Friday, October 07, 2005
Friday Random 10: I'm Drifting and Drifting
It's another Friday and another Random 10 from the laptop music stash. Lots of blues on this list, but just enough 70s music to remind you whose list this is.
"I'm Stone in Love With You"/Stylistics/The Best of the Stylistics. Man, I love me some Stylistics. Russell Thompkins' unbelievable falsetto is one of the most distinctive voices ever put on record, and you'd need a voice like his to keep a lyric like this from becoming intolerable.
"Monday Morning"/Fleetwood Mac/Fleetwood Mac. From the album with "Over My Head," "Rhiannon," and "Say You Love Me." How this was never released as a 45, I can't imagine.
"Waltz for Debby"/Bill Evans Trio/Smithsonian Collection of Jazz Piano, Vol. 4. Perhaps the quintessential Evans tune, originally appearing on Live at the Village Vanguard from 1961, with Evans' original trio of drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro. LaFaro would be killed in a traffic accident only a few days after the Village Vanguard date.
"Isabella"/Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters/Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads. Imagine a little jazz or blues club somewhere, the kind of place only a few people know about. It's after midnight, so up on the bandstand, a blues band is slipping into a mellow, late-night mode. In my imagination, they sound just like this.
"Love Is Dangerous"/Fleetwood Mac/25 Years: The Chain. Originally from the 1990 album Behind the Mask, which is really the last album from Fleetwood Mac as we knew them in the 70s and 80s.
"Moritat"/Sonny Rollins/Saxophone Colossus. You know this tune by another title: "Mack the Knife." Saxophone Colossus, released in 1956, is the Rollins album to have if you're only having one, featuring his signature song "St. Thomas," a version of the standard "You Don't Know What Love Is," and "Blue Seven."
"Stingaree"/Charlie Musselwhite/The Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection. An ominous blues about a very dangerous character, delivered by a singer who usually sounds pretty amiable.
"Fly Like a Bird"/Boz Scaggs/Some Change. It takes some talent to turn such a pedestrian simile into a great song, but Boz has it. Great cajun feel, too--dig that accordion.
"Driftin'"/Eric Clapton/From the Cradle. A version of Charles Brown's "Drifting Blues," the first blues record ever to sell a million copies.
"Just Like Greta"/Van Morrison/Magic Time. One of Morrison's primary inspirations is his hatred of fame: On his latest CD, it results in a gorgeous tune with a sweet organ line and a spine-tingling choir backing him up. "Just like Greta Garbo, I want to be alone."
Quote of the Day: There's just something about this line that I can't shake. It's the Rude Pundit, who's often quoteworthy, writing yesterday about Crazy Ass George, the drunken, paranoid wacko at the end of the bar who sees imaginary threats everywhere: "[O]utside, where the rest of us are, there's only the cool breeze, smelling of rich autumn, blowing away the scent of summer decay, and stars, man, bright fuckin' stars, against a big, dark, endless sky, and earth under your feet that'll take you back home."
It's another Friday and another Random 10 from the laptop music stash. Lots of blues on this list, but just enough 70s music to remind you whose list this is.
"I'm Stone in Love With You"/Stylistics/The Best of the Stylistics. Man, I love me some Stylistics. Russell Thompkins' unbelievable falsetto is one of the most distinctive voices ever put on record, and you'd need a voice like his to keep a lyric like this from becoming intolerable.
"Monday Morning"/Fleetwood Mac/Fleetwood Mac. From the album with "Over My Head," "Rhiannon," and "Say You Love Me." How this was never released as a 45, I can't imagine.
"Waltz for Debby"/Bill Evans Trio/Smithsonian Collection of Jazz Piano, Vol. 4. Perhaps the quintessential Evans tune, originally appearing on Live at the Village Vanguard from 1961, with Evans' original trio of drummer Paul Motian and bassist Scott LaFaro. LaFaro would be killed in a traffic accident only a few days after the Village Vanguard date.
"Isabella"/Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters/Grateful Heart: Blues and Ballads. Imagine a little jazz or blues club somewhere, the kind of place only a few people know about. It's after midnight, so up on the bandstand, a blues band is slipping into a mellow, late-night mode. In my imagination, they sound just like this.
"Love Is Dangerous"/Fleetwood Mac/25 Years: The Chain. Originally from the 1990 album Behind the Mask, which is really the last album from Fleetwood Mac as we knew them in the 70s and 80s.
"Moritat"/Sonny Rollins/Saxophone Colossus. You know this tune by another title: "Mack the Knife." Saxophone Colossus, released in 1956, is the Rollins album to have if you're only having one, featuring his signature song "St. Thomas," a version of the standard "You Don't Know What Love Is," and "Blue Seven."
"Stingaree"/Charlie Musselwhite/The Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection. An ominous blues about a very dangerous character, delivered by a singer who usually sounds pretty amiable.
"Fly Like a Bird"/Boz Scaggs/Some Change. It takes some talent to turn such a pedestrian simile into a great song, but Boz has it. Great cajun feel, too--dig that accordion.
"Driftin'"/Eric Clapton/From the Cradle. A version of Charles Brown's "Drifting Blues," the first blues record ever to sell a million copies.
"Just Like Greta"/Van Morrison/Magic Time. One of Morrison's primary inspirations is his hatred of fame: On his latest CD, it results in a gorgeous tune with a sweet organ line and a spine-tingling choir backing him up. "Just like Greta Garbo, I want to be alone."
Quote of the Day: There's just something about this line that I can't shake. It's the Rude Pundit, who's often quoteworthy, writing yesterday about Crazy Ass George, the drunken, paranoid wacko at the end of the bar who sees imaginary threats everywhere: "[O]utside, where the rest of us are, there's only the cool breeze, smelling of rich autumn, blowing away the scent of summer decay, and stars, man, bright fuckin' stars, against a big, dark, endless sky, and earth under your feet that'll take you back home."
