Vinyl Frontier: Amy Winehouse

Song of the Week: The Lyrics - Mr. Man/Wait

We're back on this Friday with a very quick post (busy day today at Flip-Side's Rocky Mountain HQ).

We return to San Diego's The Lyrics. We posted about them two days ago. But this is a fundamentally different band than the one we spun two days ago. The lead singer and lead guitarist that was on that kick-ass record had left the band in '65. By the time this, the band's swan song, was released in September of '67, Craig Carll had taken over the helm of The Lyrics. Craig Carll wrote both sides here and sings both Mr. Man and the superior Flip-Side, Wait. The very good blog, Flower Bomb Songs, has the best info on this Lyrics. I won't plagiarize or regurgitate their work, but instead point you to more info here.

Many pics on that site from bassist Dan Garcia. One important photo shows them recording Wait. Please note that the room is filled with middle-aged session musicians! All photos here, courtesy of Dan Garcia's My Space page.

Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!

Song of the Week: Francois Breut & Calexico - Si Tu Disais

François Breut

Calexico

{originally published, March 21, 2009}
Mick Jagger once proclaimed in song, "it's the singer, not the song." In our case of the Song of the Week, this week, we argue the exact opposite. And in so doing, as we did with Train Kept A-Rollin', we explore a song as performed by more than one artist.

In this installment of SoTW, we focus on a song called Si Tu Disais. The song was written by a French pop singer and performed by his wife. Her name is Françoiz Breut and her husband's composition first appeared on her 2001 album entitled Vingt a Trente Mille Jours, which, if my French is as good as I think it is, roughly translates to "On the Flip-Side is just so dang illuminating that I can't stop reading and listening to it." Ironic, huh? Breut's original recording is a beautifully produced number whose swirling reverb-drenched guitars and soaring string section lift the song beyond the cafe jazz number that the ditty really is at its core. Breut's voice is understated and conversational, almost spoken instead of sang, allowing the song to amble along at a severely relaxed pace much like an old dog walking down a dusty road in the heat of Summer. It's not going anywhere fast or with any intense purpose. It just is. And that is enough. We tell ourselves we don't need to understand the words to understand the mood.

Move now a few years to 2004 and across thousands of miles to dusty Tucson, Arizona. The music collective known as Calexico pick up the song with the same languid pace. But now the song is sung in English and given a Spanish guitar dominant production. As is Calexico's bailiwick, the band replaces the strings with Mariachi horns and posits the lead musical refrain into the domain of the pedal steel guitar. Joey Burns' voice progresses at a similar whispered pace as Breut's, but now in English, and sung by a male, it takes on a desperate quality that was not readily notable to a non French speaker on Breut's version. The song is about escape, turning the page, stagnation, and the realization of the person speaking the words that they have come to despise the person with whom they have made a life.

Enjoy both versions and have a wonderful week.

Vinyl Frontier: Muhummadi Ali

Song of the Week: The Lemon Drops - I Live In The Springtime

Happy Vernal Equinox! We have to spin a Spring fling track today for you to celebrate.

I Live In The Springtime was recorded at RCA studios on May 1, 1967 by six teens who called themselves The Lemon Drops. They all hailed from McHenry High School in the Eastern suburbs of Chicago. The band was comprised of 16-year old Danny Smola on vocals, 14-year old Eddie Weiss on guitar, 16-year old Gary Weiss on drums, 17-year old Jeff Brandt on bass, 16-year old George Sorrenson on lead guitar and Ricky Erickson (age unknown) on third guitar! Three guitars?

The song was written and produced by Roger (aka, Reggie) Weiss who formed the label to give his little brothers an outlet for their band. The first run of records was only 500 pressings. Upon receiving the disc, the pubescent teens realized that Gary's drums had been totally removed from the mix and much of the lead work was missing. None-the-less, local radio station WLS spun the record. The boys were able to scrape together enough money to press another 1000 copies. This time with the guitar and drums mixed back in. But they couldn't get any more money for more pressings. Thus, only 1500 copies made it into circulation.

My copy, shown above, is one of the first 500 pressed, sans drums. The music stream we sample for you, however, is from the superior second pressing. Enjoy your Spring Fling!

 Until next time, we'll see you On The Flip-Side!