Bob Dylan – Days Of ’49
From the much-maligned Self Portrait. It’s about the California gold rush. Every verse not only rings true, but stands up to deconstruction and the closest scrutiny. No space to do that here, but that’s okay, I love it simply as music. – webcore
The Four Tops – Could It Be You
I thought folks might be interested in this. It’s The Four Tops from 1956 when they were (in my view) an exceptionally good doo-wop band. – rockingmitch
Robert Plant – Big Log
Just to prove that I do occasionally listen to things with a tune, and words… This was the first single I ever owned (obtained through tokens from cornflake packets, as I recall), at a time when I had absolutely no idea who Robert Plant might be, but simply loved the guitar and the atmosphere. Still for me one of the very great road songs. – abahachi
Smog – Dress Sexy At My Funeral
After 6 weeks without my precious vinyl, i’ve been slowly going mad! So I finally pulled out the portable turntable, cracked open the nearest box of records and pulled out this beauty from one of my favourite albums in my whole collection. – panthersan*
Blitzen Trapper – The Tree (feat. Alela Diane)
Blitzen Trapper have moments of transcendent brilliance. Alela Diane is never less than divine. This song somehow sounds like it’s always existed, just waiting for the right people to sing it. – barbryn
The Raconteurs – Old Enough
Desperately searching through Jack White projects to fill the hole left by the Stripes. Love the bluegrassy feel of this one, and echoes of CSNY style harmonies. (A more recent version features Ricky Scaggs and Ashley Monroe.) – amylee
* Panthersan’s submission came in before recent events in Japan – I had held back, given the title, but felt it was time we heard some of his music!
earworm@tincanland.com
I liked them all this week.
Bob Dylan can do no wrong in my book. One of his lesser played tracks.
Really like the Robert Plant. I’ve heard it before, but can’t remember where (not with my cornflakes-I just got a baking powder submarine).
Smog is really good, as is the Blitzen Trapper track and I love the way the backing whacks in on the Raconteurs track.
I’m a happy bunny this week.
Why are there ads?
What browser are you using, Tin? I’m on firefox with adblocker and can’t see any!
Me neither. I’m also on Firefox with the adblocker
Maybe Tin was referring to the Cornflakes plug?!!
Its a version of Chrome. I don’t usually see them, but I see Poppressed ads under the post. Probably Ad Blocker not caught up with the latest browser build ’cause when I tried on Firefox they aren’t appearing.
I’m on Safari and don’t have an ad now, but get them a lot right under the post. It’s either making Blimpy a few bucks (hopefully), or if you use the free version of wordpress , they’re sometimes included i believe.
I’m seeing them with Firefox
Maki – something seems off on the Raconteurs song – it gets to the middle and then goes back to the beginning again.
Worked fine for me !
Yeah. I got it ok.
thanks, maybe it’s just my browser or something then. i tried it 2 or 3 times.
Keep meaning to say that’s an awfully good looking dog (and yard) you have there.
I take it you’re referring to my pup and garden photo ( take by the wife).
My favourite photo of the pooch,she looks adorably gormless , as if sniffing the flowers. I think it was a bee she was interested in really.
Nice songs, can’t say I go mad for any of them but they are all quite pleasant.
That was an absolutely first rate group of earworms, just the change of pace i was in the mood for on a rainy day and after a day of hardcore punk. Big Log was the only one i already knew, and it was good to hear it again. I don’t really have a favorite as i loved them all, but a special shout out to the fabulous newtome Dylan. Now off to Chris’ Dead album to continue the mellow mood.
I’m getting the ads too, on my (not signed-in) IE.
Not seeing them in the signed-in Safari window.
The Raconteurs tune is throwing wobblers part-way through, but does continue to the end after a couple of pauses.
A fine set of ‘worms, folks. No, actually, scratch that: a fine set of tunes, but they’re not burrowing in particularly. That’s not a slight, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them as a soundtrack to my working. Even His Bobness got past me unscathed.
Thank you everyone, and again, nicely collated, Maki.
I’m glad you added the note about Panther‘s selection, Maki, or I’d have had a real concern for his mental state, post-cataclysm.
Yeah, I felt it was wise to point out when that had been submitted.
Collation this week was intuitive but not entirely criteria free!
The Raconteurs is working fine from this end. I’ve checked the file and it doesn’t seem to be damaged. Weird. Maybe our bandwidth is taking a pasting. This post has had 75 visits in less than two hours! I know you love Earworms and everything but…
Also has anyone else noticed that WP pages tend to take a lot longer to load these days? I have my own blog on WP and there’s only me and a couple of people who ever visit and yet it takes forever to load sometimes. I’ve tried from a variety of pc’s not just my own and it’s the same on all of them.
I’ve noticed that the Spill takes a long time to load these days. I figured it was just from all of the videos we have on here. Sometimes the videos don’t show up at all either, but safari has been weird lately and i just assumed that’s what it was.
Bit worrisome that your own blog is a slow load too though. I’m contemplating a new WP blog for my photo site, but i’ve only gotten as far as loading it onto my server. (from the .org site, not the .com)
YES! Very, very noticeable, to the point where I’ve been contemplating dumping Safari, so thanks to both of you for letting me know it isn’t just me.
DsD – do you get your pages showing in weird cyrillic looking script sometimes in Safari? (although i try in in firefox sometimes when it looks like that, and the same deal. Hoping Safari has a new upgrade coming up soon, i think they don’t beta test enough before they launch).
I mostly use Firefox (with Adblocker switched on) and I don’t get many problems. However, I have to use Chrome for the BBC iPlayer because it just won’t run on Firefox. Keeps telling me my Javascript isn’t enabled, but when I look, it is.
The ‘Spill does take a long time to get going though.
I’m scared to use Chrome, i’ve heard about some dodgy Google privacy sort of issues with it.
DsD-
I’ve been trying to code in Safari, and it’s so fubar’d that i opened Firefox. FF gave me a prompt to install a new version of Flash Player, and i do believe that was the problem. That’s the message i’ve been getting whenever Safari has crashed lately.
I just downloaded the new Firefox 4. So far, so good, see if it works better taht Safari.
I have no problem using iPlayer with Firefox but if I use adblocker I can’t post on RR with it.
Big points to Panthersan for a song with Alela Diane on it. She’s got a new album coming out and I can’t week.
Diane singing on someone else’s song can’t trump Raconteurs when all cylinders are firing though, and here they are so that’s my song of the week. Hmm, suddenly in the mood for some Small Faces.
Glad you liked it, Tin. You may like this version even better if you haven’t heard it yet- i went with the other one, but this one has a more ad lib feel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qahZ-whM6o
I think sometimes it has a lot to do with false positives on pages from our malware programs. Right now Avast is giving me a lot of grief with RR for heaven’s sake. It objects to the “rubicon project” element of the page.
Is that really the Four Tops?
Blimey! 10/10 vg
I’ve also got some similar stuff by Marvin Gaye when he was with The Moonglows which I’ll post at a later date.
Time to be enormously and probably disappointingly candid. I did not have time to do a great deal of preparation (listening) for this post. This weekend has been momentous what with Quique’s recuperation and a few other things (all good). So I thought, let’s open the earworms file and invite a few people to play stuff in an order that will probably work. This list was put together on the strength of people’s earlier submissions rather than the strength of these songs. I was only sure of knowing a couple of the songs but just thought it would work that way.
When I have people round I often ask them to rummage through my music collection and ask them to choose one song. Then we listen and it often throws up really cool lists. This was my attempt to do it here.
You put so much more effort into it than I ever did! Earworms have found their home, methinks.
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erm, what is this ”having people over” thing? You, like, chat in person? Isn’t that a bit odd?
We are a little old fashioned over here, Tin. I even have a piece of paper in front of me where Quique actually wrote down the name of the song he asked me to post on RR the other day. I know we were sitting at the same table and stuff when we spoke about it, but why didn’t he text me FFS!
Looking back at what I wrote, I suppose what I’m really saying is that after six months at the helm I’ve got to know and trust your tastes in music and that is a very cool thing!
I saw some ads today as well, when I was at work. I used to think WP was ad-free, but it’s not. The ads are kinda random, in how they appear and then go away again. I think you’re more likely to see them if you’re not logged in. I guess it was just the ‘Spill’s turn to have some ads today. And, no, we don’t get cash for them. WP do, in return for hosting our bilbo bloggins bobbins.
I can’t say I’ve noticed a slowness – then again I’m just a program left behind by Blimpy in 2010 to make sure things operate according to master objectives #6, ∞, #19, and 01100010 01101001 01100111 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100101 01100011 01101011 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01100010 01101100 01101001 01101101 01110000 01111001 00100000 01111000 01111000 01111000 01111000
I had an AD for a bike share program – coming to Brooklyn.. (bloody helpful in Norfolk UK)
Haven’t had any ad problems nor any slow loading problems, I’m using Safari 5.0.3, everything’s wonderful as usual. I did wonder if there was a problem however, does anyone else think that Robert Plant’s guitar was out of tune? On three occasions it did seem to be, I wondered if it was deliberate. Loved Dylan and Tops plus Blitzen and Raconteurs, the other two didn’t connect.
What a week this has been, earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear leaks and another war, I’m gonna stop reading the paper.
I’m on 5.0.4, maybe that’s the problem too, upgraded too soon.
It has been rather a lot. It’s really unfathomable.
Yep, like these a lot. The Blitzen Trapper stood out on first listen, but all good stuff. I wonder if I’ll ever be mature enough to not think of a difficult-to-pass poo when I see that Robert Plant song title. (Probably not – Juvenility-Monitor Ed.)
“I wonder if I’ll ever be mature enough to not think of a difficult-to-pass poo”
Absolutely my first thought too but, as I have a reputation to maintain, I resisted the urge to snigger.
Thoroughly enjoying all of these; well done everyone, including ‘Hands-Off’ Maki. Is it just me, or is everyone singing someone else’s material this week? I mean, Bob D sings a (really nice) story song that could have been lifted straight off of <Bruce Springsteen‘s Pete Seeger tribute album; the Raconteurs has a Robert Plant feel to it (not really jaunty enough for bluegrass, amylee, though I see where you’re coming from), and I can easily hear His Bobness‘ voice doing the Robert Plant number. And the Four Tops = the Ink Spots. No, that last one is facetious.
Even Blitzen Trapper/Alela Diane sound like a cross between Simon & Garfunkel and the Carpenters, in a good way. Smog, on the other hand, are indefinable, except for nuances. Townes van Zandt, maybe? Nick Cave?
Incidentally, @Goneforeign, I think that Planty’s guitar player hit a bum note at the start, quickly rescued it with a bend, and then did the guitar player’s getout – played it again, so people will think it’s deliberate….
Haven’t had a chance to listen yet, on account of being in a Chinese hotel room with a slow internet connection – but just wanted to drop in and say hello, because it’s kind of cool to be able to access the ‘Spill from China (we’re apparently not subversive enough to censor).
Glad people are enjoying Blitzen Trapper and Alela (there’s a new album due? That’s wonderful news)
I think its out in some places
thanks for your consideration Maki, it could easily have been prophetic!
Things have calmed down here a little bit but we still have daily scheduled power outages and the shops are still empty of basic foodstuffs. We are off to Sweden (yes, again, and yes, despite the fact that the shop closed it’s doors 6 weeks ago!!) on Thursday (not escaping the radiation, it was booked long ago) so will be able to get out of the misery for a while at least…..not that we want to abandon Japan in it’s hour of need of course…we are looking into whether we can put up any refugees from the tsunami in our extra side house – but I don’t think any of them will want to move to somewhere so near the sea so quickly!
Enjoyed all the earworms as usual, special mentions should go to the Four Tops – such a great sound and Blitzen Trapper.
cheers all, see you in a coupla weeks…
p.s. I sometimes get ads too and t’Spill has been loading very slowly for quite a while now too
Good to hear from you, Panther. Have fun in Sweden.
Another set of fine tunes, well assembled. Least keen on the Robert Plant (something to do with the leaden, interminable ‘handclaps’) and the Four Tops is not something I would normally listen to (but, as with most RM selections, it has that ‘classic’ air).
The Raconteurs (the audible 1:46 anyway) reminds me so much of early-ish post-Sandy Fairports; that could easily be Swarbrick on the fiddle and Dave Mattacks on the drums.
The (Smog) track was the first I ever heard of his, some ten years ago, and I’ve been a devoted fan ever since. It was on a compilation a friend did for me with no track listing and I thought it sounded like Lou Reed at first. Most of the others were familiar too. i’m never going to be a Robert Plant fan but at least I didn’t skip over this one. Blitzen Trappen are a delight. Fans should also try Akron/Family.
Self-Portrait might be ‘much-maligned’ because is doesn’t have a tortured-soul concept narrative like his most acclaimed albums, but a boring old narrative about deep love for the people of one’s country and the music they make, with a sprinkling of actual humour. I first heard of it when Richard Curtis chose the cover of “Let It Be Me” on Desert Island Discs. Great earworm choice, thanks webcore.
I do like the considered understatement of “they were (in my view) an exceptionally good doo-wop band”. And indeed they were. Is that the great Levi Stubbs in this incarnation, it’s certainly a lower-pitched lead vocal than the usual doo-wop tenor. Thanks Mitch.
The “tokens from cornflake packets” reminded me of a classic piece of abuse about where a bad driver might have got his licence from. And I like this song too, thanks Abahachi.
The Smog I hadn’t heard before, and it is nicely Lou-Reedy but also nicely not Lou-Reedy. Very poignant, thanks panthersan and I hope you and yours are OK.
“This song somehow sounds like it’s always existed, just waiting for the right people to sing it”, is just right. Another new one for me, thanks barbryn.
The Raconteurs is great too, just as I was wondering if it was too heavy for me, there was a folky bit of fiddle, and then the distortion kicked in quite heavily and that was good too. Thanks amylee.
And thanks Maki for instinctively throwing it together. Clearly in the words of whichever sportsperson said it, the more you practise, the luckier you get !
Enjoyed this lot. The Raconteurs reminded me of The Who and The Small Faces. Had heard The Tops’ song before, but a heck of a long time ago. Thanks everyone.
Late coming to the party (again), but this lap top is becoming a real pain in the arse. It keeps coming up with (not responding) in brackets for internet explorer and the page goes a milky white, freezes and the egg timer spins until it decides to right itself in it’s own time. I’m also having problems with the sound quality in Media Player.
OK, I know, it’s my own fault for having Vista and running Norton. Things will change soon.
Anyway, lovely mix again Maki. Three stand outs for me this week were Robert Plant ( a shoe in for me), Blitzen Trapper (new to me ) and Raconteurs.
@DaddyPig. The sports quote is from the South African golfer Gary Player. “Strange. The more I practice, the luckier I get”.
Oh yes, thanks bluepeter. It’s a good quote.
Interesting mix. I agree with what Williamsbach said somewhere up above. A few of the songs sounded as though they were from an earlier era, to me.