Bruce Springsteen "High Hopes"

One of Bruce Springsteen's under-appreciated talents is his ability to pick covers.

Think of songs like "Jersey Girl," "Trapped," "Raise Your Hand" or "My Ride's Here."  The average person---and even many true Bruce fans---has no idea that Springsteen didn't write these tunes.

Bruce has always covered songs that not only fit his familiar themes (like his Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger covers) and his love of previous eras (like his Elvis and Little Richard covers).

But he is also very successful at finding songs the sound like he could have written them.

Such is the case with his new single, "High Hopes," originally performed by The Javalinas.  Check out these lyrics:

Monday morning runs to Sunday night
Screaming slow me down before the new year dies
Well it won't take much to kill a loving smile
And every mother with a baby crying in her arms, singing
Give me help, give me strength
Give a soul a night of fearless sleep
Give me love, give me peace
Don't you know these days you pay for everything
Got high hopes
I got high hopes

Pretty Springsteen-y, no?


Hear "High Hopes" on Youtube.


Hear the original version of "High Hopes" on Youtube.


Hear "Jersey Girl" on Youtube.


Hear "Trapped" on Youtube.


Hear "Raise Your Hand" on Youtube.


Hear "My Ride's Here" on Youtube.

Tom Waits "Whistlin' Past The Graveyard"

It doesn't really matter what Tom Waits is singing about, he always sounds like he's in Halloween mode.  But here it really applies . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

The Eagles "Ol 55"

Let's face it.  People have strong feelings about The Eagles.

Really strong feelings.

That makes them a bit of a quandary for MVY.  And I had to do some thinking on the subject, due to a recent note from a listener.

He wanted to know why we played The Eagles version of "Ol 55."  He pointed out that the songwriter, Tom Waits, has said he doesn't like that version himself.

Sometimes I think that when people write the station, they really just want a one word response, like "Okay."

But sometimes, I feel the urge to explain myself, in probably too much details.

So, The Eagles . . .

On the one hand, The Eagles fit pretty sonically well with MVY.  Polished acoustics, well-crafted songwriting, the occasional blazing guitar lead, harmonies that directly descend from CSNY.  All that works.

On the other hand, The Eagles represent the antithesis of an MVY artist, in the sense that if it's a hit somewhere else, we're likely to leave it alone.  We'd rather play the road less traveled.  The critically-acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful.  We'll play the deep album cut, over the mass appeal hit.

This distinction is not really something the audience ever thinks about.

So the folks who live On The One Hand, request The Eagles, with some frequency.

Trying to skate the line, we do something with The Eagles, that we don't do with too many other artists.  We only play part of their catalogue.

Normally, a band is either IN with us, or they are OUT with us.  If we've decided to play them, like The Allman Brothers, we play most everything, even the hits.  If we've decided that they are already well-covered by Classic Rock, like The Doors, we don't play anything, even the obscurities.

With The Eagles, there is no sense of MVY playing "Hotel California" or "Heartache Tonight" or "Tequila Sunrise."  Because you can hear those songs right now, by just spinning the dial.  They're burnt out, and unnecessary for us.

But we do want to represent The Eagles, so we play songs like "The Last Resort."  That's one you are less likely to hear on a Classic Rock station.

For the same reason, we played "Ol 55."  It's a pretty deep cut.

But I have to admit, the listener who wrote in is right.

The cover tune doesn't do much for me, either.  The Tom Waits original is much better.

So yes, I pulled The Eagles version of "Ol 55" from the playlist.  And I kept the Tom Waits version in (we've been rotating the two, for years).

Someday, I'll probably grow a pair, and decided to weed out the last few Eagles cuts from the entire playlist.

But until then, I'll just enjoy waiting to receive the wrath of Eagles Haters, in the Inbox.

Read the article:  "Woman Allegedly Attacked Roommate For Listening To The Eagles"


Hear the song on Youtube.

Primus "Tommy The Cat"

Here's another Weekend Post:

Fun weekend diversion:  Learn to imitate and recite Tom Waits' speech in this song.


Hear the song on Youtube.

Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.

Victoria Williams "You R Loved"

Here's another Weekend Post:

After last weekend's weekend posts about bands that seemed to have the talent to break through in the 90s, but didn't quite get there, I went searching for a few more of my favorites.

Victoria Williams was beloved enough by other musicians in the 90s, that when she got sick, a Who's Who of great 90s bands made a fundraiser record of her songs.

Maybe the masses couldn't quite hook into her voice, but damn her songs are good.  I mean, you can probably name 10 artists right off the top of your head who's singing voice you'll forgive, because their writing is so strong (I'll get you started . . . Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Richard Thompson, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen . . . ).

Even if you don't love her female-Neil-Young-ish voice, how can you not be charmed by lines like:

Jesus walked on water/He turned the water into wine,
Go down to the drunkards/Tell them everything is fine.

Hear the song on Youtube.


Weekend posts are a chance to revisit songs that have happy memories, not of anything in particular, other than just hearing the tunes.

Many of these songs were tracks that I played during my 90s stint as an Alternative/Modern Rock radio show.  They're tunes that I hardly hear these days, but are wonderful to revisit.

Click on the "Weekend Posts" label below, to see other posts like this.
 

Leonard Cohen "Bird On A Wire"

Not all the notes I get at my mvyradio email box are as lovely as the one I wrote about yesterday.

We certainly receive a good portion of criticism and complaints too. And it's my job to answer them.

Last week I got a note from a listener who wondered why we don't play Leonard Cohen in regular rotation. Or, to more accurately reflect the tone of the note, a listener who wondered Why Do You Hate Leonard Cohen?

We definitely don't hate Leonard Cohen. In fact, Barbara Dacey's blog is named after one of his songs. And the day I got the note, she was featuring music from Leonard's son Adam!

But here's the thing . . . a great artist and a great song, doesn't necessarily translate to a great RADIO artist and a great RADIO song.

Jeff Buckley is one of my favorite artists. But most of his songs don't really fit comfortably outside of the confines of his album, instead sandwiched between two other songs.

Gram Parsons is an artist we've tried to put into regular rotation. His music is hugely influential and his songs are timeless, but on the air, they don't seem to fit into the mix of the radio station.

And Tom Waits has fit into this category too. His vocal style is off-putting to some, and often the atmospherics of his music are a little to avant garde for mass consumption.

Then again, a few years ago we scoured Waits' catalog and DID find a handful of songs where he had scaled back his full blown Waits-yness. "Shiver Me Timbers" fits beautifully into the mvyradio mix.

So I wrote back to our Leonard lover, saying that we could do the same scouring of Cohen's catalog.

She gave me a few suggestions, as did Barbara.

What do you think?

Check out the songs below. Don't judge them as stand-alone pieces of art. Ask yourself, would they sound good, or weird, when played in a mix between two typical mvyradio songs, like, say, "Girlfriend Is Better" and "Black Horse And The Cherry Tree"?


Hear "Bird On A Wire" on Youtube.


Hear "Dance Me To The End Of Love" on Youtube.


Hear "I'm Your Man" on Youtube.


Hear "Suzanne" on Youtube.


Hear "Girlfriend Is Better" on Youtube.


Hear "Black Horse & The Cherry Tree" on Youtube.

Tom Waits "New Year's Eve"

Back in the fall, I wrote about my concerns over the idea of adding the new Tom Waits track "Back In The Crowd."

But as we got to the end of the year, it became apparent that "Bad As Me" was going to top many a critics Best Of 2012 list. With the music biz going quiet in December, it gave me time to reconsider records I'd passed over earlier in the year.

And hey, despite my hesitancy as a programmer, as a music lover, I am a full on fan of Tom Waits.

So (will a little prodding from Barbara Dacey, who had fallen head over heels for the record), I got past my programming self, and added "Back In The Crowd."

Just in time for New Years.

So let's celebrate, with another song from the record.

And, if you're one of those folks who is still unsure about Waits, I'll mention that my old friend Dan just recently posted on Facebook, that he wanted to apologize for all the years he had ignored friends who'd tried to turn him on to Tom. But after seeing a certain PBS special, we was totally won over.

Try it! You might like it . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Watch Tom Waits on PBS. See more from Austin City Limits.

Tom Waits "Back In The Crowd"

Normally, if I was on the fence about adding a song, I might post it here to solicit opinions.

But when you're talking about Tom Waits, nothing qualifies as "Normally."

Because the problem with decided to add or pass on a Tom Waits song, has to do with the specific listener's opinion of Tom Waits.

Oscar Wilde had an awesome quote:

"If you don't like someone, the way he holds his spoon will make you furious. If you do like him, he can turn his plate over into your lap and you won't mind."

If you are a person predisposed to liking Tom Waits, it's because you've come to appreciate the charm of his oddball approach.

Anything new he does, just reaffirms his quirky status, even if it's just a slight twist on a very straightforward troubadour-thing he's been doing for 40 years.

"Waits is doing a song like he's in a Spanish cafe? Fantastic!!!"

But if you've never been won over by his charm, stumbling onto a Tom Waits song is a guaranteed, "What the hell is mvy playing?" moment.

"That guy can't sing. And since when did this station start putting Mexican folk songs on the air?!?"

There's not really a middle ground here. People don't really say, "Tom Waits? Yeah, I could take him or leave him."

And there's my problem.

I can add a song that part of the listenership is thrilled about, and part is completely unmoved by.

It's harder to justify adding a song that part of the listenership is thrilled about, and part of the listnership can't change the channel fast enough.

And again, I could ask you what you think, but either you're going to say, "Tom Waits is a genius and anyone who doesn't like him is an idiot," or "This song is an awful mess and I couldn't listen to it all the way through, once."

What to do, what to do . . .


Hear the song on Youtube.

Neko Case "Christmas Card From A Hooker In Minneapolis"

Gasp! . . . Neko! . . . gaa! . . . covering . . . uhhh! . . . Waits! . . . . . . dying! . . . ascending to heaven! . . . ahhhhhhh!





The existence of this cut motivated me to do tomorrow night's Hot Seat (Monday at 9pm on mvyradio), focusing on downbeat Christmas songs. Enjoy!

Bob Seger "Downtown Train"

On Monday, I was writing about artists putting songs "On Hold," and was saying that it was an term I was not familiar with it.

Turns out, neither was Bob Seger.

In 1989, Seger supposedly had just completed the recording sessions for his new album, at the end of a decade that saw him achieve higher commercial success that ever before.

The story goes that he ran into acquaintance Rod Stewart. He told Stewart about this great Tom Waits cover he had just recorded.

Flash forward a couple of months later, Stewart has gone into the studio, recorded his own version of Waits' "Downtown Train," and gets it released before Seger's version.

It remains is one of the biggest commercial hits of Stewart's career, and even earned him a Grammy Nomination.

Seger, on the other hand, was reportedly PISSED. He pulled the planned album release and went into the studio, motivated to record something that would REALLY knock Rod's socks off. It took him until 1991 to get his next album out, and by that time, Nirvana had hit, and suddenly there was no room for Classic Rockers on Grunge radio.

His version of "Downtown Train" remains unreleased.

But lots of people have recorded it. Here are clips of Waits' original, Rod's remake, and covers from Mary Chapin Carpenter, Everything But The Girl and Patty Smyth.



The Rod Stewart, Pop-Up Video Version, with Seger story


Rarely seen Tom Waits video