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Song of the Day #1,044: ‘The Idiot Boy’ – Ron Sexsmith

Ron Sexsmith’s third album, 1999’s Whereabouts, featured slicker production than his first two and was a little more adventurous musically. On the whole, I like the songs a little less than the earlier material, but that’s nitpicking.

References to God show up a lot in Sexsmith’s work, and I’m not sure if he’s a practicing Christian or if he just likes the imagery (in the way that artists such as Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen find poetry in religious language). I’m exposing my religious bigotry by stating that I hope it’s the latter.

Today’s song is more an indictment of man than a celebration of God.

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Song of the Day #1,043: ‘Pale Blue Eyes’ – The Velvet Underground

While choosing songs for two straight weeks of covers, I reflected back on R.E.M.’s version of this Velvet Underground classic. But rather than post their version, I’m reaching back to the original.

I didn’t know anything at all about The Velvet Underground before I heard R.E.M.’s ‘Pale Blue Eyes,’ released on their album of B-sides and outtakes, Dead Letter Office. If you’d asked me, I would have predicted they had more of a hard rock sound.

And they did, at times, but when I tracked down their self-titled album I discovered that they also could be incredibly tender.

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Song of the Day #1,041: ‘Flowers in the Window’ – Travis

It’s funny how sometimes you lose track of an artist. As a rule, I buy pretty much every new release by the musicians in my collection, the exceptions being those artists who proved to have only one or two strong albums among many. But in those cases, I usually came to that conclusion after trying to keep up with their output and realizing I was seeing diminishing returns.

Sometimes, though, I’ll be right there with a band or singer and then somehow lose sight of them. I owned and loved every Dar Williams album, for example, when one day I realized she’d released two more records without me even knowing.

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Song of the Day #1,040: ‘Samsonite Man’ – Alicia Keys

I’ve featured only one other Alicia Keys song on the blog so far and that was during a week in which I posted songs with no commentary. Sitting here wondering what to write about this one, I can see why that’s the case.

I simply don’t have much to say about the 30-year-old R&B sensation who was raised in Hell’s Kitchen and went on to study classical piano before recording her multiple Grammy-winning first album.

You could make a movie about that backstory, but I can barely tap out a blog post. Why is that?

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