listen.

i sold my heart to the junkman

as with most of my posts this is two days late but not a dollar short.

but i was mostly done with it so i figured i would still post it so it wasn't a waste of time.

pretend as you read this that is between 11 am and 6 pm on thursday feb 14th. THANKS!

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hey hey listeners.

so, unless you live somewhere where the government has outlawed a lot of western things you are somehow plagued with (or celebrating) valentine's day.

for most post modern young cynics like myself this is just a greeting card gimmick in order to make money and force people buy more stupid crap that will end up floating in that garbage landfill island in the pacific. 

that being said i figured we could enjoy some 60's girl group songs about love with a little emphasis on the  heart break aspect of love.  i really love songs about heart break -- you could say i am melancholy by nature but i think mainly i just love the juxtaposition of heart break and doo wop in a song.  they are also pretty dramatic which is hard not to enjoy.

(all these songs were brought into my life when my friend micah made me a copy of his collections of girl group songs. it was a really wonderful addition to my music library and i have become rather obsessed with some of the songs.)

OKAY! so let's start with some truths:

the first cut is the deepest, pp arnold.
she was a back up singer for tina turner and then she had a solo career. and damn if this isn't a song for the history books. first, it's true: the first cut is the deepest but you'll always try to love again. second, the trumpets.   i just can't get enough of this song.

every little bit hurts, brenda holloway
a great motown singer and a great song.  every little hurt counts. ah, life.

okay. moving on. i call this next section REALIZATION:

you don't love me no more, madeline bell
rockin song, intense back up vocals.  similar to the magnetic fields' song i don't want to get over you it's good to have this song in your music library because there may be a time when you'll need to listen to it a lot.  it'll make you feel better or it will allow you to wallow - either way IT will never leave you.

you're no good, dee dee warwick
until i got these cd's from micah i just assumed this was a linda rondstat song. oops.  you left someone for a tool bag who winds up being no good. i'm sure you're friends warned you not to.  you live and you learn, right?

let's call this next section PRIDE:

crying in the rain, carole king
i love carole king. i enjoy this song. i think the flight of the concords song i'm not crying (is that what it's called?) is a modern answer to this song. i'll just go out in the rain and sob and then you won't be able to tell - unless you're really sobbing and your face contorts in that ugly crying face, then everyone will be able to tell you are crying carol, sorry...

girl don't come, sandie shaw
does this fit in the pride section? maybe.  why do you keep asking this girl out? she keeps standing you up!  i think it's your pride. i love this song: dramatic story, brass and string instruments and her voice is really awesome.   i love how the song never gets to a point where the person realizes they are better than this girl - the girl just never shows up. ha.

and since not everything is doom and gloom the final section is LOVE:

cause i love him, aldar ray   

isn't that nice?

oh, and for good measure here's the song that gave me the title for the post:

i sold my heart to the junkman, the starlets

i believe in love
g

i'll take you there

this past tuesday ben took me and his good friend (who has since become a good friend of mine as well), amanda duarte to see mavis staples at BAM on january 22nd.  it was our christmas gift from him, and what a good gift it was.
mavis (we're on a first name basis) was a keynote at BAM's 22nd Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And then on the 22nd she performed at the opera house with her band.

and it was amazing. (not too long, but it didn't really matter)  i am not sure if i have smiled so much or clapped harder at a concert in a long time. 
the quote BAM kept throwing around from the Boston Globe was:
"Mavis Staples doesn't so much sing a song as baptize it in truth."

i mean, if that was ever said about me, i would throw it around every day of my life.  (i can aslo say that i have to agree with that statement very much so.)

her set list was pretty rad - she sang a lot of civil rights songs - a lot from her family's group THE STAPLE SINGERS.  as her dad said about Dr. King: if he can preach it - we can sing it.

i wish i had the technology to record the concert so i could share some of the versions, but i'll share the early versions i have.  just picture her voice older, smokier - having lived a little more life.

i'll take you there, the staple singers
i love this song.  long before i understood who the staple singers were. i have memories of all the cooks in the kitchen of my parents restaurant dancing around to this.

the weight, the staples singers
same as above.

heavy makes you happy, the staple singers
not the same as above. but you gotta love a song where she screams "schom-on y'all" [or however you would spell that]. and i just love a good sha-na-boom-boom, don't you?

here are some mavis staples songs i love:

until i met you, mavis staples
this song could be in a musical.  maybe it was? maybe it will be.  maybe i'll sing it.

son of a preacher man, mavis staples
i'm not hating on dusty - but this is the best version of this song. period.

if there's one thing the concert made me think it's that i want to hear mavis sing every day. i need to. the other thing it made me think about was that i really want to be a soul singer. so i guess i should start working on that dream while i'm still spry enough to shake it.

alrighty. enjoy.

i hated her so much...it..there are flames...

a bunch of us boys watched CLUE last night and laughed a lot.   

anyway -- i had a plan for a monday post but clue has been floating about my brain and i kept singing this song to myself as i pedaled to work in this wonderfully breezy august weather.  so thanks to the extraordinary immediacy of itunes i am able to provide you all with the song!

The Crew Cuts - Sh-Boom!

and also a you tube link to mrs. white's true feelings about yvette...

and clue led us to think about an american werewolf in london  - which led me to think about some of the music in that movie
(the 20th anniversary of that film is happening in sept...)

especially the doo wop blue moon right after they shoot david at the end

The Marcels - Blue Moon!

and just for fun here's a little creedence clearwater revival and for a different type of fun i've attached a photo of david turning into a werewolf.  i mean who knew werewolves were so...you know...sigh.  at least that nurse got to have some fun before they shot him...
lucky nurse. lucky, lucky, LUCKY nurse....

where was i?

oh. bad moon rising!

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising

geo