Cool Guy, Cool Tunes, Coolest Name Ever

It was one of the great albums of the 70s and is comfortably ensconced in my all-time Top 10. It was impossible to categorize because it rocked, it swayed, it boogied, it crooned, it jazzed and I think it even salsa-d a little.

"It" was Silk Degrees by Boz Scaggs.

Say it with me: Boz...Scaggs. Every guy reading this wishes his name was half as cool. If he wasn't a musician, he'd have to be an old-time baseball player - maybe Mordecai "Three Fingers" Brown's catcher.

I've selected three tunes from that album, all written by Scaggs. I suspect all three will be familiar to old-timers. And I hope some young ears become attuned to a fine, underrated musician.

Let's open with a live version of Lido Shuffle, performed under less than ideal conditions (looks pretty darn cold) at Japan's Expo in 1985.



If I had a buck for every time this next song was played as the newlywed's first dance at weddings - I'd have a lotta bucks. It's a beautiful song, made famous when Rita Coolidge covered it. But I like Boz's take on it better. He flat-out nails it in this next clip.



The biggest kick I get out of this gig is finding out that musicians I loved way back when are still out there, playing their stuff in front of live audiences. It's a treat to see a 60-year-old Boz, still stylin', still way-cool, from a performance a few years back.



Thanks to HOJIRON, SK3776 and darylhsu for the vids.

Who Is This British White Boy With The Soulful Voice?

I think I was 15 or 16, at a friend's party, when I first heard this amazing voice come on the radio. It soared and dipped and wailed. I really couldn't make out the words but it didn't matter -- the raw emotion and energy it expressed kept me listening, rapt. I soon found out it belonged to a singer in a band called the Spencer Davis Group, a guy only a couple of years older than me named Stevie Winwood.

Now, thanks to the wonders of the internet, we can enjoy a live performance by an 18-year-old Stevie from a Scandinavian TV show, belting out the vocals and hammering the Hammond to the song he co-wrote -- and one of the seminal songs of the 60s.



Somewhere around 1968, Winwood hooked up with Dave Mason, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood. Together they formed Traffic, one of the most influential and beloved bands of the psychedelic 60s. Mason (who I featured a few posts ago) and Winwood, like many towering talents, found they couldn't coexist forever. But they stayed together long enough to make a lasting musical mark.

There are dozens of great Traffic songs. I'm going to go with one of my early favourites, co-written by Winwood and Capaldi and expressed via Stevie's wistful, mournful lament - the haunting, No Face No Name No Number.



In his spare time while still with Traffic, and later, after they'd officially disbanded, Winwood became part of one of the early supergroups. With Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Rick Grech, they formed Blind Faith.

Winwood later went on to a distinguished solo career but will likely be remembered best for his contributions to three of the greatest rock n' roll groups of all time. I'm happy to report that he's still got chops. For dessert, let's check out Stevie and Eric getting together again in 2007 for a fine version of Can't Find My Way Home.



Thanks to dac10012 and trichoone for posting the videos.

DeVotchKa: Lush, Lyrical & Plaintive

In fact, for my money, lead singer Nick Urata has the most plaintive pipes this side of Gene Pitney. (Who? Ask your mother. Or Google.) For the most part, I think his soaring, semi-whiny vocals work very well with the band's material but you can be the judge of that your own self. In a minute.

DeVotchKa is a four-person band from Denver Colorado with a very European sound. In the 90s, many of their gigs were backing burlesque dancers, including Dita Von Teese. Their big break came in 2006 when asked to score the film Little Miss Sunshine, a wonderful, heartwarming movie - one of the best of the decade. The first video is from that movie and shows clips from the film interspersed with shots of the band.



While wandering the corridors of YouTube I came across the next video of theirs, the official version of How It Ends, a tune that contains the wonderful line, "forever's not too long." It's in this song that the Pitney comparison occurred to me. See if any of you other greybeards agree with me.



Last is the song many consider their masterpiece, a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees' classic, The Last Beat Of My Heart. As with many of my favourite songs, I like it more with each listening. The percussion, particularly at the end, is mesmerizing.



Thanks to Devotchka and nelnel2709 for posting the videos.

Punched In The Heart By Tracy Chapman

When a person has a special voice, it's a gift from the gods and something worth celebrating. If that person can also play an instrument or two, I am agog at their talent. And if that person should happen to be gifted enough to write wonderful songs which they then sing and play wonderfully, well, I would just like to touch the hem of their garment.

Tracy Chapman is that kind of person. Some of you are nodding. Some of you await proof.

I'm going to feature three songs as evidence, all written by her. The first is the one that made me a fan, Baby Can I Hold You, a song about vulnerability, hope, delusion and, of course, love. Recorded live at Austin City Limits, it's one of two clips from that concert I'll be showing.



Also from that show, the new-to-me and highly enjoyable Another Sun.



The last tune I'm featuring is one of the most touching love songs ever written. I love the comment by one YouTube poster: "ouch this song seriously punched me in the heart." That's how I felt when I first heard it. And I think it has that effect on many. There's a so-so live version out there but I'm going with one of the very many vids put together by fans based on the recorded version. Here's Tracy Chapman's The Promise.



Thanks to Atanvarde and Azurelce5 for the videos.

The Tragically Hip

While everybody (rightfully) talks about Nashville, New Orleans, New York, London, Memphis and Detroit as hotbeds of music, a lot of good stuff has been spawned right here in the Great White North. I'm going to bid farewell to 2010 with a nod to the group I consider Canada's best over the last 25 years. Oh, I hear the grumbling from you Rush fans. Tough tamales. Start your own blog. (Without actually checking, I bet there's a few already dedicated to Geddy, Neil and Alex.)

But my vote for the maplest of leaves goes to The Tragically Hip. Fronted by the brilliant, if a tad erratic, Gord Downie, The Hip's music is every bit about the land as Gordon Lightfoot's. The light weave of their melodies is shot through with threads of black. This is, after all, Canada -- a country of stark beauty, some of which is shrouded in darkness for months at a time.

The Hip are always interesting musically. The band is tight. And Downie's passionate and poetic vocals reflect both the delicate beauty and harsh reality that epitomizes our country.

I'm going to open with a young Hip and their very first single. The video is just about as puzzling as the lyrics. But Blow At High Dough still kicks ass.



Bobcaygeon is another favourite, only partly because the town isn't far from me and I've been there many times. Mostly it's because it's just a good song. Here, we find a considerably more mature Gord Downie starring in another bit of a head-scratching video (albeit with a brilliant ending). But again, the song's the thing. And it's a beauty.



My absolute favourite song of theirs is the hauntingly melodic Ahead By A Century. By now, none of you will be suprised to find another enigmatic tune and video. I admit it. Many of the songs I like best have an element of the obscure. Few things bring me greater joy than hearing a song for the 1000th time and finding something new. The Hip's songs have that sort of layering.

At midnight we're going ahead by a year, but for now, let's skip ahead with The Hip by a century.



Thanks for keeping me company. I wish you all a healthy and fulfilling 2011.

It's Not Really Christmas

until Darlene Love takes to the stage of the Ed Sullivan Theater on the Dave Letterman show and sings Christmas (Baby Please Come Home).

She did so last night for the 17th (or maybe 18th) consecutive year. Unfortunately, as of this posting, I could only find two videos of last night's performance and each is less than stellar. So, I delved a little further into the stacks and found last year's.

The year doesn't really matter. Darlene's the thing. Turn up those speakers boys and girls. (The darkness fades in a few seconds.)

Ho-ho-ho!



Merry Christmas folks.

A Damaged Genius

In the 1980s, unless you lived in the British Isles or Canada's east coast, you probably never heard anybody that sounded remotely like The Pogues. Fronted by lead singer and chief songwriter Shane MacGowan, they originally became known in their home country of Ireland as traditional Celtic musicians. They never lost touch with those roots but they expanded on them.

Their 1988 album, If I Should Fall From Grace With God, was a shining beacon of joy in that dreary musical decade. It gave me a whole new genre to love.

Let's start with the title track for a 2 1/2 minute dose of typical Pogues fare. (As always, please turn up your speakers and make sure your seatbelts are securely fastened.)



Now, the sharp-eyed among you may have noticed that Shane has some orthodontic issues. Well, truth be told, he has other issues as well, particularly with alcohol. He's an erratic performer with a devilish problem but, by many accounts, the possessor of an angelic soul.

All I know is he writes and performs some wonderful, wonderful tunes. This next one is one of my all-time favourites, a lovely duet pairing the pure, sweet soprano of the beauteous Sinead O'Connor with the growly, slurred vocals of the Adonis-challenged Shane MacGowan.

Somehow, musical magic happened (after the boring 15-second intro).



That magic didn't surprise anybody familiar with Shane's earlier, classic duet with the late, much-lamented Kirsty MacColl: Fairytale of New York. It's a song about two people whom society would likely dub "losers." Despite the sordid conditions of a New York City jail and a bitterness spawned of despair, two fallen angels find love.

It's my favourite Christmas song but make no mistake - it is very much not a carol. There's lots of versions out there but I'm going with the audio from the original release accompanied by subtitled lyrics. Normally, I wouldn't consider the lyrics thing because it's distracting - but in this case, I think it might be helpful for first-time listeners.



It was 10 years ago this week that Kirsty MacColl was tragically killed while on vacation. She was swimming with her two sons when she was struck by a passing motorboat. She was 41.

Since you've stuck around this long (and now that you know the words) here's a live version of Fairytale featuring the lovely and talented Kirsty MacColl (and an enthusiastic and helpful crowd).

Merry Christmas.



Thanks to antmusique, zttrecords, boobiieezmum and niceandeasy for posting the videos.