Please read to the end for information about how you can win a copy of this album.
The Village in question is Greenwich, and 429 Records has gathered together an accomplished cast to celebrate the music that shook the world from that corner of New York City in the Sixties. Lest you think my use of phrase “shook the world” is an overstatement, I offer the first three songs on the album as evidence. Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” finds Rickie Lee Jones putting a pin in the balloon of pretension that surrounds Dylan these days. Though not of his making, it marks his every movement. Jones jabs at it with, of all things, a slide whistle, returning the humor inherent in the song.
Songs two and three are Dylan covers too, albeit more serious in tone. There’s nothing funny about “It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Bleeding,” and Winnipeg band the Duhks perform it with requisite intensity and respect. Lucinda Williams makes Dylan’s bitter rant “Positively 4th Street” her own by bringing it from a less angry, more heartbroken place, and very few people do heartbreak like Lucinda Williams.
Sixpence None the Richer contribute a wonderfully inventive take on the traditional “Wayfaring Stranger,” and John Oates’ retelling of another traditional song, “He Was A Friend of Mine,” is something of a revelation. The extremely underrated Philadelphia singer/songwriter Amos Lee closes out side one with a typically understated, soulful version of Fred Neil’s “Little Bit of Rain.” (more…)
About once a month I’ll send off an email to Ted with suggestions for Mix Sixes. Usually he incorporates them into his post, which I greatly appreciate. This past Friday I came up with something ludicrous and sent it with the message, “Ted, here’s a Mix Six for when you’re really desperate.” Little did I know that my good friend Mr. Asregadoo was going to take some time off. His email back was “Hey this would be fun, Scott, why don’t you do it up for next week?” To me it read, “Great job, Scott, I’m on my way out the door so… whydon’tyoudotheMixSixformenextweekseeya.” Door slams!
Thanks, Ted.
So now you’re all stuck with my lame-ass “Sax in the ’80s” Mix. Enjoy!
Oh, and I apologize for not having the true mix up for y’all. I don’t have the software to do things up properly.–Scott
Before Dave Matthews made the saxophone cool again (RIP Mr. Moore), several of bands in the 1980s (mostly early ’80s) were incorporating the famous woodwind instrument into their sound, and I’m not just talking about a certain dude from Jersey (or that other dude from Jersey who sounds just like the first dude from Jersey and whose music was used for a cult film called Eddie and the Cruisers). In fact, several modern rock bands had sax in them as a central part to their makeup. Today we look at some of those acts and their well-known songs. (more…)
“I see great things in baseball. It’s our game — the American game. It will take our people out-of-doors, fill them with oxygen, give them a larger physical stoicism. Tend to relieve us from being a nervous, dyspeptic set. Repair these losses, and be a blessing to us.” —Walt Whitman
With the All-Star Game right around the corner, I suggested to Kelly Stitzel that she feature Bull Durham for this week’s Soundtrack Saturday. I was shocked — shocked, I tell ya! — to find out she’s never seen writer-director Ron Shelton’s 1988 summer hit, one of the best sports movies of all time, if not the best movie about baseball. It’s also one of the finest romantic comedies of the past 25 years.
First-time director Shelton drew from his own experiences as a minor-league ball player for Bull Durham’s screenplay, and he was blessed with a stellar cast that brought his richly drawn characters to life. It’s a movie full of smart dialogue and character-based comedy that celebrates the lunacy, hijinks, and joy of America’s two favorite pastimes — baseball and sex.
Susan Sarandon, radiant as ever, flew on her own dime from Italy to audition and win the role of Annie Savoy, a part-time teacher in Durham, North Carolina. Annie dedicates each summer of her life to tutoring a player on the Durham Bulls, the local minor-league team, that she believes has the best potential to get a call up to the majors. However, Annie isn’t interested in improving the players’ reading and writing. And she isn’t a coach, although she knows as much about baseball as any manager. No, she’s more of a spiritual and sexual adviser: “You know how to make love, then you’ll know how to pitch.” She reads Walt Whitman to her lover-players and puts on Edith Piaf records in the hopes of making them well-rounded human beings and therefore better ball players. At the top of the film she chooses as her new student Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, the Bulls’ latest gifted pitcher, who has a million-dollar arm but a five-cent head on his shoulders.
The role of Nuke went to Tim Robbins in a career-breakthrough performance. Shelton had to fight to get Robbins cast in the part; up to that point he’d been in Howard the Duck, an infamous flop, and mostly blink-and-you-missed-him bit parts (raise your hand if you recall him in Top Gun). In addition to his lack of experience onscreen, executives at Orion Pictures felt that a woman as classy as Sarandon would never fall for a guy like Robbins. Luckily, Shelton prevailed, and the two actors not only worked wonderfully on the set but fell in love and remain a devoted couple to this day. Shows you how smart those movie execs can be.
So, I took the readers’ challenge (sort of) last week. I said that I knew nothing from Gordon Lightfoot except for the song I posted — “Baby Step Back” — and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” On Thursday of last week, I borrowed The Complete Greatest Hits, a 2002 Rhino collection of tunes from Mr. Lightfoot, and listened from start to finish.
The first thing I can say is that Gordon really isn’t that bad. It’s not really my type of music, and I doubt I’d ever go back to it again, but that guy is a pretty smooth and mellow cat. I was told specifically that I had to know both “If You Could Read My Mind” and “Sundown.” Well, you got me halfway, at least. I had never heard “If You Could Read My Mind” before. I’m sure of that. “Sundown,” on the other hand, you were correct about — I definitely recognize that tune. I guess I had never heard Gordon’s name with it, because by title alone, it didn’t mean anything to me. The other 16 tunes were completely foreign to me, including the other ’80s track, “Stay Loose.” All in all, I knew 3 songs out of the 20 on the greatest-hits disc, so apparently I still can’t enter Canada.
And now, back to the ’80s — enjoy the 20 songs below that charted no higher than #41 on the Billboard Hot 100 during that decade.
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam (with Full Force)
“Can You Feel the Beat” — 1985, #69 (download)
“Someone to Love Me for Me” — 1987, #78 (download)
These are two of the weaker tracks from Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam compared to megahits “Head to Toe” and “Lost in Emotion.” I think I’ve always been a bit confused as to what role Cult Jam played in the success of the group. I mean, the two guys that make up Cult Jam played the music, but the reality of it is that the six-member posse of Full Force wrote and produced all the material. Since they were artists in their own right, I’m not quite sure why Cult Jam was even necessary. In fact, despite not having any Hot 100 hits of their own, Full Force was actually pretty damn good. Their second album, Full Force Get Busy 1 Time!, is better than any Lisa Lisa album. Either way, there were lots of hands in the mix on all of Lisa Lisa’s music.
Little Richard
“Great Gosh A’mighty” — 1986, #42 (download)
This was Little Richard’s shot at a comeback. Macon, Georgia’s self-proclaimed inventor of rock ‘n’ roll was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as part of the first class when it opened in 1986. He then hooked up with Billy Preston to help him write this song, which was produced by Dan Hartman and ended up on the Down and Out in Beverly Hills soundtrack. While it wasn’t exactly the comeback he was looking for, he still woooos and yeeeeahs to packed houses all over the world.
Welcome to the third installment of a continuing series exploring some of the best – and some of the most egregiously wronged – hits of the rock era. A whole lot of hits that only reached pop’s runner-up slot have been largely forgotten; for example, oldies radio seems to have little use for the Poppy Family’s “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” or BT Express’ “Do It Til You’re Satisfied.” But at least, as I looked back at the 1950s and ’60s, it seemed a healthy proportion of the #2 hits were terrific, or truly important songs that were justifiably blocked by other great singles … or at least got the shaft from idiotic trifles whose momentary appeal was understandable.
But then there was the ’70s – when, as it turned out, most of the hits that broke down during the 199th lap were just as silly and insubstantial as the ones that took the checkered flag. (See how the euphemisms keep on comin’? It remains to be seen whether I can maintain this level of cleverness straight through the Oughts, or whether I’ll pull up lame in the final stretch. See – another one!) Anyway, here we go with 10 good ones from the Me Decade. As always, I’ll list some more #2s at the end, and we can debate their merits in the comments.
10. “YMCA,” the Village People. Be honest: Who would you rather have coming after your children – the innocuous, mustachioed and very gay Village People, or “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”-era Rod Stewart? Well, if you answered Rod, you got your wish in the winter of ’79, as he pulled a Kris Allen on everyone’s favorite bunch of costumed Adam Lamberts and bogarted #1 for four weeks. As for the other 99.9 percent of us, we can take delight in the fact that the last time we heard “Do Ya Think,” we were able to fast-forward through it on the TiVo during the American Idol finale – while you get to dance along to “YMCA” (though not this remix) during every single professional baseball game ever. So there.
9. “Live and Let Die,” Wings. Why did Paul McCartney’s Bond theme fail to reach the pinnacle? Maybe because it’s mostly an instrumental? Nah… (Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” had topped the chart just a couple months earlier.) Perhaps because nobody cared much about its host film? As if! (Live and Let Die topped the box office through much of June and July 1973, and was the 10th-biggest film of the year.) Perchance were there simply better songs out at the time? Well, the three (three!) songs that leaped over Roger Moore’s speedboat were Maureen McGovern’s “The Morning After,” fresh off its Poseidon Adventure Oscar victory; Diana Ross’ diva anthem “Touch Me in the Morning”; and Stories’ cover of Hot Chocolate’s “Brother Louie.” So I’d argue, no, that wasn’t it either. (Here’s the original version of the last song, which far less obviously references the Kingsmen.) Personally, I’d like to think that radio still had Macca in the penalty box for turning out so much crap over the past two years, up to and including his previous single “My Love” – one of the Worst #1 Songs of the ’70s. (more…)
If you’ve ever ventured into that thicket of sweetness and stress known as Planning A Wedding, you’ve probably at least considered buying one (or five) of those awful compilations of “wedding music.” They come in all sorts of flavors – classical, country, Contemporary Christian, pop standards, classic R&B – and they’ve got icky titles like A Day to Remember, or Songs That Say “I Love You.” They tend to feature a lot of the same songs, like “Always and Forever,” and “Three Times a Lady,” and “Wonderful Tonight,” and Pachelbel’s Canon, and “The Way You Look Tonight,” and that horrible Boyz II Men song “On Bended Knee.” And, just like the Book of Common Prayer, they’re all diabolically designed to make your nuptials sound just like everybody else’s.
My wife Gwen and I wed 15 years ago today, and to celebrate that occasion – along with the onset of the June wedding season – I thought I’d give Popdose’s loyal readers an anniversary present: a mixtape of wedding songs and stories from some of our columnists, and an opportunity to share your own remembrances and ideas in the comments. These songs aren’t your garden-variety bridal standards; in fact, a few of them are downright bizarre. But even if you don’t find them suitable for your own purposes the next time you get hitched, hopefully they’ll inspire you and your betrothed to follow your own muse, and not some music conglomerate’s. Click here for a compressed file of all the tracks featured here, and read on! (more…)
Cleveland in the wintertime can be a cruel, desolate town.The wind chill often drops temperatures below zero and gray slush mounds crowd the streets and seep onto the asphalt, creating black ice.The skies are barren of clouds, yet the sun’s rays don’t seem to warm you from a cold so biting, no matter how many layers you wear, that shaking the chill in your bones is near impossible.When you’re outside, if your nostrils don’t stick together, your breath hangs in the air waiting for heat to slowly dissipate the clouds from your lungs.You have no choice in where you grow up, and since Cleveland is the community where Julie and I were born and raised, we were destined to have our wedding there.
On December 30th 15 years ago, our friends and family from all over the country braved inclement weather to witness Julie and I exchange our wedding vows.St. Malachi’s in downtown Cleveland was still decorated with Christmas poinsettias and the lights were dimmed as guests entered the old, welcoming church.Although one of our guests was mugged on the way there and a couple of the tuxes didn’t match the rest of the groom’s party, the ceremony went off with any real hitches.By the time I saw Julie walking down the aisle with her father, nothing else mattered.After the moment her hand joined mine at the altar, I had a perpetual smile on my face for the remainder of the night.There was a brief thought in which I questioned whether I should be more nervous, but it was fleeting.I was too damn elated.Even though our courtship had been fast (we were engaged just four months after our first date) and some questioned whether we knew what we doing, my soul had been fulfilled the instant Julie and I kissed for the first time.Marrying her was the surest decision I’ve made in my life.
After the ceremony and the wedding photos we adjourned to nearby St. Mary’s Church for the reception.By the time Julie and I had arrived at the banquet hall, most of my cousins had begun drinking shots to commemorate our union.I may have had one.Our 200 guests enjoyed an excellent meal (of which I think I had two bites) while we went table to table to greet those whom had gathered in our honor.To save costs, a videographer wasn’t hired for the night.However, my sister-in-law, Karyn, walked around with her own video camera and recorded various comments from people.This worked out wonderfully even after she’d had a few too many and the footage started to resemble Woody Allen’s Husbands and Wives. By the end of the tape, Karyn began a conversation with someone and forgot to shut off the camera.There is about 10 minutes of her talking while you only see the floor.This may be one of my favorite moments of the recording. (more…)
Please read to the end for information about how you can win a copy of this album.
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam (with Full Force)
Cleveland in the wintertime can be a cruel, desolate town.