WTF: More Crazy Covers

Francoise Hardy

For the sake of an attention-grabbing headline, we call these “crazy covers” and for the most part they’re not crazy at all.

Back in the day it was fairly common practice for even the biggest artists to do covers, because they were cheap and easy to license. And besides – when the songwriters of the day were Lennon-McCartney, Jagger-Richards, Ray Davies and this cat named Dylan, why not toss in a cover?

So here we have a handful of cover versions, mainly of tunes from the 1960s when the giants listed above still ruled the world. Each cover version sheds a new light on each song, in their own initimable way.

A few of these are kind of sneaky: Clarence Clemons is of course “covering” a song he originally played on as part of the E Street Band. Neil Diamond and Carole King are here “covering” songs that they actually wrote, but were made famous by others.

MP3: “Who’ll Be The Next In Line” by Francoise Hardy (covering The Kinks)

MP3: “If You Gotta Go, Go Now” by Mae West (covering Bob Dylan)

MP3: “Save The Last Dance For Me” by Ike & Tina Turner (covering The Drifters)

MP3: “It’s All Too Much” by My Darling Clementine (covering The Beatles)

MP3: “Cracklin’ Rosie” by Shane McGowan & The Popes (covering Neil Diamond)

MP3: “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” by Buck Owens (covering Bob Dylan)

MP3: “The Rains Came” by the Sir Douglas Quintet (covering Big Sambo)

MP3: “Foxey Lady” by Cee Lo Green (covering Jimi Hendrix)

MP3: “Woodstock” by America (covering Joni Mitchell)

MP3: “I’m A Believer” by Neil Diamond (covering The Monkees)

MP3: “I Can’t Turn You Loose” by Edgar Winter’s White Trash (covering Otis Redding)

MP3: “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” by Alex Chilton (covering The Rolling Stones)

MP3: “Small Things” by Clarence Clemons (covering Bruce Springsteen)

MP3: “I’m Into Something Good” by Brian Wilson and Carole King (covering Herman’s Hermits)

Rockin’ the Jukebox

Lenny Bruce once said, the one machine made only for fun is the jukebox.   It doesn’t cut anything, or mash anything, or staple anything together, it just plays music.  When I was a kid we used to go over to visit my grandmother in Louisiana, and she operated a small pool hall in Catahoula, deep in the swamps.  I was fascinated with the jukebox – how it found the record you selected, placed it just so on the turntable and guided that needle with precision right to the first notes of the music.  When the record man came every once in a while to change out the 45 rpm platters, she gave the old ones to me and my brothers.  My musical tastes for the rest of my life were influenced by that handful of records from a forgotten jukebox in swampland Louisiana.

If you see a jukebox nowadays, it’s usually a relic stuck away in some corner of a bar.  It could play CDs or it could be one of those new digital models stocked with thousands of downloads (like my laptop).  Or you might find one in the rec room or basement bar of some guy’s house that you’re only going to visit once.   Jukeboxes seem to be disappearing, or at least morphing into something other than the machine that Lenny Bruce romanticized or the motherlode of forbidden music from my childhood.  Let’s drop a coin in the slot and celebrate the jukebox today.

MP3: “Juke Box Music” by the Kinks

MP3: “Let The Jukebox Keep On Playing” by Carl Perkins

MP3: “A-1 On The Jukebox” by Dave Edmunds

MP3: “Turn The Jukebox Up Louder” by Porter Wagoner

MP3: “Jukebox Man” by Dick Curless

MP3: “You’re Still On My Mind” by the Byrds

MP3: “Stoned At The Jukebox” by Hank Williams Jr.

MP3: “A-11” by Buck Owens

MP3: “Jukebox Charlie” by Johnny Paycheck

MP3: “Little Queenie” by Chuck Berry

MP3: “I Love Rock and Roll” by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

MP3: “Juke Box Hero/Whole Lotta Love” (live) by Foreigner

30 Days Out (From Christmas): Country

 

Day 19 – Nothing goes better with Christmas than sadness.  And nothing goes better with a sad Christmas than cheap beer and country music.  The “classic” country music artists knew this, and they cranked out some of the hoariest tearjerkers of all time.

A word here about country music – we’re going to avoid the current so-called country music artists.  For one thing, I don’t know what the hell these people are doin’!  It sure doesn’t sound like country music.  And of course we’ll steer clear of Grandma and Reindeer crossings, so pull up a box of Kleenex and shed a few tears for Christmas.

MP3: “Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus” by George Jones & Tammy Wynette

MP3: “If We Make It Through December” by Merle Haggard

MP3: “Santa Looked A Lot Like Daddy” by Buck Owens

MP3: “Hard Candy Christmas” by Dolly Parton

MP3: “Christmas Time’s A-Coming” by Jerry Reed

MP3: “Pretty Paper” by Willie Nelson

MP3: “Mommy, Look Santa Is Crying” by Stonewall Jackson

MP3: “Christmas Without Daddy” by Loretta Lynn

MP3: “Shut In At Christmas” by Charlie Louvin

MP3: “Truckin’ Trees For Christmas” by Red Simpson

MP3: “Light Of The Stable” by Emmylou Harris (with Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt & Neil Young)

MP3: “The Little Drummer Boy” by Johnny Cash

MP3: Johnny Cash Holiday Message

MP3: “O Come All Ye Faithful” by George Jones

MP3: “Silent Night” by Jim Reeves

MP3: “White Christmas” by Tammy Wynette

MP3: “Jingle Bells” by Chet Atkins

A Dozen Country Classics

So I’m sitting here thinking, “what kind of post would be good to follow a review of Madonna’s concert?”  Of course – country music!  One dozen of the best, coming right up. 

MP3: “It’s Been So Long Darling” by Ernest Tubb

MP3: “Walkin’ After Midnight” by Patsy Cline

MP3: “Cold, Cold Heart” by Hank Williams

MP3: “Swinging Doors” by Merle Haggard

MP3: “I Want To Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart” by Patsy Montana

MP3: “Tennessee Flat Top Box” by Johnny Cash

MP3: “Coal Miner’s Daughter” by Loretta Lynn

MP3: “Long Black Veil” by Lefty Frizzell

MP3: “Act Naturally” by Buck Owens

MP3: “He Stopped Loving Her Today” by George Jones

MP3: “Stand By Your Man” by Tammy Wynette

MP3: “New San Antonio Rose” by Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys

Review: “Play” by Brad Paisley

 

This new album from country music hitmaker Brad Paisley is a slight breath of fresh air – certainly it’s head and shoulders above 90 percent of the usual Nashville crap.  Play is mostly guitar-fueled instrumentals, and Paisley as a picker ain’t bad at all.  He does the usual country raveups and tosses in some stylistic detours like the surf thumper “Turf’s Up” or “Les Is More,” played in the style of guitar pioneer Les Paul.  Oh, he throws in some vocal tunes for the girls – “Start A Band” is a goof duet with Keith Urban and “Come On In” features the late Buck Owens.  Paisley even remakes his own hit “Waiting On A Woman” with a guest appearance by … wait for it … Andy Griffith.  B.B. King shows up to play and sing on “Let The Good Times Roll,” the obligatory kinda-blues number.  The album’s centerpiece “Cluster Pluck” features a traffic jam on guitars with guest pickers James Burton, Vince Gill, Redd Volkaert and many others.  Despite the stellar lineup, the song is pretty standard stuff. Upon first listen I was thinking, this is OK, but why is this boy trying so hard?  Maybe he wants to show everyone he’s more than just a pretty-boy country singer who happens to be a good guitar player.  So instead of trying to be George Strait, Brad wants to be, uh, Roy Clark?  Well, give Brad Paisley points for trying; Play is just what the title promises – some nice clean fun.

MP3: “Come On In” by Brad Paisley with Buck Owens

MP3: “Turf’s Up” by Brad Paisley

Brad Paisley official website

Stream the whole album for free