This was the first song that came to mind when I thought about doing a week of duets. To me, it’s the quintessential meeting of two artists who elevate each other’s game in a way that nobody could have predicted.
Monthly Archives: September 2008
Song of the Day #46: ‘Let’s Duet’ – Jenna Fischer and John C. Reilly
Today begins another theme week. Through this Friday, I will spotlight songs that feature duets. Only ground rule is that the performances have to be exceptions to the artists’ usual lineup. In other words, Indigo Girls don’t count because they are a duo by design. Same goes for Beatles songs where John Lennon and Paul McCartney trade verses.
To kick things off, I’ve chosen a funny song from the movie Walk Hard that parodies early Johnny Cash/June Carter duets and is awash in lewd double entendre (“In my dreams you’re blowing me… some kisses”).
Song of the Day #45: ‘Here Comes My Baby’ – Cat Stevens
I’ll be honest, I’ve never known the specifics of Cat Stevens’ conversion to Islam and later controversies. I just did a quick read of his Wikipedia entry and, as I suspected, it’s not as extreme as I’d thought.
Back in high school, though, I remember hearing the most popular Cat Stevens story, that he supported the fatwa calling for the death of author Salman Rushdie, and being totally depressed by it. I had a couple Cat Stevens albums (Tea for the Tillerman and Teaser and the Firecat) and I just loved them. How could the ‘Peace Train’ guy support the death of another artist?
Jennifer Nettles in Hat & Suspenders
A couple weeks ago I wrote a review of the new Sugarland album, Love on the Inside. I mentioned the liner notes and in particular a photograph of lead singer Jennifer Nettles wearing a hat and suspenders.
As a result, my blog is now the #1 Google search result for such phrases as “Jennifer Nettles hat suspenders” and “Love on the Inside liner notes” so I figured I might as well give people what they’re looking for.
This picture was very hard to track down. I couldn’t find it anywhere on the Web, believe it or not. But I pulled some strings to get an exclusive. So head to the jump for the payoff.
Song of the Day #44: ‘Exit Music (for a film)’ – Radiohead
I go back and forth on Radiohead.
On the one hand, I believe they are quite talented and have put out two albums (The Bends and OK Computer) that are excellent from start to finish and worthy of the lavish praise they’ve received.
On the other hand, just about everything they’ve put out since then has been an artsy jumble of prog-rock crap, yet praised by critics and fans alike as world-changing stuff. In Rainbows was a nice return to form, but I’d rather repeatedly hit my head with a hammer than listen to Kid A, Amnesiac or Hail to the Thief. And stupidly, I bought into the hype machine and purchased each of those albums only to have the same unpleasant experience listening to them. It’s only because they offered In Rainbows for free that I discovered it’s actually quite good.
Meet Me In Montauk 