music Archives - Page 23 of 41 - Ramblin' with Roger

Best "Greatest Hits" Albums QUESTIONS

Yahoo had this list of “best of” albums last week. I’ll note if I have ’em. Do you? Or perhaps another album by that artist. Maybe you have suggestions not on the list at all. I’d inclined to have Aretha Franklin and Randy Newman represented.
25) Nirvana–Nirvana:
I have three or four Nirvana albums, but no GH.

24)Greatest Hits—Eagles:
Yes, I have it. And I’m not ashamed. The best selling album of all time in the U.S, if you believe the RIAA figures.

23) The Best Of Blondie–Blondie: Yup.

22) Back To Mono—Phil Spector & Various Artists: This is actually a box set – 3 CDs plus the Christmas album -of music of the Ronettes, Crystals, Righteous Brothers, and much more. Got it.

21) Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy—The Who: Actually have this on vinyl. While I have a more comprehensive Who GH on CD, I do like this one better.

20) The Kinks Kronikles—The Kinks:
No, I have The Ultimate Collection.

19) The Motown Box—Various Artists: “It’s not just any label that can release a boxed set of their best acts and establish both group identity and label identity. Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross and the Supremes, the Four Tops all carved out their sound within the confines of a Detroit recording studio and the overhearing ears of Berry Gordy Jr.” Got it AND its follow-up.

18) Chronicle Vol. 1—Creedence Clearwater Revival: “Creedence Clearwater Revival had the distinction of scoring a string of #2 hit singles. Not #1. Someone else always hogged that spot for themselves. But Creedence did manage 19 hit singles that are collected here…” And I have it.

17) Echoes—Pink Floyd: Actually, no. though I must have a half dozen Floyd albums.

16) Staring At The Sea–The Cure: Have only one or two Cure albums and this isn’t one of them.

15) Louder Than Bombs—The Smiths: Have some Smiths and Morrisey solo, but not this.

14) The Chess Box—Chuck Berry: No, I have Golden Decade.

13) We Sold Our Souls For Rock N’ Roll—Black Sabbath: Actually own no Black Sabbath at all, except on compilations.

12) The Very Best Of—Prince: Not this, but I have a two-CD collection. I have quite a bit of His Purpleness, actually.

11) The Very Best Of The Doors (2CD)–The Doors: Not this 2007 collection, but another one.

10) The Top Ten Hits—Elvis Presley: I have these two CDs, but frankly I’m surprised they didn’t go for that #1s album, which I ALSO own.

9) Mania—Ramones: Recently bought a different Ramones compilation.

8) Smash Hits–Jimi Hendrix: Have it on vinyl, and a different compilation on CD.

7) Greatest Hits, Volume 2—Bob Dylan: Have it on vinyl.

6) Greatest Hits—Al Green: Have it.

5) Decade–Neil Young: One of those things I bought twice, once the 3 LPs, then the 2 CDs.

4) Greatest Hits–Sly And The Family Stone:. I’ve long had this album as a contender for my island albums. Some people seem to think that bringing a GH to the island is sacrilege, but at least three of these songs never made it to 33 1/3 until this collection.

3) Star Time–James Brown:Not this 4-CD box, but a single disc.

2) Hot Rocks–The Rolling Stones: Have on LP. Have all the songs in some digitized form, though.

1) 1–The Beatles: No. I own every American LP and British CD in the canon. Why do I need this?
ROG

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

As I’ve noted, I often play music based on artists’ birthdays. This week, I have quite a few albums by these folks:
May 9, 1949, Billy Joel
May 10, 1961, Bono (Paul Hewson) (U2)
May 12, 1948, Steve Winwood
May 13, 1950, Stevie Wonder
May 14, 1953, David Byrne
And at least one from these people:
May 9, 1937, Dave Prater (Sam & Dave)
May 9, 1944, Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield/Poco)
May 9, 1945, Steve Katz (Blues Project/Blood, Sweat & Tears)
May 10, 1946, Dave Mason (Traffic)
May 10, 1946, Donovan (Donovan Leitch)
May 11, 1941, Eric Burdon (Animals)
May 13, 1966, Darius Rucker (Hootie & The Blowfish)
May 14, 1936, Bobby Darin
May 15, 1948, Brian Eno
May 15, 1953, Mike Oldfield
May 16, 1966, Janet Jackson
So sue me, I bought that first Hootie album. Oh, and the exact dates of the birthdays I’ve seen different by a day or two.

Last night, Carol and I saw a musical based on the music of one of these folks as a pre-anniversary present for ourselves. Wanna guess which one?

I was thinking about a couple questions Eddie (yes, him again) posed:
1. Is it any slight to the original artist when someone else’s version of a song becomes the definitive one? Even if the original artist wrote it?
I can think of at least a couple examples where the original artist acknowledged the superiority of the cover. One was Otis Redding’s Respect; he said of Aretha Franklin something like “That girl done stole that song from me.”
Then even Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails noted, somewhat wistfully, that Johnny Cash’s version of “Hurt” had become the definitive one.
[And speaking of which: Trent Reznor for intellectual property czar.]
I suppose it depends how the songwriter feels about the song. If it it’s his or her “baby”, then losing it might not feel so hot. But if the writer is open to new possibilities, then I’d think it’d be an honor. Unless…
2. What do you think about cases where a cover is actually quite inferior to the original, yet is wildly more successful?
I’m trying to think of an example of this, actually. Do you have something in mind? Can anyone think of an original, written by the artist, that the cover was not good, yet sold well? Purists might pick Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You”, but Whitney Houston’s version was not technically terrible, just mind-numblingly overplayed.

ROG

Baby Boomer Hits

When I have the worst sinus headache ever and can’t breathe through either nostril because of allergies, I’m reduced to using the e-mails from one of my sisters. But before that, one Sentential Link that struck me:

[Gram] Parsons is such a cutie in those old pics, that it almost makes you wonder what he’d look like had he lived. Would he have the rugged, survived-the-hard-life handsomeness of Kris Kristofferson?
Or the perennial hit-by-several-speeding-trains-simultaneously, lucky-to-be-alive-and-upright look of Keith Richards?

It was fun being a baby boomer . . . until now. Some of the artists of the
60’s are revising their hits with new lyrics to accommodate aging baby boomers:

They include:

Herman’s Hermits — Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Walker.

Ringo Starr — I Get By With a Little Help From Depends.

The Bee Gees — How Can You Mend a Broken Hip?

Bobby Darin — Splish, Splash, I Was Havin’ a Flash.

Roberta Flack — The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face.

Johnny Nash — I Can’t See Clearly Now !

Paul Simon — Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver

The Commodores — Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom.

Marvin Gaye — Heard I need the Grape Nuts.

Procol Harem — A Whiter Shade of Hair!

Leo Sayer— You Make Me Feel Like Napping.

The Temptations — Papa’s Got a Kidney Stone.

Abba — Denture Queen !

Tony Orlando — Knock 3 Times On The Ceiling If You Hear Me Fall.

Helen Reddy — I Am Woman, Hear Me Snore !

Leslie Gore — It’s My Procedure, and I’ll Cry If I Want To!

And everyone’s favorite:

Willie Nelson — On the Commode Again
ROG

Copyright Orphans

Paul Rapp “is an intellectual-property lawyer with offices in Albany and Housatonic, Mass. He teaches art-and-entertainment law at Albany Law School, and regularly appears as part of the Copyright Forum on WAMC’s Vox Pop.” He writes a regular column on intellectual property rights.

His most recent column addresses the “Orphan Works” copyright and potential legislation regarding it. What is an orphan work? Paul cites Meredith L. Patterson’s Radio Free Meredith where she uses this example about “your parent’s wedding pictures from 1955. You want to publish them? Guess what? The copyrights are probably owned by the photographer! Who was who? And is now where? You don’t know? Uh-oh.” The proposed bill, H.R.5889, the Orphan Works Act of 2008, seeks to provide “limitation[s] on remedies in cases involving orphan works.”

Rapp wrote just before the actual legislation was introduced, but still got it right. “The legislation will…seek to rectify the problem of lingering, abandoned copyrights, to loosen this stranglehold of ghosts on our culture, by allowing the reuse of pre-existing materials in situations where after a reasonably diligent effort, no copyright owner has been located. If, after the work is re-published, a copyright owner shows up and says ‘that’s mine’, the copyright owner will be entitled to a reasonable licensing fee for the use, but won’t be able to stop the use.”

If this legislation had been enacted, the case about the use of the street artist’s picture for their business that one of my library colleagues wrote about last month would almost certainly have applied.

Rapp, BTW, is a/k/a Lee Harvety Blotto, drummer for the legendary Albany band, Blotto.ROG

Underplayed Vinyl: Judy Collins

For my 16th birthday in March 1969, I received the album Who Knows Where the Time Goes from my friend Lois, who I had known since kindergarten. Even as she was giving the LP, she gave me this whopping caveat said, “I hope you like it. It’s kinda country.” Well, some of it was for certain, but it was far more eclectic than I was led to expect.
Hello Hooray – Starts off mysteriously softly, almost inaudibly, before breaking into a stirring rock tune, featuring Steve Stills on the guitar. Yes, this is the same song that Alice Cooper later covered.
Story of Isaac – A Leonard Cohen tune featuring only harpsichord and organ about the Biblical character who was to be sacrificed to God by his father Abraham. I found this song particularly moving and put it on a mixed CD at some point.
My Father – A rare composition by Judy; interesting how she placed the two songs about fathers and their children together. This is a lovely biographical song in waltz time.

Someday Soon – One of those “country” songs with the pedal steel guitar that has become a Collins trademark, written by Ian Tyson.

The title tune – Written by Sandy Denny, it is an equisite mournful anthem where the piano, guitar and bass set off Judy’s voice marvelously.

Poor Immigrant- A Bob Dylan tune, also with pedal steel and Dobro.
First Boy I Loved – A much-covered Robin Williamson song about the title character growing to “a grown-up male stranger.” Having loved and lost since then, it is far more powerful to me now. There was a version of this song (First Girl I Loved) done by Jackson Browne for a tribute to Elektra Records called Rubaiyat.
Bird on the Wire – Another “country” tune, another Leonard Cohen tune, probably my favorite of the “country” tunes, because guitarist James Burton sounded as though he were having so much fun.

Pretty Polly – A murder ballad that starts softly, builds to the death – “He stabbed her through the heart, and her heart blood did flow,” pulls back musically for the burial, then rocks out to the end with Burton and Stills sharing guitar licks. This song was shocking to me at the time and still affecting today.

This album has been on and off my desert albums list for decades.

July Collins, born May 1, 1939, turns 69 today. I saw her perform live but once, in the early 1980s, in Glens Falls, NY after winning tickets on a radio contest the very day of the concert.

Oh, what the heck: Since You Asked from Wildflowers:

And this more elementary song:

ROG