Pop pap? Glorious? Should I admit in public that I really, really like this song?
Continue reading...Rock and Roll
170: Laura Nyro, ‘Luckie’ (“Eli & the 13th Confession”)
(Boom!Boom!Boom!) Are you rea-dy???
The evolution of the first 4 seconds of Laura’s masterpiece.
103: Little Stevie Wonder, ‘Fingertips’
Little Stevie Wonder recorded ‘Fingertips’ at the age of 12 – a fledgling perhaps, but certainly not innocent.
There’s a fervor brewing here that may have begun on the altar in the church choir, but reached its pitch afterwards up in the balcony with some willing young soprano.
176: Chuck Berry, ‘Too Much Monkey Business’ (Bob Dylan, ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’)
Who da daddy of rap?
Who da grandaddy?
070: Buddy Holly, ‘That’ll Be the Day’
Buddy Holly’s great song and the night The Grateful Dead backed me singing it. Yeah, for real.
Continue reading...042: Leiber & Stoller, ‘Yakety Yak’ (The Coasters)
“Just tell your hoodlum friends outside you ain’t got time to take a ride.”
The great L&S and their incredible shaggy hound dog story.
031: The Beach Boys, ‘Little Saint Nick’
I live in the only non-Christian country in the Western world, where Yuletide is quite conspicuous in its absence. But who can resist the greatest hot-rod carol ever?
Continue reading...054: Mickey & Sylvia, ‘Love is Strange’
‘Sylvia, how you call your lover boy?’ ‘Lover boy!’
Mickey & Sylvia, Everything But the Girl, 3 bejillion viewers of ‘Dirty Dancing’, even you and I once upon a time– we have all been testifying and sleazing for 60 years on now–love is very strange indeed .