Song: Boo Boo'n
Album: My Homies
Artist: Devin the Dude
Selected by: Sam Chennault
Date: January 31, 2007
Jealous girlfriends and random acts of violence torment our blunted H-Town hero. But, as Devin relates in the song's refrain, refuge can be found, "When you finish whatever the f*ck you doin'/ Holla at me/ I'll be in the bathroom, boo boo'n."
By now you've probably noticed that TV shows have largely down away with starting off the program with a theme song.
They've done this because they don't want the typical, itchy fingered, remote clicking TV consumer getting bored and switching channels. That's why they've also gotten rid of end credits on TV. Boy, are we a sad society. I remembered when we gladly watched whatever program was put in front of us.
Today, when a TV them is still used, it's most often tied to a show (like The O.C.) that is aimed at the kids and older slackers who just want to watch teenagers frolic on the beach. These shows almost always use pr-existing pop songs or covers of known tunes. My favorite of these is probably the Von Bondies track "C'mon C'mon" used in the opening titles of Rescue Me. My least favorite is almost all the others.
Once upon a time, most every show had its own original theme song. The first huge hit to come out of TV themes was probably Henry Mancini's unstoppable opener to Peter Gunn. The soundtrack album to this was a surprise smash, and is still widely heard today. Not only did it help establish Mancini's then struggling career, but it helped employ a lot of jazz musicians, since every crime show after Peter Gunn copied its sound. (btw -- the entire soundtrack album is awesome).
One of the best hits of the 1970s was John Sebastian's timeless soft rock theme to Welcome Back Kotter. Sebastian, of Lovin' Spoonful fame, was such a solid songwriter that the title sequence to Kotter was by far the best thing in the show. Just take a minute and watch the title sequence. It made me want to live in a crumbling, sinking concrete jungle when I was a kid!
The Mary Tyler Moore show was a way better show than Kotter and it also had great title sequence. Noted television scholar Joan Jett even did a head-bobbing glam/punk cover of the MTM theme song.
While I don't like the theme song to The Rockford Files as much as "Love is All Around" or the others it does work really well with that show's titles.
Rockford even had a different phone message start every show -- they were usually about how Jim Garner's character owed somebody money, had bounced a check or had lied to a preacher. Basically, Jim Rockford is the greatest TV character of all time, with his shifty, ex con pal Angel earning the coveted Best Sidekick award.
Listening to these songs made me create a new Rhapsody radio channel called TV Tunes. It is the cure for whatever ails you. The next best thing to watching TV is definately listening to an endless, maddening stream of television theme songs.
Song: Happiness is Easy
Album: The Coulour of Spring
Artist: Talk Talk
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: January 30, 2007
The lead track to Talk Talk's 1986 release shows that they were much more than a run-of-the-mill new wave act. This impressionistic mix of English folk, cool jazz and alt rock signaled the band's arty future and its financial downfall.
Song: C'mon Baby Let The Good Times Roll
Album: Aladdin '52-'59
Artist: Shirley & Lee
Selected by: Michele K-tel
Date: January 29, 2007
The past few weeks I've been deep in the heart of New Orleans - not passed out on a Bourbon Street sidewalk (hic), but building Rhapsody's just-launched Mardi Gras channel. While tapping my toes to brass bands, Crescent City keys and traditional Cajun & Zydeco, I've re-discovered the non-harmonizing wonder duo of Shirley & Lee amidst the pile of great classic New Orleans R&B. Check out Miss Shirley Mae Goodman's sweet quaver on their 1956 hit "C'mon Baby Let the Good Times Roll." A resolution-busting reminder that the good times of Mardi Gras are less than a month away (Feb. 20).
To make my point today, I have to admit something:
I not only have been watching American Idol, but have even been DVR'ing it to keep up.
That established, I am watching last Wednesday's American Idol as I type and have noticed that today's guest judge is Carol Bayer Sager, who wrote "That's What Friends Are For", amongst other tunes. So, am I the only person who thinks she looks like Joan Collins? The similarities aren't even as apparent as when Carol was on TV, but here are two pictures to help you compare:
The scary part is that we're still only at the beginning of the Idol season...who knows what else I'm going to notice after this...
There have been a number of superior music movies coming out over the last few years. Even the biopics -- like Ray and Walk the Line -- are better than they've ever been.
All the elements that make a good rock documentary -- early poverty, sudden success, breakup, drugs, dissolution, rediscovery by a new generation, never making a dime, etc... can make for grim viewing after a while. So, it was a pleasant surprise to see New York Doll. It had everything that you want in a rock movies (see above list) but it was also an actual feel-good movie.
New York Doll (watch the trailer here) is the story of the Dolls' bassist Arthur "Killer" Kane and his road from revolutionary pre-punker to slightly brain damaged Mormon librarian (Arthur fell on his head in a failed suicide attempt). If that journey sounds like a downer, the movie isn't.
Instead, New York Doll is an ingratiating portrait of niceness. Everybody is this movie ends up being great -- the Clash's Mick Jones, Morrissey, members of Blondie, old Mormon ladies, people on the street, and even David Johansen (stay after the credits are over for his acoustic folk number).
The arc of Kane's life is such that if it were a fiction film you wouldn't believe how perfectly everything fits together in the end. As good as Ray and Walk the Line were, they both kind of end with a "thud!" because Ray Charles' and Johnny Cash's actual lives were too messy and complex to neatly sum up in a movie. Arthur isn't as complex an artist as those two giants (who is??) but he makes for a great central character.
End of the Century: The Ramones and The Mayor of Sunset Strip are superb movies about similar subjects really, but they are both anything but heartwarming (see them anyway! they're fantatic). So, New York Doll ends up being a kind of Little Miss Sunshine of rock docs. It brought a smile to my face while I was watching it and I'm still smiling a week after seeing it.
Song: The Dreaming
Album: The Dreaming
Artist: Kate Bush
Selected by: Nicholas Baker
Date: January 26, 2007
It being Australia day today, it seems only right to have a bit of didgeridoo for our antipodean brethren, so here's über genius Kate Bush plunging us into the ancient and trippy Aboriginal netherworld of dreamtime.
In a wine-fueled instant message, I mentioned to Garrett that there was a great Richard Buckner song featured the television show Friday Night Lights. Not only did Garrett call it a bad show, (showing his expertise in arts criticism ends with music) he also didn't give up props to the music supervision for what I consider the best show on television this year. FNL's music supervisor Liza Richardson, who DJs 'The Drop' on KCRW, has done a fantastic job utilizing what she calls 'lefty indie bands' to give texture to the show about small town America.
Richardson liberally uses tracks by Explosions In The Sky to set the mood in the series, in particular the track "Your Hand In Mine." It's the same band that scored the 2004 movie the show is based on. The instrumental group was unknown when the movie's music supervisor Brian Reitzell convinced Universal to use them.
But it's Richardson's choices for songs that set the series apart from even hipster shows on television. She chose Bright Eyes' cover of iconoclastic Texan Daniel Johnston's brilliant Devil Town. However, Bright Eyes doesn't license any of his music to television, so Richardson enlisted Tony Lucca to record the song. But still, a Daniel Johnston song on TV? It's kind of astounding. Also featured have been indie stalwarts Iron & Wine, Spoon, and TV On The Radio as well as legendary Texans like Townes Van Zandt, Jerry Jeff Walker, James McMurtry, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Billy Joe Shaver, amongst others. It's a long way from your O.C. or Grey's Anatomy featuring the next Coldplay.
At the end of our chat, Garrett said "The show just seems like the Gilmore Girls on the gridiron." Sounds like my kinda show.
I am firm in the belief that not enough people are familiar with the magic of The Psychedelic Furs. They've had songs on the radio, they've sold records, but persistent fame and an exalted reputation seems to elude them, at least on these shores. Maybe people who would like the arty interplay of sax bursts and guitar squalls on their earlier records are put off by the mainstream skew of their later releases. Maybe pop fans who prefer the smooth qualities of songs like "Heartbreak Beat" can't handle singer Richard Butler's rasp in full effect.
I don't have the answer to this perplexing question, but I do have this super-strength PSYCHEDELIC FURS PLAYLIST to try and bring the knowledge (the Furs knowledge, anyway) to the masses. This playlist cherry-picks the best from all the Furs releases, including some of the b-sides and live tracks from compilations, and shows that their musical journey ends equally as compelling as it starts. It has rockers ("Mr. Jones"), pop hits ("Love My Way"), hidden nuggets ("I Don't Mine") and everything in between. Let the beautiful chaos overtake you!
Song: Lay Lady Lay (with Gemma Hayes)
Album: On Your Side
Artist: Magnet
Selected by: Stephanie Benson
Date: January 25, 2007
This Bob Dylan staple has been covered by stacks of artists, from the Byrds to Ministry. Accompanied by dream popstress Gemma Hayes, Magnet offer up one of the sweetest, most wistful versions to date, with a melody fit for any cuddly, love-filled fantasy.
Hi folks, welcome to my debut post on Pop-Ed. Normally, I'm busy posting to my song-a-day blog (creatively titled Dave's Song Of The Day), but I had to come here and share my growing obsession with Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood's "Some Velvet Morning."
I admit, I first heard the Primal Scream version first- which I loved, so I eventually went looking for the Lee & Nancy original. When I found it, I didn't really like it, finding it somewhat jarring after the Scream's drug-slide version, especially with the tempo changes. Over time, I realized how much bolder the original was with the full (yet subtle) orchestration and Lee's ominous vocals.
And now, I'm totally obsessed with it, especially his delivery when he sings "And maybe tell you about Phaedra / and how she gave me life / and how she made it end" - which is especially interesting, given that lyric is omitted from the Scream version. I found myself singing it last night, which I'm sure was rather disconcerting for those around me.
At least I know I'm not the only one who's hung up on this song, as this fairly detailed Wikipedia entry shows...
Song: Balls
Album: The Sugar Tree
Artist: Amy Rigby
Selected by: Tim Quirk
Date: January 24, 2007
Songs with punchlines don't always age well, but Amy Rigby sounds pretty damn serious when she explains why she wishes she could grow a pair. And she sounds like she hates herself but can't help it when she confesses, "I love your nerve."
Song: Feel Alright
Album: I Feel Alright
Artist: Steve Earle
Selected by: Jon Maples
Date: January 22, 2007
The lead song on Earle’s first plugged in record after jail and drug rehab showed he'd lost none of the power to peel paint with his power twang. Earle answers the question of how he's doing with a brutally honest answer about the state of his life.
Song: Kick Out the Jams
Album: Kick Out the Jams
Artist: MC5
Selected by: Jaan Uhelszki
Date: January 19, 2007
The MC5 helped spark a revolution when they released "Kick Out the Jams" back in 1968. Recorded live in Detroit's Grande Ballroom on Zenta New Year, a holiday for a religion they made up -- and that was the only thing they made up – the song introduced the world to that now-legendary feral battle cry -- "Kick Out the Jams, Motherf*cker." It's safe to say that was the F-word heard 'round the world.
by Linda Ryan
Holy smokes! Where did American Idol find the people who auditioned for the Seattle segment? Last night's auditions landed Seattle with a worse rap than heroin addiction and Riot Grrrl (combined) ever did in the '90s. Could it be the coffee?
But what was up with everyone's eyes? I have never seen so many people with bugged-out, downright lopsided eyes in my life! Did the entire town of Chernobyl relocate to the Seattle area and not tell us? Wow. I am a bitch.
Song: Mas Que`Nada
Album: Herb Alpert Presents
Artist: Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66
Selected by: Rachel Devitt
Date: January 18, 2007
One of only two Brazilian songs nearly every American knows, Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66's version of Jorge Ben Jor's catchy little bossa tune positively glistens with decadent '60s cool: lounging keys, a trim little beat, and those frosty, polished vocals.
The minute I walked into the luxurious Rhapsody complex this morning, Linda Ryan asked me if I had seen the AARP commercial that featured the Buzzcocks song "Everybody's Happy Nowadays".
I did see it. And I had the same reaction as her -- YIKES! We are old.
Of course, this doesn't just happen when I see the Buzzcocks associated with a group that reps the Gray Panthers instead of the White Stripes. It also happens when I stand still and watch as my arches fall, my back collapses, my hair turns white, and when I see photos of Lil Wayne. I can't stop myself from thinking, "Lil Wayne's parents shouldn't allow him to look like he's mentally challenged. That isn't right."
More old people blather: "The Sex Pistols kick-started another rock revolution. The Clash were the better band. Blah-blah-blah."
But, today's bubblegum rockers and punk poppers don't really sound like the Pistols or the Clash. They sound like the Ramones and (if they are lucky) the Buzzcocks.
And now, one of the best Buzzcocks' numbers is being used to sell stuff to pensioners. And instead of indignation, I am now old enough for my reaction to be -- "Good. I hope the Buzzcocks are getting a nice big royalty check. The deserve it."
Now, if you'll excuse me, I used up too much energy already. I need to go lay down for a nice long nap. Max has already beaten me to the punch.
Song: See Saw
Album: 30 Greatest Hits
Artist: Aretha Franklin
Selected by: Linda Ryan
Date: January 17, 2007
This 1968
gem tells the story of a woman tired of her man's wishy-washy ways, and who
hasn't felt like that from time to time? Whether she's demanding
"Respect" or some consistency in a relationship, no one tells a
been-done-wrong story quite like the Queen of Soul.
Song: Phantom Limb
Album: Phantom Limb (single)
Artist: The Shins
Selected by: Garrett Kamps
Date: January, 16, 2007
Give it four or five listens. Pretty sure it's about malaise and longing, as mimicked by Mercer's meandering melodies, but you never know with the Shins. There's "no connection," but who could be bothered to care with "ooh-wah-oos" this sweet?
Song: Take Care of Business
Album: I Put A Spell On You
Artist: Nina Simone
Selected by: Nate Cavalieri
Date: January 15, 2007
It hardly matters that its MLK day; no one gets the day off when the High Priestess of Soul demands, "Take care of business with me," over an arrangement of soulful burlesque from Hal Mooney. By the sound of it, this business is likely to get risky.
Song: Fille A Plumes
Artist: Malajube
Album: Tromple L'Oeil
Selected By: Michele K-Tel
Date: January 12, 2007
Another invasion of indie rock from Canada? Here's the twist. Although these Frenchies from Montreal sing in another language, it doesn't matter if you understand the lyrics to dig their jumbled up Arcade-Blur-ELO melodies. Listen to "Fille A Plume" and find out why.
Song: See You Tonite
Artist: Gene Simmons
Album: Gene Simmons
Selected By: Eric Shea
Date: January 11, 2007
It's hard to imagine the God Of Thunder burping up blood to this pretty anomaly. Who knew that in 1978 Gene Simmons secretly wanted to be John Lennon?
I've been enjoying the soundtrack CD for the movie Children of Men for a couple of weeks now.
It has a bunch of terrific songs on it. A few tracks I'm very familiar with (and always happy to hear), while most of the songs on it are so good that they sound like they've always been part of my life. The cover of the Stones' "Ruby Tuesday" makes me very happy (don't be scared away by the guy's Latin accent at first -- stick with it, it's fantastic).
The singer is Franco Battiato (yikes! he can't be that ugly in real life!). I've never even heard of him but I did some research and I guess he is the Italian version of Os Mutantes and Brian Eno all rolled up into one psych-folk goes art-rock Italian Rocker. Rhapsody has a recent album that Battiato cut and its pretty impressive.
The soundtrack is so good that I actually went out and saw the movie Children of Men. Holy smokes -- what a fantastic picture! It's even better than the soundtrack CD (which made my "Best of 2006" list). The "Ruby Tuesday" cover gets played twice in it and both times its associated with Michael Caine's old hippie character (Caine should spend the rest of his life in the clothes he wore in the flick).
Another cover in the movie is Junior Parker's radical slow down of the Beatles beyond revolutionary "Tomorrow Never Knows."
If you like cover versions as much as we at Rhapsody do, you'll want to check out our new radio channel called Crazy for Covers. Something familiar and something new -- that's a good cover version in a nutshell.
You owe it to future generations to listen to it. Do it for the children.
Maybe you've seen these end some of our end of the year lists. Ever wonder what the Rhapsody editors thought about the year in music? Now it's your opportunity to find out.
Song: Ah! Leah
Artist: Donnie Iris
Album: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection
Selected By: Linda Ryan
Date: January 10, 2007
No other one-hit-wonder screams "F.M." more than Donnie Iris' "Ah! Leah." You may not know this, but our Donnie was a member of the '70s group the Jaggerz (he wrote and sang their hit "The Rapper") as well as Wild Cherry in their waning days. But we love Donnie for giving us this guitar classic.
Song: What You Know
Album: King
Artist: T.I.
Selected by: Sam Chennault
Date: January 9, 2007
This song is addictive. You can deny its majesty once, but eventually you'll be hypnotized by the oceanic synths and T.I.'s slurred braggadocio. It’s the soundtrack for an alien pimp invasion, and the best single of 2006.
Play It Now
Song: A Whiter Shade of Pale
Album: Greatest Hits
Artist: Procol Harum
Selected by: Nick Dedina
Date: January 8, 2007
Does it even matter what this song means? The sacred organ and melancholy melody meet a burnt out vibe that feels like it needs a bath yet sounds like a fresh new day. To Martin Scorsese, the tune is a pure artistic vision trumping carnal desire.
Song: Fistful of Love
Artist: Antony and the Johnsons
Album: I'm A Bird Now
Selected By Tim Quirk
Date: January 5, 2007
A powerful lyric + that haunting voice + soulful horns = a knockout (which is appropriate, given the subject matter). Antony Hegarty's joined by one of his heroes, Lou Reed, on this number, which makes masochism sound heroic.
Happy New Year! Here is my Best Of 2006 Playlist. You'll notice that I threw some reissues and repackaged gems in there as well. Predictably, my favorite one of the year was Gram Parsons' The Complete Reprise Sessions.
Check it out. There are lots of rare gems in there.
Whenever I geek out on GP's music a few folks who fancy themselves music scholars or whatever tend to snub me and ask why I'm so obsessed with "an overrated dead man." Other than identifying with his songs, I really don't know why. Maybe because it's a little too easy to judge him--he was spoiled rotten by a wealthy family (his folks even bought him his very own nightclub to perform in); he perpetuated all the rock star/hipster cliches; he wanted to hang out with the Stones more than with his own band; and he couldn't handle his controlled substances. So on the surface I guess it's not too difficult to dismiss Parsons and pass his legacy up for that of...oh, I don't know...Townes Van Zandt or Gene Clark.
I guess the reason why I identify with Parsons' songs so much is because as an aspiring songwriter, they make me think, "Damn, I wish I thought of that first." But listening to Townes Van Zandt or Gene Clark, I know that I could never write anything as epic, so I guess they just seem further away from my own musical soul (as much as I love what they did and how they did it).
Or maybe it's because he pretty much invented a whole new genre of music that helped blur the lines between country, soul and rock 'n' roll.
Anyway, I'm throwing another tribute show in San Francisco next weekend. If you're in town, please come by and party with us.
This year's benefit is for an especially good cause. Pat Spurgeon from the band Rogue Wave needs a kidney. He's a phenomenal musician, but he's an even better human being. There's more info on his band's site about Pat's situation and what you can do to help if you are so inclined. Thanks for taking the time to check all of this out, by the way.
By Tim Quirk
Here's a playlist with a couple dozen of the songs I liked best in 2006. The first ten are from my favorite albums of the year (in rough order); I could easily have thrown two or three more songs from each of those on here. The rest are individual tracks I couldn’t get out of my head, even when the albums themselves sometime disappointed. The list looks like this (note: the Eric Bachman and Two Gallants tracks aren't live in Rhapsody yet, but are coming soon):
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