Kissing in the Dark - Memphis Minnie

Kissing in the Dark - Memphis Minnie

2:31

single, 1953

Written by Ernest Lawlers

This song is credited to Ernest Lawlers, a.k.a. Lawlars, a.k.a. Little Son Joe, Minnie's husband and accompanist.  Minnie was a bold, brassy, blues belter; this song showcases her strong vocals and confident attitude.  Like a lot of blues artists, especially women, she was criminally overlooked in her day and is little known now, which is a shame.  She recorded around 200 songs!

Jock-a-Mo - Sugar Boy Crawford

Jock-a-Mo - Sugar Boy Crawford

single, 1954

Written by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford

This Checker single was originally credited as Sugar Boy and his Cane Cutters, but I would bet he would have preferred to have his name on the label.  Inspired by yesterday's post about "Iko Iko," I thought this song was the obvious next in line.  Well, it's clear from listening to it that it's the same song, though this is a zydeco blues with buzzy horns and the Dixie Cups' version is a higher tempo chant buoyed along by hand percussion.  They're both great songs!

Iko Iko - The Dixie Cups

Iko Iko - The Dixie Cups

2:07

single, 1964

Written by James Crawford, Barbara Hawkins, Rosa Hawkins & Joan Johnson

A schoolyard chant, almost, with hand percussion.  The ladies were just fooling around in the studio, the story goes, using drumsticks on ashtrays and chairs, singing what they thought was a traditional song their grandmother used to sing.   The producer ran the tapes, cleaned it up, added some instrumentation, and there was a hit.  It's catchy and you cal clap along, and the vocals are pitch perfect.  This song had some legal trouble.  They were sued by James "Sugar Boy" Crawford, who had a similar hit with Jock-a-Mo, and he got his name on the credits.  Then they were sued by Joe Jones, previously encountered on this blog as the writer of the Rivieras' hit "California Sun," but this suit was unsuccessful.  There's probably a rich history of "fooling around in the studio, only to become a hit" songs.  Maybe the Beach Boys' "Barbara Ann" could join this one.

Honey, Honey - ABBA

Honey, Honey - ABBA

2:55

Waterloo, 1975

Written by Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus, & Stig Anderson

A typically catchy bubblegum hit from the Swedish singles machine.  Lyrically, this song is very much of its time: the ladies prostrating themselves before a well-known "love machine" who warns them to stay grounded or he'll hurt them.  Musically, though, it's perfect pop, with the women's vocals managing to sound amped up and sex-kitten at the same time.  On another note, why did ABBA record so many songs with repeated-word titles?

Girl in the War - Josh Ritter

Girl in the War - Josh Ritter

4:23

The Animal Years, 2006

Written by John Ritter

A song that sounds like a love song but is actually an anti-war diatribe in disguise.  It kicks off with a Dylan-like jangle, nearly but not quite becoming "Fourth Time Around."  Then a Ritter version of that high thin wild mercury sound.  Highly literate as always, the lyrics open with a very chilling premonition: "All those words that we wrote / Are just the rules of the game and the rules are the first to go."  The Constitution is inviolable until some man-child demagogue decides it isn't and his sheep praise him for it.

Fuckmylife666 - Against Me!

Fuckmylife666 - Against Me!

2:56

Transgender Dysphoria Blues, 2014

Written by Laura Jane Grace

Addressed to Grace's then-wife, this song deals with the heartbreaking, terrifying prospect of becoming who you believed you were always meant to be, even when that means you're now someone your spouse isn't necessarily in love with.  "All things made to be destroyed / All moments meant to pass."  It didn't work out for Grace, which adds a layer of pathos in retrospect.  Soaring, blistering punk rock.

Elderberry Wine - Elton John

Elderberry Wine - Elton John

3:34

Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, 1973

Written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin

A heavy, funky piano rocker with a horn section from Sir Elton.  In this song, a man regrets his wife, who left him a year ago.  The music is rollicking, but the lyrics aren't Taupin's best (and he was always much more of a painter of images than a wordsmith): I mean, "You aimed to please me / Cooked black-eyed peas me."  No, that won't do.  That's not mention the women being passed around hand to hand.  And this guy whines he can't get by in life without a wife to pick his crops and get him drunk?  No wonder she left.

Devil in a Sleepin' Bag - Willie Nelson

Devil in a Sleepin' Bag - Willie Nelson

2:38

Shotgun Willie, 1973

Written by Willie Nelson

There are many songs about a musician's life on the road, and this funky, slinky number is among the best.  It tells of a tour that wasn't the greatest — the bus breaks down and someone, the devil of the title, catches pneumonia.  The devil is Nelson's drummer Paul English.  But the tour isn't all bad; Willie is sent into raptures by Kris Kristofferson and his wife Rita Cooolidge's performance ("raw perfection there for all the world to see").  As he does with every damn things he ever touches, Willie tackles this subject with humor ("if you want to buy a bus I'm taking bids") and grace.  Perfection!

California Sun - The Rivieras

California Sun - The Rivieras

2:26

Let's Have a Party, 1963

Written by Henry Glover

This song, itself covered many times (most notably by the Ramones) is a cover, originally sung by R&B artist Joe Jones.  It definitely works in a surf rock incarnation, propelled by that rollicking organ.  It's a puff piece, a rock 'n' roll oldie for teenagers in hot rods, played by people who probably didn't surf, but it's great. Interestingly, two Beach Boys independently covered it, as well as Bobby Fuller and Tommy James.  From the talented musicians who covered it alone, you know that the Rivieras tapped into something good with this one.

Botany Bay - Blaggards

Botany Bay - Blaggards

3:31

Standards, 2005

Traditional?

I thought this might be the tune sometimes recorded as "Jim Jones" as well as the given title, the tale of a convict vowing revenge on his oppressors, but it's actually something like the opposite, a navvy who is fed up with moving rocks and vows to go make his fortune in Australia.  Interesting, and a little puzzling.  Musically, this is decent, acceptable Pogues-inspired growly Celtic rock.