King Me: Selections from the Carole King Canon

     

    It's kinda hard to resist a certain romantic nostalgia for places like Tin Pan Alley, the Brill Building, the Motown Hitsville USA house, the Philadelphia International Records Building, etc of yore.  On the other hand, it also seems a little strange to imagine songwriters and musicians going off to work from 9-5 in suits.  And when you go by those places now, they seem like any other building (i.e. I was a little let down when I finally went and saw the Philadelphia International Records building). It has been more than 15 years since I read  Ken Emerson's great book  "Always Magic in the Air: The Bomp and Brilliance of the Brill Building Era", but I'm pretty sure I would still recommend it for its revealing portraitures of King (and Goffin) and the other talented songwriters who worked at the Brill Building.   It also means that this collection of Carole King songs is way overdue.  Hope it brings a little joy during these chaotic times.


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My Inspiration	The Mad Lads
Yours Until Tomorrow	Bettye Swann
Up on the Roof	The Drifters
Chains	The Beatles
I'm into Something Good	Herman's Hermits
Wasn't Born To Follow	Uncle Tupelo
Don't Bring Me Down	The Animals
I Can't Make It Alone	Maria McKee
Don't Forget About Me	Dusty Springfield
It's Too Late	The Stylistics
No Easy Way Down	Hour Glass
I Can't Say Goodbye to You	The Everly Brothers
The Loco-Motion	Little Eva
Oh No Not My Baby	Aretha Franklin
Hi De Ho (That Old Sweet Roll)	Carla Thomas
So Much Love	Alton Ellis
Let Me Get Close To You	Alex Chilton
You've Got a Friend	Pou Vannary
Crying In The Rain	Rockpile
Will You Love Me Tomorrow	Bryan Ferry

Notes from the Paisley Underground

Early in 2019, four of the most prominent bands from the Paisley Underground movement in the 1980s released 3X4, wherein each of the bands covered one song by the other three bands.  Listening to that album, belatedly discovering this oral history of the scene (the article was written in 2013)  around the same time, and finding the long out of print Rainy Day album on the internet all, of course, led to an irresistible urge to put together the compilation below.  I should note that the Burn and Shine blog put together an excellent compilation called Paisley Underground: 1981-1990 back in 2011.  As the blog seems to have been defunct for several years, I did use several of the tracks from that compilation on mine as well.  Anyway, hope people enjoy it.

P.s. I highly recommend watching the video for Rainy Day's I'll Keep it With Mine (it's just the song with footage from the 1961 Guy DeBord film, CRITIQUE OF SEPARATION.)

P.P.S. Rest in peace, Tony Allen. I've re-upped my one disc career retrospective of his work.

P.P.S. I've re-upped several other LA-centric posts, including the a) Byrds/Three O'Clock/Army Navy compilation, b) the Los Angeles music scene comps, c) the Tom Waits/Eleni Mandell/Aimee Mann/Stan Ridgway comps, d) the 90s roots revivalist scene. 

P.P.P.S. Rest in peace, David Roback.  There's a good article on the LA Times website about the Paisley Underground scene, especially his friendship with Hoffs.

Download both discs

Side A
You Are My Friend	The Rain Parade
It's About Time	The Pandoras
Let It Rain	Dream Syndicate
Fading Away	Green On Red
Hold On	True West
John Riley	Rainy Day
I'll Keep it With Mine	Rainy Day
Northern Line	Opal
Only Business	The Rain Parade
Old World	Viva Saturn
Seeing Is Believing	Three O'Clock
All About You	The Bangles
And She Rides	The Long Ryders
John Hardy	The Gun Club
No Free Lunch	Green on Red
Side B
My Only Friend	Opal
Astronomy	Thin White Rope
Ghost on the Highway	Gun Club
Her Head's Revolving	The Three O'Clock
The Days Of Wine And Roses	The Dream Syndicate
Here On Earth As Well	The Dream Syndicate
What's She Done To Your Mind	The Rain Parade
Happy Nightmare Baby	Opal
Getting Out of Hand	The Bangs
The Word Is Out	Danny & Dusty
Hot Generation	The Pandoras
And Leave and Leave Me	To Damascus
Hollywood Holiday	True West
You Wanted Me To Hang Around	Wednesday Week
Sloop John B.	Rainy Day