John Gushue . . . Dot Dot Dot

Saturday playlist

From my docking station-stereo-headphones-computer-whatever to yours ... some of the songs I've been playing lately.

June Carter Cash: Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?  The Wildwood Flower album was pretty enough in its own right; it seems sweeter as time passes. The chorus - with Johnny Cash backing his wife - is almost enough to break your heart knowing it was recorded shortly before they both passed.

Lou Gramm: Midnight Blue: Gotta love iTunes. I always liked this admittedly cheesy song - but never bothered to buy it - and a while ago, while I find myself humming it to myself, it occurred to me I could buy it, right then. Bingo. I recall years ago hearing a R.E.M. version, which they used to work into live sets. I hope to one day stumble over it again.

James Hunter: People Gonna Talk. One of my favourite songs from last year. Proof that if you stick with something long enough, people are indeed gonna talk about you. And, maybe, that Sam Cooke's soul settled somewhere in England.

Steely Dan: Time Out of Mind. From Gaucho, one of the songs I played the groove out of when I was a teenager ... and I still don't know what they're getting at, other than getting stoned. A nice Mark Knopfler guitar break, and a Doobie-esqe feeling with a returning Michael McDonald on the chorus. Can't help but tap the wheel whenever this comes on and I'm driving.

Spoon: I Turn My Camera On. It came out a couple of years ago, but the chords feel like they could have come out in the new wave era. Maybe. A new Spoon album is due soon. Curious to hear it.

I'm always on the hunt for a new tune. Send a suggestion my way. Click on the label below to see previous Saturday Playlists.

Saturday playlist

Some of the tunes in somewhat frequent rotation these days:

The Beta Band: Assessment. From Heroes to Zeroes, a familiar guitar riff. The aural equivalent to comfort food for when I'm walking.

Anita Best: I Never Met A Liar (I Didn't Like). I haven't played much from the 11:11 album - a set of covers of Ron and Connie Hynes tunes - in a long, long time. Gotta change that.

Young-Holt Unlimited: Soulful Strut. A soul chestnut from the late Sixties, of which I have no recollection from the era. A nice instrumental groove, though.

Little Willie John: Talk To Me, Talk To Me. An even older chestnut, from before my time. A doo-wop sort of feel, with a just-slightly-naughty tone to all that pleading.

Neil Young: Helpless. In this case, from the Live at Massey Hall 1971 album, which grows on me continually.

On Saturdays, I pick five of the songs that I've been listening to lately. The queue is right here.

Saturday playlist

Some of the tunes playing the ol' earbuds this week:

Ian Dury & The Blockheads: Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3: As list songs go, a classic, and a favourite from long ago. This BBC page not only lists the lyrics - it really does help to be English! - but annotates them, too.

Joni Mitchell: Car On a Hill: One of the cuts from Court & Spark has been stuck in my mind lately. It occurred to me that the song is a timepiece, and not just because of the jazzy sound; the topic - waiting for hours for "my sugar to show" - could only make sense in a pre-cellphone era.

Prince: A Case of You: Speaking of which ... The new A Tribute to Joni Mitchell album contains some nice material; it's interesting how the contributing artists make the songs sound very much like themselves. Sufjan Stevens's A Free Man in Paris is one example, and the Prince cover of A Case of You is another.

Denis Parker: All I Want is to Travel: A nice slice of acoustic blues. You can hear a bit more of Denis and colleagues at SlideGuy.net.

Thelonius Monk: In Walked Bud. I haven't been playing much jazz lately, so I made a new playlist, including this old chestnut.

I post a few songs that are currently on my iPod to a queue called Saturday Playlists. You can see the bunch to date here.

Saturday playlist (mostly acoustic version)

Even without reworkings wrought by MTV's once-trendy Unplugged series, there's a bit of a kick listening to a song stripped down to a more bare instrumentation. With some of these songs, I prefer the acoustic arrangement to the original. A couple are genuinely acoustic - sure sounds like a synthesizer on Badly Drawn Boy, for instance - but big whoop. Anyway, here are some of the songs that have been on my playlists lately. [Click here to read more Saturday playlists as a group.]

Pete Townshend: Save It for Later. From Deep End Live!, an album of a 1985 live set that if memory serves had been intended for promo use only. This is a gentle but excellent take on the English Beat song, with Townshend's acoustic guitar and vocal taking the centre and gradually beefed up with bass, sax and backing with the whole concert, so be mindful if you're shopping.

Badly Drawn Boy: Silent Sigh (Acoustic Version). The original - or at least primary - version was the anchor of the not-that-bad movie About A Boy; this version, from an EP released with the single, opens with an orchestral flourish, and then sounds pretty much like the demo it might well have been. Instead of the piano rolls that defined the song, though, Damon Gough just strums away on a guitar, gradually adding other instruments as counterpoint.

K-OS: Sunday Morning (Live Acoustic Version). I picked this up on iTunes this week. I prefer the original, but this works pretty well for a song built around a propulsive drum, handclaps and electric guitar. This version sounds more mournful, and better fitting the lyric.

Corinne Bailey Rae: Put Your Records On (Acoustic). Another iTunes pickup, from last year, and for my money (99 cents, to be exact) a much more satisfying rendition than the single that became a hit, which now sounds overproduced and much too slick.

Tasmin Archer: Sleeping Satellite (Acoustic Version). Archer had a quasi-hit with Sleeping Satellite around 1992. This version comes from an EP called Shipbuilding, consisting of covers of some Elvis Costello songs (including, obviously, the title tune), and some acoustic reworkings of songs from her debut. Again, the acoustic version has much more punch than the main recording, even without all the studio tricks. (Although I do like the organ on the main tune.)

Saturday playlist

A few of the tunes coming out of the iPod these days:

The Beautiful South: Just A Few Things I Ain't. This tune from Gaze has a pounding piano intro, but unfortunately doesn't quite follow through. Nonetheless, it's been a great driving tune ... especially with warmer weather arriving (for those few hours earlier this week).

Mark O'Connor: New Country. I could listen to O'Connor play scales. This fusion of styles includes a guest turn from fellow fiddler Jean-Luc Ponty.

The Payola$: I'll Find Another. Another tune that goes great with a car, and a favourite from when I was a student.  I recall one (circa 83-84) evening at a bar when this played, and it truly fit the scene, with dozens of kids bouncing around a la the song's "I'm the missing link when I've had a bit to drink" lyrics.

Kate Walsh: Talk of the Town. This is the free single of the week from iTunes ... at least in Canada. Folky, mellow, quiet and quite pleasant.

Joan Osborne: Who Divided. Remember Joan Osborne? I figured she was going to have quite the career after One of Us. In her mid-40s, she's still recording, and making good music. I picked this up from a Paste sampler.

Saturday playlist (covers edition)

Cover versions can run hot and cold; I usually like them - or at least the idea of them. Here are a few I've been listening to lately.

Peter Bruntnell: Waterloo Sunset. One of my favourite Kinks songs, I thought it would sound weird - or just plain wrong - sung by someone other than Ray Davies. Nope. This appeared on a Mojo tribute disc.

John Hiatt: Instant Karma. Lennon gets the Hiatt treatment. The raucous, handmade tone of the original is gone, and this is surprisingly mellow, even with a singalow as it ramps up.

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs: Monday Monday. Sweet and Hoffs recently released Under the Covers, a whole album of remakes. This one suits both of them.

The King's Singers: Good Vibrations. No, seriously. The King's Singers can be a bit, um, precious (although their version of Deck The Halls is a hilarious must at Christmas), but I actually like this Beach Boys riff ... even with their precisely enunciated diction of Brian Wilson's lyrics.

The Wondermints: Knowing Me, Knowing You. Speaking of Brian Wilson ... the Wondermints earned a reputation as playing backup for Wilson's revived career. One of their earlier albums, Wonderful World of the Wondermints, consisted of nothing but covers. Abba gets the power-pop treatment (with distorted guitars, but minus the trademark "Ahhh-haaahhh"s of the original's vocals) here, although I'll confess that over time, my taste for the track has faded.

Every Saturday, I'm posting a set of tunes I've been playing lately. Here's the queue.

Saturday playlist

Some of the tunes that have been flowing out of the earbuds these last few days:

Guster: Backyard. This is a tune that I add to miscellaneous playlists I throw together for a walk or a bit of a work. I really like the instrumentation, which goes with a lot of Guster songs.

Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers: Dancin' Late at Night. If I'm gonna get it straight, I want dancing, dancing late at night ... Ah, 3 a.m. Given I'm asleep well before 11 most nights, this tune really seems like a relic.

Stevie Wonder: As. I always thought Songs in the Key of Life was remarkable - I saved up to buy my own copy when I was a kid - but it still slays me. A song like As is overshadowed by the hits, but it's wicked. My son and I have been cranking up the last three or four minutes in the car lately.

Thomas Dolby: The Flat Earth. This is a live version from Dolby's album The Sole Inhabitant, in which he plays - or rather layers - every sound you hear. The Flat Earth was a song I played a lot for a period in '84 or so, but have scarcely heard since; the live version is missing the backing vocals from Adele Bertei of Au Pairs, obviously, but the song sounds pretty lush.

Albert Hammond, Jr.: Everyone Gets a Star. A single from the Strokes guitarist debut, picked up from a Paste magazine sampler. Not bad. I still have trouble squaring Hammond fils with Hammond pere, the singer of It Never Rains in Southern California and co-writer of dross like Starship's Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now. Talk about rebellious youth ...

My Saturday Playlist queue was launched a few weeks ago. Check out the rest here.

Saturday playlist

Among the tunes getting better-than-average rotation on my iPod, docking station and/or computer these days:

• Van Morrison: See Me Through/ Soldier of Fortune/ Thank You Faletinme Be Mice Elf Agin. From the 1994 Night in San Francisco album, one of my most-played live albums, period. This 10-minute medley isn't even the best track, but one I like a lot. I saw Morrison the next spring, with most of the same musicians and pretty much the same setlist. This medley also has the highly unlikely singalong chorus, "Been wearing my .44 so long, it makes my shoulder sore," which falls off the lips easier than I would have thought.
• Sir Douglas Quintet: She's About a Mover: I don't mind golden oldies shows on the radio, but I don't understand why they play, say, 80 songs, max, from the Sixties. Here's a 1965 chestnut that's hard to not to tap your toes to.
• Grand National: Drink To Move On: I picked this up last year from a KEXP podcast; the album from which it was released evidently was released in the UK in 2004.
• The Undertones: My Perfect Cousin. A slice o' power-pop, when Feargal Sharkey seemed like a name worth remembering. (Well, I obviously still do.)
• The Pursuit of Happiness: Gretzky Rocks: With the playoffs looming, one of the better hockey tunes, clocking in at least than 2:00. Plus, a not-that-cringeworthy rhyme: "He came from Brantford, Ontario/ His rival's name is Mario."

More Saturday playlists can be read here. (Know a tune I should here? Send it in to johngushue at gmail dot com.)

Saturday playlist

Some of the songs in greater-than-occasional rotation in my earbuds & speakers these days:

• Ray Charles: Shake Your Tailfeather: The best opening two seconds anywhere, with a Fender Rhodes riff that always, always gets my toes tapping (and occasionally gets my butt off its chair).
• Broken Social Scene: Bandwitch. (Been listening to this a lot, after catching a video to which this was the hypnotic soundtrack. Planning to post that soon - likely tomorrow.)
• Beirut: Elephant Gun. A track sent out a while back from KEXP's song o' the day podcast. Great tune.
• Portishead: Glory Box. Still moody, and oddly not as dated as I thought I would be.
• Bob Dylan: Spirit on the Water. From Modern Times, one of my current favourites for work music. Love this album.

Filed under a newish queue I'm calling Saturday playlists. (Know a tune I oughtta hear? Feel free to let me know at johngushue at gmail dot com.)

Saturday playlist

Some of the songs in greater-than-slight rotation on my player these days:

• Rickie Lee Jones: Falling Up
• Modest Mouse: Dashboard
• Trash Can Sinatras: Only Tongue Can Tell
• XTC: The Loving
• Marvin Gaye: Ain't That Peculiar

The Loving, from Oranges and Lemons, was originally the music that played under the closing sequence of Love Actually; Richard Curtis dropped the song because it didn't match the tone he wanted. He wound up with God Only Knows by the Beach Boys, which is perfect for the sequence. That factoid is on the DVD, which we watched recently, and it sent me back into the record collection. Great tune.

Falling Up and Dashboard are from the new CDs of Rickie Lee Jones and Modest Mouse, respectively. The Jones track came with a recent issue of Uncut; I bought the Modest Mouse tune from iTunes this week. Will likely buy both.

The Trash Can Sinatras are still on the go, I believe; Only Tongue Can Tell has aged well, after more than 15 years.

Marvin Gaye's Ain't That Peculiar was a staple in my tape-making days in the Eighties. The groove still works.