Imposter's Secret Santa Mix 2005

Theme or no - this one moves to the head of the pack with the inclusion of "Double Barrel"
:-)

Btw, I don't know if anybody is keeping track of such things, but the mixes I received this year are Johnny Waco's Psychedelic Psampler, the "I Used To Hate Country Music" mix, and the "look second" disc which starts out with the Bonzos (which I'm currently playing).

I just got your mix but haven't had a chance to listen to it yet (I'd had my mail held while I was out of town and now am going through mail overload). I just wanted to mention how happy I was that someone else had heard Francine Reed :)

I tried to blog this in real time on my second listen. I admit that I went back and cleaned up the punctuation and the language. Only occasionally did I try to make myself appear smarter... or at least less dumb. Thank you for this.
Giles Smith reads from his book Lost In Music: Martin Newell
When it was all over I would have given almost anything for the next song to be something by Scritti Politti. I haven't thought of them since my sister was introducing my to the pleasures of Billy Bragg. I almost laughed out loud at Newell's perspective on over-produced music. As someone who has the remixes of Tom Jones' "If I Only Knew..." I am fascinated and repulsed by Trevor Horn.

"Girl On A Swing" - Cleaners From Venus
It took me several listens before I looked at the track listing while "Girl on a Swing" played and I wondered why I had never heard anything by Cleaners from Venus... and why I was pretty sure that I'd heard that name somewhere before.

It turns out that I had heard the name almost exactly 4:12 earlier.
[Do you know that when you google '"girl on a swing" cleaners' this page comes up at #10?]
[Heavens to Betsy! I just heard that Tom Jones is going to be knighted by the Queen... I wonder if he'll return her panties?]
[I'm definitely going to heck in a handbasket.]

"The Imposter" - Elvis Costello
I remember seeing Elvis Costello on the pre-Cambrian SNL where he stopped the band only a couple of lines into some song and then crashed into "Radio Radio." That was electrifying.

I once had a momentary relationship with someone who told me that they'd leave me in a heartbeat for someone who thought 'Elvis Costello' when you said "Elvis" and 'Dylan Thomas' when you said "Dylan." I tried to point out that this person would seem to have huge gaps in their knowledge of contemporary culture and had they heard the Attractions' version of "A Child's Christmas in Wales"? Who knew that one day I would look for a partner who thinks 'Gary Powers' when I say "U2" and 'the World Bank' when I say "Bono"... strange how things work out.

I wish this song wasn't so short which is not how I usually feel about Elvis Costello numbers.

"Change The Locks" - Lucinda Williams (live)
The way that Lucinda grinds out "the tracks underneath the traaain" right before the guitar solo is just so unbelievably awesome. I get frustrated when people discount the vocal abilities of "rough" singers. In many ways rougher is tougher. I love the way the drums are miked/mixed. Right hand in the right ear, left hand in the left... for a live recording you couldn't ask for better. Now I'm wishing that I had sent in the the mix with John Prine's "New Train" on it.

"Just Say So" - Bettye LaVette
I must say that this track was nothing like what I was expecting. And then I realized that this wasn't "Bettie Serveert" but "Bettye LaVette." Score one for guniadnosed lysdexia. This song made me mournful and melancholy, which was its intent, but on principle I just can't condone that.

"Castanets" - Alejandro Escovedo
What a great opening riff. I almost bought the health insurance benefit album at a used store until I decided that I didn't want to contribute to someone who was trying to recoup their donation. Nice doubling of the guitar part in the right channel. I love a metaphorical booty song. Very crispy.

"Get It While You Can" - Howard Tate
This is the kind of mournful and melancholy that I can condone. Especially in the context of Tate's life story. I've heard a radio documentary about his life/comeback. From top o' the charts to homeless in Phillie... only to be reunited with his producer some three decades later. Tate sounded so remarkably free of bitterness that he made me embarassed about my own attitude. For example: I am upset that I wish that I had the rights to Get It While You Can: The Howard Tate Story because it's gonna make a heckuva movie.

What a perfect pop song.

"Double Barrel" - Dave & Ansell Collins
The problem I have with most reggae/dub is that the beat/riff usually bores me after half a minute unless there are vocals over the top. But the vocals mostly annoy me instantaneously. I could use false self-deprication and say that it is a personal failing but I believe that it's everyone else's fault.
[Note to self: Hook up turntable. Listen to my Joe Cocker Sheffield Steel album]

"Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters" - Elton John
Terrific! I thought. Now I don't have to hunt down this song to compare it to the Buckshot LeFonque cover version. (I love alternate and cover versions.) And now that I'm listening to it I'm realizing that I know this song. I'm also realizing that I didn't like the Buckshot LeFonque version. And I'm realizing that I'm an idiot. But I sorta like this song and I'm glad that the hunt is over.

"Tomorrow Night" - Shoes
Sounds like the Byrds to me... and the Zombies. When did (do?) Shoes play? This is either a fantastic remaster or a highly influenced band. Nice. The vocalist doesn't sound strident enough to be a 60s band.

"Waxie's Dargle" - The Pogues
Stop shouting at me. So this is what the Pogues sound like. I could play bass drum for this band. Is that guy shouting at the lead singer for shouting at me? It's punkeltic! Well that was fun.

Hippies, Beatniks And Power Easements/"Jesus On The Mainline" - Dry Branch Fire Squad
I think that I've seen Dave Van Ronk do "Jesus on the Mainline." I thought it was about trains. That guy has a great drawl. Just when I started to get tired of the stage chatter it ended. That's pretty fast mandolin. I once saw a mandolin player with Bela Fleck (probably Sam Bush but I can't remember.) Wait a minute! The song's over? That's not fair. So the guy who might be Sam Bush played so fast that it looked like he was dribbling the mandolin like a basketball between his hands. You shoulda been there. Then I saw Ricky Skaggs and his hands/mandolin were a Tasmanian devil-like swirling tornado.
[Note to self: Emmylou Harris has had some of the most fantastic musicians in her band.]

"Too Far Gone" - Emmylou Harris
[Allow me to to offer my congratulations... to myself. I wrote this before looking up the song. It isn't just early Emmylou Harris, it's earliest Emmylou Harris.]
How early is this in her career? She's certainly singing in her upper register. I think she sings even better today now that her voice has a little tarnish on it. She's gonna die with her boots on. I wish I had time to tell the "Walks Right In" Emmylou Harris ticket scalping story I have. Isn't she great?
[Note to self: Must listen to Mirror Ball and that boxed set of hers that I never get to.]

"All Used Up" - Sloan
Shoot! my damn cd player is skipping again. Wait, it's supposed to be that way. I don't like that fake cut-in silence. Although the turn-taking rentry of the instruments is neat.

"I'll Go Down Swingin'" - The Knitters
All right! Female lead. So that's 1,2,3,4, five woman artists in the mix

"Countrier Than Thou" - Robbie Fulks
I wasn't liking this 'cause I thought it was mocking hicks. "Goobers" are peanuts and nobody "spins" Haggard. But then it went after President Bush and I realized that he was mocking faux hicks. Good on ya, mate (but leave the Boston Jews alone.)

"Armagideon Time" - Willie Williams
With the echo shoved to the right and that drum all the way to the right this song had no chance. Much as love the "stand up" and fight, praise Jah template I just couldn't get beyond the mixing. Willie Williams (who I'm assuming is the vocalist here) is so laid back that I'm suspecting codeine. I have a bad attitude.
[Note to self: Emmylou Harris' album is called "Wrecking Ball" not "Mirror Ball." I have one word to say in my defense: neilyoung.]

"Join The Club" - The Waco Brothers
I wish the lead and the rhythm guitar weren't mixed so evenly. This was okay but I didn't feel like joining the club. It might be my attitude but the refrain just wasn't peppy. I did like the two tasty guitars (plus pedal steel?)

"Wild Women Don't Get The Blues" - Francine Reed
Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout! Now I'm looking like a genius for singing the praises of rough singers. She can sure rev that motor. Who is that band? I wish that organ was miked/mixed louder. That sounds like a Lenny Pickett sax solo but the horns sound too thick to be Tower of Power. I can easily forgive the crowd pandering. As a rule, unless I'm in the crowd, I dislike the "Nobody knows how to rock like *current location*!" I love musical cues like the horns' response to "Francine never tells a lie." I think it shows a respect for showmanship and, by extension, audiences. This is the song that I've replayed just to hear it again (and once more again.) I just heard her encouraging/motivating the band. Fantastic.

"Los Chucos Suaves" - Ry Cooder w/ Lalo Guerrero
Now this is perfectly produced, miked and mixed... if it was mixed at all. That's what great producing will do for you. I remember Ry Cooder when he was just the excellent guitarist who did the soundtrack for that Karate Kid of the Blues movie whose name I can't remember but Ralph Macchio was in it. I hate my brain. But I love the skip-hop in this track and the stacatto vocals (I should know what that style is called)... and the maracas. Always the maracas.

"Requiem Por Un Con" - Serge Gainsbourg
Well this was quite unexpected. When songs in other languages go by this slowly I'm always frustrated by trying to use my meager knowledge to translate. Okay, something "especially for you" something something. I can't get past the weirdness after the country-delta-Carribean theme.
[Looking back I realize that I should've included working-class Brits as a theme but that's too long to write and it kinda weakens my "theme" contention. I still can't get over those background singers.]

"Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin" - Peter Sellers
My father luuvs The Goon Show. It's probably the cause and result of a misspent youth. Where would Monty Python be without them? Nowhere, that's where. Thanks for filling the disc up to the brim
[Note to self: I sold my copy of Sheffield Steel several years ago. ]

Thanks for it all.