Another Score! Six tracks for the home team!
Lately I’ve been in the mood for superior vocals. Peggy Lee’s “Fever” (Great Ladies of Song: Spotlight on Peggy Lee) is a great tune to satisfy this craving. Probably her best known work, this song is regularly butchered by everyone else, especially men (sorry, Sammy). Lee’s sultry-but-not-slutty voice is the key. Like a good, smooth scotch, the tone is mellow but has a kick. The orchestration on this track is superb. Other renditions tend to ignore the importance of having a bass compliment the percussion. While contemplating this buy the Shirley Bassey/James Bond classics “Goldfinger” and “Diamonds Are Forever” tempted me. They are wonderful examples of Miss Bassey’s power, but buying soundtrack music sometimes makes me feel crass, especially when I don’t have much of or any of the artist’s non-Hollywood work. Perhaps I’ll shake this by the time I get more winning caps.
Instrumentals featuring percussion have a special place in my music palette and “Palumbo” by Watch TV (Lounge - Seriously Good Music (iTunes Exclusive) – EP) has an afro-Caribbean beat that elevates this type of music to a rarified level. I can easily see this track being used in one of those “cool” movies like Ocean’s Eleven or Gone in 60 Seconds that hit the theaters every five years or so. Parts of it remind me of a recent Michelin tire TV advert. There is a growing trend of using “cool” music in adverts of late, and that can only be good.
The next instrumental was featured in a movie – “S.W.A.T. Theme” (Spot 79 from Solutions at the Speed of Business: Live at Jimmy Mak's). It blends a swanky fill about two minutes into the main movement before reverting to the classic melody that was the highlight of the original TV show and a constant presence in the movie. Oddly enough, this was the only rendition of the theme that iTunes had. It’s very good, but I have a direct-to-disc vinyl LP with a better version. Someday I’ll break out the hardware and do some ripping. There are a few other great tracks on this one-time offering from Radio Shack’s heyday as an audiophile’s best friend.
The best of the latest crop of iTunes downloads is Ted Nugent’s “Stranglehold” (The Ultimate Ted Nugent). This classic is near the pinnacle of guitar mastery, as good as anything from Hendrix, Clapton, Beck, and the other legends. The rhythm is addictive, the solos are inspired, and it’s a nearly complete lesson in the panoply of Hard Rock techniques. The bass line keeps the listener anchored while the lead guitar and supplementary music swing the mood up, down, and any which way but loose. It is truly a roller coaster ride of genius, pure and simple, and I feel bad that I hadn’t acquired it before now. And I feel worse that one of my more musically inclined students had never heard of Steady Teddy until today. Well, I introduced the two and I hope it’s a long lasting relationship.
The latest round of cap redemption includes another classic: “Black Betty” by Ram Jam (Mullets Rock! and other titles). The manic energy in this song is a near polar opposite of “Stranglehold,” but it is no less obsessive in using a primal melody to move the listener. Normally this is not my style of Rock, but with the free track cap from Pepsi I couldn’t help but add this reminder of music from my youth. One day I’ll look into the vague memory that I have about the lyrics. They have some type of deep meaning, if I recall correctly, but since I don’t pay much attention to lyrics this is a task that will likely remain on the “To Procrastinate About” list I might get around to writing one day.
Many recent releases remind me of music past, often so much so that I totally misidentify the source or the era. Kingdom Come’s “Get It On” (Radio Waves of the 80's - Rock Hits), though not a new song, very much reminds me early-to-mid 70s Rock. Probably the fact that I can’t picture the band at all or recall anything else they’ve done helps this illusion. The vocals remind me of Robert Plant, to a degree, and the guitar work is very much like Jimmy Paige’s style. It could almost be a track from Led Zeppelin (many of the album reviews at Amazon.com agree). Not a bad trick for a German band. Does this recent trend of gathering 80s music mean I’m heading into a second teenhood?
