Here’s one of those early tracks from the first volume of Bob Dylan’s Bootleg Series. This song was an outtake from The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.
Unlike many of the songs that were inexplicably left off of Dylan’s albums over the years, scrapping this one was a good choice. It’s certainly not bad, but neither does it rise to the high level of everything else on Freewheelin’.
Laura Nyro was not only ahead of her own time (late 60s and early 70s), but pretty much every time after that as well. This is some crazy shit.
Nyro has a knack for writing 4-minute songs that feel more like 45 minutes. I mean that in both a good and bad way. She is a master of shifts in both tone and time signature, throwing left-field change-ups into every song, which certainly makes for interesting listening, though it can also be a bit exhausting. This certainly isn’t Sunday morning chill-out music.
This is wrong on so many levels.
The 25th anniversary re-release of Michael Jackson’s Thriller features a series of bonus tracks on which Jackson’s original tracks are re-mixed and turned into duets with performers such as will.i.am, Akon, Kanye West and (in today’s SOTD) Fergie.
First of all, I hate the idea of a “duet” with a dead person. I hated it when Natalie Cole sang with old Nat, and I hate it here.
America’s favorite island poet, Jimmy Buffett, chimes in today with a beautiful bit of homespun wisdom. This track appears on the album of the same name, Buffett’s breakthrough record (also featuring his signature hit ‘Margaritaville’).
This has long been one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs, both for its easygoing sound and its lyrical message — particularly that last, great twist on the chorus: “If we weren’t all crazy, we would go insane.” Ain’t that the truth.
Randy Newman’s Sail Away is one of my very favorite albums — it is alternately bittersweet and cynical, beautiful and brutal. I don’t know if it gets the attention and respect it deserves.
I see it was ranked #321 on Rolling Stones’ list of the 500 greatest albums — on the one hand, considering how many albums have been recorded over the past 50+ years, making the list at all is an honor; but on the other hand, are you really telling me there are 320 albums better than this one? Bullshit.
Meet Me In Montauk 