Nothing happened today so that means it’s Shuffle Time
Day Dreaming -Aretha Franklin
Great late Atlantic Records period for Miss Aretha. On the NPR website they interviewed Arif Mardin about this specific production. Really space agey for Aretha. Must’ve been around 1972-73 when the future held promise.
There Was a Time -James Brown
One of my all time favorite James Brown songs. This is the studio version, the real killer version is on Live at the Apollo. A list of dances from around the country or at least the south. It’s still an amazing song.
I’m A One Man Woman – Barbara Lynn
Another Atlantic Records singer. Famous, to me at least, for singing You’ll Lose a Good Thing, featured in the Hairspray movie. I loved that song so much that I bought this which has one or two stand out tracks on it. This isn’t one of those tracks.
London Calling – Dave Grohl, Steve Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello
Live from the Grammy’s this tribute to Joe Strummer works better as a video and you can get that online at Youtube.com no doubt. Go ahead it’s worth it. I’ll wait.
High Risk Insurance – The Ramones
From the Phil Spector produced End of the Century album. A cleaner wall of sound meeting the brothers dirty wall of sound making something odd and enjoyable in moderation.
You Must Be Mad- Marine Girls
Bedsit jazz from England. Perfect for a battleship gray day like today. Tracey Thorn from Everything But The Girl’s first group. Really cool though, must’ve been around 1983.
Living a Lie- The dB’s
Sunny Afternoon is what I remember following Marine Girls from a mix tape that I made when I was DJing at McSwells, but that was in the analog age. Now this is the iTunes shuffle everything digitalized rewriting my memories. Good song from their second lp, Re-percussion. Power pop at it’s finest.
God Lives Through – A Tribe Called Quest
More mellow jazz type things, this time from the Tribe. Last song from Midnight Marauders which was a great album. They lost the plot eventually but their 2nd and 3rd albums are legendary and ground breaking.
Daytime Nighttime Suffering -Paul McCartney and Wings
A b-side from Macca which turned out to be better than the a-side. One of the last Wings releases, late 70’s where we find Paul flirting with contemporary disco type drum beats. Different world back then, that 1979.
Pandora- Cocteau Twins
La da dada. That’s about you can figure out what Liz Fraser is singing which is fine by me. Added to their appeal and guaranteed to make you look and sound like an idiot if you tried to sing along. And is she singing ‘peanut butter, peanut butter, peanut butter’ towards the end? You tell me.
Reel Around the Fountain – The Smiths
First song on first album. Did anyone know what was to follow? 23 years of Morrissey? I doubt if they knew. Slap him on the patio. Go ahead. Slap Morrissey. Johnny Marr from the Smiths is now in Modest Mouse and they have the number one record in the US this week.