Some old and some new make up my Halloween Head double disc mix to get you in the mood for my favorite season. Apple cidar, pumpkins, leaves changing colors, cozy sweaters… Ahh. I know I have been bad getting the last few out to some of you but this time it’s different, I swear. I am going to be sending them with stolen postage from work so email your requests with your addy to my ASI email.Breaking Up – Rilo Kiley
Wonderful Scar – Now its Overhead
September - Earth, Wind, & Fire
Gabriel and the Vagabond – Foy Vance
Halloween Head – Ryan Adams
Graceland – Paul Simon
Worked Up So Sexual – The Faint
My Moon My Man - Feist
Ah, my girl Feist… My Dad and I are totally diggin’ her new album.
Colleen – Half Japanese
This song was written for me. At least I like to pretend it was.
Back Where I Was – The Hereafter
People Have Parties - Sorry About Dresden
Explosions – The Mary Onettes
November - Azure Ray
Otherwise – Morcheeba
Hey Eugene! – Pink Martini
I let my dad pick out this song for the mix.
Girl in the War – Josh Ritter
Old Whore’s Diet – Rufus Wainwright
The gay Messiah is coming y’all. To The Mann that is and I missed it. It broke my heart to give up that ticket. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. Its over so lets move on.
Maggie May- Rod Stewart
Brighter Discontent – The Submarines
Life in Disguise – The Slip
These Photographs - Joshua Radin
Dead Leaves On the Dirty Ground – The White Stripes
Oh, Canada Girls - Dar Williams
Pumpkin Soup – Kate Nash
Breakable – Ingrid Michaelson
Swan Swan H. – R.E.M
Mississippi – Dixie Chicks
Don’t throw stones at me but I like this version better than the original by Bob Dylan.
The Scientist – Aimee Mann
Smile – Madeline Peyroux or Lyle Lovett or Nat King Cole
I am letting you pick which version you want to cap off your new favorite compilation.
10 comments:
My instinct to throw stones at you is only tempered by the fact that I can't really remember "Mississippi". Is it on one of his later albums? Time Out of Mind? Love and Theft?
Bob Dylan is technically not a good singer though he is stylistically to the point where his classic songs lose value without his vocals. “Mississippi” is not a well known classic song so listening to this version (which is significantly different from Dylan’s) you probably wouldn’t even realize it was part of his catalog. Maybe not even if you are familiar with the song. In fact, it is an excellent little known song and the Chicks are doing a great thing by dusting it off and breathing new life into it as well as exposing it to their audience which probably is not Dylan’s. Good for them. Let us not forget that Joan Baez’s cover of “Blowin in the Wind” is considered a classic. Jeff Buckley’s cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” is a classic as well. Natalie Maines is one of the best vocalists in music today and she read this song as a country song as opposed to folk. Its name and subject matter lends itself to that idea so why not add a little twang and have fun with it. Nobody else is paying it any attention.
I don’t believe that the original is always better. That mentality is the same as the book always being better than the movie. Heck, some movie remakes are better than the original. Most of the time that is not the case but there are exceptions. This live Dixie Chicks take on “Mississippi” is one of them.
From Don't Look Back:
Bob Dylan: Have you heard me sing?
Interviewer: I like Caruso better.
Bob: Ohhh . . . well, you see right there we have a little disagreement. I happen to be as good as him-a good singer. You have to listen closely but I hit all the notes.
I shouldn't have to "listen closely" to tell if he is hitting the notes. I love Dylan. I've had the biograph since high school, had "The Freewheelin'Bob Dylan" on cassette before I even had a CD player and read "Chronicles: Volume One" by Bob Dylan as soon as it came out (I highly recommend it). I know more about Dylan than anyone else I know personally. I am allowed to critique with love.
If you see the movie you can tell that his tongue is firmly implanted in his check when he compares himself to Caruso (the guy that completes the sentence "Pavarotti is the greatest tenor since-").
Oh, and wasn't Chronicles great? I really liked the parts about his early days playing in the small coffee houses in NYC.
I just found out that Feist is the girl singing in the new Ipod Nano commercial. I have never heard any of her songs, but I like that one. So I am glad you are including her in the mix.
There is nary a day that goes by that I do not listen to a Colleen original mix CD, in my car or at home. I love them!
Were you implying that we would throw stones at you because you said you liked that version better than Dylan's, or because it is the Dixie Chicks? I think the Chicks are great. I applaud them for taking everybody's criticism and stupidity and turning it into their own personal success.
I want to clarify that I don't think being a Dixie Chicks fan is a stone-throwing offense. I vaguely like them myself. (In that I think I like them but I can't name any of their songs.)
Speaking of Dylan songs done better by non-Dylan performers, I met a woman the other day that dated a friend of Jimmy Hendrix. Apparently, when not on stage, Hendrix hated wearing clothes. Who knew? And yes, the rumors are true.
PS: I want a CO-CD!!
The first thing I do when I get home from work is take off my pants. Sometimes as soon as I close the door (I wear underpants).
Post a Comment