Song of the Day 38 : Grand Canyon ; Drive By Truckers

In my opinion in the last 10 years the mighty Drive By Truckers has only made one below par album (The Big To Do).  However this year's  English Oceans album has been hailed a return to form by many.   One of the reasons for that is undoubtedly because of this song.

Written in memory of a friend - it makes a fitting memorial.

A blog on the whole album - is still coming

Song of the Day 37 Come Rain or Come Shine : Ray Charles

The first time I heard Come Rain or Come Shine by Ray Charles on the Soundtrack to Martin Scorsese's King of Comedy.    It was the start of my journey into Charles' music and remains one of my favourite songs by the man. Can be found on the album The Genius of Ray Charles. 

Journey Through The Past 43 : Iggy Pop New Values

New Values was part of the soundtrack to my first year of flatting at university in Christchurch.

It was Iggy embracing the new wave with a poppy selection of solid if rather meaningless and even dumb songs.  I do not listen to it often but when I do I surprise myself by still knowing most of the words.

It does not get mentioned very often in assessments of Iggy's work coming immediately

The album has a few interesting tracks including Five Foot One, Girls, Don't look down (which Bowie remade).

I'm Bored is probably the best known song on the album.  Interestingly he recorded another video of it when in NZ for Radio With Pictures at a (NZ) celebrities type of event.  Here that is and clearly no one really knew what to make of him at the time as he tried to shock (in a pretty lame way).  He was clearly pretty bored!!!  I knew a guy that was there recording it and he said it was like a complete cultural mismatch.

Recent Additions : LC Cooke - The SAR Recordings

LC Cooke is Sam Cooke's brother and these are recordings he made between 1959 and 1965.  The similarities with his brother are strong especially on the tracks that were written by Sam for LC and at times this sounds like the great lost Sam Cooke Album.

Originally intended to be released just before Sam died the first ten tracks were shelved and only released this year on this package along with a few tracks recorded both before and after.

Standout tracks include Put Me Down Easy and If Only I Could Hear.

Favourites : Too Long in the Wasteland : James McMurtry

From the late 70's to the mid 80's writer Larry McMurtry seemed to be everywhere with best selling books, movies and TV shows like The Last Picture Show, Terms of Endearment and Lonesome Dove.  The latter was a particularly good TV Mini-Series (remember them?) portraying a gritty western story like Gus and Cap'n Call.  In that time I probably read at least 10 of his books.

Too Long in the Wasteland is Larry's Son's debut album, recorded in 1989 with John Mellencamp at the helm.  Mellencamp also generously lent his band to support as well.


On release the album got good reviews and James' heritage was almost always mentioned in the accompanying story.  The connection itself was a good enough reason for me to overlook the Mellencamp connection and buy the album.  I was not disappointed.  here is a selection of some of the tracks I enjoy the most; Talkin' at the Texaco where you can just get that small town US vibe,
I'm not from here for anyone who has lived in tourist town, Too Long in the wasteland and
Painting By Numbers where you can check out a very young David Letterman.

Favourites : T Bone Burnett : The Criminal Beneath My Own Hat

I first became aware of T Bone Burnett as the producer behind early Los Lobos and Blasters Albums. I wrote about him earlier in this blog as one of the producers whose work I have been following for 30 or more years.

Early on he was really championing the new roots style music that morphed over 20 years to Americana or Alternative Country.  Any press about him at that time also mentioned that he was a member of Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review.  Then he appeared with Elvis Costello as one half of The Coward Brothers who released a one off single The People's Limousine and then he produced Costello's magnificent King of America album.

In short for a while he was everywhere.

I picked up a few albums in sale bins and nothing ever quite clicked.  He has a think weedy voice and his stories and songs are generally a little eccentric in subject matter and delivery.  Not that I did not enjoy his stuff -   However this album changed that for me at least.  A very solid album - the eccentricity was wound back - just a little and he pulled together a great set of songs.  Starting with
It's Not Too Late. Humans From Earth was used on a few soundtracks and Tear This Building Down and Over You are just good simple songs.

Since recording the album he has concentrated more on his production (which as he has gotten more famous I seem to enjoy less as the clarity and life he once brought now seem drowned in bass and reverb - notably on the Robert Plant - Raising Sand album) and his soundtrack work with the Cohen Brothers (notably the great bluegrass on Oh Brother Where Art Thou).  

Favourites : Julian Cope : Jehovahkill and Peggy Suicide

Julian Cope fans are divided on what his greatest album is.  The Teardrop Explodes official last album Wilder, the environmentally focussed Peggy Suicide and some, like me, even go for this one Jehovahkill.

I first came across Julian Cope with Teardrop Explodes' first album, Kilimanjaro in 1981.

The story/myth was that the Teardrops imploded after Cope became more and more erratic as he experimented more and more with LSD. Courtney Love may even had something to with it as she had latched herself onto Julian and supposedly, and unsurprisingly, was not popular with the rest of the band.

In some respects he could be considered in a similar vein to Neil Young in the singular and eccentric path he has followed since leaving the band (now more than 30 years ago).  Seemingly recording music to please himself he has at times been very prolific.  His live shows by reputation can be stunning, frustrating or both.



His first two solo albums seemed to support the LSD theory being disjointed and erratic then with Saint Julian and My Nation Underground he produces two albums clearly targeted at commercial success (maybe just to get some $ to fund his growing literary and scholarly pursuits.  At the time he was researching a book on Stone Circles in the UK which along with a follow up similar tome on prehistoric structures in Europe mean that he is now recognised as a leading figure on the antiquities.

After the commercial success of the St Julian and My Nation Underground he produced a couple very noncommercial albums before the one two hit of Peggy Suicide and Jehovahkill.  The former with strong environmental theme and the latter clearly influenced by his fascination with the antiquities and his intense dislike of christianity.

Both were double albums and both had a mixture of soft acoustic tracks and rockers equally influenced by his love of Krautrock and The Stooges.  Both also hang together remarkably well considering their ambitious themes, testimony to both Cope's intellectual and music abilities.

There are so many good songs on these albums it is really hard to recommend where to start.  Some won't like the electric workouts, others the seemingly banal repetition of some songs but they are always interesting and well worth checking out. Julian Cope is a very singular artist and it is great that he has managed to work out how to continue following his own muse and still seemingly make some sort of living.   Check out these selections,  Soul Desert,  Gimme Back my Flag, Hard Shoulder, Julian H Cope, Pristeen / Hanging out and Hung Up On The Line, Safesurfer and Know (Cut My Friend Down)

And quite what Upwards at 45 degrees Means is anyone's guess!!!