Gimme Shelter

Merry Clayton sang with Mick Jagger on the original of this song on Let It Bleed, which was reportedly so intense it actually did cause her to bleed and miscarry.

PLAY: Gimme Shelter - The Rolling Stones
PLAY: Gimme Shelter - Merry Clayton




Scam Warning: Richard Buckman

A Change Is Gonna Come

A request from a reader. And perfectly timed, too, because I'm moving and this is my change. I hate to cheapen this deeply meaningful and significant song with comparisons to moving to a new and better house, but in the end it's just a song, you know.

Oh, and by the way, Ike Turner beat his wife in case you didn't know.

Wiki P:"A Change Is Gonna Come" is a 1965 single by R&B singer-songwriter Sam Cooke, written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the sixties Civil Rights Movement. The song has gained in popularity and critical acclaim in the decades since its release.

PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Sam Cooke
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Otis Redding
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Neville Brothers
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Aretha Franklin
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Tina Turner
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Campbell Brothers
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Soul Survivors
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Cold War Kids
PLAY: A Change Is Gonna Come - Leela James

Little Stevie Wonder Covers Ray Charles

And by Little, it means when he was 12 years old. I mean, look at him.

Tribute to Uncle Ray is the second album released by Stevie Wonder during his Little Stevie Wonder phase in 1962. The album was a tribute to Wonder's mentor, fellow blind musician Ray Charles. The album was followed by other tribute albums to Nat "King" Cole and Sam Cooke by Marvin Gaye and The Supremes respectively. Like his debut, this album failed to generate hit singles as Motown struggled to find a sound to fit Wonder, who was only 12 when this album was released.

Take a listen; it's especially amusing to hear Little Stevie Wonder sing about getting it on.

PLAY: Hallelujah, I Love Her So - Ray Charles
PLAY: Hallelujah, I Love Her So - Stevie Wonder

PLAY: Mary Ann - Ray Charles
PLAY: Mary Ann - Stevie Wonder

PLAY: Drown In My Own Tears - Ray Charles
PLAY: Drown In My Own Tears - Stevie Wonder
PLAY: Drown In My Own Tears - Marie "Queenie" Lyons
PLAY: Drown In My Own Tears - Etta James

RIP Ike Turner

Extremely busy with work, but couldn't let Ike's passing pass me by.
Oh, and yes, this is the same Ike who slapped the same Tina.

How many other people are known for hitting their wives?

1. OJ
   

So to everyone that feels the need to mention that particular fact in the second sentence (after "Ike Turner died." Who? "You know, that guy who hit Tina "We Don't Need Another Hero" Turner?" Oh. Yeah. That asshole.), there are sovereign countries and respected religions that sanction and even encourage wife beating and punishing rape victims. They can't play blues for shit, and yet they get away with both.

Saudi author and cleric “Dr.” Muhammad Al-’Arifi, the "Dr." Phil of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, recently reached out to all those young, recently married kids who may not yet have gotten the hang of the whole "wife thing", or better yet, the whole "woman thing." “Admonish them – once, twice, three times, four times, ten times. If this doesn’t help, refuse to share their beds. And if that doesn’t work? Beat them.”

Ok? Ike had already tried admonishment. And I think at some point he also probably refused to share his bed with Tina. What else was left???

(Seriously, I love all this moral relativism that Ike somehow brings up every time he's mentioned. When it's a whole people that beat their wives we say, "well, that's their culture," as if it were some complex, yet beautiful, mosaic of ancient traditions and aromatic spices. Ike, though, should have been hung by his balls. OK!)

A New Breed, Ike.

PLAY: Whole Lotta Love - Ike & Tina Turner
PLAY: Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin

PLAY: Keep On Pushing - The Impressions
PLAY: Keep On Pushing - Ike & Tina Turner

Pain In My Heart

Forty years ago today, on Dec. 10, 1967, the small plane carrying 26-year-old Otis Redding and four of six members of his road band, the Bar-Kays, crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, ending the life of one of the best rhythm and blues artists ever.

A fitting song to commemorate The Big O...

PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Otis Redding (1963)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - The Rolling Stones (1964)
PLAY: Pain In MY Heart - The Grateful Dead (1966)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Helene Smith (1967)
PLAY: Pain In My Heart - Toots And The Maytals

Note: Original writing credit was "Redding" (the Stones version says Redding/Walden, Walden was Redding's manager). Otis and Stax were sued by Allen Toussaint who, as "Naomi Neville", had written Ruler Of My Heart (of which Pain was adapted) for Irma Thomas. As an out of court settlement, the credit was changed to "Naomi Neville".

Mercy, Mercy

Today brings a strong cold front into the south and I'm a bit hungover. The two decidedly unsettling feelings are taking a joint fray into today's confusing posting, replete with overlapping musicians, song titles, album releases, and career saving/establishing songs

There are several songs with titles very similar to today's Mercy, Mercy - most notably Mercy, Mercy, Mercy (which will be covered extensively in the next entry). There's also Mercy Mercy Me by Marvin Gaye. But so we're all clear, neither one of those songs has anything to do with today's song, the original by Don Covay, who was actually (and un-relatedly) in a band with Marvin Gaye and Billy Stewart called The Rainbows (nice, y'all - great name!) in the early 50's.

Don Covay really didn't have a great career until he recorded this song with The Goodtimers (and featuring a young Jimi Hendrix) in 1964. He had a bunch of other great songs and became quite successful as a result.

And then in 1965, there were three other great recordings of this tune. The Stones recorded one on Out of Our Heads. From Wiki:

Initially issued in July 1965 in America (featuring an alternate shot from the same photo session that graced the cover of 12 X 5 and The Rolling Stones No. 2), Out of Our Heads was a mish-mash of studio recordings over a six month period, including hit single "The Last Time" and worldwide smash "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" as well as a sampling from the UK-only live EP got LIVE if you want it!. Riding the wave of "Satisfaction"'s success, Out of Our Heads became The Rolling Stones' first US #1 album, eventually going platinum.

Also in 1965, The Remains (who sound eerily similar to the early Stones, but were never really successful) recorded this, as did the great Wilson Pickett - a really nice, full-sound recording, too.

Enjoy.

PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Don Covay
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Rolling Stones
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - The Remains
PLAY: Mercy, Mercy - Wilson Pickett

People Get Ready

My weakness for gospel is once again on display. This being the season to celebrate a little Special Someone's birthday, I suppose that weakness is actually very contemporary.

"It was warrior music," said civil-rights activist Gordon Sellers. "It was music you listened to while you were preparing to go into battle." Mayfield wrote the gospel-driven R&B ballad, he said, "in a deep mood, a spiritual state of mind," just before Martin Luther King's march on the group's hometown of Chicago. Shortly after "People Get Ready" was released, Chicago churches began including their own version of it in songbooks. Mayfield had ended the song with "You don't need no ticket/You just thank the Lord," but the church version, ironically, made it less Christian and more universal: "Everybody wants freedom/This I know." -RS

And god damn, Curtis Mayfield is the SHIT. You can hear him solo on the original, or the greatest version ever that features his band, The Impressions, with some incredible backup and harmonies.

Praise Curtis!

PLAY: People Get Ready - Curtis Mayfield
PLAY: People Get Ready - Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions
PLAY: People Get Ready - Aretha Franklin
PLAY: People Get Ready - Dionne Warwick
PLAY: People Get Ready - Al Green
PLAY: People Get Ready - Spencer Bohren

Thirty Days

This one comes straight from the heart of Austin via St. Louis. Chuck Berry, one of the great pioneers of rock (who also wrote the #1 My Ding-a-Ling ditty), wrote Thirty Days.

The lovely Elizabeth McQueen (also of Asleep At The Wheel) covers this one beautifully. Her voice is one of the clearest and brightest I've ever heard.

PLAY: Thirty Days - Chuck Berry
PLAY: Thirty Days - Elizabeth McQueen & The Firebrands

Expressway (To Your Heart)

A brilliant song from 1967 by The Soul Survivors, a one- or two-hit wonder band that didn't make it very far. They were a pretty crappy band, but this song really stands out, not just amongst their other songs, but alongside other great late 60's songs.

[I found a great history/confession/rant from a former band member who played the year after this song made it big.]

The original Expressway is the best, but Margo Thunder is a very close second.


PLAY: Expressway (To Your Heart) - The Soul Survivors
PLAY: Expressway (To Your Heart) - Margo Thunder
PLAY: Expressway (To Your Heart) - Amen Corner

You've Really Got A Hold On Me

The Beatles made it famous in 63, but once again, it's Smokey Robinson who wrote this song in 1962 (the Beatles actually changed the title to "You Really" and not "You've Really," but I don't know if that was intentional or just British).

All of these versions are great. I'm particularly fond of Jackie DeShannon's (or Sharon Myers if you meet her in synagogue) singing and early rock sound, but we'll definitely have more on her in a later posting.

PLAY: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
PLAY: The Zombies
PLAY: The Beatles
PLAY: Jackie DeShannon

In The Pines

No, Kurt Cobain did NOT write this song, though his Unplugged version is, in my opinion, the only song of his that makes any sense. His band also does a good job of playing the despair and anger that this song is about, with all of his screaming and what-not.

"In The Pines" was written sometime in the 1870's and Leadbelly made it famous when he recorded it in 1944 (and several other versions overs the next four years). Bill Monroe did the same thing for country music in 1952, though he conveniently left out all details of the "drivin' wheel" decapitation, and that whole issue of the missing body that makes the traditional version so powerful. The song is referred to by several different names - "In The Pines", "Black Girl", and "Were Did You Sleep Last Night"

PLAY: In The Pines - Leadbelly ('44)
PLAY: In The Pines - Bill Monroe & His Bluegrass Boys ('52)
PLAY: In The Pines - The Grateful Dead ('65)
PLAY: In The Pines - The Seldom Scene ('92)
PLAY: Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana ('93)

Don't Think Twice, It's Alright

[A little more info about the album cover on The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, and the James Dean photo , pictured above]

I had no idea how covered this song was until I actually started looking. I have about 25 to go, and I'm pretty impressed. I did just listen to dozens of other shit-ass, pretentious piano versions of this great song... but you don't want to hear them.

That's what I do for you. I am your musical Jesus. I listened to these songs so you wouldn't have to.

Take a listen to this Dylan classic. Twice, and then one more time from The Gaslight in NYC ('62).

And then these really nice tributes to Bob:

Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (best arrangement... hands down)
The Small Stars (esp. lead guitar)
Johnny Cash
The Derek Trucks Band (w Susan Tedeschi)
Elvis Presley
Odetta
Ivy League ('65, folksie)
Duane Eddy ('65, country-folk instrumental)

A lot of people make it sort of a love song - slow and easygoing. But it isn't a love song. It's a statement that maybe you can say something to make yourself feel better. It's as if you were talking to yourself. - bob dylan

Sing a Simple Song

Quick post today, but a good song nonetheless.
Sing it, Sly.

PLAY: Sing a Simple Song - Sly & The Family Stone
PLAY: Sing a Simple Song - Charles Earland
PLAY: Sing a Simple Song - The Budos Band
PLAY: Sing a Simple Song - Booker T. and The M.G.s

Mary, Don't You Weep

I don't know why I like spirituals so much. I shouldn't. But the old Negro spirituals almost always sound great, and this is no exception.

Written even before the Civil War, Mary in this song isn't Jesus' girlfriend; it's Mary of Bethany who begged and begged for Jesus to raise her brother Lazarus from the dead. Most of the song, though, is about the Exodus from Egypt ("Pharaoh's army got drownded...") with the obvious freedom references that made it popular during slavery and the civil rights movement as one of the many "freedom songs."

The Swan Silvertones' version is the earliest one I could find (the song was first recorded in 1915 by the Fisk Jubilee Singers), but it is by far the most popular. The band was started in 1938 by a West Virginian coal miner, but this song was recorded in 1962.

The Springsteen version is from his recent Seeger Sessions which I think is a great piece of work. I have no idea who Mike Farris is, but for a white guy, he's pretty soulful.

Enjoy.

PLAY: Mary Don't You Weep - The Swan Silvertones
PLAY: Mary Don't You Weep - Bruce Springsteen
PLAY: Mary Don't You Weep - Mike Farris