Saturday Night at the Oldies: Varia

Beatles, I'm a Loser. This one goes out to Comrade Kamala. A loser who is not what she pretended to be. And just to rub it in,

Ted Daffan, Born to Lose, 1943. The original!

Thelonious Monk, I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.  But not over you, Kamala baby.

Simon and Garfunkel, The Dangling Conversation.  A lovely song, if a bit pretentious.  Paul Simon was an English major.

And we spoke of things that matter
With words that must be said
"Can analysis be worthwhile?"
"Is the theater really dead?"

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, You Really Got a Hold on Me

Lonnie Mack and Co. Mighty fine guitar-slinging.

Mack has been around a long time. I first picked up a guitar around the time Memphis climbed  the charts. "If I could only play like that!" Never got close. But I played in bands that got paid. If you get paid for doing something, then someone must think it's worth paying for. That's not saying much, but it's saying something. 

Jackson Browne, The Pretender.  This great song  goes out to Darci M who introduced me to Jackson Browne. Darci is Lithuanian. Her mother told her, "Never bring an Italian home." So I never did meet the old lady. I encountered no anti-Italian prejudice on the West coast whence I hail; the East is a different story.

Abba, Fernando. I first heard this in Ben's Gasthaus, Zaehringen, Freiburg im Breisgau,  '76-'77.  This one goes out to Rudolf, Helmut, Martin, Hans, und Herrmann, working class Germans who loved to drink the Ami under the table.

Electric Flag, Groovin' is Easy

A contender for the greatest, tightest band of the '60s, featuring Mike Bloomfield on guitar, my second guitar hero. I saw him play at the Monterey Pop Festival in '67. The Jewish kid from an affluent Chicago suburb exemplifies cultural appropriation at its finest. His riffs derive from B. B. King but he outplays the King of the Blues.  Is that a racist thing to say? It can't be racist if it's true.

Commander Cody, Truck Drivin' Man.  This one goes out to Sally and Jean and Mary in memory of our California road trip ten years ago.   "Pour me another cup of coffee/For it is the best in the land/I'll put  a nickel in the jukebox/And play that 'Truck Drivin' Man.'"

I once asked a guy what he wanted in a woman. He replied, "A whore in bed, Simone de Beauvoir in the parlor, and the Virgin Mary on a pedestal."  An impossible trinity. Some just want the girl next door.

Bobby Darin, Dream Lover. With pix of Sandra Dee.

Audrey Hepburn, Moon River

Gogi Grant, The Wayward Wind, 1956. I'll take Lady Gogi over Lady Gaga any day.

Doris Day, Que Sera, Sera, 1956.  What did she mean? The tautological, Necessarily, what will be, will be? Or the non-tautologically fatalistic, What will be, necessarily will be? Either way, she died in the month of May.

Comments

[Joe Odegaard]

In honor of Doris Day, this by Leonard Cohen; "Who in your merry merry month of May?"

(Who By Fire, Live in London)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251Blni2AE4

[DaveB]

Was enchanted by 'The Wayward Wind' as a child, and I have loved it ever since. The GG version is great.