In a comment, Michael Padgett mentioned how much he liked R.E.M. That reminded me that I had a compilation CD of songs selected by R.E.M. This CD was given away free with Uncut Magazine #11 in 2003. As you can see, the members of R.E.M. have various tastes in music.
I liked The Band’s live version of “Don’t Do It.” I also liked Warren Zevon’s “Porcelain Monkey.” I wasn’t familiar with Joseph Arthur’s “In the Sun,” but I liked it so I ordered his album Come To Where I’m From that includes this song. I also recognized Laura Nyro’s “And When I Die (Live)” which was a hit for Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969.
How many of these songs do you recognize? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | The Band– | Don’t Do It (Live) Written-By – Holland, Dozier, Holland* | 4:32 |
| 2 | Merle Haggard– | Workin’ Man Blues Written-By – Haggard | 2:35 |
| 3 | The Ramones*– | Blitzkrieg Bop (Live) Written-By – Ramone*, Ramone*, Ramone*, Ramone | 1:39 |
| 4 | Townes Van Zandt– | Kathleen (Live) Written-By – Van Zandt | 2:35 |
| 5 | Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five*– | Saturday Night Fish Fry Producer – Milt Gabler Written-By – Walsh*, Gabler | 4:32 |
| 6 | Big Star– | Holocaust Producer – Jim Dickinson Written-By – Chilton | 3:48 |
| 7 | The Detroit Cobras– | Ya Ya Ya (Looking For My Baby) Producer – The Detroit Cobras Written-By – Starkes | 2:29 |
| 8 | Warren Zevon– | Porcelain Monkey Producer, Engineer – Paul Q Kolderie*, Sean Slade Written-By – Calderon*, Zevon | 3:31 |
| 9 | Ornette Coleman– | Tears Inside Alto Saxophone – Coleman *Bass – Percy Heath Drums – Shelly Manne Producer – Lester Koenig Trumpet – Don Cherry Written-By – Coleman | 5:02 |
| 10 | Joseph Arthur– | In The Sun Producer – Joseph Arthur Written-By – Arthur | 5:37 |
| 11 | Sandy Bull– | Carmina Burana Fantasy Arranged By – Sandy Bull Producer – Tom Vickers | 4:34 |
| 12 | Suicide– | Dream Baby Dream Producer – Ric Ocasek Written-By – Vega*, Rev | 6:22 |
| 13 | Dock Boggs– | Pretty Polly Written-By – Traditional | 3:04 |
| 14 | Laura Nyro– | And When I Die (Live) Executive-Producer – Eileen Silver-Lillywhite Producer – Laura Nyro Written-By – Nyro | 2:43 |
| 15 | Iggy Pop– | Family Affair Featuring, Guitar – Steve Jones (2) Written-By – Stone | 3:01 |
| 16 | Tim Buckley– | Dolphins (Live) Producer – Bill Inglot, Lee Hammond Written-By – Neil | 6:12 |
| 17 | Jimmy Smith– | Organ Grinder’s Swing Drums – Grady Tate Guitar – Kenny Burrell Organ – Jimmy Smith Producer – Eric Miller (6) Tenor Saxophone – Stanley Turrentine Written-By – Mills*, Parrish*, Hudson* | 5:08 |
| 18 | John Lee Hooker– | Jump Me One More Time Producer – Bernie Besman* Written-By – Josea | 2:29 |
| 19 | Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban*– | Los Twangueros Producer – Ry Cooder Written-By – Galban | 4:42 |
| 20 | Otha Turner* & The Rising Star Fife and Drum Band– | Short’nin’/Henduck Producer – Luther Dickinson Written-By – Turner | 2:52 |
Never heard of Otha Turner or Dock Boggs.. A couple others I know the artist but not the song-Joseph Arthur and Sandy Bull. My favorites here are the Warren Zevon, The Ramones, Tim Buckley , Laura Nyro, John Lee Hooker. Louis Jourdan , Nig Star and The Band. Suicide’s song was covered well by Bruce Springsteen a couple of years back. Nothing here that I know that I dislike.
Steve, R.E.M has some eclectic tastes in music.
Musicians tend to.
An interesting compilation—especially something like the Band doing what I assume is a Motown cover. REM was always full of surprises—for example, on one of their albums, they did a (really drunk) version of “King of the Road.” I know a good number of the songs here. I was just talking about Laura Nyro the other day: she had an amazing streak as a songwriter—“And When I Die,” “Eli’s Coming,” “Wedding Bell Blues,” “Stoney End” (I like Nyro’s version better than Barbra Streisand’s)—but always for other artists; she never had a hit of her own. She died tragically young. I’m not familiar with the Iggy Pop song—unless it’s a cover of the Sly & the Family Stone song from the 1970s. That should make interesting listening.
Deb, interesting is the word for this CD. Wide variety of styles and artists.
Just popped back in to say that the Iggy Pop “Family Affair” is indeed a cover of the Sly & the Family Stone song. Spotify attributes it to Iggy Pop & Steve Jones. It sounds like some of the stuff Iggy did in the 1980s, sorta mournful like “Candy.” Anyway, I liked it enough to add it to one of my playlists.
Deb, I’m glad this review revealed an Iggy Pop song you liked enough to add to one of your playlists!
This would have been from the golden era of music magazines including CDs. Uncut did some interesting ones as did Mojo, some of which I still have. The BBC Music magazine still includes classical CDs with every issue and most of them are quite good and worth the price of the issue alone. R.E.M. were known for generously promoting artists, past and present, that they admired. They were huge advocates of Pere Ubu and The dB’s (going so far as to hire Pete Holsapple as an unofficial firth member) and even went so far as to back up Warren Zevon on the Hindu Love Gods album.
Byron, you’re right: that was the golden era for music magazines and CDs. UNCUT was a cut above the rest in my estimation. I read the BBC Music magazine for a few years with their classical CDs as part of the package.
I liked REM right from their start in the early 80s and they remained one of my 2-3 favorite bands for the entire 30 years of their existence. It surprised me that I’d never heard of this compilation until I saw that it was given away by a magazine. Many of the artists here are familiar but a lot of the songs aren’t. I’d love to hear the Iggy Pop cover of “Family Affair”, which could be as off-the-wall as the Sid Vicious cover of “My Way”.
Michael, just send the address you’d like me (kelley@ecc.edu) to ship this CD to and it’s yours.
Not familiar with most of them, other than The Band (we have this on a couple of albums, including live on ROCK OF AGES, a terrific double album recorded live at the Acedemy of Music in New York Christmas week of 1971), Laura Nyro (we have her greatest hits, which is great; Barbra Streisands’s arrangement of “Stoney End” is pretty much identical to Nyro’s), Warren Zevon and Louis Jordan (we saw FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE, based on Jordan’s songs, in London and bought the live CD, and we have a Jordan Hits CD). I know several of the others but not those songs.
Jeff, I’m working on a Laura Nyro post. Nyro is an underrated artist who died too young.
You’re right. Nyro died at 49 of ovarian cancer, the same age and disease that killed her mother.
Seems I’m a 60s/70s person – don’t really remember any of these artists or songs.
But of course they weren’t played often on German radio stations (which I listened to while driving) either.
Wolf, there will be plenty of 60s and 70s music on this blog in the weeks ahead!
What a strange assortment.
Rick, R.E.M. selected some very different music for this CD.
Well, this is the kind of mix I would put together on tapes and CDs for my friends back when, or on Saturday Music Club posts when the spirit moved me. Don’t know Arthur, Turner nor the Detroit Cobras, but am familiar with most of the rest of the recordings, and all the other performers here.
Big Star’s “Holocaust” is probably my favorite song here, as part of one of my favorite albums in rock, THIRD/SISTER LOVERS. Lots of good work here…The band performed “Don’t Do It” a lot, including at The Last Waltz.
Todd, you’re right about the tastes of musicians. They tend to go far afield for their favorite songs.