music Archives - Page 22 of 41 - Ramblin' with Roger

Inspired by Originalville #1

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m a big fan of the podcast Coverville, hosted by Brian Ibbott. It’s a show that generally features of cover songs of artists, sometimes as a theme and sometimes by listener request. (BTW, if you are curious what I sound like, go to this Bob Dylan edition, right before he plays the Joan Baez song.

Occasionally, Brian’ll play a song that’s the original of a song that people might think was done by a more popular artist. That is the inspiration of the mixed disc I did for Lefty Brown’s Mix Bag VI.

Here are the songs on Disc 1:
1. Who’s Sorry Now by the Rhythmakers.
Truth is that I don’t know if it IS the original. I do know it came out in the 1930s, long before the 1958 Connie Francis version, which went to #4 on the Billboard charts.
2. Walking Blues by Robert Johnson.
I’m pretty sure this IS the original. There were lots of songs to choose from (Sweet Home Chicago, Crossroads, e.g.) but I picked this tune because it was covered in the 1960s by the Butterfield Blues Band, who show up later in this story. It’s a blues standard.
3. Hey Bartender by Floyd Dixon.
4. I Don’t Know by Willie Mabon.
Brian did a Coverville involving the Blues Brothers recently; these are the originals of songs that Jake and Elwood performed on that first Blues brothers album.
5. Bring On Home by Sonny Boy Williamson.
6. Killing Floor by Howlin’ Wolf.
Two songs purloined by Led Zeppelin without attribution, the latter forming the basis of the Lemon Song.
7. Louie Louie by Richard Berry.
Before the Kingsmen or Paul Revere & the Raiders came this classic version. From the Hembeck collection.
8. Hello Mary Lou by Gene Pitney.
Is this really an Originalville? I believe Gene Pitneey recorded this AFTER Rick Nelson had a Top 10 hit in 1961.
9. Oh Lonesome Me by Don Gibson.
Actually a big hit for Gibson in 1958, but I know it better as the much slower song recorded by Neil Young for After the Gold Rush.
10. Blue Bayou by Roy Orbison.
Went to #29 for Orbison in 1963. Might not have even included it except for baseball announcer Tim McCarver. After Linda Rondstadt had a Top 3 hit in 1977, McCarver would refer to a fastball as a “Linda Ronstadt – you know, blew by you.” Feh. If he had called it a Roy Orbison, I wouldn’t have complained.
11. Money by Barrett Strong.
The first Motown hit. On Coverville, there was some confusion about whether the Beatles were the originators of this song. Actually, Strong wrote many Motown hits, although not Money.
12. Devil in His Heart by the Donays.
I had lots of songs that the Beatles covered to choose from, but I picked this one from the Hembeck collection as it was among the most obscure.
* Now here’s the point I would have added the Rolling Stones’ version of I Wanna Be Your Man, which they performed before the Beatles, had I owned it.

13. Stop Your Sobbing by the Kinks.
The Pretenders had a minor hit (#65) with this song. Oh, I suppose I should mention the later Ray Davies-Chrissie Hynde romance.
14. Go Now by Bessie Banks.
The last three songs are from the Hembeck collection. This one was Top 10 for the Moody Blues in 1965.
15. Good Lovin’ by the Olympics.
The Olympics actually went to #81 in 1965, but the Young Rascals hit #1 in 1966.
16. My Girl Sloopy by the Vibrations.
The Vibrations got to #26 in 1964, but the McCoys, with a title changed to Hang On Sloopy, went to the top of the charts in 1965, with the Ramsey Lewis Trio also having a hit (#11) in ’65.

Oh, and this is what Gordon said about his own disc, and what Tosy said about Lefty’s.
***
Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth” becomes an opera.
***
Harvey Korman interview: Part One; Part Two; Part Three. One of the funniest lines ever was delivered by Harvey to Carol Burnett at about 3:30 here: “Scarlett, that gown is GORGEOUS.” RIP, Harvey.
***
I’ve learned that not only did Earle Hagan write all those TV themes I mentioned yesterday, he also wrote the classic jazz tune “Harlem Nocturne” covered by the Viscounts, Brian Setzer and many others.

ROG

My 100 Favorite Songs

WAY back on February 26, Tosy did this thing about his 100 favorite songs. And being a good ~~thief~~ blogger, I thought that I’d do the same thing. I checked out the criteria Tosy used:
I am considering “rock/pop” songs only, albeit from a pretty loose definition. Still, this means no standards, no musical theater songs, no jazz songs.
OK, no April in Paris. Nothing from Kind of Blue by Miles Davis.
I’m also limiting my list to songs I own. Can do that.
Now – what makes a great song? For me, it’s a couple of things. I tend to gravitate towards songs that do something different. Not that you won’t find any three-chord guitar, bass, and drums songs in my list, but I tend to score extra points for including a trumpet, or a good synth line, or strings–in organic and effective ways. Or for doing something new with structure. Or for an artfully expressed idea. Got it.
I’m pretty forgiving on lyrics – I’ll take a good tune, or a neat chord change or progression, or a clever arrangement, with bad lyrics over good lyrics with boring music any day of the week. Well, OK, but there are some songs where the lyric content really knocks me out.
But most importantly–and this will be the hardest to nail down as I write about these songs, given how ephemeral and subjective it is – a song has to move me. Whether to tears, joy, ecstasy, anger, or sorrow is mostly irrelevant, but it has to trigger emotion in some way to be great.
Great description. But SO much music moves me that this really became problematic.

For instance, Private Eyes by Hall & Oates. I’m a sucker for hand claps; the Supremes’ Where Did Our Love Go also is in that list. “Private eyes” (clap) “are wanting you” (clap clap). A guilty pleasure. But does it hit the level of moving me? Well, maybe, with a feeling of fun, but it’s not on the list.

Or Aqualung by Jethro Tull which a late friend and I tortured his stepkids lipsynching to. It evokes the moment, it has the changing rhythms and volumes, and I suppose could have made the list.

Time Is Tight – Booker T. and the MGs. Possibly my favorite instrumental, and it makes me happy. But..

Heck, anything with a good bass line could have been considered. Ultimately, I found that the winnowing of songs was extremely difficult, much more so that selecting albums or movies. I abandoned the project at least twice. Probably 75 of these songs could have been substituted for 75 others. So what DID make the list? Keep watching starting next week.
***
What pop song contains the lyrics
“I was knee high to a chicken
When that love bug bit me.”
***
Alan David Doane is currently selling off some comics on his blog, so he can get his wife’s car fixed and other things.
ROG

The Lydster, Part 50: Little Criminal

On Mother’s Day, I finally had a chance to gather the CDs I needed for Lefty’s Mixed CD thing. I put them on the shelf in the hallway, then we all left at 1 pm to rendezvous for a dinner with Carol’s family.

When we got back around 6 pm, I went upstairs to blog and Carol was watching TV (probably Dancing with the *****), and Lydia was playing by herself.At 7 pm, I went down to get the CDs and they were gone; also missing were several CDs that were in that alphabetical section, primarily Linda Ronstadt and the Rolling Stones.

Initially, I asked Carol, then Lydia whether they had moved them, and both said no. Still, I checked all the likely Lydia hiding places: the warming tray in the stove, under the bathroom sink, in her toy box, under the dining room table. They were nowhere to be found.

I was feeling crummy that morning, both physically and emotionally, so I called the police. An officer came over and took the information, though he felt it was unlikely that someone would steal such a pittance.

Finally, a couple days later, I found the CDs. They were filed in a usually closed piece of furniture that holds my discs. There were holes in there because I had laid some discs and they hadn’t been refiled. I’m sure that whoever moved them there was just trying to maintain some order. Oh, and then I had to sheepishly let the police department know that I had “recovered” the items.
ROG

The bachelor list

I’m so happy that Kristi Yamaguchi won American Idol and that David Cook won Dancing with the Stars. Wait a minute, that’s not right…

My wife, who IS happy Kristi won on Dancing, and daughter, who was rooting for some guy (hey, I don’t watch), are going away this weekend to visit the parents/grandparents. Oh, boy, this means I can set my own agenda! Come now – on these rare occasions, there’s always a list. Surprisingly, only a couple of them have come from my wife, and a bunch of it comes from my internal sense of responsibility. In roughly the order of importance:
* Pay some bills. I ran out of checks last week. While most things I have paid automatically or online, there are a couple that I hadn’t set up or aren’t available to be paid that way.
* Burn some CDs for some people; they know who they are.
* Cut the grass. I have a standard, Roger-powered machine, and if I don’t cut it every week (or even more frequently), I’ll have go borrow someone’s gas-driven machine.
* Move a bunch of CDs from the inconvenient furniture we bought a few years ago to some drawers I bought at a library auction a couple weeks ago. A MASSIVE undertaking I’ll probably do in sections.
* See the movie Iron Man. If I don’t see it now, I’ll never see it.
* Watch two movies on DVD that I borrowed MONTHS ago from friends and haven’t seen yet, Defending Your Life with Albert Brooks, and Independence Day. I’ve never seen either of them.
* Take the CD player to the shop to see if I can get it to work. It doesn’t seem to recognize that there is actually a CD IN the machine on a regular basis. I end up using the boom box, if I can wrestle it from my daughter.
* Read a week’s worth of newspapers.
* Watch at least some recorded TV.
* Write two blog pieces that have been floating in my mind for weeks, plus some ten-part thing I started a while ago, for which I BLAME TOSY.
* Get printer cartridges. I used up the last black one, and the color one just doesn’t work.
Then there’s church on Sunday morning and cleaning and laundry at some point. The problem with The List is that it’s always longer than the amount of time available to do the items on The List.

ROG

Very short takes

Today is the day folks go to the polls in many locations in New York State, everywhere except in the largest cities and vote for the school budget and the school board members. For some reason, the city of Albany only votes for the budget now, and the school board in November. More on that and Rex Smith speaking at the Friends of the Albany Public Library annual meeting this eveninghere.
***
Don’t care about Dancing with the Stars, but I do care about my wife, and SHE cares about DWTS. So I got the phone number from the end of the taped performance and tried to call in a number of times, but kept getting a busy signal. Then I went online to do so, but it required to be registered with ABC.com. Lo and behold, I WAS registered with ABC.com, though I don’t recall why. Five votes for Kristi Yamaguchi & Mark Ballas, who got 60 out of 60 points from the judges (the competition got 51 and 52 votes.)
***
I haven’t sent out my mixed CDs yet because I saved them to the drive, then the burner failed to put the data on the disc. I have figured out a workaround, but can’t get to until this weekend; sorry. It is sequenced and I do like it; Gordon will recognize the inspiration immediately. So far got mine from Gordon (like it), Tosy (listened to about half), and Lefty (haven’t played yet). Details to follow.
***
Best wishes to Edward Kennedy after his medical episode. I was looking at my Bushisms calendar, where W. referred to him as Theodore, one of the more understandable mistakes in the gaffe-filled daily.
***
The Subway series played out this past weekend. For me, the excitement is tempered, maybe because they are, at least so far, two mediocre teams, though the Mets, who swept, less mediocre than the Yankees.
***
The only parts of the NBA playoffs I have watched has been when I’ve taped ABC World News and the game has run over. For instance, I saw the last 18 seconds of the Celtics Game-Seven win over Cleveland, which took about 10 minutes, with all the fouls and timeouts.
***
Happy birthday, PixieNona!Are you sure it was a cold and not allergies? Your symptoms were very similar to mine last week.
***
In answer to a comment to this story DNA cleared them, but they’ll never feel free and some of the comments: “There’s particular disdain for the prosecutors of these crimes because, often, the prosecution withheld evidence that could have exonerated the defendant, esp. in Dallas County, TX. At least some of these people were home and with their families or at work; the assertion that ‘people doing the right thing don’t get mixed up in this stuff’ is simply inaccurate much of the time. There is also mistaken identity by witnesses far more often than most people realize. With all that, there’s no way to blame the juries, who can only weigh the evidence presented.”
ROG