2057 songs, 10.33 gigabytes, and a shuffle function. Here are the first 10 that came up from the laptop music stash earlier today:
“Love Vibration”/Josh Rouse/1972. This album is full of tunes with great 70s flourishes inspired by the cool vibe of Steely Dan, the slick pop Todd Rundgren was making in ‘72, and the singer/songwriter feel of Jackson Browne, or maybe Carole King. It wasn’t made back then; Rouse was born that year.
“Strawberry Letter 23″/Brothers Johnson/Right on Time. I have sung the praises of this tune before, so I’ll say only that if you don’t dig it, at least a little, perhaps you and I don’t have as much in common as we thought.
“Take it to the Limit”/Eagles/One of These Nights. Sometime I should do a post on songs that mysteriously rise in one’s estimation after a number of years. This song didn’t do much for me while it was a hit and for maybe 20 years thereafter, but at some point in the late 90s something clicked, and now I’d rank it among my favorite Eagles tunes.
“Poor Johnny”/Robert Cray Band/Twenty. People, myself included, are forever calling Cray a blues singer, but he’s really made a career out of Memphis-style soul. Which is OK with me.
“Dear Mr. President”/Pink featuring the Indigo Girls/I’m Not Dead. One of the finest protest songs the Bush millennium has produced, trying to get to the bottom of why George W. is the way he is. It doesn’t succeed, but then, no one has.
“Back at the Chicken Shack”/Jimmy Smith/Back at the Chicken Shack. Smith’s biggest hit was “Walk on the Wild Side” in 1962, but it features a big band bashing away for nearly three minutes before Smith enters on the B3, and his work with large groups has never done anything for me anyhow. But when Smith is with a small combo (as he is on this 1960 recording, with guitar, tenor sax, and drums), I’m in for the duration. Man can swing.
“Five”/Bill Evans/New Jazz Conceptions. From Evans’ 1957 debut album, “Five” would become his theme song—although I like the ubiquitous “Waltz for Debby,” from the same album, a lot more.
“Because the Night”/Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band/Live at The Agora Club 9/9/78. The Agora Club show was a live radio concert that is sometimes known as Summertime Bruce, and it rocks without mercy from start to finish. You can see the lighters and smell the weed, and the intensity of it at times will flatten you in your chair like you’re pulling several Gs. This isn’t the best song of the set, but it’ll give you the flavor.
“Alone” and “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”/Susan Tedeschi/Wait for Me. How much do I like Wait for Me? If I were single and she were single, I’d marry Susan Tedeschi.
“Because the Night”/Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band (live)
(Being a bootleg, your best bet for finding it is probably eBay, or any of the zillion bootleg trading sites a Google search will reveal.)
Filed under: Random Universe
[...] Random Universe: It?s All Right This album is full of tunes with great 70s flourishes inspired by the cool vibe of Steely Dan, the slick pop Todd Rundgren was making in ?72, and the singer/songwriter feel of Jackson Browne, or maybe Carole King. … [...]
I prefer “Waltz for Debby,” too. Have you ever heard a vocal version of it? Bill Evans re-recorded it in the mid-70s as a duet with Tony Bennett, and I’ve also heard a version by Johnny Hartman. I discovered the vocal version not just after my daughter was born. The lyrics are about a father fearing the inevitable day when his little girl leaves behind the idyllic reverie of childhood, and it made me sad for a time that (thankfully) hasn’t come yet in my own family. Jeez, I’m such a sap.
I know 5 out of the 10 of these quite well, which I think is a new record for me on your blog.
Just the other day, my wife and I were listening to “Rock & Roll Heaven’s Gate,” a song by Indigo Girls that features Pink, which got us to talking about “Dear Mr. President.” We were not only impressed with her protest song, but the fact that she was smart enough to invite Indigo Girls to record with her.
Love Josh Rouse. Love Susan Tedeschi. Off to find “Strawberry Letter 23.”