The Full Monty...ah...Whoops, No, I Mean The Full Donnie...

The problem with starting, like, half a dozen or so loose series of themed albums is that it's easy to forget them and then, only a couple of months later say, 'oh, I wanted to post a follow-up to that'. When I posted my rejiggered version of the Dick Tracy soundtrack back in *checks archives* July I promised a series of reworked (and thus hopefully)improved soundtracks, then promptly forgot about posting a second album for a cool six months. But here it is, and it is a doozy, folks. A great score and some, uh, interesting pop music cobined to give you the whole Donnie Darko experience. 

Speaking of interesting. That is probably the word that comes easily to mind when thinking about Richard Kelly's debut film. Weird, fascinating, overwrought, (over)ambitious - lots of other adjectives come to mind. Truth is, though, when that movie came out in 2001, there was nothing like it. People will of course remember the dark, winding, weird and finally relatively impenetrale story of doomed teen Donnie Darko's adventures including a pedophile self-help guru, a scary-ass 6-foot+ rabbit (well, a scary-ass six foot+ dude in a rabbit suit), wanton destruction and arson, a plane crash, time travel and, uh, the end of the world. Donnie Darko came out as part of a series of mindfuck films around the millenium, none of course bigger or mindfuck-ier than Fight Club. Where is my mind? 

Now, it's been a good long while since I last saw Donnie Darko - at least twenty years ago. And I wonder whether it'll hold up, as so many of his mindfuck movie brethren fail to, once you know their story secrets. But I suspect it might, even if the crazy-ass story becomes less important than the look and feel of the film. Donnie Darko had a number of intriguing surface features: the moody cinematography courtesy of veteran Steven Poster, the acting by a young Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role, joined by produceer Drew Barrymore and Patrick Swayze playing against type. And it has a distinctive setting - the fall of 1988; with Michael Dukakis' disastrous bid to beat Bush the Elder being the background for the film's crazier adventures. And sometimes these surface features make all the difference. That's why a film like The Sixth Sense still holds up even if you know the twist - it's just so well designed and shot - back when Shyamalan wasn't synonymous with charlatan. Or why The Usual Suspects still works, even if you know who the hell Keyser Soze is - the fun-as-hell actors and surehanded direction make the film worh a revisit either way. 

But maybe the most stunning was the use of music: Michael Andrews' beautiful, or suspenseful (mostly) piano miniatures alternating with a number of 80s pop and alternative rock? I remember how the film immediately hooked me when Echo And The Bunnymen's "The Killing Moon" played over the opening of Donnie riding his bike. Both the score and the soundtrack album got released, but they missed out on what made the music of the movie special: It was the mix of Andrews' score intermingled with these 80s tunes. So this OBG-reworked soundtrack of Donnie Darko tries to do right by this intoxicating mix of the classical and the classics from yesteryear by mixing them up in the chronological order in which they appeared in the film (with one major excdption). As such, you get a sort of mind's eye version of the film, spurred on by the music, with most of it being simply fabulous. Maybe not, you know, Duran Duran's "Notorious", but it was part of Donnie Darko and is largely compensated for by the presence of The Church, Joy Division and 'Til Tuesday.

So, here you get the music the way it was in the movie, and the way it was supposed to be heard: Andrews' sometimes unsettling, sometimes sweepingly beautiful score rubbing shoulders with the 80s tunes that worked so well and felt so fresh in the early 2000s. Now, almost a quarter century later, too many films have gone to that well too many times, but back then Donnie Darko was one of the first - and best - to do it.  ow, about that big exception: The soundtrack of Donnie Darko actually spawned a hit single - the slowed down, elegiac version of Tears For Fears' "Mad World" as sung by Gary Jules. I seem to remember that a couple of weeks ago someone commenting over at Jokonky's called that version the biggest travesty or some such thing, but I couldn't disagree more. In Tears For Fears almost cheerful synth version the downbeat lyrics bounced off the beat in a rather incongruous way. In Michael Andrews' and Gary Jules' version the song sounds like its sentiments. Whether that makes it more or less attractive, I'll leave up to you. Not wanting to wait until the very end to listen to the song, I frontloaded it, then put the alternative version at its natural place towards the very end.

So, enjoy this improbable but intoxicating mix - as improbable and intoxicating as the film itself. One of these days I have to get back to revisit Donnie Darko, but in the meantime we can all revisit its splendid soundscapes...

PS. The Michel Gondry-directed video to "Mad World" is definitely worth a rewatch if you haven't seen it in 24 years...

This Just In: All Pearls, No Swine - Megapack 3 *updated link*

 

Well, well, well...now that we are in the Thirties of One Buck Records' flagship series, and recently a new visitor to these realms asked for a reup of the previous two, here's All Pearls, No Swine Megapack 3, including Volumes 21-30, in case anybody has missed these and wants to check these out. Which means that now, all thirty volumes of APNS are online and available. 

I thought of this because I forgot to set a link to the first adventures of Waylon & Willie in the review to the sequel, which is now set as well. So there. New music coming up soon, as usual. 

Edit: When posting this I was simultaneously setting the link for Waylon & Willie mentioned, and there was a snafu when copying & pasting links, as a visitor pointed out. This error has now been corrected and you will now find the correct link leading to APNS 21-30.

The Outlaws Ride Again...And This Time They Brought Some Friends...

Sequel time! My first compilation of Waylon & Willie, done years ago for my own personal listening pleasure, was an unexpected success, with a bunch of you appreciating some old school Outlaw country, vinyl crackles and all be damned. No such thing here for round two with our favorite outlaws, everything here has been digitally sourced. And, to make sure the Outlaw party keeps rockin', we have invited some ol' friends along for the ride. That includes original outlaws Tompall Glaser and of course Waylon's wife Jessi Coulter (who had a cameo appearance on The Outlaws Ride!). Both were originally featured on the 1976 Wanted: The Outlaws album, but I didn't carry their songs over to keep it strictly W & W on that first volume. Both get their due here, showing up with solo showcases. 

Another friend that can very loosely be lumped in with the Outlaws is Merle Haggard, whose take on a cowboy ballad with Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho and Lefty" got him and Willie a charttopper in 1982. But the real joker in the pack is an outlaws who wasn't always, or even most of the time, country: why, it's Uncle Neil himself! Actually, the idea for this sequel sprang, surprisingly, not from listening to the W's, but from me immersing myself in some mid-80s Neil while working on the automated Trans and its live companion. While listening to the cheapo Geffen years compilation Mystery Train I stumbled onto "Bound For Glory", Neil's duet with Waylon Jennings from Old Ways, and I was struck by how much it sounds like a classic Outlaws duet from the 70s, except with Neil's voice in place of Willie's. Which in turn brought me to check into the possibility of letting those outlaws ride again. 

And ride again they do. In addition to the aforementioned tracks and artists, I collected the most outlaw-ish tracks from Waylon & Willie, starting with "Write Your Own Songs", Willie's skewering of conservative-minded record execs, sung as a duet with Waylon. Two other times do the W's sing together, including on Steve Earle's outlaw anthem "Nowhere Road". Obviously we can't go with some trademark Waylon outlaw anthems: "Ladies Love Outlaws", "Slow Movin' Outlaws", "I'm a Ramblin' Man", his version of a different type of outlaw classic, "Midnight Rider". and his theme song for The Dukes Of Hazzard which is of course the first Waylon Jennings I ever heard. My favorite just might be "Too Dumb For New York City" with the protagonist's realization that he likes the midwest best cause he is "too dumb for New York City and too ugly for L.A.".

Ol' Willie recalls the first volume with the original Waylon-less version of "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and a bluegrass take on "Good Hearteed Woman" that Willie rcorded at the sprightly age of 90, while otherwise showing his gift for balladry with songs like "So You Think You're A Cowboy" or "Hands Of Time". 

The Outlaws Ride Again! is, I'd say, as good a listen as The Outlaws Ride!, even if (or because?) it's taken from a much wider selection of albums. Tons of great Outlaw Country, just like you'n'me'n'everyone else  likes. So, let those outlaws ride once more, always remembering the old proverb. Where there's a Will(ie), there's a Way(lon). 

Let the sunshine...let the sunshine...shine over some Alabama ridges and creeks...again...

Okay, okay, if you have been here for a long time, you realize that this album is a bit of a 'the emperor's new clothes' proposition, essentially a repackaging of an album I posted back in February 2024. But I think quite a number of you weren't there for it, and that album passed a lot of folks by, and it really shouldn't. A couple of days ago the album came on in the car, and I once again marveled at how splendid this album is. You can read up more about it in its original write-up, but I'll just quickly quote myself, because I still like what I wrote back then. Here's OBG from about 21 months ago. 

Songs like "Montgomery Town", "Ridge Song" and "Madison" sound like old friends, and once you've heard them you'll never want to let them leave. Well, I don't. Not to mention that in between these and Steve Young's "Seven Bridges Road", Madison County starts to sound like the most beautiful place on earth. Law at times has a perfectly 70s cosmic cowboy thing going, getting metaphysical on tracks like "Tomorrow's Always Today" or "Shine Sunshine". Or, you know, maybe good ol' George was just a heavy stoner, after all he did name his label Bongwater Records. 

He is backed on the album by jazz-prog group Backwater, which includes producer Tom Nist. This might also explain the rich instrumentation, including flugelhorn, clavinet and electric organ. That is probably also one of the secrets to the beauty of this album: The warmth and richness of its sound, certainly unusual for a self-released, private press record. 

George Law really does sound like the best parts of your favorite 70s music, or at least, well, mine. "Martha's Song" sounds like Jackson Browne wrote and sings it, while on beautiful album closer "Shine Sunshine" he sounds a little like Jimmy Spheeris. Even the least memorable track on this album (my vote: "Clouded Mind") is never less than beautifully played and sung. But really, there are no losers here. All killer, no filler, as they like to say, and all that in half an hour. Short and sweet.

Listen to this, it'll be the best half hour you can spend on music, or almost. 

And it still is. And yet, there was one area of improvement. I already clowned on Law and his goofy-ass mug that adorns the cover in the original write-up, but this album which -  as said - sounds amazing for a private release needs some better cover art. Something which represents the sound and feel of the album within. After having spent a long time perusing pictures of Yellow Leaf Creek, I finally opted for a picture of some Alabama sunshine over a mountain ridge that recalls both "Ridge Song" and the fabulous "Shine Sunshine", which is the newly minted title song. 

If you already have this, I hope you love it already and just wonder whether you should upgrade the cover art. and if you don't have it, then get this immediately. It's a truly wonderful little record, and during these dark, and at least in these parts, rainy winter days will bring a bit of sunshine your way... 

Tipton, Missouri's favorite son is covered once more...

It's been a good while that One Buck Records has gone without a sighting of anything Gene Clark-related and that state of affairs has been going on long enough, you hear me young man middle-aged dude? Oh, sorry, the voices in my head have spilled on the page again. Yes, long time no Geno, or friends and fans of Geno as it were. We've Got You Covered goes on, and we're up to Volume Four of our Gene Clark part of the series. And honestly, that is a bit of a surprise in itself, because for a man with such an outstandingly strong songbook, Clark doesn't have many high-profile covers attached to his name. This gets even worse once we take off Byrds material, which is naturally what most of the bigger names flocked to (we see you, Tom Petty). But even if we take musicians of any kind, level of fame or walk of life, there just isn't much there, and wht there is, will inevitably end up here, in this series, on this blog. 

Part of this is of course my own blind spot concerning one of my favorite artists. Clark is so well-represented on this blog, that I sometimes forget how small of a cultural imprint the man really left. Even the Genaissance of the early 2010s didn't make him into a real household name. Sure, the No Other Band tour and the No Other album re-issue on 4AD brought on some people, but the cult stays small. 

Which of course means that I am really digging, and digging hard, to find material for this series. The good news is, that for this fourth volume, I have found another batch of top material, with the usual mix of known and little-to-unknown performers. The big names on this volume are probably Richard Thompson (who already featured on Vol. 3 with Fairport Convention), the Flamin' Groovies with their take on "She Don't Care About Time " - also the kick-ass opener here - and Pure Prairie League, whose fine take on "She Darked The Sun" somehow never made an album in the early 70s. Oh, and there's Paul Weller, as guest singer with Death In Vegas, covering "So You Say You Lost Your Baby", a song I found years ago when fishing Death In Vegas' album out of a bargain bin, for, indeed a buck, I believe. 

Mid-tier acts which again are really known in One Buck Land but not everwhere else include the late, great Neal Casal with "With Tomorrow" from his cover record Return In Kind, and of course loyal-way-beyond-the-grave comrade Carla Olson, who is supported on her cover of "After The Storm" by *checks notes* 80's Brat Pack actress Mare Winningham?! O.k., why not. Brother Rick also shows up again, with a lovely rendering of the heartbreaking "Lonely Saturday", written after Clark broke up with his common-law wife Carlie. 

Of the 'never heard of 'em'-tier of artists, I'm happy to hear Chris Deschner cover "Rain Song" from Clark's last studio album Fyrebyrd, as that's a song that, like the rest of that album, almost never gets attention despite its obvious qualities. Australia's The Bitter End cover "The Virgn", Anna Mitchell has a wonderful, recorded line in concert take on "Polly Come Home", Byrds contemporaries Suburban 9 To 5 bring lots of garage rock energy to "Elevator Operator", in no small part due to future REO Speedwagon axeman Gary Richrth on guitar, and U.S. Indie group Mazarin do a fine job with the also very rarely covered "Only Colombe". 

As you can see, lots of artists and songs to discover or re-discover, and the One Buck Guy wouldn't want it any other way...

Go to your respective rooms, you rabblerousing Elton John covers!!!

So, this is how it goes sometimes. In the thread for last weekend's Tina Turner post reader Thames brought up Two Rooms, the tribute record to the songwriting team of Elton John and Bernie Taupin, via Tina Turner's excellent cover of "The Bitch Is Back". Which in turn led to us discussing Two Rooms as one of the best various artists tribute albums, with nothing to throw or skip. I realized also that it had probably been years that I last listened to it. 

I discussed Tina's AOR years a bit last weekend, revealing my childhood-memory-related knack for AOR radio. Well, am I covered with Two Rooms or what? Bryan Adams is missing, but otherwise all the usual suspects I would hear on the radio are here: Tina, Phil, Rod, Joe Cocker, Sting, et al. Not a hipster-approved assembly of musicians, for sure, but the star power here is undeniable. Throw in The Who for one of their one-off reunions, the Beach Boys still riding high on the memory of "Kokomo", Kate Bush, plus three recent female sensations. Shinead O'Connor had just broken through the year before with "Nothing Compares To You 2 U", Wilson Phillips had become a success out of nowhere with "Hold On" and "Release Me" both topping the charts, and Oleta Adams had toiled away in semi-obscurity until Tears For Fears found her in a Kansas City nightclub and featured her on 1989's The Seeds Of Love, including her amazing co-lead vocals on top hit "Woman In Chains". 

It's a strictly personal thing, but there are a couple of numbers here that I prefer to John's originals. O'Connor's deeply emotional take on "Sacrifice" completely dusts John's slightly too MOR version. Something about Elton's falsetto 'na-na-na-na's' in "Crocodile Rock" has always deeply grated me to the point where I would skip the song or change the station when it came on, but The Beach Boys cut a great version of it.  Even as extremely diminished as this version of the Boys was, they could still record quality cuts from time to time, and this one, with its retro rock'n'roll feel and doo-wop vocals stylings was an open lay-up that the Boys didn't miss. Thames and I agree on Tina's "The Bitch Is Back" (which, say, Allmusic singled out for criticism) being great and its lyrical content arguably more fitting for Tina's persona, and The Who's version of "Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting" has only grown in my estimation, as - like the Beach Boys cut - it showed their unmistakeable band sound while also paying honest tribute to the original. 

It might not best the original, but Kate Bush's version of "Rocket Man" is extremely interesting (and was voted 'best cover of all time' by the readers of The Observer). Bush, ever musically adventurous, marries moody synths to a light reggae rhythm, and then later in the song the Celtic instrumentation she started to explore in the late 80s comes in. This version of the song sounds like nothing else. Every song got a little annotation by the artists in the booklet, mostly little love letters that explained their love for Elton or the song in question, and how they first heard it etc. Here's Shinead O'Connor's text in its entirety: "I can't believe no one did 'Candle In The Wind'." Truly, the (in)famous no bullshit/speak your mind attitude of Ms. O'Connor on full display. Back then I didn't get it and found that comment weird, now I find it absolutely brillant. 

As said before, everything on here is good to very good, and nothing is eminently skippable. And yet, and yet, listening to the album in its original configuration your hand might still linger towards the skip-button, because Two Rooms is an unwieldy album. Before ripping it to Mp3s this week I hadn't realized that the album is 79 minutes long, taking full advantage of CD-capacity, while also testing the listening capacity of its audience. If you have been here long enough and read along a bit, you know that I harp on a lot about flow and sequencing and perfect length for comps. Well, guess what, folks, I'll take that ol' hobbyhorse for another tour 'round the stables today. So, I think that any listeners gets kind of tired and worn out by around the 70 minute mark, and its true that with the original Two Rooms, despite George Michael's closing number "Tonight" being one of the highlights here, you were rightly slipping in attention by that point. 

And of course, as I'm prone to, I had some problems with the sequencing. I found Eric Clapton's Dr. John-styled take on "Border Song" to not be a terribly great choice for an opener, Sting's austere "Border Song" came too early in the program etc. etc. You know, the usual OBG gripes.  Oh, and that Sinead O'Connor aside about no one doing "Candle In The Wind"? Well, someone did! Kate Bush cut her version of that song as the b-side to, or technically, a double a-side with "Rocket Man". So it made sense to include that here, even if it is less adventurous than her take on "Rocket Man". What also made sense to include, because it came out in parallel to this compilation, was George Michael's live version of "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me", featuring Elton John himself. The reaction of Wembley Stadium to John appearing as a surprise guest on that duet, introduced by George with the now legendary 'Ladies And Gentlemen, Mr. Elton John' is amazing, a gargantuan crowd pop for John, whose European-wide release of The Very Best Of the year before had brought him back into the spotlight. 

Bringing out his version of "Sun" - recorded as his version of "Tonight" on the album during his Cover To Cover tour - was a savvy move by George. Two Rooms colleague Oleta Adams' gospel-take on the very same song was chosen as the album's lead single and had been out for two months, reminding people of the greatness of the song, then Michael's version climbed to number one on both sides of the Atlantic. And, honestly, it's probably the best version of this song, hands down.  

So, the solution to the above-mentioned issues, with an already long running time now seeing two extra tracks included? Why, treat the whole thng like a vinyl rather than a CD affair. If sequenced into a double vinyl album configuration with a running time of 45 minutes per album/disc, the whole thing becomes a whole lot more digestable. The two albums/discs - or, in the parlance of the comp - two rooms - were sequenced according to my personal taste, obviously, but also for a good flow between slower and quicker numbers. Both have a great rock'n'roll number as openers ("Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting)" and "Crocodile Rock"), a moody female-led track right after ("Rocket Man" and "Sacrifice") and so on, both ending with a big George Michael live number. I think this improves the flow considerably, and - if taken in two hearings rather then the extremely long original one - go down better. 

Two Rooms will appeal to you, if you have a heart for veteran rockers'n'poppers and the AOR sound of the late-80s and early-90s, as your host does. If nothing else, these songs will remind you what a writing team John& Taupin could be, as they were supposed to. I'd say that's already more than enough. So leave your hipster cred by the door and dive in... 

Feel The Goo Once More! Get Those Dolls Lined Up! For GOOd Old Days Are Here Again!

Having recently mentioned the Goos over at Jokonky's (and reupped the fabulous original GOOd Old Days, that you should get if you don't have it yet), I remembered that I had never posted the second volume of my sojourn through the Goo Goo Dolls' discography. Time to rectify that. GOOd Old Days Are Here Again is, in many ways, a real 'Greatest Hits Vol. 2', as record companies would throw it out in the olden days. Since all the real big hits were already on Volume 1, Vol. 2 has deep cuts and minor hits, together with the occasional big hit that was already on the first volume, in a live or demo version. So, you get the same thing here, 

This compilation is also a tale in two parts. The (d)evolution of the Goos is clearly on display here. From their grunting punk rock beginnings towards the corporate-disguised-as-alternative rock of the mid- and late-90s to the increasingly AOR/adult contemporary music of the 2000s all the way to now. So, if you prefer the Goos as a kick-ass rock band, you can probably cut off this comp after the first twelve songs or so, if your aversion to, uh, slighly gooey adult contemporary ballads is high, you can probably listen all the way through and find the occasional highlight in the back half of the comp. 

What you will get here, though, with the big hits out of the way which were pretty much all Johnny Rzeznick's, is a bit more of Robbie Takaj. As the original lead vocalist for the first two albums, Takaj was always the lovable caveman sidekick to pretty boy Johnny, with an appropriately grunting and primitive take on things. Where Rzeznick's songs would become slicker and hookier and tailored to mainstream radio, Takaj pretty much stuck with a simple 'pedal to the medal' approach to rock, which nicely contrasted with Rzeznick's style on the two or three numbers he would get on each album. Since the, uh, songwriting of their self-titled debut is, uh, rather undistinguished - to go with the muffled, rudimentary sound of this $750 production - I decided to include their cover of Blue Öyster Cult's "Don't Fear The Reaper"; "James Dean" from follow-up Jed is Rzeznick's first lead vocal and the first acoustic song the Goos ever did - the road to stardom starts here, even if the song itself isn't a precursor, but rather a prolonged set up for a so-so joke. 

And from 1990's Hold Me Up on, it was essentially Rzeznick's show, with "Just The Way You Are" announcing the more professional and slicker sound that would carry the band through the 90s and to millions of record sales. Lots of crunchy guitars and nice hooks here. The 'sneak in some hits' tactic yields acoustic versions of breakthrough hit "Name" and "Slide". There are also some genuine hits I didn't include on GOOd Old Days: "Broadway" (in a live version I prefer to the studio cut) and "Black Balloon", Takaj checks back in with "Amigone" from Dizzy Up The Girl, showing how much slicker even his songs were, and from then, well, we enter the AOR portion of the Goos. 2010's "The Sweetest Lie" brings up some crunchy guitars for a last time, while 2019's "Miracle Pill" from the same album is pure pop, but it's really well-made pop. 

So, ready for round two with the Goos for a kick-ass start in your weekend? Goo for it...