Five Best...Current Cartoons
#5. The Fairly Oddparents
#4. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
#3. Family Guy
#2. South Park
#1. The Simpsons
Much more about The Simpsons and South Park in further postings.
(Notice my clever use of all the show's theme songs in the title)
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Just Like Bryan Ferry's Blues
In June, Bryan Ferry's album of Dylan covers, Dylanesque, will be released. One of the tracks to be included is "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues." It's actually pretty good. And we all know that Dylan would appreciate the black female backup-singers.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Five Best...The Band Albums (#1)
#1. The Band
Commonly referred to as “The Brown Album," The Band’s sophomore effort, The Band, is every bit as good as their first album. And, considering I have it listed at the top of this list, that much better too.
Released a month after the Summer of Love had ended, The Band is everything that concept never could be: good, authentic and unpretentious. Surprisingly, it hit #9 on the Billboard charts (and, for some reason, shot up to #10 in 2000 on Billboard’s Internet Albums chart) and its most well-known sung, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” is commonly (and sadly) associated with the horrific Joan Baez version.
The album begins with “Across the Great Divide,” which also happens to be the name of sub-par Band retrospective that came out in the late 90s. Everything that needs to be known about the album is heard in its horn, piano and guitar-filled of “Standin’ by your window in pain…” A great start to a great album.
“Rag Mama Rag” and, although it appears later on the album, “Up on Cripple Creek” are very similar in their swampy sound. The noises that Garth gets out of his instruments on “Up on Cripple Creek” should be held in a time capsule for future generations to admire. Levon’s “he he” is pretty good too.
Much time has been spent on writing and discussing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and, although I’m slightly tired of hearing it, it’s rightly so. The song could work both in a music and history class, with its details of the Civil War. Although Baez did change it from “there goes Robert E. Lee” to “there goes the Robert E. Lee,” referring to the boat.
“When You Awake” and “Whispering Pines” are the slow songs on the album and while they aren’t great, they’re not bad either. It just seems like a lot of The Band’s emotion had been stripped while recording “Up on Cripple Creek,” among others. But I will make this bold proclamation: The Band is one of the few albums that doesn’t have a single bad song on it. That’s very, very rare.
The next four tracks get largely overshadowed by the “hits” from the album but they’re arguably the heart and soul of it. Book ended around “Rockin’ Chair” and “Look Out Cleveland” are “Jemima Surrender” and “Jawbone,” and on all but “Rockin’ Chair,” (which instead features “Ragtime Willie”) Robbie finally gets a shot to prove his guitar expertise. One of the reasons I’m so fond of The Last Waltz is because Robbie really shines playing his guitar and for that same reason, these three are some of my favorite Band tracks. That, and it’s fun singing “Look Out Cleveland” whenever I travel to Ohio or Houston, Texas.
The album ends with “The Unfaithful Servant” and a song many call the best thing The Band ever recorded, “King Harvest (Has Surely Come).” For me, I enjoy the song but it sounds like it’s missing something. It’s also an odd song to end an album. But for all my complaining, Levon’s vocals really shine on some of Robbie’s best lyrics.
“Temptation stands just behind the door,
So what you wanna go and open it for?”
-From “Jawbone”
Commonly referred to as “The Brown Album," The Band’s sophomore effort, The Band, is every bit as good as their first album. And, considering I have it listed at the top of this list, that much better too.
Released a month after the Summer of Love had ended, The Band is everything that concept never could be: good, authentic and unpretentious. Surprisingly, it hit #9 on the Billboard charts (and, for some reason, shot up to #10 in 2000 on Billboard’s Internet Albums chart) and its most well-known sung, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” is commonly (and sadly) associated with the horrific Joan Baez version.
The album begins with “Across the Great Divide,” which also happens to be the name of sub-par Band retrospective that came out in the late 90s. Everything that needs to be known about the album is heard in its horn, piano and guitar-filled of “Standin’ by your window in pain…” A great start to a great album.
“Rag Mama Rag” and, although it appears later on the album, “Up on Cripple Creek” are very similar in their swampy sound. The noises that Garth gets out of his instruments on “Up on Cripple Creek” should be held in a time capsule for future generations to admire. Levon’s “he he” is pretty good too.
Much time has been spent on writing and discussing “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” and, although I’m slightly tired of hearing it, it’s rightly so. The song could work both in a music and history class, with its details of the Civil War. Although Baez did change it from “there goes Robert E. Lee” to “there goes the Robert E. Lee,” referring to the boat.
“When You Awake” and “Whispering Pines” are the slow songs on the album and while they aren’t great, they’re not bad either. It just seems like a lot of The Band’s emotion had been stripped while recording “Up on Cripple Creek,” among others. But I will make this bold proclamation: The Band is one of the few albums that doesn’t have a single bad song on it. That’s very, very rare.
The next four tracks get largely overshadowed by the “hits” from the album but they’re arguably the heart and soul of it. Book ended around “Rockin’ Chair” and “Look Out Cleveland” are “Jemima Surrender” and “Jawbone,” and on all but “Rockin’ Chair,” (which instead features “Ragtime Willie”) Robbie finally gets a shot to prove his guitar expertise. One of the reasons I’m so fond of The Last Waltz is because Robbie really shines playing his guitar and for that same reason, these three are some of my favorite Band tracks. That, and it’s fun singing “Look Out Cleveland” whenever I travel to Ohio or Houston, Texas.
The album ends with “The Unfaithful Servant” and a song many call the best thing The Band ever recorded, “King Harvest (Has Surely Come).” For me, I enjoy the song but it sounds like it’s missing something. It’s also an odd song to end an album. But for all my complaining, Levon’s vocals really shine on some of Robbie’s best lyrics.
“Temptation stands just behind the door,
So what you wanna go and open it for?”
-From “Jawbone”
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Five Best...Saul Bellow novels
5. The Victim
4. Seize the Day
3. Herzog
2. Henderson the Rain King
1. The Adventures of Augie March
4. Seize the Day
3. Herzog
2. Henderson the Rain King
1. The Adventures of Augie March
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Too Nice to Blog
(As appeared in a previous issue of Inprint)
Five Best…Songs with Another Artist in the Title
5- “Jello Biafra”
Wesley Willis
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Comment: Ever wonder what a 350-pound schizophrenic singing about the ex-lead singer of the Dead Kennedy’s sounds like? Well, wonder no longer!
4- “Howlin’ Wolf”
Muddy Waters
In Concert
Comment: A tribute from one great bluesman to another, Muddy sings, “I get so bad sometime/ I be jumping from limb to limb.”
3- “Bob”
Weird Al Yankovic
Poodle Hat
Comment: Weird Al finally settles the long standing debate if a whole song can be done in palindromes (example lyric: “Go hang a salami/ I’m a lasagna hog.”)
2- “Oh Yoko”
John Lennon
Imagine
Comment: We here at Five Best only consider Yoko an “artist” in the most technical definition of the word but this song almost makes you see what John saw in her.
1- “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)”
Van Morrison
Saint Dominic’s Preview
Comment: Van The Man proving once and for all that white people can get funky.
Five Best…Songs with Another Artist in the Title
5- “Jello Biafra”
Wesley Willis
Greatest Hits, Vol. 2
Comment: Ever wonder what a 350-pound schizophrenic singing about the ex-lead singer of the Dead Kennedy’s sounds like? Well, wonder no longer!
4- “Howlin’ Wolf”
Muddy Waters
In Concert
Comment: A tribute from one great bluesman to another, Muddy sings, “I get so bad sometime/ I be jumping from limb to limb.”
3- “Bob”
Weird Al Yankovic
Poodle Hat
Comment: Weird Al finally settles the long standing debate if a whole song can be done in palindromes (example lyric: “Go hang a salami/ I’m a lasagna hog.”)
2- “Oh Yoko”
John Lennon
Imagine
Comment: We here at Five Best only consider Yoko an “artist” in the most technical definition of the word but this song almost makes you see what John saw in her.
1- “Jackie Wilson Said (I’m in Heaven When You Smile)”
Van Morrison
Saint Dominic’s Preview
Comment: Van The Man proving once and for all that white people can get funky.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Five Best...The Band Albums (#2)
#2. Music from Big Pink
-Not only is it a great Band album, it’s also one of the best debut albums of all-time. But that list is for another time. Released in July of 1968, Music from Big Pink would never reach the chart sales it should have (it’d only peak at #30) but its influence would be felt from artists ranging from Eric Clapton to My Morning Jacket.
The album begins with possibly its finest song, “Tears of Rage.” This track, co-written by Richard Manuel and Bob Dylan, was originally a Basement Tapes-era song but this version would supply the emotional output that one never could reach. Manuel’s voice is perfect for the song when he sings lines like, “We’re so alone/And life is brief.”
“To Kingdom Come” and “In a Station” are both slightly forgettable but the album wouldn’t be the same without them. After all, not every track can be as good as “Tears of Rage” or “The Weight.”
I can’t quite put my finger on why I like “Caledonia Mission” so much but I guess The Band’s “magic might be real.” This song also some of the best vocal work on the album.
Beginning with the next track, the rest of the album is simply magnificent.
There’s a reason why “The Weight” is The Band’s most well known song; Levon and Rick sound perfect while the piano work of Manuel is actually quite inspired. It’s also some of Robbie’s finest lyrics.
The next track, “We Can Talk,” is one of my favorite Band songs and also features one of my favorite misheard lyrics. When Levon sings, “But did ya ever milk the cow?,” I always thought it was, “Did Nietzsche ever milk the cow?” Frankly, I like mine better. I’m also quite fond of, “I’m afraid if you ever got a pat on your back/ It would likely burst your lungs” and “But I’d rather be burned in Canada/Than to freeze here in the South.”
It seems like you can’t consider yourself a true musician until you’ve done a version of “Long Black Veil.” Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Burl Ives, The Kingston Trio, The Chieftains, Lefty Frizzell, Mickey Nesmith (!), Dave Matthews Band, The Stanley Brothers, Jerry Garcia and, of course, The Band have performed this song by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin.
Want to scare the bejesus of some poor kid next Halloween? Play Garth’s opening organ solo on “Chest Fever.” I can remember the first time I heard it and how mesmerized and terrified of it I was. And now, it’s one of my favorites.
“Lonesome Suzie” is a good song and necessary for the album but there’s something about that doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s a little too whiny? My loss, I suppose.
The album ends with two songs that Dylan had a hand in writing, “This Wheel’s on Fire” and “I Shall Be Released.” In each of these cases, I feel they’re better at The Last Waltz but they’re still both classics, especially “This Wheel’s on Fire.” I mean, try saying the phrase “If my memory serves me well” without adding, “Wheel’s on fire, rolling down the road!” And yes, it is “your memory” instead of “my memory,” but those are just semantics. As for “I Shall Be Released,” it’s a song I respect more for what it is than how much I actually like it.
It’s sad that The Band could only capture an album as great as this one more time but at least we have this musical document to listen to. I know for me, it’s an album that I feel comfortable listening to; as if it’s all mine and no one else has ever discovered its majesty. But that doesn’t mean I won’t spread its gospel around.
-Not only is it a great Band album, it’s also one of the best debut albums of all-time. But that list is for another time. Released in July of 1968, Music from Big Pink would never reach the chart sales it should have (it’d only peak at #30) but its influence would be felt from artists ranging from Eric Clapton to My Morning Jacket.
The album begins with possibly its finest song, “Tears of Rage.” This track, co-written by Richard Manuel and Bob Dylan, was originally a Basement Tapes-era song but this version would supply the emotional output that one never could reach. Manuel’s voice is perfect for the song when he sings lines like, “We’re so alone/And life is brief.”
“To Kingdom Come” and “In a Station” are both slightly forgettable but the album wouldn’t be the same without them. After all, not every track can be as good as “Tears of Rage” or “The Weight.”
I can’t quite put my finger on why I like “Caledonia Mission” so much but I guess The Band’s “magic might be real.” This song also some of the best vocal work on the album.
Beginning with the next track, the rest of the album is simply magnificent.
There’s a reason why “The Weight” is The Band’s most well known song; Levon and Rick sound perfect while the piano work of Manuel is actually quite inspired. It’s also some of Robbie’s finest lyrics.
The next track, “We Can Talk,” is one of my favorite Band songs and also features one of my favorite misheard lyrics. When Levon sings, “But did ya ever milk the cow?,” I always thought it was, “Did Nietzsche ever milk the cow?” Frankly, I like mine better. I’m also quite fond of, “I’m afraid if you ever got a pat on your back/ It would likely burst your lungs” and “But I’d rather be burned in Canada/Than to freeze here in the South.”
It seems like you can’t consider yourself a true musician until you’ve done a version of “Long Black Veil.” Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Joan Baez, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Burl Ives, The Kingston Trio, The Chieftains, Lefty Frizzell, Mickey Nesmith (!), Dave Matthews Band, The Stanley Brothers, Jerry Garcia and, of course, The Band have performed this song by Danny Dill and Marijohn Wilkin.
Want to scare the bejesus of some poor kid next Halloween? Play Garth’s opening organ solo on “Chest Fever.” I can remember the first time I heard it and how mesmerized and terrified of it I was. And now, it’s one of my favorites.
“Lonesome Suzie” is a good song and necessary for the album but there’s something about that doesn’t do it for me. Maybe it’s a little too whiny? My loss, I suppose.
The album ends with two songs that Dylan had a hand in writing, “This Wheel’s on Fire” and “I Shall Be Released.” In each of these cases, I feel they’re better at The Last Waltz but they’re still both classics, especially “This Wheel’s on Fire.” I mean, try saying the phrase “If my memory serves me well” without adding, “Wheel’s on fire, rolling down the road!” And yes, it is “your memory” instead of “my memory,” but those are just semantics. As for “I Shall Be Released,” it’s a song I respect more for what it is than how much I actually like it.
It’s sad that The Band could only capture an album as great as this one more time but at least we have this musical document to listen to. I know for me, it’s an album that I feel comfortable listening to; as if it’s all mine and no one else has ever discovered its majesty. But that doesn’t mean I won’t spread its gospel around.
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Layla and Other Assorted Great Songs
Very busy day so I'm just going to make a quick post:
Five Best...Songs from Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
5- Have You Ever Loved a Woman?
4- Anyday
3- Layla
2- Bell Bottom Blues
1- Keep On Growing
Five Best...Songs from Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs
5- Have You Ever Loved a Woman?
4- Anyday
3- Layla
2- Bell Bottom Blues
1- Keep On Growing
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