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.
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.
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.
This Magic Moment, by Jay and the Americans.
See, the thing is, I’ve done a ton of Love 94™ songs, but little from the heavy rotation of Magic 102.7, Your Good Time Oldies Station™, 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.
Half As Much, by Hank Williams.
This song came on in the car for like 4 seconds before I pulled into the driveway a little while ago, and I immediately started belting it out, so here we are.
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Played it a full step up so I could play the A harp along with it in E.
That makes three Hank Williams songs and zero Hank Williams III songs. Gotta fix that soon…
Bird On The Wire, by Leonard Cohen.
Not Tom Waits, not Johnny Cash, Leonard Cohen, all wounded and sweet and fragile and all that. Wore that hat because it felt right, not because I wanted to do it cowboy-style.
Losing It, by Belle and Sebastian.
This song gets stuck in my head whenever I listen to Tigermilk, but the whole album is so darn catchy that the whole thing is in my ears just from looking at the cover today.
I’ve been cataloging my record collection, really for the first time in any serious way, using Discogs, and it’s been a fun and weird experience. Sure, I mean, yes, I bought some of these 25 years ago, or nearly that many, and so given the resulting supply and demand, blah blah blah, carry the one, and some of these records are worth real money! Might’ve needed to catch my breath after the price for this album showed up in the app, but I don’t have the original pressing, but the reissue is still worth something meaningful.
The thing is, stuff from the 1970s (or older) when records were the primary vehicle for music consumption? Not rare. Rarely rare. There were plenty of copies of Let It Be around, and they’re not worth anything.
But Pavement albums that I bought on vinyl when they were released? Ooh. Aah. And that one GBV record that turned out to be everyone’s favorite, but I got the white vinyl version (1 of 300 made?!?!?) for $7.98 at Etherea on Ave. A? Ooooooh. Aaaaaaahhhhhh.
Etherea is long gone, but on one of my passes through my old NYC neighborhood in recent years, I found it had been replaced by a lovely and well-lit bookstore, where I purchased what I hope was a meaningful gift for a colleague. Today I also had the nice surprise of finding an Adult Crash price tag on an indie rock record, looking it up, and realizing that they were the record store in the Etherea place before they took over.
It’s also neat to find Other Music price tags and know there’s a whole documentary about that store, and also to relive some travels to Amoeba in Berkeley, Bow Wow in Albuquerque, etc. There’s probably a Princeton Records find in here somewhere.
The Crystal Ship, by The Doors.
The Doors catalog was so important to me in my teenage years, high on the list of “things I used to listen to multiple times a week that I never hear anymore.” Is that normal? Maybe. How many of are still listening to your teenage music on repeat?
This song was always somewhere between a throwaway and an epic, I think? Like on the record it’s a relatively quiet and quick thing, but live versions might jam out for a while. OK, let’s get real, it’s a makeout song.
Keeping it quick tonight. Started learning and rehearsing one of my favorites today, but I need a weekend day to do it right. (Oh, pre-gaming the songs is not common, but I do try things in advance. I record each song in one day.)
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, by Bob Dylan.
What if we just leaned into Dylan? Are you leaning? Keep leaning. Leeeeeeean a little more… Oh, my, that’s too far, now you’re falling into Dylan. And, you’re on the ground.
This song was such a fun scandal as a teenager, just a hop, skip, & jump to the left of Why Don’t We Do It In The Road, which I once snuck into the playlist at a summer camp dance for about 14 seconds.
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MOAR HARP.
Messed around and made some video editing efforts so you can enjoy me playing the harp instead of the phantom backing track. Please also accept this as proof that I once read and practiced at least two pages of Country and Blues Harmonica for the Musically Hopeless (Klutz Books).
Blue Ridge Mountains, by Fleet Foxes.
Finally tackled this song! Not as easy as it looks! And it doesn’t look that easy! One of those songs that feels meaningful but isn’t really something I personally relate to, except that I’m in the Blue Ridge Mountains often enough, and there’s a dog mentioned, and that’s all it takes to set me off with a song in my head, really.
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Did the camera video + microphone audio again, but then added more guitar and vocal tracks on top of it, plus the first use of the MIDI keyboard in weeks for the bass, other keyboard noises that are probably supposed to be mandolins or whatever, and some other bits. Dropping the drum loop(s) out of the quiet parts in the edit is my favorite thing to do.