Center Of The Universe #10
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Giant Sand, “Center Of The Universe”
Lou Reed, “Coney Island Baby (Live)”
Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington, “Cotton Tail”
East River Pipe, “Monumental Freaks”
East River Pipe, celebrating “Monumental Freaks” on 2003’s Garbage Heads On Endless Stun. Before that, two monumental Lous. Armstrong, collaborating with Duke Ellington in 1961, as heard on the compilation The Great Summit. Reed, whose 70s work has been on my mind, putting his band through the ringer on Live - Take No Prisoners in 1978. And before that, our theme song. Al Green’s band really had to pay attention on this next track, but less because Al Green was popping off so much as transcending space and time. With a name like Al Green Is Love and only one big hit, named “L-O-V-E,” its easy to assume you’re dealing with boilerplate on this album rather than definitive. But I’m glad I finally got around to checking it out this last year. “I Don’t Know” in particular is striking, nearly 8 minutes of slow luxuriation in the pleasure of his own voice. The first time I heard it I sincerely got lost in the track, and couldn’t believe I hadn’t heard about it. Turns out David Toop hooked his book Sugar & Poison around it, eventually inspiring Robert Christgau to revisit the album and change his grade from a contemporary B+ to an A on reflection. I get how the disc could have gotten lost in the land of soul plenty that was 1975, but we’ve got no excuse today.
Al Green, “I Didn’t Know”
Blue Nile, “Let’s Go Out Tonight”
Fever Ray, “Carbon Dioxide”
Corina, “Temptation”
One hit wonder Corina - who quickly turned her attention to acting after her 1991 album - celebrating the inevitability of “Temptation.” Fever Ray buckling under from love’s “Carbon Dioxide” on their brand new album Radical Romantics. Before that, those radical romantics the Blue Nile pleading “Let’s Go Out Tonight” from their epic-heavy 1989 album Hats. If you know little kids who are really into the color wheel, make sure they’ve seen the video for “Alive,” from the Beastie Boys’ delightful Sounds Of Science anthology from 1999. Song’s nice too. The reference to Shazam's tights is accurate now!
Beastie Boys, “Alive”
Nick Drake, “From The Morning”
Slim Harpo, “Baby Scratch My Back”
D’Angelo, “Playa Playa”
Apparently the opening track of D’Angelo’s Voodoo might have its basketball references because the guy was working on the Space Jam soundtrack when he wrote it. Slim Harpo taking swamp blues into the pop Top 20 in 1966. And the last song on Nick Drake’s most hailed album, Pink Moon, an album I didn’t get into until the damn Volkswagen ad was over 20 years old. Up next, the last track on one of Elvis Costello’s least hailed albums. Though he’d already released the song under the alias of The Imposter, suggesting he knew it stuck out.
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, “Peace In Our Time”
The Bats, “Some Peace Tonight”
The Smiths, “Nowhere Fast”
Nirvana, “Love Buzz”
The first Nirvana single, a hooky as hell Shocking Blue cover and a sign the guys were in it to win it from the get-go. “Nowhere Fast” wasn’t a single for The Smiths, but it leads the B side of Meat Is Murder for good reason. And the Bats with a lullaby from their classic debut album Daddy’s Highway. Now Rosanne Cash covering a deep cut from Merle Haggard’s debut album on her second, 1981’s Seven Year Ache. Actually her third, but the first still has never been released in the US.
Rosanne Cash, “You Don’t Have Very Far To Go”
Dave Edmunds, “Crawling From The Wreckage”
Old 97s, “If My Heart Was A Car”
Chuck Berry, “Too Pooped To Pop”
Chuck Berry, already calling out old guys struggling to keep up with the jukebox in 1960. The Old 97s on their 1994 debut album Hitchhike To Rhome. I first heard the song on a CD mix someone made and always assumed it was a bigger deal for them! Should have been. And Dave Edmunds covering Graham Parker on 1979’s Repeat When Necessary. Up next is Foxy, with their biggest hit “Get Off,” from the 1978 album of the same name. Gotta love that in 1978 Foxy with “Get Off” is obviously disco, and in 1973 a band named named Foxy with a song called “Get Off” would obviously be glam.
Foxy, “Get Off”
Bush Tetras, “Too Many Creeps”
Regina Spektor, “Raindrops”
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, “Dial Up Doll”
A number from Jon Spencer Blues Explosion’s last album, 2015’s Freedom Tower - No Wave Dance Party 2015. Fellow New Yorkers Regina Spektor hoping you’ll find her on the street in 2022’s Home Before And After, and Bush Tetras tired of being found on the street in 1980. We’re going to leave the Center Of The Universe with one last long doozy, Pissed Jeans describing their utterly cliche adult ennui in agonizing detail on 2009’s King Of Jeans. Thank you for your time!
Pissed Jeans, “Spent”