Sunday, January 16, 2022

Songs Of The Week, 2022: 1/8-1/15

 


 

7 Rooms Of Gloom- The Four Tops
So In Love- Curtis Mayfield
Walking Spanish- Tom Waits
International Jet Set- The Specials
Thunderball- Ray Barretto
Baby, I Love You- The Ronettes
Welding- I-Roy

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7 Rooms Of Gloom- The Four Tops
You can't go wrong starting a set with something from the Motown catalogue.

So In Love- Curtis Mayfield
"The one with Move On Up" is always cited as Mayfield's best. I prefer "the one with So In Love," which is "There's No Place Like America Today." This album also has the brilliant "Billy Jack" on it.

Walking Spanish- Tom Waits
Waits has been a cult figure and a respected songwriter since his debut. But once "Rain Dogs" hit, he became something bigger. Can you be a "cult superstar?" Oddly enough, "Rain Dogs" is arguably Waits' most popular record and it it ridiculously out of print.

International Jet Set- The Specials
Whenever I listen to The Specials, I reach for the debut. I finally decided to pull out "More Specials" and enjoyed it much more than I expected to.

Thunderball- Ray Barretto
Bond goes boogaloo!

Baby, I Love You- The Ronettes
For Ronnie.

Welding- I-Roy
Your "get happy, reggae moment of the week" from I-Roy.


Finally, I woke up to the news that Rachel Nagy, the powerhouse lead singer of The Detroit Cobras has passed away. Reports say she was 37, which can't be right. That would have made her 13 on the Cobras debut. I guess it doesn't matter. Even if the internet was off by 10 or 20 years, Nagy was still too young to go.

Listen to some Detroit Cobras today. They were more than just a cover band. 



7 comments:

JAYESSEMM said...

Oh that is sad news ... such a great sound!

I know what I'm listening to today

Shriner said...

Damn -- not Rachel. She was waaay too young. As I've mentioned, I'm from the greater Detroit area and she was awesome and the band definitely had something going on.

Give those Cobras albums a spin. You won't regret it.

A Walk In The Woods said...

"So In Love" might be the apotheosis of non-political Curtis perfection.

Anonymous said...

Spinning the Cobras now.

Damn.

Randy

Anonymous said...

Rain Dogs is out of print? That ain’t right.

Bill

Chris Collins said...

Super sad! I went through a big Detroit Cobras period a while ago. I had no idea that she had passed!

Gene Oberto said...

I did just that today and the Detroit Cobras had it going and Rachel had one of the best voices in Straight up rock 'n' roll.

Why is it when an artist dies and we play their material in retrospect we say why weren't they more popular? The answer lies in the fact that I, for one, didn't give them the attention they deserved.

I'm sorry, Rachel. I let you and the Detroit Cobras down.