#646: nina simone - four women (1965, antibes)
hearing enter the wu-tang live was the highlight of my month, but i’d trade it any day for reanimating nina simone to do wild is the wind. and maybe talib kweli would agree to come on afterwards to do his version of the album’s best song, four women? and not to compare apples to oranges, but i’d also take let it all out over midnight marauders, as fast as you can say “i intend to be independently blue.”
#641: the everly brothers - walk right back (tennessee ernie ford show, 1961)
the modern lovers will cure what ails you on a sunday night, then monday morning brings its own troubles. but the everly brothers will put on their matching suits, sling their matching monochromatic guitars around their necks below perfectly coiffed hair, and sing about daily lonesomeness in a close harmony that’ll pull you a little bit closer to tuesday. and their semi-bowties are an inspiration to us all.
#633: the beatles - rain (1966)
i thought i’d heard every beatles song i needed to hear, and then the b-side to paperback writer, a hit i’d never been crazy about, just turned out to be a throbbing, drenched, perfect little pop song. it smells like lemonade, tastes like sunflowers, and was recorded on a magic new abbey road console called the automatic transient overload control, which made it the loudest single ever. and, thank god, it even has a music video with ringo starr in blue sunglasses.
#628: the left banke - walk away renée (1966)
it’s only the second most heavenly song that the left banke’s pianist, michael brown, wrote about the bassist’s girlfriend (no. 1 is here), but walk away renée gets bonus points for the black-and-white video, and because brown plays the harpsichord on the recording, and most importantly of all because he couldn’t play properly on account of real-life renée. “my hands were shaking,” he once said, “because she was right there in the control room. there was no way i could do it with her around, so i came back and did it later.”
i wonder what the bassist thought about all that? his girlfriend’s name was actually renée! maybe that’s why the left banke didn’t stay together for very long.
the left banke - pretty ballerina (1967)
well, i’ve found a new favorite song. the verses sound like belle and sebastian covering the velvet underground, the chorus is elliott smith playing a bach cantata, and the bridge is so perfect that leonard bernstein tried to do it live on his 1967 tv show (if anyone has footage of that, i’d appreciate it). also, the left banke’s pianist wrote the song, but it’s about the bassist’s girlfriend. sigh.
former observer photo editor and renowned mixmaker kat irannejad introduced me to the dreamy, perfect, and short lived late-60s new york city band the left banke a few years ago. but it wasn’t until the other day, when i found their complete recordings on chris goes rock, that i really fell in love. between these afternoon thunderstorms and walk away renée, pretty ballerina, and i’ve got something on my mind (which i now realize jens leckman borrowed from for black cab), it’s going to be a fine sunday.
plus, what a poster! the left banke play a schenactady nightclub in march 1967, when the tickets cost $1.50 and $2.50, minors were allowed into the sunday matinee, and a band named aerodrome—misspelled at the bottom left?—were on the bill, too.)
#624: the marvelettes - please mr. postman (1961)
the marvelettes’ first song was cherry-flavored taffy—so sweet and sticky!—but the album that came afterward, playboy, was steak and lobster and oysters and champagne and ice cream sundae with a maraschino cherry on top. it is gorgeous and huge. it is obese. it is redder than red lipstick on a starched white collar. it will make you blush.
watch out, here come the best handclaps this side of 1960.
early marvelettes, marvelous.
#618: fairport convention - morning glory (1968, french show bouton rouge)
kooky instruments in late-60s british folk music are just like donating blood: you think they’re going to make you feel really bad, but then they don’t.
no one wanted a psychedelic scottish duo to play the oud, but the incredible string band was incredible; that flutes sound good on van morrison’s astral weeks is one of the great paradoxes in the history of irish fluting; depressive english singer-songwriters don’t need cellos, but nick drake’s cello song is a classic; and was london’s fairport convention done in by the recorder here? reader, they weren’t.
#613: oscar peterson, john coltrane, stan getz, paul chambers and jimmy cobb - hackensack (1960)
oscar peterson was a canadian, john coltrane was a longtime heroin addict, stan getz cuckolded joão gilberto, and paul chambers drank himself into a pile of spaghetti, but it’s music like this that makes me proud, genuinely, to be american.
#609: patsy cline - lovesick blues (1960)
well i’m back from my road trip, where i learned that patsy cline songs do not sound better when you’re driving along skyline drive in shenandoah valley. the reason is that patsy cline songs always sound like ice cream cake, dry wood, moccasins, muskrats, dew, ginger ale and light firearms: you could be watching white-tailed deer scamper off into the virginia sunset with your dad or walking east on 22nd street alone and she’ll move you just the same.
#606: the zombies - summertime (shindig! 1965)
hello 90 degrees! and hello to you as well green trees and blue skies and yellow sun. hello begin here by the zombies. hello iced coffees with heavy cream and five sugars. hello imitation seersucker white pants that i tend to get lots of compliments on. hello george gershwin. hello mid-60s organ solos. goodbye glum. goodbye doom. goodbye rod argent’s solo work. see you next fall.
#603: the everly brothers - all i have to do is dream / cathy’s clown (1961)
would you rather have vocal cords like don everly or a head of hair like don everly?
awfully good van morrison albums to listen to on a saturday night, vol. 1: them again
