Archives for February 2017

Certain Songs #794: Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sound – “Another Man’s Thing”

February 18, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro Rock & Fuzz Funk
Year: 1973

Ever since I first wrapped my head around the immortal The Indestructible Beat of Soweto back in the mid-1980s, I’ve gone through occasional phases where I’ve waded through various compilations of African pop/rock/whatever music, looking for other songs that hit me as hard as some of those did.

This is just dabbling — I wouldn’t even remotely consider myself an expert on any of it — but I tend to really enjoy what I discover when I go through those phases. And so a few years ago, I came across (actually I think it came from Kirk) the wonderfully titled Nigeria Rock Special: Psychedelic Afro Rock & Fuzz Funk, which featured the truly bonkers 1973 track “Another Man’s Thing” by Joe King Kologbo & His Black Sound, which to me is proof positive that White Light / White Heat made it to Nigeria.

Certain Songs #793: Joe Jackson – “I’m The Man”

February 17, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: I’m The Man
Year: 1979

Fuck yeah, “I’m The Man!”

It goes without saying that my favorite Joe Jackson song is the raver that that gave his second album not just its title, but its reason for existing.

With guitarist Gary Sanford frantically throwing out chords while drummer David Houghton and all-time killer bassist Graham Maby lay down cover fire, Jackson sets himself as the “I Write The Songs” guy of useless ephemera.

Certain Songs #792: Joe Jackson – “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”

February 16, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Look Sharp!
Year: 1979

When Look Sharp! debuted, Joe Jackson was almost instantly compared to Elvis Costello, not just because they were both U.K. singer-songwriters who flirted with punk rock without ever fully crossing over, but also because they wrote barbed-wired songs about relationships.

As their subsequent careers showed, of course, they weren’t anything at all alike, but in the late 1970s, I guess we could be excused for trying to sort it all out by lumping them in together. If Jackson wasn’t quite as narsty as Elvis the C, he still sported still a pretty decent lyrical edge in songs like “Fools in Love,” “Sunday Papers,” “One More Time,” and the stone cold classic “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”

Certain Songs #791: Joan Jett – “Bad Reputation”

February 15, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Bad Reputation
Year: 1980

When Tim & I saw Joan Jett & The Blackhearts at the Warnors Theatre in May of 1982, “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll” had just finished its seven-week run as the number 1 song on the Billboard chart (where it had replaced “Centerfold,” so as you can imagine, there was a shitton of heat around her at that time.

What I remember mostly about it was that the crowd was incredibly young and female: this was clearly tons of teenage girls first concert, and I hope a lot of them were inspired to pick up guitars (or whatever) and start bashing out their own versions of the straighforward rock ‘n’ roll that was Jett’s forte.

Certain Songs #790: Jimmy Cliff – “The Harder They Come”

February 14, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: The Harder They Come
Year: 1972

I will confess that I don’t think I’ve ever seen The Harder They Come film itself, but the soundtrack album was the second reggae album I ever bought (the first was Catch a Fire, and that was bought just the day prior), and I’m most certainly not the only person for whom this soundtrack was a key reggae album.

And all of these years later, many of the songs remain utter classics, with the key tracks for me being Toots & The Maytals unrelenting “Pressure Drop” and Jimmy Cliff’s title track, the only song on the album written specifically for the film.

Certain Songs #789: Jimmie Dale Gilmore – “Santa Fe Thief”

February 13, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Spinning Around The Sun
Year: 1993

Jimmie Dale Gilmore is part of an unfortunately large cohort of country (or country-associated) singer-songwriters whose work has either completely missed my radar or only touched it occasionally. It’s a big world, and I’m just one bad hombre.

And while Gilmore has been at it since 1972, when he was part of a legendary-in-some-circles band called The Flatlanders, the only albums of his I think ever heard were the ones he recorded for Elektra, After Awhile, Spinning Around The Sun and Braver Newer World, and the only that ever stuck was Spinning Around The Sun.

Certain Songs #788: Jimi Hendrix – “The Star Spangled Banner (Live at Woodstock)”

February 12, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Woodstock Motion Picture Soundtrack
Year: 1969

Let’s face it: “The Star Spangled Banner” is not a great song.

Not only does it have musical roots in a British drinking song — let us never forget that our national anthem is basically stolen intellectual property — it’s also fucking impossible to sing if you don’t have the range of a Whitney Houston.

Certain Songs #787: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “All Along The Watchtower”

February 11, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Electric Ladyland
Year: 1968

The preferred theme song of both old Cylons and young Popes is also the best artifact from 60 years of Dylanology.

As the consensus “all-time greatest cover version” (though I still prefer Hüsker Dü’s psychedelic thrash version of “Eight Miles High“) in rock history, there is absolutely no question that Jimi Hendrix’s reinterpretation of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower” deserves every single accolade it’s garnered over the decades.

Like most of the best songs on John Wesley Harding, Dylan’s original “All Along The Watchtower” was mostly acoustic, completely chorusless with the only concessions to rock ‘n’ roll being Kenny Buttrey’s relentless snare drum.

Certain Songs #786: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Are You Experienced?”

February 10, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Are You Experienced
Year: 1967

First off, let me answer the question. Yes, I have been experienced. Let me prove it to you.

:: Plays long backwards guitar solo ::

Picking up the gauntlet that The Beatles had just laid down with “Tomorrow Never Knows” and “Rain,” but amping the volume to 11, the title track to Are You Experienced formally invokes the drug trips Jimi’s asking about in the lyrics.

Certain Songs #785: The Jimi Hendrix Experience – “Third Stone From The Sun”

February 9, 2017 by Jim Connelly

Album: Are You Experienced
Year: 1967

Every other song on Are You Experienced had some kind of precedent in the past.

There were tight pop songs like “Foxy Lady” and “Purple Haze.” There were the hard-rocking pop songs like “Foxy Lady” or “Fire,” there were the bluesy songs like “Manic Depression” or “The Wind Cries Mary,” there was the psychedelia of “Love or Confusion” and the title track. And, of course, there was the mandated-by-law cover of “Hey Joe.”

Except for “Third Stone From The Sun.” It was pretty much unprecedented.