Playlists

Eighteen years and eleven albums ago Lambchop’s label billed the group as “Nashville’s most fucked up country band” but that wouldn’t be a description that comes to mind if you heard them for the first time on Mr. M, which came out earlier this spring.  This time around the ever-expanding and contracting Lambchop find itself at it’s most leisurely and confident since How I Quit Smoking, their second album from 1996.

Mr. M is surprisingly unexperimental for a Lambchop record, which usually have at least one track that stands out like a swollen thumb.  When you get down to it the only real Lambchop – the only true Lambchop – is the track that makes you get up and walk across the room just to stop it.

I thought why not put them all together…?

You really have to start any collection – regardless of the ultimate ranking – with “What was he Wearing?” from I Hope You’re Sitting Down – Aka, Jack’s Tulips, the first Lambchop album.  Coming near the end of an album that’s already featured lush, dreamlike reminiscences of a bad trip (“Soaky in the Pooper”) and the guy who collects air fresheners (“Breathe Deep”), a song would have to be pretty strange to stand out.  And it is.

#5 – “What was he Wearing?”

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(“What was he Wearing?”)

Most bands would probably put a track like “What was he Wearing?” on the B-side of a single (I loooove B-sides!).  Lambchop didn’t release a lot of 7″ singles, and most of them have pretty straightforward tracks on the flip – their early single for Sunday Driver has two songs (“Loretta Lung” and “My Cliche”) that are so good I can’t even tell what’s supposed to the be the A-side.

#4 – “Two Kittens Don’t Make a Puppy”

Merge Records issued “Soaky in the Pooper” as a single from their first album, already a strange choice.  What was stranger was the other side of the record.

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(“Two Kittens Don’t Make A Puppy”)

#3 – “I Sucked My Boss’ Dick”

This next track is from the 10″ EP Hank, which I described yesterday as Lambchop’s most “country” record.  The last song is short and weird.

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(“I Sucked My Boss’s Dick”)

#2 – “Thriller”

Of course, we in the Twin Cities are no strangers to audacious album titles (considering the Replacements’ seminal Let It Be and, more recently, the Fuck Knights’ Let It Bleed).  Thriller is a great album title, although it didn’t appear on the cover of the disc (my copy has a sticker that says “Thriller”).  It’s also a great album, taking Lambchop in new directions with their first use of horns and three covers of FM Corndog songs (all originally recorded by East River Pipe, Corndog’s one-man-band).  The title track falls a good deal short of the Michael Jackson epic to which it must invariably be compared.  It’s sort of Lambchop’s Metal Machine Music, but at least it’s mercifully brief.

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(“Thriller”)

#1 – “The Decline of Country & Western Civilization”

“The Decline of Country & Western Civilization” is my least favorite song by Lambchop.  I’m not even sure why I’m posting it here.  I think this playlist is entirely an excuse to post “Two Kittens Don’t Make a Puppy”, which I’ve always sort of enjoyed.

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(“The Decline of Country and Western Civilization”)

LAMBCHOP – forever saddled with Merge Records mid-90s hype tag (“Nashville’s most fucked up country band”) – is the most consistently innovative group of the past 20 years.  Many groups reinvent themselves with each new record but most fail – Lambchop, on the other hand, has done so successfully more times than any artist since David Bowie.  It’s just that nobody’s noticed.  Their music expanded beyond Nashville years ago, and has incorporated everything from chamber pop to 70s soul and funk, noise rock to mellow old Opry, and the records have all been a lot of fun.

Lambchop will be performing at the Dakota on Thursday night, making their first appearance in the Twin Cities since they toured on the 2002 album Is A Woman.  No short collection or description could capture the enormous range of this group’s eleven albums, nor their dozens of side projects, tour packages, bizarre singles and early cassette releases.

Today’s post attempts to capture some of the group’s various leanings and influences by featuring the songs they’ve chosen to cover over the years.

TOP FIVE covers by Lambchop

#5  “Give Me Your Love (Love Song)” by Curtis Mayfield

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Lambchop’s fourth album, What Another Man Spills, was released in 1980.  It opens with a rich flamenco-styled guitar solo, an over the course of three quarters of an hour incorporates nearly everything the group would do in the coming years in some primordial way or another.  It’s not the best Lambchop album but it is the seminal Lambchop album.  This was the year Merge should have dropped the original “fucked up country” moniker and started calling the group chamber pop.  Or borrowed from the Twin Cities own Dillinger Four, who released a collection around the same time titled This Shit is Genius.

Their take on Curtis Mayfield’s slow jam from Superfly is all energy and groove.  It was the subject of the first of many bizarre Lambchop remixes, it was a dancefloor classic in my living room until people made fun of my roomate and I, and it was better than the original (oh no, he di’int!).

#4  “I’m A Stranger Here” by Hank Williams

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Everybody should have a Hank Williams song in their repertoire.  Lambchop’s 10″ EP Hank opens with theirs, a lazy, pedal steel-drenched version of “I’m a Stranger Here”.  Hank is by its very nature their most “country” record, and far more accessible than the group’s quiet second album, How I Quit Smoking.  The record has been out of print for years but if you buy the disc you get an extra song.  I think “I’m a Stranger Here” is the first cover to appear on one of their records.

#3  “I’ve Been Lonely for So Long” by Frederick Knight

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You can hear this Stax classic anytime by dropping a quarter into the Hymie’s jukebox (or you can click to this post and get high).  Lambchop take on Frederick Knight’s sole hit is pretty faithful, suggesting the influence the other Nashville had on the group around mid-career and beyond.  Kurt Wagner’s falsetto, making it’s first prominent appearance with this track on What Another Man Spills, would be a highlight of the band’s next album, the epic masterpiece Nixon.

#2  “Love TKO” by Teddy Pendergrass

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Lambchop has recorded with an ever-evolving lineup, ranging from six to as many as eighteen members, and their live sets vary as a result (they seem amazingly flexible as a result – I guess you could say Lambchop is Nashville’s Liminal Phase).  They finally issued a live disc when they released their set from the 20th Anniversary celebration for Merge Records, the amazing little label that could (and did).  Previously the only live tracks fans could find were passed over the internet, except for this lush, soulful take of Teddy Pendergrass’ 1980 make-out maker “Love TKO”, which was included in their B-sides & rarities collection Tools in the Dryer.

#1  “I Believe in You” by Don Williams

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I found a copy of Don Williams Greatest Hits Volume III in the deck in my brother’s truck a few days after he died.  I imagine that was what he was listening to when he left my house the last time I saw him, and I guess it’s caused me to have a strange affinity for the gentle giant of country music.  “Lord I Hope This Day Is Good” was one of my brother’s favorite songs, and “I Believe in You” proved to be surprisingly timeless when Lambchop re-recorded it.

It’s interesting that a band known for it’s superfluous arrangements would strip down a song by Don Williams, an artists whose records around the era of “I Believe in You” (1980) could fairly be described as over-produced.  Lambchop’s “I Believe in You” is surprisingly subdued, even a little resigned.  It’s an old man’s love song, in a way the very opposite of “Give me your Love (Love Song)” – It’s also a comforting end to their most recent album before this year’s Mr. M, which happens to be my favorite.  OH (Ohio) captures a lot of the anxious uncertainty I was experiencing the spring that my brother passed away, and to this day a few tracks on the disc make me well up.  “A Hold of You” make me blubber.

Very few bands who made their debut in the mid 90s have endured (fun fact: the Spin Doctors just released a 20th Anniversary edition of Pocketful of Kryptonite).  Lambchop hasn’t only endured – they’ve created several of the best albums released in recent years.  Mr. M is an excellent example of their potential range and I’m excited to hear the new songs along with a few classics (really, really hopin’ against all odds to hear “Let’s Go Bowling”) on Thursday.

They also covered the theme from The Barney Miller Show and Dallas, and three songs by FM Corndog on their album Thriller.  They also issued covers of the Stones’ “Backstreet Girl” (an overlooked track from Flowers) and “This Corrosion” by the Sisters of Mercy on a bonus disc with early copies of Is A Woman.  The latter would be #1 on this playlist but some jackass borrowed the disc from me and never returned it.

 Tomorrow:  Top five weirdest songs by Lambchop.  Don’t miss it!

but he didn’t, the big turd.

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(“Veteran Beginner” by National Bird)

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(“Plus One” by Jake Manders)

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(“Anything with Words” by Ben Weaver)

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(“Nashville by Nightfall” by Martin Devaney)

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(“Shake” by the Ericksons)

Oh, I love a good rock opera. The very best feature the perfect combination of the aloof and the intense, the awesome and the awkward – and yes, the cool and the uncool. Something about them produces great music, even if the lyrics are kind of weird.

Here are a few tracks from rock operas that rock. They’re also kind of weird when you think about it…

“Green Dog” from My Name is Buddy by Ry Cooder

Even in the context of it’s Depression-era narrative, “Green Dog” is a strange track. Buddy the Cat and Lefty the Mouse, traveling pals who find themselves between striking workers and company cops, are run out of a sundown town along with a preaching toad. In the desert they encounter a UFO, and a dog from out of this world…

(The Green Dog is performed by Juliette Commagere)

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“10,000 Years” from 10,000 Years by the Honeydogs

I’m already lost by the time I get to this, the eigth track on the Honeydogs’ 2003 dystopian masterpiece about a stolen test tube baby raised by a clairvoyant, a near death stabbing injury and the eventual redemption of the human race. The title track draws the story into an apocalyptic world war with a memorable, radio-friendly chorus. It’s not until you find yourself singing “they’re melting their toys down for the war effort” that you realize something here isn’t altogether right.

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“Parade” from The Salesman and Bernadette by Vic Chesnutt

Clearly 90s singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt has a following here in the Twin Cities – this winter’s Minnesota Remembers Vic Chesnutt charity compilation has been a big hit (and some of the “and others” on it – Ben Weaver, Alpha Consumer – are favorites around here).

The only record I ever bought by Vic Chesnutt was The Salesmen and Bernadette, which featured Lambchop as his backing group. The music is great (it falls between Thriller and What Another Man Spills in the Lambchop canon) but I have no idea what the story is about. I think it’s a story.

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“Go to the Mirror!” from Tommy by the Who

Whether it is fairly the first rock opera or not, Tommy is so filled with killer riffs and hooks it could have tossed out a half dozen hit singles if the songs themselves weren’t so weird. Still, the success of “Pinball Wizard”, a song that celebrates the eponymous, blind, deaf and dumb hero’s Bally table skills (it reached #19 on the US Billboard Chart) is evidence of the album’s enormous musical appeal.

“Go to the Mirror!” comes late in the narrative, after the series of bizarre character studies that dominate sides 2 and 3. The song features moving vocals by Roger Daltry, especially in performance, as heard on the double disc Live at Leeds reissue and the Who’s 1970 Isle of Wight concert. Throughout the album Daltry elevates the lowly role of rock singer to messianistic heights at a time when contemporaries like Jim Morrison seems to reduce it to buffoonery.

Tommy’s parents have taken him to a specialist, who finds that his condition is psychosomatic. Tommy attempts to reach out to his mother and father, but is drawn instead to a mirror despite his apparent blindness. At the end of “Go to the Mirror!” Daltry, as Tommy’s mother, offers a plaintive lament over John Entwistle’s mellow bassline – “Ooh, I wish I knew, I wish I knew” – and it breaks my heart every time.

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Guaranteed to be the most fun you’ve ever had!

Let’s start here at the aquarium. Here, look at those funny frogs…

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(“Underwater” by the Frogmen)

There are so many fish to watch in the aquarium…

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(“The Enchanted Sea” by Martin Denny)

The next stop on our visit is the petting zoo. One of my favorite animals here is the rabbit…

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(“Mr. Rabbit” by Pete Seeger)

What a charming little fellow. Another fun animal to visit at the petting zoo is the goat. We can buy some treats to feed to him…

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(“The Goat” by Freddie and the Kinfolk)

Boy, that goat is full of energy! See you later goat, we’ve run out of morsels to feed you. Not far from the horse is the wood where the moose live.

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(“I’m Proud to be a Moose” by Dave Van Ronk)

Let’s look through the paddock fence and watch the horses run…

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(“The Gallop” by the Chevelles)

It’s such a long walk past the horses, who could be all the way back here? Oh, yes, it’s the lonely bull…

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(“The Lonely Bull” by the Ventures)

Let’s walk back a ways and visit the monkey house…

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(“Ape Call” by Nervous Norvus)

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(“Monkey See, Monkey Do” by Cliff Crofford)

This zoo is so special that it has animals you cannot see anywhere else. Here, for instance, is a panther of a different color altogether and the sabertooth tiger, an animal you may have thought was long ago extinct…

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(“The Pink Panther Theme” by Oranj Symphonette)

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(“Sabertooth Tiger” by Breathe Owl Breathe)

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(Newscast, February 3, 1959 on KGLO Radio, Mason City, IA)

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(Interview with Alan Freed, recorded October 4, 1959 by WNEW TV, New York)

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(three promotional spots for KYSD radio by Buddy Holly)

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(demo recording by Buddy Holly)

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(“Buddy’s Song” by Bobby Vee)

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(“The Real Buddy Holly Story” by Sonny Curtis)

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(“Oh Buddy” by Matlock, from Lubbock TX)

In his all-too-short career of four years, Buddy Holly wrote about forty songs.  Many of them are still today considered standards.  For the next several days we will be remembering Buddy Holly here on the Hymie’s site, first through some rerecordings of his classic songs that were in the shop yesterday afternoon:

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(“That’ll be the Day” by Linda Ronstadt)

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(“Peggy Sue” by John Lennon)

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(“Heartbeat” by the Knack)

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(“Well, Allright” by Blind Faith)

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(“Learning the Game” by Leo Kottke)

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(“True Love Ways” by Peter & Gordon)

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(“Rave On” by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)

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(“That’ll be the Day” by Bobby Vee)

Yesterday we explored the phenomenon of “Top 40 Jesus” and today we’re taking a cue from this scene from the 1999 Kevin Smith movie Dogma.  Cardinal Glick (George Carlin, in the role he was born to play) introduces Buddy Christ, the revamped Savior (“A booster!”).  Of course, those of us with a collection of rock and roll records are already familiar with Buddy Christ…

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“Plastic Jesus” gets around, although of it’s many versions my favorite is still this obscure one by Mantanooska Thuderbuck on a 1976 compilation from Stash Records (Pipe, Spoon, Pot and Jug).  It was originally written as a jingle for WWVA, a West Virginia AM radio station still on the air today (87 years strong by my count).

The Buddy Jesus in pop songs is a little more approachable, maybe – if possible – a little more forgiving.  Sometimes he’s sort of a regular guy, as in Kris Kristofferson’s “Jesus Was a Capricorn”:

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The album Jesus Was a Capricorn also included “Why Me?”, a sincere country gospel song which topped the country chart and peaked at #16 on the pop chart (it probably should have been included in yesterday’s post).

Kristofferson seems lost or at least struggling in “Why Me?” but in this next song it’s Buddy Jesus himself who is having a rough night – This is “Jesus at the Kenmore” by Duluth’s own Charlie Parr:

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Charlie Parr’s Jesus is a lot more approachable than the Top 40′s Jesus, even as he’s being dragged from the bar saying:

You better straighten up and fly right
You know I can take you out

Actually, the recurring theme in “Buddy Jesus” songs is that the Savior struggled with his humanity – He was as lost as you and I, even when He didn’t let on (damn Capricorns).   In some songs “Buddy Jesus” is really approachable, as in the lonely “I Am the Way” above (a Loudon Wainwright III song based on Woody Guthrie’s “New York Town”) of “Jesus Was a Wino” (by Lydia Loveless from the 2011 album Indestructible Machine):

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The best Buddy Jesus song could also have been included in yesterday’s collection of top 40 Jesus songs (it hit #28 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1969).  This song was the only hit for Lawrence Reynolds, who continued to sing it until he died in 2000.  Here’s “Jesus is a Soul Man”:

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There used to be a lot more religion in popular music – the roots of rhythm and blues and country music drink from the same watershed of gospel music, whether you like that sort of stuff or not.  The very best performers in each genre, from the early years to the present, can perform comfortably in the church and in the watering hole.  Rock and roll, though, has always had a tenuous relationship with Jesus, and since it’s arrival so has pop music.  Sometimes a relationship that leads to strange bedfellows…

Take, for instance, “Spirit in the Sky”:  A 1973 hit that peaked at #3 and sold more than 2 million copies – one of the most kickass 70s rockers, and also about the most cynical piece of gospel garbage this side of Swaggart.  Singer Norman Greenbaum was Jew who saw Porter Wagoner sing the praises of redemption of TV and saw dollar signs.  The only thing “Spirit in the Sky” set Greenbaum up with was a life without work (he admits as much to the New York Times here).

Guitarist Russell DaShiell, then with the under-rated band Crowfoot, provided the memorable fuzzy guitar work that drives “Spirit in the Sky”.  He recorded three albums with Crowfoot, one solo record and worked here and there as a session guitarist (notable a favorite of Laura’s, Tom Fogerty’s kickass solo album Myopia).  Greenbaum, who long ago sold the rights to his single hit, still pockets five figures every time Hollywood puts “Spirit in the Sky” in some dumbass movie, but DaShiell gets nothing.  It may be true that the Lord takes care of old folks and fools, but he’s overlooking one old man and overcompensating another, if you ask me.

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George Harrison, too, phonied his way into top ten standing (all the way to #1) – “My Sweet Lord”, one of his first post-Beatles singles, borrowed substantially from the Chiffon’s “He’s So Fine”, leading to a long legal conflict ending with Harrison’s lawyer buying the rights to the Chiffon’s song.

But it’s controversies didn’t end there, as the uppity set couldn’t stomach the “Hare Krishna” mantra over which the song’s back nine are laid.  Harrison was a follower of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and not a Christian, leaving “My Sweet Lord” like so many of the Savior’s top ten hits: Indelibly tainted.  As a “George guy” myself, I have always heard in “My Sweet Lord” the best of intentions, and the album from which it came – All Things Must Pass – helped me through the grief and depression that followed my brother’s death.  I think it is one of the great albums of it’s era.

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(“Jesus is Just All Right” by the Byrds and by the Doobie Brothers)

My brother, incidentally, was a musical sort of guy in a semi-serious sort of way.  He loved to sing, especially compulsively repetitive songs.  “Jesus is Just All Right” by the Doobie Brothers was a favorite.  It was actually first done by the Art Reynolds Singers, and earlier covered by the Byrds (creeping into the charts at #97).  The Doobie’s rockin’ version reached #35 a few years later.

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It’s not clear the one lighting up Debby Boone’s life was Jesus, but Marge Simpson says so and I’m not one to argue with television’s awesomest blue-haired mom.  It’s a cover of a song from the movie You Light Up My Life, originally sung by Kacey Cisyk.  I never much liked it or understood why it was such a big hit, but I have to admit she sings the hell out of that song.

If indeed the Lord is lighting up her life (and why the hell not?) it’s the longest He sat atop the world He holds in His hands (ten weeks at #1).

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“Jesus Walks” took the Son of God back up the chart (to #11) in 2004, courtesy of Kanye West and a well-worked sample from the ARC Choir’s “Walk with Me”.  West laments that he can sing about anything – “guns, sex, lies, videotape” – except Jesus.

If I talk about God, then my record won’t get played
Huh?