Tuesday, June 28, 2016

In Concert: The Jayhawks

image from kansascity.com

Venue: Knuckleheads Saloon; Kansas City, MO

Opening Act: Folk Uke

The Set List:

1. Waiting for the Sun 3
2. Leaving the Monsters Behind 9
3. Somewhere in Ohio 6
4. Stumbling Through the Dark 7
5. Lovers of the Sun 9
6. Save It for a Rainy Day 7
7. Pretty Roses in Your Hair 9
8. Nothing Left to Borrow 4
9. Comeback Kids 9
10. Bottomless Cup 5
11. Blue 4
12. Ace 9
13. Tampa to Tulsa 7
14. Quiet Corners and Empty Spaces 9
15. All the Right Reasons 7
16. The Devil in Her Eyes 9
17. I’d Run Away 4

Encore:

18. Settled Down Like Rain 3
19. Angelyne 7
20. I’ll Be Your Key 9
21. I’m Gonna Make You Love Me 6
22. Tailspin 7
23. Bad Time 4

The Jayhawks' Discography:

1 The Jayhawks (1986)
2 Blue Earth (1989)
3 Hollywood Town Hall (1992)
4 Tomorrow the Green Grass (1995)
5 Sound of Lies (1997)
6 Smile (2000)
7 Rainy Day Music (2003)
8 Mockingbird Time (2011)
9 Paging Mr. Prous (2016)


Monday, June 27, 2016

The Top 100 Broadway Songs

Broadway:

Top 100 Songs

Since the early part of the 20th century, musicals have fueled American music with some of its most beloved standards. In the first half of the 1900’s, many pop hits were recordings of songs which had originated on the Broadway stage. What follows is a list of the top 100 Broadway songs, as determined by an aggregate of 34 Broadway song collections and best-of lists. The show and the year of its stage premiere are listed after each song.

Click here to see other genre-specific song lists.

1. Memory (Cats, 1981)
2. Ol’ Man River (Show Boat, 1927)
3. Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific, 1949)
4. Tonight (West Side Story, 1957)
5. If I Were a Rich Man (Fiddler on the Roof, 1964)
6. You’ll Never Walk Alone (Carousel, 1945)
7. Send in the Clowns (A Little Night Music, 1973)
8. Oh, What a Beautiful Mornin’ (Oklahoma!, 1943)
9. Seasons of Love (Rent, 1996)
10. What I Did for Love (A Chorus Line, 1975)

11. The Sound of Music (The Sound of Music, 1959)
12. If I Loved You (Carousel, 1945)
13. On the Street Where You Live (My Fair Lady, 1956)
14. All That Jazz (Chicago, 1975)
15. Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (Evita, 1978)
16. The Impossible Dream (Man of La Mancha, 1965)
17. I Don’t Know How to Love Him (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971)
18. Aquarius (Hair, 1967)
19. I Dreamed a Dream (Les Miserables, 1985)
20. Tomorrow (Annie, 1977)

21. Cabaret (Cabaret, 1966)
22. Defying Gravity (Wicked, 2003)
23. Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered (Pal Joey, 1940)
24. The Music of the Night (The Phantom of the Opera, 1986)
25. I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady, 1956)
26. Climb Ev’ry Mountain (The Sound of Music, 1959)
27. My Favorite Things The Sound of Music, 1959)
28. Till There Was You (The Music Man, 1957)
29. My Funny Valentine (Babes in Arms, 1937)
30. Somewhere (West Side Story, 1957)

31. Oklahoma! (Oklahoma!, 1943)
32. On My Own (Les Miserables, 1985)
33. There’s No Business Like Show Business (Annie Get Your Gun, 1946)
34. I Got Rhythm (Girl Crazy, 1930)
35. Luck Be a Lady (Guys and Dolls, 1950)
36. Put on a Happy Face (Bye Bye Birdie, 1960)
37. Seventy-Six Trombones (The Music Man, 1957)
38. Getting to Know You (The King and I, 1951)
39. Can You Feel the Love Tonight? (The Lion King, 1997)
40. The Time Warp (The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1973)

41. Hello, Dolly! (Hello, Dolly!, 1964)
42. Do-Re-Mi (The Sound of Music, 1959)
43. Sunrise, Sunset (Fiddler on the Roof, 1964)
44. Day by Day (Godspell, 1971)
45. Shall We Dance? (The King and I, 1951)
46. Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man (Show Boat, 1927)
47. If Ever I Would Leave You (Camelot, 1960)
48. The Party’s Over (Bells Are Ringing, 1956)
49. Smoke Gets in Your Eyes (Roberta, 1933)
50. As Long As He Needs Me (Oliver!, 1960)

image from the odysseyonline.com

51. All the Things You Are (Very Warm for May, 1939)
52. Summertime (Porgy and Bess, 1935)
53. Circle of Life (The Lion King, 1997)
54. Everything’s Coming Up Roses (Gypsy, 1959)
55. Written in the Stars (Aida, 1999)
56. One (Singular Sensation) (A Chorus Line, 1975)
57. Someone to Watch Over Me (Oh, Kay!, 1926)
58. You’re the Top (Anything Goes, 1934)
59. Maria (West Side Story, 1957)
60. I Love Paris (Can-Can, 1953)

61. Hello, Young Lovers (The King and I, 1951)
62. New York, New York (On the Town, 1944)
63. Almost Like Being in Love (Brigadoon, 1947)
64. I Get a Kick Out of You (Anything Goes, 1935)
65. The Lady Is a Tramp (Babes in Arms, 1937)
66. People Will Say We’re in Love (Oklahoma!, 1943)
67. Once in Love with Amy (Where’s Charley?, 1948)
68. Maybe This Time (Cabaret, 1966)
69. You Can’t Stop the Beat (Hairspray, 2002)
70. Falling in Love with Love (The Boys from Syracuse, 1938)

71. Superstar (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971)
72. Comedy Tonight (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, 1962)
73. This Is the Moment (Jekyll and Hyde, 1997)
74. People (Funny Girl, 1964)
75. The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine In (Hair, 1964)
76. All I Ask of You (The Phantom of the Opera, 1986)
77. Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz, movie: 1939)
78. Edelweiss (The Sound of Music, 1959)
79. Wouldn’t It Be Loverly (My Fair Lady, 1956)
80. Try to Remember (The Fantastics, 1960)

81. Mack the Knife (The Threepenny Opera, 1928)
82. Younger Than Springtime (South Pacific, 1949)
83. Bill (Show Boat, 1927)
84. Summer Nights (Grease, 1972)
85. Hernando’s Hideaway (The Pajama Game, 1954)
86. June Is Bustin’ Out All Over (Carousel, 1945)
87. On a Clear Day You Can See Forever (On a Clear Day You Can See Forever, 1965)
88. I Enjoy Being a Girl (Flower Drum Song, 1958)
89. This Can’t Be Love (The Boys from Syracuse, 1938)
90. The Phantom of the Opera (The Phantom of the Opera, 1986)

91. So in Love (Kiss Me, Kate, 1948)
92. Camelot (Camelot, 1960)
93. Where or When (Babes in Arms, 1937)
94. Close Every Door (Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat, 1972)
95. For Good (Wicked, 2003)
96. There’s a Small Hotel (On Your Toes, 1936)
97. Wheels of a Dream (Ragtime, 1996)
98. Springtime for Hitler (The Producers, 2001)
99. Beauty and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast, 1998)
100. It’s a Hard-Knock Life (Annie, 1977)


Resources and Related Links:

First posted 6/27/2016.

Saturday, June 25, 2016

50 years ago: The Beatles hit #1 with “Paperback Writer”

Paperback Writer

The Beatles

Writer(s): John Lennon, Paul McCartney (see lyrics here)


Released: May 30, 1966


First Charted: June 11, 1966


Peak: 12 US, 12 CB, 11 GR, 11 HR, 1 CL, 12 UK, 11 CN, 11 AU, 1 DF (Click for codes to charts.)


Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, -- UK


Airplay/Streaming (in millions): 1.0 radio, 33.0 video, -- streaming

Awards:

Click on award for more details.

About the Song:

At the time that “Paperback Writer” ascended to the pinnacle of the United States’ Billboard Hot 100, that chart was eighteen years old. The song leapt into the pole position from #15. The only song to make a bigger jump was the Beatles’ “Can’t Buy Me Love” from #27 to #1. FB This was the Beatles’ first chart topper not about love. SF Paul’s Auntie Lil had been challenging him to “write a song that wasn’t about love.” SF

This “was a throwback to the Beatles’ early work as it is based upon their love of Chuck Berry.” KL However, the storytelling “is very much in the style that Paul McCartney was developing. It is an unusual composition” KL “sung from the perspective of an author soliciting a publisher.” SF While fictional, Paul was thinking of the beat poet Royston Ellis, who taught the Beatles how “to get high on Vick inhalers,” KL and author Martin Amis, “whom he had just developed a passion for.” SF

He was also thinking of some of his friends, including John Dunbar, who’d he’d just help set up the Indica Bookshop. It was housed in the basement of the Indica Gallery, where bandmate John Lennon would meet future wife Yoko Ono. SF Paul may have also been teasing John, who dismissed the song as “son of ‘Day Tripper.’” KL John published his own books of poetry and stories with In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works. KL “Paperback Writer” became the theme song for the BBC series, Read All About It. KL

In the UK, the ad to promote the single was the infamous “butcher cover,” a shot of the Beatles holding parts of dolls covered in blood. It was used initially as the cover for the U.S. album Yesterday…and Today SF The controversial cover “caused a wave of protest and…was quickly withdrawn.” FB However, it became a collectors’ item when Capitol Records simply pasted a replacement photo over some of the original pressings. FB


Resources:

  • DMDB encyclopedia entry for the Beatles
  • FB Fred Bronson (2003). The Billboard Book of Number One Hits (5th edition). Billboard Books: New York, NY.
  • KL Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh (2005). 1000 UK Number One Hits: The Stories Behind Every Number One Single Since 1952. London, Great Britain: Omnibus Press. Page 123.
  • SF Songfacts


Related Links:


First posted 3/27/2022; last updated 7/13/2023.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Today in Music (2016): Bob Dylan released Blonde on Blonde

Blonde on Blonde

Bob Dylan


Released: June 20, 1966


Charted: July 23, 1966


Peak: 9 US, 3 UK, 4 AU


Sales (in millions): 2.0 US, 0.3 UK, 10.0 world (includes US and UK)


Genre: folk rock


Tracks:

Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to charts.

  1. Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 [4:36] (4/16/66, 2 US, 2 CB, 2 HR, 2 CL, 7 UK, 3 DF)
  2. Pledging My Time [3:50]
  3. Visions of Johanna [7:33] (5 CL, 18 DF)
  4. One of Us Must Know (Sooner or Later) [4:54] (4/14/66, 32 CL, 33 UK, 30 DF)
  5. I Want You [3:07] (7/2/66, 20 US, 25 CB, 22 HR, 9 CL, 16 UK, 10 DF)
  6. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again [7:05] (1/15/77, 16 CL, 16 DF)
  7. Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat [3:58] (5/20/67, 81 US, 97 CB, 86 HR, 16 CL, 15 DF)
  8. Just Like a Woman [4:52] (9/10/66, 33 US, 28 CB, 26 HR, 5 CL, 6 DF)
  9. Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine [3:30] (17 DF)
  10. Temporary Like Achilles [5:02]
  11. Absolutely Sweet Marie [4:57] (21 CL)
  12. 4th Time Around [4:35]
  13. Obviously 5 Believers [3:35]
  14. Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands [11:23]

All songs written by Bob Dylan.


Total Running Time: 72:57

Rating:

4.701 out of 5.00 (average of 28 ratings)


Awards:

(Click on award to learn more).

About the Album:

“In 1965 and 1966, Bob Dylan went on a creative sprint that has never been matched. Over the course of fourteen months, Dylan recorded Bringing It All Back Home and Highway 61 Revisited – and then capped it off with Blonde on Blonde,” TL “arguably the finest record of the decade.” CQ

Double Album

This has been called “rock’s first significant double album.” TL Paste magazine’s Matt Mitchell goes so far as to call it “the greatest double album ever made.” PM He says, “Dylan was at the height of his powers in every sense of the term” and that “Blonde on Blonde is massive in scale and execution.” PM He also says it “should be credited with re-inventing the language of rock ‘n’ roll, as it remains miraculously taut and marvelously triumphant.” PM

Still, “like famous double albums to come, there is some debate this would have made a better single album set. Trouble is, too many good songs for two sides of vinyl, maybe not enough good songs for four sides.” AD

Moving Forward

The album captures a weary Dylan, “a pill-popping rock star who was sick of playing star, wary of hangers-on, and more than willing to spew bile at anyone in his way.” EW’93 This captures that, “complete with careening music that bites as hard as his words.” EW’93 Earlier that year, Dylan had been booed at the Newport Folk Festival when “he dared to brandish an electric guitar.” RV “Fans couldn’t take the idea of their idol..debasing himself before the false gods of money and fame.” CC His “hostile reaction created a rift between the artist and his audience. Instead of falling apart from the subsequent anxiety, Dylan’s recordings and performances became all the more galvanized, leading to the zenith of his career.” RV

“Both the folk messiah and the prophet of folk rock are here, finding a middle ground that surpasses even Highway 61 Revisited’s accomplished symbiosis.” RV If that album “played as a garage rock record…Blonde on Blonde inverted that sound, blending blues, country, rock, and folk into a wild, careening, and dense sound.” TLBlonde on Blonde took Dylan’s modernist poetics and merged them full-on with the electric blues and folk rock he’d so poignantly fleshed out in the year prior.” PM

It “is an album of enormous depth,” AM with “a tense, shimmering tone” TL that “reaches some of Dylan’s greatest heights – which is to say, the very pinnacle of rock.” TL Blonde on Blonde was “the culmination of Dylan’s electric rock & roll period – he would never release a studio record that rocked this hard, or had such bizarre imagery, ever again.” AM

The Lyrics

This album is “the true mark of our greatest lyrical visionary.” PM “Its ever-shifting combinations of intense roots music and sweeping narrative represent storytelling on an extraordinarily high level; some consider it the closet thing in rock to classic literature.” TM It “is comprised entirely of songs driven by inventive, surreal, and witty wordplay, not only on the rockers but also on winding, moving ballads.” TL

“Dylan is having fun…playing with words as much for the way they sound as for what they mean.” JDBlonde on Blonde embodies the range of human emotions unlike any other album ever released, and it's a tribute to an artist who never stopped evolving.” RV

The Music

“The music matches the inventiveness of the songs, filled with cutting guitar riffs, liquid organ riffs, crisp pianos, and even woozy brass bands.” AM Dylan was moving toward “leaving coffee bars behind forever…to bring country into rock & roll.” BL It was “a brilliant tour through the music of America past, present and future, touching on everything from Chicago blues to country waltzes to New Orleans marches, all delivered with a voice that was full of rock ‘n’ roll passion, and the ferocity, scorn and lust of a man at the end of his rope.” JD

In Howard Sounes’ Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, organist Al Kooper said, “Nobody has ever captured the sound of 3 a.m. better than that album… even Sinatra, gets it as good.” JD Dylan said, “The closest I ever got to the sound I hear in my mind was on the Blonde on Blonde album. It’s that thin, that wild mercury sound. It’s metallic and bright gold.” CM

The Recording of the Album

Blonde was recorded over three months in 1966, first in New York and then in Nashville. The New York sessions included work with Dylan’s touring group, The Hawks, who later became The Band. When “he couldn’t seem to find his groove” JD producer Bob Johnston suggested moving the sessions to Nashville, where Dylan, Kooper, and the Hawks’ Robbie Robertson assembled alongside local session musicians. It “was one of the first instances of a rock musician recording in the home of country music with Nashville musicians.” TB They give the album “a more fluid, expansive quality than the harsh folk rock of…Highway 61.” TB

“The bulk of the songs were busked in the studio; Dylan only had shadows of what he wanted.” CC He recorded live in the studio, having musicians “record in a circle, playing off one another during a series of gloriously sloppy extended jams. Most of the 14 tracks were captured on the first or second take, shortly after Dylan finished writing them. ‘The musicians played cards, I wrote out a song, we’d do it, they’d go back to their game and I’d write out another song,’ the artist said in 1968.” JD


The Songs

The album “veer[s] wildly between the silly, the serious and the surreal – sometimes all in the same song.” JD Some songs “borrow the surreal imagery and character types of the subdued ‘Desolation Row,’ and set them to up-tempo, glowing arrangements of harmonica, guitars, and swirling organs.” CQ “But if there is one recurring theme at its heart, it isn't politics or spirituality (the topics the folkie purists hoped the sage would tackle), but something much more familiar yet elusive.” JD

Here’s thoughts on each of the songs individually.

“Rainy Day Women #12 & 35”
The first track, Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, “epitomizes the album” JD with its “absurdist title” JD and “a delightfully ragged march.” JD With “its carnival sound and saloon atmosphere” CQ it is “the most off-kilter piece in the Dylan canon.” TB “The loose feel was achieved by forcing all of the musicians to switch off from their regular instruments.” JD

“The song is at once a devilishly playful and unapologetic pro-drug anthem (one of rock’s first, and most daring for the time, with its recurring refrain of ‘Everybody must get stoned’); a sarcastic and cautionary tale of how society demonizes outsiders and rebels.” JDHowever, while “the often-misunderstood lyrics connote for many listeners the drug culture of the late ‘60s…[the] song actually has more to do with the way women drag men through the mud no matter what they do.” RV

“Pledging My Time”
Pledging My Time “is a fine blues influenced song, very accomplished and featuring some great harmonica and guitar work.” AD This and “Absolutely Sweet Marie” are some of Dylan’s “most accessible songs.” CM

“Visions of Johanna”
“The achingly beautiful Visions of JohannaCQ “captures the atmosphere of New York after midnight, mixing surreal images…with specific scenes.” CM This “is Dylan’s heartache put to music, telling of the pain brought on after he and fellow folk hero Joan Baez went their separate ways.” RV “A romantic masquerading as a cynic, Dylan approaches the concept of love from several different angles, equating eroticism with spiritual transcendence.” JD

“The song encompasses the timeless dilemma of when it’s all right to finally move on – the narrator must choose between a woman who loves him and the images of the woman who conquers his mind. Dylan’s heartfelt poetry may be unmatched by any other song in his catalogue. The single line ‘Ain’t it just like the night to play tricks when you’re tryin’ to be so quiet?’ stands as one of the most beautiful images Dylan has ever written.” RV

It also features “the finest set of vocals Bob ever laid down.” AD The song is “dreamy and strangely romantic” AD and features “Bob’s symbolism and imagery rich lyrics.” AD In the book 25 Albums That Rocked the World!, Patrick Humphries called this “the masterpiece of the set.” CC

“One of Us Must Know”
Robbie Robertson’s “questing guitar animates One of Us Must Know,” TM which “is a bitter farewell played out against desolate landscapes beneath glowering, leaden skies.” CC It “was considered something of a failure upon single release, but only because it followed ‘Like a Rolling Stone’ and the mighty ‘Positively Fourth Street.’ It’s still a fine song, bordering on classic status. The chorus is very strong and memorable, even if the song as whole isn't quite as good as the aforementioned two classics.” AD

“I Want You”
We hear Dylan “pleading for satisfaction like a clumsy, hormone-crazed teen in I Want You.” JD It “has such a happy little melody that when married to Bob’s amazing sounding lyrics is practically guaranteed to make you smile.” AD

“Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again”
“Dylan’s infamous enigmatic poetry shines more than ever in inscrutable Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, topping even the rambling ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues.’” RV Dylan induces “images even the Bard couldn't have created.” RV This “is kaleidoscopic, a twirling, twisting – rich sounding seven-minute-plus track that fails to be boring for even a single second. Another fine vocal performance.” AD

This is “another of those great Dylan songs about places. Few American songwriters have conveyed the space and variety of their nation as well as Dylan…He manages to convey the full awfulness of being marooned in Mobile, Alabama, buring with the blues from Memphis, Tennessee.” CC

“Leopard Skin Pill Box Hat”
This is “quite a funny song lyrically and a fantastic blistering guitar solo enlivens proceedings no end when it arrives shortly after the two minute mark.” AD This and “Rainy Day Women” are “some of his funniest songs.” CM This and “Just Like a Woman” are supposedly about “Edie Sedgwick, a model for pop art wizard Andy Warhol.” RV

“Just Like a Woman”
“Most of the songs on Blonde on Blonde attack or praise women in some way.” RV We hear Dylan “giving up with near-misogynistic disgust in Just Like a Woman.” JD The song serves up a “litany of selfish, sexist slurs.” CC It “incurred the wrath of feminist groups around the country for the line ‘she breaks just like a little girl.’” RV

Critic Adrian Denning, however, calls this “another display of a sweeter Bob Dylan. A Bob Dylan love song. It’s just as good as ‘I Want You’ if not slightly better.” AD “The lyrics describe Sedgwick as fully-embodied woman who feels and loves with strength, but somehow can’t keep it together.” RV

“Most Likely You Go Your Way and I’ll Go Mine”
Dylan displays “comic resignation in Most Likely You Go Your Way and I'll Go Mine.” JD It “is another galloping rhythm ala Highway 61 Revisited although without the cowboy feel this time round. Another classic song.” AD “Dylan sounds like a veteran bandleader prodding hes crew for the evening’s last big push.” TM

“Temporary Like Achilles”
“Lovely piano introduces the start of Temporary Like Achilles.” AD That song and “Obv iously 5 Believers” “sounded like Bob Dylan trying to ape the Bob Dylan of a year before.” CC

“Absolutely Sweet Marie”
This and “Most Likely” “rock along best without much scrutiny.” CC While this does “nothing wrong in itself would be another track that may have made way if this had been a single rather than a double album release.” AD

“4th Time Around”
This “is a another delight with beautifully delicate guitar going round and round and another fine Dylan vocal.” AD It is “an engaging rewrite of the Beatles ‘Norwegian Wood,’ which had appeared on Rubber Soul six months before.” CC

“Obviously 5 Believers”
“Most Likely” and “the slightly lightweight if bouncily enjoyable” AD Obviously 5 Believers “sound like natural, more polished and eclectic extensions of earlier blues rockers like ‘From a Buick 6.’” CQ “To call a song this good filler is to do an injustice to it…But, if we are talking in terms of an album listening experience, from beginning to end, then it comes across as a song too many.” AD

“Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands”
Dylan summons “his full powers of poetry as a tool for seduction in” JD “the sprawling Sad-Eyed Lady of the LowlandsCQ which Paste magazine’s Matt Mitchell calls “the greatest song Bob Dylan has ever penned.” PM Dylan sounds “as world-weary as Humphrey Bogart in the neon-lit Rick’s Bar in Casablanca, as Ilsa quits him, again.” CC

It is “impossibly beautiful” AD and “another great vocal performance on an album full of them.” AD The song “sweetly reveals pieces of Dylan’s relationship” CQ with his new bride, Sara, Lowndes, “who would later inspire the spiteful songs that inhabit Blood on the Tracks,” RV which as often been called his “divorce album.” Here, though, Dylan is “describing Sara as saint-like with silky skin, a mercurial mouth and soulful eyes, and he pledges his undying devotion to her.” RV

The song’s epic 11-minute run time, “then the longest popular song on record,” TB was unheard of to the Nashville musicians who were “used to playing on tw-minute country tracks.” TB Drummer Kenny Buttrey said, “It went on and on…We’d never heard anything like this before.” TB

Resources and Related Links:


Other Related DMDB Pages:


First posted 5/16/2013; last updated 8/9/2024.