Involuntary Musical Imagery (Earworms)

Like many others, I am prone to getting a song stuck in my head. All day long I'll be humming, whistling, or singing the same tune, unable to escape the melody. I'm not usually too bothered by this, but sometimes they get stuck for just too darn long. I can usually remedy the problem by listening to the song, and then listening to something else. I do occasionally get a new song stuck, but mostly these songs come from my formative years, songs I've known and loved for decades. In fact, these are all from the sixties. Here's my top five most likely to be earworms for me:

5. Suspicious Minds- Elvis Presley  Elvis's last number one, and one of his best.

So if an old friend I know
Stops by to say hello
Would I still see suspicion in your eyes?
Here we go again
Asking where I've been
You can't see the tears I'm crying

We can't go on together
With suspicious minds
And we can't build our dreams
On suspicious minds

 

4. The Poor Side Of Town- Johnny Rivers   One of a very small number of songs Rivers actually wrote, and another number one hit.

 

How can you tell me
How much you miss me
When the last time I saw you
You wouldn't even kiss me

That rich guy you've been seein'
Must have put you down
So welcome back baby
To the poor side of town

 

Do-doo-doo-wah, shoo-be-doo-be

3. It's A Beautiful Day Today- Moby Grape.  A lovely ballad with great guitar parts.

Dawn to dawn a lifetime
The birds sing and day's begun
The heavens shine from dawn to dusk
With golden rays of sun

People on their way
Beginning a brand new day
I love hearing people say
It's a beautiful day today

2. Chapel Of Love- The Dixie Cups  Just a perfect melody, and the Dixie
Cups make it into one of the great girl group singles, and again, a number one hit.

Bells will ring, sun will shine, whoa
I'll be his and he'll be mine
We'll love until the end of time
And we'll never be lonely anymore

Because we're goin' to the chapel
And we're gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel
And we're gonna get married
Gee, I really love you
And we're gonna get married
Goin' to the chapel of love

1. Expressway To Your Heart- The Soul Survivors   This one gets stuck in 

my head all the time. The opening bass and drums intro always starts the earworm, and it's always hard to get out of my head. Usually, its an all day affair.

I was wrong, baby, it took too long
I got caught in the rush hour

Fellas started to shower
You with love and affection

Now you won't  look in my direction

On the expressway to your heart
The expressway, not the best way
At five o'clock it's much too crowded
Much too crowded, so crowded
Oh, too crowded

Dave Edmunds Get It 1977

So Dave Edmunds recorded a classic in 1977. It is almost a Rockpile record, but without Billy Bremner.

Get It is essentially perfect. Edmunds made several others that came close, but this is the bomb.

What makes it so great? Well, Edmunds is an excellent guitarist, a fine singer with just a touch of nasal twang in his voice, and a lover of, and skilled practitioner of, all things rockabilly and/or early rock and roll. And he writes songs almost as good as the tasty covers he chooses.

And what a list of great covers: Bob Seger's rocking Get Out Of Denver, Graham Parker's rockabilly Back To School Days, Rogers and Hart's tender Where And When, Jim Ford's Ju Ju Man, Bob Kelly's Get It, Otis Blackwell's great Let's Talk About Us, Hank William's Hey Good Lookin', and Arthur Crudup's My Baby Left Me. I mean the man has studied the classics of early rock and roll, country and rockabilly, and his choices are hard to criticize. 

Add to that Nick Lowe's wonderful I Knew The Bride (the fast version) and What Did I Do Last Night? as well as Edmunds own Worn Out Suits, Brand New Pockets, and two co-writes with Lowe, Little Darlin' and Here Comes The Weekend.

Only two songs are more than three minutes long. There isn't a wasted note. Edmund's voice is a perfect vehicle for these mostly rockabilly gems. His twangy guitar is always spot on. Lowe contributes bass and Terry Williams drums, thus the "almost Rockpile" reference.

The whole record is on YouTube, if you're so inclined. The two before this one, Rockpile 1972 (with his only hit single, from 1970, I Hear You Knocking), and Subtle As A Flying Mallet 1975, cover similar terrain, and are also well worth your time.

Van Morrison Moving On Skiffle 2023

Van Morrison's new record is both a welcome return to form, and a bit of a disappointment. 

The disappointment, at least for me, is that it is a skiffle record. Skiffle is a distillation of simple blues, country, and gospel traditional music played on acoustic, often homemade instruments, and wildly popular for a relatively brief period in the UK of the 1950s, Morrison's childhood.

But that's about the only thing wrong with it. Morrison adds piano, organ, drums, as well as harmonica and sax to the simple acoustic guitar and washboard percussion of the classic skiffle sound. This certainly fattens up these simple tunes, and makes the form at least somewhat more interesting. Morrison did a live record with Lonnie Donegan back in 2000 that stuck to the skiffle tradition, and this is way better than that one.

And Van Morrison is obviously delighted by these tunes, and he sings the heck out of them. His voice and it's application have lost nothing, and at 77, he can sing as well as ever, which is pretty remarkable. 

It is notable that since these are all covers, this also means that the political tirades of his last two records are absent from this outing, and that makes it a welcome respite.

The band cooks, but only so much, because this isn't rock and roll, it's skiffle, and the form is by it's nature pretty limited. The arrangements and the band improve on skiffle, even while the simplicity remains intact, so it remains a skiffle record, even with the updates to the style. And Van sounds happy singing these tunes from his childhood, and he sings them as well as we could expect. His voice sounds great.

Is it a welcome break from his last two? You bet it is. Is it essential Van Morrison? Not even close, but it is good, especially given the limitations of the style.

Moby Grape

Their debut album from 1967 is as close to perfect as rock and roll records get. Thirteen tracks, every one a winner, and all but two under three minutes long. A perfect blend of musical styles, great vocals, outstanding three-guitar interplay, and excellent songs. It's really all there. The record sold reasonably well and made it to #24 on the Billboard album charts. But Columbia records decided to promote the record by audaciously releasing five singles from the album on the same day of LP's release. Only Omaha cracked the top 100 because DJs had no idea with what to do with five simultaneous singles. This was 1967, and "hype" was a bad word in the counter culture, so that just made things worse.

As brilliant as they were musically, they were naive and ill-guided in the legal department. Their manager Matthew Katz, who had also managed Jefferson Airplane (they fired him before Moby Grape formed) and It's A Beautiful Day, was a special kind of dick. He ended up owning the rights to their name as well as to their publishing, and the legal dispute continued for over 30 years until 2006 when Katz at last lost in court, but only after destroying any chance the band had of making some sort of comeback. 

Add to that, during the recording of their second LP, Wow/Grape Jam, Skip Spence went nuts when his manic depression was stoked by LSD and hard drugs. He tried to attack his fellow band members, and eventually arrived at the studio with axe in hand, only to be carted off by police. Spence wound up spending six months in Bellevue being treated for psychosis.

 Wow 1968 received a lukewarm reception at the time, and while it is certainly indulgent, it has a number of fine tracks. Murder In My Heart For The Judge, Can't Be So Bad, He, Bitter Wind, and Miller's Blues are all solid. The record charted at #20, and the Grape Jam record was included in the package for the price of a single record. Which was certainly appropriate since it was nothing special.

With Skip Spence on extended hiatus due to instability, the other four got back to work and produced Moby Grape '69, an outstanding record that almost equals their debut. It didn't crack the top 100 on the charts. The buying public had been disappointed by Wow, and maybe there was limited promotion, but Ooh Mama Ooh, Ain't That A Shame, It's A Beautiful Day Today, Trucking Man, and Spence's Seeing are all good songs performed well. The record has a little more of a country feel than they had previously established, but the rockers rock.

They owed Columbia one more record, and that's why there's Truly Fine Citizen 1969. Bob Mosley had left to join the marines (!), so Peter Lewis, Don Stevenson, and Jerry Miller recorded this one in Nashville with famous session bassist Bob Moore on bass. The record was recorded in just three days, and while it has some fine moments, mostly from Peter Lewis's pen, it is a disappointing outing at best.

Then in 1971, all five members reunite to record 20 Granite Creek for Reprise. It has a strangely murky sound, but there are a bunch of solid songs in Gypsy Wedding, I'm the Kind of Man That Baby You Can Trust, Going Down To Texas, Road To The Sun, and Ode to the Man at the End of the Bar. It's better than Truly Fine Citizen at least, but the magic of the debut and '69 are missing.

The band would reunite for Moby Grape '84 and again in 1989 for Legendary Grape. I've heard them both, and while they are still a talented bunch, neither record lives up to their reputation. Columbia released a two CD compilation in 1993 titled Vintage: The Very Best of Moby Grape that contains the entire first album, tracks from Wow, '69, and Truly Fine Citizen, plus a number of live, demo, and assorted alternate versions. It has good sound and is worth seeking out.

Based on Wow and '69, the band had at least one more great record to make after the debut. Legal woes with a terrible manager, and bad decisions by Columbia, not to mention psychological troubles for both Spence and Mosley, all add up to a classic could have been, should have been story that seems far too familiar in the annals of rock and roll.

Cyndi Lauper At Last 2003

Cyndi Lauper's solo career started with the one-two punch of She's So Unusual 1983 and True Colors 1986, both of which charted top ten, had multiple hit singles, and sold millions. Her third, A Night To Remember 1989 had her rocking harder and sold less well, even though it contained her last top ten single. Her next two recordings received critical praise but disappointing sales. So it was time for a covers record.

Ostensibly her jazz album, the record is a mix of jazz, standards, and pop and soul songs from the fifties and sixties. Lauper has the pipes to do anything, and her vocals are the star of the show. Some arrangements are straight covers, but most songs receive unique arrangements or significant tempo variations from their originals. Russ Titelman produced with Lauper, and the record has all the hallmarks of a highly professional production.

The title track kicks things off, and it is an instrumentally spare, relatively slow tempo version of the Etta James classic. Lauper sings the daylights out of it. That is followed by a slow, delicate Walk On By with small combo accompaniment, and again Lauper digs deep into the emotional core of the song. After two slow ones, Stay is presented in upbeat Latin mode, with Shiela E percussion and a horn section. It's hot, and fun. La Vie En Rose follows, and while it can't make you forget Edith Piaf, the slow, spare version here works fine. That is followed by another slow one, the beautiful Unchained Melody. There are a million versions of this song, and this is one of the good ones. If You Go Away is presented in a jazzy arrangement, and again Lauper invests herself in the lyric. 

About this time, the record could use some energy, and Stevie Wonder's (and Aretha Franklin's) Until You Come Back To Me has a backbeat and Stevie himself plays harmonica. The jazz standard My Baby Just Cares For Me swings nicely with electric keys from Steve Gaboury and a casual feel from Lauper. Next is a duet with Tony Bennett on Makin' Whoopie, and while it doesn't set a new standard, it's good. The slow returns with a smoldering version of Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, closer to Nina Simone's version than the Animals'. A super slow, super spare version of Smokey Robinson's You've Really Got A Hold On Me seems like an odd choice for the song, and could have added some pace to the record with a more upbeat version. Hymn To Love is an Edith Piaf song that continues the slow pace of the record, but it is a lovely song. On The Sunny Side Of The Street closes the show with a bang, a needed shot of adrenaline, and a good job on the old chestnut.

So the record could use a few less languid versions. With thirteen songs, only four get upbeat treatments. That is not to say that these slow versions don't work, most of them do. Cyndi Lauper sings everything from the heart, and really, it's a nice showcase for her impressive voice.

She wouldn't chart this high again until her next two covers records, Memphis Blues 2010 and Detour 2016 (country covers). In 2012 she wrote the music and lyrics for the Broadway musical Kinky Boots, for which she won a Grammy in 2014 and a Tony in 2013. She stays in the public eye through tours, activism and guest spots, and she's opening for Rod Stewart on a nine date tour of Australia right now.

Jimmy Buffett A1A 1974

I know, Jimmy Buffett, really? These days Buffett runs his very own nostalgia empire, and he has done quite well for himself with tours, books, merchandising, recordings both studio and live, and Margaritaville properties. His net worth is estimated at 500 million. I was a fan for many years, and I still like some of his work. I bought most of his records from 1973-1985 (12 of them), and I own his 1992 four-CD box set Boats, Beaches, Bars, and Ballads, which is pretty well curated with the hits and album tracks most anyone would ever need. At 76, he's still at it these days, and his records still chart pretty high. His good time beach bum message is still popular, and he teamed up with country stars for some of his relatively recent hits.

The record that got me hooked was his 1974 effort A1A. Named after Florida's eastern beach access road, it was the third of the four recordings in his Don Gant produced, Key West inspired era of early, fairly modest, success (All four are worth hearing even if imperfect). Two records later would come Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude 1977, produced by Norbert Putnam and including the hit Margaritaville, and from there Buffett's recording and touring career skyrocketed, especially his live tours. Who doesn't like a good party?

A1A isn't perfect, but it comes mighty close, and it is definitely his early highlight. The album opens with Makin' Music For Money, a cute country number that eschews capitalism back when Buffett could actually mean it. Door Number Three is a funny novelty song about Let's Make A Deal. Dallas is an upbeat country tune with a catchy chorus and pedal steel guitar break. Presents To Send You, Stories We Could Tell, and Life Is Just A Tire Swing all show off Buffett's way with a sentimental lyric and his penchant for the country/Caribbean sound he was perfecting. 

Side two is my favorite Jimmy Buffett experience. His classic A Pirate Looks At Forty opens the side, and it is a great tune about a life style that disappeared two hundred years before the singer wants to live it. It is a great song, and stayed in rotation at his live shows for many years. Migration is a quick jaunt of a country ode to the keys, with a melancholy, hook-filled chorus. Trying To Reason With Hurricane Season is the perfect beach bum treatise, and one of Buffett's classic Key West numbers, and yet another fine chorus. Nautical Wheelers is a country waltz that expresses his love of sailing as well as any of his songs that cover the topic. The album closes with Tin Cup Chalice, and if any song encapsulated a record perfectly, this is it. Images of the beach, the sky, the ocean, of "shrimp boats tied up to the piling", it's another great ballad from his pen.

Changes In Latitude, Changes In Attitude kicked off a series of pretty solid Buffett records, and there were at least two excellent songs on everything through Last Mango In Paris 1985. That's when I pretty much stopped listening, so I can't tell you about his last 14 or so records. Of the ones before 1986, I'd say the strongest records with the most good material would be Volcano 1979, Coconut Telegraph 1981, and One Particular Harbour 1983.

Calexico Hot Rail 2000

In more recent years Calexico records have been built on songs mostly, incorporating their southwestern and Spanish influences into a style all their own. Their early work was more experimental, and may be too much noodling around for some listeners. Hot Rail, their fourth LP, is clearly in that early experimental mode, but it also includes plenty to enjoy of their developing style.

The record opens with a bang on the instrumental El Picador. In service to their love of all things Ennio Morricone, it features fine guitar and trumpets, and sounds like a theme from a Spanish movie. Ballad of Cable Hogue folllows, with twangy guitar, shuffle beat, guest female vocals, and a strong melody. The short spacey interlude of Ritual Road Map gives way to the airy Fade. Slowly developing from the whispered vocals of the atmospheric start to the loud drums/guitar/cornet cacophony ending, it deserves the almost eight minutes it fills. Untitled III is a spacey, ambient drum and accordion piece. Sonic Wind has more breathy vocals, vibes and drums that builds to a nice shuffle beat. Muleta ends side one with Spanish melancholy imbued with fine lead guitar courtesy of Nick Luca as well as tasty violin and trumpets.

The drum and bass groove of Mid-Town opens side two, and evolves into a drum roll with spare guitar overlay. Service And Repair has Joey Burns singing a strong melody, and features quest pedal steel guitar. Untiltled II is another spacey interlude, this time with little to redeem it. Drenched features more nice Luca guitar work and too quiet vocals, but you can hear their future work forming. The percussion and noise interlude of 16 Track Scratch follows, and then it is on to Tres Avisos, a solid southwestern melancholy instrumental ala Morricone again, with violin and trumpets bringing the big Spanish vibe. The title track comes last, and it is more spacey guitar and loops.

The best songs feature additional musicians assisting John Convertino and Joey Burns to realize their vision. The four songs with trumpets and violin, as well as Nick Luca's lead guitar are the most developed and interesting. The songs where Convertino and Burns run the show are (mostly) interesting dalliances, but the band will make better records when they write more songs and avoid the experimentation. Later records have Burns developing more confidence in his voice, and both of them developing as songwriters. The pivot of their career, when they became the great band they are today (while still a bit experimental), is 2003's Feast Of Wire. Anything from 2003 and after is worth a recommendation. One thing you can get from any or all Calexico records, including this one, is that John Convertino is a brilliant, world class drummer.