FM dial scan highlights CCLXXXIV

Six of the better tracks played today:

WSIE 88.7 FM 

• You Belong To Me-Carly Simon (I'm glad there's a place in WSIE's generally jazzy mix for a pop tune with a jazz-adjacent bent like this.  The Doobie Brothers also recorded a strong version of this.)
• The Cat-Jimmy Smith (Hip for 1964 organ playing from Smith, as expected, augmented by joyful, explosive brass.)

KWMU 90.7 FM 

• There's A Small Hotel-Houston Person (Smooth, resonant tenor sax tone from Person and excellent rhythm section backing.  The Gene Harris Quartet's "Strollin'" would flow well into this rendition of a frequently covered tune...)
• I've Got You Under My Skin-Beegie Adair Trio (...or this fine piano rendition of another much-covered melody.)

KSHE 94.7 FM 

• Solsbury Hill-Peter Gabriel (Honest lyrics about knowing when it's time to leave a situation.)
• Right Down The Line-Gerry Rafferty (Another way of conveying the sentiments expressed in Jim Croce's "I'll Have To Say I Love You In  A Song."  As much as I've always liked Rafferty's "Baker Street" and "Get It Right Next Time," this, to me, is Rafferty's best song, by a nose.)

An overlooked cover tune CLXXIV

I realized recently that I haven't given Triste Janero's version of The Lovin' Spoonful's "You Didn't Have To Be So Nice" its due.  After listening to it again, I appreciate it just as much as the original version.  The Lovin' Spoonful gives it more of a jaunty stroll vibe, which is likely a large part of why it was a hit.  Triste Janero's rendition, however, gives the tune a completely different energy.  Brazilian-style guitar underscores an attitude in the vocals of, "Look, just relax.  Make an effort, but don't look so desperate.  You're still my chosen one."  It isn't as overtly hook-laden, but it's just as compelling in its own way.

Context? CDV

Last night, before playing a live version of Aretha Franklin's "Oh Me, Oh My," the K297BI announcer said to pay attention to the bass because "it's doing some heavy lifting."

She was right.  Franklin's emotive vocals and the piano are key to the song's mood, but the bass has a more prominent role that you don't hear on the studio recording. 

As a bass player, it's nice to be reminded that your instrument, which usually plays a supporting role, is a key ingredient in making a song resonate. 

Impromptu balance correction II

As soon as the song started, I knew the speakers weren't balanced properly.  The chorus of Mason Proffit's "Voice Of Change" came through loud and clear, but the verses didn't.

My second listen with the proper audio balance was much more satisfying.  Lyrics demanding justice are much more impactful when they don't sound like, "Mumble, mumble, barely audible screed about discontentment, something, something, people giving orders..."

Persistent earworm alert CCCXCII

After watching Level 42 perform on "Saturday Live," the former '80s British equivalent of "Saturday Night Live," I thought, "I should listen to 'Running In The Family' more often.  Its lyrics about how much our upbringing influences how we approach life are perceptive, the tune's sensibility is overtly English, and its synthesized rhythm, rooted firmly in 1987, is catchy.  I have to respect any group that can make an infectious hook out of the lyrics, 'Looking back, it's so bizarre.  It runs in the family...'"

If the American pop charts were meritocratic barometers of taste, "Running In The Family" would have been a hit in the states.

Family entertainment? III

I've written previously about my surprise at hearing two different local bands play "Psycho Killer" by Talking Heads at the same venue.  Recently, while looking back at KCOU's Top 88.1 Countdown from 1992, I was surprised to see that listeners ranked it 49th, one notch ahead of one of my favorite songs, XTC's "King For A Day."  

I'm puzzled that "Psycho Killer" was the only Talking Heads song that made it into the countdown that year, when other, more widely palatable tunes of theirs, such as "Once In A Lifetime," "And She Was," "Take Me To The River," and "(Nothing But) Flowers," didn't. 

I really hope that the tune's rhythm--and not its lyrics--are "Psycho Killer"'s main draw. 

An overlooked cover tune CLXXIII

After catching Bob Baldwin's instrumental rendition of the Seals & Crofts hit, "Summer Breeze," on WSIE today, I'm surprised I don't hear it regularly on smooth jazz stations.  For pleasant, relaxing listening, it checks multiple boxes: Baldwin's easy-on-the-ears piano carrying the melody, Marion Meadows fluttering over the tune on saxophone, and solid execution of one of the strongest, most recognizable hits of the '70s.