WHAT A SHITTY WEEK

Leonard Cohen passed away today. I'm not going to bullshit you, I know very little of his stuff; I own but one LP. He is among the many "I'll get to them at some point" artists in my peripheral scope, but he is held in such high regard by friends that I hold in high regard, ranging from brainy crushes to practical deification by songwriters, that I cannot let his passing go without pause. His respected status as some sort of songwriter's songwriter (Dylan covered him), his longevity and his apparent desire to do nothing more than just keep writing and singing, this is one guy that it doesn't quite matter whether I learn his music next month or when I'm eighty, I will get to him more thoroughly when I need to, and I'm looking forward to it.  So, I'll mourn him out of associative respect, like a contact high, except as a contact low.

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Listen:
Leonard Cohen - Bird on a Wire mp3 at DK Presents
Leonard Cohen - Almost Like the Blues mp3 at Sucks Pants
Leonard Cohen - Memories mp3 at Cold Splinters
Leonard Cohen - Sisters of Mercy (Live) mp3 at The Helpless Dancer
Leonard Cohen - Three more at Aquarium Drunkard
Visit:
Leonard Cohen: 20 Essential Songs at Rolling Stone
Leonard Cohen Dead at 82 at Rolling Stone

THE TOBACCO ROAD GUY

John D. Loudermilk died last Wednesday. Some of you may know his catalog, but I do not. I know one song of his, "Tobacco Road", but I couldn't recall what his original sounded like. He's kind of in that Mose Allison club for me, where I was familiar with covers of the song well before hearing the original, which ended up sounding tame in comparison. With Allison, it was "Parchman Farm" (John Mayall's version, Cactus's, and Johnny Winters), and "Young Man Blues" (The Who). With Loudermilk's "Tobacco Road" it was the Edgar Winter's White Trash version, and the Nashville Teens'.

The Edgar Winter "Tobacco Road" is live, and I think I remember it taking the full side of an LP. It was long. With some scat type vocals, and some long ass high pitched screams. It's almost too much of a vocal showcase, like "if you didn't notice I can sing, check out all this weird stuff". But as a showcase it does the job. The video version below is earlier, about 1969, when he was a part of his brother's band. Being that it is a mere nine minutes long, it might be more tolerable.

Definitely check the video of Loudermilk doing the song solo. The pace lets the pauses speak. Very effective.

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Listen:
John D. Loudermmilk - Tobacco Road (streaming) at YouTube
Nashville Teens - Tobacco Road mp3 at U Music Pub (?)
Southern Culture on the Skids - Tobacco Road mp3 at Billy Chic
Edgar Winter's White Trash - Tobacco Road (Pt 1) (streaming) at YouTube
Edgar Winter's White Trash - Tobacco Road (Pt 2) (streaming) at YouTube
Video:
John D. Loudermmilk - Tobacco Road (BBC 1984) at YouTube
Eric Burdon and War - Tobacco Road (1970) at YouTube
Visit:
John D Loudermilk fan page Extensive lists of songs and covers. Tobacco Road is about two thirds down page one of the listings

SHE'S ALIVE! ALIVE!

You may have seen this already, but if you're a Aretha Franklin freak and haven't seen it, put your phone away and take a few minutes to remind yourself that the Queen of Soul is still very much alive. This was filmed at the Kennedy Center Honors, on December 6. The honors are given to "those in the performing arts for their lifetime of contributions to American culture". Aretha Franklin wasn't the honoree, though she was in 1994. On this particular night, one of the honorees was singer songwriter Carole King. On her own and with her late writing partner Gerry Goffin, King has written tons of songs you know well. Franklin comes out to sing King's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman", sitting down at the piano and letting go with one of the best performances of any singer, of any age, I've seen all year. It's not good for a seventy three year old woman, this is an outstanding performance for a singer of any age, gender or genre. Check out Carol King, she goes absolutely bananas. And she wrote the song.

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Listen:
Aretha Franklin - Rock Steady (alternate mix) mp3 at Plain or Pan
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools mp3 at Russ Strathdee
Video:
Aretha Franklin - Chain of Fools at YouTube 1968

OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN

P.F. Sloan died yesterday. He was a songwriter with his name on a shitload of hits. (You can see a list of the most well known at Wikipedia.) Some of them are silly, some just proper pop, and some a little more serious. The first song of his that made me stop and look at the fine print was one of the latter, "Eve of Destruction". A mindblower, then and now. Just a fucking great, great song. Sadly, almost always relevant to one degree or another.

Here's the hit version of "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire, and a later song "Karma" off a Sloan solo album. The grand finale is a version of "Eve of Destruction" by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Mr. Lemmy Kilmister. I shit you not. And it's good.

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Listen:
Barry McGuire - Eve of Destruction mp3 at Sabine News (?)
P. F. Sloan - Karma mp3 at The Rising Storm
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Lemmy - Eve Of Destruction (streaming) at YouTube
Visit:
P.F. Sloan at Wikipedia

GOODBYE HIT MACHINE

Gerry Goffin died today. He was a brilliant songwriter, and that's not just some casual use of the word. He partnered with Carole King and together they were a hit machine. The two wrote fifty Top 40 hits between 1960 and 1968. Their first collaborative hit, "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", was recorded by the Shirelles in 1960, and it's my favorite, hands down. It's about as close to perfect as you can get, Nothing is absolutely perfect, Nothing. This is close.

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Listen:
The Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow mp3 at PTHS67 (some class reunion site)
Five more Goffin-King penned classics at Boogaloo Time
Visit:
Gerry Goffin biography at Songwriters Hall of Fame
Gerry Goffin song listing at Songwriters Hall of Fame

YOU OWE HIM BIG TIME

You've probably heard that Jerry Leiber, half of the Leiber-Stoller songwriting team, checked out yesterday. The duo is responsible for a shitload of R & B, doo wop, and early rock n' roll songs that you probably know like the back of your hand. (Really, check out the list of songs, and the artists that performed them here.) They were incredibly prolific. To wit, they wrote "Hound Dog" in twelve minutes. (That's less time than it takes me to make lunch.) Along with the songwriting teams of Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil, Jeff Barry & Ellie Greenwich, and Carole King & Gerry Goffin, Leiber & Stoller helped shape the music of the fifties and sixties. A major difference is that Leiber and Stoller also produced, and their production credits are almost more impressive than the writing credits. How's about Big Mama Thornton, Big Joe Turner, the Coasters, Ruth Brown, the Drifters, LaVern Baker, the Exciters, the Dixie Cups, and T-Bone Walker? Dude is royalty.

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Listen:
Big Mama Thornton - Hound Dog mp3 at The Beiderbecke Affair
Wilbert Harrison - Kansas City mp3 at The Soul Girl
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - Alligator Wine mp3 at Api.ning.com
Wanda Jackson - Riot In Cell Block Number 9 mp3 at Tillooman
The Coasters - Down In Mexico mp3 at Hell's Belles
The Clovers - Love Potion Number 9 mp3 at Hell's Belles
Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? mp3 at Little Manatee Springs
The Cheers - Black Denim Trousers and Motorcycle Boots mp3 at Miami High 1955
Further listening:
Jerry Leiber at Funky 16 Corners Three obscure cuts and a nice tribute
Jerry Leiber at Probe is Turning-On the People (Scroll to Session 352) Seven song mix, including Leiber on vocals!
Visit:
Leiber & Stoller's Official site
Leiber & Stoller's songwriting discography
Leiber & Stollers production credits
Jerry Leiber at the Songwriters Hall of Fame
Jerry Leiber's obituary at the NY Times