slacktivist

Es Tut Mir Leid, Evelyn

There's a flaming red horizon that screams our names ...

"Es Tut Mir Leid," Mark Heard
"Escher's World," Chagall Guevara
"Etcetera Whatever," Over the Rhine
"Eternal Life," Jeff Buckley
"Euphoria," Skatman Meredith
"Eurotrash Girl," Cracker
"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," Ella Fitzgerald
"Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye," Annie Lennox
"Evangeline," Matthew Sweet
"Eve of Destruction," The Dickies
"Eve of Destruction/Machines," Charlie McGloughlin
"Evelyn Is Not Real," My Morning Jacket

Charlie's little medley there is from one of my very Favorite Things. Charlie had a weekly show on our college's campus radio station (25 watts, baby, 25 watts of pure AM carrier current mono) called the "Radio Campfire." He'd sit down at a microphone with a guitar and a stack of cheat books and open the phone lines for requests. Charlie'd play whatever he felt like playing until the phone rang, and then he'd play whatever the caller wanted to hear. Even when it didn't quite work -- when he didn't know the song, or when whoever was working the sound board really wasn't up to the task of being recruited to sing backup on "California Dreaming" -- it still had the energy of live, without-a-net radio. But when it did work, nothing was better.

College nostalgia aside, this is something I'd love to hear a professional radio station try. That's probably never going to happen, but it should.

Detour to Diamonds

... It's hard not to fall apart

"Detour Thru Your Mind," The B-52s
"Detox Mansion," Warren Zevon
"Devil Inside," INXS
"Diamond Heart," Marissa Nadler
"Diamond Ring," Pedro the Lion
"Diamonds," Christine Havrilla
"Diamonds and Pearls," Prince
"Diamonds in the Sky," Husky Rescue
"Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," Paul Simon
"Diamonds/One Way," Larry Norman

Creep to Cruel

Hey remember this? I think we were on the letter C ...

Now it's hard to say now if he's only stupid or smart
When he crawled through the door
And poured out more
of his creeping-Jesus heart

"Creep," Radiohead
"Crescent City," Emmylou Harris
"Cricket," Thee Spivies
"Crimes of Paris," Elvis Costello & The Attractions
"Criminal," Fiona Apple
"Criminal World," David Bowie
"Crimson and Clover," Tommy James & The Shondells
"Crimson and Clover," Joan Jett
"Criticism as Inspiration," Pedro the Lion
"Cross That Line," Randy Stonehill
"Crucifixion Cruise," The Hold Steady
"Cruel, Crazy, Beautiful World," Johnny Clegg & Savuka

"Cross That Line" is D-grade Randy Stonehill. It's the sort of song that seems like it was written to gain the approval of evangelical youth ministers looking for an unthreatening "CCM" soundtrack for the kids they've been hired to keep safe within the bubble. I can't complain too much about that tactic, since it seems to have worked. Thanks to songs like that one, we kids had permission to listen to his other, better music. I wore out the vinyl on my copy of Uncle Randy's Equator and despite (or because of) the dueling bagpipes and Ethel Merman impressions, I caught a glimpse there of something subversive. In that setting, of course, the threshhold for "subversive" was pretty low, but I'm still grateful. And if boilerplate, disposable CCM tracks like "Cross That Line" somehow helped to allow for that, then I suppose I'm grateful for those songs as well.

Brand New - Bread

And softly murmured, 'Someday soon ...'

"Brand New," BoDeans
"Brand New Dance," Emmylou Harris
"Brand New Day," Eurythmics
"Brand New Day," Van Morrison
"Brand New Lover," Marshall Crenshaw
"Brandy Alexander," Feist
"Brass in Pocket," The Pretenders
"Brave Faces," Midnight Oil
"Brazil," Pink Martini
"Bread of Heaven," Katie Howard

I finally finished uploading the vinyl into iTunes, except for the records that were too scratched even when dripping wet. Anybody know where you can find a No. 1 pencil nowadays? With the waning of wax and the rise of standardized testing I can't seem to find one.

America to Americans

she will always try to guess how much but never why

"America," Prince and the Revolution
"America," Simon and Garfunkel
"America," Vigilantes of Love
"America, What's Happened to You?" Spicewood Seven
"American Girl," Tom Petty
"American Idiot," Green Day
"American Love Affair," Tonio K.
"American Music," Violent Femmes
"American Roulette," Robbie Robertson
"American Tune," Paul Simon
"American Without Tears," Elvis Costello

In Another Land

Larry Norman is no longer visiting this planet. The original Jesus rocker died Sunday of heart failure in Oregon. He was 60.

By the time I saw Norman play in the late '80s, his best work was behind him. He had become addled and erratic, prone to venting obliquely about the bridges he'd burned with so many of the people he'd worked with over the years. Yet still there were glimpses of the talent that had written so many weirdly beautiful songs.

He was, always, a long-haired, Son-worshipping Jesus Freak. A hippie -- with all of the unsustainable idealism and naivete that entails. For Norman, that hippie naivete merged with Hal Lindsay's premillennial dispensationalism -- setting him up for major disappointment and disillusionment when the 1980s arrived and neither the rapture nor the revolution seemed to be at hand. I can't help but wonder if the long downward spiral of Norman's later decades wasn't in part a result of his simple Jesus Freak idealism spoiling on the vine.

Norman's Solid Rock Records, founded in 1975, helped launch the careers of several artists who surpassed him. They're part of his legacy as well -- the children of his dysfunctional family.

And then, of course, there are his songs. Some are brilliant, some beautiful, some fatally flawed, some infuriating. Many, like Norman himself, all of those at once. Here's a sampling via YouTube:

• "The Outlaw"
• "Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?"
• "The Tune"
• "Sweet, Sweet Song of Salvation"
• "The Great American Novel"
• "Only Visiting This Planet/God Part III"

Download LarryNorman_TheOutlaw.mp3

What's

The holy dream becomes a holy face
And it leaves me reeling ...

"What's Come Over Me," Daniel Amos
"What's Going On," Marvin Gaye
"What's Gonna Happen to Us?" Daryl Hall
"What's Happened to You," The Call
"What's He Building in There?" Tom Waits
"What's My Name?" The Clash
"What's My Scene?" Hoodoo Gurus
"(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding?" Elvis Costello
"What's the Matter Here?" 10,000 Maniacs
"What's Wrong With This Picture?" Bourgeois Tagg
"What's Your Name?" Adam Again

Up to The Usual Thing

The weekend edition has this town way overrated ...

"Up," Ticklepenny Corner
"Up All Night," Green
"Up in This (Blood on the Banjo Remix)," Don McCloskey
"Uphill Battle," Sarah McLachlan
"Upside Down," Jack Johnson
"Uptight (Everything's Alright)," Stevie Wonder
"Uptown," Prince
"Upward Over the Mountain," Iron & Wine
"Us," Michael Been
"Used to Get High," John Butler Trio
"Useless Desires," Patty Griffin
"The Usual Thing," Marshall Crenshaw

Bonus track: "Uuuu (Medium Swing)," The Seventy Sevens. Mike Roe and the boys paying the bills with a peppy little number written and recorded for the CD that accompanies an instructional video called "Ballroom for Beginners." If there's a second video for more advanced dance students, the 77's really need to record "Uuuu (Fast Swing)" to cut loose the way they sound like they want to on this song.

Here's my Take

I've been wishing that I wasn't such a parasite ...

"Take a Look Around," Phil Keaggy
"Take It With Me," Tom Waits
"Take Me (Back) to You," Cracker
"Take Me Back," Van Morrison
"Take Me Back to Love Canal," Chagall Guevara
"Take Me Down to the Infirmary," Cracker
"Take Me Out to the Ballgame," The Hold Steady
"Take Me to Aruanda," Astrud Gilberto
"Take Me to Mars," Milla
"Take Me to the River," Annie Lennox
"Take Me to the River," Talking Heads
"Take Me With U," Prince and the Revolution
"Take My Heart Away," Johnny Clegg & Savuka
"Take No Prisoners," Vigilantes of Love
"Take the Skinheads Bowling," Camper Van Beethoven
"Take You There," G. Love & Special Sauce

David Lowery likes this word for song titles.

For those unfamiliar with the world of "Christian rock," let me briefly introduce Phil Keaggy: Very skilled guitar player; does uncanny McCartney impression; wrote some very good songs; wrote some awful songs; may or may not himself realize which are which.

That link for "Take It With Me" isn't to Tom Waits, but to a rendition by a woman named Solveig Slettahjell from the Norwegian TV show "Beat for Beat," which seems to be some kind of battle of the bands show. Apparently Norway's idea of reality TV involves lovely piano versions of Tom Waits songs, while we have "Fear Factor" and "Flavor of Love." Makes sense, I guess, when you consider that this is their idea of a prison.

Say Goodbye to The Seahorse

Don't you wanna see what you're missing?

"Say Goodbye," Tonio K.
"Say It Ain't So," Weezer
"Say So," Uh Huh Her
"Say Something," James
"Say What You Want," Texas
"Scarborough Fair/Canticle," Simon and Garfunkel
"Scares Me More," Jeffrey Gaines
"Schroeder T. Fell," Twitchen Vibes
"Scream in Blue," Midnight Oil
"The Sea and the Rhythm," Iron & Wine
"The Seahorse," Over the Rhine

So anyway, what kind of sick control freak would make his love conditional, based on whether or not his lover could make him a cambric shirt without seams or needlework? Maybe that works coming from a trickster elf-knight, but coming from Art Garfunkel it's just kind of creepy.