Over the weekend, I was checking out some stuff by The Meters, The Neville Brothers, mostly because I love it, and I stumbled across a song I have not heard in twenty years.
This bit of over-produced fluff has a certain something. That "something" is Ivan, another of the Neville's. What I was happy to find, and am happy to report, is Ivan has left this horrid LA-studio, Don-Henley-Wannabe sound behind.
While I was reading some stuff on-line Monday, I had iTunes playing. Their "Genius" app, part of a marketing gimmick, "recommends" songs similar to whatever you might be listening to. At one point, it recommended a song by a band whose name I knew, but about whom I knew nothing - Opeth. For those like me, I checked them out. A Swedish death metal outfit they have, over the years, morphed in to something melodic and progressive. Lead singer Michael Akerfeld, whom I have heard on other projects, has largely left deaths' grunt far behind. They are still dark, their videos creepy without being over the top, but I might have to set aside my personal refusal to purchase death metal because . . . well, give 'em a listen.
And now, for something completely different . . . I hope.
Undecided - James LaBrie
Love Street - The Doors
When Alpha and Omega Collide - Sieges Even
I Don't Miss You - Van Den Plas
Let My Love Open The Door - Pete Townshend
Oh Babe It Ain't No Lie (Live Acoustic) - The Grateful Dead
The Ballad of Villacamba - Bill Bruford with Ralph Towner and Eddie Gomez
Strange World - Spock's Beard
Overture, Cosi Fan Tutte - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Dazed and Confused - Led Zeppelin
"Something" by George Harrison has been called the best love song ever written during the rock era. I am sympathetic to this view, and the original is, quite simply, just about a textbook example of "perfection" when it comes to arrangement, production values, and keeping the balance between the beauty of the melody and letting the musicians stretch just enough to keep from getting bored. Like every other song the Beatles have done, it has been covered to death, but I discovered a version that has many of the same qualities, exemplifies the style of the musician doing the cover without burying the original beneath layers of alternate readings. Ladies and gentlemen - Isaac Hayes.
