Weekend Listomania (Special That's a New One On Me! Edition)

Well, it's Friday and you know what that means. Yes, my Oriental Tupelo Honey Viagra Vixen Fah Lo Suee and I are off to join Emily Litella at the Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C. for a weekend panel on the Pubic Option.

Seriously -- what's the deal with that?

So posting by moi will more than likely be sporadic for a little while.

But in the meantime, here's another little project for us all:

Most Memorable or Revelatory Previously Un-Released (or Bonus) Track By a Major or Minor Artist!!!

No arbitrary rules this time; I was going to say studio stuff only, but on reflection that strikes me as needlessly restrictive. And obviously, bootlegs are okay.

And my totally top of my head Top Seven is:

7. Fountains of Wayne -- Trains and Boats and Planes





I've always loved the Dionne Warwick/Bert Bachrach original of this. But what a neat surprise to find out that Adam Schlesinger isn't just a fricking genius -- he's also a sentimental old fluff.

6. The Zombies -- Imagine the Swan





This first surfaced as a bonus track on a two-LP Zombies best-of Columbia put out in '74, at which time it completely blew my tiny mind. Actually, it's a post-Zombies/pre-Argent demo, but damned if it doesn't have that whole Odessey and Oracle gorgeousness in spades.

5. The Rolling Stones -- Cops and Robbers





The first live Stones bootleg I ever heard -- I wrote about the mysterious circumstances surrounding my getting it back in June -- and the very definition of revelatory. Early Stones in stereo -- holy crap!!!!

4. The Beatles -- She's Leaving Home (backing track)





Strings gorgeously arranged by Mike Leander, who also did the Stones' "As Tears Go By." A great piece of writing, I think, and a bit of a stunner without the vocals.

3. Simon and Garfunkel -- The Breakup




Tucked away on Garfunkel's 1993 greatest hits album -- the REAL story of what happened between Paul and Artie. Absolutely hilarious.

2. The Who -- Glow Girl





The prequel to Tommy, and a hell of a lot more succinct. Odds and Sods was a great collection of mostly unfamiliar or unreleased Who stuff, and this was hands down my favorite track.

And the numero uno "Where the Hell Did That Come From?" track of all time obviously is ---

1. The Rising Sons-- 2:10 Train




Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder before either of them shaved. Seriously, the Rising Sons -- the other great L.A. band of the 60s with an African-American lead singer -- never made an album during their run, so when this was finally released in the early 90s -- along with eleven other finished cuts that had languished unheard in the Columbia vaults since 1965 -- it took everybody, myself included, by complete surprise. Unplugged before there was such a term, this is also about as spine-tingling as it gets.

Alrighty then -- and your choices would be?

[Shameless Blogwhore: My parallel Cinema Listomania -- theme: best pre-Star Wars movies with an outer space theme -- is now up over at Box Office. As always, if you could see your way to going over there and leaving a snarky comment, it would make it that much easier for me to try to beg a little extra money out of management in advance of my forthcoming hopefully romantic trip to Paris with a certain Shady Dame. Thanks!]