More Dudes

Just a heads up on another cover of All the Young Dudes, performed live by Jill Sobule & Billy Bragg in 2004.

Check it out at Jill Sobule's website, which always has a good rotation of mp3 downloads (sometimes covers).

Dream a Little Dream

Not quite sure who Terry Hill is... nor am I familiar with Marijne, singer of a band called Salad(?). But together they managed to put together one of the best versions of the oft-covered Dream a Little Dream. It's taken from the 1995 War Child charity album called "Help: A Charity Project for the Children of Bosnia," a project I think spearheaded by Krist Novoselic (the semi-anonymous third member of Nirvana).

Terry Hill & Marijne - Dream a Little Dream

According to a brief wikipedia entry, this song was originally written in 1931 by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt. The most well-known cover was by Mama Cass of The Mamas & The Papas, though there are numerous other covers that I can't even be bothered to mention. Just listen to Terry & Marijne.

Woke Up This Morning

So I'm kicking this popsicle stand and taking off to Europe in just over 2 weeks. Until I leave, I'm going to be posting faster and furiouser than EVER BEFORE in what amounts to a farewell tour since I'll be gone for 2+ months. That means posts will be short and plentiful (I hope) as I try to showcase some last minute tunes, covers and otherwise. NOTE: from here on end, I'll be throwing these up on SaveFile.

First off, I wanted to draw your attention to a bizarre CD I borrowed from the trusty Edmonton Public Library:


This is a recording, handmade by Jimi himself, bootlegged, then semi-officially released under various titles. The sordid history of the recording is recounted in the liner notes with not much authority. There's some more info on it here.

The semi-historic significance of the recording is that a drunken Jim Morrison mumbles and yells obscenities throughout, particularly on the notoriously dubbed Morrison's Lament. Johnny Winters is apparently on rhythm guitar and Buddy Miles may or may not be on drums (depending whose liner notes you believe).

The quality of the recording is rather horrid and not really worth listening to, even though Jimi does a cover of Tomorrow Never Knows and Sunshine of Your Love (a better version of this can be found on his BBC Sessions CD).

Give a listen to: Morrison's Lament

Well, that was fun and bizarre. The idea of Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison together is certainly tantalizing, but the results are not exactly inspiring (depressing, perhaps). Both died within 3 years of this gig.

To combat the bad taste of that recording, here's a couple covers I dig:

Shirley Bassey - Light My Fire [originally by The Doors]
I think I may have posted this cover before, but it's so wonderfully overblown I can't resist. The best is around the 3:00 mark when she belts, "Come on baby light my--" [everything grinds to a halt] "FIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEE" (which lasts about 15 seconds). I was almost tempted to go see her at Wembley Stadium in June, but then my wallet and head came to their collective senses.

Santana - Spanish Castle Magic [originally by The Jimi Hendrix Experience]

T. Rex

"I got your body right now on my mind but I drunk myself blind to the
sound of old T. Rex" - You Better You Bet

"Practice my T-Rex moves and make the scene" - The Wake-Up Bomb

"The television man is crazy saying we're juvenile delinquent wrecks
Man, I need a TV when I've got T. Rex" - All the Young Dudes

The common thread to the three tunes from the last cover riddle is the references they make to T. Rex, the early 70s glam rock band fronted by Marc Bolan. Some versions of All the Young Dudes also use the lyrical variation: "Who needs TV when I got T. Rex?"... I'm not sure which is more definitive. Google searches pull references to both.

Before I go any further, does any remember this show?


Whenever I think of T. Rex (the band), the chorus to this half-forgotten theme song to an obscure cartoon springs to mind. It was called The Adventures of T-Rex, a ninja turtles clone from the early 90s about 5 colour-coded dino brothers who are stand-up comedians by day and by night the crimefighting supergroup T-REX. When I was about 9 years old, this was on TV every day when I got home from elementary school. I remember almost nothing about the show except that it had this damn catchy theme song. I went on one of these google frenzies to track down an mp3 of the song, which at first required finding out the proper name of the show (googling "T-rex" is not very helpful). This was trickier than expected because at this point the show is almost 15 years old and it hasn't really inspired a cult following. Just as I was lamenting the disappearance of the T-Rex theme song and cursing the relative ease with which you can find the theme to Denver The Last Dinosaur, I stumbled upon some yahoo group devoted to T-Rex. I momentarily signed up on the off-chance that it had an mp3 and it did! Pure gold, baby. Now if I can snag the theme to an old Dino-ghetti commercial, my life will be complete.

For your listening pleasure: The Adventures of T-Rex
I can listen to this ALL NIGHT LONG. Don't laugh.





Speaking of Denver The Last Dinosaur, a couple weeks ago a friend was commenting on the creepy undertones of the line "he's my friend and a whole lot more". Uh oh, what's that supposed to mean? The sexual connotations of that line become full blown if you watch the intro to the show where Denver is raped and/or molested by 4 children... or the line "Shows me a world I never saw before" at which point Denver reaches into his rucksack and pulls out an illicit sex object and thrusts it in the children's faces.
I'm only half kidding. I'll leave it to you to find other unintended sexual imagery on your own.
view Intro to Denver The Last Dinosaur




Another key childhood memory is the album Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers, a cassette that was on heavy rotation in our family's tapedeck on many roadtrips. Sort of a precursor to mash-ups or probably more accurately a descendant of Stars on 45. I have to credit Jive Bunny for introducing me at a young age to both Sweet and T.Rex, though it wasn't until years later that I acted upon the impulse to rediscover the original songs in a nostalgia-induced fever. The song below includes excerpts from Sweet's Teenage Rampage and two T.Rex tracks: Bang a Gong and Hot Love.
Jive Bunny & The Mastermixers - Do You Wanna Rock

OK, onto T. Rex covers:

Children of the Revolution
To Marc Bolan & T. Rex's credit, none of the guys below can touch the original song.
Elton John with Pete Doherty (from Live 8)
Bono, Gavin Friday and Maurice Seezer (from soundtrack to Moulin Rouge)
Violent Femmes

Jakob Dylan - Bang a Gong (Get it On)
This is a lo-fi rip of the song featured "exclusively" on JCPenney. It's not a bad cover, but why was this recorded exclusively for JCPenney? That makes about as much sense as-- oh, say, his dad hawking Victoria's Secret lingerie...

T. Rex - Summertime Blues [originally by Eddie Cochran]
Interesting cover history trivia: singer Gloria Jones who sang Tainted Love, whose covers are arguably more well known than the original, sang backing vocals for T. Rex between 1973-77 and was Marc Bolan's girlfriend. She is also the mother of their son Rolan Bolan.

T. Rex - Dock of the Bay [originally by Otis Redding]
More interesting cover history trivia: Aretha Franklin's Respect is a cover of a Otis Redding song. I found that out just now. Isn't that weird when you uncover a cover?

The Shins - Baby Boomerang
Certainly one of my favourite covers over the past year, which I snagged with my free eMusic trial. Best deal ever, just for this song. Hearing this actually inspired me to look "beyond Bang a Gong" to discover T. Rex awesomeness.

New Cover Riddle & Overdue Answers

I know, I know. I've been slacking with posts and this trend looks to continue in the foreseeable future. To compensate, I'll try to cram a few extra tunes in here.

There's some unfinished business with the David Fincher cover riddle. Fincher is one of those music-video-turned-film-directors from back when that inspired an "Oh, that's interesting." rather than an "Another bloody music video director!?!" response. Among the videos he directed were:

Paula Abdul's Straight Up covered here by Halifax
George Michael's Freedom '90 covered here by Robbie Williams (as Freedom '96)

...and he even directed the video for Billy Idol's cover of LA Woman [originally The Doors]. Kudos to him!

I've even got another semi-cover riddle lined up for you:
What is the common theme between these tunes?

The Who - You Better You Bet
REM - The Wake-Up Bomb
&
All the Young Dudes
This was originally written by David Bowie for Mott the Hoople and becomes one of those complicated instances of who you credit the original song to... My instincts are to credit the song to Bowie who didn't release an album cut until later, although Mott the Hoople's version came out first. Oh the dilemma.
The F-Ups
Jill Sobule
Ozzy Osbourne
Des de Moor and Russel Churney
Switchblade Kittens

Cover Answer #4 (sort of)

Alright, no time for a proper post-- but I figured it was about time I revealed the answer. I've been told the answer can be discovered with a little help from Google... Damn you, Google, ruiner of trivia!

So the answer is that the three songs prior were used as the music at the end of three consecutive films of David Fincher, a near-great director who's been missing in action for the past few years though seems to be on the verge of a comeback with films coming out this year and next.

1. Se7en (1995) - Trent Reznor's remix of Bowie's "The Heart's Filthy Lesson"
2. The Game (1997) - Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit"
3. Fight Club (1999) - Pixies' "Where is My Mind?"

These films are bookended by the flawed Alien 3 (1992) and the disappointing Panic Room (2002), which may have only been disappointing because it happened to follow SE7EN, THE GAME, and FIGHT CLUB. I would easily consider Se7en and Fight Club to be two of the best films of the 90s. Coincidentally, both containing Brad Pitt back when he used to act instead of playing himself. Fight Club also marked the last time Edward Norton was in anything worth watching. Prove me wrong, Ed, prove me wrong. Se7en also features a pre-Scrubs John C. McGinley who is described as "hardcore" by Fincher and Pitt on the DVD's commentary, which I still distinctly remembered when I started watching Scrubs years later. The Game is oppressive and relentless with its story, yet simultaneously darkly amusing. Highly recommended as well.

But the conceit of these cover riddles is that I answer in the form of covers... so you can ponder what I might post in the near future (when I have more free time!).

Cover Riddle #4

Riddle me this, riddle me that: How does anyone find the time and motivation to post on their blog on a regular basis?*

After a disappointingly easy Cover Riddle #3, I tried to come up with something a little trickier. That said, I guess it's very obvious if you already know the answer... (well, obviously). Also check out this week's Coverville episode, for Brian Ibbott's version of Cover Riddles. My guess is that it has something to do with the Oscars-- at least three of the songs are featured in Oscar-winning films, though I'm not sure about the others. I'm amused because a couple weeks ago Brian also beat me to a video games cover post, which I may still do in the future because he left off one of the best ones...

Alright, what is the unifying link between the following covers?

The Heart's Filthy Lesson by Lunasect [originally by David Bowie]

White Rabbit [originally by Jefferson Airplane]
For some reason, when I first heard White Rabbit I immediately thought it'd make a good cover song for an up-tempo rockin' version. I've yet to hear the perfect cover of it, but The Damned's is pretty damn close. I have 14 covers of White Rabbit and these are the best ones:
Karen Abrahams with The Austin Lounge Lizards
Blue Man Group featuring Esthero
The Damned
The Murmurs (this one is distinctly Björkish)

Where is My Mind? by Ghoti Hook [originally by the Pixies]

=========================
And now for something completely different...

Watched the Oscars tonight and it played out just about as expected including the not-so-shocking "upset" of Crash for Best Picture over Brokeback Mountain... Memoirs of a Geisha was nominated for and won more Oscars than I realized... this year they added elevator music to the thank you speeches to distract the winners, I guess... more arbitrary montages than I remember in past years: tribute to biographies! tribute to epics! Jon Stewart quipped: "Coming up next, tribute to montages!"...

It was slightly embarrassing that they let a bunch of sound editors/costume designers/actors ramble on while totally gypping the winners of Crash (twice) on their speeches. Shouldn't the winner of the night's ultimate prize get to speechify to their heart's content? No. Crank the music, cut to ceiling shot, and show another JC Penney commercial featuring non-stop Bang A Gong remixes. Classy stuff. If they're trying to save time, seriously cut the barrage of montages.

Some favourite moments from the show:
-montage of controversial/socially conscious films including clips from (among others): In the Heat of the Night, Born on the Fourth of July, Hotel Rwanda, The China Syndrome, Network, The Insider, Philadelphia, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and The Day After Tomorrow. Way to go, Roland Emmerich. Your important contributions to cinematic history are duly noted.

-some Oscar winner for Memoirs of a Geisha thanked director Rob Marshall-- and the camera cut to a nodding Steven Spielberg. Ha.

-Crash wins Best Picture and half the crowd stands up and hugs because apparently everyone was in Crash

-Jon Stewart's analysis after the Best Song Oscar for It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp: "Martin Scorsese: 0; Three 6 Mafia: 1." Frightening, but so true. Robert Altman got his honorary Oscar too... he's now tied with Three 6 Mafia.

-Rachel Weisz wins her Oscar and as she's walking up, the announcer proudly announces she was in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns

-sorta of lame opening with past hosts, but then Mel Gibson comes on in full-Apocalypto mode (my sister has no idea what's going on)

-bizarre camera angles from behind the Oscar winning speeches like an SNL monologue with continuous reaction shots from Matt Dillon

-after Paul Haggis' speech, the co-writer for Crash steps up to the mike and is brutally cut off with the camera cutting away to an agog Charlize Theron who is clearly appalled at the Academy's lack of class

-the South African winner for foreign film demands the cameras to show the two stars of his film, Tsotsi.

-Stewart looking to Spielberg for a Jewish Tragedy Trilogy: "I can't wait to see what happens to us next!" Spielberg did not seem overly amused.

-Ang Lee gives props to China; my dad walks in and asks: "Is that John Woo?"




Cover answers next week (hopefully sooner than later).


*I have absolutely no idea.

The Return of the Philosopher Kings

Last night, went to an awesome show at the Starlite Room with the triumphant return to the stage of the Philosopher Kings after about 7 or 8 years -- almost 10 years since their last studio album. But man, I forgot what a rockin' show they put on. Last time I saw them at the newly built Winspear Centre (which was sweet), but now they're back in a small club venue (which is sweeter).

Unfortunately due to an overlong dinner, we came in just as the Jon Levine Band was ending their opening set. Jon is the insanely talented keyboard player for the PKs doing his solo act. I wonder how many keyboards he goes through because he just destroys the keys when he hammers 'em. I didn't realize this until tonight, but he writes or co-writes the majority of the PK's material. His solo band features a lot more of his piano wizardry (lucky for me!) and I immediately bought one of his CDs despite missing nearly all of his set. It does not disappoint. He's got some MP3 downloads on his site, though I have no idea where you could get his CD outside of the shows. http://www.jonlevineband.com/ Check out "Happy" or all of them, for that matter.

After the Jon Levine Band, James Bryan came on to perform about 3 songs. James Bryan (AKA James McCollum) the equally insanely talented guitarist for the Kings and is probably better known as the muscle-bound Milo, half of the cartoon band Prozzak (pre-Gorillaz). It's amazing to watch his blazing guitar work and his solo act allows him to showcase this more than on the PK's albums. I also picked up his solo album, which is actually quite different from the live act. The album is more fused with some electronica beats and guest vocals, while his live show was performed raw with the PK's drummer and bassist. Still pretty sweet though, and even features a cover (joy!) of Bizarre Love Triangle.

James Bryan - Jelly Walk
James Bryan - Bizarre Love Triangle (vocals: Alessa) [originally by New Order]


The real treat was, of course, the long awaited reunion of the Philosopher Kings. And they have not missed a beat. I haven't listened to their new album Castles yet (released on Valentine's Day) and I was a little worried it was going to be all about the love ballads. But they unleashed an eclectic mix of soul, funk, blues, pop, and rock that can only be described as Philosopher Kings. The best part was when they introduced the new bassist and had him initiated to the PK experience by having him strut his bass skills on a solo. Then James Bryan performed his own solo, and the two had a back-and-forth guitar/bass duel trying to one-up each other. During the encore Hurts To Love You, they do Gerald Eaton's (AKA Jarvis Church) "favourite part of the show", where he invites one of the screaming girls on stage to personally sing to them some Marvin Gaye. Their live show is great-- catch 'em if you can!

From their One Night Stand live album from 1999:
The Philosopher Kings - Hurts to Love You medley
(featuring "I've Been Loving you Too Long (To Stop Now)", "At Last", and "Let's Get it On")

Go Lalo Go

Today I just wanted to feature a couple classic themes composed by Lalo Schifrin. First off is the incomparable theme to Mission: Impossible. I remember when I was in elementary school staying up late to watch the old reruns of the 60s series... Man, Martin Landau was the coolest cat. Why is this the only show NOT on DVD yet? Perhaps another "Crazy Tom Cruise" scientology conspiracy? Who knows. I made fun of the M:I:III double colon action in an earlier post, though I guess it must have seemed sexy to the marketing whizzes because they're using it: "Hey, we can use TWO colons!"

The Plot

Mission: Impossible Main Titles

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra - The Plot/Main Theme from Mission: Impossible
An extended melody of the first two tracks.

Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen - Mission: Impossible Theme (Mission Accomplished)
While Bono and The Edge were off writing the theme to Goldeneye, the other half of U2 had big budget spy franchise plans of their own... They did two renditions of the theme for the 1996 De Palma update; this less bombastic version (not featured in the movie) is off the sountrack, which was one of my first CDs ever.


The 2nd greatest Lalo Schifrin theme ever is to the quintessential Bruce Lee film, Enter the Dragon. Dr. No and Dr. Claw rolled into one? Showdown in the hall of mirrors? BOLO!? This movie rocked (unless my childhood memory betrays me). One thing that definitely endures is the chop-socky 70s funk theme. Here's the original and a couple o' covers

Enter the Dragon

Dennis Coffey - Enter the Dragon
...Obviously not funky enough for Dennis Coffey.

Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra - Enter the Dragon

Red Shag Carpet

Just a quick plug for Red Shag Carpet, some local Edmonton rockers. My friend's brother is the singer/guitarist (all four of them do vocals). They just had a rockin' CD release party on Saturday for their 2nd album Lift & Drop. Check 'em out on their website: www.redshagcarpet.com and listen to three tracks off the new CD. They're hitting the highway this week for a cross-Canada tour from Vancouver Island to Nova Scotia. Good luck, guys!