Smirnoff’s Liner Notes for 2008
FUTURE MASTERS, CD 1
Here are my smart-alecky liner notes for the “Future Masters” CD, one of two CDs which accompany our 2008 Southern Music Issue. The concept of “Future Masters” is simple; on this CD we feature Southern artists who have not yet appeared on our previous nine CDs. My comments are not legally binding.
MORGAN FREEMAN: “Boogie Intro.” That’s quite a voice; too bad he’s not singing songs to us…although…come to think of it…he does kind of sing to us.
LITTLE WALTER: “I Hate to See You Go.” In a complicated era where so much reaches us, so much bombards us, without even our slightest involvement, the blues with its historic, cranky, naked demands can seem too…uncomplicated… even…beneath us. Especially, you would think, one-chord vamps like this one. But the striking individuality of the blues at its best (like this one) reminds us that emotional complexity can’t be conveyed by surface details like the number of chord changes or the number of notes. It’s almost about what’s in between the lines….
JACK TEAGARDEN: “Sweet and Hot.” Anybody cold? Don’t fret; Jack serves warm pie.
THE “5” ROYALES: “The Slummer the Slum.” Amid the silky, classy purring a Lowman Pauling kicks the place apart with one of the all-time scratchiest, raunchiest guitar performances.
NEKO CASE: “Hold On, Hold On.” Minor-key hopefulness…wherein singers try to pretend things aren’t as bad as they are.
THE YORK BROTHERS: “Tremblin’.” So close to the Hall of Fame fretwork on “The Slummer the Slum,” we have the unearthly lap-steel playing of “Tremblin’.” The fact that we don’t know with certainty the name of the astronaut responsible for this shockingly great playing is par for the course when it comes to scouring the history of Southern music: expect to find neglected, obscure, or even unknown greatness around every nook and cranny.
ELLA FITZGERALD. “Sunshine of Your Love.” People talk about her remove; call her at times a gifted technician. Here Ella opens up, showing she can put on a messy but heartfelt Janis Joplin vibe. Maybe Ella never gave us her all—but that’s not necessarily a bad thing; she would have drowned us if she gave us her all.
CLARENCE “GATEMOUTH” BROWN: “Fiddlin’ Around.” Although mistitled “Amos Moses,” this track was part of a mesmerizing More Dirty Laundry compilation (one of my favorite comps of 2008) featuring soul singers covering country tunes. But, fiddle or not, that categorization is off. What Gatemouth is providing here is really Southern rock.
ELTON AND BETTY WHITE: “Heat.” In my dreamworld, Betty White opened for the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show singing this ditty in a white tutu.
DORIS DUKE: “Divorce Decree.” O Sister, Where Art Thou?
LAWSON AND FOUR MORE: “If You Want Me You Can Find Me.” A pure sound experiment. Producer Jim Dickinson was a wise-acre from day one.
THE RESIDENTS: “Fingertips.” When your subconscious beckons, you might as well listen.
PATRICK SKY: “Reuben.” How could any singer/songwriter from the 1960s escape the tentacles of the Big Z.? I mean, it seems you have to go to unnatural and forced extremes to avoid the influence. Here Sky simply owns up to his love and you know what? Sometimes it just feels and sound good.
FURRY LEWIS: “Brownsville Blues.” This is why I keep returning to the blues: Guitar and voice phrasings like these renew my bones.
INSECT TRUST: “Special Rider.” My friends, please remove your heads while listening to this one.
ELTON & BETTY WHITE: “A Jelly Behind Woman Blows My Mind.” The meanings of Arkansas aren’t always clear to outsiders. It’s easier for people to get a handle on, say, Mississippi or California. Thank you, Elton, for making it clearer.
HAMPTON GREASE BAND: “Hey Old Lady/Bert’s Song.” My three favorite years for music might’ve been 1969, 1970, and 1971. Back then, everything seemed possible. Production had evolved from the anything-goes 1960s and was more sophisticated, but production was not yet bossy. Artists still didn’t believe in limits; in fact, they thought people wanted them to explore. That was one of the lessons of the Beatles: keep exploring and listeners will follow. So from 1969-71, oddities were allowed, even encouraged, to happen. Like the Hampton Grease Band debuting with a double album of exploratory sonic experiments. Their Music to Eat (1971) would eventually gain status among rock geeks for being one of the infamously low-selling big-label (Columbia) albums of all time. The end was nigh….
ROY HAMILTON: “Crazy Feelin’.” The ultra-suave Roy Hamilton, who began life in the manly arts (pugilism), only to find a home in the lounge, should have been the first black James Bond.
“COUNTRY” JOHNNY MATHIS: “Caryl Chessman.” Not, of course, to be confused with “AM Pop” Johnny Mathis or “Death Metal” Johnny Mathis or “Unplugged Polka” Johnny Mathis.
ELYSIAN FIELD. “Bed of Roses.” If we are sick unto death of songs like “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” or “Revolution,” it’s because they were so good that popular radio, out of respect (and, well, stupidity and crassness), overplayed them into the graveyard. “Bed of Roses” almost sounds like one of those songs we should be sick of.
DOCK BOGGS: “Down South Blues.” Notorious bad dude here sounding avuncular and like he just stepped out of a time machine he found on his porch (the immediacy of this 19th-century-sounding performance is almost off-putting). I also love the spaces between his notes. Most banjo’ers clutter up fast; Dock just soothes it out.
SNOOKUM RUSSELL: “Basin Street Ain’t Basin Street No More.” The accidental poignance of this song can be both terrifying and liberating. We left our hearts in New Orleans!
CHUCK JACKSON: “I Keep Forgettin’ (Every Time You’re Near).” There are songs we are sure are great but then after four or five listens we realize we were hoodwinked. This qualifies as one of those rare tracks whose greatness is revealed more with each listening. Staying power, baby.
ARTHUR LEE…WITH LOVE: “Everybody’s Gotta Live.” If you can imagine a song making it into a Wes Anderson soundtrack, that’s a very good thing.
COUSIN EMMY: “I Wish I Was in Bowling Green.” Nowadays, some singers try to affect the “high lonesome sound.” Cousin Emmy tried to hide it.
WENDY RENE: “After Laughter (Comes Tears).” Artist bares all; but it’s the listeners who are left shivering. One of the most searing ballad performances of all time.
ALABAMA SACRED HARP SINGERS: “We Will Sing With the Angels There.” At some concerts, a person stage-dives, and instead of hitting ground, is lifted up by arms. Here, the music lifts you.
BOBBY CHARLES: “Street People.” The slowly undulating groove perfectly fits the laidback anarchy of the plotline. “Some people would rather work/We need people like that,” Mr. Charles reminds us.
PAST MASTERS, CD 2
Here are my liner notes for the “Past Masters” CD, one of two CDs, which accompany our 2009 Southern Music Issue. On “Past Masters” we feature Southern artists who have previously appeared on OA CDs. This is our way of celebrating our Tenth Music Issue. Please note that although we love every one of these “Past Masters,” we are not saying that they, and they alone, are the best artists to ever appear on OA CDs. A number of masterpieces we long for were denied to us by some corporate skinflints (it’s a tough, heartbreaking racket) and many others we simply lacked room for. That’s why true masters like Al Green, Esther Phillips, Nina Simone, Dan Hicks, Karen Dalton, and on and on, are absent. All that said, a lot of the artists who made it on our “Past Masters” CD are favorites we’d call the “best ever.” But our lips are sealed….
ELVIS PRESLEY: “I Got a Woman.” More proof that during early years of the routinely disparaged Las Vegas era, the King of Rock & Roll still earned his crown.
LUCINDA WILLIAMS: “Righteously.” Lucinda creates little worlds for us to inhabit. This particular world restrains the creator’s sublime voice and instead lets the usually secondary atmospherics tell the (edgy) story. And thank God for guitar solos that say something new.
GARY STEWART: “Can’t You See.” If Gary Stewart had sung “Happy Birthday to You,” he would’ve cut through your heart.
THE STAPLE SINGERS: “Going Away.” Pops and fam did gospel their way: unforced.
JEANNIE C. RILEY: “The Back Side of Dallas.” Kept trying to refuse this song. It’s too easy; it shouldn’t, shouldn’t, shouldn’t work. But, at the end, when Jeannie waltzes out of the room, I notice that she’s taken a little piece of me with her.
DALE HAWKINS: “Boogie Chillen’.” When Dale Hawkins, a true All-American natural, takes on somebody else’s song he invariably finds something in its spirit that is all his…and he runs with it. Cut in 1965, a mean, lean, classic year for great music, this previously unreleased gem is rocket-fueled and incendiary. We are duly honored to able to present this instant classic to an unsuspecting public.
ISAAC HAYES: “Title Theme (from Three Tough Guys).” The movie’s called Three Tough Guys, but the movie’s theme song, this beauty, only references Two Tough Guys. Apparently, we listeners wouldn’t be able to handle the truth of Isaac singing about Three Tough Guys.
VIC CHESNUTT: “Very Friendly Lighthouses” The older I get, the more I appreciate Vic Chesnutt’s unwavering wit and lopsided but bulls-eye musicality. Moral: Aging is underrated.
ERMA FRANKLIN: “Baby I Love You.” I’m sorry but I’ve got to say it: Aretha who? Just joking—but, boy, could Aretha’s sister sing.
LOUIS MOREAU GOTTSCHALK (played by LISA HARRIS): “Tendu 4/4 Tarantella.” New Orleans’ first musical superstar still delivering the goods.
RICHARD HELL: “Hey Sweetheart.” In apt homage, Robert Christgau once wrote that he listened to Richard Hell on those “very special occasions when I feel like turning into a nervous wreck.”
EARTHA KITT: “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” The convincing message being, I suppose: How could anyone, even Daddy, resist Eartha Kitt?
LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS: “Blues for My Cookie.” Some people make records that don’t have “mistakes.” But an artist like Hopkins isn’t thinking about whether he’s making “mistakes” or not, he’s thinking about whether he has totally engaged the music and song. Such messy ambitions do not always attend the work of “perfectionists.”
LUCINDA WILLIAMS: “Something About What Happens When We Talk.” The only other artist who’s had two songs on one OA CD is Bob Dorough. (Dolly Parton was the first artist to have songs on separate OA CDs.) So we don’t play around. Lucinda is Hall of Fame material all the way, clearly.
NELLIE LUTCHER: “He Sends Me.” A teeny inside joke here, folks. Artists #14 and #15 hail both from Lake Charles, Louisiana. Oh yeah: And they are both utterly potent.
VICTORIA WILLIAMS: “Lights.” Intense, distinctive phrasing is what largely compels me to Bob Dylan—and Victoria Williams. Oh yeah, and writing like this: “Lights on the city / Look so good / Almost like somebody / Thought they would.”
SISTER ROSETTA THARPE: “Rock Me.” The questions are: Big-band gospel? With female lead guitar? The answers are: yes and yes.
THE DEL McCOURY BAND: “A Good Man Like Me.” These good men couldn’t be dull on a dare.
BLIND WILLIE McTELL: “Travelin’ Blues.” Well, do you know anybody who sings the blues like this? (Mr. Guralnick once called him “oddly wistful.”)
MOSE ALLISON: “Foolkiller.” And now for someone completely different. (Favorite line: “The foolkiller’s coming/I think he’s got his eye on me and you.”)
THE DELTA RHYTHM BOYS: “St. Louis Blues.” Acrobats of sound.
STEVE YOUNG: “Lonesome, On’ry & Mean.” Here is Steve Young, a true Country Music Original, and he’s been in our backyard the whole time. Come on, folks, what’s not genius about this song or performance? Hell, even the production’s way up there.
REVEREND CHARLIE JACKSON: “I Gave Up All I Had.” Rugged and heartfelt—makes sense for some gospel to sound this way.
BIG STAR: “For You.” This past year I named one of my fantasy baseball teams the Big Stars. There is no deeper tribute that I can bestow. (HALT! I just found out we made a stupid mistake—repeat: a stupid mistake—on page 160 of the issue when we listed the songwriter of this masterpiece as Alex Chilton. Mr. Chilton has written many masterpieces, but this one, “For You,” WAS WRITTEN BY JODY STEPHENS, BIG STAR’S DRUMMER. I’ve known this for many years because I’ve loved this song for many years. But still, I missed this one. I AM SO EMBARRASSED!!! Also the publishing credit belongs to: ARDENT/ KOALA.) Our sincere apologies to all. My God, it will never end. I am sure my gravestone will contain a typo. (I am told, by the way, that Stephens’s uncanny contribution to Big Star’s songwriting pantheon—in the form of this song “For You”—inspired Chilton to use strings on Third. It is now impossible to imagine that Big Star record, one of the greatest records ever, without strings.)
JERRY LEE LEWIS: “Hold On, I’m Coming.” Hardly anybody takes over a song like Jerry Lee Lewis. Call him the Muhammad Ali of Piano and you are getting warm.
R.E.M.: “Until the Day Is Done.” A song recalling the R.E.M. of yore in which a charging acoustic sound melds edgy lyrics and, from the singer, dispassionate passion. Favorite line: “Forgive us our trespasses/Father and son.”
MOONDOG: “All Is Loneliness.” Moondog makes loneliness sound oddly comforting.
CHARLIE RICH. “Feel Like Going Home.” I’ve been waiting more than nine years to find an excuse to end an OA CD with this. Not only is this demo version of “Feel Like Going Home” an ideal example of the concept of “perfect imperfection,” but it was the spark that gave us the idea for a “Past Masters” CD. Listen to it once and you’ll know why.
