Musical palate cleanser: meanest blues of all

This seems appropriate in light of the news that ESPN plans to let politics invade the sanctity of our Saturday football watching.  It’s Little Feat, performing “Apolitical Blues”, with the incomparable Mick Taylor guesting.

About these ads

Musical palate cleanser: nothin’ but the dog in me.

This seems like such a no-brainer for Saturdays in Athens.

If you can’t bring “Dooley’s Junkyard Dogs” back, you could do a lot worse than “Atomic Dog”.  It’s better than 90% of the stuff they pump out on the Sanford Stadium PA.

And how great it would be to hear 90,000+ going “bow wow wow” – get on it, McGarity.

Musical palate cleanser: what’s that spell?

I like to think I’m a tolerant guy.  Most of the time, I’m willing to listen to an opposing point of view with an open mind.  But some things brook no dissent.  So when I proclaim this to be the greatest break up song in the history of recorded music, don’t bother to tell me differently.  (Definitely NSFW.  Because it has to be.)

That Jackson Browne verse slays me every time I hear it.

Musical palate cleanser: Listen, mister…

Ray Davies doing “The Letter”.  What could not be freakin’ awesome about that?  (And don’t miss Robyn Hitchcock’s accompaniment on hair dryer at about the 1:45 mark.)

Bonus track from the same show:

Musical palate cleanser: Americana

I was going to post this yesterday, but paid my respects to the late Doc Watson instead.  Today, though, is about something to celebrate – Neil Young’s first album with the entire Crazy Horse lineup since 1996.  It’s called Americana and it’s an interesting concept.

Neil Young and Crazy Horse will put out an album of reworked American folk songs this summer for an LP called Americana (“Clementine,” “She’ll Be Comin’ Round The Mountain,” that kind of thing). It’s the first collaboration between Young and Crazy Horse since 2003′s Greendale and the first featuring Crazy Horse’s current full roster (Billy Talbot, Ralph Molina, Frank “Poncho” Sampedro) since 1996′s Broken Arrow. Young went on record about the release earlier this year, telling Rolling Stone that “”A very young choir of children plays with Crazy Horse [on the album]. They’re songs we all know from kindergarden, but Crazy Horse has rearranged them, and they now belong to us.”

I’ve got a couple of cuts from the album for you to sample.  First, “Jesus’ Chariot (She’ll Be Coming Round The Mountain)”:

And here’s “Oh Susanna”.

I think Neil’s right.

Musical palate cleanser: And there never was a horse…

I wasn’t interested in country or bluegrass music until I was blown away hearing Will The Circle Be Unbroken for the first time.  My favorite cut from that album was Doc Watson’s “Tennessee Stud”.

I mention that because I was sorry to learn of Doc’s passing.  The world has lost an incredible flat-picking guitarist.

Monday morning musical palate cleanser

Spring practice is over and we enter the 40 years in the wilderness part of the college football calendar, so here’s a little something to put a smile on your face.  It’s Petra Haden’s a cappella cover of “I Can See For Miles”.  I’m guessing you’ve never heard The Who sound like this before.

As you can tell, everyone’s having a great time with it.  Haden actually put together a cover of the entire “The Who Sells Out” album in that style, if you’re interested.

If you enjoyed that, here’s a bonus clip:

Musical palate cleanser, six degrees of Jeff Schultz edition

In honor of Schultz’ name dropping today, here’s Dream Syndicate’s kickass cover of the old blues chestnut “See That My Grave Is Kept Clean” (Dylan’s version is the first I ever heard of this song).

That sucker rocks.

Musical palate cleanser: six degrees of Justified.

Here’s your second Justified reference of the day.  The drummer in this clip is Mickey Jones, who plays drug dealer Rodney Dunham on the show.

Small world, ain’t it?

Oh, yeah – the clip is pretty fabulous for all the usual reasons, too.

Musical palate cleanser, bring back that sunny day edition

Another earworm got stuck in my brain this weekend, so I thought I’d share.  This one will take you back.

Recorded in 1968, but inexplicably not released at the time (you can find it in a 2000 boxed set retrospective), it’s The Supremes’ cover of Dennis Yost & The Classics IV “Stormy”.

That patented Funk Brothers rhythm section action propelling things along nicely and Diana Ross’ incomparable vocals (the first time she kicks her voice up an octave is just electric) – ahhh.  Enjoy.