Got some new music lately. Finally listened to it the three times required by Roger’s Rules of Listening to Music.
Paul Simon- Surprise. I found a surprising number of people online who indicated that they didn’t like the album. I’ve enjoyed it thus far, especially the first song, which was so atypical Simon, probably the Brian Eno influence, that I though I had put in the wrong album. “How can you live in the Northeast? How can you live in the South? How can you build on the banks of a river When the flood water pours from the mouth?” A conversation I’ve had with others since the flooding on the Mississippi in the last decade.
Lesley Gore – Ever Since. Gorgeous. Great reinterpretation of “You Don’t Own Me”.
George Harrison. This is an album of rarities a friend sent me. My favorite tune so far is a song that starts out with My Sweet Lord musically, but lyrically is a pirate song.
Jesse James appears in both the Mark Knofler/Emmylou Harris disc, and the Springsteen disc. I found Mark and Emmylou’s disc quite enjoyable.
The new Springsteen album, The Seeger Sessions, which I got from one of my sisters from Father’s Day, it felt like I’ve know for years. It’s like what Carole King once said about her early performances; she felt that she went on the stage “pre-loved”, because her friend James Taylor would introduce her by asking the audience, “Do you know (these songs)? This lady wrote them!” That’s how I feel about this album – loved practically before I heard a note.
Springsteen’s version of “We Shall Overcome” I had already owned from this Seeger tribute compilation that I bought in 2002 at an Old Songs festival. “Overcome” and “Eyes on the Prize” were on the Seeger “We Shall Overcome” album I’ve owned for 40 years. “Froggie Went a-Courtin’ ” and “Erie Canal” I knew from my childhood – all upstate New York children of a certain age knew “from Albany to Buffalo”. And the gospel and folk songs were also largely familiar.
Lefty made an album for Eddie, and sent me a copy, too. My enthusiasm practically matches Eddie’s.
And speaking of Eddie – it’s always about you, Eddie – he and I were the grand winners of the Blog This Pal 2nd Blogiversary Giveaway. We were also the ONLY entrants in the Blog This Pal 2nd Blogiversary Giveaway. One prize was a book called Fun with Milk and Cheese, which is…fun. Dairy products with attitude is always fun. It was one of the last things I was reading when I went cold turkey on comics back in the early 1990s, so it was great to get.
Then there was the music. Gordon starts with a Star Trek cut called which you would recognize, Amok Time. Then the Beatles’ Revolution. Then Ernie from Sesame Street singing “Rubber Duckie”? A brave man, that Gordon. My favorite track, though, is the next one, Harry Belafonte’s Mama Look A Bobo, with the line, “Shut your mout’ Go away Mama, look at bobo dey”, which I hadn’t heard since I was about four years old. It’s a dumb song, but it brought pleasant memories. There were other good songs, too.
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Now, of COURSE it would be inappropriate to ask for you folks to burn music for me. But I DID own these, and they got lost in the office move.
One was the first disc of a 2-disc Ella Fitzgerald 75th Birthday Celebration on the Decca Jazz label.
One was the first disc of the 4-disc Steve Winwood box set.
One was the soundtrack for Toy Story 2.
Now if you happen to have any of these items, and are willing to…share, please let me know.