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

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

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

The Tracks of My Tears

This is a pretty great Sunday evening kind of song. For listening, not writing about.

Wiki says:

"The Tracks of My Tears" is a 1965 hit single by The Miracles for the Tamla (Motown) label. It is considered among their best recordings, and is listed on the The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. An all- time classic, this million- selling song is also a 2007 Grammy Hall Of Fame Inductee.

This song was #50 on the list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time[1]. In a 2006 poll for a Channel 5 program "Britain's Favourite Break-up Songs", "The Tracks of My Tears" was voted 16th. In early 2007, THE MIRACLES' original version of the song was inducted into the GRAMMY HALL OF FAME .

One thing I need to address before we move on with the music - I'm not a big fan of Linda Ronstadt, and this song is really no exception, but I included it because:

1. Odds are that one of the handful of people that read this blog is a closet Linda Ronstadt fan. You know who you are, we don't need to start a witch hunt.
2. One of you may even be open about your sick Linda Ronstadt fetish.
3. This recording was big for her in her career, so I'm just trying to make sure you get the history you paid for.
   

OK, we're all fully disclosed now.

The original Smokey Robinson is pretty great. His band is great, the backup singers nail it , he's about flawless himself - really close to perfect.

Aretha's version is about the same tempo - slow in the beginning, buoyant towards the end, with the horns to back it all up.

Rosetta Hightower picks it up from the beginning. I need to find more of her stuff - it's actually been re-released on CD. I like this version the best.

PLAY: The Tracks of My Tears - Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
PLAY: The Tracks of My Tears - Aretha Franklin
PLAY: The Tracks of My Tears - Rosetta Hightower