21 May 2021 - Guided By Voices - The Official Ironmen Rally Song

Robert Pollard is perhaps the most prolific songwriter of all time.  He's written few better than this song.  

A clear workingman's anthem from the Dayton, OH band - that's the middle of the Rust Belt - it starts somewhat calm and controlled in the first verse, but Bob Pollard goes full on yell in the second verse, struggling to exceed the music that has also increased in volume, tempo and desperation.  The third verse is a hypercompressed repeat in feel of verses one and two - with something of a greater desperation ending on a more somber note.

Live in Cincinatti in 2016, the contrast between verses is even more pronounced,

What really got me feeling the chills on this song, however, was this version billed as the demo.  I heard a version the band recorded for the radio station KCRW, which is quite similar to this one.  The desperate emotion in Pollard's voice really shines through with a slightly quieter mix.  

20 May 2021- Warren Zevon - Keep Me In Your Heart

This was Warren Zevon's last single.  He wrote it after he realized he was dying.  It was released on his last album, The Wind, two weeks before he passed away from mesothelioma, a form of lung cancer.

Think about mortality as you listen to it.

Despite being dead, Warren Zevon managed to appear on the Grammys in 2004.  This is a very special tribute to the man, and you should see it.  These artists - most of them legends in their own right - aren't singing a duet.  They are singing backing vocals.

19 May 2021 - Marti Jones - Cliché / Don Dixon - Cliché

Let's be clear.  The Marti Jones version, released in 1988, is absolutely a cover of Don Dixon's version.   I am OPENLY posting a cover here, and not on Totally Covered.

 

However, Marti Jones brought a feel to her husband's song that was simply transcendent.  It is a desperate, haunting song that I cannot get enough of, to this day.  Also, this version adds a bridge, which absolutely adds to the mysterious appeal of this simple folk song.  

Of course, this doesn't mean the Don Dixon version sucks.  It's amazing.   Here it is.   It is a much simpler song in its arrangement - which is why it doesn't get top billing on this post.  

18 May 2021 - Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream

This week has a theme.

It is "Songs That Are So Good They Give Tony Chills" Week,

We start with this 1958 single by the Everly Brothers.  Written by famed country songwriter Boudleaux Bryant, who wrote a lot of Everly Brothers hit songs, it is a beautiful song of longing for the one you love.  The harmonies of the brothers absolutely make the hairs on my arm stand on end.  

The song was so good, it topped the pop charts for five weeks in 1958 AND returned to the charts in 1961.  It also topped the R&B AND Country charts.  Literally everyone loved this soulful, mournful song.  

17 May 2021 - Throwing Muses - Pearl

Throwing Muses, as I have stated elsewhere, is my favorite band ever.  I've seen them live twice (1989, 1995) and neither time did they disappoint.

And if there was ever a post I had been dying to write, it was this one.  

This song, from 1992's Red Heaven, is almost every Muses's fan's favorite song.  It has been compared to "Stairway To Heaven", and I get that comparison - it's epic and pulls on a wide range of emotions.  Essentially a fever dream, Kristin Hersh's vocals and unaccompanied opening guitar give me chills every time.  In the middle, it moves to a very bass-and-drum heavy song

Live, the song has a slightly different feel, with Hersh on an electric instead of acoustic guitar... but Bernard Georges and David Narcizo still don't accompany her until nearly two minutes into the song, which opens a bombastic two and a half minutes before it becomes a soulful solo again. Simply beautiful, it is a song that you need to listen to until the end.

14 May 2021 - Liz Phair - Spanish Doors & Divorce Song

Liz Phair has written songs about divorce before. 

This, the first single from her new album Soberish, her first album in over a decade, is nuanced and layered and beautiful.  Anyone who has been through divorce, or any breakup, can relate to the feeling of wanting to be alone and just hiding in the bathroom.  This song illustrates that in such a artful way.

Contrast that with an also excellent, but less beautiful and more gritty, song from her 1993 debut album Exile In Guyville, and the Girlysound tapes before that. In 2016, she called this one of her favorite songs, and I agree.  It's sad, and dark, but also jangly and hard not to relate to.  

13 May 2021 - Mark Morrison - Return of the Mack

This song leans heavily on the beat from "Genius of Love" by the Tom Tom Club.  Samples are a hallmark of hip hop music, and this entertaining song uses it well - changing the key on the sample ever so slightly.  

This song, which went to #2 on the pop charts in 1997. would be British R&B singer Mark Morrison's only hit.  Which is OK, since he is now a politician challenging to be the mayor of Leichester, in his native UK.