Music Diary, Vol. -65

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

Week of Oct. 10-16, 2022

LYRICS: Rob Kendt, "Grief"

SONG: Rubén Blades' 1988 English-language pop record Nothing But the Truth has been criminally underrated and underheard. This witty, catchy collab with Elvis Costello, which has a strummy King of America lightness, is one high point among many.

LYRICS: Björk, "Hyperballad"

SONG: Old folk songs can be ice-cold and mesmerizingly creepy, as this brief, haunting Glenn Yarbrough rendition of a particularly weird, grim standard amply shows. The only dash of whimsy here is "banana pie"; otherwise this is deliciously bleak.

LYRICS: Johnny Cash (Henry Clay Work), "My Grandfather's Clock"

SONG: I love the Nilsson original, of course, but to me this cracked, froggy Marianne Faithfull cover of this bittersweet classic is the definitive version.

LYRICS: Robert Goulet (Lerner & Loewe), "If Ever I Would Leave You"

SONG: 20 years ago this month I led the music for An Appalachian Twelfth Night in L.A., and for a show intro I dug up this early 1900s British/American mining-disaster tearjerker but couldn't track down the tune ('twas pre-YouTube), so I wrote my own.

LYRICS: Randy Newman, "Texas Girl at the Funeral of Her Father"

SONG: Gun to my head, if I had to choose one Satie piece to take above all the rest, it would be this Gnossienne, as to my ears it's the closest he came to blending his manic, capering mode with his inimitable melancholy register.

LYRICS: Annie Lennox (Cole Porter), "Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye"

SONG: Rufus Wainwright, wise before his years.

LYRICS: Sam Phillips, "Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us"

SONG: Dylan's Christian period produced some transcendent reflections on faith and some silly novelty songs, but many of its most compelling tunes are angry, snarling jeremiads like this, in which he sounds like he's raging above all at himself.