CT Blue

This post was partly inspired by Paul Krugman’s use of a youtube video of Al Jolson singing Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime, to which I made reference in a previous post. I decided to put together some labor themed songs.

I find that I must break a number of my self imposed rules. I try not to repeat artists and I’ve never posted videos with just still pictures as accompaniment, but those rules go out the window today. I knew some of the titles I wanted, and went searching for the best versions I could find, within the limits of the time I had to look. For some, there were no good video versions.

First up, the aforementioned Buddy, this time growled by Tom Waits. He had stiff competition, in the form of the aforementioned Jolson, and a host of others. There were two versions of this performance on youtube, both accompanied by still picture slide shows. Neither was completely satisfying to my taste. One featured modern pictures, the other, period pictures. I decided to play it safe and go with the old stuff.

And now for something completely different. What Waits does qualifies as singing, but only barely. Paul Robeson, on the other hand… I must confess that I’ve never really listened to him sing before. He’s been sort of half erased from American memory. When I heard this version of Joe Hill, it blew me away. What a voice the guy had.

Finally, something a bit more upbeat from Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie: Woody Guthrie’s Union Maid.

By they way, I reserve the right to bring Robeson and Waits back for video encores.

This one was suggested by the Krugman post I referenced in my previous post. I know that we’re all supposed to believe that Citizen Kane is the best movie ever made, and it was a great movie, but for my money, the prize should go to the Wizard of Oz. How many times have you watched Citizen Kane? How many times have you watched the Wizard of Oz. I rest my case.

The movie version is not on youtube, locked up perpetually in copyright heaven, no doubt. But here’s July Garland performing it during World War II, and it’s a great performance.

I am in the Ludlow Vermont public library on one of the ten most beautiful days of the year. I must be crazy. I have discovered that, for reasons I can’t fathom, you cannot copy embed code at youtube when using an Ipad. I think I may have worked around it, but if this doesn’t work, accept my apologies because I can’t watch flash on this thing anyway.

I haven’t had much time to look around for good stuff, so I found this instead. It’s so cheezily bizarre that I figured I’d put it up. Some of the commenters at youtube claim it’s the first music video, which only goes to prove that the art form hasn’t progressed much. I can’t tell if this is lip synced, though I suspect it is, since I’m listening on bluetooth headphones, which, for some reason, cause the sound to be slightly out of kilter with the video. I liked this song when I was a kid, but I’m putting it up mostly because I’m running out of time and because I got such a kick out of the costumes and the whole set up. Johnny Horton singing (sort of) the Battle of New Orleans.

Since I probably won’t have internet access again today, this is going up early.

Originally I intended to find a good version of Moonlight in Vermont, but the only actual video I could find (as opposed to music with a picture of the artist) was by Frank Sinatra. I realize he was immensely talented, but I’ve never liked the guy, so I was loathe to post anything with him in it.

Then it occurred to me that Phish is from Vermont. Luckily, my son is here as I wasn’t sure what would be a good selection. He suggested Bouncing Around the Room. This version appears to get cut off a bit too soon near the end, but the audio and video quality are both good.

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that Chad and Jeremy were among my very favorite acts at the start of the British Invasion. I well remember being greatly disappointed when they backed out of headlining a “Big D Big Show” at the Bushnell in 1965 or thereabouts. I bought all their albums. What can I say?

Anyway, it occurred to me that their big hit, a Summer Song, was certainly timely. I searched youtube, and there’s no videos of live performances from the 60s, but, believe it or not, they’ve reunited and have apparently been touring for several years, which just goes to prove that while there may be no second acts for Americans, there must be for Britishers.

Back in the day, their harmonies were tighter, and they could hit the high notes.

I try not to repeat myself on this feature, which is getting harder and harder. I checked, and, surprisingly, I haven’t put up Jefferson Airplane/Starship before, at least not since I moved from .Mac to WordPress lo those many years ago.

A couple of decent clips of some of their best songs, White Rabbit:

And Somebody to Love:

Have I already done Linda Ronstadt? I should keep a list. Well, she deserves an encore if I have, since she’s one of the few rock stars who could also actually, really, sing. Here’s a couple of songs from 1977 performances, Desperado and Blue Bayou:

And one more for good measure, since I’m a big Gershwin fan, and by way of proving that she really can sing: Someone to Watch Over Me.

I really do plan, by the way, to get back to serious political blogging at some point. I mentioned last week that I had been laid up with babesiosis, a particularly nasty tick borne disease. Even after the medications got rid of the worse symptoms, I found myself constantly tired. Turns out that the babesiosis rested on a base layer of Lyme Disease, so I am just starting treatment for that. I am somewhat reliably informed that I should feel fairly normal in another couple of days. Meanwhile, for every cloud, as they say. I have lost about 9 pounds since this all started, and I am allowing myself to fantasize that I can keep that weight off once I’m back to normal. Doubt is creeping in, however, since even now, with only slight improvement, I can feel the ice cream cravings coming back. In any event, I am hoping to regain my energy, and with it my outrage, in the next few days so I can start ranting again.

I actually marked this song down as a possible last week. It didn’t quite fit in with the summertime theme for last Friday, but it came to mind while I was coming up for titles. I decided that it was a go for this week since, at least the title, pretty much sums up my week. I can relate first hand that this is yet another one of those instances where the metaphor gets a bit too extended; I don’t really think I’d care to be involved with someone who actually did give me Fever. Here’s Peggy Lee, with one of her signature songs:

As a bit of a bonus, here’s Rick Derringer and the McCoys singing a version that they made a top 40 hit. Not too badly done, but I’m including this mostly because I just can’t resist giving everyone a chance to see the type of stuff that was standard issue on Hullabaloo-a-Go-Go (yes, there actually was a show), back in the day, which is why the lip syncing gets a pass. I say this with a straight face-this stuff did not seem completely, nay, not even remotely absurd at the time, not even to those of us who weren’t high.

I understand, by the way, that Derringer, a Colchester resident for a while, and a client of mine for an even briefer time, will be touring with the Ringo Starr All Starr Band this summer. He’s the only rock star of any level of magnitude I’ve every met personally, and I can honestly say he was an extremely nice guy.

The earliest version of Fever I stumbled on over at youtube was this one by Little Willie John, who must have come and gone before I got my first transistor radio. I’m not including it because there’s no video, but he is definitely worth checking out. Clearly someone who has been wrongly forgotten. Peggy Lee’s Wikipedia page says that her song was a cover of his.

It’s hot out there. Watch them all, or sample.

Summertime, first Janis, then Ella.

You need to be a certain age to remember this one: Mungo Jerry, In the Summertime.

No live versions from the Lovin’ Spoonful, but Joe Cocker does a great job on Summer in the City.

And finally, it really is Too Darn Hot, though I really think this fellow would burn fewer calories pitching the woo than he does in this clip. This is the 2002 UK cast of Kiss Me Kate.

UPDATE: I forgot this:

This goes up early, since we have company coming.

This being the Fourth of July Weekend, it’s only appropriate that we feature our National Anthem, in this case memorably performed by Marvin Gaye:

Now, if you think Marvin drew that out a bit, he can’t hold a candle to the late Bleeding Gums Murphy, who performed the song on the Simpsons:

I understand that Bleeding Gums actually had an edge on Marvin in terms of drawing out the song, since he had access to the missing verses discussed here: