Monthly Archives: June 2010

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Song of the Day #707: ‘Silvio’ – Bob Dylan

1988’s Down in the Groove was the other half of the one-two punch in the late 80s that began with Knocked Out Loaded. If possible, this one received even worse reviews than its predecessor. Rolling Stone called this Dylan’s worst album.

I don’t own it, so I can’t render my own verdict here. Sampling its songs, I can’t say I’ve been intrigued enough to spring for the whole album.

Six of the ten songs are covers, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it does betray a lack of effort. Future covers albums by Dylan had a sense of purpose and a cohesive theme… this one seems to be stocked with filler.

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Song of the Day #706: ‘Under Your Spell’ – Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan’s next two studio albums, 1986’s Knocked Out Loaded and 1988’s Down in the Groove, can fairly be described as the low point in his career.

The 80s had started with the back-to-back gospel head-scratchers Saved and Shot of Love only to be partially redeemed by Empire Burlesque. But these two albums suggested Dylan had finally run out of ideas. Knocked Out Loaded‘s eight songs contained just two Dylan originals, a couple of collaborations and three covers.

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Song of the Day #705: ‘There’s a Place in Hell for Me and My Friends’ – Morrissey

Morrissey is known mostly for his biting sense of humor, general bitchiness and a melodramatic morose streak a mile wide. He wants you to laugh while he’s crying.

But every once in awhile, in both his work with The Smiths and on his solo albums, Morrissey can knock you out with something deeply heartfelt.

One fine example is The Smiths’ ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ (a John Hughes staple), which owes much of its poignancy to Johnny Marr’s delicate guitar work.

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Song of the Day #704: ‘She Had You’ – Mary Lou Lord

Mary Lou Lord is one of those interesting one-offs in my CD collection that reinforces how interesting the artistic world can be. You could write a movie about her career despite the fact that almost nobody has heard of her.

Lord got her start playing in Boston subway stations and got her break when she ran into Kurt Cobain, on tour with Nirvana, one night outside a club. The two hit it off and became close friends (and lovers, according to some accounts). She also befriended Elliott Smith and toured in support of him (he plays guitar on some of her recorded tracks).

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Song of the Day #703: ‘Walking in Memphis’ – Marc Cohn

I base a lot of my posts on this blog around artists… theme weeks aimed at exploring the evolution of a career, stuff like that. I have mostly pulled from the bands and solo artists I like best, the ones whose new albums I rush out to buy on release day.

But sometimes it’s all about the song. Some songs I love even though I couldn’t care less what the performer did before or since. And I think because they came to me apart from a preexisting relationship they often end up all the more special. That is, the best songs by my favorite artists have to compete with all the other great songs by those artists, but a standalone track gets the pedestal all to itself.

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