I’ve been pretty into Burt Bacharach and by extension Dione Warwick lately.  Before she was the wackadoo hosting informercials for the Psychic Friends Network, she sand quietly sad songs for Mr. Bacharach.  One such song, the classic “Walk on By,” was covered by Issac Hayes in an epic twelve-minute  version.  I couldn’t find that track on youtube, here is his shorter three-minute cover.

Bill Cosby. Comedian. Actor. Pioneer of psychedelic music.

Who else but the Cos could add such a peanut butter crunch/Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids feel to this groundbreaking Lennon/McCartney composition? Certainly no one on the “I Am Sam” original motion picture soundtrack.

Released as the lead track on 1968′s “Bill Cosby Sings Hooray For The Salvation Army Band!”, Cos’s second music album is looser than 1967′s “Silver Throat: Bill Cosby Sings”, yet never reaches the absurd majesty of tracks like “Rudy” off 1977′s unfairly overlooked “Disco Bill”.

Check back later for Richard Pryor’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” and Redd Foxx’s epic cover of the entire “Their Satanic Majesty’s Request” LP.

Without a doubt, George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You” was my favorite song as a four-year old.   I’m sure this had something to do with the fun video with great low-budget special effects, taxidermied animals playing instruments, and a Harrison-stand in dancing and doing a crazy backflip.  As a kid I was convinced that Harrison himself was doing the dancing, I’d like to believe at one time he could. 

The song is undeniably catchy, perhaps the last great Beatles solo song.  What do I consider the worst? Why, Paul McCartney’s nauseating 9/11-reactionary schlock, “Freedom.”  It’s repetitive, exploitative, and droning.  If this the best Sir Paul can do, the terrorists truly have won.

I think we think we work hard but we do not work that hard. Work songs. Three songs by Lead Belly. We swing and we sing.

Pick a Bale of Cotton / Grey Goose / Take This Hammer

In its vision of the “City of Light,” 10cc’s opus “Une Nuit A Paris” has more in common with George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London and this 1999 piece from The Onion than more romantic conceptions of the city.

10cc’s Paris is sleazy, dirty, and a bit cartoonish with constant references to different Parisian locations. However, 10cc manages to pull off a trick with the song, while the lyrics are snotty and bawdy, the music itself is grand and beautiful; lush and layered, much like Paris itself…I imagine.

Since I can’t think of an equally insightful song about London, here’s a performance at the 2003 Grammy’s where Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Dave Grohl, Steven Van Zandt, Pete Thomas, and Tony Kanal of No Doubt played the song as a tribute to the late Joe Strummer. On the surface it sounds like a bit much, but by the end of the performance any award show cynicism fades away for a few minutes.

As an interesting side note, The Clash were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, but there are mixed reports as to whether or not they had refused to play at the high-priced ceremony. Reportedly Joe Strummer agreed to play, but bassist Paul Simonon refused. Politics were never simple with “The Only Band that Mattered.”

I’m hooked on Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind.” This is surely not a ground-breaking, obscure find, but I think you’ll find the the comments on the youtube video of the song make it worth posting.

The comments section has shockingly descended into commenters arguing over which American city is the coolest and which city has the best pro sports team. To echo the sentiment of one commenter, who writes songs about Pittsburgh? I hope you’re proud Jay-Z, you truly are a satanic, masonic, Illuminati, demon.

On another note, I hope someone out there feels compelled to mash-up (we still say that right?) “Empire State of Mind” with the Billy Joel classic “New York State of Mind.” It would be so 2005.

Then again, this is what happens when you mix Billy Joel and Jay-Z.

It’s pretty hard to go wrong posting a Harry Nilsson song. A surefire hit-maker, Nilsson is the stuff of rock legend. He transcended genres, tapping into Tin Pan Alley, country, reggae, hard rock, and power ballads. His songs are embedded into the pop consciousness. Even if you don’t know his name, you probably have heard his operatic rendition of Badfinger’s “Without You,” his cover of Fred Neil’s “Everybody’s Talking” that closed out Midnight Cowboy, his novelty hit “Coconut,” or you may recall the raging drums in the helicopter scene in Goodfellas from his song, “Jump into the Fire.” Somehow Nilsson managed to top the charts while still cultivating a cult status (refusing to perform live for many years probably helped).

Nilsson exhibited a wicked, sneering sense of humor on many songs, a few that would have bordered on “Weird” Al-esque territory, if it wasn’t for Nilsson’s beautiful voice and song-writing talents. On the track “Joy,” Allmusic points to Johhny Cash as Nilsson’s point of parody. The Cash vocal influence is clearly evident, but there are also some hints that Nilsson is making fun of his own sad sack love songs as he grows bored with the lyrics “…good, bad, good, bad…” towards the end of the song.

In a live version posted below, Nilsson goes the more direct route, taking off the baritone vocals in favor of his trademark velvety delivery.

To honor the induction of NASCAR legend Junior Johnson into the inagural class of NASCAR’s Hall of Fame, here is the theme from “The Last American Hero” by Jim Croce. The movie told the story of Johnson’s transformation from a moonshine runner to a racing champion. It was based on an article written by Tom Wolfe.

I’ve also included the trailer for the film which featured an amazing cast of
Jeff Bridges in the title role, Gary Busey as his younger brother, and Art Lund (of Black Caesar fame) as his father. Ned Beatty also has a small role as a sleazy racing promoter. What a time for movies!

According to Wikipedia:

“Poison Heart” is the 1992 single by the Ramones written by ex-bassist Dee Dee Ramone. It has a different pace to normal Ramones works. It was given to the band in exchange for bailing Dee Dee out of jail.

I’m sure I had heard the song “New York Groove” at some point as I grew up on classic rock radio.  It was not until I attended the U.S. Open earlier this year that the song really hit me.  I saw Novak Djokovic advance to the semi-final round.  As he was joyously hitting tennis balls into the crowd, the U.S. Open music guy cranked the song.  It captured the moment well.  Victory in sports is always a cause for celebration, but a victory in New York City (well Queens) means something else.  It’s a musical theme that stretches back to Frank Sinatra singing “New York, New York.” Sure it’s quite arrogant to suggest that New York means more than other cities, but there is a reason people move there and put up with high rents, crowded subways, and whole host of other negatives.  There is glory and fun.  There is being, well, fabuloussssssssssssssssss.

Novak Djokovic found the New York Groove.

In searching for the song I wasn’t even sure of the lyrics.  I knew the words “New York” were involved and that there was a “groove,” but I had missed the “I’m back part.”  The song isn’t about mere accession, it’s about a return to form, a second act, fitting as Novak Djokovic had not advanced far in tennis tournament in recent time.

While it was probably obvious to most, I didn’t know Kiss performed the version of the song that is most famous.  I’ve never been a Kiss fan.  It’s impossible to deny their impact, but the Kiss revival came about in the 1990s when I was first getting into music.  I was a bit angry that Kiss had hijacked the culture for a bit.  Bands like Stone Temple pilots talked about how much they loved Kiss growing.  I’m sure Kiss really touched young Midwestern rockers back in ’75, but  for a fourteen-year old in Queens, Kiss did not feel rebellious, extreme, and exciting, they felt contrived (perhaps they always were).  Kiss reunited, Kiss participated in a Kiss-themed movie: Detroit Rock City, and even appeared on WCW’s Monday Night Nitro (that part I kind of love).

I still harbor a lot of the same resentment towards Kiss as they are currently mounted their twelve reunion tour, but “New York Groove” melts it all away for few minutes.  The song comes from Ace Frehley’s solo album.  Yes, at one point all four members of Kiss put out “solo” albums simultaneously in 1978.  Talk about arrogant.  This song was the only real hit from the albums.  It is actually a cover of a song by the band, Hello.  Hello was apparently a semi-popular glam band in the 1970s, but the harmonica in the song add more of a honky tonk flavor, unlike Kiss’s version which clearly shows a disco influence that creeped into a lot of mega-rock bands at the time.

Artist Daniel Guzman offers another take on “New York Groove.”  Guzman uses the song for a fun, unauthorized music video that has been shown in various galleries around the world.  I stumbled on his work on youtube while trying to find the Kiss version.  The New York Times says Guzman’s “combination of music, dance and mise-en-scène is amusingly uplifting.”

Later I learned the New York Giants play the song after victories in….New Jersey.