Happy Wednesday and I hope you’re cool, especially if you also live in an area with near record high temperatures like central New Jersey – perhaps an early sign of an abnormally hot summer weather forecasters have predicted for much of the U.S. this year. Wednesday is also the time when I’d like to take a closer look at songs I’ve only mentioned in passing or not covered at all to date.
Today’s pick is Golden Down by Willie Nile. I first covered the New York rock & roll singer-songwriter this February with This Is Our Time as part of a Sunday Sixinstallment. Golden Down is the title track of his sophomore studio album, which came out in April 1981.
In addition to appearing as an album track, Golden Down became the B-side of the single Les Champs Élysées. The great song never gained any traction, which I find surprising. The album wasn’t exactly a smash either, reaching no. 158 on the Billboard Hot 100, though I’ve read it has become a favorite among Nile’s fans.
Apart from Nile (vocals, guitar, piano), the studio recording featured Television bassist Fred Smith and Patti Smith drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, among others. Here’s a live version, which was captured in September 2014. According to the accompanying description, Nile was backed by Matt Hogan (guitar, vocals), Johnny “Pi” Pisano (bass, vocals) and Alex Alexander (drums).
In this rock ‘n roll number, Nile finds comfort in the arms of a woman that many listeners assume is a prostitute. He told American Songwriter in 2013 that he was partly inspired by the 1954 movie The Barefoot Contessa, which stars Ava Gardner as a nightclub performer who becomes a Hollywood star and the multitude of men who desire her.
“And I think also just New York street life,” he added. “People I’d see on the street – from prostitutes to the rich to the poor. The thing that fascinates me about New York is the extremes. You know, you’ve got very poor people, sleeping on the street. And you’ve got the very rich. When I first moved here, I thought ‘This reminds me of Dickens.'”
He continued: “The music came to me, and the idea. It was very much a street song. Someone played it the other day on the radio and he said, ‘It’s a song about a prostitute.’ It’s actually about a woman who men desire and don’t respect. What’s the line in the second verse: Street princess/on a throne of cream. I remember writing that and going, ‘Okay. That’ll work.'”
The frenetic guitar work was provided by Clay Barnes and Peter Hoffman, both of whom played on Nile’s first album.
Celebrating music with six random tracks at a time
It’s Sunday, folks, and I’d like to invite you to join me on another time-travel journey into the amazing world of music. For first-time visitors, our eclectic trip will include six stops in six different decades and involve music in different flavors. Are you with me? All aboard, buckle your seatbelt and let’s go!
Cindy Blackman Santana/Passage
Our first stop today is in May 1998 and some groovy jazz music by Cindy Blackman Santana (then still Cindy Blackman). I first came across this amazing drummer in 2014 while watching this clip of Lenny Kravitz, a longtime favorite artist. At first, I primarily paid attention to him before noticing this stunning African American lady on the drums. Then, as oftentimes happens, I was on to other music and “forgot” about Blackman until fellow blogger Lisa from Tao Talk prompted me to think of female artists in connection with her excellent Women Music March series. I already committed to pen a contribution for the 2024 run about Blackman who was introduced to the drums as a seven-year-old when she spotted a drum kit at a friend’s house and began playing. Soon thereafter, she joined the school band and persuaded her parents to get her toy drums. At age 11, she studied at Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Conn. and two years later started developing an interest in jazz after she had listened to Max Roach. She got her first professional drum kit at age 14 and subsequently moved to Boston to study Berklee College of Music. I just love everything about this story! In 1988, then-29-year-old Blackman released her debut album as a leader, Arcane, which mostly featured her own compositions. In 1993, she met Lenny Kravitz and was featured in the official video of his great hit single Are You Gonna Go My Way. Yep, she surely did and became his touring drummer for the next 18 years! In December 2010, she married that other famous guitarist, and they remain together to this day. Going back to May 1998, here’s Passage, an original Blackman composition from her studio album In the Now. Blackman was backed by top-notch jazz musicians, including saxophonist Ravi Coltrane (son of John Coltrane), Ron Carter (bass) and Jacky Terrasson (piano, Fender Rhodes).
Dr. Feelgood/Down At the Doctors
I don’t know about you, but I don’t like going to the doctor, though I’m pretty quick with unsolicited advice to friends, telling them they should go if something bugs them. Miraculously, my reluctance tends to vanish pretty quickly when the treatment is music, so let’s next travel to October 1978 for a shot of R&B. Our doctor are kickass British pub rockers Dr. Feelgood. Fittingly, the treatment is called Down At the Doctors, a great blues rocker penned by Mickey Jupp. They recorded it for their sixth studio album Private Practice, best known for Milk and Alcohol, which became the band’s best-performing single. Founded in 1971, Dr. Feelgood are still around as a touring act, though with none of the co-founders. That said, three of the current members – Gordon Russell (lead and slide guitars, backing vocals), Phil Mitchell (bass, acoustic guitar, backing vocals) and Kevin Morris (drums, percussion, backing vocals) – first joined in 1983, a whopping 40 years ago! Lead vocalist and harmonica player Robert Kane has been with the group since 1999. Okay, let’s get some rock ‘n roll in the arm. While it’s not clear to me what happened to the eight bars on the piano, I know this: Down At the Doctors always makes me feel good!
Johnny Cash/Folsom Prison Blues
Charged up with a dose of R&B, let’s set our music time machine to October 1957 and the debut album by Johnny Cash. While for many years I essentially dismissed all country as hillbilly music, my obvious ignorance always had one exception. From the very first moment I heard Cash, I thought The Man in Black pretty much had the same coolness factor as early Elvis Presley. It also turned out the two artists started their recording career with producer Sam Phillips, founder of the legendary independent label Sun Records in Memphis, Tenn. Folsom Prison Blues, one of Cash’s best-known tunes, first appeared on Johnny Cash with His Hot and Blue Guitar! Nearly 10 years later, the tune also became the de facto title track of his first live album At Folsom Prison. On the original studio recording, Cash (vocals, rhythm guitar) was backed by lead guitarist Luther Perkins and upright bassist Marshall Grant, who ended up serving in that capacity for 25 years. In 1960, drummer W. S. Holland joined, and Cash’s backing band became known as The Tennessee Three. Folsom Prison Blues is a great example of that magic Sun Studios rockabilly sound. It also features one of the greatest storytelling lyrics I can think of: When I was just a baby/My mama told me son/always be a good boy/don’t ever play with guns/But I shot a man in Reno/ just to watch him die/When I hear that whistle blowing/I hang my head and cry – this is poetry!
Paul McCartney/I Don’t Know
While I love visiting music dating back 30, 40 and even more years, let’s not forget the current century. My proposition is September 2018, which saw the release of Paul McCartney’s 17th solo album Egypt Station. Sure, it’s no Band On the Run, but I would still call it a remarkable late career accomplishment and Macca’s best album in many years. Let’s check out I Don’t Know. The beautiful piano-driven ballad also became Egypt Station’s lead single in June 2018. Clearly, Paul’s vocals are weathered, but they are a perfect match for the tune, so I wouldn’t want them to sound any different! Last June, Macca turned 80. I had the thrill to see him at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey just a couple of days prior to his big birthday. He still had a ball on that stage!
Gang of Four/Call Me Up
Our next stop takes us to 1982 and Call Me Up, a cool tune by English post-punk band Gang of Four. Frankly, I can’t quite remember how I came across that song, off their third studio album Songs of the Free. I suspect my streaming music provider served it up as a suggestion after I had listened to Televison’s excellent studio debut Marquee Moon. Obviously, there are some stylistic similarities. Like all other tracks on Songs of the Free, Call Me Up was co-written by the group’s Andrew Gill (guitar, vocals) and Jon King (vocals, melodica). Sara Lee (bass, backing vocals) and Hugo Burnham (drums, percussion) completed their lineup of the band, formed in Leeds in 1976. Along with co-founders King and Burham, Lee remains a Gang of Four member to this day. In October 2021, David Pajo officially was announced as having joined the group. This came in the wake of Gill’s untimely death in February 2020 at the age of 64.
The Kinks/Got My Feet On the Ground
I hate to say it, but all things must pass, and once again we’re reaching the final destination of yet another Sunday Six. Let’s wrap up this trip with one of my all-time favorite bands, The Kinks. Together with The Who, they are early pioneers of punk, who influenced punk bands like Ramones and The Clash. In particular, I dig their ’60s music, which is convenient since we haven’t visited that decade yet on this trip – something that simply cannot occur, as long as I operate the time machine! So here are The Kinks with Got My Feet On the Ground, a deeper but nevertheless great cut. Co-written by the oftentimes feuding brothers Ray Davies (lead vocals, guitars) and Dave Davies (vocals, electric guitar), the song is off the group’s sophomore album Kinda Kinks. It’s one of the tracks featuring Dave on lead vocals. While The Kinks never formally split, the combative brothers’ relationship further deteriorated after their final show in 1996. But, dare I say it, things seem to have improved more recently, with media reports suggesting they have been talking to each other. Inevitably, this brings up the question about a formal reunion. “Ray and I have spoken about it,” Dave Daviestold British online paper The Independent in July 2022, adding, “It’s possible!” We shall see!
Sources: Wikipedia; The Independent; YouTube; Spotify
Celebrating music with six random tracks at a time
It’s Sunday and I hope you’re feeling groovy. Once again, I’d like to invite you to accompany me on another excursion to visit music from different decades in different flavors. As always, the time machine will make six stops. Fasten your seatbelts and off we go!
Bob Brookmeyer& Stan Getz/A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
Our first stop takes us to the fall of 1961. That’s when jazz musicians Bob Brookmeyer (valve trombone, piano) and Sten Getz (saxophone) got together for a studio album appropriately titled Recorded Fall 1961. Brookmeyer, who began playing professionally in his teens in the 1940s, was a pianist in big bands led Tex Beneke and Ray McKinley, before focusing on valve trombone beginning in the early 1950s. Over a 50-year-plus recording career, he has released numerous albums as leader or co-leader and worked as a sideman for Manny Albam, Gerry Mulligan and Jimmy Giuffre, among others. Getz first gained prominence in the late 1940s playing in Woody Herman’s big band. Influenced by João Gilberto and Antônio Carlos Jobim, the tenor saxophonist also helped popularize bossa nova in the U.S. Recorded Fall 1961 was the fourth of six albums on which Getz and Brookmeyer worked with each other. The record also featured Steve Kuhn (piano), John Neves (double bass) and Roy Haynes (drums). Here’s their beautiful rendition of A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, a British romantic popular song written in 1939 and published the following year, with lyrics by Eric Maschwitz and music by Manning Sherwin.
Lenny Kravitz/Low
For this next tune, let’s jump 57 years forward into the current century. In September 2018, Lenny Kravitz released his 11th studio album Raise Vibration, his most recent to date. Following challenges in his early career, where some clever music industry officials told him he didn’t sound “black enough” while others opined his music embraced too many influences of artists like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles, the American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and actor has established himself with more than 40 million records sold worldwide and multiple awards. After Kravitz had finished the supporting tour of his 2014 album Strut, he was uncertain about his musical direction. At the same time, he rejected the advice from others to collaborate with producers and songwriters who know how to score hits. Low turned out to be the catalyst that spurred the artistic creativity that led to Raise Vibration, which I previously reviewed here. Like most other tracks on the album, the groovy tune was solely written by Kravitz. The “oohs” in the song are posthumous vocals by Michael Jackson.
The Guess Who/These Eyes
These Eyes by The Guess Who is a tune I must have earmarked for a Sunday Six several months ago, but for some reason, I didn’t use it until now. The Canadian rock band’s origins go back to 1958 when Winnipeg singer and guitarist Chad Allan formed a local group called Allan and the Silvertones. In January 1965, the band, then called Chad Allan & The Expressions, released their debut album Shakin’ All Over. The group’s cover of the Johnny Kidd & the Pirates song also became their fourth single. The band’s American label Quality Records thought it would be clever to disguise their name by crediting the tune to Guess Who? Not only did the publicity stunt work but it also gave birth to their new name. These Eyes, co-written by band members Randy Bachman (lead guitar, backing vocals) and Burton Cummings (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, flute except), appeared on The Guess Who’s fourth studio album Wheatfield, which came out in March 1969. It was also released as a single and became the group’s highest-charting tune in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 at the time, reaching no. 6. In Canada, it climbed to no. 7, marking their fourth top 10 hit. The Guess Who are still around as a touring act, including original drummer Garry Peterson, and maintain a fairly busy touring schedule.
Traffic/Riding High
If you brought up traffic in May 1994, our next stop, I think most folks would have assumed you were referring to cars, not the English rock band that had broken up for the second time in 1974. Following the reunification of the surviving members of Traffic for a one-off tour in 1994, Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi decided to revive their writing collaboration. They had maintained a working partnership since Traffic’s second break-up, with Winwood playing at least on one track of most of Capaldi’s solo albums. This resulted in Far From Home, an album they released as Traffic. Between the two of them, Winwood and Capaldi played nearly all of the instruments. Here’s the groovy opener Riding High, which all except one of the other tracks was co-written by the partners. Unfortunately, Capaldi passed away in January 2005 at the age of 60.
Crosby, Stills & Nash/Wasted On the Way
By the 1980s, it’s fair to say the greatest days of Crosby, Stills & Nash were behind them. This doesn’t mean they had lost their ability to sing in sweet perfect harmony and record great songs. One example I was reminded of the other day is Wasted On the Way, a beautiful tune penned by Graham Nash. It was included on CSN’s fourth studio album Daylight Again, released in June 1982. While it generally didn’t match the performance of the predecessor CSN, both in terms of chart placement and sales, Daylight Again did pretty well, especially in the U.S. where it climbed to no. 8 on the Billboard 200 and sold one million copies by January 1993, gaining Platinum certification. They went on to release four additional albums, including two with Neil Young. This harmony singing is just sheer magic!
Television/Friction
And this, my friends, once again brings us to the sixth and final stop, in the ’70s. American punk-era rock band Television first entered my radar screen last year when fellow blogger Max from PowerPopfeaturedMarquee Moon, the cool title track of their debut album that came out in February 1977. On that same record was another tune titled Friction. In fact, I could have picked pretty much any other song from that great album. Like Marquee Moon, Friction was written by Tom Verlaine, the group’s frontman, lead vocalist, guitarist and keyboarder. Technically, Television are still around, though their status looks in doubt with the death of Verlaine from cancer on January 28 this year.
Last but not least, here’s a Spotify playlist featuring all the above tracks. Hope there’s something you dig!
Sources: Wikipedia; The Guess Who website; YouTube; Spotify
Christian's Music Musings 