Friday, January 12, 2007

Friday Random Ten For a Three Day Weekend


It was a pretty good week. There's a lot going on in the alternative school I work at, stemming from a huge fight the week before Christmas break. I'm keeping my fingers crossed-- it looks like they're making some positive changes. I made it to Friday and now have a three day weekend.

1. Jean and Dinah- Robert Mitchum
2. And I Moved- Pete Townsend
3. The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In—Brian Auger and Julie Driscoll
4. Mandocello- Cheap Trick
5. Balloon Man- Robyn Hitchcock
6. Kiss and Say Goodbye- The Manhattans
7. I Will Not Go Quietly- Don Henley
8. Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee- Bob Dylan
9. Dirty Old Man- Fugs
10. Perfect Blue- Lloyd Cole

Comments:
1. Yes, a calypso album by Robert Mitchum. And it's pretty good! The first time I heard this one, my friend Dan brought it over. He'd found it on vinyl at a garage sale. He gave it to a another friend as a gag gift. The friend found out, much to Dan's chagrin, that the album's a rarity, and worth a bundle.

When I first started dating Kim, who's now my wife, I discovered that she owned the cd version. I knew then that I was dating the right girl.

2. From Pete Townsend's "Empty Glass" album. It came out shortly before his realization that he was an alcoholic. What a surprise-- the album title, the fact that nearly every song is about drinking, and that even the little markers showing who played on what track were noted with different shaped glasses. The album is still amazing.

3. This is a song from the Hair soundtrack, done by the couple probably best known for their great cover of Donovan's "Season of the Witch."

4. Tenacious S just posted about Cheap Trick. They were a group I was so-so with from when I was a teenager, and suddenly some time in my thirties realized how great they are.

5. This song has one of the great lines ever: "And it rained/Like a slow divorce." Reminds me of living with college buddies Dan and Mark in Wrigleyville in the eighties. Mark loved Robyn Hitchcock.

6. Holy guilty pleasure, Batman!

7. I was just quoting this song recently. "I will not lie down/I will not go quietly." It reminds me of Dylan Thomas' admonition not to go quietly into the night...

8. When I went to Shanghai with co-best friend Viktor Zeitgeist in May of 2002, we ended up finding a bar within walking distance of our hotel owned by a young Chinese guy and his mother. The guy was a huge Dylan fan, and every night would play the entire "Love and Theft" cd.

The picture of me at the top of this blog was from that trip. I ran in to an old friend right in the middle of Shanghai, and had Viktor take a picture of us together.

9. The Fugs were sixties pioneers in political incorrectness. If you've ever listened to Dr. Demento, you've probably heard their locker room anthem "Boobsalot." Ironically, Fug Ed Sanders, who went on to form the Holy Modal Rounders (who reformed a few years ago) wrote beautiful touching liner notes to a Phil Ochs best-of album some years ago (I'll be mailing those to you this weekend, Dale!)

10. The perfect dream song.

9 comments:

Barbara Bruederlin said...

Wow. You are a treasure trove of musical information!

And I never knew Robert Mitchum recorded an album, let alone a calypso one. Great find!

lulu said...

Balloon Man is one of my favorite songs. I bet you can guess which line I like best.

Danny Tagalog said...

Lloyd Cole made it to the US did he? Was he a big hit? Remember my sister playing "Lost Weekend" again and again....

Dale said...

Nice news and notes. Barbara has the Shat and now you've got the Mitch. Surely these are signs of the apocalypse. At least it'll sound cool as we all fall down. Happy 3Day.

Erik Donald France said...

Great songs, love it! Does anyone remember a track with the rejoinder, "Bangkok!"? I thought it was Robyn Hitchcock, but can't find it anywhere (from the 80s).

Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee always cracks me up. . . and three cheers to Robert Mitchum. As for Loyd Cole, I snapped up most of his stuff. A quite literary guy.

Happy MLK weekend, y'all livin' in the USA.

lulu said...

One Night in Bangkok by Murry Head? I used to love that song. It has one of my all time favorite lyrics. "I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine."

Joe said...

One of my favorite songs is Thunder Road by Robert Mitchum. Momma Look a Boo Boo is right up there with it. Nice list.

Johnny Yen said...

Barbara-
I am indeed a font of useless information. I am a terror in Trivial Pursuit.

Lu-
I'm guessing it reminds you of an old boyfriend-- I guess his name was probably....

Danny-
He's had a couple of minor hits, but he's mostly been relegated to college radio.

Dale-
Thanks! Maybe this is a sign that other earth-shaking things will happen-- perhaps an appearance by the Chicago Cubs in a World Series.

Erik-
Thanks! I couldn't think of the song-- just like Lulu, I thought it might be that Murray Head song.

Hitchcock has been doing pretty well moonlighting as an actor-- he was in the remake of The Manchurian Candidate. BTW, his father is science fiction novelist Raymond Hitchcock.

Bubs-
Both of those songs are on that record. It's actually a great album.

Erik Donald France said...

Hey cool. The "Bangkok" song was after "One Night in. . ." came out. It has a Hithcocky opening, some grinding guitars, and then the repeated soundoff, "Bangkok!" Sort of Clash-like in part. It's out there somewhere. May have been a local Chapel Hill band, where they played it on WXYC.

Robert Mitchum is one of those man's man kind of guys -- like Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin, I suppose. Badass.