The latest Mercury Rev album is a bit of a curiosity. A reworking of Bobbie Gentry's second album, The Delta Sweete, it sees regular Rev vocalist Jonathan Donohue hand over his mic to a stellar range of guests, including Norah Jones, Phoebe Bridgers, Beth Orton, Margo Price, Vashti Bunyan and Lucinda Williams. This patchwork quilt of a tribute album shouldn't really work, and I half-expected to be grumbling that "none of them (even Lucinda) can hold a torch to Bobbie's originals", yet I've found myself getting sucked in with progressive listens.
As you'd expect from a Mercury Rev record, the arrangements are lush and sparkly and trippy, like something out of a dream, a hallucination, or a David Lynch film. For the most part, the guest vocalists rise to the occasion, either by being faithful to Bobbie's interpretations... or, particularly in Lucinda's case, being true to themselves. Actually, Lucinda is given the toughest draw - a cover of Ode To Billy Joe, which wasn't even on the original album but... well, it's Ode To Billie Joe. How could they resist?
Only occasionally does the odd vocalist betray her more contemporary roots by indulging in the kind of histrionics favoured by modern chart divas and X-Factor contestants... but I won't name names. Bobbie wouldn't approve. For the most part though, I think she'd be pretty chuffed with this tribute. We may never know, since she's shunned the celebrity life for over 40 years now. But let's at least hope she earns a few pennies towards her retirement from this...
"It's All Coming Back To Me Now," you'll be able to say to your grandchildren, many years from now... "the day that Saturday Snapshots finally jumped the shark. The day Rol had a picture of Celine Dion at the top of the page..."
Give me a break: you try finding two different pictures of pop stars holding cameras every week. It's not as easy as it looks, you know. (Although I do have a few more in the bag.) Perhaps the day I run out will be the day I finally call it quits. Until then... My Heart Will Go On.
A very closely fought game yesterday, between Lynchie, Chris, Alyson and C in particular. I think Lynchie just got the title. Well done to Charity Chic, Rigid Digit, George and Martin (Come Together... as one... like George Martin) for mopping up the hard ones.
10. Beautiful Persian queen makes Pilgrim's Progress via choo choo.
I was genuinely surprised by how many elephants I found in my record collection. So many great songs featuring playful pachyderms, I couldn't even find room for 'When I See An Elephant Fly'...
Special mentions to Cage The Elephant, The White Stripes (classic album) and to Elephant Elephant by Evelyn Evelyn which, much as I love Amanda Palmer, is a bit too quirky even for this blog...
After two classic albums and a well-regarded debut in three consecutive years, the Rats took a year off and let the quality slip on their fourth, 1981's rather muddled Mondo Bongo. It was the beginning of the end for a once-great group, and the second single, Elephant's Graveyard, ably demonstrates why. It's not a bad song - but neither is it I Don't Like Mondays or Rat Trap. The ridiculous B-movie is an object lesson in record company excess ripping the soul from a band as it pours on the cash.
Some debate recently over on Charity Chic's blog when he had the temerity to throw a bit of Vashti Bunyan on the playlist. A bit too hippy-dippy, twee-diddly-dee for some, but I always liked this one myself.
Bad Seed Mick Harvey also did a song called Pink Elephants as the original title track of his excellent album of Serge Gainsbourg covers. Can't find a link for that though.
Down through the heavens Choke in the cotton clouds Arctic sheets and fields of wheat I can't stop coming down Your shrunken head Looking down on me above Send me home like an elephant stone To smash my dream of love
Who says the drugs didn't work?
Apparently, the Roses are currently in the studio recording their first new material in 20+ years. That should be interesting...
From
1970, so pretty damned late in Bo's career; this is interesting because
it takes the familiar Diddley guitar sound (which, let's face it, had a
pretty big hand in the creation of rock 'n' roll), then wraps it in a
kind of Steppenwolfy organ of the day. The lyrics tell of how Bo
actually created the elephant... which, as we've just established, isn't
too far off the truth.
Lesser spotted hit from the man who sang Honey, the song Tony Blackburn used to dedicate to his wife Tessa while their divorce was going through (cruelly parodied years later by Smashie & Nicey). When I was putting the longlist together for this post, I didn't think this track stood a chance. Then I listened to it again. Just call me an old romantic...
Well, the monkey forgot you The hippo forgot you And so did the kangaroo But me and the elephant, We'll never forget you...
On
first hearing, this is a song about a kid wanting to go see the
elephants at a travelling show. The commentators on youtube claim that
it's also a metaphor for a young soldier going off to face battle in the
Civil War. By the end of the song you start to hear more hints of that
as Pete and Johnny are "dressed up in their navy blue". "Seeing the
elephant" is an American expression for growing up and realising the
world's a bit of a shitty place, really.
A lot of fuss was made about Tame Impala off the back of this single: understandably as it's a classic slice of fuzzy glam that owes more than a little to the Doctor Who theme tune. Couldn't get into the album though. I'm coming around to the idea that I'm getting too old for a lot of this stuff now...
You may think you've never heard this, but if you're over a certain age (I dunno, 29?), chances are you'll know it very well. It was written for the movie Hatari, which I've never seen, but I always loved the tune.
I've been looking for a way to get some Jason Isbell on this blog for a few weeks now as his latest album, Something More Than Free, has been a firm favourite in my car since I bought it a couple of months back. Typically, when I do get the chance, it's a track from his previous album, Southeastern, that fits the bill. But as an example of why he's making serious waves in Americana at the moment, this'll do fine... a heartbreaking story about a guy who falls for a woman with cancer. A sensitive subject, but Jason pulls it off with class.
But I'd sing her classic country songs and she'd get high and sing along She don't have a voice to sing with now We burn these joints in effigy and cry about what we used to be, And try to ignore the elephant somehow, somehow
1. R.E.M. - The Great Beyond
In which Michael Stipe pushes an elephant up the stairs to give REM their biggest UK hit. Taken from Man On The Moon, the biopic of Andy Kaufman, and one of the very few Jim Carrey films I can bare to watch (see also Eternal Sunshine & The Truman Show). What's it got to do with elephants? Why is Stipey pushing one up the stairs? As with all R.E.M. lyricism you'd be better off looking for answers from the great beyond...
