songs:365

Month: August 2021

  • day 243: Since U Been Gone

    Since U Been Gone, by Kelly Clarkson.

    I probably never watched an entire episode of American Idol, but this song was always fun to belt out with the car radio. Not that I ever learned the words (other than the first line and the chorus, natch), or that I have any idea how the bridge is supposed to go. (Or the verses, now that I listen to it again.)

    Sometimes I try and cover something like this and slow it down, make it a sensitive Ryan Adams dude thing a la the Taylor Swift cover album, but it just doesn’t work out, because, in this case, I get excited about the changes in the chorus, which raises the question of a more pop-punk version, but I don’t have the chops or patience for that today. Honestly, the original is pretty close to that.

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  • day 242: Midnight Special

    Midnight Special, by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

    OK, so when I hear this song in my head, sometimes it’s Leadbelly’s original, of course — yes, this is a #cover-of-a-cover — but also, mostly, I hear the guys in the semi cab in Creepshow singing along with Creedence. Wait, was it Creepshow? Or Twilight Zone (The Movie)? Oh, wow, it’s Twilight Zone. And it’s Albert Brooks. And Dan Aykroyd. And it’s the opening scene. And while it is indeed “something really scary” it’s somehow mashed up deeply in my head with “Tell ’em Large Marge sent ya” but also watching that one again, it’s kinda cute? Ah, memories. They’re not complicated at all.

    So I guess this is at least the second Leadbelly cover I’ve covered, and I might need to play more Creedence, because, y’know.

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  • day 241: Love Bites

    Love Bites, by Def Leppard.

    Making an executive decision to leave this song raw, because the temptation to overproduce the heck out of it with backup vocals and guitar solos and the robot voice in the beginning and end, and… well, honestly, that sounds like fun, but I don’t think it will make my performance any better, because the whole falsetto hard rocker lead vocal thing might just be something I’ve aged out of.

    I’m also mildly surprised at how long it goes on! Maybe there was a radio edit. 😉

    The best thing about Def Leppard is that when we were 11 at summer camp and there was an airband contest and we couldn’t resist the literal interpretation, so we poured sugar on the singer (I think I was a tennis-racquet guitar player), and mopped it up ourselves to avoid punishment. But that’s another song.

    This one was probably a slow dance option that summer, and boy, did we ever not know what to do with our hands.

  • day 240: Straight and the Narrow

    Straight and the Narrow, by Spiritualized.

    This song makes much more sense in the context of, well, all of Spiritualized’s songs, which have a lot to do with drugs, frankly. And I was positive I had already done one Spiritualized song, but I guess those were all Spacemen 3 so far? OK, there’s a body of work to unpack a little further then, and a couple stories to tell.

    1. At Sophie’s bar on 5th between A and B in the years we, uh, frequented it, the jukebox had the first Spiritualized CD and it’s important to note it was the CD, because the whole thing was divided up into just four tracks, so you could easily get 12 minutes of a Spiritualized soundtrack to your evening conversation or pinball game for fifty cents. (Though I preferred Curtis Mayfield’s Move On Up for the latter purpose).
    2. Relatively late in my run in New York [EDIT: Nope, it was in 1997.], I saw Spiritualized play Webster Hall? Yes, I’m pretty sure that happened, and I went alone? And it was lovely. I remember everyone marking out when they played Electricity and it was a reminder, again, that when you learn about bands somewhat after the fact and listen to whole albums, you really don’t know which ones were the singles that people are excited about. See also: The Sea and Cake (Parasol), Stereolab (Super Electric), etc.

    //

    An electric track! A tambourine track! Backup vocals! It’s Saturday, and the new dog is having a restful afternoon with me. (He is snoring.)

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  • day 239: Add It Up

    Add It Up, by Violent Femmes.

    This song is longer than I remember it? I was creepily accurate with the length though, within 10 seconds of the album version, I think. It’s only two chords, so, like, what could go wrong? Plenty, apparently. Kinda dripping sweat when it was over, a little bit.

    Still a little confused about why Kiss Off has the countdown if this one’s called Add It Up, but let’s just pretend the “G” on my shirt is for Gordon.

    I know smashing out two-chord songs as fast as I can with no editing is not exactly improving any of my skills other than spending the mental and physical energy to do it, but it still feels good to get loud once a day when I can.

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  • day 238: This Year

    This Year, by The Mountain Goats.

    A favorite, an anthem, an elegy, a requiem, a memoir (not mine), absolute poetry, “twin high maintenance machines.” This song has it all, in all its low fidelity glory.

    If it wasn’t the song for our 2020, it was the song for so many years before that, and for this one, too, because 2021 has taken things from us that we held dear, but we’ll make it.

    The kids both went back to school today, and, uh, we’re in our feelings, as they say.

    //

    Put just enough effort into this, but I could’ve stopped with the vocals and piano.

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  • day 237: Juanita

    Juanita, by Sturgill Simpson.

    I mean, I listened to this song (and the whole 27 minute album) another dozen times today, so I might as well go ahead and play it here. Didn’t really attempt Willie’s solo, which raises the question of how to solo in Willie’s style, and it’s something I should pick up if I can.

    Also I should tune this guitar.

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  • day 236: Time of the Preacher

    Time of the Preacher, by Willie Nelson.

    This song is the third in this project from the Red Headed Stranger album, in honor of the new Sturgill Simpson concept album (I mean, it’s only like 27 minutes long) that I listened to 10 times today, maybe? The Sturgill record pays so much homage to Willie that Mr. Nelson shows up to take a solo on the first single, but the storytelling (man, woman, bandit, horse, dog, epilogue) is straight out of the Willie book, which itself is an old Western.

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  • day 235: As Time Goes By

    As Time Goes By, by Sam.

    Sam in Casablanca, of course, was played by Dooley Wilson, not that I could’ve told you that without looking it up, and having gone maybe 20 years at minimum without seeing anything except the usual 2-3 clips in commercials and montages and whatnot.

    But there was a point where a dumb Bogart imitation I learned from, well, probably from Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck, I think, was a regular part of my rotation of characters, right up there with Robin Williams doing a Robin Leach impression in Night at the Met, which is to say, wait a minute, have I always been into #covers-of-a-cover? Gotta learn from somewhere, I guess.

    This song was in my head, so I practiced the chords a couple times, found a key that almost worked, and got it out.

    But my favorite version of this is Billie Holiday’s, which has more emotion in its “a sigh is just a sigh” than anyone else ever put into the whole song.

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  • day 234: This Magic Moment

    This Magic Moment, by Jay and the Americans.

    See, the thing is, I’ve done a ton of Love 94â„¢ songs, but little from the heavy rotation of Magic 102.7, Your Good Time Oldies Stationâ„¢, which my parents mostly switched over to at some undetermined moment in the mid-1980s, and my Oldies exposure ratcheted way up from the basics — The Beatles, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens — I did have the whole La Bamba movie soundtrack pretty much memorized — to the overplayed-but-classic classics by the Frankies and Smokies and Coasters and Flamingos and, sure, Jay and the Americans, why not? (“Come a little bit closer” is a dated-but-effective story!)

    Oh, wait, the Drifters did this first? Crap, which version am I playing? I definitely heard them both, but let’s stick with JatA and call this a #cover-of-a-cover I guess.

    This song uses the chord changes you would expect from a song that is indeed originally from the 1950s: C-Am-F-G, and it popped into my head unbidden after I gave Earth Angel a try because, yes, of course, it’s the same chords.

    This was the first song recorded with my new office manager resting (lightly snoring, perhaps) in the background.

    Welcome Zuko

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