N***as Bleed to Naima's Love Song

"N***as Bleed"  Notorious B.I.G.  Greatest Hits
"N.W.O."  Ministry  Whatever: The '90s Pop and Culture Box
"Nada Valgo Sin Tu Amor"  Juanes  Mi Sangre  (live and studio versions)
"Nadine"  Mos Def  Cadillac Records Original Soundtrack (7.11.11 - link is Chuck Berry)
"Nadir's Big Chance"  Peter Hammill  The Roots of the Sex Pistols (Mojo Disc)
"Nail Clinic"  Pavement  Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
"Naima"  John Coltrane  Giant Steps
"Naima's Love Song"  Betty Carter  Verve Unmixed 2
"Naima's Love Song"  Betty Carter/DJ Spinna  Verve Remixed 2

  Steve Jobs should be happy with me; this is the second time I have run off to the iTunes store after a cover version clued me to the fact that I didn't own the original of some song.  In this case Mos Def (in a disturbingly misguided casting choice) singing Chuck Berry's "Nadine." 

  Naima was John Coltrane's wife's middle name.  The Betty Carter song is from a 1992 album of hers, and puts her words over pianist John Hicks' composition, which is named not for Coltrane's wife, but for Hicks' daughter. The remix replaces the acoustic jazz with electronic instrumentation and so the original composition is all but lost.  Carter's vocals tend to track the bass-line, so all is not lost, but the remix becomes a bland mid-tempo electronica dance tune that seems to run on too long.

  Peter Hammill was a founding member of Van der Graaf Generator.  This alone would make him awesome, since this is one of the truly great band names in the history of rock.  This song predates and anticipates punk.  I have this track because several years ago, Mojo magazine began attaching a different mix disc  with each issue (each around some theme).  These cds (despite being a hit-and-miss grab bag) have become the highlight of the magazine at this point.  While the articles tend to read like a British Rolling Stone with their fixation on classic old rockers.  Every cover seems to be of an aged performer from the 60s and 70s (although on the subscription inserts, the covers are different, and include more recent artists, so I have this fear that the dinosaur covers are strictly for the American issue.  If this is true it makes me sad that this is how the U.S. is perceived).  The cds and record reviews have brought a number of new artists to my attention, however.

  Biggie had a great voice.

M'Lady to Madan

"M'Lady"  Sly and The Family Stone  Greatest Hits
"M.I.A."  7 Year Bitch  Whatever: The '90s Pop and Culture Box
"Ma Jaiye Oni"  King Sunny Ade  Juju Music
"Machete"  Moby  Play
"Machine Gun"  Portishead  Third
"Mad Man Blues"  Cedric Burnside and Lightnin' Malcolm  2 Man Wrecking Crew
"Madelena"  Gilberto Gil  Brazil Classics: Beleza Tropical, Vol. 2
"Madame George"  Van Morrison  Astral Weeks
"Madame Van Damme"  Lightspeed Champion  Life Is Sweet!  Nice To Meet You
"Madan"  Salif Keita  Moffou

   A couple of things.  I am going to change the name of the blog.  "Electric Sheep" was always something of a space-holder.  It is just a nerd dog-whistle, and the "uncanny94" in the URL serves that purpose as well as anything.  While I think "Electric Sheep" might work as a metaphor/critique for the recorded music industry, there are a lot of electric sheep on the web right now, including this collaborative art project.  So I am currently considering new titles for the blog (the URL won't change).  If anyone happens to stumble across this and have a brilliant idea, I would love to hear it.

  Additionally, I am now halfway through the alphabet.  While I am running a little behind my proposed pace of 4 posts per week (I am running closer to three per week on average, and that is due to sometimes week-long absences), I have largely stuck with it.  I am figuring I might let some more people know about this. Right now, I have told exactly three people about this, so if anyone else is regularly returning - I thank you.  I am going to clue in some more friends and associates, and we will see if anyone else wants to partake of this particular pretension of mine.

  "M.I.A." is a riot grrl song about the death of Mia Zapata of The Gits.  It is on the parallel '90s rhino box to Like Omigod!  Unlike that '80s set though, there seems to be a merger of "alternative" and "mainstream."  While Rhino saw fit to produce two parallel '80s collections (Left of the Dial is the '80s indie set - we will get to it), after Nevermind the distinction between "pop" and "alternative" was blurred and the '90s saw a move back and forth.  This is born out by Rhino's retrospective - the collection of songs include insanity like Cibo Matto and this 7 Year Bitch song alongside "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and "I'm Too Sexy."  I figure this is both good and bad.  On the upside, artists similar to those I knew and loved throughout the '80s finally got the respect and the financial gain that they justly deserved.  On the other hand, "alternative" became a much more static form, pigeon-holed by a marketing machine that had previously ignored it.  I recognize my own arrogance, and some of this might be whining at the loss of what had been "mine" to the broader, plebeian masses, but mostly it is a sense that something broad and creative has been constrained and controlled.  Not to worry - when one outlet for creativity shuts down (in this case the "alternative" network of college stations and indie halls in the '80s), a new one opens (the rise of Internet radio, podcasts, and other electronic, direct-to-user outlets).

  Gilberto Gil is one of the more fascinating people I have come across doing this.  Starting as a musician in the 1960s, he created Tropicalia as not only a musical style, but a cultural and political tool (my shallow perusal would draw parallels to Fela's Afro-beat, right down to the jail time).  He became involved in environmental issues and politically active.  In 2003, he became Brazil's Minister of Culture.  He has been a proponent of creative commons.  After leaving political office, he returned to music.  Here is a link to his entire 2008 album via Wired magazine.

  Astral Weeks is one of the more perfect albums ever recorded.  Any track off it is compelling - it immediately engages the listener and keeps him/her listening until its conclusion.  It is not a singles collection, but a song-cycle in the truest sense.  The album is so of a piece, it is difficult to take any one track and listen to it without feeling like the rest of it is missing.  That said, this 10-minute ballad about a drag-queen is as beautiful as any romantic love song ever written.

L'Arena to La Bas

"L'Arena"  Ennio Morricone  Kill Bill Soundtrack Vol. 2
"L'Estat"  Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti  Before Today
"L'Hotel Particulier [Extrait de BOF Melody Nelson]"  Serge Gainsbourg  Histoire de Melody Nelson
"L'Oranguta"  Pepe & The Bottle Blondes  Late Night Betty
"L'Via L'Viaquez"  The Mars Volta  Frances The Mute
"L-O-V-E (Love)"  Al Green  Greatest Hits
"L.E.S. Artistes"  Santigold  Santogold
"La-La (Means I Love You)"  The Delfonics  Beg, Scream, and Shout: The Big Ol' Box of '60s Soul
"La Bamba"  Los Lobos  Just Another Band From East L.A.: A Collection
"La Bas"  Sternklang  Jazz Lounge [Water Music]

  Sometimes these sets have a theme that extends beyond the alphabet.  Others, as here, the songs are disparate and the shifts between them can be jarring.  Of course, the shift between most other songs and The Mars Volta is going to be jarring.

  This is more what I think of when I think of as a Morricone song.  The slow rise from low drums and strings to these huge horn breaks, and sweeping vocals at the crescendo.  The whistle at the start, the individual guitar notes . . . there is an anticipation generated at the start of this song that builds and ultimately is rewarded by the sounds of victory at the end.  The song tells a story on its own, that is mirrored in the movie scene it plays behind.  Originally from a 1968 film with Jack Palance as the villain (as an aside, Palance's character is named "Curly," which is the same name his character had in the 1991 comedy City Slickers - I assume that was intentional.  The other fun tidbit I learned was that Palance's real name was "Volodymyr Palahniuk"), Quentin Tarantino co-opts it for Kill Bill when the Bride is escaping from an early grave.

  Despite most of the French is lost on me, Serge Gainsbourg's decadence is almost palpable in the music of this album.  I mean that in a good way. 

  Between the time I first purchased "L.E.S. Artistes" as a single, and the time I got the album, the artist's name had changed.  Apparently Santi White was being threatened with suit by an infomercial jeweler named Santo Gold, so she changed the "o" to an "i" and drove on.  I found this song through, of all places, Perez Hilton - he had a link to video.

  It seems wrong that I had two copies of Los Lobos' version of "La Bamba" but did not own Ritchie Valens'.  That has now been corrected. (as a rule I am not going through the same song twice just because it is on two different albums - "La Bamba" is also on Rhino's Like Omigod! box.  Different versions by the same artist I will listen through - although when we get to Elvis' complete comeback special we might have to make some exceptions - 6 different versions of "Blue Christmas" might be a bit much).   In the vein of "Cabbage Head" and "Gallow's Pole" this is a folk song that was brought into rock & roll by Valens.  Los Lobos' version is a cover of Valens', but it was done for the Valens' biopic of the same name.

  Sternklang is a Norwegian group that, like Outsized, has very little web presence.  I did find their myspace page, which offers up some other songs and a video.  I also found their record label's homepage, but it doesn't appear to have been updated in two years.

Kada Manja to Kashmir

"Kada Manja"  The Very Best  Warm Heart of Africa
"Kalakuta Show"  Gift of Gab/Lateef/Mix Master Mike  Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti
"Kaleid"  Boxcutter  Glyphic
"Kamera"  Wilco  Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
"Kamikaze"  PJ Harvey  Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
"Kamphopo"  The Very Best  Warm Heart of Africa
"Kansas City Man Blues"  Clarence Williams' Blue Five  Rhapsodies In Black: Music and Words From the Harlem Renaissance [6.10.11 - link is to a later version by a different lineup - Sidney Bichet is the constant]
"Karma"  Outsized  Buddha-Bar, Vol IV
"Karma Chameleon"  Culture Club  Like Omigod! The '80s Pop Culture Box
"Kashmir"  Led Zeppelin  Physical Graffiti

  The 80s Pop Culture Box is an artifact of a 1980s that was not mine.  As near as I can tell, it is put together with a kitschy, self-aware eye of nostalgia for folks looking back fondly on the foolhardiness of leg warmers and tiny paisleys.  So at its worst, it is a reminder of the hell that was my high school life.  At its best, it is a collection of guilty pleasures.  Culture Club is really neither.  My feelings about Boy George generally amount to, "Huh.  So there was that."  I don't resent this song for existing ("Heartbeat" by Don Johnson, which I have promised myself not to skip when it comes around in this list).  I also don't have to justify my fondness for it to my peers ("Walking On Sunshine" by Katrina and The Waves - its great, and you are wrong).  Like many artists, it was Boy George's world for a moment, and then he was gone.  Well, not gone.  Just not allowed on reality tv.  He does guest on the Antony & The Johnsons song, "You Are My Sister."

  When I listen to Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, there are only two conclusions that can be reached.  First, that the whole decision to drop Wilco because of this album was contrived and simply done to generate publicity (the album was eventually released by Nonesuch, which is distributed by the same Warner Bros. who dropped it from Reprise).  Second, that Warner is populated by deaf people.  There is really no other reasonable explanation.

  This Boxcutter track is more upbeat, and less droning and drug-induced, but it is still not exactly danceable, and prone to the odd conversation-destroying blurt.

  I can find almost nothing about Outsized anywhere on the internet.  I know that the bigger name is David Visan as the DJ putting the Buddha Bar set together, but you would think something about the actual artist would exist somewhere.  One 2008 album on essential media, Blindfolded.  No reviews.  Essential Media barely has a web presence.  It is more of a mystery than a compelling song at this point - who is this band?

  "When it comes to making out, whenever possible, put on side one of Led Zeppelin IV."  It probably makes me of a particular age, but that line from Fast Times At Ridgemont High, and the ensuing debate - was this a goof, or meant as a blunder by the character - whenever I hear "Kashmir."  Sad but true.

J Dub to Jacksonville

"J Dub"  Boxcutter  Glyphic
"J.B. Shout"  Fred Wesley & The J.B.'s  Funky Good Time: The Anthology
"Ja Funmi"  King Sunny Ade  Juju Music
"Jabuticaba"  Bebel Gilberto  Bebel Gilberto
"Jackie, Dressed In Cobras"   The New Pornographers  Twin Cinemas
"Jackpot"  The English Beat  Can't Stop It
"Jackrabbits"  Joanna Newsom  Have One On Me
"Jackson"  Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash  At Folsom Prison [6/8/11 - link is to San Quentin, not Folsom]
"Jackson"  Lucinda Williams  Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
"Jacksonville"  Sufjan Stevens  Illinois

  The Super Bowl happened yesterday, and that has nothing to do with the songs in this set (except in the sense that none of these artists have ever performed at a Super Bowl - James Brown was in the halftime in 1997, but not the J.B.'s).  However, I had a couple of music-related thoughts about that event.

  I have invested some space here discussing the value of a cover song, and a cover discussion of sorts broke out over the national anthem.  Christina Aguilera is being pilloried for her performance.  While the biggest part of this is certainly due to her failing to get all of the words right, a recurring theme among some bloggers and critics is that she didn't "sing it right" regardless of the lyrics.  The idea is that this song has only one "proper" reading, and any attempt to make it one's own is sacrilege - that it is somehow a song that cannot be covered.  This, of course, is bullshit.  The idea that the national anthem has only one true reading is ridiculous.  Like a cover of any other song, the artist has to bring his/her own voice the song.  Jimi Hendrix's version of this song is a sacrilege?  Well - perhaps, and perhaps that was the intent.  But Whitney Houston's Super Bowl version is revered, and it bears little resemblance to the way the average person would sing this song (I would also note that Whitney prerecorded her version - less chance of the kind of response Christina is receiving).  At Super Bowls alone, about 40 different artists have performed this song.  It is inconceivable that performers as diverse as Aaron Neville, Garth Brooks, and the Backstreet Boys would sing any song in exactly the same manner (or that you would expect them to).  As with any cover, there are certainly good versions and bad versions, but to say that there is a "right" version is inane.

  The list of performers linked above (both of the national anthem singers and of the halftime shows) is a fascinating piece of history.  It documents the growth of the Super Bowl from a football championship in the 1960s to the television-driven media event it is today. As the Super Bowl became bigger, the list serves to track fluctuations of popular opinion.  The first two games (and Super Bowl IX) featured marching bands.  The last instrumental performance of the anthem was 1988 - by Herb Alpert.  While the seventies started to see national names performing the anthem, there were still performers like The Colgate Thirteen (1979), and Phyllis Kelly (1978).  The former is an a capella group from Colgate University, and the latter is from what is now University of Louisiana - Monroe (she may have been the same Phyllis Kelly who was Miss Louisiana 1978, but that Phyllis Kelly apparently is from Southeastern Louisiana University).  Since the mid- to late-1980s, the anthem has become a part of the Super Bowl hype machine, and now serves as a history of the most popular music of a particular time.  Because the anthem is a pretty demanding song (not just in its arrangement, but in the expectations laid upon the singer), this list is more conservative than the halftime performers [which I am not sure they have ever gotten right], and rewards those the public views as not merely popular, but a substantial vocal talent.  However, the list is not without its questionable decisions (Garth Brooks?  Billy Joel twice!!).  The sole exception to the list of popular entertainers is 2005, when there was a retrenching after Janet Jackson's halftime boobsplosion, and the combined military choirs sang the anthem. 

  Anyway.  Things actually related to this set, in no particular order:

• A Jabuticaba is a South American fruit tree that produces grape-like fruit.  The trees sometimes are used for Bonsai.
• "Jackson" is one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs, and it is stronger here than the studio version.  June Carter is absolutely growling through her verses, and it is one of the highlights of one my cliched "desert island" albums.  I also enjoy the banter at the start, particularly when June says, "I'm glad to be back in Folsom!" 
• The Lucinda Williams song is not a cover, just shares a name.
• I like the Boxcutter track, but I am wracking  my brain to find a context in which it would be appropriate.  The most obvious answer is no longer relevant to me.  Maybe background for a quiet party - like all back to my place after the bar - but it has some intrusive squonks.  I could see driving, but it drones, and late at night that could be dangerous..  It could work if you need to clear a dance floor after last call.

I'd Rather Dance With You to I'll Be Faithful

"I'd Rather Dance With You"  Kings Of Convenience  Riot on an Empty Street
"I'd Rather Go Blind"  Beyonce  Cadillac Records Original Soundtrack
"I'd Rather Go Blind"  Etta James  Gold Collection
"I'd Still Choose You"  Al Green  I Can't Stop
"I'd Write A Letter"  Al Green  I Can't Stop
"I'll Always Have Faith In You"  Carla Thomas  The Complete Stax-Volt Singles 1959-1968
"I'll Be Around"  Bobby Bare, Jr.  Live at KEXP, Vol. 1
"I'll Be Around"  Cee-Lo (feat. Timbaland)  Cee-Lo Green  . . .  Is The Soul Machine
"I'll Be Around"  The Spinners  Atlantic Rhythm & Blues  1947-1974
"I'll Be Faithful"  Dusty Springfield  Dusty In Memphis

  Just by coincidence, this set seems to focus on regional labels and sounds - the Chicago blues of Chess/Checker, the Philly soul of The Spinners, Atlanta's "Dirty South," and the Memphis soul of Stax and Hi (Dusty clearly, and intentionally, fits in here).

  I was looking at Hi Records webpage, and it reads like a younger sibling looking for validation.  As the home of Al Green and Ann Peebles, the label certainly does not have to apologize to anyone.  Nonetheless, the history on its website makes constant reference to Stax/Volt and justifies its place in Memphis Soul by comparison to that label.  It name-checks Al Jackson, Jr., Booker T. and The MG's and at one point flatly states that Stax had moved on in the seventies, seeking a broader range of artists, and leaving Hi as "the keeper of the flame for real Memphis soul." 

  The Al Green songs here are both from his 2003 return to the Hi soul sound for Blue Note.  The songs work in the way a good movie sequel works.  They recall the sounds of Green's best early work.  His voice is still amazing - he and Aaron Neville could do an album reading court opinions, and it would be among the best things ever recorded - and the arrangements hearken to "Can't Get Next To You" and "Tired Of Being Alone."    However, like most sequels, ultimately your know that the original work is better.

  Carla Thomas' song here is from just before that alleged departure by Stax from Memphis soul for a broader seventies base, and the growth of Stax as a song-making enterprise by this point is evident.  The house band, the production, and Carla's voice all exude confidence.  Even during the spoken-word interlude in the middle of this ballad (the sort of thing I tend to hate), the keyboard fills are compelling.

  It is hard to call what Beyonce offers here as a cover - at least the same criticisms don't apply.  Since she was portraying Etta James in a biopic about Chess Records, it seems appropriate that she try to do something that was true to the original, as opposed to making something more completely her own - perhaps homage is a better word than cover.  Both Beyonce's  and Etta's live version here demonstrate the singer's powerhouse voices, and Beyonce holds her own quite well.  

   Indeed, there are notably strong vocals throughout this set - Beyonce, Etta, Carla, Dusty, Al Green,and Phillipe Wynne.  The Norwegians bring their harmonies, and Cee-lo and Timbaland's growl through their rap.  Along with Bobby Bare, Jr.'s contribution there is not really a bad song in this set.

A Habibi Ouajee T'Allel Allaiya to Half

"A Habibi Ouajee T'Allel Allaiya"  Master Musicians of Jajouka  Manifestation: Axiom Collection II
"Had To Make You Mine"  Cheap Trick  The Essential Cheap Trick
"Haditha"  Me'Shell Ndegeocello  The World Has Made Me The Man Of My Dreams
"Hair"  P.J. Harvey  Dry
"Hairspray"  Rachel Sweet  Hairspray Original Soundtrack
"Hairy Trees"  Goldfrapp  Black Cherry
"Haiti"  Arcade Fire  Funeral
"Haitian Divorce"  Steely Dan  Steely Dan's Greatest Hits
"Halah"  Mazzy Star  She Hangs Brightly
"Half"  Soundgarden  Superunknown

   While I have described this as a reaction and not a review, most of my comments about this set amount to critiques - so it goes.

   So I have a two-cd set of the "essential" Cheap Trick.  I am not sure that a second disc or the adjective can be completely justified.  There are Cheap Trick songs that make me happy to hear almost any time I hear them.  The best of them stands up with the best of almost anyone, but that body of work is not nearly as deep as, say, Prince or Talking Heads.  Even at that, I don't know if there is something such as an "essential" Cheap Trick song.  All right, "I Want You To Want Me,"  but beyond that . . .

  Which makes them at least one song better than Steely Dan.  I am not sure how it is I have a collection of the Dan.  I am sure this is the girlfriend's.  I think I have mellowed to Steely Dan over the years, but I am still not what could be called a fan. 

  Enough hate.  If we are throwing around the word "essential," Funeral is an album that fills a void that didn't exist before Arcade Fire made it.  It is immediately engaging and continually listenable.  I have played it  through numerous times, and haven't grown tired of it.  Similarly, when I am listening to the collection on a random mix as background music, a song will catch my ear and draw me out of whatever else I am doing and engage me.  Frequently it is a song off Funeral.

  Hairspray was not just an entree to the world of Jon Watters, but through this soundtrack, it opened up a set of obscure 60s dance and soul songs.  In particular, "I'm Blue" was the first Ike & Tina song I ever heard and "Nothing Takes The Place of You" is a ballad that stands as one of my favorite love songs of all time.  This title track summons both Watters' camp and the music that he pays homage to throughout the movie.

  Hope Sandoval does not sound like other people, and that has value.