Joy Oladokun — The Thrill Is Gone (B.B. King cover)
Tied to America’s 250th birthday, Salt Lick Sessions’ “Songs of U.S.” series features musicians covering “songs that have shaped the country’s cultural identity while exploring what belongs in the American songbook today.” Nashville singer-songwriter Joy Oladokun selected Roy Hawkins and Rick Darnell’s “The Thrill Is Gone,” best known for the B.B. King version. She says the song “feels really powerful without being so poetic that people could be left behind.” Unlike many of the King-inspired blues-rock covers that feature copious guitar solos, she strips it back to a beautiful folky ballad. She also covered “Ain’t No Sunshine.”Continue reading »
At least to my memory, “Every Morning,” Sugar Ray‘s second Top 3 single (and US Alt #1) feels like one of those halo effect songs, the single equivalent of Chris Molanphy’s AC/DC rule, where the next song after the big hit becomes the bigger hit. “Fly” reached slightly higher on the charts while “Every Morning” achieved Gold status. But this isn’t borne out by streams: “Every Morning” is significantly more popular on streaming than “Fly” even if “Fly” feels, to me, like it was the bigger song and remains more famous.
Interpolating Malo’s “Suavecito,” “Every Morning” is even a bigger departure from Sugar Ray’s original funk rock/nu metal sound than “Fly” was. Like “Fly,” it incorporates scratching and other hip-hop elements. Its lead acoustic guitar part is particularly distinct, sounding like guitarist Rodney Sheppard got lost somewhere partway through it.
Australian singer-songwriter Julia Jacklin just treats it like a regular song, dropping much of what makes it distinctly ’90s. She and her band play it super conventionally. She sings the lyrics of the verse instead of the half-shouting in the original. And though the guitarist plays the riff, it’s on an electric guitar and lacks some of the original effect. There’s some chorus or similar effect on the backing vocals during the chorus to give them some of the shine from Sugar Ray’s version but they still don’t have that gloss.
There is no scratching, of course. And the Greek chorus spoken world backing vocal refrain is instead moved to the bridge where it is sung instead, almost reminiscent of the lullaby the lyrics were likely inspired by.
All in all, the changes are pretty minor, but the song feels totally different in Jacklin’s hands, removed from all the production choices that scream 1990s. Have a listen:
Some covers are more equal than others. Good, Better, Best looks at three covers and decides who takes home the gold, the silver, and the bronze.
You may know the Bay Area band Steve Miller Band for a variety of songs, from “Fly Like an Eagle” to “Take the Money and Run.” You may even call members “space cowboy” or “Maurice.” If you have dug into more trivia you may know that Paul McCartney even contributed to a song on their second album. But do you happen to have opinions about the title track from their twelfth album?
Not everyone is a big “Abracadabra” fan, but the song was a big hit for the Steve Miller Band, especially after the lull following the Book Of Dreams album (and yes, this is way past “The Joker”). When MTV was just getting started, this music video really shook things up too. Reportedly the woman featured prominently in it was the first “video vixen,” and this song was the first to use the “body pan” shot. So thanks for bringing objectification to MTV, I guess? Almost forty years later we see how others have interpreted the song.
Newspaper personal ads are like relics of a lost age. Long before dating apps allowed people seeking companionship to post photos of their faces and/or various body parts online, anyone looking to meet someone outside their circle had to go through the lengthy process of submitting a written personal ad. That included filling out a form with a strict character limit, sending it into the paper with a check or money order, waiting for it to be published in print and then waiting even longer for any type of response.
The whole ordeal was memorialized by singer Rupert Holmes in his 1979 hit “Escape (The Piña Colada Song).” Holmes tells the story of an otherwise bored couple who accidentally reconcile after discovering through the personals that they have a mutual affection for sweetened alcoholic beverages, damp clothing and late-night romps in the sand. I guess they did not communicate well in person. The track holds the distinction of being the last number one song of the ‘70s, reaching the top spot on December 22, 1979. The silky-smooth, blue-eyed soul grooves have helped it endure as a classic of the genre now known as Yacht Rock.Continue reading »
They Say It’s Your Birthday celebrates an artist’s special day with other people singing his or her songs. Let others do the work for a while. Happy birthday!
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste De La Salle Eno turns 64 today. Here are some reasons we will still need him and feed him: 1) He co-founded Roxy Music and proved you could be flashier and suaver than Bryan Ferry; 2)He invented ambient music; 3) He produced the best albums by U2, Devo, and Talking Heads, not to mention his involvement with David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy; 4) His Oblique Strategies cards are to writer’s block what the Salk vaccine was to polio; 5) The noise Windows 95 makes when it opens? He wrote that; 6) He shows absolutely zero signs of stopping.Continue reading »
