Back to my Dad's old singles
for some more great songs. First up a real oddity - on one level a
sweet song about pretty laydees, on another a frankly chilling vision of
an international sexual predator. Sure, he looks nice...
Ricky Nelson - Travelin' Man
This chap has been about a bit ("I've made a lot of stops all over the world"). But despite his free and easy way it doesn't work both ways - "And in every port I own the heart / Of at least one lovely girl" - he own's the heart?! What is he, some kind of international, seafaring pimp? Too harsh? Well, what about, "If you're ever in Alaska stop and see / My cute little Eskimo". He's like Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver - outrageous.
His Geography ain't up to much, either. Fancy a trip into Berlin town, anyone?
Unlike the tracks in the earlier post this was a double A-side with "Hello Marylou, Goodbye Heart" - now that's what I call a quality piece of vinyl.
Bobby Darin - Not For Me
Amongst
my Dad's singles there are lots of tracks by Bobby Darin. He had a
really interesting life, too bizarre to go into here (try ubiquipediaTM).
This song was the b-side of "18 Yellow Roses", a fairly naff song about
a father and his hopes and dreams for his daughter. "Not For Me",
however, is an insanely dramatic, nigh-on pyschopathic depiction of
self-pity- fantastic over-the-top orchestration by Jack Nitzsche, too.
Bobby Darin - Oo-Ee-Train (b-side)
Bobby Darin - Lazy River (a-side)
This
single is so great, I had to put both tracks on. "Oo-Ee-Train" is just
cool; barely scraping over the 2-minute mark, wicked rumpty-tumpty beat
and all. There's some more of those "phoned-in" backing vocals like on
the Little Eva track I posted previously - strangely, that had a fairly lazy-sounding 12-bar structure as well.
"Lazy
River" starts off deceptively low-key, before it ditches the ukelele
and shifts up a gear at 32 seconds. All of the bloody "X Factor"
wannabes (I include Robbie Williams in those) have learned the tropes of
swing singing but just don't the balls - just listen to the way he says
"from the halfway mark!" at 1.32. Too cool for school.
Buy - Ricky Nelson's Greatest Hits
Buy - The Very Best of Bobby Darin (only features "Lazy River")
Visit - RickyNelson.com
Visit - Bobby Darin.com
Monday, December 04, 2006
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