Eine Kleine Schmaltzmusic

Here's an easy listening power trio of songs about goings on after the lights go down.

Of note, I've listened to The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia a couple times a day for the last week, and am still not sure exactly who did what to who.

Eine Kleine Schmaltzmusic Playlist

The Night Chicago Died - Paper Lace
The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Reba McEntire
Give Me The Night - George Benson

You Bet Your Dupa It's the "Polkas on 45" Source Material

Certainly one of the more important developments in the Rhapsody database in 2005 was the fleshing out of the Weird Al Yankovic catalog. I think when I joined the game in March last year the only albums Rhapvailable were Poodle Hat and Bad Hair Day. Things have certainly changed since then.

Polkas on 45 medleys at least fifteen songs artfully into four and a third minutes. The playlist below includes the song itself, plus all the references my ears could pull out in order (and don't you even try to pretend YOU haven't rocked out to the Lonely Goatherd within the last four months).

There may be a tease or two I'm missing. Particularly, there are a few bars of other polka standards just after "Jocko Homo" and "Should I Stay Or Should I Go." I couldn't place them, but please educate me if you can (please, no one point out that I live within ten miles of half the Polish people in Massachusetts).

Also, two songs couldn't be had in their original versions (Hey Jude and In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida). Appropriate substitutions were made.

Polkas on 45 Source Material

Polkas On 45 - Weird Al Yankovic
Beer Barrel Polka - Frankie Yankovic
Jocko Homo - DEVO
Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
Sex (I'm A) - Berlin
Hey Jude - Wilson Pickett
LA Woman - The Doors
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida - Slayer
Hey Joe - Jimi Hendrix
The Lonely Goatherd - Sound of Music Cast
Burning Down The House - Talking Heads
Hot Blooded - Foreigner
Every Breath You Take - The Police
Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Jumpin' Jack Flash - Rolling Stones
My Generation - The Who

Spring Training Fresh Catch Playlist

A peppy warm-up fresh catch playlist to mark the opening of baseball spring training, and the anticipation of a new season of pathologically catchy radio jingles. Of note, three of these five tracks are from albums just slipped into Rhapsody in the last week or two.

Spring Training Fresh Catch Playlist

She's Got It - Little Richard
What's Inside A Girl - The Cramps
The Best Is Yet To Come - Bobby Short
Sunday Papers - Joe Jackson
Boemisa - Giorgios Kapsalis' Band

Strange Researches and Melodical Bamboozlement

Here's a bizarre finding. I've been up to my gizzard with the work recently. To minimize my incessant Rhapsody wanderings I've been just cueing up random classical works. And as it turns out, not even the land of background music is safe from distraction.

This morning I was cruising along to this Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor when things started sounding creepily familiar. As it turns out I'm now convinced easy listening schmaltz monger Eric Carmen lifted most of the melody to All By Myself wholesale from this piano concerto. The most damning evidence is all there in the first two and a half minutes of this adagio segment.

OK. With that case closed I've got to at least pretend to get a little more work done. Happy Monday.

Not So By Myself After All, Eh?

Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18 - II: Adagio sostenuto - Sergei Rachmaninov
All By Myself - Eric Carmen

Addendum: Well, what do you know. I got around to looking deeper into this. It turns out the melodical inspiration was intentional as explained in an interview on Mister Carmen's site.

"Can You Call it the Big Foist?"

Great news on the Rhapsody Just Added list today: the SST Records glacier appears to be melting. Two Black Flag offerings (Everything Went Black and Family Man) and four from the Minutemen (including Double Nickels on the Dime) are now Rhapvailable. No Husker Du, but for now my ears will be happy just pondering "What's up that dirt dress?"

Here's a little celebratory sampler.

SST on Rhapsody Thaw Sampler

Wasted - Black Flag
No Values - Black Flag
Police Story - Black Flag
Shed Reading (Rattus Norvegicus) - Black Flag
Cut - Minutemen
I Felt Like A Gringo - Minutemen
The Roar of the Masses Could Be Farts - Minutemen
This Ain't No Picnic - Minutemen
History Lesson Part 2 - Minutemen
Tour Spiel - Minutemen

R&S Big Love Day Playlist

Good morning and welcome to Big Love Day at Ribaldry & Schmaltz. Here at R&S Labs we've assembled a signature playlist exploration of the mulitfaceted and mysterious realm of amorous relations.

May you all get "peppered pretty good" with the buckshot of love on this fine day.

And as it turns out, Perdon Si Te Molesta doesn't mean what I hoped it did, but it'll more than do for our purposes.

R&S Big Love Day Playlist

I Found A Reason - Velvet Underground
I.G.Y - Donald Fagen
Let A Woman Flow - It's a Beautiful Day
Like To Get To Know You - Spanky & Our Gang
Perdon Si Te Molesta - Graciela Beltran
Huggy Bear - Charlie Hunter
She's A Bad Mama Jama - Carl Carlton
Ask Me No Questions - Albert King/Stevie Ray Vaughan
Whipping Post - The Allman Brothers Band
He Stopped Loving Her Today - George Jones

As Above, So Below Fresh Catch Playlist

A little fresh catch playlist stew of good and evil. Particularly, I've been soaking through the Jay Farrar solo albums recently. This live version of Lucifer Sam is a lean, punchy reworking with great guitar fire. On another level of trivial depth, the guitar freakout has quite a bit in common thematically with the dark "The End" breakdown in the Mike's Song on Phish's Slip Stitch and Pass.

As Above, So Below Fresh Catch Playlist

Pennies From Heaven - The Mills Brothers
The Lord's Prayer - William S. Burroughs
Settin' The Woods On Fire - Hank Williams
Lucifer Sam - Jay Farrar

Out To Lunch Friday

Today out to lunch, we throw a ham hock in your corn flakes. Last week there were some soul and funk gems on the Rhapsody Just Added list that were all new to me. First up, the sole release by Baby Huey, who got too big for this world before this record even came out. Then there were a slew of albums by Leroy Hutson.

Mister Hutson was a prolific soul producer in the 70s, sang lead for the Impressions after the departure of Curtis Mayfield, and released plenty of music in his own name to boot. I haven't sifted through them all yet, but can recommend Blackberry Jam without reserve.

From there, the fresh catch trolling moved on to Johannesburg and fascinating sights beyond.

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Mighty Mighty - Baby Huey
Blackberry Jam - Leroy Hutson
Johannesburg - Gil Scott-Heron
Iqbal - Yusef Lateef

Faux Film Music Editor Wednesday

Today an excerpt from the soundtrack to my Cold War coming of age story set in Benkelman, Nebraska. In this scene, the family is having a dance party when dad unexpectedly releases some marsh gas in the confined bomb shelter.

Faux Film Wednesday Playlist

Pony Time - Chubby Checker
Silhouettes - Herman's Hermits
I'm Not A Juvenile Delinquent - Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
A Teenager in Love - Dion and the Belmonts
Chucha - Frank Zappa