Count 'em. It's one...two...three...four..Roscoes!

Generally speaking, I'm not a huge fan of remixes. Often, they don't add much to the original. Or, conversely, they change so much, that the original is hardly recognizable anymore. However, sometimes, a remix can reveal a cool side of a song that you didn't see before. Such is the case with today's very short One Buck Record (more of a One Buck EP, actually). I stumbled upon these a little like I stumbled upon Midlake itself and their fantastic The Trials Of Van Occupanther., recently resequenced for a better listening experience.  As said on the write-up to taht post, the album was almost a total blind buy, other than a little blurb from a music store employee I believe, and possibly a song I heard on one of those music samplers that were popular with music magazines, in this case Rolling Stone. 

The song that might have been on that sampler, and the one that opens Trials and puts people under the spell of Midlake's strange alchemy? That would be "Roscoe", the song that gets put through the (remix) wrnger on this little offering. The song is perfect, in that it already brings everything the album will do to the table.It's also a weird little tune, as most on Trials are: "if I could change my name to something a little more productive like Roscoe". Say what? 

I don't feel like dancin', no, sir, no dancin' today...

The surprising thing about this song is how elastic it is. Before stumbling upon these remixes, I hadn't necessarily thought of "Roscoe" as a song you can dance to, yet these three variations bring out that part of the song, to various degrees. The 'Beyond The Wizard's Sleeve Mix' that opens this EP emphasizes the song's dreamy side, while also retaining a dance-able rhythm. The 'Justin Robertson Remix goes full dance beat with 80s keyboard motifs, that the band probably would approve of, added to the mix. The 'Fading Soul Remix', while also maintaining a dance-able rhythm seems to put an emphasis on the melancholy side of the song. And to remind you how good the original is, I added a live version of the song to the end, if you want a purer "Roscoe" than the very dancehall-ready other three. 

But why would you? These are just way cooler than they have any right to be, which is why I wanted to share them with you. So, get ready to get to know Roscoe 1, Roscoe 2, Roscoe 3 and Roscoe 4. Groovy, baby!

All Pearls, No Swine Megapack Part Two

Yeah, yeah, more rummagging, with the first 90's-bound APNS racking up over 60 views AND NO DAMN REQUEST FOR A LINK. It's really easy, folks. Unless, you know, you'd just like to read stuff, which is fine also. 

So, as I've seen some other APNS-related activity for Volume 14 and 20, here's the same deal as last time. You get the megapack with volumes 11-20, I don't have to wander into half a dozen threads to upload. EVEN IF NO ONE ASKS FOR A DAMN LINK!

And then, as a way of saying 'hi' or 'thanks', you can leave a comment on whether you actually like the music you find herewithin...

Deal?

Deal!

The David Bowie Alt Album Super Duper Extra Bonus Package

Going along with the second volume of the We've Got You Covered series for all you Bowie-lovers out there and also because I realized some rummaging in Mr. Bowie's back catalogue, especially the Young Americans and 1. Outside alts, here's the simple package reupload deal for, I suppose, all those new visitors from Brazil (Olà!) and Vietnam (Xin chào!)...I don't know how y'all got here, but welcome! Now you just have to simply ask for a link instead of just going through the backlog in vain! 

Anyway, uncle OBG's got you, so here are in one tidy package all alt albums of Bowie that I've done: The OBG version of Never Let Me Down, 1. Outside sequel/side-quel  2.Downtown, and the whole plastic soul extravaganza of Young Americans - The Complete Edition and Shilling The Rubes. This summer I might get back into some Bowie work to go along with these, but to visitors, old and new, here's the Bowie megapackage if any of you need it...or want it...as usual there's tons of info in the accompanying write-ups. 

Update: Heureka! Some have (or one has?) seen how easy it is to ask for a link. Thanks, "unknown"! (Next step: sign with an nickname...any nickname). So, the Byrds alt album mega pack, this one, is now re-upped, as are the two Beach Boys alt albums and Alice Coper's Ruckus At The Movies. That should keep some of y'all occupied...

If you want more cool Bowie covers...well, we've got you covered...

Round two in our round-up of cool Bowie covers, and there's quite a number of 'em. Now, I wouldn't have bet that one of them would come from Dead Or Alive, who I only know as a slightly ridiculous-looking one hit-wonder with "You Spin Me 'Round (Lie A Record)". Then again, I wouldn't have figured that Culture Club would bring one of the highlights of Volume One in this We've Got You Covered series. The other unexpected and 80s-related joker in the pack is Midge Ure's cover of "Lady Stardust". 

The love of Brian Molko for Bowie (and Bowie's embracing of the band) are well-documented, his acoustic cover of "Five Years", done for French television, is still a really nice tribute. As for a less obvious fan, I wouldn't have figured Seal for a Bowie-fan, but his lovely unplugged take on "Quicksand", one of the lesser known Bowie classics, is a personal highlight of this set. Speaking of underrated songs that rarely get covered: Native American rock'n'rolller Stevie Salas covers Diamond Dogs-era obscurity "Dodo". "Little Wonder", from Bowie's little-loved Earthling drum'n'bass album is also a little on the obscure side, Run Toto Run's cover is a lovely, decidedly less noisy reading of the tune. "In The Heat Of The Morning" is one of Bowie's realatively unknown numbers from the pre-stardom Decca era and gets a fabulous reading from The Last Shadow Puppets. Another lost gem from that same era is "The Gospel According To Tony Day", covered exquisitely here by Edwyn Collins. 

The other possibility is of course to take a known number, but give it an unusual new coat of paint. That happens when bluegrass combo Cornbread Red cover "Under Pressure", while also unwittingly launching me down the Pickin' On...rabbithole. Unusual is also the word for the cover of "Ziggy Stardust", not so much because it's an acoustic unplugged version, but because it's done by the decidedly un-acoustic Def Leppard in the middle of a rowdy pub audience! And also unusual: Choir!Choir!Choir! and David Byrne, helped out by a ton of bystanders, making a huge sing-alone cover of "Heroes"! Covers from, among others, Fury In The Slaughterhouse and Hugh Coltman, are close to the originals and more workman-like, but still very fine additions to the series, bringing in some as-of-yet not covered songs to this second volume. 

And that's it. Eighteen high quality covers covering the spectrum of Bowie's music. Nothing more, nothing less. Yup, we've got you well covered again, David.  

Edit: I mislabeled an artist on the comp. It's Cornbread Red, not Iron Horse who cover "Under Pressure". I've changed the tagging in the new donloadable version. 

It's A Green Day...on Blue, Blue Grass...

The first compilation of the secret stash of goodies that was, unexpectedly, the Pickin On... series that I stumbled on by accident, was a pretty safe bet. It was, as a reader pointed out, a lovely compilation, but Neil Young and bluegrass were inherently very compatible, seeing how uncle Neil is in acoustic, country-ish mode half of the time, anyway and Tim Smith & Friends wisely picked from albums that emphasized that style, even though I would love to get "Trans" as a bluegrass album, but that's another story entirely. But yeah, Neil Young covered in bluegrass was a relatively safe pick, whereas this - our One Buck album of the day - is...a little less so. 

I don''t know how many of you are Green Day fans. Me, I'm not some crazy superfan but like most of their stuff. Billie Joe is truly underrated as a songwriter (but I'll get to that a little later on) and Tré Cool is one of my favorite drummers. Green Day's best songs are melodic, catchy, and kick some serious ass. They are also pretty much perfect for a bluegrass treatment: they are quick, they have hooks, and they are done in a straightforwad style (i.e. the famous four chords you need). Bluegrass adaptations do not necessarily work on, say, elaborate prog rock compositions, but punk rock? *Chef's kiss*

These versions really show what a great pop songwriter Billie Joe Armstrong is and always was. Sometimes you had the feeling he just had to squeeze some bad words in there to uphold appearances, because at heart he is a pop writer, whose pop just happens to be harder and quicker than a lot of other people's. Now this would be all fine and dandy, but still wouldn't amount to much if the Pickin On... folks had turned these songs into the 'Bluegrass muzak' a reader feared. 

Thankfully, by the time they got around to taking care of Green Day, the powers that be pickin' had turned to full-fledged modern bluegrass outfits and given them reign to arrange and play these songs like they felt. It also helped that the three bands responsible for the Green Day covers here are three of the best in the Pickin On... stable. They all bring something slightly different to the table. Cornbread Red, Honeywagon and The Sidekicks are real bands instead of studio players drafted together, and you can feel that in these songs and arrangements.

It will of course never not be funny to hear a bluegrass player drawl "Well, maybe I'm a faggot American, I ain't part of the red neck agenda". Especially considering that Green Day's (in)famous 'protest album' American Idiot, which is richly presented here, wasn't so much a reaction to George Bush the younger -era politics, though that shoe fit supremely well, but a reaction from Billie Joe Armstrong to seeing band and fans at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. 

This collection really reminds you how great these tunes are. So, whether you like Green Day, you like Bluegrass, or you just like some damn good pickin', A Green Day On Blue Grass is for you... 

Ruckus From The Movies: Come And Dance With The Dead, Baby!

Time to revive another series gone dormant. In this case, the long break was almost normal, as I had planned out the first three volumes, but nothing beyond that. So, with this fourth volume, we go in a bit of a different direction. After having featured three veteran hard rock acts, Dance With The Dead are a different proposition. About three years ago or so I had a little summer fling with the music subgenre they call synthwave. And I stumbled onto Tony Kim and Justin Pointer a.k.a. Dance With The Dead. These two childhood friends love two thing: 80s music and horror movies. From these two loves was born Dance With The Dead, whose original songs are mainly horror-themes pastiches of mid-80s synth and AOR rock, with a dash of heavy metal, including big synth riffs (usually by Pointer) and even bigger guitar riffs (usually by Kim). Their proper compositions are fn, if sometimes a little redundant, but they would occasionally remix known rock songs and film themes. Remixing is almost an understantement, as they would add tons of additional instrumentation.  

For this volume of Ruckus At The Movies, the focus of the compilation has changed a tiny bit, from songs that were featured in movies to (note the subtle title change) songs that come from movie soundtracks or were used in movies . John Carpenter's theme from "Assault On Precinct 13" and Carles Bernstein's theme from "a Nightmare On Elm Street" are total classics and so close to what the synthwave sound wants to capture (especially Carpenter's synth scores, obviously), that Dance With The Dead's re-imaginings don't have to go very far. And yet they do, as Kim adds some monster guitar solos that obviously aren't in the originals. 

Maybe these weirdos loving another weirdo explains their cover of Lindsey Buckingham's "Holiday Road", that was written for National Lampoon's Holiday. Then we have a cover of Luniz' hip hop classic "I Got 5 On It", that was used so effectively to spooky effect in Jordan Peele's Us. Now, while Us wasn't perfect - and neither were Get Out or Nope - it sure was a big, bold swing and in today's almost entirely I.P.-driven climate in Hollywood that is an achievement by itself. "Paint It Black" has of course been used in more than half a dozen movies, scoring the end credits of Full Metal Jacket and The Devil's Advocate and most recently featured in The Rock's flop comic book adaptation Black Adam. And finally, these two synthwave pranksters end proceedings with their take on the Theme from Gremlins. 

So, in order to appreciate today's modest One Buck Record - more of an Ep than a full-length album - you would need to have an appreciation for big chunky'n'cheesy 80s production. If you do, I guarantee a good time with some Ruckus At From The Movies...

Setting sails on the long river of Gordon Lightfoot's career...

The author of one of those (in)famous 1000 Records You Need To Listen To Before You Die/Become Deaf/Become Incontinent was asked why in his book  he didn't include a single album by Gordon Lightfoot. His answer was sad, but almost understandable. He said that while Lightfoot made great music, there wasn't a single album that would define him as a artist. Which is totally true. Lightfoot made many very good albums, no bad and only a few mediocre ones. But he never had that one classic album that would catapult him into these 'Best Of' or 'Must Listen'-lists. It's terribly unfair. Some artists or bands can have a career of uninspired mediocrity and still make appearances on these lists if they managed an album that became a modern classic for one reason or another, while Lightfoot toiling away at his craft for more than sicty years isn't repaid in kindness. Lightfoot was kind of always there, and everyone can attest to the beauty of his music, but he hasn't really left his footprint (pun fully intended, thank you very much) on music history. Which is why, nstead of music journalists, we let one of the best ever to do the singer-songwriter thing be the judge, jury and executioner:

If you can't trust Dylan, who can you trust, AmIrite? 

Anyway, so this new Lightfoot project. What happened while I was preparing Shanties is, what usually happens when I launch myself into a new project: I go on a music binge and listen to eveything I have from the artist in question. When I worked on Warren Zevon in January, I listened to almost his entire oeuvre, same for Queen a month later. So working on that Lightfoot comp made me relisten, slowly but surely, to all twenty studio albums, plus Sunday Concert and the two Gord's Gold comps. That is a lot of Lightfoot to listen to. First observation: Yes, the standards are really high, because there is nary a bad song among these hundreds of songs, though that ratio is getting worse in career decades three, four and five. But we'll cross that bridge when we get there. The idea was to make a career retrospective that covers Lightfoot's career from his debut album Lightfoot! in early 1966 all the way to his last album, Solo in 2020. This retrospective will be three CD-length albums chock full of great music,which I will dole out in single installments. If you are anything like me, in between your record collections and the music you download, you probably have way more music than you get to listen to in short order, so this will come slowly and individually to give you time to listen, but thse albums will eventually make up a nice box set of sorts when complete. For the first two write-ups I will run quickly through the albums the songs come from and occasionally why I picked some of them instead of others. 

Today's first installment of A Life In Song is subtitled Long River and covers the period from 1966 to 1971. I didn't put any of Lightfoot' juvenilia, like the horrid MOR country stuff he cut in 1962, on here, because this really is supposed to bring the best of the best, not cover every corner of his long career. So we'll start with four tracks off Lightfoot!, two showing Lightfoot at his purest, with just him and his acoustic guitar on "Long River" and "Sixteen Miles (To Seven Lakes)". Early and often covered classics "Early Morning Rain" and "Steel Rail Blues" complete the line-up before  giving way to the "Ballad Of Yarmouth Castle" which I have discussed in great length on Shanties. Let me just add here that, on second thought, it being left off his studio albums of the time was probably more a question of bad timing rather than some sort of conspiracy. He debuted the title in January 1966, right after the release of his debut album, but then it was another 15 months before the follow-up, so by that time the topical "ballad" was a bit passé. Next is a song that is a bit of departure for Lightfoot, the very jngle jangle-y "Spin Spin" that dutifully became a hit in Canada and nowhere else and for some reason will not get a decent release from United Artists. This is a version of the song that he recut in Nashville, possibly for a U.S. release that never happened, but it's more driving and, uh, jingle jangle-y, so it gets the nod over the original single version. 

The Way I Feel was a decent follow-up to Lightfoot's debut, here presented by "If You Got It", where Lightfoot sounds so youthful and happy, that I simply had to include it, and "Go-Go Round", which has one of the album's most memorable melodies. And then there's "Canadian Railroad Trilogy", a total classic, and probably in the top ten of Lightfoot songs. Epic storytelling, in every sense of the word. The following year's Did She Mention My Name? has the great title song (with two lines that always make me smile - "Is the landlord still a loser? Do his signs still hang in the hall?"), the vaguely protest song adjacent "Boss Man" with some interesting backing vocals and the two magnificent ballads "Wherefore And Why" and "The Mountains And Maryann", that with their orchestrations would point to Lightfoot's future. Follow-up Back Here On Earth from later in the year has classic ballads "Bitter Green" and "The Circle Is Small" (a decade later pointlessly remade by Lightfoot) and, as a more personal favorite, "Long Way Back Home", one of Lightfoot's numerous wanderlust numbers. 

Sunday Concert was a contractual obligation album, the mandatory live album to get out of his contract with United Artists, but at least Lightfoot loaded it with a number of unreleased songs, including "Ballad Of Yarmouth Castle" and "Apology, the latter of which is feautured here. He signed with Reprise, hoping that they could break him through in the U.S. His debut for Reprise, starting his collaboration with producer Lenny Waronker, was indeed the commercial breakthrough Lightfoot had hoped for, though it took a bit of time. Originally entitled Sit Down Young Stranger, it really took off when "If You Could Read My Mind" stormed the charts in early 1971, more than eight months after the album was released. It was thus dutifully retitled If You Could Read My Mind. If you had to pick an album that comes as close as possible to representing him, it probably would be this one for the early folkie years. Sure, there's more orchestration than on most UA albums, but this is sort of the ideal album of Lightfoot the romantic bard. It was also the first Lightfoot album I ever bought and I love it dearly, resulting in it being represented by a whooping five songs. Even then I had to leave a song like "Cobwebs & Dust" on the outs. Tough choices, everywhere. 

This collection ends with three tracks from 1971's Summer Side Of Life. The title song is so jaunty and well, sunny, that you can easily overhear the lyrics about the young man, seemingly a Vietnam war vet, crying all day long. Like in the equally featured "Sit Down Young Stranger", Lightfoot acknowledges that war ithout taking specific political sides, other than a general 'war isn't great'-attitude. As I stated in my first write-up for Shanties, he felt uncomfortable as a decideldly political writer or protest singer, so contemporary concerns mostly bubble up as subtext. Also featured are the lovely "10 Degrees & Getting Colder", another song about being on the roaad, and his ode to Canadian unity, "Nous Vivons Ensemble", featured here in slightly edited form. 

And that's it, that's Gordon Lightfoot's Life in Song, Vol. 1, with two more volumes coming up in the next weeks to complete this career-spanning box set courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood blogger OBG. So, get on that long river and let yourself be carried by some wonderful melodies and performances of Mr. Gordon Meredith Lightfoot. 

Deja Vu on Starboard, Sir, Deja Vu On Starboard...

'Huh?' you might be thinking, 'is good ol' OBG getting senile early'? Did he forget that he just posted this very Gordon Lightfoot comp a few weeks ago? No, no, he didn't. Call it Shanties 2.0. Call it fixin'. Call it whatever you want, but the fact is that Shanties was a good idea, but the execution could have been better. Now I could just sneak back and post the new version of Shanties in the old write-up, but no one in particular would see, notice or care. Given the absence of any coments activity in the last weeks, it's already hard to see whether any of you fine folks see,notice, or care, so I wasn't just gonna rework that and leave it in the dust pile of posts come and gone. But don't worry, after the re-worked Shanties, we'll get to some more Gordon Lightfoot. As a matter of fact, the next months we'll all be light on our feet around here...

So, what caused me giving Shanties another look? Well, listening back to Gordon Lightfoot's entire discography, for one thing, for that big Lightfoot project coming your way very soon. Listening back to albums I hadn't listened to in about twenty years revealed that I had simply forgotten two songs that were perfect for the concept. "Marie Christine", with "Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle" M.I.A. for three years, is thus the very first of Gordon's boat songs. But it is somewhat hidden in the middle of Back Here On Earth, an album I don't much listen to, so I completely forgot about it. As for the other forgotten shanty, "Triangle", well, I first heard that one as one of the really wet, misbegotten re-recordings Lightfoot did on Gord's Gold Vol. 2. 

While the re-recordings of his United artists material on Gord's Gold made sense commercially (instead of licensing tracks, Warner Brothers preferred to just recut them if necessary), they also made sense artistically: Lightfoot would rework the songs in his then current folk-pop style including orchestrations and steel guitar, hallmarks of his mid-70s style. But the re-recordings on Gord's Gold Vol. 2 made no sense and served no purpose, and to take MOR-leaning material and making it even mushier by having everything sound more artificial and flat was a terrible idea. So I had "Triangle" written off as a failure, and thus didn't listen back to it in preparing Shanties. When I did relisten to Lightfoot's collected works, I was surprised how good 1982's Shadows, of which "Triangle" comes, actually is. This was, for me, the first album that really dipped into the MOR-sound that would define his 80s albums, but it's sharper and better than I remembered it, and certainly better than the Gord's Gold Vol. 2 remakes make it sound.  

And finally, I threw off a track because "Sea Of Tranquillity", despite its name, is mainly about critters living in the woods, something Lightfoot himself pointed out in his song comments for Songbook. Switch critters for sea creatures: I finally decided to re-install "Ode To Big Blue", which was originally on the short list, into the line-up. Again, relistening made me realize that the song was better than I remembered it, and is deserving of a spot on Shanties. 

So here's the improved Shanties, now having a more fitting ten tracks for 44 minutes of music, all ready to leave port and take you out into the oceans, once more. If you liked the first version of Shanties, then you'll obviously like this, bigger, better and bolder than before. So, heave away, boys, heave away...

...and be back in a day or two, for the start of OBG's big Lightfoot project around here...

Caroline Now! Or, A Better Bye Bye To Bri...

When I reposted my two Beach Boy alt albums last week to commemorate Brian Wilson's passing, it wasn't a particularly great solution, mainly because those two albums - great as they are, and they are plenty great - didn't feature Brian a lot. But, as said in that write-up, I browsed through the virtual Brian Wilson and Beach Boys archives on my computer and didn't find anything that was in 'ready to post' shape. Call it a sign of the times. Because what I didn't do was browse my physical music collection for something fitting to post, otherwise I would have happened upon Caroline Now! The Songs of Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys right away. Now, the fact that I didn't think of that album right away, tells you that it isn't in heavy rotation, and truth be told, I had a bit forgotten about it. But if the goal is to clebrate Wilson and his songwriting, it is a particularly fitting choice and listening back to it is also better than I remember. 

Caroline Now! is the antithesis to the 'stars go and cut a classic, well-known number by an artist' modus of a lot of tribute albums that results often in well-meaning karaoke.. And I say that as someone who likes well-done well-meaning karaoke from time to time. The concept of Caroline Now! was to focus not on the usual big songs, but rather the more unknown songs of Brian Wilson, done by some very modestly known musicians. The biggest name on here is probably Alex Chilton, who has been One Buck Record-ed before, or depending on your preferences St. Etienne or The High Llamas, all affirmed and obvious Beach Boy fans. Anothe really obvious fan of the Boys' music if obviously Teenage Fanclub's Norman Blake, who contributes a lovely reading of "Only With You". This project actually grew out of sessions that involved Blake and Chilton in Scotland under the direction of musical directors David Scott (of The Pearlfishers) and Duglas T. Stewart (of BMX Bandits),  and then grew to include indie artists from around the world contributing a song to the planned compilation, until it grew to 24 tracks. It then came out on a tiny German record label.  

So, while I played with the idea of tightening the album up a bit, I finally didn't because different folks might find songs I'm not too fond of to their liking, and since this is out of print for about 24 years I figure those who want to hear it, should hear it in its entirety. I did, however, reseuence the whole album, because that was one of my peeves with it. It had about five of my least-liked songs on this thing in the first ten tracks, so for me it never built much momentum. There's a reason why I had pretty much forgotten about this album. So, my resequencing hopefully help with that, it definitely doesn't hurt.

Personal highlights include the radio Sweethearts' country-rock take on "Honkin' Down The Highway", Spanish trio Souvenir's 60's girl group-ish French-language take on "Girl I Can Tell" (as "Ne Dis Pas"), The Pearlfishers' "Go Away Boy" and Kle's "fabulous "Rainbow Eyes", which was part of Wilson's unreleasd Sweet Insanity album. If you like 80s and 9s cult bands Belle And Sebastian, The Vaselines, The Apstels, or Orange Juice - you'll find key members doing tracks here. The producers even recruited some contemporaries: 60's pop band The Free Design reunited after thirty years for this project and their lovely take on "Endless Harmony" (which for me personally blows the original out of the water), Alex Chilton is here - as mentioned - and the album ends with L.A. gadfly/producer/manager/svengali/charlatan/hipster Kim Fowley and his take on "Almost Summer". 

So, this is a much better and more fitting to sweet, crazy ol'  Brian Wilson, the gentle giant of songwriters. Just listen...and remember...it's almost summer...and an endless harmony...

Spend a wam spring evening on the backporch...with Sierra And Chase

It's springtime...almost summer. actually here today you'd say it's the dog days of August with a frankly too damn hot 35+ degrees. If we were futher south, we ould hear the crickets sing. Or, you know, we ca bring the crickets to you, together with some sweet, failiar melodies in some sweet vocal harmony. Springtime could also men hanging out on the front  or back porch, having someone pull out an acoustic guitar and just jam on some ol' songs you like. And if the person who picks up the guitar is an Eagleson, all the better. The imagined debut album of Sierra Eagleson did surprisingly strong numbers in January - and deservedly so - and the eagle-sonned eagle-eyed among you might have seen the name Chase Eagleson already in my re-imagined Kurt Cobain musical extravaganza, when I needed an Elvis impersonator (don't ask...or read about it in the write-up) and Chase's fantastic version of "Can't Help Falling In Love" fit like a glove. Yes, in the Eagleson family, talent runs deep as both siblings have their own career doing moody acoustic cover verions of popular songs, both old and new. Chase is also a bit of a handsome devil, so that's almost unfair.

 Anyway, the answer to the old question of 'What's better than an Eagleson?' is of course 'Two Eaglesons', especially if they are singing in harmony together. Beautiful stuff, as you will hear on the album of the day. The two have duetted dozens of time, but for this album I only chose songs that I really liked - covering "Hey Ya!" as a slow, downbeat, acoustic number inches a bit too close to novelty for my taste - and I also included one solo number each, Chase covering Radiohead's "Falke Plastic Trees" and Sierra Peter Gabriel's classic "Solsbury Hill" (also recorded with some birds and other beasts contributing...). Chase is indeed a bit of a Radiohead-head, also covering "High and Dry" with Sierra. On that song, as on others, Chase sings on top and Sierra takes the low harmony, to often stunning effect. 

Chase and Sierra are alternating lead vocals here in a deliberate sequencing decision. Their cover of "Landslide" has some beautiful Banjo picking, It's part of the opening trio of classic 70s hits that the Eaglesons have probably heard in the music collection of their parents, the others are Gary Wriht's "Dream Weaver" and James Taylor's "Carolina In My Mind", which opens the album. Not with an acoustic strum, but some bird chirping, as they recorded that one in a nature park of some sort, so you have the natural choir of bird voices in the background of the song. And then, to show that they (and me) are not only classic rock-retro-minded, I programmed Gorillaz' "On Memory Hill" and the aforementioned "Fake Plastic Trees" afterwards. Later a cover of indie-folkster Gregory Alan Isakov also shows up, flanked by some other 70s gold like "Your Song". And the album ends on a familiar note - at least if you have listened to Brush Fire - as Sierra goes back to her moody cover of Springsteen's "Dancing In The Dark", here as a duet medley with Chase singing "I'm On Fire". 

If you were mean-spirited - which I'm sure most of my readers aren't - you could call this high quality karaoke. But I think that would do these covers a grave injustice. Chase and Sierra find notes and nuances in these songs that maybe wasn't there in the first place. When even an old, mildly hoary warhorse like "Your Song" cn be turned into a winner, we're onto something here. So, sit down on the back porch with Chae and Sierra and their guitars, let the bird and beasts around you add their ten cents and and spend a lovely evening listening to these siblings picking and harmonising... 

So long Brian, say hello to the Boys...

A little under two hours after I had put out Le Trip yesterday, the news came down that Brian Wilson died. Damn. I mean, he had a longer and richer career than someone seeing him holed up as a fat, psychotic wreck in the early and mid-70s would have thought, including a frankly astonishing flurry of projects in his third act. Not all of these projects were great or even all that useful - did we need Brian reimagining Gershwin or covering his favorite Disney tunes? - but the fact that he stayed active in the music business after all these years was certainly something not many bet on in the mid-70s or one decade later when he was under the indluence of uor favorite charlatan and mine, Dr. Eugene Landy. Now he's gone, and all the Wilson brothers are gone, while Mike Love can still goof around stages with his fake Boys. Why the hell are all the talented Beach Boys gone and the scrubs remain? 

Anyhoo, be that as it may, especially since some guys the Boys drafted in when Brian was...uh...indisposed did a hell of a job. No, I'm not thinking of Bruce Johnston, who is almost as awful as Mike'n'Al, but of the Durban Beach Boys Ricky Fataar and Blondie Chaplin. You can probably see where this is going, folks. Is this a shameless attempt to lead to the two Durban-Beach Boy era albums I re-imagined? Yes, yes it is. Thing is, I quickly went through the archives yesterday evening and don't have anything purely or mainly Brian ready for publication, that isn't someone else's work. So I'm going back to my re-imaginings of Carl & The Passions - 'So Tough', on these pages known as All This Is That, and of Holland, which has become the double album epic Sail On Sailor. (You van find out more about thes eprojects in their original write-ups, should you be so inclined). There is some Brian in there - the arrangement for "Marcella" can only come from one man - and some of his dream-like music for the extremely odd Mount Vernon And Fairway-Suite has been saved as "The Pied Piper (A Dream Voyage)". 

No, these aren't specifically Brian albums, but they are fine albums, full of inventive, fresh music that should have given them more attention in the early 70s, before Endless Summer and their own 15 Big Ones turned them irrevocably into an oldies act. Why not listening to these while you say goodbye to the last Wilson brothers? In the band, Brian always was the brain, and Carl was the soul, while Dennis was, uh, the libido and the muscle, probably. Now all Wilson brothers have sailed from us, but their fantastic music remains. 

Sail on sailors, sail on...

R.I.P. Brian Douglas Wilson, 1942 - 2025

The French Connection: Salut, Les Copains...Voulez-Vous Faire Un Trip?

So, time to slowly ramp up all my long dormant, but still ongoing series. So, let's see what's what music-wise in my adopted homeland. The title of our One Buck Record of the day is of course a reference to The Trip, this site's one-off trip into garage rock. As I will be the first to tell you, I'm absolutely no authority on that particular subset of music, and the sheer volume of it - there must now be hundreds of comps out there I'd gather - is truly daunting, so I'll leave that to the experts. Truth be told, I had some of these fun tracks lying around and wanted to post something a little different, and that was that. Now, there might've been French garage rockers - and two or three do sow up on Le Trip, notably Les Guitares Du Dimanche - but overall, this isn't necessarily even rock, just some cool ass music from the 60s coming out of la France. 

I also didn't shy away from using the big guns, if there was a good song coming with 'em: La belle Bardot, getting two spots, one in her classic duet with Srege Gainsbourg? Check. The French Elvis, good ol' Johnny Halliday with "Les Coups", an adaptation of ,Stevie Wonder's "Uptight"? Check. French idol Michel Polnareff, who is still touring these days at the tender age of 80, with his classic "La Poupée Qui Fait Non"? Check. Speaking of, here's a relatively little-known fact to win a trivia quiz with your rock'n'roll friends: Who is playing guitar on Michel Polnareff's "La Poupée Qui Dit Non"? Why, it's Jimmy Page! And who's playing bass? Oh look, it's John Paul Jones. Yup, half of Led Zeppelin is playing on it! La classe! Moving on, Claude Nougaro has a bad case of (Peggy Lee''s) "Fever" and neegs to go see the "Docteur". 

And who could forget the famous Ye-Ye Girls, even though that term hardly captures the sometimes brilliant work they did. This is of course especially true for Françoise Hardy, about whom I have already written extensively. I still had to include her moody "Tous Les Graçons Et Le Filles" and "C'est e Temps de L'Amour", both stone-cold classics that no collection of great French tunes from the 60s should be without out. Rarely has anyone made melancholy as catchy as Mrs. Hardy here. I also love Jaqueline Taieb's "7 H Du Mat", which as the album opener gives a bit the tone of the compilation: a little irreverent, a little sexy, a little bit of rockn'roll rebellion. Unlike The Trip, Le Trip also has a bunch of jazzy undertones. Staying with the ladies, special mention also goes to another actress-cum-singer, Jeanne Moreau whose "Le Tourbillon" should be a much better known classic, Also pretty cool are Michèle Lagrange and "Si Ma Chanson Pouvait" and Suzanne Gabriello's "Votez, Hein, Bon!", which is really close to being a novelty song, but falls just on the right side of the line. 

As for oddities, we have author Boris Vian, best known for L'écume du jour, who was also an accomplashished jazz musician and speak-sings hisway through "Je Suis Snob", while Jean Bernard De Libreville's "La Juxtaposition 210" is almost avant garde. The aforementioned Guitares Du Dimanche should probably pay some royalties to the Kinks for "Sur Une Nappe De Restaurant", which sounds a lot like "All Day And All Of The Night", and goes to show that even in France garage rock was well and alive in the 60s... 

There are also two lucky charms that aren't French in the pack: Both Luckies Alba and Jones are Belgian, but hey, who's counting right? There be dragons! Or mussels...from Brussles! Jones' "Plus En Plus Fort", is an adaptation of "(Do The) Mashed Potatoes", joining othet beat grouops like The Kingsmen, The Rattles or The Undertakers in covering that tune. 

So, listen to this and transport yourself back into the 60s to the Côte D'Azur with a portable radio or into a hip Parisian jazz club...alors, tout le monde, êtes-vous prêt à faire Le Trip?  

Stealin' Some Queen Songs...And Turnin' 'Em Into A Pretty Cool Album...

If you remember where we left things with Queen and ... Just Another Miracle, the auto-assignment seemed simple: gather up the outtakes and b-sides from the The Miracle era, sequence them et voilà...an album that never was to go with  the alt Miracle and wrap up the OBG work on that boxset. Which is what I did in assembling a first version of the album. But, as it so happens, something happened then that gave the whole project a whole different direction. My assembled album was missing something. On a Cd of outtakes I had this demo version of "Stealin'", a version I have always preferred to the finished one that made it out as a b-side. The finished "Stealin'" has all the hallmarks of The Miracle-era Queen: It sounds hyperprocessed, with glossy keyboard additions that don't seem to add anything, instead choking whatever spontaneity the track once had. Compare that to the demo version, with its overddubbed vocals of Freddie playfully ("So do I"), and funnily answering himself ("So do I!"). That track, while a fully finished demo/run through, is all spontaneity. So I set out to find it, to add that second version as a 'Reprise' version at the end, a trick some of you are now very familiar with when I can't make the hard choice between two versions of a song. 

But to my surprise I found the uncut, eleven minute+ tape of that run through version of "Stealin'", instead of the four and a half minute excerpt of the main song part that I had. Color me intrigued. Turns out that they were doing extended riffs with instruments dropping in and out ad Mercury improvising lyrics. I really liked the loose nature of what was essentially a jam session, with Roger Taylor especially relishing to bash away on the skins (check out his drum rols towards the end of "Stealin' Part III). So, instead of simply having a second version of "Stelin'" I scratched that idea and rebuilt the album entirely around the various parts of "Stealin'". 

The whole eleven minute plus mix was too long and had too many slow spots with the band waiting around to see what to do next. The two most song-like parts were thus turned into "Heart Keeper (Stealin' Part II)" and "Money ("Stealin' Part III)".  Interestingly, during two of the 'waiting parts' Brin May played some Blues licks which I edited together for the (very short) "Stealin' Blues". The album was then sequenced around these four song parts, with "Stealin'" obviously the album opener and "Money (Stealin' Part III)" as the album closer wth Part II showing up towards the middle. Brian May's ballad "You Know You Belong To me" (a solo demo brought to the Miracle sessions) was a logical side A closer, while "Hang On In There", a b-side that could (and probably should) have replaced some of the weaker songs on The Miracle made for a great side b opener. .

There is no way to ignore the somewhat fragmentary nature of this album. A number of songs are rather short, either by design as b-side or demo or because I had to edit what was worth keeping out of longer, but messier songs. I had to do some editing to "I Guess We're Falling Out", because this was clearlly a run through rather than a fully finished take, and Freddie yelled out some instructions before the jam session at the end. Now, I love that little jam session - coming after one of the most classic sounding Queen numbers - but wanted to keep it as a finished studio track as possible, so anything that soundedlike not being part of the song had to go.  I also amused myself by following up Brian's "Water (another solo demo) with Freddie's "No Water", which is the improvised second part of the "A New Life Is Born" intro to "Beakthrough" featured on the original album. Anyway, think of the sequence of short songs in a variety of styles after the opening trio as a tribute to Sheer Heart Attack, which was more or less like that. 

Of the outtakes "Face It Alone" was chosen as the single to promote the The Miracle box set, so it has a much more polished sound (and possibly some autotune?) than the others, but that's the nature of the beast. Roger Taylor gets, like Brian May, two compositions and lead vocals, which sounds about right for a Queen album: Both were used as b-sides. Synth rocker "Hijack My Heart" (with some heavy shredding by Brian) is an interesting diversion, while "Dog With A Bone", with shared lead vocals by Freddie, is one of his slightly knuckleheaded rockers. The b-side "My Life Has Been Saved", co-written by Freddie and John, was later reworked for Made in Heaven. 

Anyway, that's a lot of info on the why and how of an alt album. Suffice it to say that I think this is a really nice companion piece to ...Just Another Miracle, and I hope you'll agree. Now go and steal some really good Queen music...

Meet Friends Of Bob For His Final Salute...

The post of the latest volume of All Pears No Swine this week, including Marlon Williams' fab cover of Bob Carpenter's "Silent Passage" reminded me of some unfinished business. Both when I posted his fabulous and unfortunately only album and then an imagines follow-up I maintained that there was more Carpenter-related material in the vaults for the (too few) converted. Well, here it is, I'm cleaning out my closet. And what I found in it, is a couple of Bob Capenter's very good friends. The reason they all got together was of course a sad one: By the mid-90s Carpenter had more or less wrapped up with the music business and was preparing to become a monk (!), when a cancer diagnosis hit.

I'll be honest with you, I don't recognize a single name on the list of performers here, these are literally his friends, not some more or less well-known admirers of his work rallied to the cause. But that doesn't change the fact that the music in here is very good, both because of the quality of composition courtesy of Mr. Carpenter, but also because musical director Ken Daiglish has assembled a really nice band and group of lead vocalists, including horns and strings sections. If eclectic folk-rock is your gig, then meet Bob's friends. The set list is interesting, as it shies away from his (relatively) known songs like "Gypsy Boy" or "Silent Passage", instead there are several unreleased or rare numbers. Of the lead vocalists, I feel like I should mention Laura Hogan, who makes "Dance The Night Away" sound like a long lost Linda Ronstadt song. Another Highlight is "One More Time" with its acapella opening, before thebband comes in for the chorus. Don Le Roux and the band  bring some Dr. John-style Soutthern fried R'n'B on "Free Delivery Man". And for the suitable epic finale, all ride out on the "Morning Train", which here takes on the quality of a modern gospel. 

The artwork all came with the tracks, which Bob's friends are still distributing via a Facebook page (move over, Boomers!). I just added a couple of bonus tracks, Again, for such a little-known cult figure like Bob Carpenter, there weren't eactly dozens of covers from high profile artists to choose from. Marlon Williams shows up again, with a different version of "Silent Passage", which was actually the first version I heard of him doing that song. It's a live track cut in a moving tramway, with Williams accompanied by then girlfriend & musical partner Aldous Harding. Her beuatiful backing vocals and Williams' fragility make this version as good as the studio version. Ramblin' Wayn is a grizzled old musician doing covers on You Tube, I edited his two Carpenter covers into a medley. If you  listen closely, he sounds a lot like American Recordings Johnny Cash, circa Volumes 3 and 4. And then there is electro-folk (is that a gere?) group C.A.T., a bunch of fellow Canucks covering "Wings". 

There is a breadth of styles on display here on Bob's Benefit that show how eclectic Carpenter could be, instead of being just asddled with a'another guy with an acustic guitar' label, and its also a credit to the band assembked here who pull off a beautiful concert for a wonderful artist. 

So, one more time, one last time, immerse yourself in the music of Bob Carpenter. 

Pack It Up, Pack It In, Let Me Begin...Here Comes The Pearls Pack

...some of our new visitors around here have shown an interest in the early volumes of All Pearls, No Swine, with Vol. 2 and 3 getting a number of hits, and maybe others to follow. So I'll just simplify things for me and you here, silent roamers of pages. To get the backlog of goodies from the All Pearls, No Swine series I'll post the first ten volumes of the series in this 'catching up with the back catalogue' post, instead of having to click my way through several pages each time to get to single post. You can then read up on artists etc. in the individual posts of each volume. So, tons and tons of hidden gems from the 1970s and 1980s to wade through, until you are as exhausted as that pig in the banner up there. 

If you want me to repeat the operation for volumes 11-20, just let me know...

Here's the Pearl Pack, All Pearls No Swine Vol. 1 - 10

All Pearls, No Swine: Boldly into the future, with our backs turned looking down the past

I mentioned in last week's Gene Clark entry for the latest volume of We've Got You Covered that some series take long breaks in between installments because, while I have a general base of things to post, I sometimes get excited and or distracted by a new project which then pushes some stuff to the backburner. That's also what happens to the granddaddy of 'em all, the series that started when this blog did. The debit of All Pearls No Swine has slowed down to one to two in a month, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happy to go back to what will stay a fundamental piece of One Buck Records. Not to mention, that there might not be anything new under the sun, but All Pearls No Swine can still break new ground. 

Originally conceived to present less known hidden gems from (mainly) the 70s and a little bit creeping into the 80s, the series finally pushed into the 90s, then the 2000s, and with today's volume into muisc from the last decade and a half. Or, more precisely, the last decade and change, as I compiled this one in 2023 I believe. But yeah, APNS has caught up to the almost present day. That doesn't mean that somehow this new volume is full of trap, electronica and whatever passes for hip hop these days. Nope, proudly this volume withstands all attempts to be modern or 'with it' (not something the kids would say... I don't know...it's the riz, something like that?!). Either way, I do like Bob Seger in "Old Time Rock'n'Roll" grumbling against disco, declare that trap is crap and continue with artists and songs that might be from current artists (and some not so current ones), but lookinto the past, much like this blog and its owner does.

What he said...

The 2010s are the decade when I finally gave up on the modern music scene. I had followed most of what was current, if not necessarily mainstream, throughout the 2000s, investigated and often bought highly praised (from trustworthy sources) releases and was generally au courant with what was going on, even if the charts were obviously something that hasn't had anything of interest for me for years. But in the mid-2010s my interest slowd down, as did my buying new music. I remember 2013 as being the last time being really invested in (for me) new artists, when I bought Jonathan Wilson's Fanfare and Israel Nash Gripka's Rain Plans, one of the perpetual 'bestsellers' on this blog and a genuinely great album. I was also following whatever Jason Isbell released, but also dropped some old favorites from thorughout the 2000s along the way. When Lucinda Williams' voice and quality control gave out within years of each other, I cut the cord. After one more underwhelming release I dropped Ryan Adams completely etc. And I didn't bother to replace most of them with other artists - I mean Isbell for Adams was a clear upgrade - and turned my eyes more and more towards the past. Why waste time with the mediocre or worse music of today when there is so much great music to discover or rediscover in the past?

Thus, All Pearls, No Swine. Thus, One Buck Records. 

But I digress. 

A logical consequence is, though, that most of the contemporary artists assembled here, have a retro bent to them. This is also true for most of the aforementioned artists are of course part of the line-up: Jason Isbell with the Trump protest song "Hope The High Road", that unfortunately couldn't be more current today, something he no doubt didn't see happening in 2018. Israel Nash's "Woman At The Well" with its echoey vocals and a relatively jaunty arrangement shows the Topanga Canyon spirit waving through Rain Plans. And Jonathan Wilson is featured with a song from Fanfare's follow-up Rare Birds, hat traded that very Topanga Canyon sound for a sharp turn into 8s synth rock. Pastiche it might still be, but it's quality pastiche. The same is true of Farq's faves, the terribly named Garcia Peoples, who do very good mimicry of that very sound, as can be heard on compilation closer "Here We Are". Both Wilson and Gracia Peoples take their mimicry so far as to indulge in rather unusually long running times, so both versions are edited for a better flow. 

C'mon, you thought these guys were from the 70s, right...?!

A band I discovered relatively recently and which will soon (hopefully...) be featured is Blackberry Smoke (above), a modern Southern rock band from Atlanta, whose mix of rock'n'roll and country is precisely up my alley, exactly because it sounds like it could have come straight from the 70s. Modern folk ensemble Cawlings' "Hold On" could have come from any decade discussed here, but more likely the 70s as well, whereas the lovely power pop of the already featured Jonathan Kupersmith could have come straight out of the early 80s. Very fine Kiwi singer-songwriter (and occasional actor, he was in Sweet Tooth) Marlon Williams covers  Bob Carpenter's fantastic Silent Passage from the awesome album of the same name. OBG faves Midlake 

Finally, good old fashioned rock'n'roll may be dead charts-wise, but featured here are two young hold outs who can rock with the best of them: The Luka State with "Feel It" and Italian group Maneskin with "Zitti E Bueno", the song that won them the European Song Contest four years ago.  WIth an actually good song, for once! And if you like your rock a little old school, groove to compilation opener "I Will" by indie rock veterans Sebadoh! "Zitti E Bueno" isn't the only non-English language song on here, as I also stumbled onto Australian Aboriginal arist Mitch Tambo, whose version of John Farnham's classic "You're The Voice" is an absolute corker. 

Maneskin certainly have their very own style...

I mentioned in one of the paragraphs above, that there is no shame in replacing an artist you liked by another, which can be applied to Young rebel Set's "Measure Of A Man" which sounds like a dead ringer for a Mumford & Sons song, before the band turned to shitty MOR arena rock for no good reason. And finally a word about singer-songwriter Glen Clark, not the one from Delbert & Glen, but rather anothe Kiwi singer-songwriter, who is also dabbling in visual arts. His song "1665" is ostensibly about the Great Plague of London in the same year, but seems to be eerily prescient of the then just strted Covid outbreak and its circumstances. "We watched the well-to-do escape.."...well, didn't most of us? Most other stuff from Clark hasn't graabbed me, and he isn't a particularly strong vocalist, but check out the genuinely impressive video underneath. 

So, despite the retro proclivities of One Buck Records and its friendly neighbourhood blogs like Jokonky's or Babs' place, good contemporary musicn isn't dead. It's just much more hidden from public view. All Pearls, No Swine brings some of it to light. So enjoy these pearls from the last decade and change...

P.S.: Feel free to go wild on the linked to albums, all music links have been upped...

Wayfaring Strangers...

 ...why do ye not ask and then ye shall receive?The all-seeing eye of the godhood of these lands - commonly referred to by his disciples as the One Buck Guy - has seen ye wander forlorn in threads, looking for answers, yet none were forthcoming (...and no music either). Small flocks of congregation gathered in these barren places, with no plea to  the ear of the lord of these realms to be heard...not even a whisper lost in the wind...I wish a way for this heavenly music to reach me would manifest itself.....

Serously, wayfaring strangers, though. Just ask for a freakin' link. Because OBG is a benevolent deity, links for Sniff'n'The Tears' Art Gallery, HickHop, Ragnarok, Hazeldine, the first Aerosmith comp, the first volume of the Little Feat We've Got You Covered and Françoise Hardy's If You Listen have been re-upped. Anyone needs anything else, say it with me: ask for a link. So sayeth the lord of these realms.  

This Just In: Links for Lindsey Buckingham's Not Funny, Spirit's Sprit of '76, Manassas and the Generation X comp have also been upped...

This Also Just In: So have Buckingham Nicks and Son Volt...

And this just also also in, belatedly: The Best Of Sniff'n'the Tears and aeromsith's G.T.F.O. 2 have also been upped...

Beware, This Cougar Can Rock'n'Roll...Better Than You Think

Let's talk a little bit about some perception and misperceptions of John Mellencamp.

One common perception is that Mellencamp is a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type, and that perception seems by and large correct. Thing is, mellencamp has been a grumpy, old 'get off my lawn' type since he was about 30 years old. Then again, wouldn't you be grumpy if your manager dubbed you - more or less behind your back - Johnny Cougar? Sure, young John probably could have picked a better manager than notorious Tony DeFries, fresh from losing David Bowie as a client due to numerous shenanigans by DeFries and cocaine-added paranoia by Bowie. Still, DeFries' Mainman connections helped out Mellencamp years later, when fellow MainMan client Mick Ronson came in to arrange "Jack & Diane" and turn it into the hit it woud become. But that's already years down the line for the man they would call - much to his happiness I'm sure - "The Coug". 

One common perception of John Mellencamp is that the music he issued as Johnny (and then John) Cougar is mostly utterly worthless crap, only starting to be redeemed around the time of the last album issued under the John Cougar name, 1982's American Fool. Now that is, as far as I'm concerned, a huge misconception, and one that today's One Buck Record of the day will try to dispell. I mean sure, there's a bunch of crap and worthless filler on those early years from when Mellencamp was a Cougar, but the music isn't the totally worthless stuff that, say, the Allmusic Guide would have you believe. His first three albums get astonishing one-star-ratings, the self-titled John Cougar gets upgraded to two while Nothing Matters And What If It Did makes it to three. Honestly, there isn't a lot of good stuff on those first three albums, that's why the first two MainMan-led releases get two ongs each, A Biography gets three, and John Cougar is back down to two. But the stuff that made it onto this compilation is pretty good - there isn't un unspeakably wide canyon of quality between the best songs of those first four albums and, say, everything from American Fool onward. At least not to the extent that the one-star-demolitions would suggest. 

"I'm A Wild Cougar, Y'all. Groaarr! Growwwwl!"

Mellencamp simply did what you would expect a young singer/songwriter to do: he got better at his craft and he got better at separating the wheat from the chaff, to stay with his farmboy image. The number of weak songs slowly diminished, while the number of good songs slowly rose. Allmusic is at least right in identifiyng Nothing Matters And What If It Did as the first breakthrough in Mllencamp's career, calling it a prototype for American Fool I think Allmusic is even underrating that album, which I think is the overall strongest and most concistent of the Cougar years, even more so than American Fool. The fip side of the evolution that I just described is that Mellencamp didn't all of a sudden write and compose unimpeachable masterpieces - even highly popular and celebrated releases like American Fool, Uh-Huh and Scarecrow had its number of mediocre filler. I think his first completely consistent album is The Big Jubilee, also one of the singer's favorites. 

Anyway, so Nothin' Matters does matter, as it gets the lion's share of songs on When I Was A Cougar with a record breaking eight tracks (well, "Cry Baby" is a 25 second trifle, albeit a really nice one), while American Fool has to do with five, including the three big singles, "Hurts So Good", "Jack & Diane" and "Hand To Hold On To". 

So, what about that Cougar music you say? Well, Mellencamp doesn't have the songs yet throughout the six albums that form the basis for When I Was A Cougar, but the Stones-y rock attitude is already there, as is a voice that can get these rockn'roll songs and ballads over (and sometimes betrays a similarity to Bruce Springsteen, as well as Bob Seger on some cuts), and the heartland attitude for which he became known starts to seep through these songs as well. I think the whole Johnny Cougar thing got some stink on these albums that diminished the perception of the music, while fully agreeing with the fact that most of the songs aren't worth a second or third listen. That's why I think a comp like When I Was A Cougar is really useful. For some artists it's worth searching through their (relatively) underachieving early records and finding some treasure in deep cuts, but with Mellencamp you won't find treasure, because what's to be treasured is here. 

I did the hard work for you, so that When I Was A Cougar basically supplants the necessity of listening to those first records up to American Fool almost entirely. If you have a personal favorite that's missing from this comp, then it's likely you are a Mellencamp superfan and find a ton of worthwhile stuff on thise records. But if you are just a casual fan of Mellencamp, or not familiar with his work at all, then I think you'll find a ton of worthwhile stuff on When I Was A Cougar and none of the crap, so you'll get the most interesting moments of an artist evolving before your eyes and ears without any unwanted distraction. I'm also really happy with the cover art that came out pretty much exactly like I imagined it (useless to add that that's not always the case, unfortunately, with my limited visual editing skills and software). 

I think When I Was A Cougar is a really good listen. Hope you'll agree. And now I let the Cougar take over...