NEW LINK I tend to listen to a lot more reggae when the sun comes out. This year it’s taking its time but this track is already on heavy repeat. I love the spoken introduction and everything that comes after. – Maki
As there has just been a report released informing that drinking lots of tea and coffee is good for warding off heart trouble, and, as I drink gallons of coffee (strong, black, no sugar) I thought of this Ella Mae Morse track. Her ticker should be ok. - Mitch
I’ve been enjoying the Chutes Too Narrow album for a few years now and its always been an Album That I Liked. Two weeks ago I was listening to it while driving around the Cambridgeshire/Norfolk countryside and for reasons unknown it suddenly changed into An Album That I Absolutely Love! - Toffee
In nearly 200 weeks of RR, I’ve been irritated by a fair few omissions but one rankles above the rest… when RobF comes to the Pearly Gates, St Peter is going to ask him how this song didn’t even make the B-list for Songs About Numbers. Will Sheff is one of the finest lyricists around, and he’s in overdrive in this song. ‘Spill points to anyone who can identify all the songs referenced. - barbryn
From an early album, Abandoned Luncheonette. It is the catchy chorus that gets me every time, that and the wonderful interplay of the two voices. It is real summer sunshine music and it is one that really gets in the head and sticks around. - Carole
From the hokum (dirty) side of the blues, Lil recorded in 1929, then 1935-37, then disappeared. This ‘un’s from ’35, with Black Bob Hudson’s appropriately joyous barrelhouse piano accompaniment. I love the unsubtle-subtlety of the rhymes, the slightly twisted nature of the arrangement, and the fresh, almost gleeful dirtiness of the whole thing. I bet songs like this have been sung ever since songs have been sung - WilliamsBach
Took a bike ride yesterday & this was on the playlist. Now no matter what else I listen to this song keeps bubbling up in my brain. It’s really a nothing song, shallow lyrics pretty simple & it won’t go away but I don’t seem to mind. Ya know an earworm. – fintan
I can’t get Misty in Roots to play, it just skips straight to Ella Mae Morse.
I have a song by Bobby Charles (writer of “See You Later Alligator” and “Walkin’ To New Orleans”) called “Take It Easy, Greasy” which is based on the Lil Johnson track His version tries to re-do “Alligator”, but it is also quite good.
I have a few Lil Johnson things on a compilation CD “Divas Sing The Blues” which is great and very raunchy.
I must’ve sent tin an empty mp3!!
Follow the link to maki’s earworm
Cheers
A shameless (google free) bid for spill points!
96 Tears – ? & The Mysterions
99 Luftballoons – Nena
7 Chinese Brothers – REM
TVC 15 – Bowie
50 Ways to leave your lover – Paul Simon
There are others I sort of half recognise. (Who did Care of Cell 44, for example – but we have to play fair, right?)
Oh and loved the song. I like melancholy fed up / sarcastic, I suppose…
I’ll give you Care of Cell 44 – The Zombies. Still 3 to go by my reckoning. Shame there’s no mention of a 41st cup of coffee.
What I love about this is that it’s not just a clever game, but that he takes the idea and builds a moving, original song out of it.
Not sure what was going on but all the songs ‘cept Maki didna play through. Was just gettin’ in to Lil Johnson & Okkervil River when they skipped, got bit more of 40 Cups of Coffee ( which is fucking ace) The Shins Chutes Too Narrow is on my top ten of the decade list & was an obsession for about a year and a half. There’s another song from this which will be part of a Fintan post sometime in the future. Which brings me to the only song that played through & man am I glad it did. Misty In Roots made me dance & go to the store for Red Stripes. That’s just ace Maki.
Inidicidual problems or playlist problems?
Tin- individual but turned out ok on the 2nd try.
@ barbryn – I’m loving the Okkervil River song. I don’t know much about them but I like everything I’ve heard from them. They’re next on my list for a thorough investigation. Any ‘where-to-start’ recommendations?
Same with me toffee!
barbryn…spotlight on you now! Okkervill spill post?
Add me to the list – was just about to make same request.
Toffee, loving the Shins one, too. Where do I start with them?
I wouldn’t put myself forward as the resident Okkervil River expert but will try to come up with a not entirely comprehensive ‘Spillpost if noone else volunteers (Fuel, are you around?). But I’d recommended the album this comes from – The Stage Names – as the place to start. I downloaded it ages ago, then never got round to listening to it, as I found it impossible to just have on in the background while trying to do some work. Anyway, I finally got round to burning a CD of it last week, and have been listening to little else since. I have another couple of albums and odd tracks of theirs, which are always lyrically excellent, but can be a little plodding musically at times – but this one is consistently ace.
I have one Shins album, which I like, so will check out Chutes Too Narrow. I was unfairly prejudiced against them after Natalie Portman’s irritating character in the irritating film Garden State told me they’d change my life. Have you heard Broken Bells, the singer’s recent collaboration with Danger Mouse? Recommended.
Right, off to give these a listen now.
i really liked The Shins too. i’d never really given them a chance before…
Enjoyed everything as usual, with the poppiness of the Shins a particular highlight. Never knowingly heard Hall & Oates before – is that a gap I should rectify?
I’m not sure I’d like to come home to someone who’s drunk 40 cups of coffee.
@ maki – The Shins‘ Chutes Too Narrow album is, to my mind, the pinnacle of their career (so far). I have two other Shins albums: Oh, Inverted World (2001) and Wincing The Night Away (2007) neither of which I’ve been able to connect with in the same way.
@ barbryn – thanks for the Broken Bells tip off – I’ll check that out.
Thanks Toffee. I’ll investigate!
I genuinely like all of these – surprisingly, as the Shins isn’t normally the kind of thing I go for. Big reggae from Misty In Roots, clever (but not clever-clever) stuff from Okkervil River, Takka Takka not as lightweight as Fintan makes out. Are Hall and Oates underrated soul genius or synthed-out eighties pop? But the Ellie Mae Morse is just…. gorgeous. No other word for it.