Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 9)

 "A Man Needs a Maid" by Neil Young (1972)

This song either makes me think, just because you *can* do something, doesn't mean you should or what they hell, it's hilarious. I'm referring to the overwrought orchestral arrangement that accompanies/drowns Neil's vocal and piano. I'd like to have a version of this track with just the vocal/piano. 

"Calling It Quits" by Aimee Mann" (2000)

A good track from what's likely her best album, though I am not familiar with her more recent output. A great example of someone who escaped being an 1980s has-been and who reinvented her music career. 

"Short Skirt/Long Jacket" by CAKE (2001)

While we linger in the early-aughts alt music world...which wouldn't be complete without a track from this sarcastic band. The song is very fun, musically with lyrics like, "she's touring the facilities and picking up slack". 

"Feelin'" by The La's (1990)

Despite the album's troubled production history, it is truly a pop music classic now. Every track on it is at least good and several are outstanding. If you don't know this album, you should. 

"Dreaming" by Loudon Wainwright III (1995)

It's not the best of LW's material but still very good. A wistful song that is probably about depression isn't exactly the best dog-walking material.

"Stay Away" by Nirvana (1991)

I don't have much to add to what people have said about this seminal 90s album but I dug this track and you know, this is a really well recorded album! Wow, Dave Grohl, that's a lot of snare drum!

"Everything She Does" by Genesis (1986)

I guess I have to put this in the category of "songs I haven't recently heard at Target" but wow, Phil Collins was so hard to avoid at this time, wasn't he. 

"Forgiven" by Echo & The Bunnymen" (1997)

90s tune...with a cello.

"Lindbergh" by Woody Guthrie (1944)

Such an appropriate song for our situation with Russia and how certain people in the USA cozied up to a dictator for their own gain. 

Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 8)

Shortly after I began writing these posts, I thought about dumping all of these songs into a playlist but I haven't. How many would I skip in this new "Didn't Skip" playlist? Some, for sure. So much of what drives the choice on whether to skip or not is how I'm feeling in the moment which is perhaps why I tend to listen to bulk selections of music rather and narrowed playlists. Now, of course there are songs that I choose to keep on hand and will likely never linger on like "Revolution 9", but I can rest assured that it's out there waiting for me if the mood strikes. 

On we go. 

"Triumph of the Will" by Devo (1979)

This might be a new favorite with lyrics like, 

Before I die I'll get another piece of pie
I'll get another piece of pie
I'll get another piece of pie if I have to lie

"The Seeker" by The Who (1970)

How about that approximately one bar-long silence before the guitar solo? I mean, there isn't all that much  silence in pop music, is there?

"In My Place" by Coldplay (2002)

I have this vague recollection of Coldplay being unfairly compared to Radiohead around the time this album came out. The similarities are pretty superficial however and even if they sounded a little alike in the late 1990s, they certainly went in different directions. As for me, I find Coldplay just okay with polished pop songs that have this surface level lyrical content.  My, that sounds snooty!

"Ramblin' Man" by Hank Williams (1952)

I'll always stop for a Hank song. Just a wee bit different feel than that other Ramblin' song.

"Time After Time" by Cyndi Lauper (1984)

A song so good that Miles Davis covered it! 

"King of the Road" by Roger Miller (1965) 

A classic tune with a really solid bass line.

"Not One Of Us" by Peter Gabriel (1983)

I have a lot of PG material in my music library as I've been a fan of his since the 1980s but this is the first one I've stopped on for this exercise. This version is a live recording and while quite good, doesn't quite match the studio album version. One thing it does have:  COWBELL.

"I Don't Sleep, I Dream" by R.E.M (1994)

This isn't my favorite track on this album which isn't one of my favorite R.E.M. LPs and yet here we are.

"Respect Yourself" by The Staple Singers (1971)

Another classic R/B track. I had to turn this one up.

"What God Wants, Part 1" by Roger Waters (1991)

This is probably Waters' most bombastic, ambitious album since "The Wall". The recording/production quality is superb with some fantastic session musicians but if I'm honest, the solo material of his I listen to most these days is his more "mainstream" album, "Radio KAOS". Still, this track is a fun listen. I didn't find myself skipping ahead to Parts 2 or 3.

"God's Away On Business" by Tom Waits (2002)

"Who are the ones that we kept in charge: killers, thieves, and lawyers". Another "God" song! Sadly, this seems like an appropriate song for world affairs this week. I do however love the sound of this track with a style that recalls that of 1920s popular music. However, this YouTube video is also what I think of when I hear this song (oddly, the video is longer than the song). 

Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 7)

 "I'm a Soldier in the Army of the Lord" by Lyle Lovett (1997)

*Another* LL 90s movie song, this one from a mostly forgotten Robert Duvall film, The Apostle. 

"Speed of the Sound of Loneliness" by Nanci Griffith (1993) 

I am not, in general, a listener of Country (or Western) music. This kind of artist can perhaps be categorized as "NPR Country" so it gets into the rotation. Whatever it's called, this is a great John Prine cover. 

"Would I Lie to You?" by Eurythmics (1985)

An R&B flavored change of pace from their previous hits.

"Further to Fly" by Paul Simon (1990)

This isn't the first track I'd usually grab from this album but it's a good one. This album has a lot of the same people who played on "Graceland" but it has a different, cool feel to it.

"Bizarre Bazaar" by Ozric Tentacles (1991)

An Ozric Tentacles Groove!

"Daybreak (From Son of Dracula)" by Harry Nilsson (1974)

A real oddity from an old movie produced by Ringo Starr and billed as, "The First Rock-and-Roll Dracula Movie". 

"That's the Way of the World" by Earth, Wind, and Fire (1975)

One of their best.

"Me Around" by Michael Penn (1997)

A Beatles-esque sounding tune with some sharp, sarcastic breakup lyrics.

"Telephone Line" by Electric Light Orchestra (1977)

One of my favorite ELOs.

"Couldn't Cause Me Harm" by Beth Orton (1999)

A good, moody 90s folk/pop tune. Where did I get this one?

"Give Everybody Some" by The Bar-Kays (1967)

A classic Stax instrumental that I wasn't very familiar with.

"Winter Winds" by Mumford and Sons (2009)

Maybe it's the weather.

Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 6)

 "Farewell Andromeda (Welcome To My Morning)" by John Denver (1973)

Nice JD song I wasn't familiar with, though a little overproduced. It would have been fun to see Denver do an "unplugged" style album in his later years, had he not died so young.

"Twilight" by ELO (1981)

A pretty decent, if not great, ELO track with the usual ELO muddy mix/production. It sounds like Jeff borrowed the synth loops from The Who.

"Poinciana" by Esquivel (1958)

Don't know who Esquivel was? Go check him out and thank me later.

"The Voice" by The Moody Blues (1981)

Fun fact: I once played in a backup orchestra for one of their live shows. Keen. This song seems like a far stretch from the earlier prog-rock staples but is well crafted to get the band through the 80s with some synth-heavy, smooth pop goodness. "Won't you take me back to school. I need to learn the golden rule". Deep

"Another Day" by James Taylor (1998)

A version of this from Taylor's 1998 "Live at the Beacon" concert film. Taylor is always great and this has to be one of the best sounding pop live recordings I've heard. 

"White Winter Hymnal" by Fleet Foxes (2008)

This band has a very unique sound and is a fit for exercising the dog while freezing one's ass off. The album it's from also made Rolling Stone's list of "40 greatest stoner albums". Heh.

"Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder (1983)

A classic 80s (one) hit with some odd lyrical choices. And why does he roll his "R" on "running so fast"?

"Glass Onion" by The Beatles (1968/2006)

From the 2006 soundtrack album of the "Love" Cirque Vegas show. This is one of the better, if brief, mashups. The whole thing is surprisingly well done.

Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 5)

 "Moritat (Mack The Knife)" by Lyle Lovett (1994)

From the 1994 very good Robert Redford-directed movie, "Quiz Show" about olde time TV, comes this version of the classic song performed by LL that plays over the end credits. In isolation, the arrangement is pretty over baked but as a movie closer, it's good. The song itself, which I play pretty regularly on jazz gigs, more often then not reminds me of this odd late 1980s McDonald's ad campaign that used the song and this piano player character whose head is a crescent moon (a "tribute" to Bobby Darin I assume). All in the service of promoting $.99 Big Macs. Sometime in the 1990s, I remember seeing a vestige of this short-lived campaign at a McDonald's restaurant here in Minnesota that had a plastic table shaped like a piano with the moon-guy sitting at it. People who didn't know what it was must have found it a head-scratcher.

"Rollin'" by Randy Newman (2016)

I really have enjoyed Newman's recent re-recordings of his old songs with just him at the piano. I wasn't really familiar with this one but check out this lyric:

Let me tell you what I do

I sit here in this chair

I pour myself some whiskey

And watch my troubles vanish into the air

"Come A Long Way" by Loudon Wainwright III (1973)

Classic somewhat acidic LW breakup song. 

"Modern Love" by David Bowie (1983)

Quite possibly one of the best opening tracks on a pop album and has to be one of the best opening tracks to also feature a Bari sax.

"Ballad of a Well-Known Gun" by Elton John (1971)

Another album opener which, if I'm honest, is a bit of a let-down after the Bowie track. It's still worth lingering on, though.

"High Fidelity" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1980)

The app knows which great EC songs to roll, that's for sure. 

 "O Tannenbaum" by The Vince Guaraldi Trio (1965)

Oh what the heck. The very good bass solo on this tune is not on the TV special, There's something Charlie Brown-ish about that.

"Always On The Run" by Lenny Kravitz (1991)

Typical great Kravitz neo-60s R&B groove.

"Teenage Jail" by The Eagles (1979)

I suppose I would have stopped on any Eagles song that I haven't recently heard at a doctor's office. This, while not as bad as "The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks", I suppose, is pretty weak sauce.

Songs I Didn't Skip (part 4)

 "Birds Fly (Whisper to a Scream)" by The Icicle Works (1983)

If I'd heard this semi obscure New Wave song before, I completely forgot about it. Decent. Let up a little bit on the floor toms, will ye?

"Alone in the Dark" by John Hiatt (1987)

Is random mode *really* random? This one coming up relatively soon after the Bonnie Raitt song I mentioned earlier makes me wonder. 

"Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down" by Band of Joy (2010).

Random you say? A good version of this traditional song cover by Robert Plant with some good and understated instrumental playing. 

"April In Paris" by Frank Sinatra (1951)

I'm much more used to Sinatra's later recordings so this was pretty fresh. It doesn't touch the Basie version but this was nice.

"That Lucky Old Sun" by Johnny Cash (2000)

 It's been a while since I've heard one of the tracks from Cash's "American" series of late albums with Rick Rubin. It's hard to skip a Cash.

"Indian Giver" by The Ramones (1983)

I have to admit that I lingered on this one due to the title. Yeah. Strangely, this is a cover of a song written in 1910.

Dad's Movies: Sea of Sand

 Today we have Sea of Sand (1958). 

There's this sub-genre of British post-WW2 movies that you could label, "how we won the war" where people get to see how the war was fought, usually in noble terms. This one fits pretty well into that category. 

A young Richard Attenborough stands out with a solid cast of army types although the characterizations tend to be a bit thin, other than mentions of families back home which usually means something bad is going to happen to the character. I did appreciate how the story, while important in a strategic sense in the North Africa campaign, isn't placed into this context of, "OMG, the Nazis are going to WIN unless this brave troop finishes its mission!". It's nicely dialed back and seems more realistic. 

The musical score is a bit over the top, for the low key dramatic scenes that populate the show. 

So yeah, not too bad at all. 

Songs I Didn't Skip (part 3)

Part 1 is here

Part 2 is here

"Love Is The Drug" by Grace Jones (1985)

A decent cover that while not replacing the classic Roxy Music version (such solid bass lines in that song), is good in its own right. I was not aware that this version is a remix of her 1980 recording that sounds more disco-like. This version brings the feel squarely into the 80s with more synths with a proto-EDM feel. It's too long but that's a nitpick. 

"A Common Disaster" by Cowboy Junkies (1996)

What a great name for a song. A pretty typical 90s indie sound and even catchy to boot.

"The Working Hour" by Tears for Fears (1985)

I back when I'd listen to this 80s classic on a cassette, this was mainly remembered as the song that came before "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" on the album's sequencing. The reverb-soaked sax gets a bit much but this is pretty much prime "Tears" material, love it or hate it.

"Our Town" by Marshall Crenshaw (1983)

From the 80s classic, "Field Trip" album, this often sounds like Buddy Holly transplanted into the 1980s. 

"Send One Your Love" by Stevie Wonder (1979)

This may not be top-drawer Stevie but it's still good. Confession:  I really dislike almost all harmonica playing in pop songs. Stevie Wonder gets a pass but still...

"Who's Crying Now" by Journey (1981)

This song just screams, "late night FM radio" doesn't it? 

"Pump It Up" by Elvis Costello and the Attractions (1979)

 One of the best classic EC songs and a fantastic rock bass line.

"Big Bird" by Eddie Floyd (1967)

I always dig the sound of that 60s Stax rhythm section. Fun song. 

 

Songs I Didn't Skip (Part 2)

 Previously on "Songs I Didn't Skip"

"Thing Called Love" by Bonnie Raitt (1989)

One of those somewhat rare covers that manages to outdo the original, this version has a swing to it that the song benefits from. The John Hiatt version is no slouch, though it isn't my favorite from that album. 

"The Great Valerio" by Richard and Linda Thompson (1974)

Another song that falls last on an album. I'll get concerned if "Her Majesty" from Abbey Road shows up soon. This song really doesn't sound like something from 1974, perhaps due to its sparse instrumentation, but no matter. This song always pulls me in with is crystal clear bleakness. 

"Magic Moments" by Perry Como (1958)

Perry Como?! I would never have guessed that this was written by Burt Bacharach. Maybe that bassoon line was throwing me off. 

"Animals" by Talking Heads (1979)

It would have been funny if this had popped up back to back after the Perry Como song but alas, it didn't. I love the chord progressions and rhythm on this song and David Byrne does just enough unhinged vocal delivery. Lyrics like, 

"I know the animals...are laughing at us

They don't even know...what a joke is

"Subdivisions" by Rush (1982)

This one, which may not be considered one of their critical favorites, usually gets played when I happen upon it. It has all of the aspects I like from this band but doesn't wear out its welcome. And you have to dig those 80s synths!

"Love Won't Work" by Gene (1999)

I stopped on this one more out of curiosity. I think it came from some random CD sampler I borrowed long ago, lost in the mists of physical media time. The song is, well, fine, I guess but it is way too close for comfort to sounding like a Smiths tribute band.

"Kiss of Life" by Peter Gabriel (1982)

Another end-of-album track. This is probably the least discussed song on the "Security" album and it doesn't try too hard, thematically which makes it a great dog-walking listen. Also great:  the drum/percussion grooves by Jerry Marotta. 

"Love is Blindness" by Jack White (2011)

As a U2 non-fan, I'd probably choose this song as my favorite if asked. This version is great for the first half or so but gets a little too bombastic (duh). Lots of sledgehammer drums sound. I'd probably skip this one if it came up again soon as my favorite version of this is by Cassandra Wilson. 

"Driver's Seat" by Sniff 'n' The Tears (1978)

I'll end this entry with another one-hitter. A catchy song can make do with low-rent lyrics if the tune is like this one. I mean, what is this song even about? Who cares: it sounds great on the radio. 

    

Songs I Didn't Skip

***I have dumped this into a Spotify playlist so if you're inclined, you can listen there in order. However there are a few tracks that are not on the service. *** Spotify Link

I've had more time lately to listen to music as I am walking/exercising my dog. My usual practice is to play the bulk of my music library on shuffle mode and skip the songs I don't want to hear. Yes, I am aware of this amazing invention known as the Playlist, but I am kind of lazy and this way allows me to catch songs I might not have actively chosen to include. 

On one of our more recent subzero nights out in the backyard, I started to wonder what made me stop on a particular song? Since I never tire of blathering on about my movie/TV/music preferences, I thought it would be fun to write some notes, song by song. 

This first entry will be longer but if I don't hate the entire exercise, I'll update the list. I've been more in a frame of mind to stop on songs that are not necessarily "classics" but have something that catches my attention. The random songs are coming from my iTunes library set to exclude Classical, Soundtrack, and Jazz genres. This is ca. 11,000 tracks. At the times I am listening, I don't want to have to concentrate on anything beyond the various forms of pop music. AND, since I am an old person who rarely listens to anything very new, a lot of this stuff is going to seem pretty stale. It seems all too appropriate to write about this on an old time blog.  Here We Go.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest (1972)

I started this out with a one-hit wonder and this is one of the greats. Sure, the lyrics aren't exactly Dylan but it's a fun, catchy little tune with great/silly lines like, "Everybody here is out of sight / They don't bark and they don't bite". I also love the electric piano line that plays over the start of the track. 

"Walk The Dinosaur" by Was (Not Was) (1989)

I'm on a roll with the goofy songs and this one really fits. However, there's a great groove behind the silly lyrics. I also once heard this tune done live with at least one of the track's original singers, Sweet Pea Atkinson and Lyle Lovett's backing band at a Lovett show. I'd love to hear a recording of that version as it just killed (Lee Sklar on bass!). 

"She's Hot To Go" by Lyle Lovett (1987)

By random luck, this one soon came up in rotation soon after. This is probably one of the lesser tracks from Lovett's fantastic album, "Pontiac" but beyond the impeccable musicianship that permeates Lovett's recordings, the humor often stands out. Example:  

She looked so fine to me

But when I stepped around her man

My eyes could plainly see

She was ugly from the front

She was ugly from the front

She was ugly from the front

And I said ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly

Well I could handle it behind her

And I like it on the side

But don't make me look around her man 'cause she's

Ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly-ugly

She was ugly from the front

She was ugly from the front

She was ugly from the front

(the song stops and this is spoken)

And I said this girl was so ugly

(and one of the backup singers says)

Well you're ugly too.

"Everything I Own" by Bread (1972)

If this band was an actual type of bread, what would it be? Not Wonder Bread but perhaps "Soft Honey Wheat". This is a really good, if sad, song which was written about the loss of a parent. It's great and wears its 1972 sound on its sleeve. 

"Silver Rider" by Band of Joy (2010)

Whoa, I stopped on a track less than 20 years old! This Robert Plant project is actually a great listen and I really like how this track just smolders.