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Down In The Bottom - Walter Becker
Though I've been a Steely Dan/Donald Fagen fan for years, I hadn't tapped Becker's lone solo release until a few years back, right after I moved into my apartment in St. Louis. This, the first track of Whack, has a warm feel, despite the metronomic groove and outside guitar chops. Perhaps it's the airtight production, which has always been the Dan's trademark. |
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London Calling - The Clash
In the absence of any knowledge of the Clash, I picked up the Essential disc for a general overview. This track kicks off the second disc, and it sounds like the troops are marching in. It's a very British working-class anthem. Very punk. Very 1979. |
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I Woke Up In A Car - Something Corporate
Jay Ryan Hungerford, son of St. Louis' very own Jay Hungerford, turned me on to a newer group that normally would have not shown up on my radar. This cut from their Leaving Through The Window album has an oscillating piano thing going on over some fun chord changes, and shifts in and out from light to hard and back again. |
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Today - The Swift
Until my friend Justin Sharbono joined the Christian power pop group The Swift, I'd never heard of them. (That's why he gets these gigs and I don't, right?) Though Justin's chops are not to be found on this disc, they are being used on tour at this moment. Following the piano-rock trend, The Swift released Today armed with tasty chords and a horn section, much to the delight of the new generation of Christian music lovers. It's all old-school, baby. |
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Sleeping With The Television On - Billy Joel
On the backside of Billy's terrifying songwriting crest of the late 70's, 1980 saw the release of Glass Houses, which featured several hits. Slightly under the surface lay this gem, which I originally heard during my junior year of college, while sleeping with the CD player on. I bought the album recently for "C'Etait Toi (You Were The One)", which I'd heard used so tastefully on "Freaks And Geeks", and revisited "Sleeping", only to find that it rocked. AND - it's got a Farfisa organ solo during the bridge. Heh heh...far out. |
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Red Streamliner - Little Feat
A new favorite group of mine, Little Feat released Time Loves A Hero still during Lowell George's tenure. Frank Chase turned me on to them in the early summer of '04. This track was (I believe) written by keyboardist Bill Payne, and features a crunchy Fender Rhodes dancing on some sweet chord changes. Not only that, but Michael McDonald, the blackest white man on the planet, lends his blue-eyed soulful pipes in harmony. |
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Be Ever Wonderful - Earth, Wind & Fire
I just saw EWF a few weeks ago, in concert with Chicago (read: one hot ticket). First off, and I'm not the first to say this, but Philip Bailey is more than a man. But Maurice White, who hasn't toured with the group for years, throws down on this slow-grooving 6/8 number, which moves from a slow flute intro to a hard, horn-driven car crash before mellowing out into the moment with White's crystalline tenor. One of a handful of songs I will cue up again as soon as it ends. |
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Souled Out - Tower Of Power
Following the brass-driven influence of EWF, this track was a logical transition. Scott Jones burned me a copy of TOP's album of the same name, and I hadn't heard this track for a few years, until a local funk act, The Good, The Bad and The Funky, busted into it during a recent gig at Famous Dave's. It sounded so good, I immediately went back and threw it into the mix, to rediscover the brilliance GBF had so faithfully reproduced. |
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Stir My Heart - Sara Groves
Nothing like slamming on the brakes to slow things down QUICKLY. Of course, not much could have followed TOP. So it made sense to bring it down, and Sara does it so well. God simply hands her amazing lyrics for these songs. The title says it all--when you've stagnated, or are on the wrong track, you gotta be tuned in to what God might be saying. |
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Night-Lines - Dave Grusin
This song always reminds me of Punky Brewster, for some unknown reason. Perhaps it's because it so perfectly captures the essence of that era, which Grusin can be caught doing often (and easily forgiven for). Overall, the album is a bit synthy for me, but the chords are so killer and unpredictable...and just so terribly, terribly 80's. Dare I say "gnarly"? Nah, Dave's too tasteful a brother for that. |
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Instant Karma - John Lennon
Well, I never said the song order was going to make any sense. So, here we are with one of two Beatles no longer with us. I like this song for the chorus, "and we all shine on". It's so simple, much like most of the Beatles material, which is why it has endured all these years. And here, I'm still greatly overcomplicating everything. Frustrating. |
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Happy Sad - Pizzicato Five
Talk about video game music: I first heard this disc in my friend Eric's bedroom. He'd heard it on MTV and picked it up. 75% of the song is in Japanese, which is fun, and the production gives it a warm, bubble-gum feel, once again appeasing my Sega Master System fetish. Then, out of the clear blue, there's a soul singer scatting over the "shooby-dooby-doo"s during the end. But, to paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, "Yeah, but, uh, you're Japanese, so..." |
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Mongonucleosis - Chicago
Robert Lamm and company pulled this instrumental cat out of the bag during the aforementioned concert with EWF at Minneapolis' Target Center. Now, this has never happened before: I threw it in the mix, didn't write up a track listing, and when the song came up in my car, I had NO idea what it was. I kept thinking, "did I screw this up? What IS this??" Right before it ended, there must have been some trademark Chicago horn lick or something, because it came back to me, much to my relief. |
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Family Affair - Sly & The Family Stone
Again, another Essential CD, this time, on the opposite end of the spectrum from EWF. Whereas their sound is polished and airy, Sly's is compressed and totally loose. The drums sound as if someone is hitting pillows with wooden spoons....not that there's anything wrong with that. It gives it a soft, warm feel--which is apparently what this particular mix is all about. Sly's vocals are amusing, in that he goes high (think screeching) and low ("it's a family afFAIR"), but more than anything, it just sounds like he needs a drink of water. Nice tasty Wurlitzer in the background, too. |
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St. Augustine In Hell - Sting
There isn't really a bad track on Ten Summoner's Tales, which was hailed as Sting's most accessible album to that point. This one features generous organ bandwidth, courtesy of David Sancious, with a killer Leslie-on/Leslie-off solo during the bridge, just after Sting's Mephistopheles narrative. I would venture to say there isn't another album that has this many songs in 7/8 time. |
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Your Blue Room - U2
A B-side originally found on U2's "soundtrack" album, Passengers, "Your Blue Room" also showed up on a single following the release of Pop in 1997. My friend Ed first exposed me to this song, and, as I had recently acquired a car for school, I made a U2 mix tape (we would see them in concert later that fall) featuring this song. It's a melancholy tune, featuring some dirty guitar by The Edge, followed by an interesting spoken bit by bassist Adam Clayton, the last words of which are "...no car alarm/no cellular phone". |
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May This Be Love - Jimi Hendrix
I first heard this song on the "Singles" soundtrack, and remembered really enjoying it. Recently, when I saw the Bertolucci skin-fest "The Dreamers", the opening title sequence featured a descending shot of a cartoonized Eiffel Tower, scored by "Third Stone From The Sun." I remembered hearing that melody line from Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy", and, upon finding out on which album "Third Stone" could be found, it led me back to "May This Be Love". Talk about taking the long way around. |
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Kedgeree - Mike Keneally & Beer For Dolphins
I really wish I spoke Mike Keneally's language. For me, it's a bit like listening to a woman speak in French--it's beautiful, and I pick up little bits here and there--but it's not native to me. For the past three years, I've been trying really hard to absorb this album, Dancing, and some of the tracks have been prohibitive to me, either stylistically or based on language. But this track closes out the album, and is entirely instrumental. It's not completely listenable (for me), but it's still a great example of how eight people can make something so structurally and harmonically complex seem like a cakewalk. Near the end, there's a phrase that is identical to the intro to "Make Me Smile" by Chicago....sort of making me wish I'd started this mix with that song. But, we already used "Mongonucleosis", so this is as good as it's gonna get. |
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