Today we have one of those strange coincidences that crop up every once in awhile when posting on Random Weekends.
Exactly eight days ago, I featured a random song from Pernice Brothers’ 2001 album The World Won’t End. And here we are again with a second track from the same batch of 11 songs, an unlikely result given the 13,117 other possible tracks that aren’t on that album.
‘Rental Car’ is the penultimate track on Beck’s 2005 album Guero, a critical and commercial hit that continued a streak of stellar releases dating back to Mellow Gold in 1994.
That 11-year span saw the release of seven albums swinging between the kaleidoscopic alt-rock buzzsaw Odelay and the melancholy sobfest Sea Change. Guero falls a lot closer to the Odelay side, in large part because Beck reunited with the producing team The Dust Brothers.
The title track of Johnny Cash’s 1971 album Man in Black, today’s random SOTD offers an explanation for Cash’s drab wardrobe.
While the song paints an evocative picture of a man who has seen too much injustice in the world and made a sartorial choice to reflect his disapproval, Cash has reportedly said that he started wearing black because it was easy to keep clean on tour.
I bought Pernice Brothers’ 2001 album The World Won’t End at Los Angeles’ Amoeba Music during a family trip in the summer of 2013.
I know that because I posted about it during a week recounting my purchases at Amoeba on that trip.
Though this album comes highly recommended, and I’ve liked everything I’ve heard on it, I think this is the first time I’ve heard one of its songs since that post eight years ago.
‘Freddy, My Love’ is one of the few songs from the stage musical Grease that did not make it into the 1978 movie.
On stage, the tune is sung by Marty Maraschino during the girls’ slumber party, after she shares that she’s dating a Marine. While it’s a fun and catchy song, I agree with the cut. The slumber party scene works beautifully as is, highlighted by Rizzo’s ‘Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee’ and Sandy’s ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You,’ which was newly written for the film.
Meet Me In Montauk 