Dirty Glen Campbell

I don't know what "dirty Glen Campbell" means, but I woke up saying those words yesterday.

(One of) you asked for it. Here's today's Friday 10.

01 The Engine Driver - The Decemberists: Wow. I don't like this. Can't stand the foppish, unmanly voice of that singer -- the guy who wrote that terrible 331/3 book "about" the Replacements Let It Be. I nearly tore both hamstrings and a groin muscle racing to the computer to delete the song from iTunes.

02 Ask What You Will - Irma Thomas: I came waaaay late to the Irma Thomas party. Sure, the Detroit Cobras excellent cover of the excellent Thomas song "Hittin' On Nothing," was my way in. And then, I just grabbed up whatever Irma Thomas stuff I could, from all stages of her career. This is on Walk Around Heaven, a late-career album on which she got back to her gospel roots.
But Who Listens Dept.: When the network I worked for was putting together its star-drenched Katrina telethon last fall, I shouted loud and often that Irma Thomas had to be included. I even brought in emails that she'd written to the people who maintain her website, in which she told them (after more than a week incommunicado) that she was fine and had made her way to a family member's house. (Lest anyone think that this New Orleans legend wasn't literally a survivor of the flooding.) Ah, well... I got a few nods from those in the know, but no one reached out to Irma but me.

03 Heart of Glass - Me First and the Gimme Gimmes: Yup, the Blondie song. It's from a disk called Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah, which is probably all you need to know as far as the concept. Whether this is a real or staged B.M. is irrelevant. Sticking Point pal Tim turned me on to this last year. It's funny stuff. Sort of a more lighthearted (and much less malicious) The Shit Hits The Fans. Tim's a big fan of oddball covers, so of course he'd share it with me. I think I remember seeing a DVD of the Ruin Jonny's Bar Mitzvah show in Virgin once. I might also be imagining that.

04 Black Diamond Express Train To Hell, Pt. 1 - Reverend A.W. Nix: Fire and brimstone sermon from Nix. Parts one and two of this are on a complete recorded works comp on (of course) Document Records. It was originally recorded in the late '20s, I think. I don't have a lot of background info on Nix, but I dig hearing these sermons out of context. Good stuff, it's worth lending an ear. The photo up top there is from a 78 rpm record recently up for auction on the 'bay. Someone won it for $7.99.

05 Sick in Santorini - DaDa: This came to me courtesy of MicKen, who gave it to me on a disk he burned in May 2003 entitled, "Songs I Wish I Wrote." Santorini is a volcanic Greek island. I don't know anything about DaDa, but this is a cool song. Verse 2: "I guess the word just got around / The new wave bitch from hell ain't got no lover / She's come back from the island for another / Spilling drachma in her vodka all night long." Just looked the band up. They are one of those groups with a name that is either so generic or has so many meanings that they've got to qualify their URL: dadatheband.com. Just like X. (The band.) This track is on El Subliminoso.

06 Changes - Sugar: What an easy band to love, Sugar was. This is from their first release, the mighty I-can-listen-to-it-any-day-of-the-week (and-thrice-on-Sunday) Copper Blue. Bob Mould is godhead, and is responsible for more great music than is healthy.
Geek Alert Dept.: I still have a dollar bill Mould signed when I saw him at 7 Willow in Portchester, NY, on a solo tour. It was April 5, 1995. The dollar bill was all I had that could be written on, and when I handed it to him he said, "Jeez, I feel like a stripper."
Even Geekier: Here's a setlist from that show: Wishing Well, Hear Me Calling, Hoover Dam, After All The Roads Have Led To Nowhere, Your Favorite Thing, Can't Help You Any More, Needle Hits E, Can't Fight It, Explode And Make Up, Hardly Getting Over It, Poison Years, Sinners And Their Repentances, Brasilia Crossed With Trenton, No Reservations, Chartered Trips, I Apologize, In A Free Land, Man On The Moon, Slick, Makes No Sense At All.

07 It's Too Late - New York Dolls: This week, Mrs. Sticking Point treated herself to a brand honking new iPod. And just like that, her mp3 storage capacity has tripled. I gathered up a bunch of CDs and told her, "If you want to remain my wife, you'll put these on your new iPod." The first Dolls disk was in the pack. It's got a lot of great tracks, but "It's Too Late" is one I often call my favorite.

08 Shelter From The Storm - Bob Dylan: I know. Since none of us can think of many records greater than Blood on the Tracks, you don't need me harping about it here.

09 Blue Spark (L) - X: This is from one of the Live From The Masque disks that were recorded at the Masque benefits in February 1978, this one subtitled "We We Can Can Do Do What What We We Want Want." I think it's volume 2. It also features live sets from F-Word, the Alleycats, and the Zeros. F-Word (with Rik L Rik) does a cover of "Hillside Strangler," and the Zeros from La Jolla live up to their "Mexican Ramones" nickname, but the X stuff is what you're getting on line for. They aren't tight, they're actually a little ragged, but their set shows them to be a band with all the parts and great songs, in need of just a little more spit and polish. (It DJ Bonebrake's first gig with the band.)

10 If You Want To Sing Out, Sing Out - Cat Stevens. From the soundtrack of one of the funniest movies ever made, Harold and Maude. I've seen it so many times, and it might be about time to watch it again; it's near perfect. Cat has made so many great songs. He's just one of those guys: you think you like him, and then you look at the tracklist for a greatest hits or a box set and you think, shit, I might love him. But we all remember when he got on board with the fatwa issued against Salmon Rushdie. I'm sure each of us wanted to snap ol' Yusef Stevens's spine with a good kick, right? Jihad up on this, asshat. Eh, well. Good music is good music, there's no accounting for insanity. (It's what makes James Brown so damn hard to root for.)

* * * * * *

Go ahead, try it yourself: Put your mp3 player or digital jukebox on "shuffle all songs," and let us know what are the first ten random tracks out.

[posted with ecto]

On iTunes right now: Deny Everything from the album Group Sex by Circle Jerks

Comments

[Nick]

1. Mr. Churchill Says- The Kinks.
2. Baby Britain-Elliot Smith- Keeping up with the British theme
3. Orange Blossom Special- Johnny Cash-Never heard of this guy.
4. I Would Hurt a Fly- Built to Spill
5. Another Love Song- Queens of The Stone Age.
6. Know Your Rights- Pearl Jam
7. Evergreen- Fiery Furnaces
8. Think of Me-Madonna
9. Fire in Cairo- The Cure
10. Old College Try- The Mountain Goats

I get your point about the Decemberists lead singer, still, I do like a few of their songs a lot.You have to be in a certain PhD student mind-set though, and maybe that means the music ultimately sucks.

[walein]

PYT--Michael Jackson (Thriller)
When Michael was great and I was just the right age to get a date with him (if only I'd known!)

"Quinn The Eskimo"--Bob Dylan (not sure)
This is some kind of live performance and I do not know when or where. I'm not the Dylan head some of my close friends are. This song is a fun one.

"Ruby, My Dear"--Thelonious Monk (Monk's Music)
I played piano for many years and Monk is one of the only Jazz folks I always enjoy listening to.

"Girl from the north country"--Bob Dylan w/ Johnny Cash
This is one of those tunes Dylan sings with the crazy Dylan the Frog voice. Then Johnny Cash sings with the real Cash the Frog voice.

"West Side Baby"--T-Bone Walker (Devil in A Blue Dress soundtrack)

"Working Class Hero"--John Lennon (Anthology)
It's something to be...I guess...it's probably better to own an entire floor in the Dakota.

"Maggie Mae"--John Lennon (Anthology)
Entirely accoustic, recorded on what sounds like a four track...in the bathroom...but a very nice bathroom.

"I'll Get By (As long as I have you)"--Billie Holiday

"I Get Ideas"--Louis Armstrong (All-Time Greatest Hits)
Nice long intro, Louis Armstrong singing, then a horn solo.

"Ferdinando"--Buddy De Franco (Mr. Clarinet)
Girlfriend used to play the clarinet...so she had this album and now it's on my IPod. Haven't found the song I really get yet. Guy can play the clarinet though, that's for sure.

[Brian]

Love "Harold & Maude." Did you watch the HBO doc about Hollywood blockbusters and bombs? George Clooney raves about that movie, then says if they made it today, they'd probably cast him as Harold and put Julia Roberts in old-woman make-up to play Maude. Kinda creepy to think about.
Anyway...
1) "Another One Bites the Dust" - Queen
2) "Highway Chile" - Jimi Hendrix
3) "First Wave Intact" - Secret Machines
4) "Sea Diver" - Mott the Hoople"
5) "Up On Cripple Creek" (alt. take) - The Band
6) "The Freest Man" - Tilly & the Wall
7) "Memories" - Public Image, Ltd.
8) "I Do Not Want This" - Nine Inch Nails
9) "Stir It Up" - Patti LaBelle
10) "Cabin Essense" - Brian Wilson

[Tommy Himself]

Nickels: I can see the appeal of PhD music. I can also see the appeal of jumping onstage at a Decemberists show and beating that lead singer to death with Lemmy's gym bag.

Walein: Monk's Music -- great album. But the album cover -- bad-ass or just bad?

Brian: Which version of "Highway Chile" was that, from which album? I like the mono mix from the Singles Collection. The shuffle at the beginning sounds different and it's got a slightly longer fade at the end. I once saw a band called the Lucky Devils play it live. They also played "Paint It Black," I think. Not too bad, actually, in a Rocket From The Crypt meets the Dino Martinis kind of way.

[Brian]

I'm really not a big Hendrix fan (does that ban me from this site?)... I mean like him alright, but just that much... so the only CD I have from him is a greatest hits called "The Ultimate Experience" that I bought used. According to the liner notes, it's the version from "War Heroes"... I assume that means it's the original "Wind Cries Mary" b-side.

[walein]

I think Thelonious Monk is always free of most critiques because he was crazy. The handscripted writing on the album is brilliant, the photo concept not so much.
I don't know what was happening during the late fifties in album art to know if the cover was avant-guard or standard Jazz/blues art...or bat shit crazy!

[Tommy Himself]

Walein: I've always loved the Pete Turner stuff for the Impulse! label. (But I guess that was the 60s.) The artwork and photos are so impeccable that there are books devoted to their tribute. Plus many great websites. Here's a start: http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/history.aspx?lid=2
Who knows what was going on at Riverside in the 50s. All I know is that is one strange Monk photo.

Bri: Yeah, that's the b-side, the one I like. I don't know if yours is the mono mix, though.