Random Shuffle – The Cure, David Grisman And Smokey Robinson

the cure greatest hits

“Just Like Heaven” – The Cure
From Greatest Hits – Acoustic

Does anyone remember the days of scrambled television? Growing up all the cable stations that we weren’t subscribed to (HBO, Showtime, etc.) and all the pay-per-view movies we had not purchased were scrambled in such a way as to make us not want to watch them. The images came out in negatives, and often the picture was split into pieces. The idea, of course, was that no one in their right mind would actually want to watch television in this manner.

The idea was often wrong. I used to watch all manner of programs in this way. I can specifically remember watching the first 48 Hours in this manner. The audio remained good, so I got most of the jokes and could figure out what was going on, and occasionally the image was unbroken enough to actually see what was happening.

There were also, I must admit, a few late-night fumblings watching some adult pay-per-view. You couldn’t see much, but if you squinted right every now and again you might see a negative of a nipple. For a pubescent teenager, this was sometimes enough.

During the early ’90s, when alternative suddenly became a musical buzzword, The Cure did an acoustic pay-per-view special. To say I was a sullen, depressed teenager seems a little beyond the point because aren’t all teenagers sullen and depressed? The Cure, of course, is the poster band for sullen, depressed teenagers the world over. So, of course, I watched the special. And of course, I watched it in the negative, scrambled version.

It was a darn good show, even if Robert Smith looked like some kind of space alien. Come to think of it, maybe I could see him better than I thought.

“Track 02” – David Grisman Quintet
From 04/11/99

Now “Track 02” isn’t actually the name of this song. I’m sure it has an official, proper name, the thing is, no one seems to know it. The majority of Grisman’s songs do not contain lyrics, so you cannot use words to identify the music. Live, the DGQ uses a lot of improvisation and thus the songs don’t necessarily sound like they do on the studio albums.

The show list on etree.org is also silent in terms of song names. This is a database run by thousands (or tens of thousands) of fans that basically has information on every bootleg of every concert ever played in the last hundred years. The fact that no one has updated the show with a single name says a lot.

I once even contacted some of Grisman’s own people asking if they had any setlist information. They replied that they don’t keep track of the songs played, but that if I wanted to send them a copy of the tapes, they’d be happy to identify them for me.

And there we have it – Track 02.

Whatever you want to call it, this is a fine tune. The David Grisman Quintet has been creating its own mix of “Dawg Music” for several decades. It is an odd mix of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, calypso, and Spanish music that comes out in the strangest and most beautiful of ways. There really is no way to describe how it sounds, but it is always worth checking out. Especially that guitarist. Man, he cooks up something exquisite.

smokey robinson

“I Second That Emotion” – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
From Songs That Inspired The Motown

I attended exactly one semester of graduate school. I moved to Abilene, Texas for such a thing, and while on the drive there I imagined the entire state rising up to sing me Lyle Lovett’s “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas,)” but mostly nobody noticed my arrival at all. Texans are a strange brew, and that’s all I’ll say about them.

There was a beautiful, kind woman who worked at my apartment office and we became close friends. Initially, I made up small complaints so I could drop by and talk to her, then I gave up all pretense and just started stopping by the office and sitting for a spell.

She’d invite me to dinner, or to help her make popcorn at the local hockey rink, all the while making sure I understood it was nothing but a friendship kick. I didn’t care, it was someone to talk to and I really needed that.

She had a two-year-old son who was just precious. We also became fast friends and would play together for long hours. Once I had to use her facilities, and I could hear him outside saying, “Matchew, Matchew, where are you?” My heart is still broken.

“I Second That Emotion” became a little two-and-a-half-minute piece of ecstasy during this time. It is a song of impenetrable joy. You simply cannot listen to it and not feel happy. I used to write my little apartment friend sticky notes for fun, and one of them read, “‘I Second That Emotion’ makes Mat the happiest.” And it still does.

Plus, it is great fun to agree with someone by saying “I second that emotion.”

Random Shuffle – June 02, 2006

the wild thornberrys

Originally posted on May 29, 2006.

“Father and Daughter” – Paul Simon
from the soundtrack to The Wild Thornberrys

A lovely latter-day Paul Simon pop ditty. It has a wonderful cascading guitar part and a nice bouncy rhythm. Simon is still a master of the pop craft. He can write a brilliant buoyant melody coupled with his artful, poetic lyrics.

It plays like an update to “St. Judy’s Comet” Both are simple, lovely songs that won’t win any literary awards for lyrics, but will surely be sung by countless parents to their countless children.

wilco being there “Outta Mind (Outta Sight)” – Wilco
from Being There

Being There is the first Wilco album I ever bought. I was a member of BMG’s music club at the time. You know how it goes, you get 8 free CDs at first and have to buy several more over the next year. They ran a blurb about how great Wilco was so I got the album and then didn’t know what to do with it.

At first listen the songs sounded too weird, the melodies were off and I couldn’t really sing along to the lyrics. I dug the more countrified songs like “Forget the Flowers” but the distortion and loud guitar noise turned me way off.

Still, periodically I would pull it out and give it another listen. In time I always found the song craft to be really interesting. I’d listen to a disk, think I had misjudged the album, vow to listen to it more, and promptly put it aside and forget about it for months.

Eventually, I got a copy of Yankee Foxtrot Hotel and fell in love with it. Revisiting the Wilco back catalog, of course, brought me back to Being There which I now elevate quite a bit higher than ever.

This is one of my favorite songs from the album, and of the band, truth be told. The album is a two-disk set and contains this song twice. In this version it is more acoustic and has a little country twang, on the other disk it becomes more electric, more rock. I’ve always preferred this one, but the other will do in a pinch.

And though I originally thought there were no lyrics to sing along to, this one is full of new favorites worthy of road trip shout-outs.

paul simon graceland
“You Can Call Me Al” – Paul Simon
from Graceland

Another Simon tune, this time one of his best, with one of the all-time classic videos to go along with it. Funny, I grew up watching MTV where my wife never had cable growing up. So I spend my days asking her if she remembers this video or that and her having absolutely no clue.

This one was so simple, just Simon and Chevy Chase sitting in chairs. But Chase is singing the lead vocal with Simon doing the bass line in the chorus. It is so simple, but brilliant in its deadpan delivery.

It doesn’t hurt that it’s backed by a great freaking song. My favorite off of the South Africa-inspired Graceland album.

the cure wish
“Friday I’m in Love” – The Cure
from Wish

Ah, remember when the Cure tried to be happy? It never really worked, but this one song is pure joy. It is a song that doesn’t remind me of a specific time or place, but more of a season of my life.

I was a teenager, thinking I had discovered something new, exciting, and different. I had recently discovered “alternative” music and with it, the Cure. This was post Nirvana’s onslaught on the world, where I and about a billion other depressed teenagers found the “alternative” and thought ourselves unique.

Still, much of the music I found was really rather good, and can still move me to this day. This one shakes your booty, bobs your head in nostalgic happiness.

the rolling stones let it bleed

“Let it Bleed” – The Rolling Stones
from Let it Bleed

If the music wasn’t so danged good, I’d be disgusted by the lyrics. Changing the lyrics from lean to bleed to cream to cum all over me gives the listener that ‘did he just say what I think he said’ feel.

No matter, the rhythmic country honk of the music washes over any disgust in the lyrics.

steve forbert evergreen boy

“Something’s Got A Hold On Me” – Steve Forbert
from Evergreen Boy

I first heard this song listening to the fabulous East Tennessee radio station WDVX while tooling down the road twixt the rolling mountains. There is a lyric that goes

“Oklahoma looks all right, when I’m in Montreal”

The rest of the song is all about being on the road, and the sense of longing one gets when not in the place you really want to be. This particular lyric hit me pretty hard because the girl I was dating at the time, who did become my wife, was spending the winter in Montreal and I’m originally from Oklahoma. It was as if Forbert was speaking directly to me.

Actually, I’m getting my history a little wrong. I wasn’t actually dating her at the time. We had discussed it quite a bit because initially, she was going to go to graduate school in Tennessee instead of Indiana, where she wound up. The lyrics gained new meaning for me because I wondered if I wasn’t something more to her because I was away.

I feared the idea of this dream guy who was hundreds of miles away might not be stronger than the reality of me when we finally were in real physical space together.

It all turned out all right, and this song is still a beauty.

tori amos - strange little girls “Heart of Gold” – Tori Amos
from Strange Little Girls

Where I had the Cure to speak to my teenage insecurities, it seems every girl my age had Tori Amos. Her first album Little Earthquakes is still a masterpiece of angst, loneliness, and being misunderstood. I pretty much tuned out after that, but she still has legions of fans.

This is from her album where she covers very masculine songs, like Eminem’s tribute to murdering his wife. Most of it is pretty awful, and this song is no exception. I only have it because my wife is still a periodic Tori fan, and she wanted this album to be added to her collection.

This sounds nothing like the original Neil Young song. It is all dark synthesizer and squelching from Tori. Where is your piano Tori?

“Lean On Me” by Rockapella From an Unknown Album

This mp3 says this is Rockapella, but after some internet searching they don’t seem to have ever released a version of this song. My guess is another similar acapella outfit covered it, and some Gnutella kid labeled it Rockapella not knowing any other group it could be.

At any rate, it is a decent, upbeat version of the classic soul ballad. Nobody can beat Bill Withers, but these kids do a decent job. The soul is taken out of the song, but there is a nice dance rhythm that the kids might like.

stone temple pilots - core “Plush” – Stone Temple Pilots
from Core

Nobody mimics Eddie Vedder like Scott Weiland. In the wake of Nirvana’s flood, it seems everybody was trying to be grunge. Stone Temple Pilots are one of the better bands that stole the sound trying to grab a piece of the alternative pie.

There were a lot of Pearl Jam comparisons to STP, and this song certainly shows you why. It sounds like something cut out of Ten, and Weiland does his best Vedder impersonation, even mimicking the earnest facial expressions in the video.

All jokes aside, this song is still a butt-kicking rocker. All loud guitars and dense baritone.

grateful dead - dicks picks 7

“Jack Straw” – Grateful Dead
from Dicks Picks 7

The primary Grateful Dead lyricist, Robert Hunter, took much of his inspiration from the myth of the Old West. Many of his songs sound as if they were lifted right out of the tumbleweed. This is one of his best.

It is a story song about two outlaws running from the law. The lyrics tell a concise story in just a few verses. Yet Hunter allows the listener to draw his own conclusions. As the song draws to a close the singer laments

Jack Straw from Wichita cut his buddy down Dug for him a shallow grave and laid his body down

Are we to assume Jack Straw killed his friend and took the money for himself? Or has he cut him down from the gallows and given him a final resting place? This is the beauty of Hunter’s lyrics. In a sense, we make of the story what we like.

The show is from the late 1980s and it certainly isn’t the Dead’s finest musical moment. It is performed aptly, with Jerry and Bob Weir trading verses on lead vocals. They don’t expand upon it musically, and thus it clocks in at a paltry 5 minutes and 19 seconds. It is a song worth tracking down in other versions, though. Personally, I’d try to find something from 1972.

Random Shuffle – (04/10/06)

heart like a wheel album

“Willin’” – Linda Ronstadt
From Heart Like a Wheel

My perception of this Little Feat ode to truck drivers comes from the James Cameron underwater sci-fi flick, The Abyss. It is the Linda Ronstadt version that plays when the underwater oil rig crew is shown doing their blue-collar work. The song plays as background music to the scene, but is also part of the action, being lip-synched by nearly everyone in a joyful montage that defies explanation.

It is a great sing-along song. The lyrics are all about being on the road for too long, with nothing but drugs and alcohol to keep you moving to that next stop, that next destination somewhere down the road.

The music is pure outlaw country. Ronstadt has that rock n roll vibe, with the country girl twang that just fits the song perfectly.

tom waits one from the heart

“One From the Heart” – Tom Waits/Crystal Gail
From One From the Heart

This is from the soundtrack to an unseen (by me) Francis Ford Coppola movie of the same name. Waits actually sings with a croon, rather than the drunken hobo ran over by a train voice he usually sings with. He’s accompanied by the sweet voice of Crystal Gail.

It’s all soft porn smooth piano and saxophone musically. It’s slow and sad, and probably romantic, but I’d have to see the movie before I let my vote out on that one. There isn’t much to it for me, honestly. It’s Waits with a better voice, but not much of his lyrical poignancy. At least that’s what I get from the casual listen I gave it.

“I’m Gonna Live Forever” – Highwaymen
From 06/04/96

The Highwaymen were country music’s version of Mount Rushmore. With Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings in their own supergroup, it’s too bad that most of their albums were only just ok.

It’s like the Beatles effect in reverse. Where John and Paul continually pushed each other to strive harder and create an even more perfect song, the Highwaymen seem to play yes men to each other creating music that while not bad, isn’t up to any expectation they create. Instead of Abbey Road, we get something more akin to McCartney’s post-Beatles solo work.

This is a pleasant Billy Joe Shaver tune, performed quite nicely with all of the Highwaymen trading verses and harmonizing on the chorus.

the cure wish “Wendy Time” – The Cure
From Wish

A lively, upbeat song from the masters of gloom. Well the music is fun and frilly, but being the Cure the lyrics are all sad and depressing. It is the story of a well-meaning lass trying to cheer up the gloomy singer by offering to be a friend or sister. Being Robert Smith, the singer continues to push her away to mingle and drown in his own misery.

I mentioned in a previous Random Shuffle how this album reminds me of a specific time and place. It is amazing how music can transport us to places. I would never call my high school years happy ones, and yet I am often drawn to that time, filled with nostalgia.

The intensity of emotion I felt during those years is something I’ve never come close to in the 10-odd years afterward. Those days it seems like every moment was filled with incredible highs of joy or immensely lows of sadness. The perpetual word days of drudgery keep me on a pretty even keel in these times. Oh, I’m not nearly as depressed as I was then, but I rarely feel as completely free or happy as I did on those good days either.

Wish reminds me specifically of a girl named Elise who I used to sing songs from this album to. It reminds me of sitting in my room (having lived in 20 odd houses as a kid, it is a very specific room, but one I am unable to describe here) and arguing with my sister about whose month it was to get the TV in their room and feeling all those emotions on my sleeve.

“Ride Into the Sun” – Velvet Underground
From Acetate Demos – 1969

Speaking of nostalgic memories the Velvets always remind me of my first love, Candy. If my feelings were worn on my sleeve, if I felt things with more passion then, she felt them 100 times more.

She was a lovely girl who taught me it was ok to believe in God and listen to wild music and live outside the cookie-cutter. We used to write long, passionate letters to each other with the margins filled with song lyrics.

She loved the Velvet Underground. We spent many an hour lying on a bed listening to Lou Reed sing about love, drugs and the underground. We’d play “Heroin” over and over and see who could get every lyric, every note exactly perfect.

This is a sloppy, loose demo version of “Ride into the Sun” off of their Another View album. It’s really for completists only, of which I am not. I got this along with other demos and live tracks from a download a few weeks back. I’m addicted to downloading perfectly legal live music and the like and so when I see a Velvet Underground set, I simply have to have it, even if I haven’t been much of a fan since high school.

Random Shuffle – March 27, 2006

other voices other rooms

“Boots of Spanish Leather”
by Nanci Griffith
From Other Voices, Other Rooms

I first discovered Nanci Griffith on a whim. I was involved in one of those BMG get 8 CDs for the price of one kind of deals. I needed to buy a few albums to finish out my contract and her Blue Roses from the Moon album sounded very interesting. I was just starting my infatuation with folk music and so I ordered it. I quickly became a fan.

Other Voices is Nanci covering all her favorite artists and songs. “Boots of Spanish Leather” is a slightly obscure Bob Dylan tune off of The Times They Are A-Changin’ album. Nanci’s sweet, country voice and plaintive guitar picking turns a mournful song into a gorgeous dirge. Dylan plays harmonica on the track simply, understated so that the music is bettered by it without having to make some kind of statement of notice. If it weren’t for the acknowledgment in the liner notes, I wouldn’t even know he played on the track.

Bridge Over Troubled Water
by Paul Simon
From MTV – Unplugged

Unlike say Eric Clapton, I don’t believe Mr. Simon ever released an album from his Unplugged performance. There might be a song or two available out there on some of their packaged disks, I don’t really know. It is a shame though because the disk is quite nice and well worth seeking out from traders.

Being this is Simon without Garfunkel this song had to be reworked a little bit. Naturally, Paul sings it a little lower and the “Sail on silver girl” part gets a little bit funky. It’s still a cool version, and while not as touching as the original it is nice to hear it from a little different angle.

30 hits

“A Little Less Conversation (Radio Remix)”
by Elvis
From 30 #1 Hits

I’m somewhere in the middle of the Elvis fence. While I would fall greatly on the Beatles side of the Beatles/Elvis question, I still dig the King a good bit. I really dig some of his very early rockabilly tunes, but there is a special place in my heart for the big Elvis via the comeback specials.

This remix of a slight classic was a pretty big hit for Elvis a few years back. I dig the crap out of it. It’s got a nice dance groove while still maintaining that Elvis cool.

the cure wish

“A Letter to Elise”
by The Cure
From Wish

Like a lot of unhappy, mixed up, gloomy teenagers I too had my Cure phase. Wish was released during the post-Nirvana everybody’s Alternative years of the early ’90s. I believe it is their highest-selling album ever.

I listened, obsessed, and loved every note. “A Letter to Elise” is a sad, heartbreaking affair that became a favorite of mine from the album. I used to dream of singing this song on those lonely nights after a painful breakup. The problem was always I never had a girlfriend, much less a painful breakup. After 10 years, a few loves, and a couple of hard breakups, the song stands up quite well.

knocked out loaded

“Got My Mind Made Up”
by Bob Dylan
From Knocked Out Loaded

I know, I know more Dylan. Man, what can I say, I have nearly all of his albums on my hard drive and they come up a lot. (see the aforementioned suckiness of the shuffle function).

This track was co-written by Tom Petty (the Heartbreakers backed Dylan up on the album and a tour during the same late 80’s early 90s era). It’s a decent rocker but pretty much a throwaway as far as Dylan is concerned. The album is often considered one of Dylan’s worst and I’ve never managed to give it a real listen.