Song of the Day – “Statesboro Blues” Allman Brothers

I woke up this morning, had them Statesboro Blues.

Damnedest thing.

Archive SotD – February 2-8, 2009

February 2, 2009 – “Accidents Will Happen” – Elvis Costello

Back when I was a wee lad, I only listened to Top 40 radio. I didn’t like the metal my brother played, or the country my parents listened to when they didn’t listen to the Muzak on WPCH. My tastes were narrow, though not near as narrow as popular music today.

As I matured (got older, OK?) my tastes widened, and I realized that a lot of music over the last 80 years or so is enjoyable. For me, one song opened my eyes to the possibilities – the possibility that someone I had never heard of could produce music that would be fresh and meaningful to me without having to be popular.

For me, this was that song.

It was a blast through my headphones. When I first put the Armed Forces album on the turntable, I replayed this song several times before letting it continue to the next (“Senior Service”). It made me into a voracious consumer of music, trying to hear all the stuff I’d missed. It directly led me to wanting to introduce people to stuff THEY hadn’t heard before, like I’m trying to do with “Song of the Day”.

How about you? Can you trace a love of music to a certain song, album or artist? I’d love to hear your responses.

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February 3, 2009 – “Oh Boy” – Buddy Holly

February 3, 1959 – 50 years ago today – was “the day the music died”. The plane crash that took the life of Buddy Holly, who had a number of hits that are still being sung today, also took Ritchie Valens, whose “La Bamba” showed such promise, and Jiles Perry Richardson, a DJ known as “The Big Bopper”, whose one hit was “Chantilly Lace”.

Even on a scratchy 78, such as we have here, Holly’s brilliance came through. He influenced many artists, including the Beatles. We’re happy for the songs he gave us, and sad for the ones we missed out on.

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February 4, 2009 – “The Masochism Tango” – Tom Lehrer

A comedy break from the wonderful Tom Lehrer. This is my favorite, but you might want to check out “The Element Song” if your high-school chemistry is rusty.

A tip of the hat to my friend Russ Ivey, who learned many of Lehrer’s songs while performing in a show based on his songs (“Tomfoolery”).

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February 5, 2009 – “Money Changes Everything” – The Brains/Tom Gray

The Atlanta area has produced a number of great bands, and today and tomorrow I wanted to showcase a couple of them.

You may recognize the song because Cyndi Lauper opened her megahit album (She’s So Unusual) with it. But it was written by Tom Gray of Atlanta, and originally recorded by his band, The Brains. Here is a version in which he’s backed by another great Atlanta band, the Swimming Pool Q’s.

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February 6, 2009 – “Watusi Rodeo” – Guadalcanal Diary

What a blast from the past this video is. Nina Blackwood, an original MTV VJ (kids, ask your parents), introduces a video from Marietta’s Guadalcanal Diary. The audio on the clip is a demo version of the song, not the one from their first album Walking in the Shadow of the Big Man. Stick around to the end of the video, and you will see the shining emblem of Marietta, Georgia – the Big Chicken.

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February 7, 2009 – “Individual Choice” – Jean-Luc Ponty

An instrumental track from the jazz violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty. Reminiscent of “Love on a Real Train” and other works by Tangerine Dream.

February 8, 2009 – “Save it for a Rainy Day” – The Jayhawks

The Jayhawks are a band that usually gets shoved under the “Americana” umbrella. Formed in 1985, most of the songs in their seven-album career were written by either Mark Olson or Gary Louris. Louris left and joined “Golden Smog” for a while, but Olson and Louris combined to release “Ready for the Flood” back at the end of January.

Their harmonies are terrific, and you can count of hearing more from them in “Song of the Day”.

Song of the Day – “Once in a Very Blue Moon” – Nanci Griffith

Classy lady, gifted songwriter – never gotten the recognition she deserves.

Strangely enough, her highest-charting single was written by someone else, and also eclipsed in the charts by another cover – “From a Distance”.

Song of the Day – “Tourist Town” – Marti Jones

I saw Marti and Don (husband and wife) earlier in this tour, and it was a great concert. Trading back and forth on their best songs, they showed their songwriting prowess.

This particular song was a joint effort. Well, most of their work is a joint effort – they play and sing on each others’ records. What I meant for this song is that they wrote it together.

The sound on this video is not great, but one takes what one can get.

Song of the Day – “Bizarre Love Triangle” – New Order

New Order was formed from the ashes of Joy Division after Ian Curtis committed suicide in 1980. They went towards a more synthesizer-driven sound, and ended up as more of a dance band.

This particular song has many remixes, but I figure that this live performance is closest to what they actually envisioned for the song. It’s also been covered many, many times – I have three different covers in my collection alone.

 

Archive SotD – January 26-February 1, 2009

January 26, 2009 – “Rockabilly Rules” – The Stray Cats

Yes. Yes it does.

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January 27, 2009 – “Brilliant Disguise” – Bruce Springsteen

The Boss and the E Street Band have a new album out today! Always a reason to celebrate.

This song is from his 1987 album Tunnel of Love. Although the full band didn’t play on this album, the atmospheric organ is played by the late Danny Federici, who worked with Bruce for 40 years before his untimely passing last year. He will be missed.

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January 28, 2009 – “Lloyd I’m Ready to Be Heartbroken” – Camera Obscura

I love, love, love this 2006 song from Scotland’s Camera Obscura. The video is fun as well, as it puts the song over sunny Target ad visuals.

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January 29, 2009 – “Who Knows Where the Time Goes?” – Fairport Convention

The group that spawned the great guitarist Richard Thompson here showcases the vocals of Sandy Denny. A beautiful song from their 1969 album, Unhalfbricking.

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January 30, 2009 – “Cynical Girl” – Marshall Crenshaw

This is the first song I ever heard from one of my favorites, Marshall Crenshaw. His first album is a gem, and his live performances are great as well – I saw him at the 688 Club on Spring Street in Atlanta.

All his albums are terrific. It’s hard to believe that someone who started out playing John Lennon in “Beatlemania” could end up with so much great music of his own.

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January 31, 2009 – “Mohammed’s Radio” – Warren Zevon

Continuing a mini-theme of artists I’ve seen at Atlanta venues that no longer exist, here’s Warren Zevon, who I saw at the Moonshadow.

This particular video is a young Warren guesting at a Jackson Browne concert.

“They work all day/And still can’t pay/The price of gasoline and meat” Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

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February 1, 2009 – “Hammond Song” – The Roches

OK, one more group I saw at the Moonshadow. From left to right, you have Terre, Suzzy and Maggie Roche. Individually, they’re distinctly average singers, but their harmony is brilliant. This is from their first of eleven albums (if you count the Christmas album and kids’ album). As their career progressed, they seemed to have producers who would pile more and more instruments and effects onto their songs, which didn’t do them any favors.

However, I do miss Robert Fripp’s guitar work from the studio version on this live version of “Hammond Song” from the series Soundstage.

Song of the Day – “Pink Houses” – John Mellencamp

“Ain’t that America
Land of the free
Little pink houses for you and me.”

Thirty years on, home ownership looks a little different…

I remember the contest that MTV had in connection with this song, giving away a little pink house in Mellencamp’s home state of Indiana. It was supposedly built n a toxic waste dump, so John made them get another house. This one wasn’t pink, so John told us in the promo that they “were gonna paint the mutha PINK!” According to the interwebz, the winner only lived in the house for two days before selling it.

By the way, Mellencamp is playing here in Atlanta this weekend also, just like Grace Potter. He’ll be at the Fox on Sunday.

 

Song of the Day – “New Music” Wednesday – “Paris”

“Paris (Ooh La La)” – Grace Potter and the Nocturnals

A couple of weeks ago I posted that Joyce Kennedy of Mothers Finest was one of my favorite singers. Grace Potter reminds me of her.

They’re playing at the Variety Playhouse this Friday and Saturday – but they sold out weeks ago before I could get tickets.

Archive SotD – January 19-25, 2009

January 19, 2009 – “People Got to Be Free” – The Rascals

In honor of MLK Day, a song with the same message as his words and life, “People Got to Be Free”. Listen for a little “Oh Happy Day” by the Edwin Hawkins Singers mixed in to this live rendition.

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January 20, 2009 – “Barracuda” – Rasputina

You might not think I would resort to a cover this quickly, but the prospect of two women rocking their cellos really does something for me. Look to see one of their originals here somewhere down the line.

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January 21, 2009 – “Jesus the Mexican Boy” – Iron and Wine

Something from this century: a low-fi gem from Sam Beam, who hides behind the name Iron & Wine. He’s done songs with a little more production, but I like this story about a boy who gave him a ride on the back of his bike.

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January 22, 2009 – “Fourth Day of July” – Washington Squares

Lauren Agnelli, Tom Goodkind, and Bruce Paskow put together a folk group in the 80s that wasn’t a parody as in “A Mighty Wind”, but earnest and powerful and FUN. Their debut album is great top to bottom, but YouTube doesn’t have those, so here is a track from their second and final CD, Fair and Square.

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January 23, 2009 – “All My Little Words” – Magnetic Fields

Here we go – the first, but nowhere near the last Magnetic Fields song I’m going to post. The Magnetic Fields are a band put together by the prolific Stephin Merritt, who is also involved with the Future Bible Heroes, Gothic Archies and the Sixths. This is from their magnum opus, 69 Love Songs. He doesn’t sing this one – his voice is a distinctive low baritone in the mold of Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies.

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January 24, 2009 – “Soul Vaccination” – Tower of Power

Let’s go back. Way back. No, it’s not “Troglodyte” by the Jimmy Castor Bunch, it’s a HOT number by the finest soul horn line – Tower of Power. Everybody get in line for this vaccination.

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January 25, 2009 – “Wishful Thinking” – The Ditty Bops

You know, the Intertoobz is a weird and wonderful thing. You can find all sorts of things. For example, I found a music video on YouTube of the Ditty Bops’ “Wishful Thinking” when searching for another song of the same name. I prefer this.

Nutritional and Dietary Supplements

As I’ve said, I’ll be occasionally posting on issues related to critical thinking. That covers a whole lotta ground. Readers will find that one of the areas that most interest/infuriate me is “alternative medicine”. Although I have no medical training, I can find my way around a medical article, as long as they have some grounding in the scientific method. That’s why one of my favorite blogs is “Science-Based Medicine”, by a collective of doctors and pharmacists who advocate for medicine that is both effective and safe – as shown by properly-executed scientific trials.

Today’s article is by Dr. Harriet Hall and is on nutritional and dietary supplements, and how these unregulated substances can not be shown to be either effective or safe. Some of them may be, but how can we know that if they haven’t been properly tested? The US law that removes the requirement for regulation from these supplements is the DSHEA (1994 Diet Supplement Health and Education Act). It’s an anti-consumer act that I would guess very few of the people who spend billions on supplements each year know anything about.

The article is very clear and concise on the dangers of supplements, and I can’t recommend it enough. One thing I find curious is an attitude that I see in one of the comments. A commenter seems to say that he wants the ability to be a guinea pig for untested supplements. He tried a number of them and something in them seemed to work, so therefore supplements are OK while real medicine, tested for effectiveness, is not.

I  do not want to be a guinea pig. I don’t want my loved ones to be guinea pigs. I want to know that anything I take for a condition has been proven to be effective for a certain percentage of people at a certain dosage, and that a smaller percentage of people have identified side effects. How this commenter could read the stories Dr. Hall and other commenters have provided of kidney failure, uterine cancer, liver damage, and high levels of arsenic and lead in unregulated supplements and consider those as acceptable risks is beyond me. It’s a way of thinking that is as foreign to me as a person that wears tinfoil hats to block alien mind-rays.