The Meat of It: A Meat Puppets Compilation

         I must confess that I didn't pay too much attention to the Meat Puppets back in the 1980s and 1990s, but really enjoyed their 2019 comeback (of sorts) Dusty Notes, and then got really into them when I started putting together my 80s torch and twang compilations.   Alas, I never got to see them live and it doesn't look like they are planning to do so in the future.  Nevertheless, if this retrospective whets your appetite for an even bigger helping of the Meat Puppets, I especially recommend Lollipop and Sewn Together. 

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Come As You Are
Batwing
Spit
I'm Not You
Look At the Rain
Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Comin' Down
Flight of the Fire Weasel
Baby Don't
Backwards Drums
Sometimes Blue
Confusion Fog
Nine Pins
Smoke
Tomorrow Never Knows (feat. Alison Scott)
Sloop John B

Los Super Seven

There are a lot of great things about having a large digital music library, particularly the ease of creating playlists and not having to keep finding additional space for one's CD and vinyl purchases.  However, one of the drawbacks is that you can easily forget about beloved albums in ways that were more difficult when you were perusing your physical collection to see what you wanted to play.  I think it had been a good ten years since I listened to Los Super Seven, the Latin "supergroup" from the late 1990's and early 2000's.  I can't remember what led to my re-discovery, but I was surprised how good it was and also kinda shocked that it was out of print.  Their other two albums, Canto and I Heard it on X, are still in print and available to stream, but the debut album is, imho, their best and needs to be heard (and more often than every ten years. :)

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El Canoero

Piensa en Mi

Mi Ranchito

Un Beso Al Viento

La Sirena

Un Lunes Por la Manana

Plane Wreck At Los Gatos (Deportee)

La Morena

Margarita

La Madrugada

El Ausente

Rio de Tenampa

Las Nortenitas

The Nashville Legends Series: Connie Smith, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette

I can't remember exactly when or why I decided to put together this compilation, but there is a good chance that I started it after watching "George and Tammy", the great mini-series about George Jones and Tammy Wynette.  Even though I thought Michael Shannon was a little miscast as Jones (mostly because he just really doesn't look like him at all) and Jessica Chastain (Tammy) and Michael Shannon's (George) vocals could never match the originals, it's still one of 2-3 best music biopics I've ever seen.  And Chastain definitely deserved all the acclaim she got for he performance.  It also sent me on a Tammy Wynette listening jag, including her album with Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn.  I'm also not sure why or when I decided to include Connie Smith, other than she's an unfairly overlooked country star from the 1960s.  

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Disc 1
I Never Once Stopped Loving You	Connie Smith
Apartment #9	Tammy Wynette
Our Hearts Are Holding Hands	Ernest Tubb & Loretta Lynn
Daddy Was an Old Time Preacher Man	Porter Wagoner & Dolly Parton
Dr. Robert F. Thomas	Dolly Parton
Gentle On My Mind	Tammy Wynette
Alone with You	Loretta Lynn
Wait for the Light to Shine	Connie Smith
Games People Play	Dolly Parton
Ain't Had No Lovin'	Connie Smith
Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven	Loretta Lynn
You've Just Stepped In (From Stepping Out On Me)	Loretta Lynn
I'll Come Running	Connie Smith
It's My Time	Dolly Parton
Don't Make Me Go To School	Tammy Wynette
I'm So Used to Loving You	Connie Smith
Help Me Make It Through The Night	Tammy Wynette
Disc 2
Farther To Go	Loretta Lynn
Wouldn't I?	George Jones & Tammy Wynette
You Ain't Woman Enough	Connie Smith
I'm Gonna Sleep With One Eye Open	Dolly Parton
Mule Skinner Blues (Blue Yodel No. 8)	Dolly Parton
Your Squaw Is On The Warpath	Loretta Lynn
Louisiana Man	Connie Smith
Good Lovin' (Makes It Right)	Tammy Wynette
When Love Is New	Dolly Parton & Emmy Rossum
Lonesome 7-7203	Loretta Lynn
Today I Started Loving You Again	Connie Smith
Jackson Ain't a Very Big Town	Tammy Wynette
'Til I Can Make It on My Own	Tammy Wynette
Touch Your Woman	Dolly Parton
After the Fire Is Gone	Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty
A Million and One	Connie Smith
I Dreamed Of A Hillbilly Heaven	Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette & Loretta Lynn

Sucking in the 70's: Volume 12

 I don’t think I’ve completely exhausted the entire corpus of 70s music, but this will likely be my last volume for a while.  There’s a lot of well-known cuts, but folks also enjoy some of the lesser known songs.  Also, all the previous volumes are available as are all the Saluting the 70's compilations.

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Daylight	Bobby Womack
Lowdown	Boz Scaggs
Hang on in There Baby	Johnny Bristol
Safecracker	Hoodoo Rhythm Devils
Slow Motion (Part 1)	Johnny Williams
Express	B.T. Express
Long Train Runnin'	The Doobie Brothers
When the Game Is Played on You	Bettye Swann
You're My Best Friend	Queen
Sing with the Children	Claudia Lennear
(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don't Want To Be Right	Luther Ingram
Freddie's Dead	Curtis Mayfield
Ecstasy	Ohio Players
Picture Us	Bunny Sigler
Les Fleur	Minnie Riperton
Needle and Thread	Jennifer Warnes
Right on the Tip of My Tongue	Brenda and the Tabulations
Heaven Says	The New Birth
I'm For You, You For Me	The Temprees
Stranger In A Strange Land	Leon Russell

 

 

John Cale: Titan - Discs 4 & 5

I re-watched the movie Big Fan and was reminded how perfect the placement of John Cale's Big White Cloud is in film. (The deployment of Helen Reddy's version of Delta Dawn at a critical juncture is also a nice touch).   I included the original version of Big White Cloud on another compilation, but there's an excellent alternative version of the song which leads off Disc 5.  As I'm posting the final two discs of the Cale compilation, I also wanted to pay homage to an excellent Cale playlist somewhere on the internet (in addition to the one that I mentioned last month), but I can't find it. (I really need a system to keep track of stuff like that.)  Anyway, these are the final two discs.  I know he's got a huge body of work, but I'd like to think I did justice to a true titan.

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Disc 4
She Doesn't Live Here Anymore	John Cale
The Pianos, Pt. 1: Welcome to Europe	John Cale
The Jeweller	John Cale
Dying On The Vine	John Cale
Zen	John Cale
Church of Anthrax	John Cale & Terry Riley
Mercenaries (45 version)	John Cale
Mr Sparrow	John Cale
Secret Corrida	John Cale
Movement 3 [from Kiss]	John Cale
Hanky Panky Nohow	John Cale
Last Night I Said Goodbye to My Friend	The Velvet Underground
Disc 5
Big White Cloud (Alternative version)	John Cale
Opening Theme	John Cale
Poison	John Cale & Marissa Nadler
Venus In Furs (Live)	John Cale
Jim	John Cale
The Legal Status of Ice	John Cale
Shark-Shark	John Cale
Sabotage	John Cale
The Moon	John Cale
Mercy	John Cale featuring Laurel Halo
Verses	John Cale
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night	John Cale

 

More John Cale

      It's late and I still have some work to finish on a Sunday night, so I have to keep it short.  As I noted last week, I tried to include a lot of obscurities so I need to give credit to a great Youtube playlist.  I would have included more, but there were a number of great live cuts that were recorded at a problematically low level for inclusion in a compliation.  Nonetheless, I owe the creator of the playlist a great deal of gratitude and highly recommend it any time you want to binge on John Cale.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNINWcxxj9hEHC2MVMCY4PXFB87YjpwHi

Hope everyone enjoys this third volume

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In Memoriam John Cage-Call Waiting (1)	John Cale
Cordoba	Brian Eno & John Cale
Set Me Free	John Cale
Night Crawling	John Cale
Sorrow	Anna Calvi and John Cale
Empty Bottles	John Cale & Lou Reed
Caligula	John Cale
Dr. Mudd	John Cale
Memories of Paris: President Y Is Still Stable	John Cale
IO	John Cale
Execute the Second Group	John Cale
Buffalo Ballet	John Cale

John Cale: Titan

   It's been just over 60 years since John Cale met Lou Reed and formed the Velvet Underground.  Not only is he still performing, he's still really vital artist, as evinced by the fact that he's released full length albums in 2023 and 2024.  Mercy from 2023 is especially impressive as I would rate it among his top five solo releases.  

      What, then, could be better in this bleak midwinter than a John Cale compilation? I tried to find every little obscure Cale nugget I could (and there are a lot of live performances), but I'm sure I missed more than a few.  I'm posting Discs 1 and 2 today, and then I'll post Disc 3-5 over the next two months.  

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  Disc 1

Daybreak	John Cale
The Long Voyage	Hector Zazou/Suzanne Vega/John Cale
I Shot Andy Warhol Suite	John Cale
Catastrofuk	John Cale
Don't Pretend	Gordon Gano (and John Cale)
Temper	John Cale
Ghost Story	John Cale
A Dream	Lou Reed & John Cale
Flashback	John Cale
Hush	John Cale
All Summer Long	John Cale
Death Camp	John Cale
Disc 2
The Gift	The Velvet Underground
The Philosopher	John Cale
Living With You (Organic Mix)	John Cale
Instrumental	John Cale / Bob Neuwirth
Vampire Cafe	John Cale
Helen Of Troy	John Cale
Caribbean Sunset	John Cale
Corner Of My Sky (feat. John Cale)	Kelly Lee Owens
The Year Of The Patriot	John Cale & Brian Eno
Rosegarden Funeral Of Sores	John Cale
She Never Took No for an Answer	John Cale
Dead Or Alive	John Cale

On The Right Side of 2024

    Sorry for the delay in getting the best of compilation completed.  I would make a New Years resolution to be more punctual, but I don't think it would do any good.  My tardiness should, however, not be seen as a reflection on the music released, as there was a lot of great music released.  There's still a lot of releases that demand additional listens, but I particularly recommend Cindy Lee's "Diamond Jubilee", Mulatu Astatke's "Tension", and Clem Snide's "Oh Smokey".  I also would be remiss if I didn't mention two albums to benefit victims of Hurricane Helene in Western North Carolina:  Cardinals At The Window and Caverns of Gold: A Benefit for WNC Hurricane Relief.  I only discovered Caverns of Gold one three weeks ago so I haven't had much time to listen to it, but I've listened to about two thirds of Cardinals at the Window (it's 136 songs and Caverns of Gold has twice as many) and there's a lot of great live and unreleased cuts.  Both are also insanely cheap so be sure to add a tip.  :)

   As always, I only included artists who weren't on the two previous years' compilations (unless they were singing backup on another artist's song).  Also, all of the previous year end compilations are also available (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).

      Oh, and if you're wondering about the cover art.  Well, my youngest is a huge fan of capybaras, and the little one, Tupi, was born in December.  

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Disc 1

Punish	Ethel Cain
Rosemary	Donovan Woods
Butterfly	Shelby Lynne
Another Broken Heart	Wonder Women of Country
Jenny Jenkins	Viva Lone Justice
Ernest Evans	Pixies
Found a Job	The Linda Lindas
Walk Through Fire	Yannis & The Yaw
Samurai	Lupe Fiasco
Out There	Helado Negro
Hey Heron	Rosali
Love Will Tear Us Apart	Pedal Steel Noah
Rosa, Lua, Lhasa	Sítio Rosa & Jennifer Souza & Bernardo Bauer
Carte Blanche	Haux
Went for a Ride	Adia Victoria
Hey Girl	Moses Sumney
When a Man Cries	Leon Bridges
Midnight Cowboy	Charley Crockett
Long Way Home	Ray LaMontagne
Disc 2
Cowboy and the Stranger (demo)	Terry Allen
Saturday Morning	Dexter Romweber
Mighty Fine & All Mine	The Mystery Lights
Lesanu	Kamasi Washington
Mood Swings	Little Simz
She Feels	Jorja Smith
Inagei Otsehi (We Live in the Woods)	Agalisiga
Smokey	Clem Snide
Mother's Daughter	Skylar Gudasz
Rocky Raccoon (Bonus Track)	Swamp Dogg
A Bar Song (Tipsy)	Shaboozey
Broken Hearted Blue	Jenny Don't And The Spurs
Life Rides The Train	Victoria Liedtke & Jason Ringenberg
Liberty Print	Camera Obscura
Silencio	Patrick Watson feat. November Ultra
Uiara (Encantada da Água) - Vida e cura	Amaro Freitas
Mrs Ladyships and The Cleanerhouse Boys	The Smashing Times
Howdy Howdy	Gillian Welch
This Is Who I Am (From “The Day of the Jackal”)	Celeste
Disc 3
Aaron	Cassandra Jenkins + Bloomsday + Babehoven
Cinnamon Horses	Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds
Loser	Lydia Loveless
The Howl	Crowded House
Aquí Te Cuido	Reyna Tropical
I See You	Alice Russell
Water's Path	Nubya Garcia
Every Color In Blue	Brittany Howard
We're Still Here	Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore
Priss and Vinegar	The Surfrajettes
Cabin Song	Billy Strings
Time Between	Dwight Yoakam
News of the Universe	La Luz
Tension	Mulatu Astatke & Hoodna Orchestra
Love You Got	Kelly Lee Owens
Tantos Planetas	St. Vincent
Oração 19 (oração pra Oxum)	Luiza Brina e Iara Rennó
THINGS BEHIND THINGS BEHIND THINGS	Bon Iver
Fallin' Rain	The Nude Party