Weekend Listomania: Special "And the Angels Sing" Edition

Okay, no snarky intro involving my Asian Manual Catharsis Technician Fah Lo Suee blah blah blah, so let's get directly to the subject of the business at hand. To wit:

FAVORITE OR LEAST FAVORITE POST-ELVIS POP/ROCK/FOLK/SOUL/WHATEVER SONG/RECORD BY A BAND (OR DUO) WITH ONLY TWO SINGERS HARMONIZING UP FRONT!!!

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, but to my surprise I'm not mostly talking about sibling harmony acts. Also, if you attempt to nominate anything by the Byrds or Beach Boys, i.e. groups that normally feature three or four singers -- The Association, anyone? -- I will come to your house and pummel you severely. That said, however, I haven't decided if The Beatles are eligible or not, so at your discretion. 😎

And now, without further ado, my totally Top of My Head Top Seven is:

7. Chad and Jeremy -- A Summer Song

God, that's gorgeous. Seriously -- some days I think those guys were the most underrated of the British Invasion.

6. The Everly Brothers -- Don't Run and Hide

That was written by the Hollies Clarke-Hicks-Nash triumvirate, but I actually prefer the Everlys' cover.

5. Zager and Evans -- In the Year 2525

One of my traditional candidates for Worst Record Ever Made.

4. The Indigo Girls -- Closer to Fine

You know -- because (in the immortal words of Mick Jagger) you like to have a couple of chicks in there occasionally.

3. Stealer's Wheel -- Everyone's Agreed That Everything Will Turn Out Fine

Early Gerry Rafferty, obviously. I literally wore out the grooves on my copy of that 45 when it was new.

2. Tom and Jerry -- Hey Schoolgirl

This was one of the first records I bought with my own lunch money. It was a huge hit in NYC for obvious reasons; I'm not sure exactly how it fared in the rest of the country, although I seem to recall seeing them lip-synch it on Bandstand. Whatever happened to those kids?

And the number one Two People Singin' Like Boids act of all time simply has to be...

1. The Lemon Twigs -- Look Out For Your Mind

That video is brand new, i.e. it just dropped (as today's hepsters say) this morning at 10am EST. Absolutely fantastic, and man -- these guys have a work ethic like nobody's business.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Your Thursday Moment of Words Fail Me

The Mona Lisa Twins, ladies and germs -- let's really hear it for them.

Okay, my fondness for those kids is not exactly a state secret, but I'm absolutely over the moon about that one.

BTW, that's from their just released new album of 60s pop covers, which is otherwise pleasant enough but not life-changing. The above however...well, it's just freaking gorgeous, as you can plainly hear for yourselves. .

Why they aren't household words -- or at least been guests on Saturday Night Live -- is absolutely beyond me. 😎

Toppermost of the Poppermost!!!

In case you didn't know -- I didn't until last week -- but former SNL star Amy Poehler has an interview podcast, called Good Hang, where she does amusing one-on-ones with various pop culture celebs. And a recent episode had in-depth chats with both Paul McCartney and his (unexpectedly hilarious) fashion designer daughter Stella.

You can (and should) watch the whole thing over HERE, but in the meantime, this brief excerpt (in Tik Tok format, unlike the show itself) is Must-See TV. Paul discussing contemporary pop music and improvising a new smash hit on the spot. This has gone viral BTW, and I for one couldn't be happier.

Enjoy!!!

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles and Photo-Funny

Okay, I groaned at the McCartney one too. 😎😎😎

Encounters with Greatness (An Occasional Series): Special "Dueling Senior Citizens" Edition

So my BFF (and longtime bandmate) Allan Weissman is vacationing in Europe (along with his charming wife) and they were briefly (i.e. just to connect to a train to London) in Paris the other day. A town where they actually had been, longer, on a few previous occasions, one of which you will hear about in the absolutely charming and romantic song below (written and sung by Allan, of course).

That just slays me, and it is with some regret that I confess I didn't play on it. But as I said, we've been doing music together off and on since 1965, when we made our first foray into a professional recording studio with another of Al's songs and came out with this (I think pretty damn good for kids) Beau Brummels-influenced number.

That's me doing the Hammond organ and meant-to-be Vince Guaraldi-ish piano solo. BTW, have I mentioned that Al is an absolutely brilliant singer/songwriter and bassist?

In any case, I bring all this up because Al has a birthday coming up on Tuesday, which makes him one day older than me, a fact that he never fails to remind me of around this time. And I just wanted to give him a big long overdue shout-out here, which this now officially is.

Hey Al -- it's been a gas!!! Here's to many more years of it, my friend!!! 😎

PS: Here's the true story of a song we kinda co-wrote (i.e., I came up with the lame riff) and first recorded in 1967 in Allan's basement in Teaneck, NJ (aka the Paris of Tri-State Metro Area). No audio, alas, but it's pretty funny all the same so enjoy!!! 😎😎

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "Sing Along With 'Bitch'!" Edition

Okay, I'm too lazy to write a lame joke by way of the traditional intro at the moment, so let's just get -- directly and inexorably -- to the subject of the business at hand. To wit:

...and if you were somehow trapped in a sleazy karaoke bar and you were kinda drunk and wanted to sing along with a Rolling Stones song it would be...???

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, so just go for it. I should add, however, that today's post was inspired by accidentally discovering an instrumental-only track of one of -- IMHO -- the coolest Stones songs ever. Which I was planning, for the longest time, on going into the studio and overdubbing with a pathetic vocal by yours truly. Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. 😎

And which song woould that have been? See below.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choice(s) be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (an Occasional Series): Special "Yeah, Yeah, I Know -- It's Purple and Swims in the Ocean" Edition

I dunno if you guys heard any of Trump's rally yesterday, but let's just say that a) he was significantly more incoherent than usual and b) this song, which I hadn't heard in a million years, seemed suddenly relevant. 😎

The song, BTW, is off the Grape's 1971 attempted comeback album, which I found seriously disappointing when it was new, but I gave it a cursory re-listen while getting ready to post today and it seems to be better than I realized in my callow youth. I'll do the research and get back to you. 😎😎

Hey -- I'm a Three B's Kind of Guy From Way Back

Okay, everybody's doing this over at Facebook, so I figured I had to.

And don't give me any shit about this -- it's supposed to be the records that influenced the young you the most, not a list of the All-Time Greatest Albums Ever, which is totally different.

BTW, the song above goes out for my friend Nelson Bragg, who knows why. 😎

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles and Photo-Funny

I confess, I've been that dude-watching-your-band-play guy. 😎

Cinema Notes From All Over: The Golden Age of Comedy

So I saw the new documentary on Martin Mull (on Netflix) over the weekend. It's really terrific, but it was not what I was hoping for, i.e. lotsa laffs. I mean, yeah, it's mostly that for sure, but by the end it's turned into an unexpectedly deeply moving meditation on loss and intimations of mortality.

I was a huge Mull fan before he made it big on TV with Fernwood Tonight, and several of his albums (including the live record below) were among my most-played of the early '70s. Obviously, the guy was a genius satirical songwriter.

The film, of course, covers all that plus excerpts from the movie and TV work (the stuff with Fred Willard is beyond hilarious), his live club act (I saw him at the old Reno Sweeney's in Manhattan, and it was the funniest comedy show I've ever witnessed in person) as well as his totally seperate career as a painter, which was how he really identified himself, and with good reason.

But I wasn't prepared for the heaviosity; there's a scene toward the end where he and his musician/songwriter wife duet on a lovely and poignant song of hers that reduced me to a puddle of tears. Not exactly what I wanted on a Saturday night.

In any event, Who is Martin Mull? is a really impressive piece of work, and I highly recommend it.

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: "It's Quarter to Three, There's No One in the Place Except You and Me" Edition

Okay, since we're a day late (and a dollar short as well, come to think of it) let's skip the usual intro banter and get directly to the business at hand. To wit:

...and your favorite post-Elvis pop/rock/soul/folk/whatever album by a (in most folks estimation significant artist) that is way less well known/regarded than it should be is...???

Discuss.

Mine? As will come as no surprise to longtime readers it's this...

...which I am currently grooving to on a pristine vinyl reissue I snagged on-line late last summer.

In case you're not lucky enough to know it, the short version is that it's a collection of Sam's personal favorite blues, soul and gospel songs, recorded for Cooke's own label with the cream of Los Angeles session guys as his backing band, the whole thing designed to sound like the coolest live late night jam session in a smokey bar of all time, and boy does it ever. For reasons known only to the Lord, it went out of print amost immediately after it first appeared in 1963, and despite a CD reissue in the 90s, to this day it remains without question the greatest album by a major artist that most people don't know ever existed.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend everybody!!!

Do You Remember the Great Folk Scare of the Early Sixties? Man, That Shit Almost Caught On!

Damn, this Welles kid has really got the stuff.

I've been saying it a lot lately, but one way you can tell we're living in truly disturbing times is that all of a sudden the folk music is getting good again. 😎

In any case, a new edition of the Weekend Essay Question goes up tomorrow -- sorry for the scheduling glitch.

Self-Indulgence Alert: Fifty Years of Moody Black-and-White Photography of Me!

From 1969...

...and from 2019.

In case you were wondering, the first pic is a frame cap from a pretty darn good student film shot at C.W. Post College featuring my then band God (what we were thinking?) at the height of the alleged counter-culture. The one on the bottom is from The Floor Models reunion show in this century, which officially marks the last time I will ever be glimpsed jumping up and down on stage.

You can watch the entirety of the film -- which is quite an amazing period piece, and only twenty or so minutes long -- over at YouTube HERE. The Tube also has very nice video excerpts from the Flo Mos show, but I'm too lazy to post the links. 😎

[h/t Laura Giantonio}

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved: Special "Get Back to Me When A.I. Does Anything This Good" Edition

Okay, this song popped into my head unbidden yesterday. I have no idea why, alas, but in any case all I can add is -- wow.

I first heard this in late 2006 when it was used in a montage at the end of an episode of the short-lived (three episodes?) Ray Liotta TV crime show Smith, although I'm told it had also figured earlier on The O.C. In any case, I remember practically falling off the couch at the time and thinking it's the most bizarrely haunting thing I'd ever encountered. It's almost a whole new genre -- Android Doo-Wop, anybody?

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoon Chuckles

Hmm...I'm sensing a sort of recurring theme amongst today's entries. 😎

How Do You Say "These Kids are a Riot" in Yiddish"?

And speaking as we were last week(?) of bands that deserve to be big for their group moniker alone, please enjoy pride of Bergen, Norway neo-pop rock classicists Herr Nilsson, who I'm assuming without proof (or any facility in Norse patois) are named in honor of the guy who sang that song about putting the lime in the coconut (and much much else beside).

That's from a just released new album called Good Morning Rock and Roll; they've have been around since the early 'aughts, however, and I should add that apart from the amusing nom de musique, I really really also like them for their attitude.

From their press kit:

Much like Lennon & McCartney wrote catchy hooks out of practical necessity—lacking a tape recorder, they had to hum melodies until their next meeting—Mr. Nilsson crafts buoyant pop tunes out of sheer survival instinct.
"The songs simply have to be good," explains frontman and principal songwriter Terje Bringsvor Nilsen. "Otherwise, at least one of us loses interest, and our rehearsals devolve into alcohol-infused knitting clubs."

In any case, you can hear more of their music and find out more about them generally over HERE.

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "And Reverend Green Be Glad to See You" Edition

Okay, I'll have some more to say about last night's Ringo Starr show here in Forest Hills, AKA The Paris of the Northeast, next week.

For now, let's just say we had a much better than expected time. Ringo was in fine form -- funny, charming, and a monster on the skins -- and the supporting folks (including a couple of Totos, the bass player of the Average White Band, and Colin Hay of Men at Work) covered themselves in glory, both in support and in their solo turns. Plus, I'd totally forgotten what a beautiful (and power pop adjacent) song "Photograph" is. In other words, a splendid time was had by all.

Which leads us, inevitably and inexorably, to the subject of today's business. To wit:

...and the pop star/musician, living or dead, you would most like to see/have seen as a member of Ringo's All-Starr Band, is...???

Discuss.

In case you're wondering, here's my nominee.

And in case you're wondering why -- well, forgetting how great a singer the guy is, I just think it would be a total gas to hear Ringo getting down to that Memphis Hi Records groove thing, which I have no doubt whatsoever that he could deliver with his customary aplomb.

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choice(s) be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

An Early Clue to the New Direction

So -- if today's title has led you to suspect something Fab Four-related, give yourself a High Five, because you're right.

More specifically, this very evening a certain Shady Dame and I will be attending a performance by ex-Beatles pagan skins pounder Ringo Starr...

...and his latest incarnation of the All-Starr Band at historic Forest Hills stadium. Which is more or less in our proverbial back yard.

And apart from the splendid time that is guaranteed for all, said show is even more historic because the last time Ringo played there was in 1964 (specifically, August 8th of that year) with his old band.

I'll have more to say about the show tomorrow, but in the meantime a coveted PowerPop NoPrize© will be awarded to the first reader who gleans the significance of all of the above to the theme of Friday's Weekend Essay Question.

You're welcome very much. 😎