Oh, Rhapsody, So Much To Answer For Playlist

Ah, springtime. And an old man's ears turn to the airy pep of Cemetery Gates. And are denied?! Say it ain't so.

At some point in the last week or two most of the Smiths catalog that was in Rhapsody has fallen into a deep hole somewhere and can now feel the soil falling over its head. Truly an ignominious end to National Poetry Month.

We never had Meat Is Murder, but now everything is gone with the exception of the Singles compilation. I know Nick Dedina didn't like Rank, but Hell, now that record doesn't show up in the Rhapsody Online album list even with the "Show All" option button selected!

So hear my plea, Rhapsody rights managers: repeat for the Smiths whatever dark magic you worked to get the Bee Gees catalog back in Rhapsody, and I'll scratch your name on my arm with a fountain pen!

Oh, Rhapsody, So Much To Answer For Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Oh, Rhapsody, So Much To Answer For Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

I Started Something I Couldn't Finish - The Smiths
Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now - The Smiths

Persuasions Sing Zappa Sampler

Here's something worth breaking in over the weekend for: at some point since the last time I checked, the Persuasions Frank Zappa record Frankly A Cappella [wiki] came into the Rhapsody catalog. Here's a distilled sampler for a Saturday brunch.

Persuasions Sing Zappa Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Persuasions Sing Zappa Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Electric Aunt Jemima
The Meek Shall Inherit Nothing
Harder Than Your Husband
My Guitar Wants To Kill Your Mama

Sunny Day Organ Fresh Catch Playlist

Today a fresh catch batch of especially good songs that moved through the Mixer here at R&S Labs over the last couple weeks. They have decidedly different origins, but all feature well-employed organ sounds.

First, another track gleaned from my slow listen through The Rest Is Noise, it's the quite rocking Organ Solo from Leos Janacek's Glagolitic Mass. From there, High Coin from the new Clinic record, which for some mysterious reason has become the most played new release here since Marah's Angels of Desctruction! Lastly, it's a languid but solid jam on Spill The Wine brought to us by Los Aragon from another Musart-Balboa compilation of vintage way-southern rock and soul.

Sunny Day Fresh Catch Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Sunny Day Fresh Catch Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Organ Solo - Leos Janacek
High Coin - Clinic
En Mi Onda - Los Aragon

Out To Lunch Three Years Playlist

As of last Sunday, it appears Ribaldry & Schmaltz has been making the world safe for Rhapsody subscribers with questionable taste for three years. I have no profound statements on this arbitrary milestone, but here's a couple fascinating facts:

- We're #6 in a Google search of the word "ribaldry"
- We're #10 in a Google search of the word "schmaltz"

But will we use this power for good, or evil?

For today, inspired by Reggae Mylitis, I started doing a little research into a playlist of songs about physical afflictions with a musical cause. Rockin' Pneumonia came right up, of course. But from there things got a bit dodgy. There were a couple "Rock Fever"s and such, but overall it wasn't coming together on a grand scale. If I had found the "Jazz Polio" or the "Soukous Syphilis", things really might have worked out!

During my wanderings, though, Diseases from Michigan and Smiley came through the Mixer. And when I heard those three distinctive guitar notes flash bulbs started going off in my memory. Yes, it's one of the foundational samples from Remix For P Is Free from the debut Boogie Down Productions record. Criminal Minded got a belated twentieth anniversary double-disc reissue this winter, so let's just ditch the pathological playlist and serve these songs up together. (Of note, on the second disc of this reissue, see why it's called "Remix" and what the "P" is by comparing to the even more spartan The P Is Free Original 12" Version).

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Rockin' Pneumonia & the Boogie Woogie Flu - Huey "Piano" Smith
Reggae-Mylitis - Peter Tosh
Diseases - Michigan and Smiley
Remix For P Is Free - Boogie Down Productions

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch, a small playlist stew confusing international sources and destinations.

First, thanks to Hugues Aufray, we learn that if you translate Roger Miller's "Do-Wacka-Do" into French, it sounds like "Dou Wakadou". It's like those French have got a different word for everything, as one wise observer once said [rhapsody.com].

Then, we go through the looking glass and learn that several decades before a bunch of American hippies flipped it around, the Alabama Song/Whiskey Bar [wikipedia] was part of a German opera, but sung with English lyrics by prostitutes seeking whiskey, boys, and dollars.

Lastly, it turns out that My Way was originally a French song about something else entirely before Paul Anka bought it, made up his own lyrics, and peddled it to Frank Sinatra. And between that and a bunch of Swedish weirdos [rhapsody.com] desecrating Cotton Eye Joe, Yankees games would never be the same.

Yes, it took a while, but we finally worked things around to the first spring weekend featuring a scrimmage between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox (a team with questionable musical predilections [wpri.com] of their own).

Happy Friday, everybody!

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Dou Wakadou - Hugues Aufray
Alabama Song - Lotte Lenya/North Germany Radio Chorus
Comme D'Habitude - Claude François

Monday Morning Addendum: What the Hell was I on? Of course, it's "New York, New York" that regularly emanates from the Yankee Stadium PA, not "My Way". But why let the facts get in the way of blogometric post symmetry?

Young@Heart Hometown Premiere Sampler Playlist

The eponymous documentary Young@Heart had a hometown premiere last Friday night. It was giddily surreal to be watching those local indie kids blow up on the big screen from the dark balcony of the same theater where the culminating concert in the film takes place. It's impossible to fully harness the live power of the Chorus on celluloid, but even that portion the movie delivers is enough. Plus, we get to follow them into their bedrooms, hospital rooms, showers, backstages, and Festivas.

It's hard to say what people will make of it outside the walls of this Valley, but I assure you it's a little window into what's right in this conflicted mortal world. And of course, it brings the Rock.

The Chorus will be on the Tonight Show and Ellen Degeneres next Wednesday and Thursday respectively, before playing a full set at the Wilshire Theater in Los Angeles Thursday night (April 17). It looks like the movie opens in "select theaters" tomorrow, but nationally Friday, April 18.

Unfortunately, I don't think there's any coordinated soundtrack being released, so here's a little sampler playlist of source material. It's far from comprehensive, just a few of the big hits and one or two that stood out for me.

Young@Heart Premiere Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Young@Heart Premiere Sampler Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Should I Stay Or Should I Go - The Clash
Yes We Can Can - Allen Toussaint
Just Because - Elvis Presley
Schizophrenia - Sonic Youth
Forever Young - Bob Dylan
Road To Nowhere - Talking Heads

Out To Lunch Friday Playlist

Today out to lunch we bring another plate of loud music for old men. Because if the Pack Jam is twenty five years old this year, that means I'm old enough to need a hip replacement after my next trip to the roller rink.

From there it's a track from the finest electric saxophone player to ever issue a stand-up comedy record, Eddie Harris. Eddie Harris Sings The Blues features a few songs where Mister Harris rather successfully sings through a saxophone mouthpiece plugged into a wah-wah pedal, but Ten Minutes To Four has a superior solid groove to my rough ear. It also channels the freakout vibe from Can't You Hear Me Knocking in a way appropriate for the Rolling Stones movie that opens today.

Lastly, you'd have to have some issues with dementia to publicly lament the absence of the original version of Digging Your Scene from the Rhapsody catalog. Well, now I can publicly acknowledge that that particular injustice has been rectified.

Out to Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Online Version]

Out to Lunch Friday Playlist [Rhapsody Player Software Version]

Pack Jam (12" Remix) - Jonzun Crew
Ten Minutes To Four - Eddie Harris
Stone Thames - Big Audio Dynamite
Digging Your Scene - The Blow Monkeys