La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "The Great Anglo/American Songbook" Edition

Okay, by way of introduction, from 2021, please enjoy my old friend/occasional bandmate/actual father of The Lemon Twigs (heh!) the remarkable Ronnie D'Addario and his genius-level cover of Frank Sinatra's classic 1945 plea for tolerance "The House I Live In"

In the style of the "Mr. Tambourine" era Byrds, i.e. 1965.

My god, that's brilliant. Both conceptually and execution-wise.

And I would be remiss if I didn't post the original proto-music video of the song, which won an Academy Award in 1946, just so you can see how transplendent Ronnie's cover is.

Anway, I bring all this up because the other day a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance and I were watching Robert Altman's fabulous 2001 Agatha Christie detective mystery pastiche Gosford Park, and I flashed on how much I loved co-star Jeremy Northam's performance of Brit pop songwriter Ivor Novello's 1924 hit "The Land of Might Have Been."

Seriously, I think that's gorgeous and I'm not ashamed to admit it. Lack of blues influence notwithstanding. 😎

And all of which leads us, slowly but inexorably, to the subject of today's thought experiment. To wit:

...and your favorite (or least favorite) pre-Elvis English or American trad pop song that's sort of become a standard or you just like is...???

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, and because I'm a nice guy, if you nominate something from the mid-50s or early '60s -- i.e., from My Fair Lady, West Side Story or The Music Man -- I will let you slide. But it's gotta be non-rock and nothing later than "Till There Was You"!!!

Anyway, in case you're wondering, here's my pick. By the Gershwins -- George and his lovely wife Ira. 😎

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

What -- No Love For Joey and Tommy?

From just now in 2026, please enjoy the brand new remix/reissue of Aussie punk/power pop pioneers The Eastern Dark's 1985 Ramones homage single "Johnny and Dee Dee."

I must confess to being heretofore unaware of those guys, who hailed from Sydney, although the guitar player had earlier been in The Celibate Rifles, who I recall enjoying back in the day. In any event, a terrific song; I particularly like the contrast between the delicately mournful instrumental intro and the buzz-saw guitars of the rest of it.

I should add that you can order copies of the newly pressed limited edition 45 -- in your choice of black, yellow, green and red vinyl -- over here at the website of Grown Up Wrong Records!.

BTW, get me drunk some time and I'll tell you about the, er, meeting I took with Dee Dee and my literary agent sometime in the '90s. The idea was they were gonna pitch a Dee Dee autobiography to some unsuspecting publisher and I was supposed to be the co-author.

Let's just say it was one of the creepiest experiences I've ever had.

It's Juxtaposition Wednesday

Sorry, I just couldn't resist. 😎

I should confess that the above Nashville Teens song is one of my favorite secret guilty pleasures of the Brit Invasion. Your mileage may vary, obviously.

In any case, actual new music directly relevant to the actual raison d'etre of this here blog will resume on the morrow.

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

The one with the album covers is actually kinda scary. 😎

For Sal, Who Knows Why

Okay, I really love this one. Actually wrote it up in a 1973 or '74 column in Stereo Review (having heard it on a Bowie bootleg) expressing my pleasure and surprise that I actually liked something by the guy. 😎

Pretty sure I didn't know that it had ever been officially released, however.

In any event, if Ziggy Stardust (the album) had sounded this Eddie Cochran-ish and cool, I would have probably spent the rest of my career/life raving about how much I dug its auteur. 😎😎

La Fin de La Semaine Essay Question: Special "Insert Michael Jackson Joke Here" Edition

Okay, this seemed kind of prescient/timely in the era of President Inepstein.

That is, of course, the incomparable Something Fierce, who as long-time/attentive readers will recall, I have described as the greatest pop/rock band you've never heard of unless you're from Minneapolis.

Of the song itself, I famously opined (at the time of its release in 1996):

"One song [from A Sound for Sore Ears] deserves particular mention...specifically, 'Watergate,' in which [they] posit -- over a hilariously overdramatic instrumental bed -- that A Girlfriend From Hell is the metaphorical equivalent of the Nixon scandals and sustain the conceit for more than five fricking minutes. If nothing else, this must be the first song in history to contemplate rhyming 'spill the beans' with 'Haldeman, Mitchell and Dean,' and I would like to go on record, at this juncture, as saying that this song remains for my money the most audacious conceptual masterstroke on any '90s rock album by anybody. So there."

And I stand by every word.

Which leads us, subtly but inexorably, to the subject of today's thought experiment. To wit:

...and your favorite (or least favorite) song centering on a person or people who are at the very least not so nice (and at the worst really evil) in the title or lyrics is/are???

Discuss.

No arbitrary rules whatsoever, but bonus points if the song you pick actually has the actual word "bad" in it somewhere.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, my fave is this fabulous Larry Williams cover you might possibly have heard before. 😎

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Okay, I Realize That Average is the New Great In Most Contemporary Pop Music, But This One Really IS Great!!!

In a word -- wow!!!

As you may have gleaned by now, that's Pete Fij(alkowski) and his self-described jangly/soaring new single "Don't Bring Me Sunshine" (from the forthcoming in September album Up's the New Down. Heh.)

Frankly, he had me by "I need someone like you to show me the way/through the backstreets of the human heart." And when that twangy echoed single note-guitar solo came in at the end, I was a goner.

From his bio: "Pete first burst onto the scene in the early 90s as the frontman and guitarist of post-shoegaze / pre-Britpop band Adorable, whose 1993 album Against Perfection, released on Creation Records, is regularly referred to as a lost indie classic..."

I must confess to being heretofore unaware of the Fij-ster, but I was less than thrilled with a lot of those '90s Brit bands, so it's no surprise I missed his previous work. But after hearing the above, I guarantee I'm gonna do the research and catch up with his ouevre in the subsequent years.

In any case, you can check out more of his stuff -- and keep abreast of future live gigs if you're lucky enough to live in the UK in the age of President Inepstein -- over at his Bandcamp page HERE.

Jeebus, what a great record. 😎

Songs I'd Forgotten Existed, Let Alone Loved (An Occasional Series): Special "Touching Me, Touching You..." Edition

Long-time/attentive readers are no doubt aware of my fondness for Mr, Wilder, i.e. the self-described Last of the Full Grown Men and Idol of Idle Youth. 😎

The song itself, which absolutely slays me in a kind of Keith-Richards-Meets-Power-Pop sort of way, is from a 1991 album that I think on balance is his best; suffice it to say that nobody has come up with a better synthesis of Hank Williams, The Beatles and Andrei Tarkovsky.

Tuesday's Music-Themed Cartoons and Photo Funny

Two Nigel Tufnel gags for the price of one? Hey -- what are the odds of that happening!!! 😎

Gorgeous X Two

And speaking as we were the other day of The Everly Brothers, from 1966 and their fab gear album Two Yanks in England, please enjoy the thoroughly swoonerama folk-rock ballad "Signs That Will Never Change."

Penned, like most of the album, by the Hollies' Clarke-Hicks-Nash songwriting triumvirate.

Apparently the Hollies provided the instrumental backing tracks for most of the album as well, although Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones are rumoured to be in there too.

Oh, and because I love you all more than food, here's the Hollies themselves doing the song, as it turned up a year later as the b-side to their classic "Carrie-Anne."

I actually got a copy of that 45 (from the fabulous Sam Goody record store in Paramus NJ) practically the day it came out, and if truth be told I played "Signs" more often than I played the hit (estimable as it was); when people talk about great double-sided singles this one really should get props. 😎