A wonderful and lovely cover of the Velvet Underground’s song about Warhol superstar Candy Darling. From the Julian Schnabel-directed film “Lou Reed’s Berlin,” in my opinion, the DEFINITIVE version of this song. Dedicated to the Westboro Baptist Church, who have made two appearances in my area (one near my house, the other near my workplace) in the past few months.
When this song was recorded by Gilder’s band Sweeney Todd in 1975, it was a #1 hit in Canada. When Gilder left the group, a young Canadian named Bryan Adams took over as lead vocalist. While it didn’t make many inroads in America, it was an influential glitter rock track. Suzi Quatro recorded a cover. And the version on this clip wound up on the soundtrack for 2010’s “The Runaways” during the infamous opening scene (and if you’ve seen it, you know what scene I’m talking about). Gilder later went on to have a US #1 hit in 1978 with “Hot Child in the City” and later wrote Scandal’s 1984 hit “The Warrior.”
A rare track recorded by, but not written by, Randy Newman for the 1968 Donald Cammell / Nicholas Roeg film “Performance.” Some really great blues vocals by Newman and some wonderful nasty slide guitar by Ry Cooder.
Lest anyone get me wrong, I love my children very much. However, one of the side effects of becoming a father of young children is that your knowledge of what’s hip and happening becomes null and void, either because you don’t have the time or are too tired to care. Which is why I never heard this awesome song from 2002 (the year my oldest was born), a song that would have likely been in my Top 5 for that year (or any year, for that matter). Better late than never I always say and thanks to Sirius’s Underground Garage, I have been able to play catch up on a lot of great stuff I’ve missed.
Another stellar cover of a song from Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” album. I find it great that so many terrific artists have covered songs from this understated classic. Sean Penn based the script for his directorial debut “The Indian Runner” on this song.
Here’s a cover I never expected … though the more I think about it, I’m not sure why that was my first reaction. While “Atlantic City” is about New Jersey mobsters and casino rats down on their luck, this Bruce Springsteen classic is a folk song at heart. And if anyone can do a folk song right, it’s The Band (with Levon Helm on vocals). A beautiful, beautiful cover.
The Monkees were criticized early in their career because they didn’t write their early hits. “Randy Scouse Git” is a great example of what they could do on their own. This went Top 5 in Britain in 1967 under the name “Alternate Title” since “Randy Scouse Git” is English slang for horny lad … or something like that. Even 45 years later, it still sounds unusual and makes one wonder what kind of band they’d have been had they not been locked into their TV show and making hits.
One of the best (and saddest) documentaries I’ve seen in the past year is Jonathan Furmanski’s documentary on XXX-rated soul singer / rapper Blowfly. Blowfly is the alter ego of legendary R&B singer-songwriter Clarence Reid, who achieved greater success (and notoriety) doing XXX-rated parodies of popular soul/R&B tunes in the persona of Blowfly. A really terrific portrayal of a complex and talented artist.
Arguably, the most famous cover of Tim Buckley’s most famous song. Director David Lynch apparently wanted to use this for “Blue Velvet,” but because he couldn’t afford the rights had to make do with the Angelo Badalamenti-Julee Cruise song “Mysteries of Love” (not a bad substitute by any means, in my opinion). Lynch eventually got to use this in 1996’s “Lost Highway” and it also appeared in director Peter Jackson’s 2009 film adaptation of “The Lovely Bones.” Comedian Patton Oswalt made mention of this during his famous KFC Famous Bowls routine.
Seriously, what is it with these beyond hideous Thomas Kincaide-inspired videos created for otherwise awesome songs on YouTube? Again, my apologies. I wish there were a better representation of this track on YouTube, but this is it folks. OK, disclaimer aside, I love this Badfinger ballad from the stellar “Straight Up” album. Please ignore the video and groove on this for a while.
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