Carnival Saloon

Happy Thanksgiving from William Burroughs

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Here's something to cheer you up as you're suffering post-Turkey indigestion...

William Burroughs' state-of-the-nation address, Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986, was published in his 1989 book Tornado Alley. A year later this retitled version appeared on Dead City Radio, a Hal Willner-produced album of Burroughs' recitals set against music by the likes of John Cale and Donald Fagen.

MP3: William Burroughs - A Thanksgiving Prayer

Buy Dead City Radio at Amazon

Gus Van Sant made this video as a promo for the album. I hope MTV showed it at least once.

Robert Crumb's Record Sleeves

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 15:31:00 +0000

If you've seen Terry Zwigoff's brilliant documentary about cartoonist Robert Crumb you'll know that the comics pioneeer loves old American music in almost equal measure to drawing large-breasted women.

Over the years Crumb has married his passion for music with his talents as an artist to illustrate dozens of record covers (most famously Big Brother and the Holding Company's Cheap Thrills).

These sleeves alongside other music-related epheremea are now gathered in a terrific book, accurately titled, The Complete Record Cover Collection (Norton).

It's difficult to browse through the book and see names like Ukulele Ike and the Possum Trot String Band and not want to hear their music.

This is Crumb's cover to a 1978 compilation by bawdy bluesman Bo Carter.

On this track, when Bo sings about troubles with his pencil, I don't think it's an HB graphite he's referring to.

MP3: Bo Carter - The Pencil Won't Write No More

Buy Bo Carter's Banana in Your Fruit Basket at Amazon

Another great cover in the book that sees Crumb playing to his strengths is this one for a 1975 Hokum Boys compilation on Yazoo Records.

MP3: The Hokum Boys -You Can't Get Enough Of That Stuff

Buy The Hokum Boys Complete Recordings: June-Dec 1929 at Amazon
The book also includes all of Crumb's covers for his own band The Cheap Suit Serenaders.

I thought this track from the Cheap Suits' third album was most appropriate.

MP3 R Crumb & His Cheap Suit Serenaders - Fine Artiste Blues

Buy The Cheap Suit Serenaders' Chasin' Rainbows at Amazon

Related Links
R Crumb - official site
R Crumb - Illustrator & Musician - good interview on Leap in the Dark blog
Robert Crumb on WFMU's Antique Phonograph Music Program - great video interview

JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound cover Wilco

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 29 Oct 2011 11:46:00 +0000

Ninety of my most enjoyable minutes each week are spent listening to a podcast called Filmspotting. Between the reviews and top five lists the programme uses musical interludes to break up the segments of movie geekery.

As a fan of both Wilco and the classic soul sound I was blown away when this came through my headphones yesterday after a discussion of Kevin Smith's Red State.

MP3: JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart

Buy JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound's Want More at Amazon

Like Wilco JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound are a Chicago-based band and their second album Want More actually comes out on Monday.

I'm a little surprised they'd not crossed my radar until yesterday. This cover is more than a year old and evidently enthralled Jeff Tweedy enough for the Wilco frontman to invite them to play the band's Solid Sound festival in June.

If you need reminding of what the original sounds like, here's a live version from a gig just down the road from me at the Forum in Kentish Town in 2009.

MP3: Wilco - I Am Trying To Break Your Heart (Live in Kentish Town)

Buy Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot at Amazon

Related Links
JC Brooks & The Uptown Sound - official site
Bloodshot Records - label site includes free MP3s
Wilco - official site
Filmspotting - essential podcast for movie fans

Tom Waits Covers #6: Jennifer Warnes

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 17:23:00 +0000

An admission - I've never heard Famous Blue Raincoat, Jennifer Warnes' highly regarded album of Leonard Cohen covers. Because I only know her from belting out Up Where We Belong and The Time of My Life I'm afraid she's always had a strong whiff of cheese to me.

That set of Cohen covers evidently increased Jennifer's muso cred and as the All Music Guide notes, "suddenly a singer who had seemed like a second-rate Linda Ronstadt now appeared to be a first-class interpretive artist."

It's no surprise then that if she could work her magic on Laughing Len's songbook she could also have a similar effect on the Tom Waits canon.

This bluesy version of the Small Change classic is from Jennifer Warnes' album The Well. Released in 2001 it was her first LP in nine years.

MP3: Jennifer Warnes - Invitation to the Blues

But The Well at Amazon

Invitation to the Blues is in my personal pantheon of great Tom Waits songs. When I saw Tom in concert for the first time in 2000 I'll admit to getting a bit dusty when he played it solo on piano as I looked down from the balcony of the glorious Grand Rex Theatre in Paris.

This is a much earlier live version from a gig in Germany in 1977. You can grab MP3s of the while show over at Captains Dead.

MP3: Tom Waits - Invitation to the Blues (live)

As always do let me know what you think of either of the tracks and also suggest any other great Tom Waits covers I ought to post.

Previous Tom Waits Covers on Carnival Saloon
Sara Watkins - Pony
Solomon Burke - Diamond In Your Mind
Bette Midler - Shiver Me Timbers
Tori Amos & Heidi Talbot - Time
Bruce Springsteen - Jersey Girl (inc. Tom & Bruce duet)

The Sinking of the Titantic

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Tue, 31 May 2011 19:49:00 +0000

I will happily resort to stereotype and say that the Irish need no excuse for festivities so should we really be surprised that Belfast celebrated the 100th anniversary of the ill-fated launch of the Titanic today?

While they're raising their Guinness glasses in Northern Ireland, I'll use the centenary as an excuse to share one of the four songs about the Titanic's fatal plunge from Trikont's wonderful Doom & Gloom compilation, subtitled Early Songs of Angst and Disaster 1927-1945.

MP3: Richard 'Rabbit' Brown - Sinking of the Titanic

Buy Doom and Gloom at Amazon

I would much rather hear this song, recorded in 1927, on repeat than sit through three hours of any James Cameron film. All we learn about 'Rabbit' Brown from the sleeve notes is that he was born "about 1880 in New Orleans where he played extensively both in brothels and on the street".

If this is the sort of music that floats (or sinks) your boat then do buy a copy of Doom & Gloom. As well as three other tracks about the Titanic you'll get songs about floods, the atomic bomb, World War II, car crashes and fires. Party time? Excellent!

Happy Birthday Bob!

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Tue, 24 May 2011 09:19:00 +0000

Bob Dylan is 70 today. Rather than explain why I find the rasping septuagenarian so endlessly fascinating and add to the screeds being written to mark the occasion I thought I'd simply showcase some of my previous posts about the birthday boy.

An Alternative Blood on the Tracks
This is the all-time most popular Carnival Saloon post - a compilation of cover versions of every song on Blood on the Tracks by the likes of Robyn Hitchcock, Lloyd Cole, Elvis Costello and Tom Russell.

Tom Waits on Radio Bob
Another hugely popular post - all of Tom Waits' comical riffs from Theme Time Radio Hour. Waits is my number one musical hero so you can imagine my reaction when I first heard him contribute to Dylan's brilliant radio show.

Bob Dylan @ The Roundhouse
There was a ludicrous amount of hype before Dylan's 'intimate' concert at the Camden Roundhouse in 2009. Radio 4's Today Programme even ran a piece ahead of the gig. Dylan live can be a mixed bag. As I wrote then, my policy is always "to go with low expectations and an open mind". See the whole post for my full review and MP3s of that night's renditions of Like A Rolling Stone and a version of I Don't Believe You influenced by The Faces.

It's A Mad Mad Mad Bob World
Like so many things in the realm of Dylan, Todd Haynes' film I'm Not There divided audiences. This was what I thought of it after watching it for the first time.

Bob Slayers
On the subject of divisive projects... did you hear the one about the croaky pensioner who decided to make a Christmas record? This post is a digest of immediate reactions to the album on its release in October 2009. I later reviewed the album myself on the BBC Music website.

Around North London with Bob Dylan
A very enjoyable post to write, inspired by an impromptu stroll to Crouch End last year. A little bit of record buying, lunch where Bob once ate and one of my favourite Dylan anecdotes.

Bob Dylan at Newport, 1965
I wrote this after reading Joe Boyd's book White Bicycles. The post includes MP3s from one of the most infamous music performances of all time.

Dylan in China: The First Song
My most recent Dylan post. The was a right brouhaha about Bob's first ever gig in China and whether the authorities there censored his set list. Bob's now had his say on the matter. I speculated that starting the concert with Gonna Change My Way of Thinking was an anti-establishment decision.

Tonight I'll be celebrating Bob's birthday at the Union Chapel in London where Thea Gilmore will perform all of John Wesley Harding. Maybe she'll lead the congregation in a round of "Happy Birthday To You".

The Rapture: Hank Williams Had A Dream

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 21 May 2011 09:19:00 +0000

By now you'll be well aware that California televangelist Harold Camping predicted that over the din of earthquakes we'd all be hearing trumpets today as Jesus returns to take believers up to Heaven.

There must be hundreds of country songs about preparing to meet the Maker. It really is the perfect soundtrack to the End Times.

If you're not sure what to expect if Rev Camping's prophecy pans out, Hank Williams can explain all.

MP3: Hank Williams - I Dreamed That The Great Judgment Morning

Buy Hank Williams' The Unreleased Recordings on Amazon

So that's what's on my Rapture juke box, now over to you. What are your favourite apocalyptic songs?

Tony Tost - If Only Johnny Cash Had Covered These...

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 15 May 2011 12:19:00 +0000

Last week I posted my interview with Tony Tost about his book on Johnny Cash's American Recordings album. One of the things I like about the book is that it shares my view that some of the covers JC tackled on his later albums with Rick Rubin, quite frankly, sucked.

With this in mind I asked Tony to come up with a list for Carnival Saloon of the Worst of American Recordings. Being a creative chap Tony suggested something much better. What songs should Johnny Cash have covered in those final, highly productive, years of his life?

Over to Tony...

MP3: The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God

This list is inspired by my undying wish that Cash would have covered this song in particular. It hits the self/God/land trifecta perfectly, showing how intimately interwoven personal, divine and communal identities can be. It would have to be slowed down, of course, but I'd trust that Marty Stuart and friends could find a nice rambling rhythm for it. The lyrics are reminiscent of Cash at his Big River best: all around the dark-hearted protagonist, the natural and supernatural worlds come alive, inspired by his restlessness.
Buy The Pogues - If I Should Fall From Grace With God on Amazon

MP3: Guy Clark - The Randall Knife

Essentially a recitation, this is a superbly controlled song, and one of the best illustrations of TS Eliot's notion of the Objective Correlative I've come across. Eliot believed, rightly, that in the best art, objects accrue emotional resonances to a point that the objects stand in for those emotions. Not as vague symbols, however. The best works of art accumulate emotions unique to themselves. Via precision. In the song, Guy Clark finds that he cannot weep for the death of his father, even though he is presented with a series of objects that should, conceivably, do the job. It is not until he finds the object worthy of his father's life that he can find tears, and it is no coincidence that this worthy object is one that touches upon marriage, country, war, fatherhood and disappointment, all at once.
Buy Guy Clark - Better Days at Amazon

MP3: The Highwaymen - Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

Cash covered Woody Guthrie's song with The Highwaymen, but I would love to hear it solo. A bitter, angry song that is all the more effective because it controls its bitterness and anger, finding the correct, specific images for its outrage. Again, God and land and family and self mingle here, shown to be inextricable from one another. Rubin could have brought in Calexico to do the arrangement, as they have nailed the sort of The-Band-meets-Warren-Zevon's-Carmelita vibe that I find irresistible on their cover of Tom T Hall's Tulsa Telephone Book (see below) and their backing work on the I'm Not There soundtrack. If I was Rick Rubin, I would've hired Calexico and presented Cash with this song, Dylan's Senor (Tales of Yankee Power), Zevon's Carmelita, Los Lobos' Will the Wolf Survive, Van Zandt's Pancho and Lefty and some Doug Sahm and Gram Parsons numbers. There's still time to do this album with Willie Nelson. Someone get to it, quickly. Please.
Buy The Highwayman Collection at Amazon

MP3: Townes Van Zandt - To Live Is to Fly

Maybe the most moving song I can imagine, the specificity and deep resonance of its imagery, and the gentleness of its sentiment, kill me every time. The last three albums Cash did, it seemed that he and Rubin were piling on the he-might-just-croak-after-this-one vibe. Fine. But instead of Danny Boy or boomer pablum like In My Life, why not a song that seems to encompass all the awful, joyful, baffling fullness of life?
Buy Townes Van Zandt - Texas Troubadour at Amazon

Bonus Track!
MP3: Calexico - Tulsa Telephone Book (Tom T. Hall cover)

The Tom T Hall tribute album Real should be a must for Carnival Saloon regulars. This is one of the many highlights of a record that also features Johnny Cash, Whiskeytown, Iris DeMent, Freedy Johnston and many more.
Buy Real: The Tom T Hall Project at Amazon

I appreciate Tony taking the time to share this list. A fantastic selection don't you think? And the sort of insightful writing you'll be unaccustomed to around these parts.

So, they're Tony's picks. What would yours be?

Related Posts
Tony Tost on Johnny Cash's American Recordings - my interview with Tony
Johnny Cash: Chicken in Black - just so you know why Johnny needed a credibility comeback
A Cup of Coffee with Johnny Cash - Cash hawks Folgers, as heard on Tony Tost's America

Related Links
Tony Tost's America - if you like Carnival Saloon, you'll love Tony's podcast
33 ⅓ books - official blog for the series

Tony Tost on Johnny Cash's American Recordings

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Fri, 06 May 2011 13:18:00 +0000

I've enthused about the Tony Tost's America podcast before on Carnival Saloon. So I was delighted to learn some months ago that Tony was writing a book in Continuum's 33 ⅓ series about Johnny Cash's incredible 1994 comeback album American Recordings. It's a terrific, illuminating read that I'd recommend to anyone who loves Johnny Cash, and that record in particular.

Earlier in the week I asked Tony about his book and Johnny Cash's late career resurgence. Tony will also contribute to a future post with his suggestions of songs he thinks Johnny Cash shoud have covered on the records he made with Rick Rubin. Enjoy the interview...

The approach and style of the 33 ⅓ books are all quite different. What was your pitch when you suggested writing one about American Recordings?

My basic pitch was that American Recordings was the album that solidified the omnipresent, larger-than-life Cash that is still in circulation. My conceit was that I alone could tell the story of how it happened. I also suggested that Cash was a resolutely literary musician and that he could be best understood as a kind of novelist with one great, landmark character: the mythic version of himself. Using this framework, I argued, I would then turn American Recordings into a window onto the Cash legend as a whole. I tried to make it clear that I would shoot for the moon on this book, that I would try to get deeper into the man’s mind than any other writer would venture.

Cash released more than 50 albums in his career and you’re adamant that American Recordings is his very best. Why?

One, it was something I needed to tell myself in order to bring my total energy and conviction to this particular album. Two, it’s true. Cash wasn’t really the greatest albums artist, so it’s not like he had a series of masterpiece albums with which to contend. He was a Nashville artist in most ways, and Nashville still utilises a sort of pre-Beatles template: recognisable stars taking on the latest songs of the songwriting factory. That sounds like a disparaging description, but I don’t mean it to be. Bob McDill, who wrote amazing hits for Don Williams, Waylon Jennings, Alabama, Alan Jackson and others, was the consummate Nashville songwriter-for-hire, and he’s one of my ten or so favorite songwriters ever, in any genre.

But even his best songs for Don Williams are spread out over a decade of albums. And that’s how it goes, even with interpretive geniuses like George Jones, Tanya Tucker or George Strait. Usually, landmark albums come from singer-songwriter country artists - Merle Haggard has had a bunch, and Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton have had some - or from singers working closely with a songwriter, like Waylon Jennings’ Honky Tonk Heroes, an album of Billy Joe Shaver songs, or Bobby Bare’s Lullabies, Legends and Lies, an album of Shel Silverstein numbers.

After his songwriting well went dry in the early 60s, a lot of Cash’s albums were in the hits-and-filler vein. It’s fun to sift through them to find little lost nuggets here and there (like Orphan of the Road on A Man in Black, or Cocaine Carolina on John R. Cash), but there aren’t very many albums that work as a cohesive, compelling whole vision, like Honky Tonk Heroes does.

The live San Quentin album I find to be the next most vital Cash album, and I’m also partial to some early 70s work, like A Man in Black. His very first albums for Columbia, like The Fabulous Johnny Cash, Songs of Our Soil and Now, There Was a Song are fantastic also. His Sun Records output towers over American Recordings (and much of recorded music) but that was as a singles artist (though endless compilations of his Sun Records work have been sold ever since).

My not-so-radical notion is that the best albums deliver great songs and a unique aural and thematic world. My favorite albums - Exile on Main Street, Tumbleweed Connection, Alien Lanes, Warren Zevon, The Band, Rumours, Moon Pix, Darkness on the Edge of Town, Toys in the Attic - do both consistently from start to finish. American Recordings has an urgency that is unique in the Cashian canon. He is both vulnerable and virile of voice. The comparisons to Springsteen’s Nebraska are apt, because there is a casual intimacy that makes the record very compelling, moving and discomforting. Other Cash albums are great products. American Recordings sounds like an emanation.

Do you think the film Walk the Line would have been made if Johnny hadn’t made American Recordings?

I don’t think Walk the Line gets made without the Rick Rubin resurrection narrative, no. And American Recordings was the start of that. Walk the Line is basically the prequel to the Hurt video. And we don’t get the Hurt song or video without the preceding stunt covers of Danzig, Soundgarden, Beck, Depeche Mode that Rubin encouraged.

I’m waiting for the sequel to Walk the Line, which I think would be a very different kind of movie. You’d have Cash’s career decline and missteps back into addiction and into adultery. You’d have Johnny and June’s corresponding religious fervor. There’s the traumatic robbery they suffered in Jamaica, when their son John Carter was held at gunpoint while thieves ransacked the place. There’s the infamous ostrich attack on the Cash property, with Johnny getting sliced open after picking a fight with the bird. That’s also a part of the Cash story. I’m interested in how one generates meaning and identity in the midst of all of this tawdry kind of crap, as opposed to the fairy tale of Walk the Line, that somehow suggests all the crap is erased by the redemptive powers of true love.

Could Johnny have staged a comeback quite as successfully without Rick Rubin?

There wouldn’t have been the publicity hook without Rubin, definitely. And probably not the opportunity, either. American Recordings really has become the blueprint for golden years comebacks. Just about every comeback album since then has picked up at least one of American Recordings' three hooks: 1) a stripped-down sound, to convey authenticity; 2) a mature artist working with a young buck producer; or 3) a mature artist taking on the songs of much younger artists. It’s a pretty good formula. I mean, I love the Glen Campbell comeback album from a couple of years ago, which is basically him covering Green Day and the Replacements in the style of his great Wichita Lineman and Galveston heyday. And while Jack White’s work with Loretta Lynn and Wanda Jackson should put Rubin a little to shame, he's also picking up on some of the American Recordings fairy dust.

Rubin rightly recognised that a stripped-down approach would not only produce intrigue with Cash, but that it’d also force him to sing more directly and plainly, allowing the genius of his voice to come through. But it’s not like Rubin was some kind of Midas figure with Cash. There’s an anecdote I touch upon in the book, where Cash is doing take after take of Robert Palmer’s Addicted to Love because Rubin thinks they could score a hit with it. The whole time, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Cash’s backing band for the sessions, were fighting not to burst into laughter, even though they all idolised Cash. It was just so stupid, they had to laugh. And some of the stuff, especially in albums three and four, got similarly insipid. I’m actively embarrassed to listen to the covers of In My Life and Bridge Over Troubled Water,” bad enough songs in their own right, but it was especially dumb to have Cash sing them, as though his purpose were to provide funeral songs for the world’s most sentimental bikers or something.

I’m still not convinced Rubin really knew what he had with Cash. Neil Diamond is great and all, but in what universe other than Rubin’s are they comparable figures? But he did lead Cash to a better artistic place. And Rubin gives good copy, which is important, and he gives an entry point for magazine writers, so he helped give Cash a renewed sense of relevance and audience. And he believed in Cash, which encouraged the great man to take some risks that really paid off. In my view, the whole Cash and Rubin collaboration was worthwhile if it produced nothing else but the albums American Recordings, Unchained, A Hundred Highways and the songs Hurt, I See a Darkness and The Man Comes Around, the latter of which I think is Cash’s great triumph.

Did you ever get to see Johnny play live during this period? His fairly stripped-down Glastonbury performance was incredible but as you point out in the book the hokiness of the ‘family’ show didn’t always sit comfortable with the rawer, more violent image that American recordings conjured up.

I didn’t get to see the aged Cash perform. I saw him when I was a kid. As a side income, my parents sold t-shirts and did security at a lot of country concerts, so I got to see a lot of live music that way. After American Recordings, he was caught in a bind. It would’ve been best for his career and his artistry if he’d ruthlessly cut June and John Carter and the rest of the tribe out of the show. He could have done acoustic sets and then live electric performances backed by the Tennessee Three or some young rockabillies. But that would’ve been against his values. He had a legitimate connection to an older audience, and it would have compromised his integrity with them to have abandoned the tried-and-true approach he’d been using for decades. In order to shun the family show's Hee Haw vibe, he’d have to become someone other than Johnny Cash, which was something no one wanted to have happened.

In the acknowledgments you thank Leigh (who I presume is your wife) for helping you “cut down the references to Johnny Cash’s mythic genitalia”. Now’s your opportunity. Do you have any favourite anecdotes about Johnny’s johnson?

Oh, I have no real world anecdotes. It was just a sort of jokey literary motif I overdeveloped, to my wife's annoyance. If Cash were some kind of legendary cocksmith, that’s between him and June and the state of Tennessee.

Johnny got on MTV thanks to Kate Moss appearing in the video for Delia’s Gone. I knew it was a traditional song but didn’t know there had been an actual, historical Delia. Was that something you learnt while researching the book?

The historian Sean Wilentz has an essay in a book he co-edited with Greil Marcus in which he talked about the Delia history. He referred continually to the original research done by a man named John Garst. I found Garst’s contact information and asked him for a copy of his research, which he kindly provided. Garst had a treasure trove of material, but I didn’t think he nor Wilentz were really pushing that material far enough. It was great research, and it called for some literary ambition, not journalistic humility. I ended up spending the most time on the Delia section of the book, which was originally much longer (which is true of the book as a whole; I cut over 15,000 words from the first version). For a period of time, the Delia section was actually a series of discrete paragraphs rather than the multi-linear essay it turned into, a format I adapted from Norman O. Brown’s great Love’s Body. But it wasn’t the right format for this material.

So I kept rewriting and kept going back through Cash’s work as I did so. I’ve got over a thousand of his songs on my iTunes and I would write and rewrite and listen until I felt like I was getting into the skin of the Delia legend. Once I wrote that section, which I spent maybe six months on (I’m sure I wrote at least ten different versions), the rest of the book made itself legible to me.

The one song you’re really not keen on is the Kris Kristofferson cover Why Me Lord. Presumably this was one Johnny brought to to the table rather than Rick Rubin. Why don’t you like it?

As I say in the book, I find the salvation of Why Me Lord to be a shallow, solipsistic brand of salvation. Very modern, as if salvation were something to be purchased and consumed. A magic trick or something. Or a cologne: Johnny Cash’s Redemption. Aside from Why Me, the rest of the album has a very different feel, a great open-heartedness. To risk sounding like Greil Marcus’ drunken cousin, on most of American Recordings, self and God and country are so deeply bound together that they seem like three faces of the same being. But not on Why Me. On Why Me, the self reigns supreme. It is given the great gift of God's salvation and, now that it has it, the rest of the world itself can go to Hell. Kristofferson’s a bona fide genius, but that’s maybe his worst song. It’s his The Times They Are a-Changin.’

You make an interesting point in the book that on American Recordings Cash seemed to abandon one of the great themes of much of his of earlier work - social justice. Why do you think that was?

I’ll pin some of that on Rubin, who I still think had a shallow sense of Cash as just this menacing Man in Black figure. Cash and Rubin both, they fell too in love with the whole redemption bit, and started forgetting about vengeance, justice, humor, screwing. And I also think they were afraid that anything too protesty would make Cash sound like a 60s relic, as if social justice were a fad (this makes me think about seeing protesters dressed up in tie-dye shirts in order to march against the invasion of Iraq years ago).

After the first American Recordings, the number one order of business was the resurrection of Johnny Cash as Johnny Cash. But on the first album, the net was wider. The first album was concerned with history, which has always been a great subject for country musicians, maybe THE great subject of country music. Also: it’s really hard to write a great song with social justice as a theme. Cash had been lucky to have discovered the work of Peter LaFarge in the 60s, since The Ballad of Ira Hayes and As Long as the Grass Shall Grow are among the best social justice songs around. But it’s not impossible to write a good song along these lines. As I wrote in the book, I think Marty Stuart (with help from Cash’s son John Carter Cash) succeeded in writing the kind of American Indian themed album Cash promised but never delivered when Stuart wrote and recorded his Badlands album from a few years ago.

To my mind the American Recordings series got a bit out hand. I forked out for the outtakes box but I don’t even own the second posthumous album. What’s your take on the subsequent albums?

A Hundred Highways should have been the stopping point. That second posthumous album is pretty mild, at best. Who really wants to hear Cash cover a Sheryl Crow song, even if it does mention trains? I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a copy of the Monkees’ Last Train to Clarksville on one of the suggested covers CDs Rubin sent periodically to Cash. The Rubin years are hit or miss, but the high points are undeniable. I think Unchained is a terrific album. I like half of Solitary Man a lot, and I adore the first two songs on The Man Comes Around.

There’s a playlist I’ve put together of the Cash-Rubin collaboration, and I listen to it more than just about anything, so I’d be dishonest if I completely crapped on the late run. That playlist goes:

1) The Man Comes Around, 2) God’s Gonna Cut You Down, 3) Spiritual, 4) Ain’t No Grave, 5) Thirteen, 6) Further on Up the Road, 7) Hurt, 8) I See a Darkness, 9) Rowboat, 10) Like the 309, 11) The Beast in Me, 12) Rusty Cage, 13) Down There By the Train, 14) The Mercy Seat, 15) Delia’s Gone, 16) Redemption, 17) Redemption Song, 18) Southern Accents, 19) On the Evening Train

I can listen to this playlist for days and days. So, I’m really glad these late albums exist, and that Cash had the chance to redefine and re-explore himself in his final decade. Sometimes I think of these late albums as a bit of a lost opportunity, but the opportunity itself was a bit of a miracle, so I should also be thankful that it even occurred.

A final, selfish, question. Now you’ve finished the book when can we expect more brilliant episodes of Tony Tost’s America?

That’s kind of you to say. My impetus for putting those episodes together sort of burnt out after I finished writing the book. The podcast came out of my research. In trying to get into Cash’s head, I listened to a lot of the stuff he grew up listening to and to the stuff that his peers were doing and to the stuff that he influenced. And I’d find weird things I wanted to share, tracks that suggested a landscape in which a Johnny Cash seemed inevitable.

At some point, I may try to pitch to a publisher a Thinking Person’s Guide to Country Music, where I tackle everything I find interesting about country music - haunting brother harmony combos like the Louvins and the Blue Sky Boys, for instance, or the beautifully florid and literate 70s recordings of Charlie Rich and Don Williams, or Toby Keith’s strange and hugely underrated career, or Natalie Maines’ unsurpassable singing - in an elevated literary mode, similar to what I attempted with American Recordings. If I ever do that, I’m sure I’ll start cranking out episodes again. Right now, though, I’m working on writing fictional, highly dramatic narratives, so all my obsessiveness is pointed in that direction.

Tony's book about American Recordings is out now. Buy it at Amazon (UK) or Amazon (US). Better still, see if it's in your local bookshop or ask them to order you copy.

Related Posts
Johnny Cash: Chicken in Black - just so you know why Johnny needed a credibility comeback
A Cup of Coffee with Johnny Cash - Cash hawks Folgers, as heard on Tony Tost's America

Related Links
Tony Tost's America - if you like Carnival Saloon, you'll love Tony's podcast
33 ⅓ books - official blog for the series

Johnny Cash - Chicken in Black

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Wed, 04 May 2011 21:55:00 +0000

In my survey of chicken songs over the years I've ignored one of the rummest - Johnny Cash's allegedly comic song from 1984 Chicken in Black.

If your preferred image of Cash is the killer who shot a man in Reno just to watch him die or the mythic figure who emerged on the American Recordings LPs look away now. Rather than describe it, I invite you to bear witness to its horrors.

And for those masochists who want to keep this abomination, here's the MP3.

MP3: Johnny Cash - Chicken in Black

The story goes that by the mid-80s Johnny was so pissed off with his long-time label Columbia ignoring him that he intentionally recorded an awful song in protest.

Some have suggested that Johnny's disavowal of the song is a bit of crock. In a new book about Johnny's 90s comeback Graeme Thompson writes, "Cash was not the kind of man naturally inclined to play those kinds of games with his music; and even of he were, it only illustrated how bereft he was of any hope at this point."

Thompson also quotes Johnny's daughter Rosanne who calls Chicken in Black her dad's "nadir" where "he was kind of mocking and dismantling his own legacy... There was an undercurrent of desperation in it".

Ironically, at a time when Weird Al Yankovic's Jacko spoof Eat It was all over MTV, the song actually became a minor hit compared to Cash's other recent material.

Why am I sharing this embarrassment? Because on Friday I'm posting an interview I've done with Tony Tost about his brilliant new book on the first American Recordings album.

That album rescued Cash's reputation and cemented his legacy forever. But I think it's still worth remembering what a state his career was in before that reinvention.

Rock 'n' Rolio with JD Smith

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 09:50:00 +0000

Carnival Saloon patrons who are in London next weekend could do a lot worse than heading to the Moustache Bar in Dalston on Saturday for Rock 'n' Rolio, a great night of old-school R&B and rockabilly. The extra draw will be special set by slide guitar bluesman JD Smith.

Here's a track from JD's first album A Jukebox Riot that also features Imelda May.

MP3: JD Smith w/ Imelda May - Moonlight/Starlight

Buy A Jukebox Riot at Amazon

For a taster of the other delights you might hear at Rock 'n' Rolio, their latest mix is bursting with fantastic sounds (Marvin Rainwater's Boo Hoo is a hoot).

Rock N Rolio Mix 05.11 by Rock 'N' Rolio on Mixcloud

Rock 'n' Rolio is on Saturday 7 May at Moustache Bar, 58 Stoke Newington Road, Dalston, N16 7XB from 9pm-2am. It's always FREE entry, with happy hour until 10.30pm.

Related Links
Rock 'n' Rolio Facebook group
Rock 'n' Rolio on Mixcloud - loads of other top mixes
JD Smith on Facebook

Carlene Carter & Dave Edmunds - Baby Ride Easy

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:37:00 +0000

If you're a listener to the Word Magazine's podcast you'll have heard an excellent recent episode featuring Nick Lowe. One of the highlights was Nick recalling his former Rockpile bandmate Dave Edmunds' animosity towards Keith Richards when the Stones' axeman joined them on stage in New York in 1978.

This reminded me that I have a solitary track in my collection featuring Dave Edmunds and it's an absolute corker.

MP3: Carlene Carter w/ Dave Edmunds - Baby Ride Easy

Buy Two Sides to Every Woman/Musical Shapes at Amazon

The song was the only single from Carlene Carter's 1980 album Musical Shapes. She was already living in England having married Nick Lowe the previous year and Rockpile formed the core of her backing band on the record.

I think the reason I love the song so much is that it's full of such classic Americana imagery - chuck wagons, truck drivers, diner coffee and even the White House. But it's appeal also lies in the fact that the bloke singing is an irritable Welshman.

It's also a reminder that Nick Lowe is a member of that most august group of men - Johnny Cash's Ex-Son-Laws, a club that includes Rodney Crowell (married to Rosanne), Marty Stuart (married to Cindy) and Howie Epstein (also married to Carlene).

Do let me know what you think of the song. I don't know Carlene Carter's music too well (nor Rockpile's actually) so if you have recommendations please leave a comment below.

Dylan in China: The First Song

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 07:24:00 +0000

You probably know that Bob Dylan played his first ever gig in China last night in front of 5,000 fans at the Worker’s Gymnasium in Beijing. You also probably know that the Chinese government only granted Bob permission to play if he stuck to an approved set list (The Times They Are A-Changin' seems to have been vetoed).

In my experience Bob puts some thought into what song he starts a gig with so I was particularly intrigued to see what he played first in Beijing.

He kicked off with Gonna Change My Way of Thinking, a fairly obscure track from his first Christian album Slow Train Coming, and one he'd previously only played 64 times before*, mostly during his Born Again phase in the late 70s and early 80s. A deliberate choice then.

MP3: Bob Dylan - Gonna Change My Way of Thinking

Buy Slow Train Coming at Amazon

Although the Communist censors put the kibosh on his early protest classics it's still interesting that they did approve a song that mentioins Jesus, God and a "kingdom called Heaven". And Gonna Change My of Thinking does contain lyrics that can be interepretd as anti-establishment. It starts:

Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna change my way of thinking
Make myself a different set of rules
Gonna put my good foot forward
And stop being influenced by fools

So much oppression
Can’t keep track of it no more
So much oppression
Can’t keep track of it no more
Sons becoming husbands to their mothers
And old men turning young daughters into whores

Here's the full set list from Beijing.

Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking
It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
Tangled Up In Blue
Honest With Me
Simple Twist Of Fate
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
Love Sick
Rollin' And Tumblin'
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Highway 61 Revisited
Spirit On The Water
Thunder On The Mountain
Ballad Of A Thin Man
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower

Bob's got another concert in China tomorrow before he heads to Vietnam. Let's see if the set list changes.

*By comparison, according to Bob Dylan's website he's played Like A Rolling Stone more than 1800 times.

Related Links
Bob Dylan - official site
Expecting Rain - hundreds of Dylan-related links

More Back Chat from Kitty Wells

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 06:37:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I posted a couple of Kitty Wells' answer songs. I've since found another.

(I'll Always Be Your) Fraulein is a reply to Bobby Helms' massive 1957 hit Fraulein and simply tells the story from the girlfriend's perspective. Here's the pair.

MP3: Bobby Helms - Fraulein

Buy Behind The Legend Of The Original Radio Stars at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - (I'll Always Be Your) Fraulein

Buy The Complete Kitty Wells at Amazon (a bargain!)

Another exciting discovery today is a trio of Bear Family compilations called And the Answer Is: Great Answer Discs from the '50s and '60s.

The All Music Guide review of the records is quite amusing: "The music here is for fetishists and collectors... but for any country or pop music fan with an interest in the arcane and unusual, And The Answer Is is a very enjoyable series." So, in a nutshell, tailor-made to my taste! I'll definitely be investigating further.

Related Posts
Kitty Wells Answers Back - honky tonk angels and back street affairs
King of the Road, Queen of the House - another pair of classic answer songs

Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:52:00 +0000

I love songs about chickens. For evidence of that statement I refer you to the 'More Chicken Songs at Carnival Saloon' links at the bottom of this post.

Why am I so fond of chicken songs? Partly because they're unusual creatures to immortalise in song and partly because there are such a surprising number of them that there's a real thrill in tracking them down.

So you can imagine both my delight and disappointment when I discovered a 20-track compilation on Viper Records called Ain't Nobody Here But These Chickens: American Chicken Songs From the 1920s - 1950s.

I'd heard very few of the songs on the album so immediately bought it. It was like the compiler had read my mind. The downside of course, having discovered this motherlode of chicken songs, is I'm worried I'll never find a juicy chicken nugget ever again.

I've not listened to the record enough times to say which track's my favourite but this one by Memphis Minnie is certainly a stand-out with its combination of sauciness and sass that marks all the best poultry tunes.

MP3: Memphis Minnie - If You See My Rooster

Buy Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens at Amazon

I was unfamiliar with the Viper label before buying this record but their website reveals a catalogue of similarly brilliant compilations including songs about money, cats and even the jungle.

Finally, a fun bonus track. Here are the Muppets performing the compilation's title track:

More Chicken Songs at Carnival Saloon
Chicken Songs For The Soul
Chicken: Anyone For Seconds?
Clucking Brilliant
Thighs, Wings, Legs & Breasts
Chicken Songs For Colonel Sanders

Related Links
The Viper Label

Kitty Wells Answers Back

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:14:00 +0000

Carnival Saloon regulars with long memories will know that I love 'answer songs'. In my recent post about Wanda Jackson's My Big Iron Skillet I mentioned Kitty Wells' 1952 single It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels, which was an answer song to Hank Thompson's The Wild Side of Life.

What I didn't know until someone commented about that post on Facebook was that Kitty's second big hit Paying For That Back Street Affair was an answer song to the Webb Pierce track Back Street Affair. (If the name Webb Pierce means nothing to you watch this rendition of There Stands The Glass - one of my all-time favourite country songs).

Here are both of Kitty's songs and the gents who unwittingly inspired them.

MP3: Hank Thompson - The Wild Side of Life

Buy Hank Thomson - Vintage Collections at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - It Wasn't God That Made Honky Tonk Angels

Buy Kitty Wells - The Collection at Amazon

MP3: Webb Pierce - Back Street Affair

Buy Webb Pierce - More And More at Amazon

MP3: Kitty Wells - Paying For That Back Street Affair

Buy Kitty Wells - The Collection at Amazon

Kitty Wells, by the way, is still alive. She's 91! Her entry in Wikipedia provides a thorough overview for those wanting to find out more about this country music pioneer.

Do tell me what you make of these tracks and if you have any favourite answer songs I might not know please leave a comment below.

Related Links
King of the Road, Queen of the House - another pair of classic answer songs
Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet - fantastic protofeminist twang

State Songs #23: Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 06:22:00 +0000

You thought I'd given up? I'm making no promises as to when this journey will end but, at last, I'm back on my musical journey around the United States.

Before the tunes, one great piece of trivia about the Great Lake State. Did you know that Michigan is home to the self-proclaimed "magic capital of the world"? That's Colon, Michigan, the world's largest manufacturer of magic supplies. Me neither.

Right, let's get to it.

MP3: Sufjan Stevens - Say Yes! to M!ch!gan!

It would have been silly to have a Michigan post without a track from Sufjan's album about his home state. I'm still disappointed that his own musical trip round America foundered after just two states.
Buy Greetings from Michigan at Amazon

MP3: Josh Rouse - Michigan

I've grown a bit tired of Josh Rouse in recent years; he just hasn't released anything particularly exciting. This is from a disc simply called Rarities that comes with the DVD The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse.
Buy The Smooth Sounds of Josh Rouse at Amazon

MP3: Bobby Bare - Detroit City

A Grammy-winning bona fide country classic, the lyrics of which suggest the Motor City just wasn't the place for poor Bobby.
Buy The Essential Bobby Bare at Amazon

MP3: Lefty Frizzell - Saginaw, Michigan

The song mis-situates the city on Saginaw Bay, about 15 miles to the north. It's another classic and in 1964 reached number one in the country charts.
Buy Leftty Frizzell - That's the Way Life Goes at Amazon

As always, tell me what you think of the selections and let me know what I've left off the list. Hopefully the next instalment won't take 12 months to arrive!

Neighbouring States
State Songs #15: Indiana

The Journey So Far
State Songs - links to every post on this musical road trip

Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Until this morning I thought my favourite song to mention a skillet was definitely by Woody Guthrie but listening to a Wanda Jackson compilation on my way to work reminded me that perhaps this is the greatest frying pan song ever written.

MP3 Wanda Jackson - My Big Iron Skillet

Buy Wanda Jackson - Rockin the Country at Amazon

Whatever Tammy Wynette's intention, songs like Stand By Your Man don't help the argument that country music isn't a genre where women know their place and that place is wherever men tell them to be.

But there's a great tradition of country songs by women that show them not only standing up to men but telling fellas what's what in no uncertain terms.

My Big Iron Skillet is definitely one of best of a list that includes Kitty Wells' It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels and Loretta Lynn's classic Don't Come Home A Drinkin' (With Lovin' On Your Mind).

Which got me thinking. If we were making a compilation, let's call it A Feminist's Introduction to Country Music, what should be on it? Do leave a comment below.

Related Links
Wanda Jackson - official site; the Queen of Rockabilly is still going strong

Jim & Jesse Give Chuck Berry a Bluegrass Makeover

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 15:31:00 +0000

The ever-reliable All Music Guide calls Jim & Jesse "one of the greatest bluegrass bands in history" and the McReynolds brothers enjoyed a remarkably long and successful career from 1947, when they performed daily on a Virginia radio show, until Jim's death in 2002.

As well as traditional music the virtuoso pair were never shy of turning their talents to contemporary sounds. One of their finest excursions beyond mountain music was the 1965 album Berry Pickin' in the Country, a cracking collection of Chuck Berry covers. What I love about it is it's definitely not a novelty record à la Hayseed Dixie. The Chuck Berry songbook really suits the bluegrass style, testament I guess to Chuck's lyrical genius.

The album has been unavailable for years and I'm not sure it's ever had a proper CD release. So imagine my pleasure last weekend when I discovered it on Amazon to download for under a fiver!

Here's the brothers' take on one of my favourite Chuck Berry tracks.

MP3: Jim & Jesse - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Berry Pickin' In the Country at Amazon

And here's Chuck's original...

MP3: Chuck Berry - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Chuck Berry 'His Best, Volume 1' at Amazon

And while we're at it, here's Elvis' terrific version, which you can find on a brilliant compilation I've mentioned before called Tomorrow Is A Long Time.

MP3: Elvis Presley - Too Much Monkey Business

Buy Tomorrow Is A Long Time at Amazon

Do you have further suggestions of other great Jim & Jesse tracks? Or indeed brilliant Chuck Berry covers? Do leave a comment below.

Related links
Jim & Jesse official site

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock & Roll's Godmother

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:55:00 +0000

Image by Sumlin (used under Creative Commons license)

On Friday BBC Four screened a terrific documentary about Sister Rosetta Tharpe called The Godmother of Rock & Roll. That title obviously positions the electric guitar wielding gospel singer, who had most of her hits in the 30s, as one of rock 'n' roll's unsung architects. If you missed the programme it's still available to watch on the BBC Four website.

Released in 1944, There Are Strange Things Happenin' Every Day was a not-too-subtle commentary on segregation and the first gospel song to make Billboard's "race records" Top Ten. My copy is on Roots & Branches a great compilation of songs that "inspired" Johnny Cash. In the doc Elvis is used as an example of a Southern white boy falling for Sister Rosetta's unique guitar style and phrasing but Johnny Cash often said Sister Rosetta was his favourite singer.

MP3: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - There Are Strange Things Happenin' Every Day
Buy Roots & Branches at Amazon

Carnival Saloon regulars will know that I'm not averse to a bit of vintage filth. Like many gospel singers Sister Rosetta was torn between the spiritual and the secular and in both her music and her life Rosetta wasn't backwards in coming forwards. As writer and producer Anthony Heilbut says in the documentary, when she sings "rock me" it "sounds like an invitation... and not to the altar".

MP3: Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Rock Me
Buy Sugar in My Bowl - Vintage Sex Songs on Amazon

Another highlight of the programme are clips from Granada TV's 1964 special Blues & Gospel Train, filmed in the pouring rain at a disused railway station in Manchester. On one platform were legends like Muddy Waters, Rev Gary Davis and Sister Rosetta. Watching on from the opposite side was a bunch of excitable northern students. Here's Rosetta's apposite rendition of Didn't It Rain.

If you're interested in more pre-rock'n'roll rock'n'roll another album I'd recommend is the Trikont compilation Roll Your Moneymaker. As well as Sister Rosetta Tharpe, its 24 tracks include great stuff by the likes of Ike Turner, Rufus Thomas and Junior Parker.

If you've seen the programme, do leave a comment. I'd also welcome any more Sister Rosetta recommendations.

Related Posts
Vintage Filth

Related Links
Shout, Sister, Shout! - site for Gayle Wald's Tharpe biography
The Godmother of Rock & Roll - the BBC doc

Glen Campbell - True Grit

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 17:35:00 +0000

I watched the original True Grit this afternoon to see how it compares with the Coen Brothers' terrific new adaptation.

In the entertaining John Wayne version, Glen Campbell puts in a thankfully rare big screen appearance as La Boeuf, the irritating Texas Ranger that Matt Damon plays much better in the new film.

In my experience most Westerns from the 50s and 60s have songs that play over the opening titles and set up the story about to unfold. True Grit is no exception and part of Glen's contract evidently indulged him to sing this enjoyably cheeseball tune.

MP3: Glen Campbell - True Grit

Buy Rhinestone Cowboy: The Best of Glen Campbell at Amazon

Both versions of True Grit are well worth your time. Having heard the Glen Campbell song I am now disappointed that Jeff Bridges doesn't sing it over the end credits of the new one. You'd have thought after the success of Crazy Heart he'd have loved adding some world-weariness to the song.

Here's Jeff in Crazy Heart performing that film's title song.

MP3: Jeff Bridges - The Weary Kind

Buy the Crazy Heart soundtrack at Amazon

Happy new year to all Carnival Saloon patrons old and new. I hope you'll be pleased to know that one of my resolutions is to start giving this blog more attention again.

Related Links
True Grit - official site for Coen Bros film. Lots of great clips.
Jeff Bridges - the actor's own site is a thing of beauty

Townes & The Tanyas - Waitin' Around To Die

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 10:30:00 +0000

I've been watching the second series of the excellent chemistry-teacher-turned-crystal-meth-cook drama Breaking Bad this week. One episode featured The Be Good Tanyas cover of Townes Van Zandt's Waitin' Around to Die. It's from their second album Chinatown which I'd not given a spin for some time and thoroughly enjoyed listening to again.

MP3: The Be Good Tanyas - Waiting Around To Die

But it! Chinatown (Amazon)

Townes claimed that this was the first proper song he ever wrote and anyone familar with his biography won't be surprised that he penned such a fatalistic song at a young age.

The original version that's on Townes' first album For the Sake of the Song is regrettably overproduced. This stripped-down version from the Live from the Old Quarter album is miles better.

MP3: Townes Van Zandt - Waitin' Around to Die

But it! Live At The Old Quarter (Amazon)

The Old Quarter album is probably the best starting place for Townes novices. Those who want to dig deeper should certainly seek out the superb documentary Be Here To Love Me. That film uses a fair amount of footage from Heartworn Highways, another must-see movie for twang fans.

Scott Pilgrim: An Alternative Soundtrack

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:02:00 +0000

I'm looking forward to watching the Scott Pilgrim movie next week and have been preparing myself by devouring Bryan Lee O'Malley's original comic book series. There's already been a fair amount written about the official Scott Pilgrim soundtrack and director Edgar Wright has spoken to both the Guardian and Drowned in Sound on musical matters. It looks solid and there's a nice post on O'Malley's website that's well reading too.

I had hoped for a higher twang quotient though. Scott Pilgrim Volume 3 includes a mini appendix where O'Malley lists some of the songs he listened to while working on the book. It's not far from sounding like my iPod on shuffle with the addition of a few Canucks I'd never heard of. So, here are the tunes from O'Malley's list with his comments in quotations. As you'll see it features a lot of Carnival Saloon favourites.

MP3: Plumtree - Scott Pilgrim

For obvious reasons this one's on the film's OST. Says O'Malley, "this is the song that inspired the book in general, by a great Canadian indie girl-rock band from the 90s. Plumtree rocks for ever!"
Find it on the Scott Pilgrim OST

MP3: Joel Plaskett - In Need of Medical Attention

Another Canadian I'd never heard of. "He's a guy whose music has had a huge influence on me and Scott Pilgrim. He was also in a great 90s band called Thrush Hermit whose defining album Clayton Park is an overlooked classic".
Find it on In Need of Medical Attention

MP3: The Flying Burrito Brothers - To Ramona

"This legendary band fronted by Gram Parsons in the early 70s is the soundtrack to Scott's mind". This Dylan cover is actually from the FFBs first album without Gram. Never mind, it's great and Ramona is the object of Scott's affections.
Find it on Hot Burritos!

MP3: Beachwood Sparks - By Your Side

I haven't listened to Beachwood Sparks for yonks so was glad to reacquaint myself with them. "A swirly cosmic countrified cover of a Sade song. It's the ultimate Scott Pilgrim song. I secretly love the original, too".
Find it on Once We Were Trees

MP3: The Replacements - Can't Hardly Wait

A classic! "They wrote amazing songs. I always think of them as Ramona's favourite. They're one of mine."
Find it on Pleased to Meet Me

MP3: Uncle Tupelo - Grindstone

Regular Carnival Saloon patrons will know my feelings towards Uncle Tupelo so I won't repeat myself. O'Malley has this to say, "the original alt.country band. I equate them with the character Stephen Stills."
Find it on March 16-20, 1992

MP3: Neil Young - Borrowed Tune

"...and every other Neil Young song. Scott also 'borrowed' a tune from the Rolling Stones in this book, in case you missed it..."
Find it on Tonight's the Night

MP3: Spoon - Waiting For The Kid To Come Home

According to Metacritic (via this article in the Guardian) Spoon are the best band of the last 10 years. "Gets me every time. This an old b-side but it screams Scott Pilgrim to me. Rockin' and ramshackle."
Find it on Telephono/Soft Effects EP

MP3: Old 97's - Let The Idiot Speak

This is a band that No Depression championed a lot in the alt.country glory years. "They're a bouncy pop-country-punk-something band from Texas and they've given this comic a lot of juice over the years."
Find it on Fight Songs

MP3: Tom Petty - American Girl

"This song plays over the credits of every episode of Scott Pilgrim in my mind. Check out that guitar in the intro! CLASSIC ROCK!" Fair points though personally I'm still convinced Mr Petty warranted a four-hour documentary.
Find it on Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Not a bad playlist, huh? Your thoughts on Scott Pilgrim the movie, books or its soundtrack all welcome.

Related Links
Scott Pilgrim - official site for movie
Edgar Wright - director's official site
Bryan Lee O'Malley - writer's official site

Songs of the Shrimp

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 09:55:00 +0000

Photo: SA Steve @ Flickr

Song of the Shrimp is one of the weirder tunes in the Elvis Presley canon but now has an odd poignancy in light of the effect the Gulf Coast oil spill has had on the region's shrimpers.

MP3: Elvis Presley - Song of the Shrimp

Amazon | Find it on Kid Galahad/Girls! Girls! Girls!

Elvis recorded the track for the soundtrack to his 1962 film Girls! Girls! Girls! but I first heard it sung by Frank Black of all people. His 2005 solo album Honeycomb couldn't be further away from the sound of the Pixies and his version is brilliant. Recorded in Nashville with the likes of Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham it's a wonderfully laid-back record that also includes covers of Dark End of the Street and Doug Sahm's Sunday Sunny Mill Valley Groove Day.

MP3: Frank Black - Song of the Shrimp

Amazon | Find it on Honeycomb

In interviews promoting Honeycomb Frank Black claimed he'd never heard the Elvis version and was instead inspired by Townes Van Zandt's cover on Live at McCabe's. He told Barney Hoskyns in Uncut, "He just barely plays the song, he just hits a chord and sings a line and cracks up, hits another chord, makes a joke... it’s a really deconstructed but very entertaining version, and that was my reference point." That's an accurate description.

MP3: Townes Van Zandt - Song of the Shrimp

Amazon | Find it on Live at McCabe's

Any other suggestions of fine seafood related songs? It's a shame not many things rhyme with whelk.

Songs To Woody

noreply@blogger.com (Nigel Smith) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:08:00 +0000

Woody Guthrie was born today in 1912 in Okemah, Oklahoma. He needs no introduction. I imagine his music has seeped into the lives of nearly every artist I've ever featured on Carnival Saloon. So, to mark what would have been his 98th birthday, here are Woody Guthrie songs by four of my favourites.

MP3: Bob Dylan - This Land is Your Land (live)

"Woody Guthrie tore everything in his path to pieces. For me it was an epiphany,like some heavy anchor had just plunged into the waters of the harbor." That's Bob writing in Chronicles Volume One. It's part of a wonderful two pages recalling the impact hearing Woody for the first had on him. This version of Guthrie's most famous song is from a concert at the Carnegie Chapter Hall in 1961, the year before Bob's first album came out.
Find it on No Direction Home

MP3: Bruce Sprinsgteen - Riding in My Car

Bruce fans will probably know his version of This Land is Your Land that's on the Live 1975-1985 album. This is more obscure (and one of Bob Dylan's early Guthrie favourites too). It's from a 1996 concert that Ani DiFranco organised and is commemorated on the album 'Til We Outnumber Them (which also features Bruce's version of Deportees).
Find it on Til We Outnumber 'em

MP3: Tom Russell - Woodrow

When I first saw Tom Russell live, at the Cambridge Folk Festival in 2006, the way this song encompasses so much of Guthrie's life, work and legacy in all its multi-faceted glory really hit me as a masterpiece.
Find it on Hotwalker

MP3: Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars (live)

Whenever Wilco play London I always cross my fingers in the hope that they'll invite Billy on to join them to sing one of the songs off Mermaid Avenue. Anyone who's seen the documentary Man in the Sand knows it's unlikely to ever happen. This is one of few times they have performed together, on Conan O'Brien's old show Late Night.
Find the original on Mermaid Avenue

If that's whet your appetite and you want to get back to the source there are tons of Guthrie compilations available. I'd also highly recommend Joe Klein's book Woody Guthrie: A Life.

Related Post
Doing Woody's Work Billy Bragg & Wilco's Mermaid Avenue demos

Related Links
Woody Guthrie - official site