It’s Monk Time!
Christalmighty, what an insane band, wonderful mix of beat and bonkers! Their first album is a classic.
Scritti Politti’s “Perfect Way”, a reprieve from my almost-total diet of country music this week, was not successful in relieving the biting cold or hunger in my lonely stomach.
#988 : jonathan richman - now is better than before (1985)
from jonathan richman’s first 20 years in show business by jonathan richman: “mr. richman was born in boston in 1951. he started to draw pictures all day long from the age of 5. played baseball all day long from the age of 9. this would not leave time for anything else, would it? he took up guitar at 15, started playing in public at 16, and by 17 had caused many people to leave coffee-houses… quickly… with their hands over their ears, and by 18 was sure he wanted to sing professionally… he left home at age 18, moving to new york. since he was ten years old and first was taken there by his parents, he wanted to live there and also his favorite rock band the velvet underground was there along with the artist andy warhol (since deceased)… he admired their sincerity, their dark sound, and their ability to improvise both lyrics and music onstage. his first place to stay in manhattan was on the couch of the personal manager of this velvet underground. after two weeks the manager and his wife and the other person staying there felt that jonathan… well… he immediately found work as a busboy (unbelievably incompetent) and as a foot messenger on wall street.” (emphasis mine)
“Knock on Wood” Amii Stewart.
Leo Sayer’s Thunder in my Heart. If you’ve ever been in love, had too much coffee and walked by the ocean with strings pumping in your crazy ass head. If people could read your thought bubbles they would have you committed.
Drove home very early yesterday morning. Just about ran out of gas, pulled over in Millbrae to fill up (thanks Google Maps). As I put the Greatest Hits of KC and the Sunshine Band playlist on I thought ‘yeah, right, like this’ll last’. No coffee, just lime sparkling water, can after can. Last it did, with 14 of the 16 songs being ‘hell yes!’s
The most recent, and I think the last, of my seasonal mixes drawing together music from all over the map and (twentieth-century) timeline. Unless I come up with a theme as good as the last one, that is. I’m realizing that I should wait for mixtape inspiration to strike rather than try to force one out according to an arbitrary schedule. Which isn’t to say all these songs aren’t great, or don’t have a lot to say to each other — they are, and they do. But it took a whole lot of cajoling.
The art is from the April 30th, 1927 cover to the magazine Para Todos by the cartoonist J. Carlos.
- Michel Polnareff Computer’s Dream {1971}
- Ella Fitzgerald Out of This World {1960}
- Donnie & Joe Emerson Baby {1979}
- Gal Costa Deixa Sangrar {1970}
- Annita Ray I’ll Be Around {1962}
- Freddy Fender Before the Next Teardrop Falls {1975}
- Cristina The Lie of Love {1984}
- The Cake Extroverted Introvert {1968}
- Herb Ellis Pogo {1956}
- Das EFX Jussummen {1992}
- Rafael Yepes Crespo & Sus Negros de la Región Nubia en la Playa {1967?}
- Margo Guryan Sunday Morning {1969}
- The Blue Nile Saturday Night {1989}
- Fred Astaire So Near and Yet So Far {1953}
- Franco & Le Tout Puissant OK Jazz Tozonga Na Nganga Wana {1966}
- Björk Jóga {1997}
- Thelonious Monk Monk’s Point {1965}
- Slim Gaillard Taxpayer’s Blues {1952}
- Lizzy Mercier Descloux Five Troubles Mambo {1980}
- Del Shannon Jody {1961}
- Bryan Ferry This Island Earth {1978}
- DJ Shadow Midnight in a Perfect World {1996}
Jonathan Bogart knocks it out of the park with another fantastic mix! Highly recommend.
Adorable. I love the bit at the end, ‘That’s all!’
Willem Breuker, whose Collective I hope to one day have score my Far Side musical. This video outlines what I believe actual Heaven to be like: dueling soprano saxes playing Bach.
