Music Diary, Vol. -55

The rationale behind this mad project is here. The full playlist is above, also here.

Week of Dec. 19-25, 2022

LYRICS: Dave Grusin/Alan & Marilyn Bergman, "Maude"
SONG: I have a huge soft spot for Graffiti Bridge, though I know all too well it's not Prince's finest effort. This swamp baroque scorcher, with its deep-dish harmonies, sweaty guitar solo, and spidery synth noodling, is one reason I can't quit it.

LYRICS: John Prine, "Spanish Pipedream"

SONG: Der Silbersee, the last work Kurt Weill completed in Germany before fleeing the Nazis, is an underrated masterpiece with a wide-ranging neoclassical score. It starts with this furious, Mozartean overture.

LYRICS: Prince, "Starfish and Coffee"

SONG: My favorite Yes song gets an excellent, attentive cover by The Bad Plus, with mournful vocals by Wendy Lewis and standout bass work by Reid Anderson.

LYRICS: Teresa Stratas (Kurt Weill/Langston Hughes), "Lonely House"

SONG: Every track on Elvis Costello's Spanish Model (in which Latin rockers sing the entirety of This Year's Model over the original Attractions tracks) is a revelation, but the one that really sends me is La Marisoul's blistering "Detonantes (Little Triggers)."

LYRICS: Bessie Smith, "I Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl"

SONG: High-life, hip-hop, churning funk rock, propulsive percussion, choral grandeur—this standout track by African super-group Benin International Musical has it all.

LYRICS: The Waitresses, "Christmas Wrapping"

SONG: That Christmas Feeling, a Columbia Special Products record from 1973, was the holiday soundtrack of my childhood. Amid the Johnny Mathis and Mormon Tabernacle Choir was this rollicking New Christy Minstrels tune half in Italian.

LYRICS: Burl Ives (Marks/Longfellow), "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day"

SONG: Merry Christmas! Please to enjoy my mashup of the Ukrainian folk tune we now know as the "Carol of the Bells" with the Christ-like parable that constituted Eden Ahbez's most famous song.