Sloop John B - The Real McKenzies

Sloop John B - The Real McKenzies

3:51

Songs Of the Highlands, Songs Of the Sea, 2022

traditional

Paul McKenzie sings this straight, using the same verses as the famed Beach Boys version, with minimal accompaniment, just a guitar and some soft harmonica.  It's a nice version, but I can't help but wondering why the band didn't go full Celtic punk with bagpipes to give it their own whiskey-soaked spin.  Oh well.  For of all sad words of tongue or pen / The saddest are these: "It might have been!"

Good Thing - Fine Young Cannibals

Good Thing - Fine Young Cannibals

3:22

The Raw & the Cooked, 1989

Written by Roland Gift and David Steele

I was a senior in high school when this album came out, but I only ever heard the huge singles; I didn't seek it out.  Now, hundreds of years later, I'm finally ready to accept the popular music of my youth.  A bouncing piano line by Jools Holland gives this funky song a nice groove.  It's got a fairly sparse sound, and Gift sings it in a sort of yearning yelp.  The song is retro-soul, but layered onto the production of the time — the programmed, high percussive backbeat is very '80s — and the fusion works.

Fools Are Not Born - Clarence Reid

Fools Are Not Born - Clarence Reid 

2:14

Dancin' With Nobody But You Babe, 1969

Written by Willie Clarke and Clarence Reid

This is a smooth soul crooner about a man who's made a mistake or two in love.  Once he was a wise man.  But now he knows, he's just a fool, blinded by lies.  "Friends look at me with pity in their eye / They know that I'm a fool / But they just don't know why / I haven't always been like this / But you gave me something that I just couldn't resist."  Punchy horn stabs and Reid's expressive voice make this song one of those that leave you wondering why it wasn't a hit.  But enough about that!  Hilariously, Reid also released many albums as Blowfly, a raunchy parody of other genres of music with titles like ""If Eating You Is Wrong, I Don't Want To Be Right" and "R. Kelly in Cambodia."

Justine - Don & Dewey

Justine - Don & Dewey

2:44

single, 1958

Written by Don Harris and Dewey Terry

Although R&B duo Don & Dewey did not have any hits of their own, many of their songs became hits for other artists.  This piano-driven boogie, a rocker very much in the style of Little Richard, is gloriously fuzzy, with buzzy horns and the duo screaming every line and alternating the titular girls' name.  The lyrics are the typical ribald-adjacent stuff of the era: "You just won't treat me right / You like to ball in the mornin' / Stay out late at night."  This cut is unusual also in that about the first 40 seconds is studio chatter about what instruments to use in the recording ("don't need no piano!").

J'suis d'accord - Françoise Hardy

J'suis d'accord - Françoise Hardy

2:03

Tous les garçons et les filles, 1962

Written by Françoise Hardy and Roger Gustave Samyn

Un morceau pop yé-yé plein d'entrain, dans lequel la narratrice est ravie d'aller à un rendez-vous, mais ne souhaite pas s'engager davantage.  "J'suis d'accord pour le cinéma / Pour le rock, le twist ou le cha-cha / J'suis d'accord pour tout ce que tu voudras / Mais ne compte pas sur moi pour aller chez toi." C'est un peu jazzy, ça a un petit air de rockabilly des débuts, c'est un vrai régal qui donne envie de bouger la tête.  Hardy l'interprète avec une assurance cool et une voix maîtrisée.

James River Blues - Old Crow Medicine Show

James River Blues - Old Crow Medicine Show

3:06

Big Iron World, 2006

Written by Critter Fuqua, Ketch Secor, Willie Watson, David Rawlings

This is a mid-tempo, strumming blues, nothing complicated or flashy.  I prefer the Old Crows when they're killing it with sprightly bluegrass, but this song is enjoyable enough, with Fuqua's nasal voice plodding along until the harmonies come in, punctuated by fiddle.  The lyrics are Depression-era plaints about the big machines taking good honest physical labor away from the working man, a theme that of course resonates today and always.  "That train came on through / And the work's gotten slow / Now where's a boat man to go."

Jeep is Jumpin' - Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra

Jeep is Jumpin' - Johnny Hodges & His Orchestra

2:46

Castle Rock, 1955

Written by Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges

"Jeep" was one of Hodges' two nicknames, the other being "Rabbit."  Hodges was called "Jeep" supposedly after the Popeye character, but what the connection might be isn't widely known.  Anyhoo, Hodges' alto sax mastery is on full display on this swinging jazz track.  He plays against the trumpet and drums masterfully.  I like the way the music comes to an abrupt stop at around 1:30 and pauses, until a hi-hit kicks off the last third, which showcases a swirling sax solo.

Joy - Against Me!

Joy - Against Me!

2:12

Searching For a Former Clarity, 2005

Written by Laura Jane Grace, James Bowman, Andrew Seward, and Warren Oakes

An acoustic punk song delivered in a growling bellow.  Grace's introspective and sometimes abstruse lyrics describe an unyielding world.  "And somewhere off in the distance, rapidly advancing, is an onslaught of sorts / Young sirens wail in a skewed sense of glory / And the lions in the cages roar at the memory of fight."  Is it a conquering army?  Is the klaxon and chaos of a revolution?  Maybe it's all a jumble; the import thing is that joy can still be found somewhere, despite it all.

Je l'aime à mourir - Francis Cabrel

Je l'aime à mourir - Francis Cabrel

2:45

Les Chemins de traverse, 1979

Written by Francis Cabrel

I had never heard of this musician, although he's been huge in Europe for nearly fifty years.  I read that one-time Dylan guitarist Freddy "Fuzzy" Koella referred to Cabrel as a Dylan-like French musician, a claim that clicked when I heard this warm, soulful folk tune.  It was covered in both French and Spanish by Shakira and became a hit, also.  It's a love song, with surreal but sweet lyrics reminiscent of "Love Minus Zero," except with a Gallic flavor: "Elle a gommé les chiffres des horloges du quartier / Elle a fait de ma vie des cocottes en papier, des éclats de rire / Elle a bâti des ponts entre nous et le ciel."  It's a language of love that transcaneds the literal.

All You Had To Do Was Stay - Ryan Adams

All You Had To Do Was Stay - Ryan Adams

3:30

1989, 2015

Written by Taylor Swift and Max Martin, 2014

It's pretty audacious to cover an entire album, and extremely daring to do it only a year after the original was released.  Adams strips away some of the high-production gloss of Swift's song, but somehow fails to make it raw, warm, or intimate.  The music might be handmade, but Adams' voice sounds echoey and distant, with the grandiose emotion of an arena belter, not, for example, a broken-hearted singer in a nightclub.  The monotonous percussion doesn't help much.