{"id":649,"date":"2007-01-10T19:14:42","date_gmt":"2007-01-11T03:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/archives\/2007\/01\/10\/recent-tracks\/"},"modified":"2007-01-10T19:14:42","modified_gmt":"2007-01-11T03:14:42","slug":"recent-tracks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/2007\/01\/10\/recent-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Tracks"},"content":{"rendered":"

"I’ll Be Creepin’"
Three Dog Night<\/strong><\/p>\n

I hold you in my arms, like nobody else
When I know we’re apart, I won’t take no less<\/em><\/p>\n

If Paul Rodgers had died, he’d be an icon.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Paul Kossoff did and is not.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he didn’t quite live long enough, his post-Free career was only beginning when he O.D.’ed, whereas Paul Rodgers moved on to Bad Company.<\/p>\n

In the summer between my senior year of high school and freshman year of college there was this song on the radio…\u00c2\u00a0 How does one describe "All Right Now"?\u00c2\u00a0 Really, it was the guitar sound, Paul Kossoff’s guitar sound.\u00c2\u00a0 Didn’t matter if you had an AM radio with one speaker in the dash or an 8-track tape setup, that sound reached you.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like there was an explosion in Kossoff’s Les Paul.\u00c2\u00a0 Like they were cooking something in there.\u00c2\u00a0 And you COULD HEAR IT!\u00c2\u00a0 And then the singer…\u00c2\u00a0 Such SWAGGER, such ATTITUDE!\u00c2\u00a0 I loved that record so much that when I moved to Middlebury and was car-less, I purchased the album, "Fire and Water", just to hear it.\u00c2\u00a0 I ultimately found an extended solo, not included in the single version, but the rest of the album just didn’t reach me, and I paid almost full price for it.\u00c2\u00a0 I was disappointed, I never purchased another Free record.<\/p>\n

But only a few months later, there was this ad in "Rolling Stone".\u00c2\u00a0 Not a full page, but less than that.\u00c2\u00a0 I seem to remember a one third vertical strip.\u00c2\u00a0 And reading every single line in that magazine, it being much more important than anything I studied in class, I discovered that if I just sent a note to A&M Records, in Hollywood, California, I’d get a FREE ALBUM!<\/p>\n

It was different from today.\u00c2\u00a0 There was no e-mail, you didn’t make long distance phone calls, people were unreachable.\u00c2\u00a0 I put the letter in the mail, but I really didn’t believe I’d get anything in return.\u00c2\u00a0 But a few weeks later, I got a notice in my box in the mail room to pick up a package, the sampler "Friends" had arrived.<\/p>\n

It was always hard to get noticed, always difficult to get traction.\u00c2\u00a0 If you got radio play, fine.\u00c2\u00a0 But what if you didn’t?\u00c2\u00a0 I never heard of another free A&M sampler album, but this one I played plenty, and got turned on to a plethora of acts.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody from Humble Pie, with their "One Eyed Trouser-Snake Rhumba" to Cat Stevens and "Trouble".\u00c2\u00a0 But the one song that made an indelible impression was Free’s "I’ll Be Creepin’", from their second, eponymous album.<\/p>\n

If you’re trying to screw me baby
Take my advice
Opportunity baby
Never knocks twice<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, the guitar playing is good.\u00c2\u00a0 And you’ve got Paul Rodgers’ swagger.\u00c2\u00a0 But then there’s this SWEET BRIDGE!\u00c2\u00a0 Where Paul Rodgers sings the lines atop this page.<\/p>\n

It’s the subtleties that entrance you, that rivet you, that change your life.\u00c2\u00a0 In this short passage, Paul Rodgers encapsulates all the intimacy of a love relationship, all the nuance.\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s why music is so powerful, why no movie and no video game can compare.\u00c2\u00a0 Forget the sheen, when you have those magic moments, people can’t RESIST!<\/p>\n

Instead of having sampler albums, all music is free today.\u00c2\u00a0 Well, not all, but plenty.\u00c2\u00a0 You hear about an act and go to allmusic.com to research it.\u00c2\u00a0 And listening to Three Dog Night’s version of "Liar", I decided to dig deeper into their catalog and learn more about them.\u00c2\u00a0 And I found out they covered I’LL BE CREEPIN’!<\/p>\n

I fired up my P2P app.\u00c2\u00a0 Took me three days, but I just got the track.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not as good as the Free original.\u00c2\u00a0 But it fills in the gaps, paints history with a richer brush.\u00c2\u00a0 I understand Three Dog Night’s influences.<\/p>\n

All these years later, I’m no different from a fourteen year old discovering Led Zeppelin.\u00c2\u00a0 Something gets you digging, and then you unearth these NUGGETS!<\/p>\n

Well, in this case not exactly a nugget.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’m glad I heard it, glad I own it.\u00c2\u00a0 Would I tell you to pay 99 cents for it?\u00c2\u00a0 NO FUCKING WAY!\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not worth that to you OR me.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s worth something.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the new world, this is the world that needs to be monetized, that will bring our business back to health once again.\u00c2\u00a0 As opposed to suing people for trading and watching CD sales tank seventeen plus percent this week…<\/p>\n

"Peace Of Mind"
Blue Cheer<\/strong><\/p>\n

I know, I know, it’s the band that covered "Summertime Blues".<\/p>\n

You’d never know that listening to this.<\/p>\n

Imagine yourself back in 1970, lying in a field of grass, looking up at the sky, watching the clouds blow across the horizon.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S what this sounds like.<\/p>\n

I discovered this on XM’s Deep Tracks.\u00c2\u00a0 Just because something is old, that doesn’t mean it can’t be discovered.\u00c2\u00a0 This is a different guitarist from the one who cut the hit.\u00c2\u00a0 This is pure San Francisco.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll dig this.\u00c2\u00a0 But you’ll probably never hear it.<\/p>\n

And researching the band, trying to find out who exactly they were, what was going on with them, I read in the Wikipedia that they ultimately did a record with Jack Endino, King of Seattle.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, I get e-mail from that guy, I always thought he was a nobody, he always tells me not to bother responding, he cut MUDHONEY?<\/p>\n

I e-mailed him.\u00c2\u00a0 He told me the whole story…<\/p>\n

"Highway 62"
Eric Burdon<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took my records to camp.<\/p>\n

Just because we didn’t have iPods that didn’t mean we weren’t addicted, that we didn’t need to listen to music.\u00c2\u00a0 I took my Beatle and Beach Boy albums.\u00c2\u00a0 And also schlepped them to the social.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s where I dropped the needle on "Do You Wanna Dance" and inspired by the music stole Jill Philipson from Jimmy Calechman.<\/p>\n

And coming up for parents’ day, my mother decided to buy me some singles.\u00c2\u00a0 She ran into Carl Goldfield down by the post office and he recommended three records.\u00c2\u00a0 "Foolish Little Girl", "My Little Red Book" and "The House Of The Rising Sun".\u00c2\u00a0 I NEVER would have bought the first two.\u00c2\u00a0 I played them, and came to know them, but the only one I loved was the last.<\/p>\n

I won "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" at a bat mitzvah at the Rodeph Sholom, it was a dance contest, I danced with Nancy Moss.\u00c2\u00a0 She wanted MY record.\u00c2\u00a0 I wouldn’t give it up.\u00c2\u00a0 I won’t say she never talked to me again, but it was CLOSE!<\/p>\n

Still, my favorite Animals cut is "Don’t Bring Me Down".\u00c2\u00a0 No American can pull off this sound, it ends up sounding phony.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the magic is enhanced by Alan Price’s keyboard work, and the fuzzy guitar helps, but without Eric Burdon’s vocal, it would be just another record.\u00c2\u00a0 He was just a young ‘un, but he sounded so MATURE!\u00c2\u00a0 Life must have been different in England.\u00c2\u00a0 We were on our way to becoming lawyers, doctors, we were going to set the world on fire.\u00c2\u00a0 In England there was no future, no upside, it was all about finding someone and settling down.\u00c2\u00a0 You could HEAR it in this record.\u00c2\u00a0 Whew!<\/p>\n

Years later, 1982 in fact, I went with my boss to Eric Burdon’s dressing room after a show at the Country Club.\u00c2\u00a0 My boss had offered him a deal.\u00c2\u00a0 It never closed.\u00c2\u00a0 But what blew my mind was how burned out and incoherent Eric was, like every mile on the road had taken something from his soul.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m stunned to find out he still has it.\u00c2\u00a0 But when I heard "Highway 62" on XM’s Deep Tracks, I realized he still did.<\/p>\n

"I Am In Love"
Crowded House<\/strong><\/p>\n

I bought the first two Split Enz albums at Rhino Records on Westwood Boulevard.\u00c2\u00a0 They must have qualified, because I don’t remember Harold Bronson or Jeff Gold giving me any shit for my purchase.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s the way it was at Rhino, you had to be hip enough to shop there.\u00c2\u00a0 It was "High Fidelity" for real, but instead of a leather attitude, there was a JEWISH attitude, all casual, but cutting nonetheless.<\/p>\n

I didn’t love those records.\u00c2\u00a0 But when the band put out their A&M debut, I purchased it immediately.\u00c2\u00a0 I just FELT it would be great.\u00c2\u00a0 And it was, and still is.\u00c2\u00a0 This is the one with "I Got You", and the laser-etched vinyl.\u00c2\u00a0 But as great as that track is, what made the album necessary were two cuts you never heard on the radio, "Poor Boy" and "Nobody Takes Me Seriously".\u00c2\u00a0 There was somebody LIVING in these grooves.\u00c2\u00a0 A BUNCH of people.\u00c2\u00a0 This wasn’t playing to the masses, this was cutting your soul bare.\u00c2\u00a0 They may have been from New Zealand, but they weren’t that different from me, I could FEEL IT!<\/p>\n

The band actually broke through with the follow-up, "Waiata".\u00c2\u00a0 But then they got spotty, and dissolved.\u00c2\u00a0 But before they did…<\/p>\n

If you’ve read the liner notes to the "Kink Kronikles", you know that John Mendelsohn claimed that "Waterloo Sunset" might be the most beautiful song ever written.\u00c2\u00a0 I love that track.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve got a contender, Split Enz’s "Message To My Girl".<\/p>\n

No more empty self-possession
Visions swept under the mat
It’s no New Year’s resolution
It’s more than that<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you masturbate?\u00c2\u00a0 I hope you answered yes.\u00c2\u00a0 And when you masturbate, you fantasize about what can be.\u00c2\u00a0 All you single people out there…\u00c2\u00a0 Admit it, you’ve got a fantasy.\u00c2\u00a0 But the fantasy oftentimes doesn’t square with reality.\u00c2\u00a0 So, you hold back and don’t play.\u00c2\u00a0 You continue to live in your fantasy world, you don’t risk.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the protagonist of this song has done.<\/p>\n

I don’t want to say ‘I love you’
That would give away too much
It’s hip to be detached and precious
The only thing you feel is vicious<\/em><\/p>\n

Can you admit it, can you say it out loud?\u00c2\u00a0 Or is it too risky?\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s so busy being cool, playing by the rules.\u00c2\u00a0 Concerned with their image, they’re one step removed.\u00c2\u00a0 They might LOOK good, but at the core, they’re yearning for something more, a connection, a fulfillment.<\/p>\n

Oh there’s nothing quite as real
As the touch of your sweet hands
I can’t spend the rest of my life
Buried in the sand<\/em><\/p>\n

As Bruce once sang, in a song that’s been unjustly ignored and buried, we all need that human touch.\u00c2\u00a0 Leave the house, take a risk.\u00c2\u00a0 And to embolden yourself, listen to the version of "Message My Girl" done with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, you can’t buy it.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s readily available P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 When the strings soar with Neil Finn’s voice you’ll become empowered, you’ll cast off all restraint, you’ll GO FOR IT!\u00c2\u00a0 I’m rooting for you!<\/p>\n

Crowded House got the hit, and the accolades, but really, Split Enz was better.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, do you know "Hole In The River" from Crowded House’s debut?\u00c2\u00a0 That’s got the Split Enz feel, I love it.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s too much levity in what came thereafter, not enough seriousness, I wasn’t touched.\u00c2\u00a0 But Mike Marrone found this track from the band’s outtakes album and reminded me of how truly great the Finns are.\u00c2\u00a0 They might be from far down under and get no respect, not even be on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame RADAR, but these guys are treasures.<\/p>\n

"I See You"
The Byrds<\/strong><\/p>\n

"Morning Glory"
Tim Buckley<\/strong><\/p>\n

My favorite Yes album is the very first, with the band’s cover of "Every Little Thing".\u00c2\u00a0 It’s my favorite Beatle song, and Yes rearranges it, yet keeps its essence.\u00c2\u00a0 I did a whole podcast on the band’s debut, and featured a bunch of this cut.\u00c2\u00a0 You can hear it at: RhinoCast Show #16, 1\/10\/2006<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and ultimately learn that my DENTIST turned me on to the act.<\/p>\n

Well, the second cut on the debut Yes album is a song entitled "I See You".\u00c2\u00a0 I didn’t know the Byrds did it first until TODAY, when I heard the original on XM!\u00c2\u00a0 And shortly thereafter, I heard the original "Morning Glory", which was covered so well on the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album.<\/p>\n

I now own both of these.\u00c2\u00a0 Thanks to P2P.\u00c2\u00a0 The covers are superior.\u00c2\u00a0 But sometime in the future, maybe YEARS from today, the originals will come up on random on my iPod and my mind will drift to this very afternoon, and the point of discovery…<\/p>\n

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"I’ll Be Creepin’"Three Dog Night I hold you in my arms, like nobody elseWhen I know we’re apart, I won’t take no less If Paul Rodgers had died, he’d be an icon. Ironically, Paul Kossoff did and is not.\u00c2\u00a0 Because he didn’t quite live long enough, his post-Free career was only beginning when he O.D.’ed, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-at","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}