DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

https://www.fayboundalberti.com/blog/2017/10/19/its-not-unusual-says-tom-jones-but-he-misses-the-point

What goes around, comes around. Tom Jones, the happily married man who claimed to have slept with 250 women in a single year opens up about his own sexual harassment early in his career.

VISIT THE PRUNES!
http://www.electricprunes.com/

1. THUNDER ROAD (THE WORK IN PROGRESS- ORIGINAL ACOUSTIC TAKE)
2. THE HEIST (FIRST TAKE OF THE WORK COMPLETED AS  "MEETING ACROSS THE RIVER"
3. BORN TO RUN (ALTERNATIVE TAKE)
4. BACKSTREETS (ALTERNATIVE TAKE)
5. LOVERS IN THE COLD  (DID NOT MAKE THE CUT FOR THE ALBUM)
6. A LOVE SO FINE  (DID NOT MAKE THE CUT FOR THE ALBUM)
7. JUNGLELAND (REHEARSAL)

I was a possessive motherfucker when it came to The Boss (he wasn’t “The Boss” yet; he was just a skinny, scruffy Pub-Rocker Poet).  I discovered him early on, when I bought Greetings From Asbury Park on a whim, and I was so proud because I was able to spread the Gospel of Bruce to Rich, in return for the revelations of Astral Weeks and Love’s Forever Changes, among many others. 

I saw him at Max’s Kansas City, with Bob Marley opening; We trekked out to Roslyn to see him at My Father’s Place, with a crowd so small we were able to stand at his feet in front of the stage; We saw him introduce Born to Run at the Bottom Line, just before the megaton explosion of fame; and finally, the last time was at The Palladium when he had just made the covers of Time and Newsweek simultaneously - which he name checked in the song Rosalita, while the crowd screamed.

At that moment I knew the romance was over. I couldn’t bring myself to see him in a stadium. I still bought the records up until The River, but I mourned the loss of my private knowledge. The entire world would soon line up to anoint him. 

Here is a treat for Springsteen fans from the Born to Run Outtakes archives. It’s fun to hear the Easter eggs hidden throughout these cuts as Bruce works out the arrangements that would eventually make it on to the final master. Enjoy!

A major part of my sentimental education was connected to the keening, heart-throbbing tone of Emmylou Harris. And, this cut off her Pieces of the Sky album has me literally in tears every time I hear it.  I can’t help it. It’s my romantic ideal personified; perfect love - unattainable, yet always worth striving for. 

I was acquainted with Emmylou’s plangent sound before that, as muse and partner to the late Gram Parsons. I wore the grooves out on Grievous Angel’s Hickory Wind and Love Hurts, but this solo outing was something from another planet. Boulder to Birmingham, which I understand was a tribute to her fallen comrade is also a gorgeous tear jerker, but this cover of Ira and Charlie Louvin’s 1958 classic evocation of yearning destroys me without fail each time my ears and heart encounter it.  Her seamless duet with Herb Pedersen, who follows her swoop for swoop, is flawless, and the longing for soul connection that it demonstrates cannot be described adequately with mere words. You just have to hear it.

Born in 1947, Emmylou is 76 now, and still lovely. With each new gray hair she’s grown more fetching. Of course, she ascended inevitably to the country music throne to which she was destined. Still, whether singing with a partner, or solo, her signature sound continues to clutch at my heart. Such sweet sadness.

THE KINKS ON NPR-
https://www.npr.org/artists/15420606/the-kinks

“On a tree by a river a little Tom Tit, sang willow, tit willow, tit willow…” 

This how Ko-Ko’s plaintive lament of unrequited love begins.  When I was eleven, playing the challenging role of Ko Ko, The Lord High Executioner, in the Lake Massapaug Middle School production of The Mikado,  I laboriously committed those delicious lyrics to memory, along some other tasty tongue twisters, - syllable, by succulent syllable, and I loved every minute of it.

It started a life-long obsession with -, and performing -, the wicked word-play of WS Gilbert - (played crustily in the film Topsy Turvey by the singular Jim Broadbent). 

This recording, from the 1936 D’Oyly Carte production, is sensitively rendered by Martyn Green, who tempers its obvious irony with some gravitas, playing quite differently from the more expected, crudely mugged style. 

Great verbal acrobats like Shakespeare, WS Gilbert, Cole Porter, Stephen Sondheim, and Tom Lehrer -  can spin words like atomic particles, releasing a spray of electrons within our brain cells, sparking joy.

What a rush!

https://www.sinatra.com/

Frank Flew Us To The Moon and Sang For The Lonely In The Wee Wee Hours.
They Were Very Good Years.

1) Downtown (Outtake)
2) It Was A Very Good Year (Outtake)                             
3) Something- Frank Channels George Harrison- 
Meadowlands Arena- September 9, 1979 

Since its inception in 1950, VANGUARD RECORDS has carried forward a legacy of artistic excellence and achievement in blues, folk, rock, country and jazz. Its catalog includes pivotal works from artists such as Joan Baez, Doc Watson, Levon Helm, Buddy Guy, Country Joe and The Fish, Big Mama Thornton, Mississippi John Hurt, John Fahey and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Currently, Vanguard’s eclectic artist roster features Switchfoot, Flogging Molly, Indigo Girls, Chris Isaak, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Barenaked Ladies, O.A.R. and Sallie Ford.

The Creators, a four man doo wop group from Bayonne, NJ, put Mary Ann Thomas upfront, cut a demo of this song, which they then brought to Lieber and Stoller - and the rest is history: The Boy from NYC was cool. And I, because I came from NYC, I was cool by association. 

I didn’t own a mohair suit, hell, I didn’t even know what mohair was, but that sounded cool, too. And, don’t forget the pocket full of spendin’ loot, and the finest penthouse she’d ever seen in town. This was a notion of sexual chemistry to which a geeky 12 year old could aspire. 

I wasn’t the only one: Brian Wilson was so inspired, he wrote the GIRL from NYC, and cribbed the Creator’s back up rhythm for Good Vibrations. “Oowah, oowah, c’mon Kitty": Not too bad for a cool ass ditty.

"Ah, the blessings of the cursed. 
Shane McGowan’s torrid and mighty voice is mud and roses punched out with swaggering stagger, ancient longing that is blasted all to hell.  A Bard’s bard, may he cast his spell upon us all forevermore."

Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan