The Not-Pop Jukebox

The other day I posted I'm Too Fat to Be a Hipster and, ever since, I've been considering "related" songs. Today, I've got the Saffire--The Uppity Blues Women re-make of R. Bruce's Too Much Butt stuck in my head so I decided it was high time I shared it with you. Mr. Bruce himself posted a comment on this video pointing out that he re-wrote the song for the ladies and loved their version. I have to agree with him. The original is a male appreciation for a woman with a big behind. The Saffire version is a woman's celebration of her own body.

As someone who "packs much back" myself, I definitely appreciate the Uppity Blues Women take on the song. Indeed, I have rather a collection of "big booty" songs (and Taj Mahal's Big-Legged Mamas Are Back in Style as bonus material). Someday maybe I'll just post the lot of them. That's my favorite exercise--some serious boogie to someone telling you you don't need it. Now that's a mood-brightener! If you've a favorite "generous behind" song please do share it with me. I'm always looking for new ones.

To get the taste of a truly heinous bluegrass cover of My Girl, complete with nasal wailing and twanging banjos, I turned my ear to some much tastier music. Happily, I settled on Watermelon Slim and the Workers. If you’re unfamiliar with this southern-fried blues group I recommend having a listen.

Drinking & Driving may seem, at first blush, like a song about that good ol’ boy pastime of swilling beer while ripping around gravel roads in your pick-up. But the lyrics tell a very different story. Mr. Slim, if you could call him such, uses drinking and driving as a metaphor for how his woman is ruining their relationship.

Because the song is unexpected, almost entirely unknown, and just a great tune I thought I’d share Drinking & Driving with you all. If you’ve got a favorite metaphor song please do share it with the group.

In case you missed the first two posts in this series, I have been digging through my music collection, starting in the 50s, in an attempt to bolster my theory that fading out tracks gained popularity in the disco era and then artists came to their senses and started actually finishing their songs rather than repeating themselves until the volume knob hit zero. We’ll pick up with the nineties.

I tried the 90s, for which I have mostly lesser-known songs. Frente’s Accidentally Kelly Street includes a little repeat and about a second of fade on the last note but it’s noticeably a last note. The Connells were Slackjawed for just shy of four minutes and the final chord stretches almost ten seconds but again it’s clearly final. Rancid’s Junkie Man ends quite abruptly with no fade whatsoever as does Killing the Fly from The Union Underground, and David Byrne stops dead in the middle of a phrase to terminate UB Jesus.

In the last ten years, we see Maximo Park end Apply Some Pressure quite sharply and The Brighton Port Authority take thirty seconds of repeat before a final screech in Should I Stay or Should I Blow. The Golden Silvers give us fifteen seconds of organ fade, though, for Magic Touch while Vampire Weekend constrain themselves to about four seconds of the same to close Giving Up the Gun. But then The Knux showed up with twelve seconds of fadeout to finish Cappuccino.

So I may not be imagining the change but it does seem to be more varied now and perhaps coming back into favor. I don’t really have the room here to visit every genre from every decade. It does seem like the fadout peaked in the late 70s and early 80s and has become a great deal less popular. But I ask you, my darling readers, to share with me your experiences. Does it seem like the fade has faded from music? Can you think of a recent song that has a thirty-second fadeout at the end and do you think it's more genre-related now?

NOTE: Grooveshark and I had a little argument about Apply Some Pressure so I'm including a video instead of adding it to the play list.

Just when I think I've heard the weirdest song They Might Be Giants ever recorded I find another album. They've been a prolific pair, producing nineteen full albums in their twenty-five years together. That ignores the dozen compilations and a few promo CDs including one on which they shared digital space with Sonic Youth. Record companies are very strange.

At any rate, I saw this one and had to hear it. I certainly wasn't expecting the sound and they lyrics gave me a good chuckle. I hope you like it and, if you're curious, it's from the 2004 album called "The Spine". I've already decided to buy it based on this song and Skullivan. Now if you'll excuse me I have a few more songs to learn.

I was listening today to the Cheap Trick cover of Don't Be Cruel and I wondered how many other versions there were floating around out there. Naturally, there's Elvis Presley but has anyone really unexpected recorded a cover?

You know what that means: I had to find out so that I could tell you all about it. Sure enough, I found covers from Devo, The Smithereens, and Debbie Harry, of all people. That last was for a tribute album for the song's writer, Otis Blackwell. The Smithereens recorded their version with Otis Blackwell, as well. Apparently The Judds, John Lennon, and Jerry Lee Lewis have also covered the song but Grooveshark didn't have the songs.

So for this "lovely", not-quite-spring day let's tell winter, "Don't Be Cruel"...several times. Maybe it will listen better than it did to that silly groundhog. And if you're having beautiful weather that doesn't include sleet and snow please don't tell me about it. It'd be cruel.