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Songs About Girls
Anyway, I’d rather not give away the entire tracklist just in case you’re one of the lucky folks who will receive this gift, but I will say that it moves quite nicely from Herman’s Hermits to Roy Orbison to Mitch Ryder to The Strangeloves. There’s plenty of songs you’ll already know that made the cut, plus a few surprises. Here’s a sneak peak…
The Kinks — “Susannah’s Still Alive”
I have quite the fondness for the Davies brothers. Is it possible that The Kinks are underrated? I think so.
Dr. West’s Medicine Show & Junk Band — “Nora”
This was the starting point for Norman Greenbaum (of “Spirit in the Sky” fame). On the whole, their lone 1967 album is as wacky as its title, The Eggplant That Ate Chicago, might suggest. It’s a lovely affair if you’re into kazoos, jugs, and Zappa.
Regular readers of my blog from my hometown of Champaign, Illinois, should rush out to purchase Dean Carter’s anthology, Call of the Wild. For one, it’s a helluva unsung rock and roll record that compiles his work from the ’60s. (Carter was known for being a rockabilly reject who could play a mean dobro solo.) But more importantly to the local aspect, he was based in Champaign. “Mary Sue” is his homage to The Sonics, I assume.
15 References
See my kite; it's fun!
Today I was picking up a wig for my Halloween costume and I couldn’t get The Free Design’s “Kites Are Fun” out of my head. I think it was due to the fact that I was standing in a costume store, which made me feel like a kid again. And The Free Design have the same affect on me, even if their lyrics are a little oddball. To note:
All that’s between us is a little yellow string
But we like each other more than anything
And we run along together through the field behind my house
And the little drops of rain caress our face and wash my blouse
And we’d like to be a zillion miles away from everyone
Cause Mom and Dad and Uncle Bill don’t realize
Kites are fun!
As I said, not your typical take on flying a kite, even for these Greenwich Village sibling hippies. The Free Design is not for everyone, and even the people who dig them can probably admit with ease that you have to be in the right mood to enjoy a song like “Kije’s Ouija”. Anyway, if the mood strikes you…
The Free Design - “Kites Are Fun”
The Free Design - “Kije’s Ouija”
Jukebox temporarily out of order
I’m taking some time off. For those interested parties, you can waste a few minutes over here.
Dan Bejar Lovefest
Sorry dear blog for neglecting you. I’ve been busy as of late with my mistress, the latest recording from frizzy-haired Vancouver singer-songwriter Dan Bejar, who goes by the stage name Destroyer and moonlights on New Pornographers’ recordings in his spare time. I love me some Dan Bejar. I love his silly impassioned voice; his furry beard; his ridiculous, counterintuitive band name; his dramatic, over-the-top songwriting; his unique way with melody (and countermelody); his oddball, poetic lyrics that seem plainly personal and relative to Bejar, but yet otherworldly to most others; and the effortless nature with which he composes his tiny pop ‘n’ roll symphonies. A good Destroyer song — and there are plenty to choose from — do not sound like anyone else’s creation. They are simply songs of Destroyer. And Destroyer’s Rubies, which came out last month on Merge Records, is his strongest effort to date. Buy it now and it will add wonderful, fresh character to the stale set of tunes crammed into your plastic portable music device.
Waking Up to March
It dawned on me yesterday that March is one of my favorite months of the year, and not simply because it brings with it "March Madness". In the third month, the sickly grip of winter begins to loosen as cool showers give way to warmer skies and the occasional tornado siren. Earth wakes up, and in doing so provokes in me a few sporadic bursts of silly optimism, the kind that is brought on most easily by sunshine. I love me some late-winter/early-spring sunshine — the kind that warms your automobile’s inside, so that even though it’s only 46 degrees outside, it’s warm enough inside the car that you feel like cracking the window.
Today was such a day. And driving at lunchtime, I couldn’t get the string melody from Big Star’s "Stroke It Noel" outta my head. So after lunch I doodled on the internet — my phrase for surfing aimlessly — for a half-hour and listened to Sister Lovers, an awkward album to be sure, but one that I’ve always had a strange attraction to. Maybe it’s the inherent sense of awakening that radiates throughout these tunes — some of the best Alex Chilton ever penned — that leaves me dumbfounded even on the umpteenth listen. Anyway, upon listening, I was especially taken by "Kangaroo", which struck me as a worthy parallel to the month of March. Listen for yourself.
Interesting side note about "Stroke It Noel" that I absolutely love for the adolescent nature of the story, from the liner notes to the album:
"Stroke It Noel" was actually given a new set of lyrics, due to the atmosphere created by the string sessions. "It originally had a whole different set of lyrics. After we put the violins on, Alex [Chilton] came up with new lyrics, which were far superior," said [producer Jim] Dickinson."‘Noel’ is Noel Gilbert, one of the string players. … Alex was really enjoying the string sessions, when we finally got around to doing them, because he was just being the naughty little boy, and really getting off on it. That’s where the lyrics came from."
Going for Baroque
I’m always surprised by the number of ’60s music fans who haven’t heard any of The Left Banke’s catalog — other than hits "Walk Away Renee" and "Pretty Ballerina". I suppose that’s in part because the NYC pop group’s records are pricey collectibles, and the one compilation CD that compiles their complete recordings — 1992’s There’s Gonna Be a Storm — is pricey and hard to come by. It’s a shame, as their 1967 debut album is spectacularly precious and absolutely essential. To quote obscure rock’s leading historian Richie Unterberger (via Allmusic.com):
The Left Banke’s debut was a terrific if largely unrecognized effort of classy baroque pop, featuring entirely original material. The two hit title tracks ["Pretty Ballerina" and "Walk Away Renee"] were standouts, but nearly every other cut was in the same league, the glowing arrangements intertwining with their beautiful harmonies, at times rocking fairly hard.
Here’s a couple break-up tunes to get you motivated to hunt down the compilation. The first will sound familiar to Jens Lekman fans, as he lifted the harpsichord lick in his own "Black Cab". The second is a personal fave of mine, featuring a rumbling, country-and-western guitar hook that pops up on the verses.
You Feel Like Someone I Know
You’ve heard it roll off the lips of some bedroom indie pop sensation a thousand times: "Pet Sounds TOTALLY changed my life." But rarely does the music that’s a byproduct of such obsession strike you dumb. Not so with Margo Guryan, who says that the song "God Only Knows" encouraged her to expand her musical vocabulary and become a more assertive composer. The end result is the stunning Take a Picture, her 1968 debut. But Margo, a NYC kid schooled at Boston U, never struck it big in terms of record sales. Still, Take a Picture did make a significant impact on her peers, as well as a few critics. Her brilliant song "Think of Rain" ("If you should think of leaving me, think of rain …") has been covered by Astrud Gilberto and Harry Nilsson (among others), while other songs off her debut were given to artists as diverse as Julie London and Mama Cass.
But I don’t want to share her more familiar tunes with you today. I’d rather you dig on "Love Songs", which reminds me of Vashti Bunyan if she were interested in the delicate pop songs of Francoise Hardy. Vashti is actually a fairly good leaping off point for Margo, since the two both released stellar debuts and then faded from the public eye for some time until their work was discovered by a new generation in the ’90s. Unlike Vashti, however, Margo remained interested in music throughout her life and served as a classical piano teacher as she aged.
For a second selection, I wanted to go with the strange, psychedelic nugget "Love", which closed her debut album and truly stood apart from the rest of her songs. But, I think I’ll leave that one for your own personal discovery once you listen to these two songs, fall madly in love with her, and purchase the record for yourself. (And keep in mind that these aren’t even her "hits".)
Margo Guryan - "Someone I Know" (Yes, that is Johann Sebastian Bach!)
