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Song of the Day #4,048: ‘Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show’ – Neil Diamond

(I interrupt the normally scheduled Random Weekend for some thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Warning: Spoilers follow!)

It’s been a decade since I saw a Quentin Tarantino film I really loved. That was 2009’s Inglourious Basterds, a masterful blend of tension, action and melodrama that burst at the seams with daring creativity. It’s up there with Pulp Fiction as the most Tarantino movie Tarantino has ever made.

In contrast, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — for most of its running time — is the least Tarantino film he’s ever made. It’s also one of the best.

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Song of the Day #4,047: ‘As Ugly As I Seem’ – The White Stripes

The White Stripes aren’t generally known for their quieter songs, but they have recorded a few beauties.

Today’s track appears on the 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan and is a lovely song featuring Jack White on acoustic guitar and Meg White (for the first time ever) on hand-hit drums.

I found a site comparing the melody of this song to Bob Dylan’s ‘I Believe in You,’ a track from his born-again Christian album Slow Train Coming (yes, they are similar).

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Song of the Day #4,046: ‘Crystal’ – Elton John

Here’s where I admit that my Elton John deep dive become a lot more like dipping my toe in the pool once I got past 1974. John has released 22 albums since Caribou and only three of them are represented on my playlist.

Did I listen to all 22? No, I did not. Taking my cue from Rocketman, I stopped with ‘I’m Still Standing’ and the 1983 album Too Low For Zero on which it appears. If he found nothing in the 13 albums that followed worth putting on screen, who am I to argue?

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Song of the Day #4,045: ‘Cold Highway’ – Elton John

Elton John followed 1973’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road a year later with Caribou, a rushed effort that the album’s producer dismissed as a “piece of crap.”

This album contains the hits ‘The Bitch is Back’ and ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me’ but little else that caught my attention. The latter song, though, is one of John’s very best so it’s hard to call this album a bust.

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Song of the Day #4,044: ‘Sweet Painted Lady’ – Elton John

Elton John’s Goodbye Yellow Brick Road landed seven songs on my personal playlist, including yesterday’s SOTD (‘Grey Seal’) and the expected hits: ‘Candle in the Wind,’ ‘Bennie and the Jets,’ ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,’ ‘Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting’ and ‘Harmony.’

The final track to make the cut was entirely new to me. ‘Sweet Painted Lady’ is a whimsical tune about prostitutes who sleep with sailors on shore leave.

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