Never Enough- The Cure
Got To Be Some Changes Made- The Staple Singers
Juke Box Fury- Rickie Lee Jones
Poor Boy Got To Move- Allen Toussaint w/Billy Fayard & The Stokes
Winchester- Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Somebody To Love- Dwight Twilley
Portrait Of Mahalia Jackson- Duke Ellington
Never Enough- The Cure
The Cure are touring America for the first time in 7 years. I tried, like the naive schmuck that I am, to buy a pair of tickets through Ticketmaster. I waited in a queue for 75 minutes and then was finally given five options--lower, upper, side, $85, $115. All came up empty. There was also an option for "best available." I plugged in "two." Seems like the best available was my couch. Still waiting for the apology call from Robert Smith. I think my concert days might be over. It used to be fun. But now, it's more fun just playing the records.
Got To Be Some Changes Made- The Staple Singers
I listened to "Soul Folk In Action" last Sunday morning. I like something gospely or bluesy on Sunday mornings.
Juke Box Fury- Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee has a new record coming soon where she reunites with producer Russ Titleman for some standards. Not thrilled about the track list being standards, but RLJ has always had patches where she couldn't write. Still looking forward to it though and it made me feel like listening to this track from 1984's "The Magazine."
Poor Boy Got To Move- Allen Toussaint w/Billy Fayard & The Stokes
Sweet music from a very rare record that I just happen to procure after many years of digging.
Winchester- Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians
Buried in commentary for Track 5 of a Songs Of The Week post is the story of how Sal Nunziato, after many years of resistance, woke up one morning after redsicovering the genius that is the Soft Boys' "Underwater Moonlight" record, to find he now not only gets Robyn Hitchcock, but might actually love Robyn Hitchcock. Nunziato was quoted as saying, "They were right. I was wrong. Now shut the hell up." "Element Of Light" is my new favorite album and "Winchester" is my new favorite track.
Somebody To Love- Dwight Twilley
I mentioned the superior single version of this track in last week's Twilley post, so here it is.
Portrait Of Mahalia Jackson- Duke Ellington
Gearing up for a quick visit to New Orleans next week, so I've been getting in the mood with some music, like this beauty from Duke's "New Orleans Suite."
11 comments:
Sal likes Sloan *and* Robyn Hitchcock now? Bring me my fainting couch, Smithers!
"Bring me my fainting couch, Smithers!"
Hahaha.
Shriner,
Sloan didn't take. Love "Steady," but not much else.
But Robyn? Holy moly!
Funny you mention "Soul Folk In Action" - I just bought the box set of Staples' Stax albums and was listening that one yesterday. Synchronicity!
Element of Light is a great album, but don't overlook his previous release, fegMANIA, which has my absolute favorite Hitchcock song on it.
Mafrc
Great songs this week, as usual. Robyn Hitchcock is a treasure, and even more so as he's been living in the states for many years, nearby, in Nashville.
I tell my neighbors and friends to take advantage of this and see him live as he plays many smaller venues 'round here.
If you haven't seen him live, Sal, I extend this invitation to your bucket list. Come for the songs and stay for his endlessly amusing improv surrealistic banter.
Not that you have to dig into Robyn further right off, but on the Hoffman forums, there's a long thread discussing every RH song/album out there (I participated in that and it was a great deep dive.) Here are the top-10 highest ranked albums from that group sourcing:
Ranked:
Robyn Hitchcock
I Often Dream of Trains
Underwater Moonlight
Olé! Tarantula
Respect
Element of Light
Fegmania!
Black Snake Diamond Role
Queen Elvis
Tromso, Kaptein
I would put "Moss Elixir"a lot higher (right after Fegmania!) and drop BSDR and QE a lot lower (and I never fell in love with "Trains" like so many others have personally), but if you are looking for the next album of his to check out, you can't go wrong with the top of that list. Don't get me wrong -- he's got some duds in his career of 35 albums, but these
Shriner,
The self-titled on top, that's the Brendan Benson record, yes? Love that. I also have Globe Of Frogs, which is not listed and I love that, too.
Love Element and Shufflemania. So what is next?
Fegmania! - the Egyptians’ first album.
Fegmania! The Egyptians’ first album
Personally -- Respect (the last Egyptians album) is awesome. Moss Elixer was next as the first post-Egyptians album. I think they are fabulous back-to-back releases.
Ole' Tarantula is the first with the Venus 3 (Peter Buck, etc) and that really jumped out after a few lackluster albums where I thought he may have lost his muse. The other two with the Venus 3 are good, but the best songs are on the first collaboration, IMO.
I heartily recommend those three for your next dive.
Then Fegmania (which has the one song from RH on my top 150). (FWIW, Globe of Frogs was ranked 25 out of 35 and Shufflemania was ranked 16 of 35)
Thanks, Shriner.
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