Sinéad O’Connor’s “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” is one of the prettiest song about breaking up that I can think of.
Download here.
Happy Wednesday.
Sinéad O’Connor’s “The Last Day of Our Acquaintance” is one of the prettiest song about breaking up that I can think of.
Download here.
Happy Wednesday.
The Oscar nominations announced today were pretty surprising in many, many cases. Had I been writing this blog on the day the nominations for the films of 1967 were announced, I would have written that very same sentence. I bet you thought I was going to say that.

Back then Sidney Potier didn’t get nominated for his amazing turn in ‘In the Heat of the Night,’ nor for his performance ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ And he was also shut out for his role in ‘To Sir, With Love.’ All three of these films were released in 1967. And that title track, one of the best songs ever, didn’t get nominated for Best Song either. Unbelievable! Crazily, neither did “Mrs. Robinson” from The Graduate.
In lieu of an Academy Award – which is what “To Sir With Love” should have won – the song by the lovely Lulu is now downloadable on Margauxville.
And still “Mrs. Robinson” is shut out….sorry, guys.
Jack Lalanne died yesterday. I’m pretty sure that the best thing you could do to pay tribute to the man is to get physical. Since the entire gamut from cross-country skiing to making out all falls under the LET’S GET PHYSICAL banner, you really have no excuse. Especially because now you can download the soundtrack for your outing.
I’ve always unabashedly loved Olivia Newton-John’s “(Let’s Get) Physical” No irony. And really, who doesn’t like getting into animal? But if she’s not your cup of tea, here’s an industrial metal version of it by Revolting Cocks.
And here’s a little ahead-of-his-time video from the man himself:
I am reneging on yesterday’s post. This is truly the song for these cold days…and nights: “Turn the Heater On” by Keith Hudson.

You may know this song because Ian Curtis of Joy Division was a huge fan of “The Dark Prince of Reggae” and New Order covered it as a tribute on a John Peel appearance. If this weather keeps up in Margauxville, you may be hearing that version here too…
Until then, hold me, squeeze me tonight, for I feel so cold at night. And by that I mean, download here.
Is there any other song for a day as cold as today?
Sebadoh’s cover of “Cold As Ice” always warms my heart. But then again, I wasn’t the one willing to sacrifice our love, so maybe it won’t warm yours. Download it here and see for yourself.
Last night I dreamed that my mother called me, crying, asking if I heard the news. She told me the President had been shot. I kept saying, “But why would anyone want Cheney to be President?”
I knew it was a dream, but it was still upsetting. It wasn’t till a couple of hours after I was awake that I realized they would have shot Obama, not Bush. I’m not living in the past, but I am apparently spending my nights there.
Anyway, how could I forget my President is Black?? I mean, really. I used that Young Jeezy song in a commercial (yeah, I know…). It was tricky getting all the different writers on board and because we were in such a rush, I took matters into my own hands and tracked them down myself. They were super nice. Especially when I said to one of the them, “Hey…I have a question. What does ‘My lampost’s blue’ mean?'” Dead silence. More dead silence. I had never seen the video. I had no idea it was ‘My Lambo’s blue.’ Out of all the many people I know, not one of them would ever use ‘Lamborghini’ in a sentence, much less ‘Lambo.’ I was kind of mortified when he corrected me.
Download it and tell me it doesn’t sound like lampost! And also, let’s just get one thing straight: I don’t really care what color my President is, much less a Lambo, but I do want my President to be alive. K?
This one goes out to all my cartographer fans. There are so many Wire songs that I love, especially from their super punky first album from 1977, Pink Flag, but this beauty (Map Ref. 41 Degrees N 93 Degrees W) from a couple of years later gets me every time.

The reference is to the dead center of the United States including Alaska and Hawaii, which is near the rather obviously named Centerville, Iowa. But I think I speak for everyone in the Lower 48 when I say that the song should have been called 39° 50′ N, 98° 35′ W. That’s the geographic center of the contiguous United States, a former hog farm near Lebanon, Kansas. Why on earth would you include Alaska and Hawaii in this? It’s just silly.
If this song wasn’t so pretty, I’d boycott it.
There’s an Old Moon in the sky tonight. It’s different than the old moon you see in the sky every night. This one has capital letters. Plus it refers to the first full moon after the winter solstice.
In honor of this occasion – and also because of two other things that I’m not at liberty to disclose – Frank Sinatra’s “Fly Me To the Moon” has been in my brain today. Tons of people have covered this song, but it’s this version that everyone thinks of. You know who you should thank for that? Quincy Jones. He’s the one who arranged it for Frank/Count Basie. Before that, it was quite different. In fact, it wasn’t even originally called “Fly Me To the Moon.” It was called “In Other Words.” And the very first recording of that, back in 1954, was by Kaye Ballard.
You can download both of them here, just in time to play them while you’re toasting the Old Moon. In New York, the very moment of that is 4:21p. Too early to toast? Maybe. But maybe not. Go ahead, download them now just in case. Always better to be prepared.
If you read the blog you should really be reading, you’ll know that I’ve been thinking about beauty lately. While I’ve been concentrating on the beauty that is too vivid to process, what about the beauty that goes unnoticed? Is it as beautiful? And what about the beauty you imagine to exist but isn’t a reality at all? Does that make it less beautiful? Oh, it’s all so tragic!
Elvis Costello’s millionth album was called All This Useless Beauty because he expected that to be the fate of the songs contained within. Now that’s tragic. And really funny. Just as you’d expect from him. I love Elvis Costello, of course, but I’ve always adored this version by Lush of the title song.
And, this song seems fitting for a day like today.
I was originally going to post a Martin Luther King, Jr. related piece, but somehow my mind ended up in the gutter instead. Here are two blues songs, both from 1937 and both “borrowed” by Led Zeppelin for “The Lemon Song.”
It’s funny, but I don’t usually think of lemons as a sexual euphemism, but then again I don’t usually discuss squeezing lemons till the juice runs down my leg. I’m not adverse to it though. Let’s try to bring this into everyday conversation. In fact, next time someone says the annoying “When God gives you lemons, make lemonade” to you, I dare you to come back with that line.
You can download Robert Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside Blues” here and Art McKay’s “She Squeezed My Lemon” here. You’re welcome.
Oh, and Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!