Just a drive by post today. Blog favourite (and Guapo fave) Fitz and the Tantrums doing a live performance of “Breakin’ The CHains Of Love”. Great band, great song. Have a great Monday evening. Love the sax solo.
Alberta native Corb Lund is featured today (a few days late) as my Halloween choice for Song Of The Day. Corb has been an Alberta favourite for many years. Originally a punk rocker in the 1990’s, he moved to country/folk and has ridden success since. I love the name of his band, The Hurtin’ Albertans. He has 5 Juno nominations with 1 win and 25 Canadian Country Music association nominations with 11 victories. This tune, “Dig Gravedigger Dig”is from his 2012 album “Cabin Fever”. The song shows off his skill as a country singer and generates a pretty good official video. As a commenter says, Canada’s version of Thriller.
Three very different takes on this classic. The original was written by Bob Dylan in 1962 and appears on his second album, “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan“. It was first performed by Dylan at Carnegie Hall in 1962. Over the years it has been recorded many times by a wide and varied array of talent. Dylan himself has redone the song several times, most recently in 2007. I have touched on this diversity with what I believe are some pretty different versions, and finished off with the original.
First up, a version by Roxy Music‘s Bryan Ferry. As expected, it is different. He recorded it in 1973 on “These Foolish Things” where he did a raft of covers.
Bryan Ferry
Jason Mraz performed this song on “Listen To Bob Dylan: a Tribute”. Another slightly different take done in the Mraz style. Nicely done.
Jason Mraz
And of course the original.
Bob Dylan
A bit of a switch from our regular programming. Today we go heavy Folk (Bluegrass??) with California indie-folk duo, The Milk Carton Kids. A very interesting group on today’s media stage. They have released 3 albums since forming in 2011. Heaven is off their most recent release, “The Ash and Clay”. Good song, a bit different, and i hope you enjoy it.
The Milk Carton Kids on Amazon
The Milk Carton Kids on iTunes
Interesting covers goes old-time. Today we look at a milestone song “Hound Dog“. It was written by the legendary team of Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller in 1952 after meeting and hearing Willie Mae (Big Mama) Thornton. The meeting had been arranged by Johnny Otis. They were 19 at the time, unbelievable. Big Mama Thornton was the first to record it (August 1952) and released it in February 1953. It was her only hit, but the song, well that’s a different story altogether. It has been covered over 85 times and charted on several of those incarnations, although none had the success of either Big mama’s or Elvis Presley’s versions. The Elvis version is obviously the best known and placed at 19 on Rolling Stones Top 500 of all time, not to mention being in the Grammy’s Hall of Fame. Who has covered it you ask? A veritable who’s who of music and reflecting a wide diversity of style. Jerry Lee Lewis, Pat Boone, John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix, Conway Twitty, Eric Clapton, James Taylor and Frank Zappa. Crazy! We will dispense with the poll on this, seems the work involved is not worth the 1 vote each time hahaha. We’ll start with Big Mama, move through a couple of others and finish up with Elvis. Enjoy!
The Big Mama version is very much R&B and a lot less frenetic than the more familiar Elvis effort. I like the voice and her control of the song. The instrumentation is subtly performed by some very good musicians. A great song done like this.
This version is by one of my favourites, John Lennon. Unfortunately, the song is not up to his standards, ruined by some “singing?” by Yoko doing her best imitations of a dog. Kind of funny to listen to and watch. Some good playing though.
Here is the Jimi Hendrix version, unmistakably his.
And of course, Elvis.
I had a serious infatuation with Duffy’s voice back about 4 or 5 years ago. Her debut album “Rockferry” is one of those stunning debut records that show incredible potential. She came on the scene with an entire bevy of English female singer songwriters that quickly took over the airwaves. Think Amy Winehouse and Adele. In many ways, Duffy was the Animals to the others Beatles and Stones. Very good, but not at the top of the heap. Unfortunately, she lost me with the release of her second album in 2010 called “Endlessly”. Still, Rockferry will be an enduring classic and should be in your collection. songs such as this “Serious” will likely be timeless and enduring.
Dido has carved out a very nice career since breaking into the scene in the mid 90’s. Since 1999, she has released 4 albums, 19 singles and an EP. The one song that I always remember is “Thank You”. The song here, No Freedom, released off her March 4, 2103 album, “Girl Who Got Away” is reminiscent in places of Thank You. Personally, I was surprised that 4 albums is all she has given us, seems like more. Her style is soothing and eclectic all at once, veering from pop to electronica. Good singer and a pretty good song.
Today we have another tune from a regular contributor to the series, Joel Plaskett Emergency. The song is a great sing along called Deny Deny Deny. Joel is a great good time music maker in the great Maritime Canadian tradition. You can hear the Celtic undertones and almost expect a fiddle and an accordion to pop in any second. The tune is performed live somewhere in Halifax.
Break is over, and boy, do I have a lot of tunes to share. Shazam has been really busy with me lately, and there is one h e double hockey sticks worth of good stuff out now.
Today’s tune is by a band (whose name is almost impossible to figure out if it is the song name or the band name) called The Wilderness of Manitoba. Strangely enough, they are not from Manitoba, but are actually from Toronto. They are described as a chamber-folk group, which is apt as you listen to the song. They have some very rich harmonies, accented by pretty much every string instrument known to man. All in, very complex and quite pleasing to the ear. Some will like this, some will not.
The Wilderness of Manitoba Home Page
The Wilderness of Manitoba on iTunes
The Wilderness of Manitoba on Amazon
The Wilderness of Manitoba on CBC
As if to prove I truly use the shuffle function, up comes a Michael Buble tune that, although nice, is not anywhere near the top of my musical food chain. Typically, I’ll hit next when one of his songs comes up in the queue. Not this time though. Michael Buble is a huge world-wide superstar, a Canadian crooner at the top of his craft. He sells out anything and anywhere. His style is a throwback, a scotch drinking smoker with a crazy sense of humour, and, of course, a great singing voice. This tune, “Comin’ Home Baby, is from his “Call Me Irresponsible” album and is a duet with Boyz II Men. The song is a jazz tune from 1961, originally done by the Donald Bailey Quartet, later recorded and turned into a hit by Mel Torme. Many artists have covered it, including Herbie Mann, David Sanborn and Quincy Jones.
Enjoy, and let’s hope the shuffle God is kinder next time.