Music Diary, Vol. -82

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

Week of June 13-19, 2022

LYRICS: Billie Holiday (the Gershwins), "A Foggy Day"

SONG: The music couldn’t be simpler or the lyrics sadder, yet somehow this late ’80s track by the Tucson band River Roses, which I bought a 45 of after hearing them play it live, never fails to lift my spirits. Dobro by Rainer Ptacek is a highlight.

LYRICS: Jim Reeves (Joe & Audrey Allison), "He'll Have to Go"

SONG: The chromatic plunge that follows the first five notes of this deathless Nino Rota theme always makes me feel a bit drunk—to my ears it’s one of the boldest melodic gambits by any composer, and as neat a distillation of Fellini as you’ll find.

LYRICS: Squeeze, "Piccadilly"

SONG: I’m a sucker for their folk-pop sound, of course, but this slyly galloping, vaguely sinister lament, which keeps building and unfurling surprises, is what really sold me on the Swedish duo First Aid Kit. The bell that shines indeed.

LYRICS: Zero Mostel (Sondheim), "Pretty Little Picture"

SONG: A heady stew of prog, surf, and psych rock, with a touch of Bollywood vocals, this epic track by the (apparently dissolved) Dutch band Mysterons is the kind of song I can pump my fist to.

LYRICS: Madison Cunningham, "L.A. (Looking Alive"

SONG: "Of jam and spice, there's a paradise..." In an amazing bit of musical theatre time travel, one could swear that Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin wrote this song expressly for Julie Andrews, so completely does she own its yearning melody and dreamy lyrics.

LYRICS: Purple Mountains, "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me"

SONG: I guess it’s a sign of how basic I am that my favorite song on Patti Smith’s great album Horses has always been this bewildered reggae bop about a dead girl on a beach in California, the questionable taste of which is offset by its compassionate framing of her as a “victim of sweet suicide.”

LYRICS: Paul McCartney, "Riding to Vanity Fair"

SONG: There is no greatest Paul McCartney song—where would you even start?—but if I had to pick the one that pops into my head unbidden most frequently, it would be this chipper, twangy pastorale.