Mike Bennett writesFriday iPod/MP3 Shuffle—Happy Birthday George Harrison Edition

This week, we pay tribute to the quiet Beatle, the first Beatle to play live on stage in America, the late George Harrison. Harrison’s sister lived in Benton, Illinois in the ’60s (way down south), and George paid her a visit and during that time, he stepped up on stage to play with a local combo. Little did they know who they were playing with. Harrison was a masterful guitarist, a philanthropist, a populizer of eastern religion, a very good songwriter, a man who bankrolled a lot of great British film, and the Beatle who had the best single scene in A Hard Day’s Night (“She’s a drag, a well-known drag. Sometimes we turn the sound down and say rude things about her.”). In honor of this musical giant’s birthday, please get out your iPod or MP3 player, hit shuffle and share the first 10 songs that come up.

1. Radiohead – Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors (Amnesiac): It’s good to start out with this, considering all the chatter the new Radiohead album has generated. Some see The King Of Limbs as a throwback to this Amnesiac and Kid A sound, as opposed to the prior two more guitar oriented albums. That is true to a certain extent. However, the new stuff is more languid and mellow. This particularly track has echoing electo-percussion, a processed voice popping in and out and unexpected piano interludes. It’s more aggressive and jarring than the new material. Which isn’t a judgment, it’s merely an observation.
2. Jamey Johnson — Playing The Part (The Guitar Song): Johnson is the rare contemporary country singer who actually plays real country music. With his distinct baritone voice, Johnson’s music sometimes comes close to ’70s Southern rock, but it never loses its more traditional feel. He’s a good songwriter, whether it’s telling stories of how overrated Hollywood is (as on this song), singing from the point of view of an old guitar, or taking on rich folks who don’t understand the needs of the poor, Johnson is a throwback in the best sense of the word.
3. The Pogues — The Gentleman Soldier (Rum, Sodomy & The Lash): I cannot underestimate what an impact the second Pogues album had on me. The band did a masterful job of mixing a punk rock attitude and amped up vibe to traditional Irish and folk music. Moreover, they drew the lines clearly for me on how the roots of American country music came so strongly from Ireland, Scotland and England. This got me back into more traditional country and embracing the cowpunk scene of the mid-80’s even more. This is just a fun little romp.
4. The Olivia Tremor Control — Memories Of Jacqueline 1906 (Music From the Unrealized Film Script, Dusk At Cubist Castle): At around the time I was reveling in the power pop revival of the late-‘90s, with some of those bands evincing strong psychedelic vibes, the Elephant 6 collective was putting out lots of great psychedelic pop. OTC was my favorite of all these bands, as their best songs really had an authenticity matched by their catchiness. This is a typical number with some inspired mid-fi production touches.
5. The Byrds — It’s No Use (Mr. Tambourine Man): A folk rock number that really rocks. This has a great lead guitar figure and chugs around really nicely, augmented by the ominous harmony vocals that I always associated with this band. It seems like The Byrds have been marginalized a bit, which is a shame, as their early albums are full of gems that influenced legions.
6. Emitt Rhodes — Take You Far Away (The Emitt Rhodes Recordings: 1969-1973): Indeed, that Byrds influence can be heard on this edgy pop song from cult favorite Rhodes. This also has a strong lead guitar figure, and Rhodes multi-tracks his voice to create some awesome harmonies. The bass part sounds like Paul McCartney on a psychedelic Beatles track, giving this jangle psych-pop a bit of an Eastern gloss.
7. Guadalcanal Diary — Everything But Good Luck (Flip-Flop): This Georgia band was part of a brigade of jangly guitar bands who got oodles of college radio airplay in the wake of the ascension of R.E.M. And they were quite good, with three of their four albums being keepers. This is from the band’s final effort, where the guitars were amped up a bit in one last attempt to get radio play. This was actually a welcome addition, as guitarist Murray Attaway always wrote strong tunes, so a little more volume was not a detriment. This is a scolding moralistic song, which was something this band did from time to time.
8. Johnny Cash — Southern Accents (Unearthed): Rick Rubin did a great job of giving Johnny Cash a variety of material to record. Here, Cash really delves into one of Tom Petty’s most personal numbers, elevating a good song into a great one with an engaging and empathetic performance. Rubin’s production is spot on, augmenting Cash’s acoustic guitar with light percussion, organ, piano and harmonica. Cash sounds great on this.
9. The Orange Peels — Everybody’s Gone (Square): This San Francisco band is led by Allen Clapp. They have come up with a great power pop variation on the sunshiney soft pop that came out of California in the late ’60s. Clapp’s voice is key. He’s not a traditionally great singer, but he is tuneful and his voice exudes a cheerfulness and empathy that imbues his words with feeling, whether a song is happy or takes on something less pleasant. This song does a great job staying bouncy and finally leading up to a big hook in the final chorus.
10. Fountains Of Wayne — Mexican Wine (Welcome Interstate Managers): FoW’s biggest seller is just a small step down from their first two classic albums. The band mixed witty observational lyrics with an encyclopediac knowledge of guitar pop from the ’60s through the ’90s. This song starts off softly, before building to a nice mid-tempo rock with some great stylized guitar (a la Elliot Easton of The Cars), and building more, with horns and stacked harmony vocals. A pretty darned good way to start off an album. Great use of dynamics throughout the track.