Monday, December 17, 2007

Hey Baby, There Ain't No Easy Way Out

The Shuffler is the man at table 5 calling you "honey."







"I Won't Back Down," Johnny Cash
God bless Johnny Cash! All the covers that JC did during his time with Rick Rubin were so well chosen. He made each and every one his own. Tom Petty supplies background vocals here. And here's the original with Petty playing with 1/4 of ELO and 1/2 of the Beatles. Not too shabby.

"Broken Drum," Beck
Beck makes his third appearance in five weeks. The Shuffle elves must really dig him! This track is from the Guero album and it plays like it's in slow-motion. I love the video, too.

"Up to You," Yo La Tengo
Ira Kaplan delivers one of his quintessential, noisy, yet melodic guitar solos on this cut from the modestly titled double disc of rarities, Genius Love = Yo La Tengo.

"Waitress Song," Freakwater
One of my favorite songs! Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Ann Irwin have been making roots music since the late eighties. Fans of Eleventh Dream Day will recognize Janet as the drummer and vocalist in that great indie-rock band. "Waitress Song" appears on 1995's Old Paint released by Thrill Jockey. The duo put out a record two years ago called Thinking of You with Califone. Highly recommended.

"Ballade de Melody Nelson," Serge Gainsbourg
Ahhh, the dirty old Frenchman! He's accompanied here by one of his muses, Jane Birkin. Maybe it's just me but don't you feel like you need to take a shower after listening to him? Here's the clip of a drunk Serge gleefully hitting on Whitney Houston on French television in 1986. This was pre-Bobby Brown, pre-crack Whitney so her look of horror appears genuine.

1 comment:

Teresa said...

referring to an earlier post, "a coal miner's daughter" was the beginning of my girl-crush for sissy spacek impersonating loretta lynn and that thick kentucky accent.