Discography Year Two - Week 30

What?!?! It's Week 30 already?  That means that there are only twenty-two weeks left before the second year of our eminently excellent Discography music discussion draws to a close.  Some people - could be anyone - but in this case Cyndi Brandenburg (a woman of immense intellectual gifts but little faith) has proposed that the Discography has played itself out and no one cares any more.  That said, I (a man of decidedly limited intellectual gifts but a marginally impressive amount of faith) disagree. While we should probably burn Cyndi at the stake for her lack of faith (or at least attach a carrot to her nose) I've decided upon a different approach.  In the last week I've been asked to serve on the Constitution Committee at my local masjid - and have been called to jury duty - both events, happening simultaneously, speak to my Solomon-esque wisdom and sense of justice.  Consequently, Cyndi is responsible for choosing the theme for our next Theme Week, which is Week 32.

And, huzzah, here is said theme from the truly excellent CB:

"For the next thematic week, each of you will have to revisit the dark
recesses of your early adolescent brains.  As you enter those green
grimy walls hung with cobwebs, try to ignore the possibility that this
is what eternity looks like, and instead  focus on the treasure hunt
task at hand. Here is what you are looking for:

What were among the very first albums that you personally purchased
for yourself, probably in middle school or high school and in the form
of vinyl or CD?  What popular song(s) compelled you to make said
choices? And most importantly, what unknown song did you discover as a
result, as a cut buried deep, that proved to be the kind of hidden gem
that redeems your naive choice in ways that still make you happy?"

Kevin Andrews

I came across this great quote about Joe Pass from New York Magazine in 1997, "Joe Pass looks like somebody's uncle and plays guitar like nobody's business. He's called 'the world's greatest' and often compared to Paganini for his virtuosity. There is a certain purity to his sound that makes him stand out easily from other first-rate jazz guitarists." (I found it in Wikipedia for those of you into citations.) There are only a handful of jazz guitarist of this caliber; Wes Montgomery, maybe George Benson. He makes this look so effortless. 

The list of people he’s played with is as good as it gets. Here he is with Ella Fitzgerald and on Oscar Peterson’s BBC show  The YouTube has some vids of Oscar and Joe together too.

Dave Kelley

Amy Winehouse. "Someone to Watch Over Me"

One of the best tunes in the American songbook covered by the greatest female voice of her generation.  What makes this so tragic is that she is dead partially because she lacked someone to watch over her.

Bonus track

Amy Winehouse. "I Love You More Than You'll EverKnow"

What a loss.

Gary Scudder

Sturgill Simpson, Turtles All The Way Down

One of these days I should really compile a list of all the new music that you folks have introduced me to on the Discography, some of which has become favorites.  A great example would be Sturgill Simpson, who I knew nothing about.  I recently downloaded his second album, Metramodern Sounds in Country Music and I'm hooked.  I think you're the very definition of alt-country when your songs borrow passages from Stephen Hawking.  In his A Brief History of Time Hawking recounts this story:

"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy.  He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy.  At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: 'What you have told us is rubbish.  The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise.' The scientist gave superior smile before replying, 'What is the tortoise standing on?' 'You're very clever, young man, very clever,' said the old lady. 'But it's turtles all the way down!'"

When talking about the song Simpson said:

"I just reached a point where the thought of writing and singing any more songs about heartache and drinking made me feel incredibly bored with music.  It's just not a headspace I occupy much these days.  Nighttime reading about theology, cosmolology, and breakthroughs in modern physics and their relationship to a few personal experiences I've had led to most of the songs on the album . . . I expected to be labeled the 'acid country guy,' but it's not something I dwell on.  I would urge anyone that gets hung up on the song being about drugs to give another lesson . . . To me 'Turtles' is about giving your heart to love and treating everyone with compassion and respect no matter what you do or don't believe."

Clearly Sturgill Simpson has to become the favorite singer/songwriter for Cyndi B and Kathy S immediately.  I expected a large crowd when Simpson comes to Burlington this summer.  Kevin and I are already investigating tickets.