Today’s Random Weekend selection is a short transitional track from the Hamilton soundtrack. ‘Schuyler Defeated’ lasts only a minute but, like every song in the Pulitzer and Tony-winning musical, it has plenty to say.
Musically a reprise of show-stopper ‘The Schuyler Sisters,’ this song sees Alexander Hamilton’s father-in-law defeated in the Senate by Aaron Burr, who to this point has been Hamilton’s friend.
Here’s one of those very rare occasions where the Random iTunes Fairy serves up two songs by the same artist on the same weekend. I can’t remember the last time this happened.
The odds of a second Josh Rouse song popping up after the first one are about 1 in a 100, given the number of Rouse songs in my library (137) vs. the total number of songs (12,425). Not exactly like winning Lotto, but certainly a long shot.
Random iTunes Weekends often serve as a reminder of how quickly time passes. Today’s selection is a perfect example.
I still think of Josh Rouse as a recent discovery, but I just realized that Nashville — the album that caught my attention as a new release — came out 11 years ago. Rouse’s debut, Dressed Up Like Nebraska, was released in 1998, nearly two decades ago, making him a grizzled veteran.
The Random iTunes Fairy has served up Bob Dylan songs two weeks in a row, this one from Dylan’s 1992 album of folk covers, Good As I Been To You. The timing is good, as I’ll soon be blogging about Dylan’s latest covers album, this year’s Fallen Angels.
Though it didn’t seem like it at the time, Good As I Been To You was the beginning of a late-career comeback for Dylan. He followed it in ’93 with World Gone Wrong, a similar collection of traditional covers, and both records received acclaim. His next studio album, released four years later, was the classic Time Out of Mind.
I own Derek & The Dominos’ debut (and only studio) album, Layla & Other Assorted Love Songs, solely because I wanted a copy of ‘Layla.’ This must have been pre-iTunes, or maybe I found it in a bargain bin. With the exception of ‘Bell Bottom Blues,’ the other 13 tracks are a mystery to me.
So when ‘Tell the Truth’ popped up as today’s Random SOTD selection, it gave me a chance to read up on the album, which Eric Clapton, Bobby Whitlock, Carl Radle, Jim Gordon, Dave Mason and Duane Allman recorded in a drug-fueled haze in Miami Beach in 1970.
Meet Me In Montauk 