Basically, that track -- the original is on Imagine, BTW -- sounds like what John's version might have sounded like if the Fabs had recorded it for inclusion on Abbey Road.
I should add that since the song is about a certain Japanese woman who will not be name-checked by me, the inclusion of a koto on the intro is a particularly nice touch.
Lyttleton was a homegrown Brit jazz guy, and the above was a big chart hit in England in 1956 (that's him on trumpet -- the piano was by Johnny Parker). Obviously, the record had a big impact on the teenage Macca.
Have a great weekend, everybody!!!
[h/t Marc Platt]
Regular posting -- including something heretofore unknown to me that blew my tiny mind -- resumes on Friday.
These kids are so good it's just getting ridiculous. Please -- can somebody tell me why a) they don't have a major label deal and b) why Saturday Night Live books crap like Katy Perry, who gave the silliest performance in the show's history a few weeks ago, instead of these youngsters?
Just asking. Meanwhile, I'm gonna go watch that video again.
I'm reasonably sure I saw Procol in concert more times than any other band I can think of. In any case, with their flawless admixture of Bob Dylan, J.S. Bach, gospel organ and piano, and Ray Charles, they were -- unquestionably -- the only prog band that ever mattered.
As I've been saying too often lately, this death shit is really starting to piss me off.
As a rule, Broadway musicals since the Golden Age -- the 50s and early 60s -- do nothing for me. I mean, everything Steve Sondheim did after A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum is complete shit, IMHO, the sort of schmutz that the late critic Gene Lees accurately described as Quack Opera. Boring, pretentious, lousy theatre and mostly unlistenable. (I will go further and say that "Send In the Clowns" may be the worst song ever written and inflicted on a long suffering public.) And don't get me started on pieces of pandering fake hippie crap like Hair or Jesus Christ Superstar. I'm also not a fan of jukebox shows, although I'll concede Jersey Boys and the Carole King thing were tolerable.
That said, over the last year or two, I'd be in a cab or a restaurant and a song from DEH would come on and my reaction would be -- well, that's not bad at all. So the other day I broke down and grabbed a copy of the album, listened to it and flipped. It's actually rock, that kid is a fantastic singer, and it made me want to see the show now that it's back on Broadway. (I'm told the movie version was a letdown, but I'll probably watch it to avoid paying Broadway prices).
Anyway, the album's great and I highly recommend it. Enjoy!!!
...doing Beethoven's symphonies number 1 and 9 at Carnegie Hall.
Haven't been to a classical show in I don't know how long, but the Philly Orch used to be my favorite band in the world, so it could be a hot one.
I should add that we're having a pre-show dinner at the fabulous Carnegie Deli across the street. Pastrami sandwich, here I come!!!
The short version: He's a genius producer, I absolute adore his first band Nazz, think some of the stuff on Something/Anything is great (The Floor Models used to do "Couldn't I Just Tell You" live), but detest his work with Utopia and think most of his solo albums since the middle 70s are at best, er, inconsistent.
That said, our friend Sal Nunziato, proprietor of the invaluable Burning Wood blog, is a huge fan, and he has alerted us to the fact there's a just released tribute album in honor of Something/Anything, which HE has mixed feeings about.
Me, off the top of my proverbial head, I love two of the covers.
First, Carole King's daughter Louise Goffin's take on "I Saw the Light"...
...and second, Marshall Crenshaw's sweetly acoustic version of the aforementioned "Couldn't I Just Tell You".
Have a great weekend, everybody!
[h/t Sal Nunziato]
...the LP of which was one of the most hilarious things in the history of things, here's my favorite track, "I Want to Hold Your Paw Hand."
I should add that you can stream the album OR order a complete vinyl version over at Amazon, which is pretty cool in this day and age.
You're welcome very much.
This is a bonus track from the CD reissue of one of the funniest LPs I've ever heard; it first crossed my desk back in college, when I was a pre-professional rock critic who was getting free albums because I was writing reviews for my school newspaper (man, I've led a charmed life).
In any case, it was performed and produced by two free-lance NYC engineers who mostly worked for Atlantic Records. It's out of print at the moment, but I'll be happy to burn you a copy if you ask me nicely.
I'm not sure if this has ever been on CD officially, but it's freaking hilarious across the board, and I've got a copy I downloaded from somewhere. Ask me nicely, and Ill burn you a disc.
I should add that I have always been amused that this was released on the same label that brought us the great hits of Del Shannon.
I can't find any specific info -- release date or musical credits -- for this, but I know I originally bought it (probably while in Junior High) at the Teaneck Record Shop, which was located on the block below on Cedar Lane, the main commercial drag in my home town. And it was probably in the early 60s, which is when Universal released all their classic horror movies to television.
And yes, obviously, that fabulous cover is by the great MAD Magazine artist Jack Davis.
I should add that the whole album is a major hoot, and while it has never been (to my knowledge) transferred to CD, it's up at YouTube in its entirety.
Have a great weekend, everybody!!!
The Blues Project were one of New York’s seminal bands in the mid-1960s. Their first album, “Live at the Cafe Au Go,” recorded at the Greenwich Village club at the end of 1965, forged a fresh alliance between folk, blues and rock and roll. They played folk songs by Eric Anderson and Donovan, blues by Willie Dixon and Muddy Waters and rock ‘n’ roll by Chuck Berry and Bo Diddley.There were originally six members of the Blues Project, including vocalist Tommy Flanders. After Flanders opted out of the band around the time the live album was released, what was left was a half-minyan of Jewish musicians from New York: Al Kooper (organ and piano), Danny Kalb and Steve Katz (guitars), Roy Blumenfeld (drums) and Andy Kulberg (bass).
I should add that the joke around town was that the Project were the Jewish Beatles. I should also add that Tommy Flanders, the original lead singer, managed the Floor Models for the first year after we got together
Here's the rest of the story.
And wait till you see the one that's going up over the weekend for Shabbos.
Starting with this one by Lou Reed...
The poet and writer Delmore Schwartz, who at 25 published one of the most dazzling collections of stories ever written, “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities,” was born in Brooklyn to Jewish immigrants in 1913. A James Joyce obsessive (see his papers at Yale’s Beinecke Library for a look at his brilliant annotated “Finnegans Wake”), he had a remarkable and bitterly short life, dying alone in the Chelsea Hotel at 52 in a sort of cruel reversal of the immigrant son’s American Dream. But a few years before he died in 1966, he taught creative writing and literature at Syracuse University, where he was Lou Reed’s teacher.Here's the rest of it.Lou Reed, who grew up in a Jewish family in suburban Long Island, moved from the radical Velvet Underground to his solo career, carrying with him the “spirit” of Delmore Schwartz, who famously told Reed he would come back and haunt him if he betrayed his talent.
Assuming a certain Shady Dame and I can get him into our new cat carrier, The Incomparable Eddie© is going for a check up at our vet's office this morning. If we all survive the ordeal, regular musical postings will resume on the morrow.
Pray for us.
Ladies and germs, from 1967, please enjoy The Kinks "Autumn Almanac." A song and band I suspect was a serious influence on FOW's Adam Schlesinger.
From the dew-soaked hedge creeps a crawly caterpillar. When the dawn begins to crack... It's all part of my autumn almanac.Breeze blows leaves of a musty-coloured yellow. So I sweep them in my sack... Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.
Friday evenings, people get together. Hiding from the weather.
Tea and toasted buttered currant buns Can't compensate for lack of sun, Because the summer's all gone.
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
Oh, my poor rheumatic back Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac. ...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la.
Oh, my autumn almanac Yes, yes, yes, it's my autumn almanac.
I like my football on a Saturday. Roast beef on Sundays, all right. I go to Blackpool for my holidays, Sit in the open sunlight.
This is my street, and I'm never gonna to leave it, And I'm always gonna stay here If I live to be ninety nine 'Cause all the people I meet Seem to come from my street And I can't get away, Because it's calling me (come on home) Hear it calling me (come on home)...
La-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la...
Oh, my autumn Armagnac. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes...it's my autumn almanac.
That's as gorgeous an evocation of somebody's real life as has ever been set to music. Just brilliant.
I should add that the "Autumn ARMANGAC" thing at the end may be me mis-Hearing it. Okay. So sue me.
I should also add that when they gave Bob Dylan the Nobel for literature, I cheered. But Ray deserves it too.
...please enjoy Motion Picture Soundtrack and their astoundingly faithful cover of "A Dip in the Ocean"...
...and Mikey Eng and a killer remake of "Hey Julie."
I don't know which of these I like better; the "Hey Julie" is a little wimpier than the original, but it still makes me cry, but "A Dip..." sounds so close to the FOW version that the first time I heard it, it thought it WAS the FOW version. Which is kind of amazing, given what a fiendishly difficult song it is to perform faithfully, at least to my my mind.
I should add that if you're so inclined, you can get a vinyl copy of all this over at Vinyl Me Please, but a digital version can be found at Bandcamp.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
[h/t Sal Nunziato]
You're welcome!!!!!
Too tired. New FOW cover song up on the morrow for the weekend.
...I have this to say about a song that was NOT covered on said tribute.
To wit: The above features one of the Top Ten greatest and most poetic slice-of-life lyrics ever written by anybody who isn't Ray Davies...
Seth Shapiro got his law degree He moved to Brooklyn from Schenectady, '93 Got some clients in the food industry He says it's not the money, it's the recipesHe calls his mom, says he's doing fine She's got somebody on the other line Puts Coldplay on, pours a glass of wine Curls up with a book about organized crime
When it's late, and it's hot And a date with the Late Show's all that you've got Don't give out, don't give up One of these nights you might find someone to love
Beth McKenzie got the job of her dreams Retouching photos for a magazine aimed at teens It's Thursday night she should be out on the scene But she's sitting at home watching "The King of Queens"
There's something wrong that she can't describe She takes the contacts out of her eyes Sets the alarm for 6:45 So she can get a little exercise
When it's late, and it's hot And an hour in the shower is the best that you've got Don't give out, don't give up One of these nights you might find someone to love
And you're not the only one who's lonely
Seth Shapiro is trying in vain To hail a taxi in the morning in the pouring rain Beth McKenzie sees one just up ahead She cuts in front of him and leaves him for dead
...and that the video may well be the greatest in rock history.
I should add that FOW auteur Adam Schlesinger, who wrote the song, died of COVD in early April of 2020 at the age of 52, and that I hold President Donald "Schmucko" Trump personally responsible.
A fabulous track from the new album will be here on the morrow.
More about this album as the week progresses.
[h/t Sal Nunziato]
