Weekend Listomania: Special "The Glory of the Human Voice" Edition

[This is a revised version of one of the very first Weekend Listomanias ever (I originally posted it in early 2007, which as you know is several centuries ago in dog years.) As is my wont, I have done some re-writing, substituted some different video clips, and added two new entries, in part to have something actually recorded in the current century. Enjoy!!! -- S.S.]

Okay, kids here's a fun project for us all to contemplate:

Best or Worst post-Elvis a cappella Pop/Rock/Soul/Country/Folk/Hip-Hop Harmony Song -- by which we mean either totally a cappella, or with a cool a cappella section of whatever length!!!

And also -- I don't just mean doo-wop. Group harmony is group harmony, okay?

Okay -- and my totally Top of My Head Top Ten is:

10. Pentatonix -- Video Killed the Radio Star

Wow, that sucks.

I should add that I had no idea who those clowns were till a few days ago, when a Gen Z friend of mine informed me that there was actually a big shot no-instruments band in the current larger Top 40.

In any event, they're basically Manhattan Transfer without the sincerity and the street corner soul roots. I mean -- yuck.

9. Steeleye Span -- Gaudete

I don't know what's more amazing -- the Span's stunning medieval harmonies on this or the fact that at the time it was recorded, the band were actually pop stars in England with hit records on the charts. I should add that I was lucky enough to see them do that live. Heh.

8. Petra Haden -- I Can See For Miles

The Who's power pop classic done solely with mouths turned to eleven. Utterly mind-boggling.

7. Fairport Convention -- Percy's Song

The Dylan song, and the brief acapella intro for this is one of my all time favorite things; amazingly enough, the performance gets even better as it goes along.

6. The Beatles -- Because

Of all the reasons to hate the Fabs, the fact that they were -- on top of all their other talents -- absolutely astoundingly good harmony singers may be the most plausible.

5. Big Daddy -- Eye of the Tiger

The Survivor song recast as street-corner doo-wop, as it probably always deserved. The traffic noises at the top are a particularly droll touch.

4. The Benzedrine Monks of Santa Dominica -- (Theme from) The Monkees

Big Daddy again, but doing business under a Medieval nom du chant.

3. Crosby Stills and Nash -- Find the Cost of Freedom

The a cappella at the end is pretty spine-tingling, I think. One of their better songs, although the a-side -- "Ohio" -- sent the same message somewhat more forcefully with loud guitars.

2. The Beach Boys -- Their Hearts Were Full of Spring

A straight cover of the Four Freshmen's original, but if it doesn't bring a tear to your eye, I probably don't want to know you. And this despite the immense dickitude of Mike Love.

And the number one all-time top acapella pop/rock madrigal is ----

1. Imogen Heap -- Hide and Seek

I first heard this in late 2006 when it was used in a montage at the end of an episode of the short-lived 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?

Alrighty now -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great Thanksgiving weekend, everybody!!!

It's Turkey Day!: Special "Matthew Fisher is God" Edition

From 1969, here's the original classic lineup of Procol Harum...

......and their utterly gorgeous "Pilgrim's Progress."

Pilgrim -- get it? It's not rocket science, kids.

As long-time readers may recall, this song is something of a Thanksgiving tradition around here by now.

But in any case, I promise that if you and I and our beloved country are still with us next year -- i.e., democracy has survived the President Mediocre Columbo Villain Administration© -- we'll start a new Thanksgiving tradition, i.e., post a different song.

Meanwhile, for now, enjoy the cranberry sauce and stuffing, everybody!!!

And get ready for a Way Cool Weekend Listomania on the morrow!!!

Closed for (Brief Pre-Thanksgiving) Monkey Business

Our current troubling times got to me again. Sorry 'bout that.

That said, tomorrow will feature a wonderful traditional holiday post, and then (more importantly) Friday -- one of the best (semi-new) Weekend Listomanias evah!!!

Music to Chase Cars By

From their just released new album Unleashed (heh) -- on Rum Bar Records, where it belongs -- please enjoy Detroit punk classicists The Dogs and their utterly fab and gear remake of Eddie and the Hot Rods' glorious 1977 British hit "Do Anything You Wanna Do."

These guys have been making loud noises in the Michigan area (and elsewhere) since 1968(!), so they come by their old-school sensibilities honestly; the new album, which is highly recommended, includes an ode to the MC5's mentor "John Rock & Roll Sinclair" and in general will rock your proverbial socks off.

BTW, I should add that "Do Anything..." is one of my favorite songs from that halcyon early British punk period, and it's long baffled me why it hasn't been covered more often. I should also add, for those too young to remember, that Eddie and the Hot Rods were actually more of a pub-rock band, i.e. they were closer to Brinsley Schwarz than the Sex Pistols, but when "Do Anything..." first came out it sounded radical enough that they got away with it anyway. In fact, the original is actually fairly power pop-ish by today's standards...

...which is one of the reasons I'm so, perhaps perversely, taken with the Dogs new cover, which isn't. I mean, none of that blatantly commercial echoed guitar lick stuff for our canine friends!!!

In the meantime, you can find more things Doggie-style -- including how to purchase and/or stream the album -- over at this charming website here.

I'm Sorry, I Just Couldn't Resist

This is not a fake, BTW -- President Stupid Hitler© is actually selling crappy guitars. (That one is going for ten grand, if you're dumb enough to spring for it).

My apologies. As I suggested up top, I really couldn't help myself.

In any case, to atone, actual music having actual relevance to the raison d'etre of this here blog -- a really cool new remake of a punk/pop classic -- will appear in this space tomorrow. 😎

La Fin de la Semaine Essay Question: Special "Everybody's in Show-Biz" Edition

First of all, a little news.

As I suggested earlier this week, my brilliant new single...

...will in fact finally be available on multiple streaming services -- along with the previously mentioned Bandcamp, Soundcloud, YouTube and Amazon -- beginning tomorrow.

I'm talking Deezer, Pandora, Tidal, IHeart Radio and the rest of those youngster-friendly favorites.

I should add that I've had a limited number of actual physical CDs (with printed labels and genuine front covers) run off, and depending on who you are and how much you're willing to shell out, those aspiring collector's items will also be available. Lemme know if you're interested.

Ain't life as a rock star grand?

Anyway, that leads us to the next couple of days' business. To wit:

...and your favorite or least favorite post-Elvis recording of a song by someone NOT mostly famous because of their musical skills is...?

Here are mine. Starting with the hit by Zach, who's one of my all-time heroes.

And also this post-Watergate fave (which seems oddly pertinent now, for obvious reasons).

I realize this is a sort of cheap way of discussing all that Golden Throats stuff, but there are, in fact, some actually good tracks out there by famous folks who had unsuspected musical talent.

You know -- kinda like me. 😎

Alrighty then -- what would YOUR choices be?

And have a great weekend, everybody!!!

Nancy's Record Collection (And Mine): An Occasional Series

From 1994 and his debut solo album Soma City, please enjoy downtown guitar god Kevin Salem and his astoundingly brilliant "Lighthouse Keeper."

Seriously -- that's as perfect a guitar-riff-driven should-have-been smash single as I've ever heard.

I should add that when the album/single (I believe it was on Roadrunner Records) first came out, my brilliant friend and then colleague at Stereo Review Glenn Kenny took me aside and said (I'm paraphrasing) -- "Dude, if you like Television [the band], you're gonna dig the shit out of this one."

Boy, was he right. 😎

A Child's Garden of Kinks

And speaking as we were yesterday of Face to Face, i.e. the Shel Talmy-produced 1966 masterpiece by that quartet from Muswell Hill, please enjoy the opening spoken intro (celebrating a now vanished communication technology) to the album's infectious lead off track "Party Line."

I should add that said spoken intro is provided by the bands' then co-manager Robert Wace. Apparently -- according to John Mendelssohn's sadly out of print 1984 bio The Kinks Kronikles -- Wace was, as they say extremely posh, and the band was known to make merciless class-based fun of the guy behind his back.

I should also add that the aforementioned intro is now the ring-tone for the phone of a certain Shady Dame of my acquaintance.

And speaking (again) of Face to Face, I would like to go on record (heh) as saying that its accompanying back-cover essay is, IMHO, the single most evocative piece of writing ever to accompany the posterior of an LP sleeve. Here it is for your enjoyment.

It has been said by mercenary-minded persons that upon setting out along life's road the bread, the filthy lucre of W. Shakespeare of highly regarded memory, would seem to be the thing to go for.

So if you accept the opinion of these aforesaid persons in the spirit in which it is given and get cracking you get the loot.

So what next?

So far on your passage through this vale of tears you have been a hick, a nothing and an unheralded nobody. To be a well respected man must be your next aim, and with the loot in your pocket and the wicked world being what it is, you become a well respected personage ere you know it.

Then comes dedication to the dictates of fashion. The Carnaby Street. The striped natty suiting. Touches of velvet upon the collar. Touches of lace upon the underwear.

And of course ties of polka dot and Persian-originated Paisley pattern.

Next? Country house, yacht, powered by sail and/or steam, with the motor car in lurid colour and with white walls to its wheels smiling in the golden gravel drive.

Ladies of course. Ladies with long legs and little bosom, hair the colour of corn, very mini, very skinny dresses. Status symbol ladies with rich dark sheen in the depths of the skin.

Dwindling in the end to one lady, one Special who gets in among the soul.

The trouble being that the perfect woman becomes a bore, like having Venus de Milo constantly upon one's hands.

As if this is not enough, fate flings its last custard pie.

The taxman cometh.

And you are left with the glass of ice cold beer, and the sun on the uplands with dappled shadows and all, which is much better, as the poet has it, than a poke up the nostril with a burnt stick.

(Now read on).

Raymond Douglas Davies, a musician, not forgetting David, his hith and kin,

Peter Quaife, bass guitar who once wrote a story about an embarrasing affliction from which Ray's grandfather suffered for over forty years,

And Michael Avory, drummer and the possessor of four shoes, two for each foot,

have continued the story. And stories parallel to his sad one.

About the frustration of the telephone, About rainy days and sunny days, about sessions men and dark ladies, about P.V.C. grass skirts in Waikiki, about memories, and dandies, and most of all about the breadwinner who was in the beginning, who lost all, sold his most exclusive residence, and passes into the bosom of his fathers. -- Frank Smyth

Wow. That's just lovely; in fact, I can't think of another jacket essay even half as perceptive, funny and poetic.

BTW, I'd long assumed that "Frank Smyth" was a pen name, but as it it turns out, he was a real person, i.e. a long-time publicist for the band. According to a posting Ray did at a Kinks fan board I discovered in 2011, when I first posted a version of this, the head Kink had lost track of him (after dismissing Smyth and a partner over some imagined slight circa "Lola"), but around the time of Ray's late 90s The Storyteller tour, he tried to get in touch with the guy -- to verify some 60s stories -- only to find that he had just died.

I was also surprised, recently, to learn that Ray absolutely hated the album cover back in the day; thought it was too psychedelic or something. That's as may be -- it certainly has a Yellow Submarine vibe -- but I still think, as I did in 1966, that it's utterly charming and apt. No idea who the artist was, however, so if any of you readers can help me out here...

Shel Talmy 1937--2024

Oh, damn. This guy produced sooooo many of my all-time favorite songs and albums. Classics by The Who, The Kinks, The Easybeats...the list is semi-endless.

Hell, if for nothing else than this 1966 masterpiece of an LP...

...he would deserve to be immortal.

I should add that -- and I was unaware of it until the other day -- he was also at the helm for this little gem, which has a special place in my heart, sentimental old fluff that I am.

Doesn't seem like his style, per se -- you know, like "My Generation" or "You Really Got Me" et al -- but just beautifully, beautifully crafted. A gorgeous pop record.

Okay, now I have to tell a story.

When that Chad and Jeremy song came out originally (in 1964 -- wotta year!), my long time friend and bandmate (of Weasels fame) Allan Weissman was particularly known, at least amongst our high school chums, for his song parodies. I can't remember all the hits Al rewrote satirically, but I recall he did a particular classic, featuring our 11th grade science teacher Mr. Dubin, which was set to the tune of Petula Clark's "Downtown."

Anyway, Al was later inspired to write a take-off on "A Summer Song," which we actually performed in public on a couple of occasions, and it still cracks me up. The revised lyrics (and sing along, won't you?) were...

Planes
Crashing into mountainsides
With a loss of many lives
That's what I like

Soft
Areas of baby's heads
Hit them there and they'll be dead
That's what I like

They say that all good things
Must end someday
Governments must fall
But don't you know
That I like it more
When I read in the news...
That someone got mugged last night
It serves them right

So when your aunt
Goes and takes her landlord's life
And does it with a butcher knife
That's what I like
That's what I like...

Thank you.

And thank you, Shel Talmy. You did good, sir.

Today's Comic Strip Chuckle

Rex Morgan M.D., from 11/16/2024.

Note the album cover art in the panel on the left. (If you can't quite make it out, click on the image to embiggen).

And in the meantime, here's a delightful song from the brand new(!) album in question.

Mr. Lowe still has it, obviously. 😎

And I think it's pretty cool that Rex Morgan artist Terry Beatty is a fan.