Connection - the Rolling Stones

Connection - the Rolling Stones

2:07

Between the Buttons, 1967

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

A tight, no-frills burst of British Invasion, stepping slightly away from American roots and giving a brief nod to the melodic stylings of the Beatles.  The song seemingly was inspired by the band's frustration with being targeted for their drug use: "But the bags, they get a very close inspection / I wonder why it is that they suspect of 'em / They're dying to add me to their collections / And I don't know if they'll let me go."  He's just trying to make his connecting flight, man.  Or is it the kind of connection that was meant in 1969's "You Can't Always Get What You Want?"  Probably that one.

Izembe Mfana - Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Izembe Mfana - Ladysmith Black Mambazo

3:41

Always With Us, 2014

The album this track comes from is a tribute to the group's founder's wife, Nellie Shabalala, who was murdered by a masked gunman.  It blends the women's voices of Nellie's group with Joseph Shabalala's typically male-only group.  This adds a nice counterpoint to the tenor blend of Ladysmith; this particular track sounds almost like a conversation, punctuated by clicks and whoops.  The vocal control and harmonies flow over the ear like honey.  Not Sweet Honey in the Rock; that's a different group.

Zu Zu - the Bonnevilles

Zu Zu - the Bonnevilles

2:42

single, 1960

Written by William Maxwell and Albert George

Very little is known about this doo-wop group.  Some sites say the song was released in 1959, some say 1962.  Some say it was written by Maxwell and George, and some have an A. Cooper listed as the co-author.  The Bonnevilles seem to have released only this song, and its A-side, "Lorraine."  Anyway, this is a fine example of late '50s doo-wop, all soaring falsetto, harmony background, and "bop bop bop bop bop" backing.

Ye Banks and Braes - The Real McKenzies

Ye Banks and Braes - The Real McKenzies

2:24

Oot & Aboot, 2003

Written by Robert Burns and Paul McKenzie

Also known as "The Banks O'Doon," this is the third version of the poem written by Robert Burns in 1791.  McKenzie turns it into a fiery Celtic punk number, the ultimate in genre fusion.  The narrator is a proto-Emo, groaning about how even the chirping birds remind him of how life brings him no joy any more.  Even flowers suck now.  "And my false love did steal that rose / And all she left me was but a thorn."

What'll I Do - Bob Dylan

What'll I Do - Bob Dylan

3:16

Shadows In the Night, 2015

Written by Irving Berlin

I haven't put in a great deal of time listening to Dylan's four albums of Sinatra covers, which is a shame, because he made some great versions of classic songs from the greatest songwriters of the era.  In this song, the narrator laments that his love is gone, and he has only a photograph and dreams that won't come true.  The pedal steel guitar really shines on this track, giving it a hollow, noir feeling.

V-Neck Sweater - The Greyboy Allstars

V-Neck Sweater - The Greyboy Allstars

2:35

What Happened To Television?, 2007

Written by ?

A blend of old school funk jazz informed by modern hiphop sensibilities.  The band is apparently named after its founder, a DJ, but there's little of that sound on this particular track.  It's all horns and organ and wailing funk vocals that have a lot of soul but not much semantical content.  It's a decent song, but I'm a bit underwhelmed; it never really gets in your face like it seems it wants to.

Us Of Lesser Gods - Flogging Molly

Us Of Lesser Gods - Flogging Molly

3:19

Float, 2008

Written by Dave King

I'd say this is an almost archetypical Flogging Molly track: a blistering Celtic rock with traditional instruments blended with electric, backing Dave King's off-brand Shane MacGowan voice.  The lyrics convey anger, but are rather abstruse: something about how life is a hell on earth now because of, possibly, acid rain, coastal erosion, sex on TV?  But whatever King's shouting about, this post-punk with an Irish lilt makes it sound great!

This Must Be the Place - Wild Hands

This Must Be the Place - Wild Hands

3:21

I Want To See Some Color, 2022

Written by Max Patzner

I thought this might be a Talking Heads cover (and what a great juxtaposition of band names that would be!), but no.  It's quiet, restrained folk-pop, mellow with almost a rocksteady beat.  The vocals have a faint echo as Patzner sings about some object of his affections — a partner, a place, someplace that feels right.  "I saw you in my dreams / Well, goodbye, lonesome / I see home every time I close my eyes."  A terrific laid back pop paean.

Some Other Time - the Shazam

Some Other Time - the Shazam

2:48

Godspeed the Shazam, 1999

Written by The Shazam, probably?

Another band totally new to me, this is power pop heavily influenced by the 1960s sound, with catchy hooks, similar to Big Star.  This is a wistful "coulda-been" love song: "Maybe in a fantasy / Or a memory / You and me could've really been something."  And the dry witty hook that turns the usual cliché on its head: "But now you're old / And I am everything I said I would be."  Hints of Beach Boys harmonies, with a theremin at the end nodding to "Good Vibrations."

Part-Time Love - Elton John

Part-Time Love - Elton John

3:16

A Single Man, 1978

Written by Elton John and Gary Osborne

Working with the pen of his lesser-known writing partner, John made this bouncy little tune about what appears to be adultery.  "You've been seen running around... Don't tell me what to do / When you've been doing it too / Because you, me and everybody's got a part-time love."  Everybody does it, apparently.  "I've got someone at home / But she's got a love of her own."  It's a jaunty tune you can bob your head to, until perhaps the lyrics start sinking in.

Valentine's Day - David Bowie

Valentine's Day - David Bowie

3:02

The Next Day, 2013

Written by David Bowie

I was not much interested in Bowie as a young man, but the older I get the more I come to think of him as a towering genius.  Thing song seems to be the plans of a school shooter, Valentine, who is telling the narrator what will happen.  "It's in his scrawny hands / It's in his icy heart / It's happening today."  The song doesn't go into the reasons why Valentine might feel this way, just that he resents the football stars and dreams of having the world at his mercy.  I think Bowie could have approached this subject with something a little more complex, but that's nitpicking because I think Bowie has the talent to do better.

Poison Love - Johnnie & Jack

Poison Love - Johnnie & Jack

2:20

single, 1951

Written by Tillman Franks and Elmer Laird

Fun fact: This song is traditionally credited to Laird's widow, though not written by her.  Laird was an automobile dealer in Shreveport who had once employed Franks.  It's a heartbreak song by this honky-tonk country duo, who trade verses.  One of them has a particularly juicy tenor.  "For your poison love has stained the life blood in my heart and soul dear / And I know my life will never be the same."  But is the narrator done with this two-timing lady?  No!  Still he pleads and cries out for her, though his better judgement tells him he's making a mistake.  Not so fun fact: Jack Anglin ironically died in a car accident on the way to a memorial service for Patsy Cline in 1963. 

Your Love Belongs Under a Rock - The Dirtbombs

Your Love Belongs Under a Rock - The Dirtbombs

2:20

Ultraglide In Black, 2001

Written by Mick Collins

This song happens to be the only one of this album that is not a cover.  This song is soul music, but revved up and mixed with garage rock and punk sensibilities for the modern palate.  Its message is one familiar to soul and R&B: the narrator's love turned out to do him wrong, bat eyes at other guys, make a fool of him.  "You're always tryin to get the best of me / Tryin' to make me feel small."  '60s surf guitar riffs and "yeah yeah" choruses keep the tempo fast and the sound a wall.  This band should be as famous as the White Stripes.

Daddy Loves Mommyo - Tommy Duncan

Daddy Loves Mommyo - Tommy Duncan

1:58

single, 1956

Written by Bill Woods

This guy toured with Bob Wills and was a founding member of the Texas Playboys, but apparently Wills' drinking was too much for Duncan, who struck out on his won.  Sadly, he never made it big.  That's incredible to me, because if this amazing song is anything to go by, Duncan should have been bigger than Elvis Presley.  He could play piano, guitar, and bass, and sang everything from standards to rockabilly.  This particular song is a blend of rockabilly and Western swing, with lyrics that are ahead of their time.   "Daddy-o go out prowlin' / He meet a little dish downtown / It's Daddy-o's time for howlin' / Hmm, he really get around / This Daddy-o go in a honky-tonk / Pitch a little woo / But Daddy-o find his momma / She's in there pitchin' too."

Hocken's Hey - Micheal Head & the Strands

Hocken's Hey - Micheal Head & the Strands

3:23

The Magical World Of the Strands, 1997

Written by Michael Head?

The album this song is on, I come to find out, is a critically acclaimed but largely unknown one.  This song is a lush, orchestrated pop song accentuated with strings.  It's chamber pop, with the understated vocals of Nick Drake, if he were backed by the Byrds and Fairport Convention.  I don't know exactly what the song is about, but "Hocken's Hey" seems to evoke a very British homeland, bringing to mind a verdant countryside where a tiny hamlet nestles.  Head's vocal evokes a sort of dark, expressionistic melancholy, but meshed with breezy, jangly, layered pop.  

Harlem Nocturne - Quincy Jones

Harlem Nocturne - Quincy Jones

2:34

Quincy's Got a Brand New Bag, 1965

Written by Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers, 1939

I am not familiar with this song, though it is a jazz standard that has been performed by many, many artists, as diverse as Mel Tormé and Shadowy Men On a Shadowy Planet.  The interesting thing about this song, indeed the whole album, and I guess most of Jones' discography, is that he doesn't play anything on it.  He's the arranger and conductor.  Does that deserve top billing?  I wouldn't say so, but legions of musicians revere Jones so I guess he knows what's up.  Anyway, it's a nice smooth jazz number.  I like the interplay between the sax and the trumpet.

High Road - Have Gun, Will Travel

High Road - Have Gun, Will Travel

2:45

Fiction, Fact, Or Folktale?, 2013

Written by Have Gun, Will Travel

A pleasant piece of Americana pop.  It blends folk, country and pop with a mix of harmonica, rollicking boogie-woogie piano, guitar, and a honky-tonk style vibe.  The song is about making better choices, beign a better person.  Forgiving, letting go of the past, so you can live with yourself.  "'Cause I don't want to go the wrong way / And at the end of every long day / Is my reflection of me."  Fun fact: the band launched a craft pale ale named for this song.

Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton

Hound Dog - Big Mama Thornton

3:01

single, 1953

Written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller

Putting the King's famous cover to shame, this hokum blues song is rockin' so don't come knockin'.  Thornton belts out the lyrics like she knows what it's like to throw a no-good triflin' man out of your house.  It has a verse that Elvis didn't include,  "Baby, you made me weep and moan / 'Cause you ain't looking for a woman / All you looking is for a home."  I love how she calls out, "Shake it, but don't break it!"  I wonder if that's the first time that expression was recorded?  Stoller later said of Elvis' version, "It just sounded terribly nervous, too fast, too white. But you know, after it sold seven or eight million records it started to sound better."

HUMBLE. - Kendrick Lamar

HUMBLE - Kendrick Lamar

2:57

DAMN., 2017

Written by Kendrick Lamar, Michael Williams II, and Asheton Hogan

I know very little about Lamar, except what I heard from his beef with Drake last year, and a few tracks from To Pimp a Butterfly, all of which I liked.  With a sparse beat featuring guitar, bass, and piano, this one is light on the beat switches he seems to be known for and is more about the message.  Although the chorus "Sit down / be humble") is repeated way too many times for my liking, I like that even amidst all the boasting, Lamar is reminding himself to stay grounded.  Rap doesn't do that much.  "Ay, I remember syrup sandwiches and crime allowances / Finesse on 'em with some counterfeits, but now I'm countin' this."

Feeling Good - Nina Simone

Feeling Good - Nina Simone

2:54

I Put a Spell On You, 1965

Written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley, 1964

This was written for a musical called The Roar Of the Greasepaint — The Smell Of the Crowd.  It is sung by a character called "The Negro," who declares his triumph over the other characters in a largely metaphorical game.  Here, Simone certainly sings it powerfully and triumphantly.  "It's a new dawn / It's a new day / It's a new life for me, ooh / And I'm feeling good," she proclaims.  The lyrics are all bright sunshine, but Simone's vocals are defiant, almost menacing.  It's a terrific moment of black pride.

Back In the Good Old World (Gypsy) - Tom Waits

Back In the Good Old World (Gypsy) - Tom Waits

2:29

Night On Earth, 1992

Written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan

Clunking, shambling percussion and bleating horns punctuate an accordion line as Waits growls out what appears to be a ghost's determination to return.  "On October's last I'll fly back home / Rolling down winding way." he avers.  He may return on Halloween but he longs for summer.  "And all I've got's a pocket full of flowers on my grave," the spirit rumbles.  It's a great song, but the production could be clearer; it's a muted sound, even compared to the Waltz version of the song on the same album.

A Good Year For the Roses - George Jones

A Good Year For the Roses - George Jones

3:01

George Jones With Love, 1970

Written by Jerry Chesnut

Okay, I must admit a near-total ignorance of George Jones, a king (albeit dethroned by now) in country circles.  I first of him, in fact, from the Daniel Johnston song "Ain't No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Out Of Me."  I had to ask someone who George Jones was.  So I knew of this song, but I don't think I'd ever heard it, even the Costello cover.  Can I just say, good Lord, it's devastating.  Just pure heartbreak set to music, with a vocal that somehow balances wounded dignity and quiet devastation. The song paints a picture of a man watching his wife walk out, and instead of shouting or begging, he just catalogs the small details: the cigarette with lipstick traces, the half-drunk cup of coffee that, he notes, she wanted, unlike how she feels about him.  "And from the bedroom those familiar sounds of our one baby's cryin' / Goes unheard."  Jones doesn’t oversing it; he just lets the sadness simmer under the surface, and that bitterness and resignation is what makes it hit so hard.  Oof.

Good Times - Charlie Robison

Good Times - Charlie Robison

3:56

Good Times, 2004

Written by Charlie Robison

A quite funny declaration of hedonism: drinking, music, and carpe diem.  You know the song doesn't take itself seriously when the opening lines are "Pick up a pizza, pineapple ham / And put it in the back of a Good Times van."  This is pure Texas honky-tonk country blues with piano and guitar, and it takes itself less seriously than even those sly rascals in ZZ Top.  "I'm gonna start singing so don't interrupt," Robison counsels, and it's good advice; his witty lyrics deserve to be heard.

Try a Little Kindness - Glen Campbell

Try a Little Kindness - Glen Campbell

2:26

Try a Little Kindness, 1970

Written by Curt Sapaugh and Bobby Austin

Just what the title indicates, this song is a straightforward, positive song about paying kindness forward.  "And if you try a little kindness / Then you'll overlook the blindness / Of narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded streets."  I particularly like how the song notes that you should help people even if they are the architects of their own position ("With a heavy load from the seeds he sowed").  Although Campbell is thought of as a country artists, this song is easy-listening rock, and he delivers the vocal with the enthusiasm of a soul singer.  This song is popular today with Christian ministers and advice-givers, despite true Christian feeling being looked upon as "woke" nonsense by theocrats and their sheep these days.