Fingertips

I thought last month’s mix was one of the better ones I’ve concocted, and yet there it was, with the meagerest number of listeners to date. Good thing I’m not doing this for fame and fortune! Thanks to the loyal core here–you know who you are. I believe in the value of creative work, and in the value of our culture’s diverse musical legacy. If 2019’s hyper-capitalist, click-centered world is screwed up beyond the ability to separate the worthy from the worthless, the delightful from the despicable, well, how surprising is that? Elizabeth Warren says, rightfully, that capitalism without regulation is theft; I would add that capitalism without human values is, well, capitalism. Where we have ended up, with the failed steak salesman as leader of the free world, is pretty much the logical end result of an amoral system. A microscopic audience for quality playlists is the least of my worries. But, if you’re here, I hope you enjoy the ever-eclectic mix….

Random notes:

* The accepted story is that the Strokes lost their magic after their first two albums, but here’s a song from their 2011 album Angles that stands up to anything else they’ve recorded, to my ears. I have no idea what Casablancas is singing about, of course, but “Under the Cover of Darkness” nevertheless acquires so much delightful musical momentum as it unfolds that it makes me want to jump out of my seat with glee by the time it’s halfway through.

* I recently saw a short video essay by Jeff Tweedy in which he extolled the benefits of listening to music that you don’t like. He says he’s learned that his initial reactions to music can be based on preconceived notions and/or aversions that may be irrational, and that it’s worthwhile to make an effort to overcome these things. Which brings me to Rush, a band I definitely used to have an aversion to, preconceived notions about, you name it. These were formed when I worked in college radio, caught up in a cohort as passionate about music as we were unintentionally close-minded. I still don’t love Geddy Lee’s voice but I have to admire the musicianship on display, and the band’s efforts to pack complexities into radio-friendly material. As soon as I was able to open my little mind up to the possibility that I didn’t hate everything they recorded, a song like “Limelight” was able to reveal its charms.

* Brenda Kahn, back in the ’90s, gave us one of the sharpest and most distinctive singer/songwriter albums of the era. Epiphany in Brooklyn, released in 1992, had enough muscle and momentum to break through to alternative-rock radio stations (remember “I Don’t Sleep, I Drink Coffee Instead”?), and enough craft and spirit to promise great things to come. Then her record company–a Columbia Records imprint–folded two weeks before her follow-up release. She continued touring and releasing records independently through the ’90s but without the mainstream notice the first record garnered. Eventually she left music behind, to concentrate on raising her children. I only recently discovered that she’s been making music again here in the 21st century; I entirely missed Seven Laws of Gravity when it came out in 2010, but happily stumbled upon it a couple of months ago.

* Cate Le Bon has the distinction of being the answer to a trivia question no one asks, which is: have I ever, by mistake, featured the same song by the same artist twice within the Eclectic Playlist Series? Turns out I have: the Cate Le Bon song “Are You With Me Now”?” ended up both in EPS 3.03 in March 2016 and in EPS 4.05 in May 2017. Go figure.

* Graham Parker, on the other hand, I haven’t managed to feature until now. He fell into that category of “hard to choose just one so I won’t choose any” artists. And, to be frank, despite how vital and wonderful many of his songs remain, his overall sound just doesn’t seem to want to blend in to an overall mix, somehow. I’ve tried many times, for instance, to work the amazing “Discovering Japan” in and it just won’t go. “Something You’re Going Through” has its pseudo-reggae-ishness going for it in the context of a eclectic mix, plus its perennially useful advice, which I’ve borrowed this month for the title.

Full playlist below the widget.

“Under the Cover of Darkness” – The Strokes (Angles, 2011)
“There’s Nothing Else to Say” – The Incredibles (single, 1967)
“Falling is a Form of Flying” – Pal Shazar (There’s a Wild Thing in the House, 1995)
“Something You’re Going Through” – Graham Parker & The Rumour (Heat Treatment, 1976)
“St. Thomas” – Sonny Rollins (Saxophone Collosus, 1956)
“The Consequences of Falling” – k.d. lang (Invincible Summer, 2000)
“Limelight” – Rush (Moving Pictures, 1981)
“Chelsea Morning” – Joni Mitchell (Clouds, 1969)
“I’m On My Way” – Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi (there is no Other, 2019)
“Guitar Swing” – The Winks (Birthday Party, 2006)
“I Wish I Was Your Mother” – Mott the Hoople (Mott, 1973)
“Regular Job” – Brenda Kahn (Seven Laws of Gravity, 2010)
“Wheel of Evil” – In Tua Nua (The Long Acre, 1988)
“I Really Love You” – The Tomangoes (single, 1968)
“The Crying Scene” – Aztec Camera (Stray, 1990)
“Black Hearted Love” – PJ Harvey (A Woman A Man Walked By, 2009)
“99 Miles From L.A.” – Art Garfunkel (Breakaway, 1975)
“Daylight Matters” – Cate Le Bon (Reward, 2019)
“Moment of Weakness” – Syreeta (With You I’m Born Again [import], 1990)
“Grey Seal” – Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, 1973)

You know the drill: it’s another mixed-genre, multi-decade playlist, inspired as always by the heyday of so-called “progressive” radio stations. Only think about how many more decades of music we have at our disposal than the DJs had back in the mid-’70s! Such opportunity here, once we break out of this fever-dream of separation and isolation. Give it a try, tell your friends, and stay strong. You may notice a bit of a netherworld-related interlude here; let it serve to remind us of Churchill’s famous piece of advice: “If you’re going through Hell, keep going.”

Random notes:

* “We All Go Back To Where We Belong” was the last official R.E.M. release and maybe we had a bit of R.E.M. fatigue at that point, still unconvinced that the Bill-Berry-free version was ever really any good, but I feel in retrospect this song was kind of just kind quickly heard and then forgotten. To my ears, it’s a fabulous song, with bonus points for the charming and somehow poignant video, which is just a black-and-white close-up of the actress Kirsten Dunst listening to the song in real time. (As the story goes, Michael Stipe was actually singing it to her live, a capella, which she found something of an overwhelming experience, as a long-time fan herself.)

* The Smiths were such a singular-sounding band that they couldn’t really influence anyone else without the influencees sounding merely like pale imitators. “The Headmaster Ritual” was I think the Smiths song that really turned my head around back in their heyday. Who writes these words? Who finds these melodies, and employs these chords? Still gives me goosebumps if I really stop to listen.

* “Presidential Rag” sounds kind of quaint now, huh? Being worked up over a president who didn’t admit everything that he knew? Now we have one who is too stupid to know what he doesn’t know, leading a cult of hatred and resentment whose members don’t give a fuck. Someone should write a song as good as this about *that*.

* Hadestown, now on Broadway, was just nominated for 14 Tony Awards last month. But the project has been around since 2006, when singer/songwriter Anaïs Mitchell first put it together as a community theater production in Vermont. Four years later, with the help of Ani DiFranco, Hadestown became a concept album, on DiFranco’s Righteous Babe Records, with a number of stellar guest vocalists, including Justin Vernon, Greg Brown, and DiFranco herself. The song “Flowers” first came to my attention early in 2010 as a free and legal download, which was featured here in February of that year. Still a stunning piece of music. (Also stunning, especially in retrospect, is the song “Why We Build The Wall,” which you might want to check out here—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8sQ8R54C53o—and think about in conjunction with Arlo’s sense of righteous grievance.)

* Were Adam and the Ants, all the rage in the UK for a year or two, merely a novelty band? Probably. But a song like “Antmusic,” as silly as the words may be when simply read, was constructed with such great pop know-how that I find it irresistible still, nearly 40 years later.

* “In a Long White Room” is a fun example of a straight-laced standards-oriented songwriter doing their best to dive into the psychedelic vibe of the late ’60s. The end result is not really psychedelic at all, but it’s oddly engaging in the effort. The lyrics here came from Martin Charnin, whose career soon enough led him to Broadway, where he hit it big for having conceived, directed, and written the lyrics for the musical Annie. The music was written by Texas songwriter Clint Ballard, Jr., who also wrote the songs “Game of Love” and “You’re No Good,” among many others that were not big hits. As much as I appreciate talented singer/songwriters, I guess I remain rather entranced by the pre-singer/songwriter days, and connecting unexpected dots between who wrote what. On top of all this, kind of a weird song for Nancy Wilson, but it’s the one of hers, from my long-ago childhood, I recall most vividly.

Full playlist below the widget.

“Presidential Rag” – Arlo Guthrie (Arlo Guthrie, 1974)
“Pedrinho” – Tulipa Ruiz (TU, 2017)
“Angels” – Peter Holsapple & Chris Stamey (Mavericks, 1991)
“To Be Gone” – Anna Ternheim (Halfway to Fivepoints, 2008)
“Antmusic” – Adam and the Ants (Kings of the Wild Frontier, 1980)
“Ask the Lonely” – The Fantastics (single, 1970)
“Come a Long Way” – Michelle Shocked (Arkansas Traveler, 1992)
“Heart Full of Soul” – The Yardbirds (single, 1965)
“The Headmaster Ritual” – The Smiths (Meat is Murder, 1985)
“Imposter” – Jonatha Brooke (Imposter EP, 2019)
“In a Long White Room” – Nancy Wilson (Nancy, 1969)
“Carolyn” – Steve Wynn (Kerosene Man, 1990)
“See No Evil” – Television (Marquee Moon, 1977)
“Flowers” – Anaïs Mitchell (Hadestown, 2010)
“Lucifer Sam” – Pink Floyd (The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, 1967)
“The Pharaohs” – Neko Case (Middle Cyclone, 2009)
“Caught” – Anna Domino (Anna Domino, 1986)
“A Hit By Varèse” – Chicago (Chicago V, 1972)
“Didn’t Cha Know” – Erykah Badu (Mama’s Gun, 2000)
“We All Go Back to Where We Belong” – R.E.M. (single, 2011)

Maybe it’s somewhat obvious to those who’ve been around here a long time, but I will say this out loud: when all is said and done, the Kinks are my favorite band of all time. Which maybe makes it a little strange that for this year’s presentation of a Kinks song in a playlist–and remember, no artist appears in a mix here more than once in a calendar year–I have selected a little ditty of a song of theirs that I have never really thought much of one way or another. They after all have so many many great songs, and over the decades found such deft ways to communicate via rock’n’roll. So, why did I choose “Monica,” among a multitude of others that I probably like more? I am not actually sure, except to note that these playlists are constructed as intuitively as possible. I can’t usually explain why I put any of these songs in here. But maybe, with the Kinks, an extra factor was this: because I can’t play all of my favorite-favorite Kinks songs in the context of these mixes, it’s easier to go for a left-field choice like “Monica”; in this case, all the favorite-favorite songs are treated equally–i.e., overlooked (for now). Another potential explanation: there’s no way to understand any musical preference, for anybody, when you get right down to it. This song just highlights the serendipitous beauty of what catches the ear and makes the world feel right, if for a moment or two.

Other random notes on this month’s playlist:

* I’m still happily absorbing Mitski’s well-regarded 2018 album, Be The Cowboy, and while I particularly like the single, “Nobody,” the song I ended up with here, “Why Didn’t You Stop Me?,” grabbed me after a few listens, with its insistent pulse, crunchy guitars, looney-bin synth motif, and remarkable conciseness. The whole album is a study in how to be succinct; only two songs out of 14 are longer than 2:36, and nothing is even four minutes long.

* Marvin Gaye would have been 80 earlier this month; instead, he died tragically, murdered by his own father, the day before he would have turned 35. This song is one of the many great unreleased songs of his that have floated around over the years. This year, at long last, a group of songs that had been recorded in 1972 and intended to be made into a follow-up album to What’s Going On had their long-awaited release as an album–it’s called You’re The Man, and while it might not represent exactly the album Gaye had planned, it’s good to hear this stuff.

* Leonard Bernstein, meanwhile, would have been 100 years old this past August. He died rather too young too, but at age 72 he at least had a pretty good run of it, and boy did he do a lot of things in the time he had. This little overture from the Broadway revival/reinvention of his musical Candide, in 1974, is super charming–a great example of music that can be both complex and accessible at the same time, which is my sweet spot in all genres.

* “Helpless,” by Kim Weston, is another one of those great lost Motown singles that for one reason or another didn’t really hit the big time, despite its terrific appeal. I’ve never wanted to dive too far into what went on at Motown and why some artists got more support than others but Weston appears to have been one of those who never quite got a fair shake there despite her great talent. This was her last recording for the label; she later sued them in a royalty dispute. I’ve previously featured another fine single of hers, “I Got What You Need,” back on EPS 4.11 in 2017, that one being her first post-Motown release.

* Matthew Sweet’s Kimi Ga Suki was initially released in Japan only, as a thank-you to his legion of Japanese fans. While it did get a US release a year later, it has remained somewhat beneath the radar, despite its actually being something of a reunion for the band with which he recorded his seminal Girlfriend album. He wrote the songs in a week and recorded without any initial demos. There’s something to be said, at least sometimes, for spontaneity.

* Bonus Kinks tidbit: lacking any successful single or chart position around the time of its release, The Kinks are the Village Preservation Society, where you’ll find “Monica,” has gathered a slow but steady following over the decades, and was just certified gold in the UK last year, at age 50.

Full playlist below the widget.

“Halo of Ashes” – Screaming Trees (Dust, 1996)
“Why Didn’t You Stop Me?” – Mitski (Be The Cowboy, 2018)
“I’m Gonna Give You Respect” – Marvin Gaye (previously unreleased, 1972)
“Loud and Clear” – The Last Town Chorus (single, 2008)
“King of the Bayou” – Joe Strummer (Earthquake Weather, 1989)
“The Rain, the Park & Other Things” – The Cowsills (single, 1967)
“The Conservation of Energy” – Vanishing Twin (Choose Your Own Adventure, 2016)
“Overture” – Leonard Bernstein (Candide – Broadway Cast Recording, 1974)
“Don’t Go” – Yaz (Upstairs at Eric’s, 1982)
“Helpless” – Kim Weston (single, 1967)
“Breakable” – Ingrid Michaelson (Girls and Boys, 2006)
“Corduroy” – Pearl Jam (Vitalogy, 1994)
“See The Sky About to Rain” – Neil Young (On The Beach, 1974)
“Joanna” – Southern Boutique (Southern Boutique, 2014)
“De Cared A La Pared” – Lhasa (La Llorona, 1998)
“Monica” – The Kinks (The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society, 1968)
“The Ocean in Between” – Matthew Sweet (Kimi Ga Suki, 2003)
“Known Better” – Meg Mac (single, 2013)
“Tell Me When My Light Turns Green” – Dexy’s Midnight Runners (Searching for  the Young Soul Rebels, 1980)
“Mister Magic” – Esther Phillips (What a Diff’rence a Day Makes, 1975)