way to spend a couple of minutes, in exactly the same vein as Xavier Cugat, and leave it at that.

You'll Never Walk Alone (But You'll Lose to Fulham)

Listen to YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE by Leon Haywood.

Happy November everybody!

I honestly don't take great pleasure in these Liverpool posts lately. The YNWA series is supposed to be an occasional good-natured poke in the ribs, not a bi-weekly event!

That said, this is a nice snappy version, so at least it's good to listen to. Leon is from Texas, and is probably most famous among my generation for being the man behind the sample that drove "Nothin But a G Thang." See if you can spot the similarities in this one.

MAKE HER SAY

Listen to MAKE HER SAY by Kid Cudi.

John back again. Like you, I travel with music. Before I leave, I load up an ipod with handpicked good stuff that current tastes predict will be enjoyed. At first, it’s great browsing albums or listening on shuffle, but after a few days, maybe a week, the power law takes over: 20% of the music, 80% of the time. By the end, there are a handful of very well explored songs in the rotation. That’s when an enjoyable, productive insanity blossoms and new theories develop. I first noticed this phenomenon when I was walking down the streets of Warsaw last Christmas thinking about how much I was thinking about ”Take A Load Off Your Feet” and wondering why other people weren't thinking the same thing. Most recently I discovered "Martha My Dear" is the sequel to "Penny Lane", and, for goodness sakes, the bass isn’t even the best part!

Gotta come home though, and between immigration and customs at JFK, while praying more bags will magically appear, searching for an empty $5 smart cart, and hoping the taxi line will be quick, an out-of-bounds song returns. It sounds right and says welcome home. A week ago for me, it was “Make Her Say”, by Kid Cudi. Enjoy!


Photo: satellite dish.

You'll Never Walk Alone (But You'll Lose to Arsenal)

Listen to YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE by Chet Atkins.

Ha ha you got beat by the kids! Actually, that's not really true. We had some kids but a lot of first teamers too. Seemed like an open enough game from my snatches of streaming clips. I'd write more but I need coffee, ta

THINGS WE SAID TODAY

Listen to THINGS WE SAID TODAY by The Beatles.

It would be a huge stretch to say that I could listen to Chet Atkins all day. I have a lot of affection for him, mainly because this random one-off album that he did with Mark Knopfler somehow became one of the albums we listened to more than anything growing up. But there's no denying that his ideas about taste neutured a lot of great music in Nashville. If you listen to his productions or his solo recordings, you'll eventually forget what it's like for music to thrill or threaten.

Nothwithstanding that, he was obviously a great musician and he could do a lot of neat things with songs. I've never been a huge fan of the Beatles original,* but this cover of Things We Said Today is the dog's unmentionables. I love how he interprets the main melody.

* Though like everything else, the new remaster sounds fantastic.

TRACY JACKS

Listen to TRACY JACKS by Blur.

About a month ago, I was thinking a little bit about what to do about this year's Christmas CD, since I haven't really dug into any new music or genres this year like I have in the past (country, Jamaican, South American, rare groove, or what have you). So I had the thought that maybe I could go back to Britpop, since it's been a long, long time since I've listened to any of it or since anyone has really thought about it. And we know Britpop (and we're talking the prime-to-decadent period from 1995 to 1997) pretty well. I thought getting Corbett & John on board to help put something together might be fun.

But, I never did anything about it, except load up this track, which is probably my favorite non-obvious Blur track, and therefore one of the best tunes ever recorded.

You'll Never Walk Alone (But You'll Lose to Lyon)

Listen to YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE by Wing.

I was watching the games last night on tape delay, and since I was at work later than expected, I only watched the last part of Liverpool's match, after Lyon's equalizer. With Manchester United coming up this weekend, you can't even be sure they've hit bottom.

Well, their problems are there for all to see, so instead let's talk about the music. After this weekend's loss, I figured I needed to freshen up our collection of anthems, so I went through my notes and archives and uploaded another 15 versions -- so don't worry, we'll make it through the end of 2009 at least!

One of the links I came across was to a woman named "Wing." I dutifully downloaded the album, and hit play......................................And I must say, this is possibly the worst thing I've ever heard in my life! Really, listen to it! ('hey, this milk is rotten, have a drink!')

It is comically, comically poor. So I had to find out a little more about this lady. At first I figured that "Wing" was google proof, and I wasn't even sure if that was the name of the artist. It really sounds more like a karaoke mistake than a singer.

But it turned out to be pretty easy to track her down. I found a link to her personal web page where the album on which this song appears is for sale. Except it's SOLD OUT! Sold out! Seriously, listen to this tune again and tell me how it's sold out!

I went to her "about" page and it all started to make a little sense. Wing is a woman from Hong Kong who emigrated to New Zealand who loves to sing, apparently. So much so that she managed to record herself performing. And somehow, this music got a following, traveled across the Pacific, and was picked up by the fellas from South Park, who wrote an entire episode about Wing and her music. Here's a clip from that episode, and keep in mind that the singing on that clip is actually Wing! The worst singer on earth, and she's now selling out jazz clubs in New York. What a wonderful and odd world we live in.

So, the moral of the story is, be careful Man United! Stranger things have happened.