SubVerse

Okay, I’m clearly in a childish mood these days. First “Where the Wild Things Are,” and now this. But so be it, this made me very happy too.

Feist singing her song “1, 2, 3, 4″ on Sesame Street, changing the words to better fit. But it already seems as if it was always meant to be right here…

This week’s eclectic mix moves from soul to hip hop, through big orchestra to singer-songwriter lushness. But each track has that sticky funk, that gets in your head and makes you want to groove. Whether they’re singing about the stickiness of good lovin’, that makes you want to hang around for more - or the sticky good greenery you want to roll up and huff and puff - these ten tunes are gonna get in your soul, and keep you coming back for more.

Sample the tracks individually, or download a Zip File (78MB) of all the tracks here.

1) So In Love - Curtis Mayfield & The Impressions

2) Rosebud - SA-RA Creative Partners

3) You Know, You Know - Mahavishnu Orchestra

4) Les Fleur - Ramsey Lewis

5) 2 Wicky - Hooverphonic

6) River Man (Nick Drake cover) - Shawn Lee

7) Honey Bee - Jessie Mae Hemphill

I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (Nina Simone cover) - Nikka Costa

9) Kiss (ft. Will Oldham) - Scout Niblett

10) Everybody Loves the Sunshine - D’Angelo

11) Abstractionisms - Q-Tip

12) Who’s Got the Weed? - G. Love and Special Sauce

(c) Images this week by Siege.

I’ve always intended for Subverse to be an MP3 blog (among other things). But I have been woefully lazy in the year and three months now that this site has existed. It’s time to start following through on my original idea.

My hope (or rather, as my shrink insists I say, my plan) is to put up two mixes a month – every other Sunday.

SUNDAY MIXES: Consisting of curated music on a theme, ideally meant to be listened to in order, as a DJ-ed set.

A mix-tape from me to you.

Today’s theme is simply the weather of this weekend I’ve spent at the farmhouse (in upstate New York). It’s gone from breathtakingly beautiful summer sun across the flower gardens and lush green hillsides – to moody grey hours of drizzling rain and thunder rumbling in the heavy clouds. Only to, once again, be surprised by a peek of golden light breaking through the grey over the Hudson River just before sunset.

And so today’s Sunday Mix No. 1 offers a similar journey. From the joy of a sunny morning upstate, to the quiet of an afternoon indoors, and back again.

See you next Sunday.

- Woodstock - Alice Russell

- Devil Do - Holly Golightly & The Brokeoffs

- Shake It Off - Wilco

- History Song (Live, with instrumental intro) - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

- Roll On (Ft. Jenny Lewis) - Dntel

- Assoul - Tinariwen

- Reckoner - Thom Yorke (Acoustic @ Free Trade Show 4/16/07

- Ray-O-Graph - Jackie-O Motherfucker

- Cajuina - Forro in the Dark

- First Desert Ride - Jeff Simmons/Randy Sterling (Naked Angels OST)

- Whole Lotta Love - Ike & Tina Turner

- Jardin d’Hiver - Keren Ann

- All I Want Is You - Sugarplum Fairies

- Paisley Park (Prince cover) - Richard Swift

- Lay and Love - Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy

- The Ride - Joan as Policewoman

- Contusion (Live) - Stevie Wonder

- The Light - White Magic

- Mr. Whippy (ft. Eslam Jawaad) - The Good, The Bad & The Queen

- Boom-Biddy-Boom - Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren

John Lennon in a 1975 interview with Rolling Stone honcho Jann Wenner:

“Yoko’s made me get cocky about my guitar playing. I mean, yeah, one part of me says, of course I can play. Because I can make a rock… move. Ya know? But another part of me says, I wish I could just do it like B.B. King.

But, I’m an artist. And if you give me a tuba, I can bring something out of it.

I don’t know, ask Eric Clapton. He says I can play. Ask him.

You know, I… it’s… you don’t have to… a lot of you people want technical perfection. It’s like wanting technical film. You know, most critics of rock and roll and guitarists are in the stage of the Fifties, when they wanted a technically perfect film all finished for them, and then they would feel happy.

I’m a Cinema Verite guitarist. You have to be able to break down your barriers to hear what I’m playing.”

from: Rolling Stone.com

Man… This is a haunting song.

I think I first heard the Lou Rawls version of “St. James Infirmary.” I think it was on a mix tape with no song titles, and for years I had no idea what it was. Just that it was haunting.

Lou Rawls - St. James Infirmary

Eventually I heard the Louis Armstrong version, with Cab Calloway. Which I think is sort of the Ur-verison of this old tune. The one where the horns sweep in with a deep funeral timbre and lift you off your feet. I must’ve listened to it a hundred times, whenever I was lousy with the miseries. But because it met that mood, it lifted me out of it. It warmed my blood.

Louis Armstrong - St. James Infirmary (w_ Cab Calloway)

The last night, I started noticing how many version of this song there were. And I went a little crazy collecting them - had a good 33 different version by the time I went to bad. From Oing Boingo to Joe Cocker to The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Nearly every single one was beautiful, in the same way - took me right back to that same soul place.

It’s a song about death. It’s about a man seeing the woman he loves stretched out dead on the hospital slab. But those horns rising and rising…. It’s a song about release. A song about acceptance. A song about drinking life in deeply, in all its pain and unfairness.

Here’s a few versions to get you started. Eventually, I may get them all up here:

Joe Cocker - St. James Infirmary (Live)
James Booker - St. James Infirmary Blues
Zephyr - St. James Infirmary (Tommy Bolin/guitar)

By the way, check out the picture of this guy, James Booker.
What a cool lookin’ dude. What an enigmatic smile.
Can anyone tell me more about this guy? I’ve never heard of him.