ladyapple27

One of the great lost voices of the 60s. I love her version of "Today I Started Loving You Again," but I couldn't find a video.  

This is footage from Farm Aid 1990 viked from Youtube. The sound quality could be better. Listen to the studio version; you'll go to pieces over it.

An instructor at the local community college was a big fan of Lyle Lovett, and even mentioned him in the title poem of  her poetry collection, The Hillbilly Vampire.  She wrote that some people thought of hillbilly vampires as "Lyle Lovett in a cape," but they're actually people who raid mountain culture and carry off quilts. I loaned the book a long time ago, but I'll try to find the poem and post it.

The Avett Brothers are based in North Carolina, and their local shows have been sellouts for years. The band is gaining well-deserved national popularity.  Go and see them live if you can; they put on a great show.

"If it's the Beaches" is one of the most beautiful breakup songs ever.  No frills, just great music and these lyrics:

Don't say it's over
Cause that's the worst news I could hear I swear that I will 
Do my best to be here just the way you like it
Even though its hard to hide
Push my feelings all aside
I will rearrange my plans and change for you

If I could go back 
That's the first thing I would do I swear that I would
Do my best to folow through 
Come up with a master plan
A homerun hit, a winning stand
A guarantee and not a promise
That I'll never let your love slip from my hands

If it's the beaches 
If it's the beaches' sands you want
Then you will have them
If it's the mountains' bending rivers
Then you will have them
If it's the wish to run away 
Then I will grant it
Take whatever what you think of
While I go gas up the truck
Pack the old love letters up
We will read them when we forget why we left here

BTW, if you're a vinyl fan, their work is available on vinyl. Their elegantly pure music was perfect for the vinyl revival. Naturally, it's available in digital form also.

This site has insructions on how to search for a song when you don't know the title, remember only a snippet of lyrics, etc. I find it helpful when I just have to find out the title of a song before it drives me crazy.
http://www.allbutforgottenoldies.net/help/name-that-tune.html#words

I heard Eldon Bishop's "Fooled Around and Fell in Love" on the radio today. I hadn't heard it in long time. I can't believe that he was a physics major. 

My late father had a fondness for novelty songs. I had the misfortune of having a conversation with a braggart today. You know the kind that is always right, knows everything, and loves himself to a fault? As I stood there listening to this mularkey, I suddenly heard my father's voice in my head: "oh he comes on like Rock Hudson, and he thinks he's superman-he's Waldo P. Emerson Jones." I hadn't thought  of that song in years. Daddy claimed that it was the theme song for one of my classmates in high school.

I ran across a weird question on a music trivia game, but I knew the answer, thanks to Daddy's collection of Coasters songs: "I'm a Hog For You." It's probably one of the corniest, most ridiculous novelty songs ever. If you don't believe me, look up the lyrics on the net. Truly awful. Don't send it to your sweetie!

2 novelty songs that I despise: "Just A' Swinging" and "Achy Breaky Heart."

Which novelty songs irritate you?

Is there one that you like?  

My 2 favorite Van Morrison songs are "Astral Weeks" and "Into the Mystic." Ever love a song so much that it's hard to describe that love in satisfactorially extravagant  terms?

I like the whole Astral Weeks  album. It stirs pleasant memories. A friend used to have a convertible, and we'd all pile in and go for drives in the mountains. This album was a favorite on those drives. I associate the music with sunshine, light sparkling on water, and shadows passing over us as we drove along tree shadowed roads. It feels so good to just relax, close my eyes, and relive the feeling. 

You know what would be the ultimate: a solar-powered convertible! All the fun without any guilt about destroying the very environment you're enjoying as you roll along.

I heard Jackson Brown singing "The Pretender" on the radio this week. Although Brown wrote the song, I don't care for his version. I'm not crazy about his voice. I prefer Gary US Bond's version off of Dedication, a Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven Van Zandt produced album from the early 80's. Bond delivers the lyrics with passion, and the backing by members of the E Street Band is superb. Springsteen's vocal can be heard on several tracks, and the great Ben E. King and Chuck Jackson provide backup vocals on "Your Love."  "Daddy's Come Home" is a fantastic song with lyrics by VanZandt and a soulful performance by Bonds. The lyrics suited the mood of the troubled early 80s, but are even more relevant now. There's even a decent version of the Beatles' "It's Only Love."

On the Line, another Springsteen and Van Zandt produced album, was Bond's next album. It didn't sell as well, but got better reviews. Chuck Jackson can be heard  on "Club Soul City."  Once again, Springsteen, Van Zandt, Clarence Clemmons, and Roy Bittan provide their services. "Out of Work" was practically the anthem for the early 80s and would suffice for 2009.

If you buy the 2 albums combined on one CD, the last track on On the Line , "Last Time," is dropped in order to fit the albums onto one disc. It's a very somber song, but I like it. Dinosaur that I am, I have both albums on vinyl.

  

"Put a Little Love in Your Heart"  Annie Lennox and Al Green. 
Great idea, good beat, wonderful vocals.