Monthly Archives: May 2010

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Song of the Day #671: ‘New Pony’ – Bob Dylan

In 1978, two years after Desire, Bob Dylan released one of the most divisive albums in his catalog. I’ve read fans and critics alike describe Street Legal as both his best album and his worst.

I don’t share either of those opinions, but I definitely lean more toward the former. This is by no means a bad collection of songs — on the contrary, it contains some tracks that number among Dylan’s finest compositions.

Street Legal is the second album I bought and heard for the first time for the purposes of this blog series (the first was Planet Waves). I don’t know why I had those particular holes in my Dylan collection (less name recognition, I suppose, and spottier reputations than his other work) but I’m very glad I finally own these albums.

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Song of the Day #670: ‘Llorando’ – Rebekah del Rio

I was going to work up a theme week on songs performed in movies (which actually would be my second such theme since I started the Song of the Day series) but I had trouble coming up with five that were available on the Web.

And the truth is the idea was tied entirely to one performance I wanted to highlight, and I was reaching to come up with four more. So I’m just going to scrap the idea of a theme and feature one clip this week that I find very special.

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Rufus Wainwright – All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu

Rufus Wainwright has never been an artist who disregards the commercial and popular accessibility of his music.

I suppose that’s a funny statement to make about a guy who recently penned an opera in French, but it’s true.

Fault him for overestimating the public’s appetite for his brand of flamboyant pop cabaret but make no mistake… he writes hook-laden music for the masses and he’d be absolutely thrilled to land an album or a song high on the charts.

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Song of the Day #669: ‘Pretty Bird (Live)’ – Jenny Lewis

Jenny Lewis performed this version of ‘Pretty Bird,’ from her lovely Acid Tongue album, earlier this year on Elvis Costello’s Showtime show Spectacle.

First, allow me to offer a belated plug for Spectacle, which ended its run after two seasons. Costello proved a fine interviewer of a host of talented artists and the live performances were stellar across the board. Costello’s own backing band, including former Attractions Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas, sat in on most performances and the mix of him covering his guest’s music and them showcasing their own made for riveting TV.

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Song of the Day #668: ‘Comeback (Light Therapy)’ – Josh Rouse

Here’s a wonderful song from Josh Rouse’s 1972 album, which is chock full of wonderful songs.

This album is an example of an artist firing on all creative cylinders, with songwriting, performance and production all top-notch. I imagine that when he recorded 1972 Rouse was in the sort of zone star athletes get into during a big game, when everything they try works out just right.

Or maybe that’s not how it works at all. Maybe this album was the result of weeks of trial and error, takes and retakes, and input from scores of people and it all somehow managed to come out brilliantly in the end.

In either case, I’m impressed.

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