Author Archives

by

Song of the Day #1,418: ‘Mama Told Me Not to Come’ – Randy Newman

Best Albums of the 70s – #13
12 Songs – Randy Newman (1970)

Randy Newman has released just 10 studio albums over the past 44 years, and half of those were produced in the 70s. In subsequent decades he turned his attention to film scores (with 20 Oscar nominations to show for it) while putting out a brilliant, acerbic record every seven or eight years.

But his most lasting work comes from his most prolific decade as a singer-songwriter. And 12 Songs, his second album, is a resonant, understated glimpse of his genius at work.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,417: ‘The Load Out/Stay’ – Jackson Browne

Best Albums of the 70s – #14
Running On Empty – Jackson Browne (1977)

An interesting sub-genre is the album of new material that’s recorded live. Joe Jackson’s Big World is an example, as well as Stew’s The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs. These recordings lend an intimacy to the material that can be diminished in the studio.

The best example of this sort of album that I know of is Jackson Browne’s Running On Empty. This is an album about life as a musician recorded in a way that puts you in that musician’s shoes. It’s a beautiful marriage of form and content.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,416: ‘Cecilia’ – Simon & Garfunkel

Best Albums of the 70s – #15
Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel (1970)

Simon & Garfunkel’s final album was their finest, in large part because it feels like a swan song.

There was plenty of tension between the duo during the writing and recording of the album — some of which found its way into the songs — and an undercurrent of melancholy to the project that serves it well.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,415: ‘Opportunity’ – Elvis Costello

The Random iTunes Man is going all theme weekend on me.

Here’s another track from Elvis Costello, this time from the excellent Get Happy!!. Listening to it has me thinking I ranked this album too low on my list of favorite 80s records. Isn’t that always the case? Whatever you’re enjoying in the moment feels like the best thing ever, until you move on to the next thing.

That’s what makes lists kind of ridiculous. Of course it’s never stopped me from obsessively compiling them.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #1,414: ‘Just Another Mystery (Home Demo)’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello has written so many songs that I’m sure not even he can keep up with them.

Indeed, in the liner notes for the reissue of Mighty Like a Rose, he admits that he forgot about this existence of today’s SOTD until it came up in a search of material from the recording sessions.

‘Just Another Mystery’ isn’t among Costello’s finest songs, by any means, but can you imagine creating something as fully realized as this and then just forgetting about it? He probably wrote three equally good songs the same day.

Continue reading →