Time Is Wasting - Josh Ritter

Time Is Wasting - Josh Ritter

2:57

See Here, I Have Built You a Mansion, 2020

Written by Josh Ritter

I love this side of Josh Ritter: alive, bright, rejuvenated and rocking.  It's an uptempo love song, and Ritter sings it with giddiness and exuberance, bounding through the melody with that nervous energy you get when you just can’t wait to be with someone.  It's written from the point of view someone who may have made bad decisions but believes himself redeemed by love ("I used to be bad, people used to get hurt / So bad that better would've still've been the worst / But you took me to the garden, girl you took me to the light").  I love that "would've still've," a great example of Ritter's ability to write demotic speech as well as ornate poetry.  Backed by a solid band, featuring a hard-driving percussion over piano and guitar lines, he conveys youthful energy.  Ritter has written deeper songs, sadder songs, and cleverer songs, but few capture the sheer exhilaration of being in love.

All This Time - Heartless Bastards

All This Time - Heartless Bastards

3:06

All This Time, 2006

Written by Erika Wennerstrom

Not a cover of the brilliant Sting song, this is a booming blues-rock jam that starts out slow and steady, gradually building up like a steam engine, guitar riffs layering on one another and singer Erika Wennerstrom's powerhouse vocals soaring over the noisy whole.  Crunchy anthemic chords crash around a full-throated declaration of love that ends with Wennerstrom bellowing, "You are my rising sun / You are my setting sun."

Mashed Potato Time - The Ronettes

Mashed Potato Time - The Ronettes

2:27

single, 1964

Written by Kal Mann and Bernie Lowe

This song was originally released by Dee Dee Sharp in 1962.  It refers to the dance craze of the time, and incorporates the melody of the Mavrelettes' 1961 hit "Please Mr. Postman," and refers to that song in the lyrics (with a clever two-syllable rhyme: "They dance alone or in a big boss line / And they discovered it's the most, man / The day they did it to Please Mr. Postman").  The Marvelettes in turn covered the song in 1962.  This energetic girl-group version was credited to the Crystals but, according to online sources, is actually an unreleased performance by the Ronettes.  Another fun fact: Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash," released a few months after the original, was written in part as a parody of Dee Dee Sharp's record, even copying the "whaa-oo" backing vocal.

Bluetonic - The Bluetones

Bluetonic - The Bluetones

4:04

Expecting to Fly, 1995

Written by Mark Morriss, Adam Devlin, Scott Morriss and Eds Chesters

By general consensus, this band seems to wear the title, whether deserved or not, of "poor man's Stone Roses," whatever that means.  The Stone Roses don't mean anything to me, personally, so I come in with a clean slate.  This catchy, jangly number is an optimistic anthem, a self-help mantra wrapped in Britpop.  It says that you can face challenges with a good heart, you can change others with a good attitude, you can heal not with time but with effort.  And if that seems a little vague, there's a more specific tack: "When I am sad and weary / When all my hope is gone / I walk around my house / And think of you with nothing on."

Lucretia MacEvil - Blood, Sweat & Tears

Lucretia MacEvil - Blood, Sweat & Tears

3:05

Blood, Sweat & Tears 3, 1970

Written by David Clayton-Thomas

David Clayton-Thomas, the second lead singer of Blood, Sweat & Tears and the voice behind their biggest hits, died yesterday. BST is a band whose hits informed my first impressions of rock as a teenager.  So while Clayton-Thomas has a solid catalog in his own right, I'm returning to his work in the band's jazz-rock material.  This song is one of his best showcases. Brass punches, a muscular rhythm section, and Clayton-Thomas' booming baritone give the song a swagger that's impossible to ignore. He relishes every line as he tears into the title character, a classic femme fatale whom he blames for just about everything: "I hear your mother was the talk of the sticks / Nothin' that your daddy wouldn't do for kicks / Never done a thing worth-while / You're just an evil woman-child."  Of course, from a modern perspective, it's hard not to notice that Lucretia bears the brunt of the condemnation while the men around her get off lightly: it's hardly the lady's fault that her parents were layabouts or that a married man is willing to pay her rent!  How about criticizing the system and not the cogs in the machine, David?!  But in the end, whether you read the lyric as misogyny, melodrama, or tongue-in-cheek character sketch, Clayton-Thomas sells it with such conviction that the performance transcends its questionable premise. It's a fitting reminder of what made him such a commanding frontman.

Those Were the Days - Cream

Those Were the Days - Cream

2:54

Wheels Of Fire, 1968

Written by Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor

Showcasing everything that made Cream more than just a blues-rock power trio, jazz, psychedelia, and hard rock all mingle here.  Each member has room to shine without showboating. The lyrics drift through a haze of psychedelic hippie mysticism ("Tie your painted shoes and dance, blue daylight in your hair / Overhead a noiseless eagle fans a flame / Wonder everywhere"), though the title and mood hint at nostalgia (for Atlantis?) beneath the acid-colored surface.  Jack Bruce sings the verses in an unusually high, almost fragile register; Clapton lays down one of his fiercest guitar solos, while Baker pummels out a series of restless fills that propel the song forward.  Despite the opaque lyrics, it's hard not to hear a trace of melancholy in its title, knowing the band would splinter only months later.

Travelin' Man - Ricky Nelson

Travelin' Man - Ricky Nelson

2:23

Rick Is 21, 1961

Written by Jerry Fuller

This song was originally intended for Sam Cooke, but he passed on it, according to some accounts literally throwing it in the trash where it was rescued by Nelson's manager.  It's a song about a fellow who has a girl in every port: "Oh, my sweet fräulein down in Berlin town / Makes my heart start to yearn / And my China doll down in old Hong Kong / Waits for my return," and so forth.  Melodically, it's fairly simple, using an extremely common Brill Building progression and a melody built largely from chord tones. It has that conversational, stepwise motion that several early-'60s hits share.

This Is It - Melba Moore

This Is It - Melba Moore

3:31

This Is It, 1976

Written by Van McCoy

A vibrant disco production that glides along on everything the genre does best: shimmering strings, bright horns, crisp rhythm guitar, and layers of backing vocals. T.  It's a love song, about finally finding a low that seems real.  The lyrics come out in choppy bursts of enthusiasm.  "You smile at me / And suddenly / The wheels of love begin to turn inside of me / You said hello / I felt a glow."  Moore's vocal is infectious and joyful, conveying a real sense of celebration.

Time Marches On - Tracy Lawrence

Time Marches On - Tracy Lawrence

3:05

Time Marches On, 1996

Written by Bobby Braddock

A country observing the coming and going of generations.  There's ghosts of Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire," obviously, from its chronicling of the sweep of history, but also the Stones "Mother's Little Helper" in that it hints at the drug use, psychological problems, and idiosyncratic behavior that go on behind the closed doors of ostensibly proper blue-collar families: "Brother's wearin' beads and he smokes a lot of dope / Mama is depressed, barely makes a sound / Daddy's got a girlfriend in another town."  Lawrence wisely resists over-singing the material. His straightforward delivery allows the lyric to do the heavy lifting, while the restrained mid-'90s country arrangement keeps sentimentality at bay.

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes

Wake Up Everybody - Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes
7:32
Wake Up Everybody, 1975
Written by John Whitehead, Gene McFadden and Victor Carstarphen

Let's celebrate Juneteenth

This is the longest song ever posted to the blog.  Its album is the last to include Teddy Pendergrass before he left the group for a solo career.  This soul anthem is uplifting and positive. Rather than preaching politics, it asks teachers, doctors, and leaders to do better, trusting that the next generation will respond in kind: "Wake up, all the teachers, time to teach a new way / Maybe then they'll listen to whatcha have to say / Cause they're the ones who's coming up, and the world is in their hands / When you teach the children, teach 'em the very best you can."  The arrangement is as uplifting as the message. Shimmering keyboards, lush strings, bright horns, and a gently insistent rhythm build into something both grand and graceful. As the song gathers momentum, Teddy Pendergrass' husky vocal takes command, starting quietly before building into a near-sermon.  It's one of the great soul vocals of the 1970s.