Chad and Jeremy - Sunstroke

While best known for their lite-pop hit “Summer Song,” British duo Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde released a pair of psychedelic albums in the late ’60s, Of Cabbages and Kings and The Ark. (“Sunstroke” is from the latter, which was released in 1968.)

The albums were critical successes for Chad and Jeremy, and The Ark is hailed as a masterpiece of psychedelia.  The public, however, was not quite as keen on the experimental releases from a band previously known for their bouncing Britpop.  Both albums tanked in sales.

Too bad, public of 1968.  You guys missed out.

They were good at creating quaint harmonies and string infused pop tunes, and Chad and Jeremy managed to use those same qualities in their psychedelic releases.  And unlike a lot of the trippy drug albums of that era, Of Cabbages and Kings and The Ark are both pleasant and listenable from start to finish.

Fairfield Parlour - Bordeaux Rose

A bit of progressive rock to kick off your Wednesday morning.

Fairfield Parlour’s 1970 album From Home to Home is considered a progressive rock classic… at least by anyone who’s ever heard it.  The album contains some great tracks, many of them in different styles (for instance, we’ve already covered “In My Box,” which sounds more like garage rock than progressive).

For whatever reason, this song has a tendency to get stuck in my head.  It is now one of my most-played songs, according to iTunes, and is one of my perennial favorites.

Woody Guthrie - Do-Re-Mi

Though he’d previously worked in broadcast radio and other live media, it wasn’t until 1940 that Woody Guthrie made his first series of recorded music and interviews.  Folklorist Alan Lomax was his interviewer, and Lomax submitted several hours worth of recordings to the US Library of Congress.

At the end of this track, you can hear Lomax reciting the exact date of the recording— March 21, 1940— for the US Department of Interior’s catalog.

Lomax, whose entire collection can be heard in the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, traveled the world for years, capturing glimpses of traditional music, stories, and lifestyles that would have otherwise been unchronicled and forgotten.  You can read more about him, and his work, here.

Rickie Lee Jones - We Belong Together

From the 1981 album Pirates, this elegant 5 minute work is said to be about the relationship between Rickie Lee Jones and Tom Waits. (The album, in fact, is more or less the result of their breaking up.)

This is by far my favorite song on the album (which garnered a 5-star review from Rolling Stone, and a #5 spot on the Billboard Charts).  It’s a theatrical piece that pays no mind to keeping a steady tempo, or even a consistant style.  This is Jones’ strong point— the ability to sing poetry without being tied down to a singular beat.   The music starts out slowly, building until the midway point, and then dissapating again at the very end.

The song is both wistful and realistic.  At first, the title lyric applies to the singer and her lover— “I think it’s better to face it / We belong together.”  Jones compares Waits to old school rebels like Brando and Dean, and herself to Natalie Wood.  And in the end, she has to let him go, because the rebel doesn’t stay tied down for long.  He no longer belongs to her:

And the only heroes we got left
Are written right before us
And the only angel who sees us now
Watches through each other’s eyes
And I can hear him
In every footstep’s passing sigh
He goes crazy these nights
Watching heartbeats go by…
And they whisper —-
We belong together
We belong together

The Zombies - I Want You Back Again

I wrote this song for you, Friends.

Ok, actually, this is The Zombies, classic English band of the 1960’s.

Dear listeners, I shall try to overcome this flu and bring FSM back from the dead.  …Like a ZOMBIE!  And now we have come full circle.

…I need to lay off the TheraFlu.  Less meds, more music coming at you.  Thanks for not unsubscribing.

Of Montreal - A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger

Recently I was thinking how my life was lacking a good, catchy, indie-pop song that had the power to make the world seem worth living in again. I then discovered Of Montreal’s album ‘Hissing Fauna Are you the Destroyer?’ and this perfectly fitting track. Enjoy.

20th Century Steel Band - Heaven & Hell

An amazing song by a steel drum group doing funk.

You can find this song on volume 5 of the much-coveted Ultimate Breaks & Beats albums.  The entire compilation— at 25 volumes— is definitely worth a listen.  You’ll probably find the source for every sample you’ve ever heard in a classic hip hop or dance song.  (For instance, Lyn Collins’ “Think (About It)”— found on volume 16— has been used by dozens of major hip hop players from N.W.A. to Run DMC.)

UBB albums only contain songs made from 1966-1984, spanning every genre from jazz to rock.  The common denominator?  Every song on UBB contains an iconic drum break, or danceable beat.  Each volume only contains an average of 8 songs, and were released by Street Beat Records in the mid-’80s.

I can’t find much information on “Heaven and Hell,” but if you’re a Doug E. Fresh fan (lol), you might recognize this from 1992’s “Back in the Dayz.”

Louis Armstrong - The Skeleton in the Closet

A Halloween treat from Louis Armstrong to you from the year 1936.

Goldfrapp - Strict Machine

The first song I heard at My Birthday o’clock. Year 23 is going to be interesting.

Not to step on the toes of another FSM birthday from earlier this week.  Man, if you’d been born a couple days later, one of us could have been the other’s dormant, parasitic twin.  …That’s how it works, right?