Friday Influences Thread 03.26.10

What has influenced you in the past -- or since the last FIT?

*

I'm always on the look out for plein air recordings -- those special tracks recorded beyond pristine studio conditions where the floors are so clean you can eat off them. Not live tracks, which are a completely different kind of menu item.

Led Zeppelin's Black Country Woman was recorded in the garden of Stargroves, Mick Jagger's estate in the 1970s. Though it sounds like a cut from Led Zeppelin III, it was originally intended for Houses of the Holy. A deep cut on Physical Graffiti, I wore the grooves out on this one. I'm guessing the drums (and probably the harp) weren't recorded in the garden.

[YOUTUBE]TxXYF3WTwTs[/YOUTUBE]

I love that LZ track, yeah.

So, I was watching Kevin Kline in De-Lovely for the 10th time. The film about Cole Porter. The problem for me, with a lot of standards... they get overwhelmed with the style of accompaniment. All of a sudden we've got octaved pianos and Latin rhythms and warbling divas or 2nd rate failed opera singers with good looks belting out these great tunes...

...and the beauty of a great song gets swallow by the powerful rough ocean of the backdrop. It's why I love Chet Baker's My Funny Valentine so much. The song is allowed to be.

And it's why I love this scene so much and the admittedly awkward version of Cole Porter's So In Love.

[YOUTUBE]qBrQ9PChuh8[/YOUTUBE]

That song... it's achingly beautiful. I love how the line develops and drips through the simple yet haunting chord sequence.

Though KD Lang seems tlike the perfect fit for this tune, I think her take (pretty old now) is a bit too drippy. Still love kd though.

[YOUTUBE]ablm52o6DxU[/YOUTUBE]

I'd like to hear it done by Dylan in one of his Daniel Lanois productions.

Lee, I love the Great American Songbook and I do a hefty helping of them in my shows -- probably have 25-30 ready-to-go and by heart. My arrangements are very simple: Just guitar and voice. Some of my favorite arrangements of those standards are the small ensembles: Nat King Cole Trio, Mose Allison, Oscar Peterson. Not knocking the big orchestral arrangements -- just sometimes you want something a little simpler.

I've been digging this song's simplicity and lyrics lately...

[YOUTUBE][/YOUTUBE]

Lyrics -

this day is gettin older and fading light is beautiful

this wind is blowing colder and too soon i feel its pull

still i took all my chances earned myself an even score try to learn

my lessons well

and i dont have the answers for those questions anymore only

love can be both heaven and hell

so sturdy up sturdy up your heart for the road is long ahead

ill be with u even tho were apart

but your road is yours to tread

and so it goes and so it goes and so it goes

slows your mind mind mind

so it goes and so it goes and so it goes slows your mind mind mind mind mind

ive grown old on this ocean gave her all my stronger years

gave my wife my devotion when she died the ocean my tears

ive tried to teach u well son all of every i new of how to live

this life be true dont bow your head to no one and no matter what u do

if u start then see it through

so sturdy up sturdy up your heart for the road is long ahead

ill be with u even tho were apart

but your road is yours to tread

and so it goes and so it goes and so it goes

slows your mind mind mind

so it goes and so it goes and so it goes slows your mind mind mind mind mind

:thu:

I came across this song for the first time. This guy is a real writer and a real artist.

He named his ensemble "Magnetic Fields" after an Andre Breton, Philippe Souppault novel.

3Q59ZncmAtQ

Sigh, and I heard Johnny Maestro passed away.

So here's to him.

7DhevKN-p9k

My bass player brought in this song for us to learn:

EDIT: I can't seem to get the imbed to work, so here's the link...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGuxUCkjMxo

It was the last song Hank Williams ever sang (in the back of his Cadillac) and was a #1 country hit, but I'd never heard it before. Music is a devastating chromatic melody over a stone-simple 12-bar, harmonized in thirds, written by Chet Atkins. Lyrics are by Boudeloux (sp?) Bryant, one of my favorites and the author of so many old songs it'd shock you, but mostly the Everly Brothers stuff. The lyric has a queer, off-center rhyme scheme and really manages to revisit a very simple concept from a different angle in each verse.

Stephen Merritt is a remarkable songwriter. That song comes off the 3-CD 69 Love Songs, which I've been wanting to get ever since I heard "The Book Of Love" and a few others. I'm not buying any new music during Lent, so this purchase will just have to wait till after Easter.

It can be a mixed blessing at work sharing a communal music playback system. Many of my coworkers play stuff I don't like or they play the same crap too often. This is one I've heard way too many times and yet it works its magic on me even now. It's a very simple little tune but it gets to me.

[YOUTUBE]eiWnvUdMmNg[/YOUTUBE]

In San Diego, reading Inherent Vice, very SoCal state of mind.