Category: Music

A Little Night Music: Compared to What

July 21, 2014

Every Sunday morning, I listen to Lisa Garvey’s show A-Train on UMass Boston’s PBR station WUMB. Every now and then Lisa will play Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ Compared to What. It’s one of my all time favorite jazz and protest songs. From Les McCann and Eddie Harris’ seminal 1969 live performance album Swiss Movement, recorded at the Montreux Jazz Festival with trumpeter Benny Bailey:

“Compared to What“, was a huge Billboard pop chart topper crossing into pop from the soul/jazz genre. The lyrics criticised both President Nixon and the Vietnam War. Written by Atlantic composer/artist Eugene McDaniels, the song first recorded by soul vocalist Roberta Flack, on her debut release, First Take (1969).

Lyrics: Compared to What

I love the lie and lie the love
A-Hangin‘ on, with push and shove
Possession is the motivation
that is hangin‘ up the God-damn nation
Looks like we always end up in a rut (everybody now!)
Tryin‘ to make it real — compared to what? C’mon baby!

Slaughterhouse is killin‘ hogs
Twisted children killin‘ frogs
Poor dumb rednecks rollin‘ logs
Tired old lady kissin‘ dogs
I hate the human, love that stinking mutt (I can’t use it!)
Try to make it real — compared to what? C’mon baby now!

The President, he’s got his war
Folks don’t know just what it’s for
Nobody gives us rhyme or reason
Have one doubt, they call it treason
We’re chicken-feathers, all without one nut. God damn it!
Tryin‘ to make it real — compared to what? (Sock it to me)

Church on Sunday, sleep and nod
Tryin‘ to duck the wrath of God
Preacher’s fillin‘ us with fright
They all tryin‘ to teach us what they think is right
They really got to be some kind of nut (I can’t use it!)
Tryin‘ to make it real — compared to what?

Where’s that bee and where’s that honey?
Where’s my God and where’s my money?
Unreal values, crass distortion
Unwed mothers need abortion
Kind of brings to mind ol’ young King Tut (He did it now)
Tried to make it real — compared to what?!

(Music break)

Tryin‘ to make it real — compared to what?

Related Images:

A Little Night Music: Roger Ebacher and Re:Groove

July 17, 2014

Newburyport native Roger Ebacher is a multi-instrumentalist, performer, and composer whose music has been played “on the airwaves all over North America, Europe, and as far east as India, Thailand, and Russia.” Check out this video of Roger and Re:Groove performing at Newburyport’s Firehouse Theater in 2011:

Roger’s latest recording BLUEISH GREY is the “first recording in several years to be released under his own name.” Reviews of Blueish Grey can be found here and it is available on ITunes.

Related Images:

A Little Night Music: Sturgill Simpson on the Letterman Show

July 16, 2014

Sturgill Simpson made his late night TV debut the other night on the Letterman Show. I’ve been taken with Sturgill Simpson’s sound since I first heard his song The Promise on the radio a few weeks ago. Rolling Stone reports Simpson’s performance on the Letterman Show prompted Dave Letterman “to herald the barn-burner as one that makes you want to hit the open road. “Every now and then, stop someplace and start a fight,” Letterman riffed. “[Then] get back in the car, keep driving.””

Watch Sturgill Simpson perform Life of Sin on the Letterman Show:

http://youtu.be/_70HJMikcBo

Sturgill Simpson’s new CD Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is evocative of the Outlaw Country Western Music of the late 1960’s and 1970’s made popular by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and others. I was a big fan of the Outlaw music genre back in the day, and I’m swiftly discovering a new affection for it listing to Metamodern Sounds in Country Music. In fact, Sturgill Simpson has a velvety baritone voice that reminds a lot of Waylon Jennings and why I enjoyed his music so much.