FSOTD #36-A *Miranda Lambert*

In a happy FSOTD convergence, Miranda Lambert's new album "Revolution" is hot on the shelves, 15 tracks strong.  One purchase from iTunes later, my first listen revealed a helping of what got her here, but I also detected a certain move towards the rock side of country.  I'll give it another spin or two in the coming days.  If asked my opinion about what to release as a single,  I'd go with "Me and Your Cigarettes".  What they did release is "Dead Flowers", which I was hoping was gonna be a Rolling Stones cover (but no).   ~Yab

FSOTD #36/Dry Town (2007)

It's her music that makes me like Miranda Lambert, but her pictures are fairly fetching as well.  My brother saw the 25 year old Texan in concert earlier this year, and she won him over in less than 10 notes.  It was a rainy Kenny Chesney show just north of Dallas, and she was one of the opening acts.  Did I mention it was raining?  Big rain, mean clouds, loud thunder.  As people were trying to figure out whether to stay put or head for cover, Lambert comes out and opens with the Creedence song "Have You Ever Seen The Rain?"...now that's entertainment. Consider the residual effect: I've heard my brother tell that story at least four times now, he was so impressed.  And now I'm repeating it.  She was definitely the highlight of an otherwise soggy day.  She finished her set, but Chesney called it quits after about six songs.   To his eternal credit, he came back within a few weeks and played a free show.  Now that's good business.

I never determined whether Miranda played today's FSOTD "Dry Town" at that show.  It's a winning little ditty, with a rhythm and wit so particular to country music.  How can you not like these lyrics:

Good hundred miles between me and Missoula
That vinyl top wasn't gettin' no cooler
I stopped at a quickie sack

I figured I'd need about a six of Miller
And one of them things so I wouldn't spill her

And I asked the girl if the beer was in the back 

While perusing the CD to check for the correct words, I noticed she didn't actually write the song.  David Rawlings and Gillian Welch did.  Kudos to them.  The CD is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, and Lambert did write or co-write 8 of the 11 tracks. It's a top-notch effort throughout.  Others would seem to agree: Rolling Stone ranked it #26 on their list of best 50 albums from 2007, and The Academy of Country Music named it their 2008 Album of The Year.

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FSOTD #35/Blue Jean (1984)

David Bowie has been many things through his long and winding career.  He has done many things. But something he's only done once is win a Grammy award.  It was for the video for today's FSOTD "Blue Jean".  Clocking in at over 21 minutes,  "Jazzin' For Blue Jean" won the award for Best Short Form Music Video.  The song itself was a hit - #6 UK and #8 US.  Released on the album Tonight, it was one of only two songs from the collection written entirely by Bowie.  The album featured collaborations with Iggy Pop and with Tina Turner, who was at the peak of her career in the wake of Private Dancer.   But Tonight - the follow-up to the hugely successful Let's Dance - was generally regarded as a disappointment.

Love him or loathe him, David Bowie is undeniably a central figure in the big, bad story of rock music.  The Wiki article puts it all together in a concise (yet by no means brief) offering.  There was one short paragraph that pretty much said it all:  In the BBC's 2002 poll of the 100 Greatest Britons, Bowie ranked 29. Throughout his career he has sold an estimated 136 million albums, and ranks among the ten best-selling acts in UK pop history. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him 39th on their list of the 100 Greatest Rock Artists of All Time.

FSOTD #34-A *PLAYLIST*

So I go to a wedding yesterday, and then I wake up this morning and the FSOTD is a song that starts with the words "love is".  Really?   As it turns, yes really.  Not one to let a trail go cold, I head to the dictionary.  Webster's says love is "the attraction, desire, or affection felt for a person who arouses delight or admiration or elicits tenderness, sympathetic interest, or benevolence: devoted affection".  Of course, if it's love, you don't really need a dictionary.  What you might want, however, is a playlist.  With devoted affection, here's the CD-length playlist "Love is...", from me to you.

Love Is A Night ~ Gino Vanelli

Love Is Like Oxygen ~ Sweet

Love Is Alive ~ Gary Wright

Love Is The Seventh Wave ~ Sting

Love Is A Long Road ~ Tom Petty

Love Is The Drug ~ Roxy Music

Love Is Blindness ~ U2

Love Is All That Matters ~ Human League

Love Is Stronger Than Pride ~ Sade

Love Is Coming Down ~ The Who

Love Is A Touch Away ~ Freddie Jackson

Love Is Here And Now You're Gone ~ The Supremes

Love Is Green ~ Jeff Beck

Love Is Blue ~ Paul Mauriat

Love Is All There Is ~ Sheryl Crow

Love Is In The Air ~ John Paul Young

Love Is Strange ~ Sonny & Cher

Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing ~ The Four Aces

Love Is The Answer ~ Lonnie Johnson

Love Is Here To Stay ~ Harry Connick, Jr.

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FSOTD #34/Love Is A Night (1975)

The year was 1975.  Woodstock-era rock was transitioning.  New wave was still below the horizon.  Jazz-fusion was definitely making its mark.  And, of course, sister disco was about to explode.  Enter Gino Vanelli.  That year, the clean living, darkly handsome Canadian released his third album Storm at Sunup, on which today's FSOTD "Love Is A Night" is found.  Vanelli was difficult to classify: Not a rocker nor a jazz man, he nonetheless displayed influences of both genres.  His sex appeal and sense of style made him a darling of the nightclub set, yet he was no party hound, nor would you ever associate him with the word boogie.  He made serious music.  Avante-garde is an appropriate description.  Unique, too, although the passing years have obscured that particular quality.

Aided by the keyboard and production talents of his brother Joe, Vanelli had scored a US hit with "Powerful People" in 1974, which rose to #22 on Billboard's Hot 100 (#17 AC).  His highest chart positions and greatest sales came in the late '70s and early '80s, including two top-10's.  By then, his sound was solid pop, polished smooth and sexy, perfect for the Adult Contemporary crowd. The music industry had caught up to Gino Vanelli.   But in the mid-70's he seemed somehow untamed, even exotic.   His back-to-back albums Powerful People and Storm at Sunup remain vibrant and poignant testaments to both his talent and the times.  They clearly set the table for his later, greater success.

FSOTD #33/Oxford Comma (2008)

The new FSOTD Friday provision allows me the choice of whatever tune I want, so Friday's Song Of The Day* is from last year's indie sensation Vampire Weekend.   It came down to "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa" or "Oxford Comma".   'Oxford' won because I like the percussion hook, and especially 'cause it was in the movie I Love You Man.   I loved that movie.  But I guess America was ambivalent about the song.  It did not chart in the US, but peaked at #38 in the UK.

So what do I really know from Vampire Weekend?  Well, I do know that they were truly a sensation back in 2007; by the time of their debut release in January 2008, they were full-fledged stars. Spin Magazine loved Vampire Weekend so much they declared them "The Year's Best New Band" with a March 2008 cover story.  To date, the album has sold well over a half million copies worldwide, one of which was bought by me.  I like it.  It has catchy tunes.  I haven't listened enough to love it, but there's some evident promise in that pop-punk.   Great hooks, with hints of Lou Reed and maybe a dash of Jonathan Richman. A slew of styles too: pop, punk, African, and is that baroque I hear?  All their songs share a uniform strength in rhythms and harmonies.   But as they progress, IMO, a little more meat on the bones will be necessary.  Like all bands, Vampire Weekend faces a simple yet certain choice - evolve or die.

They describe their music as "Upper West Side Soweto", a blend of African popular music and Western classical.  Eh?  In Friday's Song Of The Day "Oxford Comma", you might recognize the stylings of Congolese soukous music.  Huh?  The Wiki article might shed some light.  It tells of band members who met while attending Columbia University.  Then they graduated, and the rest is very recent music history.  The End.   Wait...no it's not. Their sophomore release is due out in January 2010.  Drummer Chris Tomson says the album will have 10 songs and run around 36 minutes.  Good luck VW, the bar is set a bit higher the second time around. 

*Today's true first song of the day was "Time Won't Let Me" by The Outsiders (1966).

Deep Yabbathanks to Wikipedia

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FSOTD #32-A *Pop Quiz*

It's a '60s Pop Quiz.  Pop music, that is.  Put the following six songs from the sixties in the proper chronological order of US release, numbering them 1 thru 6.  The oldest song goes first, the next oldest second, and so on, putting the most "recent" release in the sixth position.   The songs are from six different years in the decade. It's an honor system: The correct order is in smaller type, way down below.

Baby Love - Supremes

Glad All Over - Dave Clark Five

Strangers In The Night - Frank Sinatra

Surfin' Safari - Beach Boys

Ticket To Ride - Beatles

To Sir, With Love - Lulu
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(answers down further)
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(comin' up)
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wasn't that fun?    surfin'-jun 62/glad-nov 63/baby-sep 64/
ticket-apr 65/strangers-jul 66/sir-67


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