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SotD: What a Wonderful World · That’s all, folks. Welcome to the last Song of the Day. I knew pretty early what I wanted it to be, because every extended endeavor should endeavor to end on a high note. And What a Wonderful World fits, albeit indirectly, into the exit theme, worship and reverence ...
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SotD: It’ll Shine When It Shines · At the end of the day, the pursuit of the divine is supposed to offer up wisdom and, practically speaking, teach you how to live life better. But for me, the sacred scriptures are songs; not that I listen to them looking for life lessons, but sometimes they’re there anyway. It’ll Shine When It Shines is by the Ozark Mountain Daredevils, and it’s up-front about its message; one that I feel good about passing along ...
 
SotD: The Return · I introduced Ferron to the Song of the Day a couple weeks back with Bellybowl, and I’d like to use her beautiful The Return in this closing focused-on-the-divine sequence, to help talk about my own experience of worship ...
 
SotD: Graceland · In case it wasn’t obvious from yesterday’s piece, Graceland — the real one I mean, Elvis’ mansion in Memphis — is a place of worship. The visitors are serene, experiencing belief not faith; a lot of them saw Elvis on TV or even in the flesh. They know that, as Paul Simon sings, in his lovely, lovely song also called Graceland, that there’s reason to believe that they’ll all be received there. And also just the name “Graceland” is the prettiest word imaginable ...
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SotD: So High · More music on the subject of God (and Heaven too); a traditional spiritual arranged by Elvis Presley for his 1967 Gospel album How Great Thou Art, which was a triple-platinum hit and won the 1967 Grammy for Best Sacred Performance. So High is a fine, rousing tune with a good arrangement, and just terrific singing ...
 
SotD: O vis aeternitatis · Ladies, gentlemen, and others, welcome to the 2018 Song of the Day closing sequence. This has been a lot of work and I thought I should try to end it with more than just a set of random tunes, so I picked a theme: Worship, the sacred, and the divine. To start, from Hildegard von Bingen, the oldest song to appear, first sung sometime in the years around 1150: O vis aeternitatis means “The Power of Eternity” ...
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SotD: Live at Leeds · I love rock music, and I love live albums, and this might be the best live rock&roll recording ever. I’m not claiming the whole album’s a Song of the Day (and anyhow, there’s been a baffling parade of re-issues and remasters and so on). But I am going to double up and recommend two songs: I Can’t Explain and the My Generation Medley. The first because it’s a pure pop gem, the second, even though it’s way long, because inhabits the joyful heart of the music I love ...
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SotD: Subcode · By appearing twice in this series Jah Wobble joins luminaries like Miles Davis and J.S. Bach. I’m not going to claim that he looms as large on the musical landscape; just that he writes and plays nice tunes featuring divinely great bass lines. And, well, I just can’t say no to that. Subcode is a slithery, icy-cool river of funk ...
 
SotD: One More Cup of Coffee · This is my favorite Bob Dylan song, by a mile. Maybe it’s Scarlet Rivera’s violin that grabs me. Maybe it’s Emmylou Harris’ harmonies. Maybe it’s the fearsome chord hook when he sings “To the valley below”. It’s just great ...
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SotD: I’m Not Afraid · If this series brings one or two of you one or two really hot rock-n-roll tunes you never know existed, then I can go home happy. Maybe this is one: I’m Not Afraid is by Fleming and John, a husband-and-wife tune who have never been big stars or anything like that, but should go down in history for this song ...
 
SotD: Steady, As She Goes · This is off Broken Boy Soldiers by the The Raconteurs, better known as “Back when Jack White did a couple of records with Brendan Benson.” Steady, As She Goes (why that comma?) was the big single on that record, co-written by White & Benson, and is just an outstanding pop tune, although Jack has his own ideas about where to take it ...
 
SotD: Bellybowl · At one point in my life, I found myself married to a lesbian. It’s a long story, not terribly happy. This arrangement had important disadvantages, but a pretty big upside: I discovered women’s music. It’s not actually a genre, it’s just that the performers are mostly lesbian and the audiences are mostly, women (although men were perfectly welcome; I have yet to encounter any class of musician who objected to any class of person enjoying their music, and (especially) paying for it. If you’re wondering what kind of music I’m talking about, listen to Bellybowl by Ferron, and you’ll know; mostly, excellent ...
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SotD: Crazy Fingers · I’m sad that I never saw the Grateful Dead live; they’ve left marks on the collective musical consciousness that will be there as long as such a thing exists. But Blues For Allah is my favorite of their studio recordings, and Crazy Fingers by a wide margin the best song there ...
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SotD: High · High by Sir Sly (cool name) will be the last 2018 Song Of The Day in the current-hit category. The usual thing: I heard it on the car radio and it sounded good and then kept sounding good even on heavy rotation. While there’s a serious problem with this work, it’s still a masterful piece of songwriting ...
 
SotD: “Little” Fugue by Stokowski · What happened was, in the time of J.S. Bach there were no big orchestras, so most of his music emphasizes that boring stuff like inner detail and emotional tension and shifting soundscapes. When he wanted to write Big Loud Music, he wrote organ music. Which left modern orchestra conductors who really liked Bach with not much to play. So Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977) solved that problem by arranging lots of Bach compositions — mostly organ pieces — for big modern orchestras. This horrified a lot of Bach purists, but the arrangements are mostly pretty great, and that Fugue, properly called BWV 578, is a fine example ...
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SotD: Somnambule · I’d ever heard of Cœur de pirate until she popped up on my radio a few weeks ago. She’s from Québéc and I think the name best translates as “Pirate’s Heart”, but she’s bilingual and at one point referred to herself as “Her Pirate Heart”, which is cool too. Anyhow, the singing is in French and is very beautiful, and also an oasis of peace in among all the loud male music I’ve been hosting here recently ...
 
SotD: Badlands · I was never that huge a Springsteen fan, right through Born to Run; I think I was just too much of a head-banger at the time. But when Darkness on the Edge of Town came out I snapped it right up and went and saw the tour in Toronto. A lot of his songs over the years just go right by me. But Darkness is a hell of a collection of songs, and that tour… OMG ...
 
SotD: Heart To Hang Onto · Heart To Hang Onto is a song by Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane on their 1977 album Rough Mix. This piece is really a recommendation for the whole album, which is an outstanding collection of beautiful songs beautifully performed; it’s been played as often as anything in my collection, over the years. Heart To Hang Onto is one of Pete Townshend’s finest compositions, which is a strong statement ...
 
SotD: Little Wing · Yesterday I quoted Dvořák saying (in 1893) “I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.” Somehow he failed to predict that America’s composers would be what they called “Negros” back then. I want to recommend one piece by such a composer: Little Wing, by Jimi Hendrix ...
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SotD: Dvořák Symphony No. 9 · On the title page of his 9th Symphony manuscript, Antonín Dvořák wrote „Z Nového světa“ „From the new world“; it’s thus become popularly known as the New World Symphony. And by “popularly” I mean really, right up there among the most-played classical works. I can pretty well guarantee that almost everyone will have heard, and remember, the big swooshy melody at the front of the 2nd movement ...
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SotD: Any Time · This was written in 1921 by Herbert “Happy” Lawson and was a country hit for others including Patsy Cline, but today’s song is a 2001 performance by Leon Redbone. It’s an absolutely fabulous piece of singing and a guaranteed four minutes and two seconds worth of smiles ...
 
SotD: Love To Burn · This is a ten-minute-long guitar-heavy love rumbler from Neil Young and Crazy Horse, from the 1990 album Ragged Glory. It’s a beautiful song, with strong message and great tune; about half the running time is one of a set of incandescent guitar breaks ...
 
SotD: Shenandoah · This song is so old nobody knows where it came from. It was documented as an Atlantic sea shanty in 1876, and there are suggestions it grew out of an old Afro-American spiritual. So you can bawl it out in a rum-flavored roar, or you can take a twangy campfire twist, or you can do something different, as with the soft, contemplative version I’m recommending by Keith Jarrett ...
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SotD: Ball and Chain · Having introduced Cheap Thrills to this series, I can’t possibly leave it behind without featuring Ball and Chain. Is it just Janis Joplin’s greatest vocal performance, or maybe the finest live capture of a blueswoman ever, or maybe (not stretching very far) the hottest vocal performance ever recorded by anyone? Probably not, but it’s totally not an insane line of inquiry. In the very unlikely event you don’t know Ball and Chain, turn this up loud. But get a grip on something firm first ...
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SotD: Oh, Sweet Mary · This is from Cheap Thrills, by Big Brother and the Holding Company, featuring Janis Joplin. This song’s a band effort with songwriting credits to all the members; Janis is not front and center. I’m not sure it’s the best performance on the album — you’d really have to give that to Ball and Chain — but it’s maybe the best-written song. And it’s a hell of a performance: Hard, melodious, well-crafted rock and roll ...
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SotD: Colours · Today we have an adorable little girl/boy-duet pop song called Colours off a very pleasing album of the same name by Devon Sproule and Mike O’Neill. You can tell she’s Canadian by the accent and the “u” in “Colours”. The song has a memorable tune and evey moment of it is full of smiles ...
 
SotD: Built For Comfort · I saw most of the old blues guys perform, but Willie Dixon was the only one I ever had a conversation with; in maybe 1974 as a teenager, when I was a writer for the student paper at my college, and Willie was playing a show and I asked him what he thought about all these white kids liking the blues. He looked at me like I was an idiot — too polite to point out that you play for whoever’s gonna pay — and said something like “Blues is for everyone, man.” Anyhow, he wrote like 500 songs, and I’ve always thought Built for Comfort was right up there ...
 
SotD: Dread River · You know, we’re approaching a half-year into this and haven’t dipped into any pure Dub, which is clearly unsatisfactory. Winston Rodney a.k.a. Burning Spear has already contributed a Song, but if you’re gonna dub, you just can’t dub any deeper than Burning Spear. Dread River (Jordan River) came up on random shuffle while I was walking to the train the other day, and I smiled heavily for 3:13 ...
 
SotD: The Beat and the Glide · This is a two-song medley, This Beat Goes On and Switchin’ to Glide, by Canadian rockers The Kings. Most people couldn’t pick them out of a line-up, but a whole lot will have heard this song on the radio at some point or another ...
 
SotD: 13 · Having spent a couple of days in 1958, let’s jump fifty-nine years forward to 2017, and enjoy 13, a moody, soulful number by Torontonian Allan Rayman. It’s here because I heard it on the radio and liked it. I still haven’t managed to get a 2018 song into the 2018 Songs of the Day, but I’m getting closer ...
 
SotD: Willow Indigo · Yesterday I took you back to 1958 and that worked out pretty well, so let’s stay there. The title above is a little confusing; it refers to Duke Ellington’s awesome album Ellington Indigos, and its titanic take on Willow Weep For Me; but picking just one song is especially tough in this case ...
 
SotD: Fast Freight · My Dad, back when I was a really little elementary-school kid, used to play music by The Kingston Trio, and they stuck to me the way things you hear as a kid do. This is music of a different era, but there’s this one song, Fast Freight, that I think is timeless ...
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SotD: Angel From Montgomey · This is one of John Prine’s greatest, and that’s really saying a lot. It’s a surging, passionate song about being old and feeling empty. It’s got a little novel in the lyrics and a tune anyone can hum along to, so great that you don’t notice how sad it is ...
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SotD: The Longships · This is off Enya’s Watermark album, which sold a zillion copies and put Orinoco Flow on a few people’s can-never-hear again list because every radio in the freaking world played it all the time in 1988-89. Even if you’re one of those, there are lots of other things on this record to like, and this one I like especially ...
 
SotD: Walk Away · Way back in the Songs of the Day, in February I wrote about a Joe Walsh tune and added “If I keep doing this, he’ll get a rocker into Song of the Day.” I have, and now he has: Seems to me / You don’t want to talk about it / Seems to me / You just turn your pretty head and walk away. Great stuff ...
 
SotD: Attention Please · We’re going a little off the beaten track here; Attention Please is the title track from the 2011 album of the same name by Boris, which Wikipedia describes as an “experimental band”, whatever that means. They are from Japan and play mostly extremely loud drone metal, but with occasional excursions into soft moody stuff, for example this song; they are fabulous musicians ...
 
SotD: Steve Reich’s Sextet · Steve Reich is one of the larger figures in Twentieth-century “New” (as in non-pop) music, and has done well because his works are tuneful, dreamy, and engaging. Sextet is my personal fave because, along with all those other things, it’s got loads of energy. It’s 25-ish minutes long; the five minutes of the last movement are the highlight and a really great introduction to Reich, if this is new territory to you ...
 
SotD: With You There to Help Me · I’m going back to the ones that I know / With whom I can be what I want to be… This is the opening number of Jethro Tull’s 1970 album Benefit. I don’t know if it’s absolutely the album’s highlight, but it’s a fine song ...
 
SotD: du Pré Plays Elgar · I have heard sober-minded people argue that Elgar’s Cello Concerto played by Jacqueline du Pré is the single greatest instrumental performance of any piece of music, any genre, any instrument, ever. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but the claim is not crazy at all. Fortunately for us, it was captured beautifully, sound and pictures too ...
 
SotD: You Really Got Me · Oops, we’ve been too long without a Maximum Rock and Roll song; thus this Kinks classic. The Kinks are cool but to be honest, there are only a couple of their songs that stick in your head from one year to the next; this is one of them. But if you’re too young to have seen them perform at their peak, you missed something special ...
 
SotD: BWV 131 · This is by Bach. You’ll sometimes hear it spoken of as “Cantata no. 131” but that’s misleading, because it’s among the first — maybe the first — of his cantatas. The 131 is its entry in the “BWV” works-of-Bach numbering system. It doesn’t actually have a name, but the text is from the 130th Psalm in German and begins Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir “Out of the depths I call, Lord, to you”. It’s exquisite. As I write this, it’s 310 years old ...
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SotD: Stone Flower · These essays have been love letters to songs, but in this case it’s really to an album: Santana’s Caravanserai, from 1972. I it’s not just a disc-full of songs, it’s a 51-minute explosion of rhythm and passion, the songs are just pieces of the puzzle. Since it’s the song of the day, I have to pick one: It’s Stone Flower, written by Antônio Carlos Jobim, who’s appeared here before ...
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SotD: Norwegian Wood · Ah, a Beatles classic, everybody loves those. But I actually want to highlight a performance by Patricia Barber, who takes this song further than any Beatle, living or dead ...
 
SotD: Gone, Gone, Gone · Or, in full, Gone, Gone, Gone (Done Moved On), written and recorded by the Everly Brothers in 1964. I ran across it on the Robert Plant/Alison Kraus collaboration Raising Sand, which is really a fine piece of work. I’d never really listened to the Everlys till I started writing this, but that version is excellent too ...
 
SotD: It’s Wonderful · The full title is They Say It’s Wonderful, written in 1946 by Irving Berlin, and since then covered by more or less every crooner living and dead. The version I want to write about is off the awesome John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, recorded in 1963. I have read more than one critic claiming that this is the best album ever recorded. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it really is very very good music indeed ...
 
SotD: Falling · This is Julee Cruise singing the Twin Peaks Theme, composed by Angelo Badalamenti; David Lynch gets a songwriting credit so I suppose he contributed lyrics. Like Audrey Horne said, “I love this music; isn’t it too dreamy?” Some dreams are nightmares ...
 
SotD: S.O.B. · This is by Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, outta Denver, from 2015. You’ve probably heard it on a radio near you. It’s a fine, stirring, uplifting tune that happens to be about detox ...
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SotD: Immigrant Song · Well, there has to be something here from Led Zep, and I’m picking this because, when I was sixteen and just feeling my way into the mysterious forest of popular music, someone said “Hey I got this new record” (that would be Led Zep III) and he dropped the needle on Immigrant Song, and in that instant I became a hard-rock fan; and I’ll be proud to die one. It’s a totally great tune ...
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SotD: Stolen Moments · Oliver Nelson died in 1975 at 43 of a heart attack; he’d be a legend if he’d lived a little longer. Nowadays he’s mostly remembered for The Blues and the Abstract Truth from 1961, and Stolen Moments is the song on that record that’s always stuck to the back of my brain ...
 
SotD: Mahler #9, Adagio · In yesterday’s song, Lou Reed declaims Sittin' down by the fire / Ooo, the radio does play / A little classical music there… Hey, good idea! The fourth movement of Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler is labeled IV. Adagio. Sehr langsam und noch zurückhaltend. The German means something like “Very slowly, with reserve” and it’s slow all right but it’s not reserved at all, it’s full of wrenching howls of emotion ...
 
SotD: Sweet Jane · Some people just go out dancing / other people like us we gotta work. Lou Reed’s Sweet Jane has been special to me since the first time it crossed my radar, which I don’t remember since it was in the Seventies. This may be Lou Reed’s masterpiece ...
 
SotD: Working Class Hero · It’s May First which is to say Happy Commie Day! Let me look for a Song of the Day in that spirit… oh hey, that wasn’t hard: There's room at the top they're telling you still / But first you must learn how to smile as you kill. — John Lennon ...
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SotD: Sleepless Nights · This was written around 1960 by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (an interesting songwriting team I’d never heard of before) and made a hit then by the Everly Brothers. But the versions I care about are by Emmylou Harris, especially her version with Gram Parsons ...
 
SotD: Ain’t No Sunshine · So sad, Charles Neville of The Neville Brothers died. I’ve been wanting to do a song from the Brothers but I went looking for good live video and turned up their superb take on Ain’t no Sunshine which obviously deserves a spot, so really today belongs to Bill Withers, but I’m going to use that Nevilles video’ which, appropriately, features Charles ...
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SotD: Third Degree · It’s been a while here since the Song of the Day was a straight-up no-foolin’-around blues number. Let’s let Eddie Boyd fix that problem. Third Degree was co-written by Eddie and Willie Dixon in 1953 and was something of a hit ...
 
SotD: Silver Dagger · It’s an old folk song, old enough in America to perhaps have come from Britain; there are variants aplenty. But for most people today, including me, Silver Dagger is that Joan Baez song. Ms Baez has a beautiful voice, great skill in using it, and (maybe most important) fabulously good taste in picking what to sing ...
 
SotD: Gloria · The last time I plugged a song called Gloria, it was a setting of liturgical text from the Mass. Patti Smith’s isn’t; it begins Jesus died for someone’s sins, but not mine. So, profane not sacred, even though the full title on the album says Gloria: In Excelsis Deo. Also, one of the great rock vocals ever recorded by anyone ...
 
SotD: Fascination Street · This is my favorite Cure song, and the version I’m recommending is one of the best-sounding electric-music recordings ever. I like the music even though I never really understood the whole emo/goth thing; that’s OK, I can like Dub without getting Rastafarianism, and Bach while puzzled by Lutheranism ...
 
SotD: Nulla In Mundo Pax · The full title is Nulla In Mundo Pax Sincera, which will leave many blank. A better way to put it is “Emma Kirkby singing Vivaldi”, a combination that will bring a smile to the faces of many who listen to any classical music at all ...
 
SotD: All Blues · Obviously there’s nothing obscure about Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue, probably the best-selling (and one of the most-praised) jazz albums ever. But All Blues is a little more subdued than the rest of the songs and it’s got a spine-chilling little highlight that I’ve never noticed anyone else pointing out. With that, and with some notes from Miles’s autobiography, I might have something new even for long-time Miles fans ...
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SotD: Just Like This · Once again a Song of the Day that’s a song from today, more or less; there is actual musical life out there on the pop charts. And Something Just Like This isn’t just pop, it’s particularly poppy pop featuring teen sentiment and minimal structure; but hey, it’s a pretty tune and it’s got a beat, you could dance to it. It’s a collaboration between Coldplay and The Chainsmokers, and I don’t know the first thing about either of them ...
 
SotD: Elizabeth Reed · The full title is In Memory of Elizabeth Reed; it was written by Dickey Betts of The Allman Brothers Band and is a highlight on their live album At Fillmore East, a collection of songs that is very special to a lot of people, including me. It’d be pretty obviously jazz if it weren’t for all the brilliant rock-guitar improv ...
 
SotD: Moustaki · After all that hardass rock the last couple of days, I feel the need of something softer. Alors, profitons d’une très douce chanson française de Georges Moustaki… oh wait. I’m talking about Georges Moustaki, a francophone singer-songwriter of generally Mediterranean extraction who was hot stuff when I was in high school a hundred years back. This is seriously sweet sonorous stuff ...
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SotD: Hoochie Koo · Yesterday I veered gleefully off the road of High Culture into the musical gutter. So, let’s hang out down here one more day. For your pleasure I offer “Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo”. It was written in 1970 by Rick Derringer, who is OK by me, originally for Johnny Winter. Rick’s laid down some ace recordings both on his own and with one or more Winters ...
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SotD: Sharp Dressed Man · This series has been getting kind of refined and intellectual in recent days, so we’re going to fix that right now. I don’t think I’ve ever heard a ZZ Top song I didn’t like, and Billy Gibbons’ guitar sound is unequaled in its grit and its steel-spined groove. You also have to love the performances; the guys clearly don’t take themselves too seriously (I once described their moves as “a back-beat pavane”). Sharp Dressed Man is pure fun ...
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SotD: Mishima · This isn’t a song, it’s a movie soundtrack, I hope that’s OK. It’s by Philip Glass, and the movie is Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters from 1985. The name refers to Yukio Mishima, a Japanese novelist who went crazy and tried to lead a restore-the-sacred-Empire putsch against the Japanese government in 1970 and, when it predictably failed, committed seppuku ...
 
SotD: Misa Criolla · Written in 1964 by Argentinian Ariel Ramírez, Misa Criolla is the Mass in Spanish set to music with a sound and structure that combines several indigenous styles. You know those buskers that set up in public markets everywhere in colorful South-American outfits with giant Pan-pipes and guitars both huge and tiny? That style of music. Misa Criolla is great stuff, sold a zillion copies back there, and I can’t imagine anyone not liking it ...
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SotD: La Isla Bonita · This is a beautiful and simple little Spanish-inflected melody, written by Madonna, Patrick Leonard, and Bruce Gaitsch. It sold a lot of records for her and is a staple of her live shows ...
 
SotD: Hurt · No, not Trent Reznor singing the moany overwrought Nine Inch Nails version; I mean Johnny Cash’s take on American IV: The Man Comes Around, his last studio album. It’s grainy and sad and generally awesome. To his credit, Trent Reznor said “that song isn’t mine anymore.” ...
 
SotD: Roads to Moscow · Even on the oldies stations, you never hear Al Stewart any more. In my youth he was a pretty big deal though, and had mega-hits with Year of the Cat and Time Passages. Roads to Moscow wasn’t a big hit but it was always my fave among his songs. I listened to it again the other night for the first time in years, and I was moved again by its story, and by its melodic grace ...
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SotD: Doin’ Summertime · I’ve always liked Doin’ Time by Sublime which is (gasp!) approaching twenty years old. But I have a secret reason, because the breathy backing track is off a record approaching sixty years old by Herbie Mann that my Dad bought when I was still in short pants, and I still have the original, and love it. Well, and also because it’s based on Summertime; I’ve been in a musically-literate room where someone called it the greatest song ever written and while somebody else said “What about Good Vibrations?” a few heads were nodding. Let’s take a trip through the times ...
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SotD: White Room · Let me tell you a story. In 1968 when I was 13, my then-43-year-old Dad, a Professor of Agriculture, had a business trip to London, which was a white-hot center of the whole Sixties thing. He walked into a record store and asked them to sell him a couple of records for his son, whatever was hot. He came home with two Cream singles: White Room backed with Those Were the Days, and Badge b/w What a Bringdown. Was your Dad ever that cool? Anyhow, that means I’ve loved White Room for fifty years ...
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SotD: Allegri’s Miserere · The work’s title is really just Miserere (“have mercy on us”), but since so many composers have asked for mercy, and since Gregorio Allegri was sort of a one-hit wonder, everybody says it like in the title above. I think that we can each use all the divine mercy we can get, but maybe your need is less than mine. The (Latin, of course) text is Psalm 51. It’s a little over twelve minutes of simple soaring melody, built of a short choral fragment repeated five times, with a variation last time around. It’s got a colorful history ...
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SotD: Middle of the Road · In case nobody noticed, I have a thing for loud-voiced women singing in front of heavy electric-guitar noise. Any list of those has to have Chrissie Hynde near the top. She wrote and sings this, provides some of the guitar noise herself, and throws in a triumphant harmonica break ...
 
SotD: The Boys of Summer · This was released by Don Henley of the Eagles in 1984, his words to music by Mike Campbell. It’s only a minor member of the California-rock canon but it’s special to me, and I still love to hear it ...
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SotD: Feel It Still · Another contemporary — well, a year old — Song of the Day. What happened was, I liked Feel It Still on the radio, and liked that it quoted from Please Mr. Postman, and when I went looking for video to see what Portugal. The Man were like live, the first I found featured a stage surrounded by projected words reading “NO COMPUTERS UP HERE, JUST LIVE INSTRUMENTS”. So I was hooked ...
 
SotD: Plutonian Nights · The Nubians of Plutonia was recorded by Sun Ra and his Arkestra before 1960 and released in 1966, but it’s not really music of either period, it’s of the distant future. Or at least that’s what Sun Ra claimed; mind you, he also claimed he was born on Saturn and that aliens were going to be arriving any minute. Having said that, Plutonian Nights is one of the coolest jazz tracks ever recorded in any galaxy; I’m glad it was this one ...
 
SotD: Crazy on You · Back in the Seventies when dinosaurs walked the earth, Heart was a pretty big one, and unique among hard (occasionally) rock bands in being woman-fronted, by sisters Anne and Nancy Wilson. Crazy on You was their debut single and for my money their best song ever, and one of the better arguments why Rock & Roll at its peak reaches above all other forms of music ...
 
SotD: Up On Cripple Creek · This is a chestnut from The Band, written by Robbie Robertson and sung by Levon Helm. It’s from 1969 but sounds like it’s hundreds of years old, part of the underlying fabric of everything. I suppose nearly everyone’s heard it, but it’s worth another listen ...
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SotD: Nocturne No. 1 Op. 9 · This is the first of Chopin’s Nocturnes, written when he was only about twenty. My love is not specifically for this piece but for all twenty-one Nocturnes, but that’s hours of music and you have to start somewhere. No more beautiful music for piano has ever been written ...
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SotD: Let’s Go Downtown · The Song of the Day needs a rocker every so often to keep up the energy level, and it’s never had any Neil Young ever, so let’s solve both problems with Come On Baby Let’s Go Downtown, co-written with the late Danny Whitten. A triumphant rock holler carried on arching guitar lines, it’s a centerpiece of Tonight’s the Night, which is a triumph and a tragedy ...
 
SotD: Desafinado · This is a 1959 bossa nova by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Newton Mendonça; the title means something like “Out of Tune” and is exquisitely incorrect. It has been recorded a staggering number of times. I’m here to talk about my favorite version, with Jobim guesting on a recording by Stan Getz and João Gilberto ...
 
SotD: Moana Chimes · Dear Readers, as I write this I am sitting near the blue Pacific in a place called Napili on the island of Maui. When I post this, it will be from Vancouver on the morning after this Pacific expedition. Moana Chimes is Hawai’ian music, performed by Ledward Kapanaa and Bob Brozman. It swings softly and complexly and yeah, sounds like Hawai’i feels ...
 
SotD: Highway Star · Ah… Deep Purple, now that’s what I call Maximum Rock And Roll. And Highway Star is the maximum maximum. Also, it comes with a perfect live recording. When I say “Deep Purple” I refer, of course, to any iteration of the band that included Jon Lord, Ritchie Blackmore, and Ian Gillan ...
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SotD: Blue Moon · Blue Moon was written in 1934 by Rogers and Hart, and has been performed since then by more or less everyone. It makes anyone sound good, good performers sound great, and great performers melt your heart. Nobody could ever say whose version is the best, but today I’m shouting out to Billie Holiday, Elvis, and the Cowboy Junkies ...
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SotD: Pork Pie Hat · Goodbye Pork Pie Hat is a Charles Mingus jazz standard, first recorded by his band in 1959, and since then performed by many others, with voice and without. The version closest to my heart is a Jeff Beck electric-guitar instrumental. [Wait, didn’t you have one of those yesterday!? -Ed.] [You say that like it’s a bad thing. -T] The song was originally conceived of as a tribute to Lester Young, a saxophonist, recently deceased back then, who had worn one ...
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SotD: Ended as Lovers · The full title is Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers and for almost everyone it’s that beautiful slow instrumental on Jeff Beck’s fabulous Blow by Blow album, with a dedication to Roy Buchanan, who’s already contributed a Song of the Day. That was my take until I started writing this and found out it was not only written by Stevie Wonder, but was recorded on Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta, featuring his then-wife. I’m mostly here to talk about Jeff’s version but Stevie and Syreeta do it up very nicely too ...
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SotD: Sour Times · In the early Nineties there was suddenly this thing called Trip hop, which manifested out of another dimension and came to earth in Bristol, not otherwise famous for very much. Its distinguishing characteristic is being slow and dreamy and, I always thought, kind of sexy. Sour Times is probably the most famous Trip-hop song ever, by Portishead, along with Massive Attack the canonical trip-hopheads ...
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SotD: At the 100th Meridan · Almost every Canadian’s list of Songs-of-the-Day is going to include a Tragically Hip number or two, and I’m no exception. They had a lot of great tunes and this one is right up there. Can’t write this without getting kind of damp, because we lost Gord yesterday it feels like. If you’re not Canadian and have no idea who The Hip are or who Gord was, listen to this anyhow and if you like rock music you’ll probably like it a lot ...
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SotD: A Love Supreme · I’m talking two tracks today, named Acknowledgment and Resolution, but there are millions of people who love them but don’t know their names. They are the “A Side” of A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, recorded in 1964 and one of the best-selling jazz records of all time. Thing is, most people just start at the beginning of the album and stick with it till the end. Or if you’re a traditionalist like me, the LP. Either way everyone just thinks of it as A Love Supreme ...
 
SotD: Appassionata · Formally, Piano Sonata No. 23 in F Minor, Op. 57, by Ludwig van Beethoven. The name “Appassionata” was attached not by Ludwig but by a music publisher ten years after his death. But it’s stuck because well, the music is really passionate; soft and intimate then loud and fast. It’s usually the highlight of any concert where it’s performed. I heard someone say on the radio once, about Beethoven: “Maybe not the best melodist or orchestrator to have ever composed, but unique in creating the feeling that each successive note is absolutely the only one that could possibly have been chosen.” This is like that ...
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SotD: Barton Hollow · The Civil Wars were on every radio for while there around 2010, and I liked it when they were; a refreshing break from electric noise (hey, I like electric noise, but still) and especially from synthetically-constructed pop sugar-candy. Barton Hollow is definitely my fave track, and I can’t imagine anyone not liking it ...
 
SotD: The Man Who Sold The World · This is a David Bowie song that I gather was mostly forgotten — I’d certainly never heard it  — until it popped up on Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged In New York. This was in 1993, after which Bowie apparently added it to his regular live set; which is cool ...
 
SotD: That’s Right! · This is a cheery bright fast polyrhythmic acoustic guitar instrumental by Jesse Cook. Like a few other numbers here at Song of the Day, I discovered this one by killing time in a record store; mind you, this was HMV in its declining days, not one of the cool-magnets of yore. But I loved the tune and asked the clerk and bought the record ...
 
SotD: Persephone · My favorite living jazz musician, and sometimes my favorite living musician, is Patricia Barber, a Chicagoan songwriter, singer, piano player, and bandleader. She’s really good at all four of those things, and an evening with her band is one of the most intense musical experiences you can track down at this point in the twenty-first century. Modern jazzbos don’t have “greatest hits” as such, but if they did, Persephone would probably be hers ...
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SotD: I Put A Spell On You · This song was written in 1956 by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins as a ballad, but he claims the producer got him drunk in the studio and that’s when he started Screamin’, and people loved it, so he never stopped. Since then, it’s been recorded a whole lot. I’m here to recommend a mini video festival’s worth of takes, and one recording, and this may be a little weird but I think it’s the best out there, by Creedence Clearwater Revival ...
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SotD: Spanish Pipedream · John Prine, now there’s an original. He’s an ordinary guy with a beat-up face and a beat-up voice, and his songs get played by folkies and rockers in bars and basements across America. Not outside it though I bet, he is just so American, and I mean that in the best possible way. Spanish Pipedream is a cheerful little uptempo number that’ll make you smile. It’s from a long time ago but the sentiment is fresh: Blow up your TV / throw away the papers / move to the country / build yourself a home. ...
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SotD: The Dry Cleaner · I already blogged about The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines, by Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus, eleven years ago, so if you want a deep-dive on the music and context, go read that. Today, just listen to it, and if it doesn’t get you smiling and bopping, there’s nothing I can say that will help you ...
 
SotD: Downpressor Man · In the earliest days, The Wailers were Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, and Peter Tosh. Peter was the guy in the band who was a foot taller than everyone else; also the only one who could play any instruments. A huge guy with a huge voice, his songs never in a hurry, and there are a few that people will be listening to centuries from now. For instance, Downpressor Man ...
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SotD: Barrett’s Privateers · I suspect every Canadian of a certain age has heard this, probably on CBC or maybe sitting up late of a hazy evening. It’s a sad boisterous story of ruin at sea, men’s music written for men’s voices, and you’ll never forget it once you’ve heard it even once ...
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SotD: Gimme Sympathy · I think I’m probably a big Metric fan even though I’ve never actually sent any money their way, because whenever a song comes on the radio I find myself humming and smiling. Especially Gimme Sympathy ...
 
SotD: K.515 · I believe its official name is Mozart’s String Quintet No. 3 in C, but saying “K” then a number tells everyone that it’s by Mozart, and since he wrote like fifty instances of every known form of classical music, it’s easier to just remember your favorite K-numbers. 515 is right up there among mine; strong Mozart, which is all you need to know ...
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SotD: After Midnight · After midnight, it’s gonna be peaches and cream… mmmmm. This, originally by J.J. Cale, is one of the Twentieth Century’s sweetest little electric-music outings, gentle, sexy, and fast. Now, J.J. made a whole lot of money on this song when Eric Clapton decided to put it on a couple of albums and play it at a whole lot of concerts, and both versions are worth hearing ...
 
SotD: Atomic · Oh… your hair is beautiful  — well, that lyric divides people. I’ve read high-falutin’ rock critics slam its superficiality, embedded in a track that hardly has words anyhow, and certainly none that make sense. But you know, every time she sings that phrase, I melt. And love the whole song ...
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SotD: Phase Dance · So back in the Seventies, if you were a college student and it was summer, you’d sit around smoking weed and then someone would say “Let’s go to the record store.” And in those days the people who worked there knew all the coolest music. So in the middle of the head-banger era, you’d float into the record store and there’d a fast brilliant jazz-guitar instrumental, and you’d suddenly find you’d become a fan of Pat Metheny ...
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SotD: Love Me Like a Man · This was composed by Chris Smither (no, I’d never heard of him either) but was a hit for, and is now sort of a trademark of, Bonnie Raitt. Bonnie’s recorded a lot of good music over the years, but the thing with her is you need to see her play live, it’s at another level entirely ...
 
SotD: Riding On The Rocket · I’ve probably seen Shonen Knife (Wikipedia if you don’t read Japanese) more than any other currently-performing rock band. When they get on stage you can count on a couple of hours of pure high-energy high-melody high-rhythm hard-rockin’ fun, and you just can’t have too much of that. Riding the Rocket is just one of a couple of dozen totally great as-good-as-Rock-gets tunes ...
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SotD: Ashes to Ashes · It’s hard to pick a Bowie because, obviously, there were so many Bowies. One time my son and I, he then fifteen or so, were driving somewhere, and he asked me “Dad, who’s David Bowie?” and I said “A musician who…” then I was stuck. For me, there are really two big Bowie songs, Heroes and Ashes to Ashes, and while the former has more emotion, I think Ashes has more musical depth. Oh, yes, and This Is Not America, but that’s a niche taste ...
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SotD: Brothers in Arms · Dire Straits’ records have always been notably good-sounding, and Brothers in Arms became the occasion for the purchase of a brand-new CD player back in the day for many music geeks — I was one of them. The title song sounds good too, but today we’re acknowledging its beauty and sadness and message ...
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SotD: Am I Blue? · Well, since yesterday I reached all the way back to the Nineteen Twenties for a show tune that went through many hands including Willie Nelson’s, let’s do it again today! Am I Blue was written by those big stars Harry Akst and Grant Clarke (Who? A couple of Tin Pan Alley types) in 1929 for the screen, and Wikipedia says it’s made it onto 42 different screens. It’s a cool tune and up to the Song of the Day standard, but mostly here because I was charmed by video ...
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SotD: Blue Skies · From waaaay back in 1926, this one. What happened was, I wanted the series to drop by Willie Nelson, and my fave Willie album is Stardust, and song on it is Blue Skies. That whole album is salve for the wounded soul I think, and Blue Skies maybe the sweetest and strongest. But, boy, does this one ever have a history ...
 
SotD: I’m a Man! · “Wait…” you say, “that’s two Steve Winwood songs in a row!” Indeed. Only, this one is shorter and hotter. And anyhow, it’s a Spencer Davis Group song, so there ...
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SotD: The Low Spark · The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys was the album and the song, and it’s a song that’ll never die. It was recorded by Traffic, written by Winwood/Capaldi, and last time I checked, Winwood still goes out on the road and plays it for people. Play it for yourself, but sit back and listen carefully, there’s a lot happening ...
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SotD: Wish I Knew You · Another Song of the Day that got here because it’s on the radio right now, and I smile every time they play it. The lyric in full says “I wish I knew you when I was young.” It resonates pretty deep for someone of my age. Of course, the guys in the band (The Revivalists) are young, but that doesn’t seem to get in the way ...
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SotD: Can’t Get There From Here · For a lot of bands, there’s one song that’s special because it’s the first one you heard on the radio and you thought Who’s that?! I don’t know if Can’t Get There From Here is my absolute favorite R.E.M. song; Man on the Moon has great surge-and-flow, Losing My Religion is the greatest car singalong ever. But anyhow, it’s a fine piece of work ...
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SotD: Cello Suite #5 · Today features the first artist to make a return Song-of-the-Day appearance: J.S. Bach. The music is the Cello Suite #5, a showpiece for basically every cellist who’s ever performed, and an object of study for every serious student who gets a couple of years into the instrument ...
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SotD: Mannish Boy · This eventually became Muddy Waters’ signature tune, which is sort of a pity because there were usually more interesting songs in his set, but he seemed to genuinely love it, and brought so much to each performance that you had to join in the love ...
 
SotD: Cream · This my fave Prince song, by a mile. I suspect that makes me a heretic, and is also wildly inconsistent because it’s got none of his guitar shredding on it, which always makes me grin ear-to-ear. But it’s a pure pop gem, a thing no song should ever apologize for in any company, no matter how august ...
 
SotD: Spinning Centers · This is from Unknown Rooms, a very beautiful collection by Chelsea Wolfe. It’s a little unusual for this series in that it’s hardly a song all, just a floating, ethereal musical moment three minutes and nine seconds long. But you won’t regret listening to it ...
 
SotD: Submission · Submission was a late addition to (most versions of) Never Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, which anyone will tell you is Culturally Important. But mostly it’s just a really great rock song, which reveals that in among being Culturally Important, the Pistols were a highly competent and heavily rehearsed hard-rock band ...
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SotD: Walk Like an Egyptian · By The Bangles; OK, one of the most cheerful songs ever recorded, with a hilarious video. But it’s got a good beat, you could dance to it. And at 50° North Latitude where I live, we’ll take any February smiles we can get. Seriously, listen to the song, watch the video, you’ll smile, how could that not be a good thing? Even better, stand up and do the dance around the office ...
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SotD: Take Me To The River · You can call this one of the great songs in just about any musical conversation and you’ll get no argument. A great big swirl of the sacred and the sensual, with a razor rhythm and lots of chances to show off ...
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SotD: Into the Dark · In full, I Will Follow You Into the Dark, by Death Cab for Cutie off their album Plans. This is a solo acoustic thing, stripped down to nothing but a lovely tune and a haunting message; both will stick to you, even if you heard them a million times on the radio a decade back ...
 
SotD: Do You Love Me? · Normally I write Song of the Day a few days ahead, and today I woke up on Valentine’s day and realized that day’s “song” was symphonic stuff by Brahms, which is great but not perhaps the Language Of Love. To make up for that, I’ll send you all along a Happy Valentine’s for a few days back with a song that’s about nothing but love, by Nick Cave ...
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SotD: Fine and Mellow · This is a song not only performed but written by Billie Holiday; it was a hit in 1939, the flip side of the beautiful but gruesome Strange Fruit (the fruit was a lynching victim). Fine and Mellow is sad too, but a fairly standard man-treats-me-bad blues. It’s a treat for the ears and the heart ...
 
SotD: Death Don’t Have No Mercy · Death Don’t Have No Mercy is a very old, very dark blues by Rev. Gary Davis which has been covered lots, by Dylan and the Dead among others. But today I’m plugging a live version recorded by Hot Tuna in 1992 ...
 
SotD: Ashes the Rain and I · The James Gang was a stripped-down band that mostly played primitive rock and roll (which I love) very well, and Rides Again is an example of that, but Ashes the Rain and I isn’t primitive at all; five minutes of contemplative beauty ...
 
SotD: Brahms’ Variations · Today, let’s do classical music, as in a great big splodge of orchestral goo by a dead German. Brahms op. 56a and 56b is a set of variations on a theme; he thought the theme was Haydn’s, thus called it Variations on a Theme by Joseph Haydn. But now they think the Haydn attribution on the theme is sketchy, so now you’ll see ’em labeled sometimes as the Saint Anthony Variations. Anyhow, this is a super tasty splodge of goo, the kind of thing orchestras exist to play ...
 
SotD: Jah Glory · Third World have always had had a different sound, leaning quite a bit on sweet harmonies and instrumental flavors. It’s reggae all right, but impure like most great music, and sounds as tasty as anything you can imagine. Jah Glory is such a sweet welcoming thing, a soaring song of worship. (You don’t have to believe in Jah.) ...
 
SotD: Dear Darling · Mary Margaret O’Hara, a daughter of Toronto, hasn’t recorded much and hasn’t had hits and these are terribly sad things because she’s a gem, a wonderful unconventional songwriter and singer. Her stuff gets pretty far out over the edge sometimes, but Dear Darling is a lovely straight-up country tune, hardly weird at all, or only in places ...
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SotD: Mercy Street · Nobody could call this obscure; Peter Gabriel’s So sold a kazillion copies and was right in the center of the zeitgeist for months back in the late Eighties. The songs were good, the sound was good, and (especially) the videos were good, which really mattered in 1986. Mercy Street was not one of its big hits, which always astonished me; I thought it by far and away the album’s highlight ...
 
SotD: Fantaisie Impromptu · After the hot guitar a couple days back, I thought some more flashy soloing would be fun, and the world currently has nobody flashier, on any instrument, than pianist Yundi Li, who seems to have rebranded himself as YUNDI. But I ended up at this Frédéric Chopin Fantaisie which has, yes, flash, but lots of music among and between it, and Mr Li really seems to understand Mr Chopin ...
 
SotD: Broken English · This the title track from Broken English, an album by Marianne Faithfull, on which every song is good and some are terrifying (not this one) ...
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SotD: Pride and Joy · It’s been mostly gentle and sophisticated around here recently. Let’s turn to Texas and fix that; Pride and Joy, by Stevie Ray Vaughan, is about the simplest blues holler you can imagine, with a happy message and some smokin’ hot guitar ...
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SotD: Sodade · Cesária Évora is probably the only person you’ve ever heard of (now that you’ve heard of her) from Cabo Verde, which is an island group 570km west of Africa’s westernmost point. She was a really great singer and recorded lots of fine collections of music. It’s hard to pick from among them, but Sodade is a fine example ...
 
SotD: Both Sides Now · Anyone’s list of top songwriters would include Joni Mitchell, and any list of her top songs would include Both Sides, Now. There’s little I can say that will add value here, just give it a listen and it’ll improve your day, any day ...
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SotD: Joan of Arc · This is a song by Leonard Cohen, but I’m talking about it as performed by Jennifer Warnes. It may not even be Warnes’ best cover of a Cohen tune, but it’s good enough to be any day’s song, and the recording is special ...
 
SotD: Diaraby · Today’s song comes from Africa (first in the series); Diaraby is a slow dreamy electric African blues with exquisite singing and guitar, by Ali Farka Touré; seven minutes of pure musical joy ...
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SotD: Happy · The song-of-the-day recently has been trending a little bit to the eclectic and the obscure. Enough of that, let’s dish up a hearty serving of meat-and-potatoes rock-n-roll. Happy is a simple stripped-down hard Stones rocker, vocals by Keef, with a nice tune, tasty chord changes, and you know what? I need a love to keep me happy too ...
 
SotD: Ne Nehledej · I’m pretty sure Ne Nehledej, which is said to mean “Stop Searching”, is in the Czech language, because Iva Bittová is Czech. I don’t know that much about her and frankly this Song of the Day mostly exists to highlight remarkable video, but Ne Nehledej is a nice song and Bittová is a great entertainer while also being out there on the edge. She sings and plays violin, and is as much performance art as music. But (unlike some performance artists) this performance is all about music ...
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SotD: More White Flags · Yesterday’s White Flag isn’t the only song of that name. I want to share one in particular, a minor hit by a minor band (“one-hit wonder” would be charitable) called the Leggatt Brothers, because I think it’s brilliant, a forgotten gem. But there’s no live video and it’s not for sale digitally, so I loaded up the entry with a few extra White Flags ...
 
SotD: White Flag · Here we have a sweet sad love song by Dido (full name Dido Florian Cloud de Bounevialle O'Malley Armstrong) who was born in 1971 and is thus younger than many other Songs of the Day. It was a huge hit, hardly obscure (the album Life For Rent sold 10+ million copies). It’s OK to be mainstream sometimes, and White Flag is more than OK, it’s brilliant ...
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SotD: If I Had a Rocket Launcher · Bruce Cockburn is sufficiently Canadian that his name may ring no bells. But I think If I Had a Rocket Launcher made a few waves back in the day and may jog a memory. He’s an interesting guy, and this is a nice, lilting melodic song about wanting to kill people ...
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SotD: Canones Diversi · Almost a month in, and we haven’t had a visit with J.S. Bach yet. Long past time, and we’ll be back a lot too, if this series stretches out much. We’re going to start out with minimal Bach; we’ll get around to thunderous Bach, passionate Bach, and show-off Bach in later installments. Today we’ll sample from a small series entitled Canones diversi super Thema Regium, part of a larger work called Musikalisches Opfer, or in English The Musical Offering, composed in 1747, BWV 1079. Today we’ll take on the Canon a 2, per augmentationem, contrario motu and the Fuga canonica in Epidiapente. They’re not the two deepest fragments, but they’re a good place to start. This is seriously beautiful thoughtful, patient music ...
 
SotD: Slavery Days · I sure do love me some reggae; my island-music tastes are mainstream, but once you get past Marley, the names are fading from memories. Maybe I can reverse that a bit. Let’s start with Winston Rodney; his first band was Burning Spear, then he just adopted the name for himself. His music is a little deeper, his singing a little edgier, his horn arrangements excellent. Slavery Days has all of those things, and deserves to live forever ...
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SotD: Beck + Call · I run a lot of old music but I’m not someone who really thinks it was all better back in the day, or is all trash now. So from time to time, the Song of the Day is going to be something I liked on the car radio while I was driving around today. Today, it’s Beck + Call by July Talk. Who knows if it’ll still have listeners decades from now like most of the selections here, or even centuries like some. Who cares? It’s a nice tune, needn’t hang its head in the current company, and July Talk are hot stuff live ...
 
SotD: Habanera · The full title is L’amour est un oiseau rebelle (“Love’s a rebel bird”), a big soprano aria from Carmen, written by Georges Bizet in 1875. That’s right, an opera! We’re into scary territory here, at risk of chasing away followers of this quixotic New Year’s Resolution. But bear with me, it’s quite a song ...
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SotD: I Thank You · Mr Moore and Mr Prater dropped their last names and were big soul stars as Sam & Dave between 1961 and 1981. That kind of music has been pretty far off the charts for a lot of years, although they got some help from the Blues Brothers. They’ve got two or three performances that belong in this series. I think that I Thank You was the first ever soul song that penetrated my consciousness, and is maybe still my favorite ...
 
SotD: The Heart of the Sun · In full, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun by (the very early) Pink Floyd. While Floyd written some beautiful music, if you want something that’s new to, well, anyone, you pretty well have to go way back in time to before Dark Side of the Moon. Set the Controls is an easy, pleasing, soaring listen, with or without the help of hallucinogenic drugs ...
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SotD: Visions of You · Jah Wobble grew up in East London with the Sex-Pistols-to-be, and his handle comes from a drunken Sid Vicious attempting to pronounce his real name (John Wardle). He joined John Lydon’s post-Pistols Public Image Limited and then formed Invaders of the Heart. Visions of You is the lead-off track on the Invaders’ Rising Above Bedlam disk, which I often play end-to-end. It’s a lightweight pop song with an icy slow-funk background, a real treat for the ears ...
 
SotD: Lust For Life · I suppose that in 2018 Lust For Life is an obscurity, something you might have heard on the radio or in an ad. That’s insane, it’s obviously one of the great rock songs of all time, and has given Iggy Pop, who co-wrote it with David Bowie, a performance vehicle that he’s taken a long, long way ...
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SotD: Cry Me a River · Occasionally, the Song of the Day idea starts with a Greatest-Hits record that has multiple candidates, and I pick based on which turns up the best live video. Today’s Greatest Hits are those of Julie London, and it was a tough choice, but what a beautiful piece of singing Cry Me a River is ...
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SotD: Israelites · The summer I turned fourteen, Israelites by Desmond Dekker and the Aces was the biggest hit in the world. I thought it was the best song of that summer and maybe the next summer too. I’d go to the beach, where everyone had a radio, and as you walked along you’d hear Israelites coming at you in super-stereo from a dozen directions; it sounded so great ...
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SotD: Travelin’ Prayer · In the mid-Seventies, a women we found with a classified ad moved into my student house, and of course brought her record collection. It included something called Cold Spring Harbor by a guy I’d never heard of, Billy Joel. We were pretty well a heavy-music joint that didn’t listen to fluff without guitar solos, so Billy got no respect then, just like he gets no respect now. But, in among the cheesy ballads there was this song that got way under my skin, and still does: Travelin’ Prayer. It’s great, pretty well flawless ...
[1 comment]  
SotD: No Woman, No Cry · Bob Marley’s been gone a long time; longer than most people reading this have lived, I bet. But more than most deceased musicians, it feels to me like he’s still out there; a quiet dub track woven into the universal quantum background hum. Try to prove me wrong. No Woman, No Cry is a good first entry for reggae in Song of the Day; Warm-sounding warm-heartedness; what could be better in a Northern-hemisphere winter? ...
[3 comments]  
SotD: Pärt’s Cantus · Since I’ve been rocking the house the last couple of days, let’s do serenity instead. Specifically, Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, for string orchestra and bell, by Arvo Pärt, one of my musical heroes. Here’s how good this is: It just about got me killed, the first time I heard it. Which was on a rented car’s radio in England, heading up the M3, where they drive fast; I was jet-lagged and I caught myself closing my eyes at 85mph to savor the fading tones of the church bell ...
[1 comment]  
SotD: Clampdown · Yesterday, I used the phrase “best Rock song ever recorded”. Well, why not two days in a row? Because another fine candidate is Clampdown from the Clash’s wonderful London Calling album. That record was a highlight of 1980 and Clampdown was a highlight of the record ...
[2 comments]  
SotD: Day Tripper · If someone asked me what the greatest rock&roll song of all time was, I wouldn’t be able to pick. But if they kept asking, and you got a serious conversation going, Day Tripper would be in that conversation ...
[2 comments]  
SotD: Missionary Man · If I actually had any serious musical talent, I would have chosen rock&roll over all other professions. I guess I haven’t been running that many pure simple rock songs here, and that’s wrong. So let’s turn today’s space over to Annie Lennox, Dave Stewart, and Joniece Jamison of the Eurythmics for some nice polished passionate BritRock ...
 
SotD: Gravity’s Angel · Possibly you haven’t encountered Laurie Anderson, and possibly if you did you wouldn’t like her, because she’s pretty far out there. Gravity’s Angel is at the near end of out-there, a simple-ish song with a lovely tune and a cool arrangement; a good place to start ...
 
SotD: Please Don’t · I mean Baby, Please Don’t Go of course, the blues chestnut to end all blues chestnuts. Nobody knows who wrote it, although apparently Muddy Waters first made it a hit; Wikipedia offers several plausible backgrounds dating from slavery days up to about 1925. The version I’m chiefly recommending was recorded by Lightnin’ Hopkins in the early Sixties ...
[1 comment]  
SotD: The Other 5:15 · No, I’m not talking about the Who song from Quadrophenia (though it’s a fine tune), I’m talking about the song by Chris Isaak. No, I’m not talking about Wicked Game either, which I may feature here some day. I’m talking about Chris’ 5:15, one of the several excellent songs on San Francisco Days, one of the several excellent albums Mr Isaak has released ...
 
SotD: Troy · I bought Sinéad O’Connor’s debut, The Lion and the Cobra, because Mandinko was on the radio and I liked it. The first time I played it, not having looked at the track listing, I noticed some meditative crooning about “Dublin in a Rainstorm”; the next time, a gut-grabbing throaty chant: “You should have left the lights on”; and then another time a howling declaration about rising, a phoenix from the flame. It took me a while to notice that all of these were from the same track: Troy. It’s a hell of a song ...
[3 comments]  
SotD: Temporary Ground · This is the best song from Jack White’s 2014 Lazaretto album, and it was the centerpiece of the show last time I saw him play. It’s mostly acoustic, thus has to stand on its own sans bombastic guitar flourishes. Don’t get me wrong, I like Jack’s bombastics, but it’s good to let a song speak for itself, and Temporary Ground has a lot to say ...
 
SotD: Voodoo Runner · Today’s song is Miles Runs the Voodoo Down, from Bitches Brew. In the series intro I said “I won’t be recommending abrasive free-jazz jams…” and well, this is kind of abrasive and while it might not be free jazz, it’s pretty loose. But it’s wonderful improvisation and production, full of deep musical intelligence, and if you like anything at all in the electric-jazz space, you’ll probably like this a lot. If you’ve never checked the space out, this might be a good place to start ...
[3 comments]  
SotD: Solveig’s Song · Hey, there are songs in Classical Music, too! Maybe you think you don’t like that stuff? Stick around and give this one a listen. This Song is the last movement of Peer Gynt Suite #2 by Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg, dating from 1876. It’s exceptionally beautiful, one of the great melodies of all time. I encountered it some decades ago, when my cello teacher assigned it to me, and it works well on that instrument. I loved playing it and now I love listening to it ...
[2 comments]  
SotD: Pete’s Blue · This is a minimalist guitar instrumental by Roy Buchanan (1939-1988). Genuinely obscure stuff, but I’m pretty sure you’ll find it worth seven minutes and seventeen seconds of your time ...
 
SotD: Cannonball · Music comes in lots of flavors, most of which I’d hate to have to live without, but the ones closest to my heart involve well-played electric guitars, female voices, and raw rock energy. The Breeders’ Cannonball has all three ingredients ...
[4 comments]  
SotD: Ooh La La · This by The Ditty Bops, from their self-titled debut album in 2004. I’d never heard of them before, nor have I since; but this is a remarkable song and more than one friend, hearing it in the background, has stopped talking and asked “What’s that?” ...
[3 comments]  
SotD: Identikit · This is from Radiohead’s recent A Moon Shaped Pool, which I’ve been listening to a whole lot, and oh my goodness what a beautiful song ...
 
SotD: Western Stars · Nobody, and I mean nobody, brings more to a performance than k.d. lang. But she’s not on the road that much, so you might have to settle for recordings. A good recording to settle for would be Shadowland, featuring production by country-music legend Owen Bradley and guest appearances by other divas-with-twang. This is probably the best song on Shadowland ...
[2 comments]  
Songs of the Day · Here’s my New Year’s Resolution: I’ll try to try to publish a short piece every day recommending a song that I think is excellent, and apt to please at least some readers. Let’s see how far into 2018 I get; a quick run through the collection turned up around 240 candidates, so a whole year’s worth of songs would be a stretch goal. Read on for motivation, logistics, and mechanics. Or just read the song notes, starting tomorrow. Or don’t ...
[4 comments]  
SotD: New Year’s Day · Back in the late Eighties, for a few months I went to aerobics class, and once every session the instructor put this U2 chestnut on and every time my beats-per-minute cranked right up. Not in the slightest obscure, but worth revisiting at least once a year, ideally on this day ...
 
5★♫: The Köln Concert · What happened was, I was gonna make the traditional Sunday-morning pancakes and bacon and, as I do every other week or so, told the eight-year-old to turn the damn cartoons off already because I wanted music. I threw the ancient vinyl of The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett on the turntable and all these years later, I kept having to stop making pancakes because Keith had grabbed me where you have to listen when they grab you there ...
[2 comments]  
5★♫: Jeff Beck Rock ‘n’ Roll Party · I saw the LP on the new-vinyl rack in a record store and was surprised, because I’ve been a pretty big Jeff Beck fan for quite a few years now, but I’d never heard of it. It turns out the Rock ‘n’ Roll Party is a collection of traditional pop chestnuts with a super hot band, not like a Jeff Beck record at all, and excellent. This is happy, happy music. But maybe the YouTube version is all you need. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[3 comments]  
5★♫: Hard Again · In the mid-Seventies, old Mississippi/Chicago bluesman Muddy Waters had record-label problems, but still an audience. Young Texas bluesman Johnny Winter had never been a pop star, but had one too. So Johnny producing and playing on an album by Muddy wasn’t really a long shot; and Hard Again came out great. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.)  ...
[2 comments]  
5★♫: Benefit · What happened was, I glanced at my browser and saw a random turn of phrase, The freedom to be who you want to be…, and thought “That reminds me of something”. It turns out that it reminds me of With You There To Help Me, a lovely song on the album Benefit, a 1970 offering by Jethro Tull. So I pulled out the vinyl and have listened to it three times in the last two weeks; it’s really just unreasonably good. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.)  ...
[15 comments]  
5★♫: Broken English · This is a 1979 recording by Marianne Faithfull, of whom many won’t have heard. If it doesn’t wrench your soul well then you don’t have one.
(“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[10 comments]  
5★♫: Jets Overhead · Wow, it’s been 2½ years since I did a Five-Star Monday piece, and this is for a disc I just bought today, so it may well be too early as well as too late. Jets Overhead are from Victoria, BC, which is near me; what I think deserve the stars are the first two songs from their 2009 No Nations, I Should Be Born and Heading For Nowhere; brilliant pure-pop tunes and can they ever sing. Also there’s a geek angle. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[3 comments]  
5★♫: Mixed Up · I’m not a fan of The Cure, particularly. I am not nor have I ever been a Goth, and I laugh cruelly at Emos given the opportunity. I think Robert Smith looks ridiculous. But Mixed Up, a 1990 set of remixes and retakes (I own none of the original versions), which was poorly reviewed and sank like a stone on the charts, well, it’s just outstandingly great music. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[11 comments]  
5★♫: Arrau Plays Chopin · Yet again, one dead guy playing another’s music (I promise a return to the living after this): The Nocturnes by Frédéric Chopin (1810-1849), as recorded in 1977 and 1978 by Claudio Arrau (1903-1991). Each of the last three (this, Mozart/Brain, and Bach/Kremer) are fine music which has been recorded by many fine performers, but where I never bothered checking any other performances out after hearing the record in question. The Nocturnes have no raw edges, no starkness, but are ravishingly romantic and irresistibly pretty, while still being involving and deep. They’re nocturnal all right; two solid hours of sweet dark-brown ebb and flow, bedtime music for sure. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[4 comments]  
5★♫: Brain Plays Mozart · Continuing the theme (from August, argh, maybe I don’t have a 5★ life) of music written by dead guys, and in this case also played by a dead guy. The dead composer is Mozart, the performer Dennis Brain. I refer to Brain’s 1955 recording of the Mozart horn concertos with the assistance of Von Karajan and the Philharmonia Orchestra. You already know this music. You may not think so, but trust me, as soon as it starts playing you’ll think “Oh, yes”. I’m not sure whether it’s everyone actually having heard it, or whether Mozart tapped into something so smooth, polished, and elemental as to convince us that we’re on familiar and well-loved territory. Nobody could call this obscure, it’s sold a kazillion copies; but perhaps not in recent decades. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[2 comments]  
5★♫: Kremer Plays Bach · I’ve been fishing in Twentieth-century five-★ waters of late, so let’s cast our eyes back on music written by dead guys. There have been a few classical works that I’ve heard one artist play, then never bothered to take the time to listen to anyone else’s take. For example, Gidon Kremer’s 1980 recording of the Violin Sonatas and Partitas by J.S. Bach. This might be a tough sell: two hours of music containing no notes much below middle C, and no more than two notes ever played at the same time. And Kremer is all about Truth not Beauty, which is to say he doesn’t sugar-coat Bach’s rough edges. But I think that truth is beauty, and I think that this music has so much of both that you really ought to sit down sometime and listen to all of it. Well, and it sounds good. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[7 comments]  
5★♫: Cinquième Saison · This one is kind of obscure, but worth hunting down; the full title is Si on avait besoin d’une cinquième saison, recorded by Harmonium in 1975, who were a Big Deal in Québec back then. I’m sure it would appear in my personal top-ten-of-all-time list, computed by how many times I’ve listened; mind you, that’s with 32 years of accumulation. But I still put it on, and I’ve never played it for anyone who didn’t like it. It’s mellow, sweeping, and full of beautiful melodies, beautifully performed, that you’ll find yourself humming while you walk down the street. (“5★♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[7 comments]  
5✭♫: The Texas Campfire Tapes · Just like the title says, this was recorded by a campfire in Texas in 1986 (on a pre-digital Sony Walkman). Voice and guitar and brilliant music bursting out in all directions by Michelle Shocked, one of my personal musical heroes. But there’s some controversy about which version to get. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[7 comments]  
5✭♫: Coltrane and Hartman · That’s short for John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman, recorded in one session—most songs in one take—on March 7, 1963. It sold a zillion copies back then, and was infamously nominated as the Greatest Recording Of All Time by some rock&roll-hating snob in a glossy mag in I think the early Eighties; but that was then, and I’m betting that a lot of people who’d really like it have never heard of it. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[10 comments]  
5✭♫: The Hot Spot · Dennis Hopper directed The Hot Spot in 1990, and I’ve never seen it. He hired Jack Nitzsche to write the music, and they got Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal, and some other really good musicians to play on it. It’s the only record I know of in which Miles Davis plays straight blues solos in front of a straight electric blues band, and while there’s some other good stuff too, that would be enough for me. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[2 comments]  
5✭♫: Misa Criolla · Ariel Ramírez is an Argentinean composer born in 1921; Misa Criolla, a 1964 mass for tenor, mixed chorus, percussion, keyboard and (especially) Andean folk instruments. It appears on several disks; I’m going to recommend two featuring José Carreras and Mercedes Sosa. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[2 comments]  
5✭♫: The Dry Cleaner From Des Moines · This song is by Joni Mitchell and Charles Mingus (recently discussed in this space). It first appeared on Mitchell’s Mingus in 1979 but I no longer have that version; this is about the version on the 1980 Shadows and Light, a live set featuring Jaco Pastorius, Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker, Don Alias, and The Persuasions. The whole record is worthwhile, great in spots. Dry Cleaner is pure genius-level musical fun. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[6 comments]  
5✭♫: Better Get Hit In Your Soul · This piece appears on Mingus Ah Um, a 1959 album by Charles Mingus, and on Mingus at Antibes, recorded live the next year. There may be a few rock-&-roll fans who haven’t heard this and don’t know how hard jazz can be played; I can’t imagine any band ever playing harder. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[4 comments]  
5✭♫: Rough Mix · This is a 1977 album by Pete Townshend of the Who and the late Ronnie Lane of the Faces. It’s a rarity in that most of it, while unquestionably rock music, is also gentle. Of its eleven songs, eight or nine are extremely beautiful, the singing is tuneful and heartfelt, the playing (lots of stars sitting in) is great, even the lyrics will grab you. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[3 comments]  
5✭♫: Brahms’ First & Haydn Variations · If I were asked to pick my favorite symphony, well, I couldn’t. If I were backed into a corner and really pressured, I still couldn’t. But if it were a matter of life and death and I were making short lists, Symphony No. 1 by Brahms would be on all of them. Some have argued that the First isn’t really his first symphonic work; that would be Variations on a Theme of Haydn. Which, if granted, might not change my answer. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
[7 comments]  
5✭♫: Patti’s Gloria · Patti Smith is an interesting person and a fine musician, always worth listening to; I particularly enjoy her recent recordings. And in her youth, she recorded Gloria by Van Morrison; it’s a contender for the best single-song rock performance ever. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Tabula Rasa · This is the title of an album of music by Arvo Pärt, and of a composition on that album. I have a lot of music by Pärt, but if I had to recommend one record, or one piece, both would be Tabula Rasa. It’s complex, deep, and austere; and contains some of the most beautiful sounds ever recorded. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Israelites and More  · Desmond Dekker just died; I had to do a quick rip on his Greatest Hits so he’d qualify for the 5-✭ treatment. A lot of people under 45, and a lot of Americans of all ages, won’t know about Desmond, and you’re missing some pretty good music. You might only have heard Israelites and that’s an outstanding song, but there are lots more, and a greatest-hits disc is a no-brainer investment. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Wrecking Ball · The last 5-✭ song, Dylan’s One More Cup of Coffee, got there in large part due to harmonies from Emmylou Harris. Emmylou’s never really been a Big Star I think, which is unfair; she’s sung more beautiful songs beautifully than almost anyone. Wrecking Ball, her 1995 outing with Kanadian Karmick Konsultant and overproducer Daniel Lanois and featuring lotsa Big Stars, is perhaps not absolutely her finest work; but it’s what I have on my computer and it’s very good. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: One More Cup of Coffee · I’m not really a Bob Dylan fan. A voice like that, and a tunesmithing talent like that, come along only a few times per century, but he’s still kind of irritating. That aside, the song One More Cup of Coffee, from the 1976 album Desire, can’t be ignored; wonderful tune, wonderful orchestration, wonderful performance. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Take Five · You’ve all heard this, it’s the biggest hit Dave Brubeck’s band ever had, only Dave didn’t write it nor does he play a solo. The tune’s cool enough, you’ll hear it and think “Oh, I know that” but actually you probably don’t, it’s an altogether astounding performance and rewards lots of close listening. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Francesca da Rimini · This is an twenty-odd-minute orchestral suite written in 1876 by Tchaikowsky. It’s intensely romantic, ridiculously melodic, and should be played really, really loud. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Rock n Roll Animal · The last five-star piece, from two weeks ago, was about the Cowboy Junkies. They covered Sweet Jane on their excellent The Trinity Sessions album, and Lou Reed was quoted as saying that their version was definitive. He’s wrong; his own take on this 1974 live set is at another level entirely. So is much of the record. If you had to name the greatest live rock record of all time, well you couldn’t, but if you had to name the top five, this would be one: it shows how hard rock ought to be played. There are some problems: it’s kind of bombastic in places, and it does glamorize the use of addictive narcotics; but let’s not be picky. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Pale Sun, Crescent Moon · Three tracks from this 1993 album by the Cowboy Junkies earned five stars, pretty good for pop music. Plus there’s one from The Trinity Sessions, but let’s leave that for later. There are a lot of Cowboy Junkies albums, and they’re all good as far as I know; I find myself ashamed that I haven’t bought any for a decade or so, so I’ll fix that Real Soon Now. Read on for an appreciation of good songs, good singing, good playing, and good words. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Plutonian Nights · This is a track by Sun Ra from his album The Lady With The Golden Stockings, recorded around 1958 and released in 1966. Sun Ra, full legal name “Le Sony’r Ra”, born Herman Blount, said a lot of crazy stuff and played some crazy music, some of which I like. But this isn’t crazy, it’s 4:22 of low-voiced cool funk perfection. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Come On-A My House · This song was made famous by Rosemary Clooney, but the version I’m writing of here is by Julie London, who recorded 32 albums but is no longer a household name. Julie’s version of Come On-A My House is just the thing for Valentine’s-Day week: Come on-a my house (my house), I’m gonna give you candy... Pure, pure sex. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Burning Farm · Shonen Knife formed in Osaka in the early Eighties and, a decade later, suddenly had a North American audience; it helped that they opened for Nirvana on a 1993 tour. Burning Farm was the title of their first record but also of a song; the version I have is off of 1993’s Let’s Knife, probably the group’s essential album. It has a lot of good songs with great melodies, superb light-hearted vocals, high-energy performances, punk guitar, and amiable Japanese looniness; but Burning Farm stands out. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
5✭♫: Any Time · Leon Redbone is alive and performing, but he’s not actually a contemporary artist; he performs sentimental and jazz songs from the first half of the 20th century, with acoustic accompaniment and period arrangements. Which doesn’t sound very compelling; except for, Redbone picks terrific tunes and sings them beautifully. The song in question is the title track from his 2001 album Any Time, and it might just be the single best vocal performance of our young century. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) [Update: Samples at the iTunes UK store.] ...
 
5 ✭ ♫ Mondays · The idea came from JWZ in late 2005: why not rate all the music in your jukebox? If your jukebox is iTunes, you create an “unrated” smart-playlist containing all the tunes with no stars, then you set up the Party Shuffle to draw from it, then you rate them as they go by except when you’re not listening, and after a few months, you have them all rated. I haven’t got them all rated, but I have quite a few labeled ✭✭✭✭✭, which means “a tune that in some way gives me as much pleasure as music can.” I care a lot about (and am reasonably literate about) music, so I decided I to share some of this five-star stuff with the world. I’ll try to post something most Mondays. [Does the title look broken? Here’s why (Updated 2006/01/30).] ...
 
5✭♫: BWV 131 · I think I should start with J.S. Bach, since we have a special relationship. BWV 131 is one of his cantatas, based on Aus der Tiefen rufe ich, Herr, zu dir (from Psalm 130), composed in 1707, and if you buy it you’ll like it. (“5✭♫” series introduction here; with an explanation of why the title may look broken.) ...
 
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