Music Diary, Vol. -3

For the rationale behind this mad effort, explanations here. The full series of Music Diary posts are here.

Week of Dec. 18-24, 2023

Lyric: J. Harrison Ghee (Shaiman/Wittman), "You Coulda Knocked Me Over With a Feather"
Song: Elvis’s iconic “Mystery Train” isn’t just a cover of Junior Walker’s original tune; it’s a mash-up of that tune and its percolating B-side, “Love My Baby.” Here they all are, in their now inextricable glory—a jump blues hall of mirrors.

Album: Odetta’s Dylan album is extraordinary—she deeply rethinks/reshapes a lot of these tunes, none more so than her trippily lugubrious “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which runs nearly as long as “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands.”

Lyric: The Pretenders, "Thumbelina"
Song: I still vividly remember the first time I heard this gorgeous Caetano Veloso cover of a Simón Diaz folk song: I was so enraptured by the celestial melody that the arrival of the percussion startled me. Now I wait for it in sweet suspense.

Album: Kirk Hamilton’s essential Strong Songs podcast led me to this late Band album, which I don’t think I’d ever heard in full. It’s got some killer tunes but above all it showcases musicians at liberating ease with each other (at least sonically).

Lyric: Dinah Shore (Van Heusen/Burke), "Like Someone in Love"
Song: Can’t decide which I love more in this stone cold classic by Asian Dub Foundation: the funk and Bollywood samples or Master D’s raspy flow. Also can’t believe this track is almost 30 years old.

Album: Released the same year as her masterpiece THE DELTA SWEETE, this duet album with Glen Campbell only solidifies for me the quiet majesty of Bobbie Gentry’s imperial period. Country-pop kitsch never sounded so subtly sultry.

Lyric: Cibo Matto, "Flowers"
Song: This radiant Clara Nunes classic, which I first heard on the Luaka Bop collection O SAMBA, is one of the most heart-lifting tunes I know. I defy you to hear it and not feel better.

Album: I grew up on the original records collected on this 1995 CD of early Bowie tracks, but I can't be a snob about it—it's a fantastic showcase of his full theatrical range in the 1960s, from novelty to Newley to straight-up heartbreak.

Lyric: Louis Jordan, "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby"
Song: The opening theme of Jerry Goldsmith’s TOTAL RECALL score would be standard, stirring old-school sci-fi fare but for the deliciously obnoxious snare banging out a jolting march rhythm, which sets a properly unforgiving tone for the film.

Album: Today’s album is this flawless, mostly instrumental and ruminative new playlist from PJ Harvey, with a perfect closer.

Lyric: Tom Waits, "Hell Broke Luce"
Song: Can’t decide what I love most about this Winehouse banger: the way it just seems to start mid-thought (and ends just as abruptly), the shifting, angular harmony of the chorus, a vocal as tossed off as it’s pissed off. Perfection.

Album: I am late to this traffic-stopping classic by Jimmy Scott from 1970, and I have to say I’m blown away. His phrasing and timbre evoke a jazzier Roberta Flack, and the luxurious tempi and arrangements are so lush yet precise…full swoon.

Lyric: Ron Sexsmith, "Maybe This Christmas"
Song: What better way to ring in the Yuletide than The Monkees singing a Spanish villancico about God protecting the Virgin Mary from wolves? I mean, any child could tell you that’s what the season is all about.

Album: Did you know that Jimmy Webb wrote a Christmas cantata and that Amy Grant and Art Garfunkel sang it on a not-quite-indispensable but still lovely 1986 record? Now you do.