1000 SONGS - DAY 322 SONG # 353

DAY 322: Best Version of a Song Formerly Posted

Self reference and creating self-refering loops by that technique is one of the greatest things invented in writing about things ever (or so, and in music, too). On February 17, 2011, I have written about "See That my Grave is Kept Clean", that it "is a song by Blind Lemon Jefferson, prominently featured on Bob Dylan's debut album, Bob Dylan. Many singers and bands have done versions of it, among them Steve Wynn's Dream Syndicate on their 1988 album 'Ghost Stories' (the version I would like to hear at my funeral - in case that there is some chance to hear anytghing on your own funeral), Lou Reed and Grateful Dead."

Then, there was no version of the version I would like to hear at my funeral available on YouTube or so. Now, there are two versions available, the studio version and the "EPIC LIVE VERSION". Greatest versions ever of one of the best songs ever, Dream Syndicate doing See That My Grave Is Kept Clean:

1000 SONGS - DAY 321 SONG # 352

DAY 321: Three ways to do a Song

Ben Harper seems to be a fine musician. Proof: he is able to do a song that he has co-written in different ways. His own cover-versions, he did. By the way, this is a beuatiful song. So we start with the "video-version" - the one explaining in pictures what he is so angered about. Then, there is an acoustic version and finally, the Reggae-Version. This one is really great, so in case you have no time to listen to all of these or you have heard them often enough, just listen to # 3. Nevertheless, all 3 versions are fine, very fine indeed.

1000 SONGS - DAY 320 SONG # 351

DAY 320: Relax with John Lee Hooker and Ry Cooder

This is an easy one. I do not have to introduce John Lee Hooker. Do I have to introduce Ry Cooder? Certainly not. Approximately 25 minutes of blues by two masters. Enjoy.

1000 SONGS - DAY 319 SONG # 350

Day 319: A Song Featuring Willie Nelson and Carlos Santana

It seems strange, but there is (at least - to my knowledge: exactly) one (rendering of a) song that features Carlos Santana on guitar and Willie Nelson on vocals, buenos dias got to go. And, even more unbelievable, it is a Tex-Mex kind of a song. Who would ever have thought of the Mexican-born inventor of "Latin Rock" to have recorded a song with the great Flaco Jimenez on accordion?  Where's my brown dog, where's my hound? The song was written by Greg Brown, and it is featured on Havana Moon, a very fine album by Carlos, recorded in 1983. Forget "Samba Pa Ti" (members of the generation fathered with the help of this song will nowadays have begotten children on their own), here it is, fine fine song and great musicianship in rendering it (Willie could have done something concerning his accent in the Spanish language):

1000 SONGS - DAY 318 SONG # 349

DAY 318: A Song from Cleveland about a Great Poetress

Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) was an American poetress, of German descent. Her father was German (a university professor of biology) and her mother was an Austrian, about 20 years younger than Sylvia's father. Sylvia is thought to have writtten extremely marvellous poems and she has also written a novel called  "The Bell Jar" starting with an allusion to the Rosenbergs. Sylvia Plath was married to a British poet by the name of Hughes, and they had two children, and although they were not divorced they seem to have been somewhat of separated at the time of her death. She had some mental problems before, and finally she committed suicide by putting on the gas and putting her head in the oven somewhere in London. She carefully took measures that her children would not be harmed by her suicide (not incidentally killed by the gas). Her son Nicholas became a famous biologist (for the fish) and hanged himself in 2009. Her daughter Frieda is an artist. I own an album by Death of Samantha (a band from Cleveland, Ohio), on which is featured a song called the "Rosenberg Summer", starting with the question: "Everlasting summer - did you kill the Rosenbergs?". Should ye not know, who the Rosenbergs have been and what their fate has been, click here: Rosenbergs. Death of Samantha also did a very beautiful cover-version of a song written by Cleveland's  short-lived (due to drug and alcohol abuse) musician Peter Laughner - a guy influential to seminal bands like Pere Ubu - called "Sylvia Plath" - a poetic rendering of the fate of the poetress. Here it is, the version by Death of Samantha, followed by the original take by Peter Laughner (he did never officially record it, it was only featured on a posthumous release of his tapes). And, for the sake of breaking it down - from the point of view of someone blogging about music telling a story about some guys who did a cover version of a song written by a guy about a woman writing poetry, I do feature Sylvia Plath's voice here, too.

Sylvia Plath
Was never too good at math
But they tell me that she finished
At the height of her class
And when she lost her virginity
She didn't lose it too fast
They couldn't hold any dress rehearsals for
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath
Came into Manhattan
She had crawled out of one
Cocoon where there was absolutely
Nothin happening
And if I'm gonna be classless and crass
I'm gonna break up some glass
Nobody broke anything sharper than
Sylvia Plath

There's no romance and excuses
There's just the dance in the aftermath
And when you check out of this hotel jack
You're nothin but an autograph
The desk clerk wakes her at seven
And he tosses it out with the trash
But he'll keep around a couple of letters
Return addressed to
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath
Woke up and turned on the gas
Then she put her head down and completely
Forgot about lighting a match

The rest of the details
Are just too boring to attach
Yeah, Let's see you do one thing as graceful as
Sylvia Plath
Yeah, Let's see you do one thing as graceful as
Sylvia Plath
Yeah, let's see you do one thing as senselessly cruel as
Sylvia Plath

1000 SONGS - DAY 317 SONG # 348

DAY 317: Jamaican Music before Reggae existed

Sometimes I wonder, sometimes I ponder, whether there have ever been citizens of Jamaica not being either musicians, in the music business or in sports? Be that as it may, the Mento came into existence "through the contact of displaced Africans with European culture". It is kind of traditional folklore and dance music, having lost its role as such through the spreading of mobile sound systems throughout Jamaican villages. The Lititz Mento Band has been part of a "renaissance" of that old-style-before-dance-hall Jamaican music, a successful band that has been awarded many a price. In case you want to know more and hear more, buy the compilation CD brought to you by the Berlin "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" (featuring an informative booklet). I got it, and I have uploaded them songs featured here to You Tube in order to make you aware of that fine music. Here they come, Mento versions of "By The Rivers of Babylon", "Lion of Judah" and "Day-Oh", songs you will all know, but may have never heard done like that before. Enjoy!

1000 SONGS - DAY 316 SONG # 347

DAY  315: A Song that has been covered before its first release
 

"Theme for an Imaginary Western" - often falsely rendered as "Theme from an Imaginary Western" - is a song by Jack Bruce that had first been played before a public audience at the Woodstock Festival (I stay with that...) by Mountain, a few weeks before Jack Bruce's first solo-album "Songs for a Tailor" on which it is featured as track #2 was released. Roughly a year after the breakup of the "supergroup" Cream, Jack Bruce - to me still the one outstanding musician that was part of this band - released his first solo-album. Rumour has it, that "Theme" was originally offered by Bruce to Cream, but Eric Clapton did not have the right feeling, so Bruce gave the song to Leslie West, guitarist of Mountain. I could not find any evidence supporting that story, but I found rather nice words by Old Slowhand on that one in an interview with UNCUT:

"Jack has always had the most beautiful melodies. That man’s solo albums after Cream were amazing, too. Songs For A Tailor – what great writing that was, with stuff like 'Theme For An Imaginary Western'. Just fantastic."

For the whole interview, klick HERE; will give some impression of what Cream really was about. Back to the Leslie West story, I think that it must have been Felix Pappalardi (bass player with Mountain, producer  of Cream) who took the song with him to Woodstock. Be that as it may, the song's lyrics are by Pete Brown, who also wrote the lyrics for those hits by Cream that Jack Bruce wrote the music to, like "Sunshine of Your Love" or "White Room" (btw, "Strange Brew" was written by Clapton, Pappalardi and his wife GAIL COLLINS who allegedly shot him later on). The song has been covered by many an artist or band. There are 3 versions featured here: The original by Jack Bruce (with Jon Hiseman on drums), the studio-version from Mountain's  debut LP "Climbing" and a nice version done by Jack Bruce and Leslie West. Listen to the guitar on the rendering by Mountain (Leslie comes in at 2:48) and don't say, Clapton could have done it - at least he hasn't.  I also think, that Pappalardi does better vocals than Bruce.

When the wagons leave the city
For the forest and further on
Painted wagons of the morning
Dusty roads where they have gone
Sometimes travelling through the darkness
Met the summer coming home
Fallen faces by the wayside
Looked as if they might have known

O the sun was in their eyes
And the desert that dries
In the country town
Where the laughter sounds

O the dancing and the singing
O the music when they played
O the fires that they started
O the girls with no regret
Sometimes they found it
Sometimes they kept it
Often lost it on the way
Fought each other to possess it
Sometimes died in sight of day

1000 SONGS - DAY 315 SONG # 346

DAY 315: My Favourite Song from the Woodstock Album

Back then, in the olden days, when I was young,  I did delight a many good times in listening to those songs collected on the Woodstock concert album and many a great song has put the Lord Almighty on this fine compilation. And it came to pass, that there was one song, that did rightfully stick in mine ears more than any other. And it came to pass that hitherto this song is more apt to mine ears than any other song from that album whence it was taken. It is morning maniac music, and the repetitive basic structure of the rhythm guitar basically is what music is about to mine brains.

1000 SONGS - DAY 314 Song # 345

Day 314: A Song from "The Denver Gentlemen" by The Denver Gentlemen

This here is a song from the 2005 album "The Denver Gentlemen" by The Denver Gentlemen. If you want to know some things about this band click HERE. The Denver Gentlemen have some relations to 16 Horspower and other dark "Denver-style-bands". Its idiosyncratic muscial style  has also been labelled as "Indie Rock" or "Gothic Country" a.t.l. Anyway, the song featured here is called "Dance and Make Babies", and to me, it is just music (like with religion, it is with music: no need for further labels). It is, indeed, very intersting kind of music:

1000 SONGS - DAY 313 Song # 344

Day 313: Take a Look at Yourself

Today,  in the course "Introduction to the General History of Religion", which is a cooperation of two colleagues and me (nobody can give a course like that on his/her own), America was on the list (2nd part: Aztecs, Inkas, Christianity in US., African-American and Afro-American Religions), and therefore the Nation of Islam. 5 Percenters seem to be an offspring of NOI, and Keith Edward Elam, aka The Guru, member of Gang Starr, seems to have been a 5 percenter. Anyway, he is dead, and he was one of the best voices in Rap history, and besides of being a member of Gang Starr (already featured on this here blog), he did that cool hip-hop-jazz fusion thing, called Jazzmatazz. Here is "Take a Look at Yourself" from the first, and "Lifesaver" from the second Jazzmatazz-album.