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A collection of one-off songs or interesting pieces of music which have an important, unusual or curious back-story. Some by famous artists, others by those you may never have heard of. And might wish never to hear of again.
Enjoy or endure.
Johnny Guitar Watson: Funk Beyond the Call of Duty (1977)
By the time Johnny Guitar Watson made the album of which this was the title track, he was 42, had been on about 15 different labels and had really paid his dues: he'd started recording at 17, been something of an r'n'b star in the 50s and by the Seventies had edged his way to streetcorner funk. He pioneered feedback on Space Guitar in '54, was the original Gangster of Love (in 1958, a gold... more >>
Added: 3 Sep 10
Willie Nelson: Healing Hands of Time (1961)
By the time Willie Nelson laid down this demo of what is arguably one of the greatest songs of his pre-fame period, he had already written Family Bible (a top 10 country hit for Claude Gray although Nelson had sold the song outright so got no writing credit or cash) and Hello Walls (number one for nine weeks in '61 for Faron Young). Crazy, which he had also written, would become a huge hit... more >>
Added: 2 Sep 10
Romeo Void: Never Say Never (1982)
The British label Stiff Records (which gave the world Jona Lewie, Lena Lovich and Wreckless Eric alongside Elvis Costello and Ian Dury, among others) said everybody had one good single in them. Romeo Void out of San Francsisco had Never Say Never, a smart sliver of New Wave pop which rode a relentless beat and was elevated not just by the ennui and indifference of singer Debora Iyall but by... more >>
Added: 1 Sep 10
Brave Combo: My Girl Lollipop (1982)
It was a brave combo indeed that took piano accordion polka-rock to the good people of Denton, Texas -- but in the early Eighties this four-piece pulled together ska, Tex-Mex, rock, waltzes, rumba, zydeco and tango (with polka) and delivered their own versions of Hendrix's Purple Haze, Iron Butterfly's Inna Gadda Da Vida and The Twist, Perfidia and some mad originals. They played in prisons... more >>
Added: 31 Aug 10
Letter to a Buddie: Joe Medwick (1963)
Soulful singer Joe Medwick coulda been a contender but somewhere along the way he lost many of the songs he wrote for the likes of Bobby Bland, and his own singles and albums didn't really get much attention. He also had a thing for the drink, and preferred to play bars and nightclubs around Houston than chance his arm on the wider circuit. He actually had what we might call a nightclub... more >>
Added: 30 Aug 10
Roy Buchanan: The Messiah Will Come Again (1976)
There have been any number of Southern blues, soul and rock'n'roll musicians whose souls have struggled with their pull of their secular and spiritual sides: Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Son House, Al Green . . . and the great guitarist Buchanan. Arkansas-born Buchanan -- who died in an apparent jail-cell suicide in 1988 at age 48, although that has been seriously questioned -- was... more >>
Added: 26 Aug 10
Various People: A crowd at the futbol in Buenos Aires
Okay, this is from the "Maybe you had to be there part" shelf in the Elsewhere vaults but . . . In Buenos Aires we went to a huge soccer ("futbol") match at Rio del Plata Stadium -- about 60,000 in the stadium where U2 filmed their U23D concert film -- between River and Arsenale. It was near the airport so planes would fly alarmingly (but... more >>
Added: 25 Aug 10
Brix E. Smith and Nigel Kennedy: Hurdy Gurdy Man (1991)
Tribute albums can be dodgy: some are fun, and the more obscure the artists the better they get. But you are wise to avoid the Joy Division tribute A Means to an End which features those household names Honeymoon Stitch, Girls Against Boys, Starchildren and godheadSILO. Or any of those to Tom Waits. But how can you resist an album of Donovan songs sung by the likes of bands with names... more >>
Added: 24 Aug 10 
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Allen Ginsberg: Dope Fiend Blues (1972)
Jimi Hendrix said he believed he couldn't sing, until he heard the young Bob Dylan and thought, "Well, if he can do that . . ." As a poet drawn to song, Leonard Cohen thought much the same about Allen Ginsberg, a man who sang less like Pavarotti than a first round contestant in American Idol. Ginsberg sing? Not really. But Ginsberg, like Cohen a Jew drawn to Buddhism, knew... more >>
Added: 23 Aug 10 1 Comment
Eddie Hinton: I Want a Woman (1986)
Alabama-born Eddie Hinton (1944-95) is hardly a household name but was one of the great Southern soul songwriters and sessionmen. As a Muscle Shoals musician he played guitar on scores of sessions (for everyone from Aretha Franklin to Boz Scaggs, Elvis to Solomon Burke) and was a prolific, if under-recorded, songwriter. His most notable hit was Breakfast in Bed, a co-write with Donnie... more >>
Added: 20 Aug 10
Johnny Cash: Understand Your Man (1964)
The friendship and mutual admiration in the late Sixties between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan has been well documented: they did some sessions together in '69 (their duet on Girl From the North Country appeared on Dylan's Nashville Skyline), and Cash subsequently invited Dylan onto his television show as a guest. But their friendship went back even further and Cash was an early supporter of... more >>
Added: 19 Aug 10
Peter Cape: She'll Be Right (1959)
Peter Cape was New Zealand's unofficial poet laureate in the days before television, when men were "jokers" and women were "sheilas" . . . and when you could afford to assume that "she'll be right". (ie no matter what happens, it'll be okay.) Cape wrote and sang of awkward young men and women at a rural dance (Down the Hall on Saturday Night), of train stops on... more >>
Added: 18 Aug 10
Hasil Adkins: She Said (1966?)
Whatever his style was, fame wasn't interested in embracing it. The closest this rockabilly blues screamer -- who started in the mid Fifties -- came to wider recognition was when the Cramps covered this song. But for Hasil (pronounced "hassle"), he just had to make do with juke joints and bars, and being a punk rocker long before the term was even thought of. The indifference... more >>
Added: 17 Aug 10
Elvis Presley: Always on My Mind (1972)
Unlike the Beatles -- especially John Lennon and often George Harrison -- we rarely think of the Rolling Stones writing autobiographical songs, or lyrics which have come from some deep emotional place in their lives. And even less so with Elvis Presley who, after all, didn't write and would pick up anything from a Christmas carol to a raw blues and turn it into gold, or a very passable... more >>
Added: 16 Aug 10
Joel Grey: White Room (1969)
Actor Joel Grey won a best supporting actor Academy Award in '72 for his role as the MC in the Liza Minnelli vehicle Cabaret, following his hugely successful portrayal of the character in the Broadway msuical which won him a Tony award. After that however his successes and appearances were fewer and of lesser consequence (he appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for a season) and often came... more >>
Added: 13 Aug 10
The King: Come As You Are (1998)
Although there aren't Elvis sighting in gas stations and supermarkets any more -- Presley would be in his mid 70s -- there is still no shortage of lookalikes and impersonators around. While there seems no great call for Kurt Cobain and Mama Cass impersonators, those who swish their hair back and sneer a little seem to be always out there. One week I interviewed two of them and within days... more >>
Added: 12 Aug 10
Elmer Fudd: The Fool on the Hill (1995)
There have been thousands of covers and interpretations of Beatles' songs -- from the refined (orchestral and chamber groups) to the ridiculous (dogs barking out She Loves You), from jazz and reggae to trip-hop and . . . well then there were the Rutles (whose parodies were also covered). So it was hardly a surprise when Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam -- the furry four --... more >>
Added: 11 Aug 10
Hank Wilson: She Thinks I Still Care (1973)
Back in '99, the country singer Garth Brooks adopted an alternate persona as the Australian-born pop singer "Chris Gaines" and released an album under that name. The idea was that Gaines was a real characterand Brooks would be playing him in a bio-pic to be called The Lamb. The line between fact and fiction was to be so blurred that people would think Gaines was real. The... more >>
Added: 10 Aug 10
Sebastian Cabot: Like a Rolling Stone (1967)
Portly English actor Sebastian Cabot was best known for his role as Mr Giles French, the "gentleman's gentleman" (butler etc), in the long-running late Sixties US sitcom Family Affair alongside Brian Keith (as his master). With his commanding English accent he was also in demand for voice-over work and -- like David Niven before him -- became the go-to guy when Hollywood needed... more >>
Added: 9 Aug 10 1 Comment
Leonard Cohen: Because of (2004)
The equation seems simple: Leonard Cohen the self-described "ladies man" + women + bed = But of course nothing is ever quite that straightforward with a Jewish Zen Buddhist poet-cum-singer and unlikely sex symbol even his mid 70s. Here with amusing self-effacement he confronts aging, his reputation, plays with images of "naked" women bending over the bed . . . ... more >>
Added: 6 Aug 10
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