Discography Archives - Dave Wallace

OK, I'm going to break not one but two confidences, and I do so unrepentantly.  Last week I was walking my wretched hound in the park and took the opportunity to call Dave Kelley (most of our conversations are about dogs or structured around the needs of dogs).  Naturally we began to discuss the start up of the Discography and, much like any pre-fantasy football/baseball draft, we spilled on our top secret strategies.  I told him that my only concern about starting up the second year so quickly after the first one was that I didn't want it to become an onerous chore.  Citing an example, I told him that Dave Wallace and I had just swapped an email and Dave had said that he didn't know if he had another fifty-two songs in him.  There was a pause, and then Dave and I started laughing (and not simply because we're old: why me laugh).  Dave Wallace is famous for having an encyclopedic knowledge of music. Gary Beatrice and Dave Kelley have both forgotten more about music than I will ever know, and yet they both speak in hushed tones when discussing Wallace's storehouse of musical knowledge (I wish I had a dollar for every time one of them said, "Yeah, I had never heard of  X [although X as in a mathematical formula and not the band, which, as you'll see below, Dave references] before Wallace turned me on him/her/them.")

Now, what I can tell you about Dave is this, besides possessing an ungodly huge amount of knowledge about music he is also a good soul and a great friend.

Week 1

Lucero, Here At the Starlite

I discovered Lucero about a decade ago, and they immediately became one of my favorite bands.  For my money, Ben Nichols, their leader, is one of the best songwriters going today.  (Interesting side note, his brother, Jeff Nichols, is an excellent movie director.)  Lucero has a ton of great songs, but this one is my favorite.  It's classic Nichols - brooding in a dive diner over the end of a relationship.  I love how the guitar work is such a great compliment to his mood.  And the ominous instrumental build to the end of the song is brilliant.

Week 2

The Monkees, Valleri

Huh?  First off, the Monkees are not a guilty pleasure.  They made a startling number of great songs (whether they actually played the instruments on them or not), and Micky Dolenz is one of the most under-rated singers ever.  Stepping Stone is another song of theirs that could easily make this list for me.  With that said, I adore Valleri.  The vaguely Middle-Eastern flavored guitar line, the surging horns, the killer chorus.  Legend has it that the guitar line was played by Frank Zappa, but the recent documentary, The Wrecking Crew, clarified that it was legendary session guitarist Tommy Tedesco.  (Great doc by the way.)

Week 3

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, This Time It's for Real

The first three Southside Johnny albums are under-appreciated classics.  While the third album, Hearts of Stone, is the best of the bunch, this title track from his second album is my favorite song.  From the kick-ass opening, the song barrels along, powered by the Jukes horns. The whole thing threatens to spiral out of control at the end, but manages to hold together until the fade-out.  Kudos to Steve Van Zandt for writing, producing, playing guitar, and singing back-up.  These albums set the template for his classic first album, Men Without Women.

Week 4

John Doe and Kathleen Edwards, The Golden State

Confession: I was never a big X fan.  But John Doe has had a terrific post-X career, largely working in the alt-country arena.  This is his peak.  Brilliantly juxtaposing cliches, Doe reflects on the dual nature of relationships. And kudos to Dave Kelley crush Kathleen Edwards for the fantastic co-lead vocals.

Week 5

Lush, Ladykillers

Lush was a female-led shoegaze band out of the UK when Brit-pop was big.  Hugely underrated here in the US, their music was melodic, ethereal, moody, epic, and powerful; they're one of my favorite band of the last 20 years.  (And their inevitable reunion has just taken place!)  So, of course, my favorite song by them sounds like nothing else that they've done.  A thundering feminist anthem, with a killer guitar riff, Miki Berenyi slams the vain, shallow guys who pursue women without understanding who they are or want they want.  "I'm as human as the next girl, I like a bit of flattery / But I don't need your practised lines, your school of charm mentality so / Save your breath for someone else and credit me with something more / When it comes to men like you, I know the score, I've heard it all before."  

Week 6

Warren Zevon, French Inhaler 

Warren Zevon's self-titled debut is essentially a perfect album.  A brutal look at the seedy underside of Los Angeles, there's not a bad song on the album, and a number of them are classics (Poor Poor Pitiful Me, Hasten Down the Wind, Mohammed's Radio, Carmelita, Desperados Under the Eaves).  Yet this song, one of the lesser-known cuts on the album, usually impacts me the most.  I always thought that it was about a relationship between the narrator and a prostitute but, according to Warren Zevon Wiki, Zevon actually wrote it as an angry kiss-off to an ex-girlfriend.  (I like my version better.)  Lonely, self-loathing, and wasted, both narrator and paramour are lost by the song's end.

You said you were an actress

Yes, I believe you are

I thought you'd be a star

So I drank up all the money,

Yes, I drank up all the money,

With these phonies in this Hollywood bar,

These friends of mine in this Hollywood bar

Loneliness and frustration

We both came down with an acute case

And when the lights came up at two

I caught a glimpse of you

And your face looked like something

Death brought with him in his suitcase

Your pretty face

It looked so wasted

Another pretty face

Devastated

Week 7

Prince, It's Gonna Be a Beautiful Night

Of all the music icon deaths this year, Prince's has hit me the hardest.  I've been listening to him every day since he died, and it's really deepening my appreciation for how amazing he was (which is something because I already thought he was a genius!)  The interesting thing is - I've never stopped listening to Prince.  Compared to a lot of artists that I use to love when I was younger who I never listen to now, I would go back to Prince every few months even before his death.  For the last month, I've been doing a really deep dive into Sign O' The Times and, mea culpa, I've totally underrated that album.  I always thought that it was terrific, but now I think that it's his second best album after Purple Rain (which is a Top Ten all-timer IMHO.)

This glorious live funk jam is probably my favorite thing on the album.  Of course, Prince was notorious for not allowing his songs on-line , but that's starting to get looser since he died.  So, even though the version that I've linked to is not the version on the album, it's still insane.  If you only watch one thing on-line today, you need to check it out.  In fact, go watch it right now.  I'll wait . . . . Amazing, right?!  Just pure, unadulterated fun.  It also shows off his skills as a bandleader (as well as a drummer!).  Great, great stuff.

Week 8

Joseph Arthur, I Miss The Zoo 

Sometimes you get obsessed with a song, and you're not even sure why.  I discovered Joseph Arthur a few years ago, picked up a bunch of his stuff, and feel that he's a borderline genius.  For some reason, I Miss the Zoo has always knocked me out.  His wistful look back at addiction, it's an odd topic for a song, but he really captures the insanity, and the appeal, of addiction.  Plus, "psychic pretzel flying kite" is going to be the name of my future band.  To increase the level of difficulty, Arthur frequently will paint a self-portrait on stage while performing the song.  Interesting stuff.

Week 9

[Editor's Note - thematic week: covers better than the original]

The Beatles, Twist and Shout

So, a cover that is superior to the original?  Lots of good possibilities.  The Dylan category alone has two classics - All Along the Watchtower by Jimi Hendrix and It's All Over Now, Baby Blue by Them (well, really Van Morrison).  The Prince category includes I Feel For You by Chaka Khan and Nothing Compares to You by Sinead O'Conner.  But I wound up going with the Beatles classic cover of the Isley Brothers' Twist and Shout (itself a re-write of their classic Shout).  Famously recorded at the end of a long session, John Lennon shouts himself hoarse as the band rips through the song.  They took a fairly standard R&B number and created one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time. I couldn't find the original studio version on-line, but the link is to a good live version.

Week 10

Tom Petty, American Girl

Counting Crows, American Girls

Doubling up this week!  Two different songs with almost the exact same titles, and I love both of them.  Petty's first great song (although it arguably shares that distinction withBreakdown, also off his first album), American Girl serves as a great introduction to the early Petty sound.  Chiming guitars, background vocals evoking the Byrds, sneaky bassline, and a great solo from the perpetually underrated Mike Campbell.  I had a huge crush on an "American girl" one summer when I was a teenager, and I essentially listened to this song non-stop,

So, a couple of decades later, the Counting Crows have the nerve to write a song with essentially the same title as this rock classic.  I should have been outraged, right?  And I would have been, except that American Girls is terrific.  I'm not a huge Counting Crows fan, but this song is awesome. Ultimately as unattainable as Petty's American Girl, the object of Adam Duritz's affection makes him feel great but gets away (maybe because he didn't treat her so well!). Fantastic backing vocals by Sheryl Crow.  And the repeated "Oh, oh, oh, oh" chant at the end is amazing.

Week 11

Smokey Robinson, Cruisin'

Smokey Robinson is one of popular music's greatest writers, and a heckuva performer to boot.  He's written so many amazing songs, and not just ones that he's recorded (for example, My Girl by the Temptations is his).  I love a bunch of his stuff with the Miracles, and I may return to one of those later.  But I have always found this solo number magical.  Gliding along, Robinson sings a romantic, sensual ode to his lover.  This was what Shelly and I danced to as "our song" at our wedding.

Week 12

Madonna, Express Yourself

Madonna's propulsive female empowerment anthem.  I know Madonna is divisive, but I think that she's made some fantastic music over the years.  Both of her greatest hits CDs are essential in my opinion, and this is my favorite thing that she's done.  Great music, great message!

Week 13

Steve Wynn, There Will Come a Day

Wynn's had a very interesting career going back to Dream Syndicate, and I'm always surprised that more people don't know about him.  He has a number of terrific albums, both as a solo artist and with various side projects.  This revenge fantasy is one of his best.  I'm a little embarrassed by how often I have related to the sentiments in this song but, hey!, it's cathartic. With a catchy chorus masking the ugliness of the underlying emotions, he unapologetically wishes pain and pestilence on "all who have done me wrong,"  Wynn allows us to wallow in a feeling that we've probably all shared at one time or another.  

Week 14

Dobie Gray, Drift Away

A great song about the healing power of music.  I think that Gray does the best job I've ever heard at capturing how I feel about music when it touches my soul: "And when my mind is free/You know a melody can move me/And when I'm feelin' blue/The guitar's comin' through to soothe me/Thanks for the joy that you've given me/I want you to know I believe in your song/And rhythm and rhyme and harmony/You've helped me along/Makin' me strong."

Week 15

Bif Naked, Twitch

Bif Naked is a Canadian singer-songwriter with punk rock roots, who made several very good albums in the late 1990s/early 2000s.  Her ode to bad boys (with a hint of her bi-sexuality tossed in), Twitch is a kick-ass rocker, and I love the quick nod to My Boyfriend's Back, which is a clear thematic influence.  After that reference, the song just barrels along to the end, steamrolling everything in its path.  A great driving song with an excellent guitar solo.

Week 16

Car Seat Headrest, Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales 

Is Car Seat Headrest the next great rock band?  Is that even a meaningful distinction anymore?  I don't know the answers to those questions, but I do know that I've been totally digging their new album, Teens of Denial.  This song is my favorite thing on the album, a a somber rumination on post-party melancholia.  I can't get the "It doesn't have to be like this/Killer Whales" chorus out of my head (although I'm not sure what killer whales have to do with the theme of the song), and his wordless vocalizing at the end of the song is awesome.

Week 17

[Editor's note - thematic week: guilty pleasures]

Lionel Ritchie, All Night Long

Personally, I reject the idea of guilty pleasures.  If I like a song, it's because I think that it's good and, therefore, I don't feel guilty about liking it.  Having said that, the closest thing to a guilty pleasure that I could find on the list that I'm working through is this tasty gem from Lionel Ritchie.  Ritchie spent most of the '80s making disposable MOR crap, and I was shocked when I heard that he'd made something as great as this song.  Ritchie sets forth his invitation to an all night party in the opening lines of the song:  "Well, my friends, the time has come/To raise the roof and have some fun/Throw away the work to be done/Let the music play on."  There are so many things that I love about this song:  the Caribbean rhythms underlying the song, the call and response in the chorus, the initial horn break, the African chant after "Come join our party/See how we play", the killer horn riff that follows "Feel Good/Feel Good!"  Pop music at its best.  It also may be the most 1980ish music video ever made; it belongs in a time capsule. 

Week 18

Richard and Linda Thompson, Wall of Death

Richard Thompson may be the most underrated rock artist ever.  A fantastic songwriter, a very good singer, and a world-class guitar player, he's made innumerable great songs and albums.  One of my favorite concert memories is Gary Beatrice, my Dad, and me seeing him with a crack band back in the 80s. This song by Thompson and his ex-wife is one of his best, in which he brilliantly uses a carnival ride as a metaphor for living life to its fullest.  

Week 19

Van Morrison, St. Dominic's Preview

Has anyone ever had a better run than Van Morrison in the late 60s/early 70s?  Astral Weeks, Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir, Tupelo Honey, and St. Dominic's Preview.  Wow!  Just one great album after another.  I'm not sure that the title track for that last album is his best song from that run, but it's my favorite.  And I'm not sure that I can even say why.  The lyrics are vague, but there's something about the searching, questing nature of the song that has always spoken to me.  I find the thought of gazing out on St. Dominic's Preview to be incredibly soothing.  Plus the song wears its gospel influences proudly, and I'm always a sucker for that.  

Week 20

The Kinks, I'm Not Like Everybody Else

I've been a Kinks fan for decades, but I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd somehow missed this song until about ten years ago.  My teenage self would have completely related to Ray Davies's ode to individuality, and the song still resonates with me.  Plus, it's a great example of early period Kinks, which is a fantastic, fascinating part of the British Invasion.

Week 21

Tommy James and the Shondells, Mony Mony

Party Time!!  One of the all-time great rock songs, with the catchy keyboard riff, the brilliant call-and-response, the delirious "Mony Mony" chant, and the fantastic break.  Then, just when you think it can't go any higher, the song finds another gear towards the end, with James yelling "Come ON!" repeatedly.  Irresistible!

Week 22

DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, Summertime

I have to get this one in before the official end of summer.  It's hard to remember that Will Smith got his start as a rapper, and I'm not sure that he was all that great as a rapper, but this one is special.  Incredibly evocative in reflecting the laid-back, mellow mood of summertime.  It also draws vivid pictures of different scenes that are part of summer:  "Sitting with your friends cause y'all reminisce/About the days growing up and the first person you kiss/And as I think back makes me wonder how/The smell from a grill could spark up nostalgia/All the kids playing out front/Little boys messin round with the girls playing double-dutch/While the DJ's spinning a tune as the old folks dance at your family reunion."  I obviously don't know what this exact experience is like, but this song makes me feel like I do.

Week 23

Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here

When Pink Floyd's leader and frontman, Syd Barrett, essentially lost his mind, the band re-grouped and pressed on without him.  In this situation, the natural reaction would be to put some distance between a band and its past charismatic leader.  Instead, the Floyd doubled down and made an entire album about Barrett.  Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall were more popular and are arguably better, but this may be my favorite Floyd album.  The title track is the highlight.  With its beautiful, subtle guitar line, the band's sense of loss pours forth.  "How I wish, how I wish you were here/ We're just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year/ Running over the same old ground/ What have we found?/ The same old fears/ Wish you were here."

Week 24

Stone Roses, I Am The Resurrection

Somehow, I missed the first Stone Roses album when it was initially released.  It was a huge hit in England but didn't make much of a splash in the U.S.  I picked it up several years later and fell in love with it.  Chock full of great songs, it's your classic one-hit wonder as the band was never able to replicate the success of this album.  I could have picked any one of several songs from the album, but "I Am The Resurrection" may be my favorite.  Really two different songs, the first part features a killer bassline that propels the song along until the fantastic chorus.  The arrogance of the title is belied by the song's lyrics which are an attempt to rise above the ashes of a doomed relationship.  The second half of the song is an extended rave-up that is awesome.  If you like this, check out the rest of the album.

Week 25

[Editor's note - thematic week: best use of a song in movie or TV series]

Explosions in the Sky - 1st Breath After Coma

Our theme week is an opportunity for me to feature Explosions in the Sky, who I've been thinking about choosing for a while.  A group from Texas, EITS plays dynamic, guitar-driven instrumentals.  I think they're amazing, and they've made several great albums.  They also did the soundtrack for the FridayNight Lights movie and contributed this song to the FNL TV show.  Their ability to evoke different moods is astonishing, and FNL (movie and show) made exceptional use of their music to explore and enhance different emotions. It's hard to imagine FNL without the soundtrack of EITS.

And I can't let this opportunity pass without a plug for FNL, the TV show, in case you haven't seen it.  Mistakenly viewed as a show about football, it really is about the passions, prejudices, trials, and triumphs of the residents of a small Texas town.  The first season is essentially perfect, and the remaining seasons are also excellent.  It was one of the best shows of this Golden Age of TV, which is very high praise indeed.  I cannot recommend it strongly enough.

Week 26

Jackson 5, Maybe Tomorrow

When I was growing up, I mistakenly considered the Jackson 5 to be a teeny-bopper band.  I could not have been more wrong.  Their initial group of singles was the last great explosion of music from Motown and one of the most incredible run of songs by any group.  I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save, I'll Be There, Dancing Machine, I Am Love, just to name a few.  Awesome stuff.  Although I'm generally not a ballad guy, I love this song.  It starts off as a fairly standard ballad, but takes off when it hits the chorus.  The harmonies are fantastic and the call-and-response is amazing.  The brothers keep pushing each other along, with Jermaine exhorting the others to "Sing it!  Sing it!"  Pop music doesn't get any better.

Week 27

Liz Phair, Polyester Bride

Liz Phair's lost female protagonist gets a reality check from the wisdom of her bartender.  (And then he said, "Do you want to be a Polyester Bride?/Or do you want to hang your head and die?/Do you want to find alligator cowboy boots they just put on sale?/Do you want to flap your wings and fly away from here? . . Because you've got time.")  For some reason, the conversation just feels real to me.  And the power chords at the end of the song bring it on home.

Week 28

The Ramones, I Wanna Be Sedated

Really, this could be any one of a couple of dozen different Ramones songs.  Their discography is incredibly deep and surprisingly underappreciated.  One of the most important groups in rock history.  I couldn't figure which Ramones song to pick, so I went with an obvious, but still awesome, choice.  It really isn't necessary to say anymore, so I'll keep this short and sweet, just like a Ramone song.

Week 29

The B-52s, Roam

A bit of a left-field choice for a B-52s song, but I've always loved "Roam."  Fitting with the original travel theme to this blog (which we've now co-opted into something else), Roam is a wonderful ode to cutting loose and travelling wherever the wind takes you.  Somehow, the song manages to capture that theme through the joy and freedom of the music.  The "Take it hip to hip rock it through the wilderness" coda at the end of the song is especially awesome.

Week 30

Hole, Petals

I think it's generally considered that Live Through This is Hole's best album (and it is great), but I've always preferred Celebrity Skin, and I frequently return to the album.  It's chockful of great songs - the title track, Malibu, and the killer closing quartet of Boys on the Radio, Heaven Tonight, Playing Your Song, and Petals.  I considered choosing all of these but decided to go with the last one.  I've always found Courtney Love's rumination on lost innocence to be especially powerful.

Week 31

Aimee Mann, It's Not Safe

As I attempt to come to grips with recent events in our country, the great Aimee Mann captures my feelings of nihilism and despair.  It would be hopelessly morose if the damn thing wasn't so catchy.

All you want to do is something good

So get ready to be ridiculed and misunderstood

'Cause don't you know that you're a fucking freak in this world

In which everybody's willing to choose swine over pearls

And maybe everything is all for nothing

Still you'd better keep it to yourself

'Cause God knows it's not safe with anybody else

Week 32

Willie Nile, Give Me Tomorrow

Willie Nile has had one of the greats second acts in the history of rock music.  He put out a few very good albums in the '80s and 90s, but label and legal difficulties kept him from making more.  As he neared 60 in the mid-2000s, Nile began releasing a series of terrific albums, starting with Streets of New York, that contain a slew of fantastic songs. This is one of my favorites of Nile's, and another song that's helping me process the aftermath of our recent election.  (Gary -Unfortunately, I couldn't find the original studio version online, so I've linked to a live version, which is OK.  I've also attached the audio file for the track, if there's a way to use that instead.)

I've seen poison in the waters, 

Heard the crying of the sea, 

I have heard your sons and daughters 

Say, "What's to become of me,"

I've seen hunger in the garden, 

I've seen empty eyes full of pain, 

Oh, but I have seen things change.

Give me tomorrow, now now now

Right now, right now

I've seen solid walls of fire,

I've seen smiles as cold as stone,

I've seen hatred and desire,

I've seen lonely hearts, all alone

I have heard the threat of thunder

I have felt the cold, cold rain

Oh, but I have seen things change.

Week 33

[Editor's note - thematic week: favorite holiday songs]

Darlene Love - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)

As Miranda previously alluded to, I love Christmas music (even though, like Kathy, I no longer identify myself as Christian).  And I have pretty strict rules about listening to it - no Christmas music before Thanksgiving, but then I listen to it exclusively between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So, for December, my posts will be solely about Christmas tunes.  My first choice is an obvious one but, IMHO, it's the greatest Christmas record of all-time off of the greatest Christmas album of all-time.  The Phil Spector Christmas Album is a classic, filled with terrific songs, and unsurpassed as a holiday album.  (Interestingly, the album tanked when it was first released on November 22, 1963; turns out that people weren't in the mood for buying Xmas music after that date.)  While the entire thing is fantastic, the sole original on the album proved to be its highlight.  One of the greatest singers in pop music history, Darlene Love nails the vocal, propelled along by Spector's Wall of Sound.  One in a long-line of melancholy Christmas songs, you can feel the pain in Love's voice as she begs for her lover to return home for Christmas.  When I started compiling a list of songs for this blog, this was one of the first songs on my list, and I've been waiting for months to write about it.

Love famously performed this song on the David Letterman show for years around the holidays.  Over time, the productions grew more elaborate (and more awesome!).  Here's a fantastic mash-up of a number of the performances; you can get a sense of how they evolved.

Week 34

Vince Guaraldi Trio, The Christmas Song

When I was in college, I bought two Christmas albums that I continue to listen to repeatedly and religiously (pun intended) every holiday season.  One was the Phil Spector album discussed in my previous post.  The other was Vince Guaraldi's brilliant soundtrack for the Charlie Brown Xmas special.   I love the entire thing, and I could have picked any number of songs off it, but I've always been partial to the version of The Christmas Song that closes the album.  A perfect, serene way to end the album.

Week 35

Fab Four, What Child is This?

Fab Four, Jingle Bells

One of the more bizarre, and ambitious, Christmas albums I've ever heard is by the Fab Four, a Beatles tribute band.  Showing a love for the Beatles and Christmas music, the Fab Four take traditional Christmas songs and adapt them to Beatles melodies.  I can see doing this for a song or two, but an entire album?  20 songs?!!  Crazy!  Yet, more often than not, it works.  It's also impressive how they pick styles from all parts of the Beatles career.  If you're an Amazon Prime member, the album is available for free streaming, and I encourage you to check it out.  It's really very clever and a fun listen, especially if you're a Beatles fan.  Two of my favorite things on the album are, not surprisingly, sung to the tune of two of my favorite Beatles song - What Child is This? sung to the tune of While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Jingle Bells sung to the tune of Tomorrow Never Knows.

Week 36

Jackson 5, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas 

I've expressed my love for early Jackson 5 previously on this blog, and that extends to their Christmas album, which is terrific (my daughters also are huge fans of it).  This is the highlight.  The first part plays out as a traditional version of the song, with impeccable harmonies by the Jackson brothers.  Then, with a minute left, the song transforms into an R&B rave-up, with them wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a "groovy New Year."

Week 37

Joe Jackson, I'm The Man

As we prepare for the inauguration of our new president, I will be devoting my song posts this month to cynicism, disillusionment, and apocalyptic doom, all of which match my current mood.  I start off with Joe Jackson's furious ode to modern-day snake-oil salesmen, which seems an appropriate description for Donald Trump.  

Right now

I think I'm gonna plan a new trend

Because the line on the graph's getting low

And we can't have that

And you think you're immune

But I can sell you anything

Of course, the song is insanely propulsive, with the band repeatedly threatening to spin out of control, but somehow holding it together until the end.  The baseline throughout is just tremendous.

Week 38

Graham Parker, Don't Ask Me Questions

The month of Trump continues with Graham Parker's screed against organized religion.  I find it shocking that conservative evangelicals were so willing to line up behind the most amoral candidate of my lifetime, and it manifested many of my issues with organized religion.  Parker has his own issues with religion, and he's brutal in his take down:

Well I stand up for liberty but can't liberate

Pent up agony I see you take first place

Well who does this treachery I shout with bleeding hand

Is it you or is it me well I never will understand

Hey Lord?  "Don't ask me questions!"

Of special note is the brilliant guitar work by Brinsley Schwartz, a highly underrated guitarist.

Week 39

Sloan, Ill Placed Trust

Sloan is a terrific Canadian band, who've made a series of great albums.  One of my favorite Sloan songs, Ill Placed Trust seems an appropriate warning for the minority of the American electorate that voted for Trump.  The chunky guitar riff, catchy chorus, and awesome backing vocals belie the bitterness of the lyrics.  While it's probably about the end of a relationship, it feels appropriate for our current political climate:

Can you feel it, all around you

The paranoia that's been brought on by the sad truth

Ill placed trust, promises rust.

Week 40

Warren Zevon, Desperados Under the Eaves 

The month of Trump continues with a return to Warren Zevon's self-titled debut album.  Desperadoes Under the Eaves provides a view of the end-of-the-world through the eyes of a burned out LA alcoholic.  I love the imagery Zevon uses, with a sense of impending doom underlying the whole thing:

Don't the sun look angry through the trees

Don't the trees look like crucified thieves

Don't you feel like Desperados under the eaves

Heaven help the one who leaves

Week 41

[Editor's note - thematic week: best guitar solo and/or best guitar song]

Richard Thompson, Can't Win

In what I'm sure will come as a relief to all of you, I'm taking a break from my Month of Trump theme to weigh in on this week's theme.  I can't swear that this is the best guitar solo ever, but it's a heck of a good one.  Richard Thompson is one of my favorite artists and an incredible triple-threat - amazing songwriter, terrific singer, incredible guitar player.  This live version of Can't Win shows off his guitar heroics at some of their best.  About 30 years ago, Gary Beatrice, my Dad, and I went and saw Thompson with his first solo band, following his break-up with his wife, Linda Thompson.  All of us walked out with our minds blown.  This version of Can't Win gives you a little taste of what we saw that night.

Week 42

The Who, Won't Get Fooled Again

As the conclusion for the month of Trump, Pete Townshend perfectly captures his disillusionment at the end of the 1960's with this bitter attack on fake and phony leaders.  Unfortunately, as the Trump election demonstrates, we still haven't learned the lessons that Townshend was trying to teach us.  

Amazingly, Townshend wasn't even 30 when he wrote this song and, over the years, I'm continually astonished at the timeliness and insight contained in Won't Get Fooled Again.  And, of course, the band was firing on all cylinders when they recorded it.  Peak Who.

Week 43

Bruce Springsteen - Death to my Hometown

I'm not quite willing to let my Month of Trump theme go quite yet, so I'm devoting the rest of February to songs from my musical moral compass, Bruce Springsteen.  First off is his angry screed against immoral bankers and financial managers, Death to My Hometown.  Some of his toughest lyrics ever:  

Listen up, my sonny boy, be ready for when they come

For they'll be returning sure as the rising sun

Now get yourself a song to sing and sing it 'til you're done

Yeah, sing it hard and sing it well

Send the robber barons straight to hell

The greedy thieves who came around

And ate the flesh of everything they found

Whose crimes have gone unpunished now

Who walk the streets as free men now

They brought death to our hometown

Week 44

Bruce Springsteen - The Ghost of Tom Joad

Originally the title track of a largely acoustic album, Springsteen revived The Ghost of Tom Joad with an incendiary live version featuring Tom Morello on guitar and guest vocals.  They then recorded a studio version for the High Hopes album.  Their version only amped up the the original's anger and rage at our country's amnesia of the neglected and abused.  And, of course, quoting Tom Joad's famous speech is guaranteed to warm the cockles of the heart of anyone who loves Grapes of Wrath.

Week 45

Bruce Springsteen - Land of Hopes and Dreams

And for my last Bruce song, something more hopeful.  The greatest "late-period" Springsteen song (and a Top 5 all-time Bruce song for me), Land of Hopes and Dreams captures much of the Springsteen philosophy and mythology.  His anthem about "saints and sinners" provides much needed optimism about our future right now:

Leave behind your sorrows

Let this day be the last

Tomorrow there’ll be sunshine

And all this darkness past

Big wheels roll through fields

Where sunlight streams

Oh meet me in a land of hope and dreams

Week 46

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - My Girl Is Gone 

My favorite musical genre may be soul music from the 60's and 70's.  If I was presented with the "desert island" choice of only being able to listen to one kind of music, I may even pick soul music over rock, although I consider myself a "rock" guy at heart.  I've looked over my list of possible remaining songs to write about for this blog and there are several soul songs begging for inclusion, so I've decided that March is "soul" month for me.  I start with Smokey Robinson, whom I adore.  When I was younger, I went through a phase where I pretty much listened to Smokey non-stop for about a year, and I think that he's one of the greatest songwriters in the history of popular music. The number of classic songs that he wrote, for himself and for others, is unbelievable.  Of course, I previously blogged about a song (Cruisin') from his solo career.  This one is from his days leading the Miracles.  Other Miracles songs are better known (Tracks of My Tears, Shop Around, Goin' to a Go Go, Tears of a Clown), but My Girl Has Gone has always been a personal favorite.

Week 47

Spinners - Mighty Love

Continuing DW soul month, the Spinners were a terrific Philly soul act from the 70's, who released a number of fantastic songs, maybe the greatest of which was Mighty Love.  My favorite part of the song is Philippé Wynne's ad-lib vocalizing during its last couple of minutes.

Week 48

O'Jays - Backstabbers

In the early to mid-70's, soul music went through a period of startling political consciousness, a response to the dramatic social upheaval going on in the country at that time.  (In his book, Mystery Train, Greil Marcus wrote a great chapter about this period of music, with a focus on There's a Riot Going On by Sly and the Family Stone.  If you have any interest in this topic, I encourage you to check it out.)  One of the most socially conscious groups, as well as one of the greatest musically, were the O'Jays.  Backstabbers is one of their best.  Nominally a rant about unfaithful friends, it arguably has deeper implications for how this country has treated African-Americans throughout its history.

Week 49

[Editor's note - thematic week: commentary on a song previously chosen]

The Temptations - Papa Was a Rollin' Stone

To finish up soul month, I'm picking a song that Dave Kelley previously chose (and did an excellent job writing about).  The Temptations are arguably the greatest soul group of all-time and its most enduring.  As the group transitioned into the 70's, their vocal mainstays (David Ruffin, Eddie Kendrick) had left the group, and their music became more socially conscious, reflecting the current trends.  This approach peaked with Papa Was a Rollin' Stone, in which the sons gather around the deathbed of their father and deliver an unforgiving assessment of his life.  While there are a number of different versions, I've linked to the original 12-minute version (which may be more Papa than some people want!).  There are so many fantastic things about this song - the ominous bassline, the use of strings, the different lead vocal performances, the handclaps!

Week 50

Sleater-Kinney - Turn It On

Sleater-Kinney is probably the best-known and most enduring of the riot-grrrl acts from the 90s.  (Although, oddly, guitarist-singer Carrie Brownstein is now better known for starring on Portlandia.)  A killer live band, Sleater-Kinney put on a couple of the best concerts that I've ever attended.  After taking a hiatus for about a decade, I was delighted when they re-formed last year and put out a terrific album (a rare example of coming back as strong as in your heyday).  Turn It On is an earlier song from their classic album, Dig Me Out, and one of my favorites by them. They're not everyone's cup of tea, but I think they're great.

Week 51

The Cranberries - Linger

I've always found the Cranberries to be underrated.  They have such a unique, unusual sound, and their first couple of records are excellent.  Linger is my favorite by them.  It's amazing at setting a certain mood, and I love the riff played by the strings.

Week 52

Valerie June - Got Soul

I don't think that I've posted a newer song before on this blog because I had such a backlog of older songs that I loved and wanted to share.  But, for my last entry, it seems appropriate to pick something recent.  I liked Valerie June's debut album, but her recently-released second album, The Order of Time, is a leap forward.  I encourage all of you to check it out.  My favorite thing is the album closer, Got Soul.  I couldn't find the studio version on Youtube, but I've linked to a very good (and faithful) live version.