Day 90: March 31: Still Crazy After All These Years

"I would not be convicted by a jury of my peers."

James pays homage to his old friend Paul Simon.  I think Paul is the superior songwriter, but James is a far better singer...and I think I'd much rather spend an afternoon hanging out with James than Paul. 

I often associate this song with Paul singing it wearing a turkey suit on the Thanksgiving episode of the first season of SNL. This is from a tribute for Paul from the Library of Congress featuring lots of cool stuff.  

Still Crazy After All These Years

Here's another performance from that night.  One from Lyle Lovett, a cool cat I once met at an airport in Houston.  That's right, I'm not from Texas.

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover

Day 89: March 30: Hangnail

"Money o money o where have you gone?"

James is in goofball mode in this hidden track from the end of Hourglass.  He spoofs the saddle up little buckeroo genre that he often capitalizes on in songs like Sweet Baby James and Country Road.  It's a smile.

Hangnail

Here's what it sounds like when Mel Brooks does the same thing.  This one is sung by Frankie Laine perhaps best known for singing the theme to Rawhide.

Blazing Saddles

Day 88: March 29: I Will Not Lie For You

"It's only right that you should know."

James is in his slightly less mellow perhaps flying high era.  This is a catchy tune from Flag and it's cool to see James live in this era- but his personality in this clip seems so different than young, bashful James or old, charming James.

I Will Not Lie For You

Greg Trooper has a different perspective on the whole honesty thing.

I Love it When She Lies

Day 87: March 28: Pretty Boy Floyd

"If you'll gather 'round me children, a story I will tell."

Woody Guthrie's tale about a Robin Hood type bank robber.  Maybe he wasn't motivated the way Robin Hood was but he was at least given to generosity with his loot.  Even with the moral, it's a good tune and pretty well known.  Dylan has covered it, but James does a beautiful job with it here.  This is an early concert- and this clip is a whole lot more than just this song.  He opens with the Guthrie song but enjoy the whole thing if you're so inclined.

Pretty Boy Floyd

Woody Guthrie is one of the most important American songwriters in history.  He most famously penned This Land is Your Land, a song often mistakenly viewed as flag-wavy and patriotic, mostly because people usually stop at the first verse.  Woody though, was a voice for the disenfranchised, for the powerless, for the blue-collared, for the poor.  Here's Leftover Salmon's tribute to Arlo's dad.

Woody Guthrie

Day 86: March 27: Love Has Brought Me Around

"My head is full of springtime and my heart is full of you."

This is a great song from the Mud Slide Slim album- the perfect combination of sharp lyricism and catchy melody.  This version is  little slower (and not as strong) as the studio version but it's pretty cool to see baby James with Carole playing piano for him.

Love Has Brought Me Around

Here's Kenny Rogers with a guilty pleasure from the 80's with a similarly titled/themed tune.  This is from his less than successful film Six Pack.  When I was in middle school, before the days of VCR's, my family rented a video disc player for my birthday.  I requested Rocky III and my dad came home with Six Pack and Annie.  I was less than impressed.

Love WIll Turn You Around

Day 85: March 26: If I Needed Someone

"you're the one that I'd be thinking of."

Really young James singing a great Beatles tune.  His version is fine, not special, but fine.  It's interesting but I'd rather hear George sing it.

If I Needed Someone

I really miss George.  Here's his song about really missing John.

All Those Years Ago

Day 84: March 25: On;y One

"...the memory seems like dreams."

This is the era where I started getting into James' music.  It's not his strongest era, but I was old enough to start to appreciate him and this one is one of the prettiest on the That's Why I'm Here album.  I didn't know it at the time, but Don Henley sings backup on this track and you can even catch a couple of glimpses of him in this video.  My father-in-law reportedly wasn't a fan of this song because it was so repetitive.  It's a fair point, but in my mind it's pretty enough to overcome that shortcoming.

Only One

Speaking of Don Henley on backing vocals, I recently rediscovered this track from sometime in the 90's.  It's more of a duet than the last track- and it works really well.  Patty Smyth was the lead singer of the band Scandal and their voices work well together.

Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough

Day 83: March 24: Something in the Way She Moves

"She says them mostly just to calm me down."

Here's what started it all.  This song was in the batch that made The Beatles believe that James could make it in the music biz.  While the song still evolves after this recording, I thought this early version featuring a really young James (still battling acne) was too interesting to pass on.

Something in the Way She Moves

When your song is so good that The Beatles rip it off, you know you're on to something.  George took the first line and wrote one of his most beautiful love songs.  Incidentally, this song is written about Patty Boyd who is also the subject of Layla, Wonderful Tonight and Bell Bottom Blues.  Since most of the Beatles catalog seems to be blocked online, we;ll have to settle for this interesting version of George and Eric together playing a song written about a woman they were both married to at different times. 

Something

Day 82: March 23: You Can Close Your Eyes

"You can stay as long as you like."

One of James' best.  This beautiful lullaby is simple and short, but these two and a half minutes are as sweet as his music gets.  The original version on Mud Slide Slim isn't a duet, but the intimacy of this version seemingly from James and Carly's living room makes it interesting.  James seems fairly humorless or perhaps fairly stoned but the lyrics juxtaposed with their relationship's eventual demise add poignancy.  You can sing this song when I'm gone.

This is one of Jana's favorites and has been an important song in our relationship.  Happy birthday, darling.  I love you.

You Can Close Your Eyes

And speaking of beautiful lullabies...

Golden Slumbers

Day 81: March 22: Pretty Woman

"Come down for a while."

Nope.  Not the Roy Orbison classic. Lesser know track from brother Liv.  James and Carly sing backing vocals- but her presence is much more evident.  Nothing too complex but it's not a bad track.

Pretty Woman

Here's a pretty cover Liv recorded of a famous Stevie Wonder song.  I was looking for something else and stumbled on this. It had me from the opening whistle.

Isn't She Lovely

Day 80: March 21: Your Smiling Face

"Isn't it amazing a man like me can feel this way?"

Big hit from the JT album.  It's hard not to smile listening to this one.  I'd still expect to hear it at a show some 40 years later.  

Your Smiling Face

I know I just gushed about Randy Newman yesterday, but this song from the Parenthood soundtrack just fits too well to overlook.

I Love to See You Smile

Day 79: March 20: Glory Train

"I see some hard times coming, fire and wind and rain."

In the 90's, Randy Newman wrote a musical version of Faust.  With his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, he cut an all-star album starring James as the voice of God, Don Henley as Faust, Linda Ronstadt as Faust's love interest, Randy himself as the devil, Bonnie Raitt as the devil's love interest, and Elton John as angel Rick.  It's highly sacrilegious if not blasphemous in places, but the shots at an American version of God are often on target- and the head to head battle between James and Randy is the perfect combination of sweet and salty.  This is James' big number.

Glory Train

Here's the prettiest song in the show.  It had already shown up on the soundtrack to the John Travolta film Michael- but Randy recycled it here.

Feels Like Home

Day 78: March 19: Hey Mister, That's Me Up on the Jukebox

"I need your golden gated cities like a hole in my head."

Classic James from the peak of his career.  This is the sound that made him famous and the combination of mournful and sweet in this track makes it a standout from the Mudslide Slim album.  His career seems to be a tension between embracing fame and shunning it and much of that crossroad is evident here.

Hey Mister, That's Me Up on the Jukebox

Foreigner had no such tension.

Jukebox Hero

Day 77: March 18: In the Midnight Hour

"That's when my love begins to shine."

Fairly sanitized remake of the Wilson Pickett classic.  However, of the tracks held over for the second covers album, this is one of the better ones.  If you'd never heard the original this might work for you, but it grossly pales in comparison. The ending drags out a bit.

In the Midnight Hour

Here's my favorite Wilson Pickett song with some kicking horns.  Enjoy!

Mustang Sally

Day 76: March 17: Walkin' My Baby Back Home

"One kiss then I continue again."

An old 30's tune remade here sweetly by James.  This one was famously covered in the 50's by Nat King Cole and there's not much stylistically different here, but it's all the better for it.  Easy to smile listening to this one.

Walkin' My Baby Back Home

Nat King Cole reminds me of my grandfather.  I have distinct memories of flipping through his albums and his copy of Rambling Rose was one of my favorites.  Nat also makes me think of my time on the Berry College forensics team.  We had two different team songs that were by Nat.  Here's one of them.

Straighten Up and Fly Right

Day 75:  March 16: Mescalito

"Mescalito has opened up my mind."

James ode to peyote comes from the One Man Dog album and is actually part of a medley ala Abbey Road.  It's quick and kind of odd on its own.  It was controversial enough to warrant a disclaimer in the liner notes stating that the sentiments were not necessarily echoed by the band.

Mescalito

Speaking of drugs opening your mind, here's folk singer Chuck Brodsky's tale of Dock Ellis pitching a no-hitter while on LSD.  If you aren't familiar with Chuck, you should be.

Dock Ellis' No No