Multiple Mondays: Season of the Witch Volume Two

Here's a second helping of Donovan's atmospheric classic (click here to see Volume One).

In chronological order, here are ten versions. As always, I recommend the zip, but you can cherry pick. (I have many more versions, but they are mostly either terrible, or jambands, which -- sorry! -- tend to run together to me. If you wanna hear more, comment down below.)

Zipfile

Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger (1967) 1 2
Vanilla Fudge (1968) 1 2
Terry Reid (1968) 1 2
Pesky Gee! (1969) 1 2
Suck (1970) 1 2
Coupla Prog (1970) 1 2
Richard Thompson (2003) 1 2
David Gans and Bob Weir (live 2004) 1 2
The Strangelings (2007) 1 2
Blue Matter (2007) 1 2

Silly Sundays - Free At Last!

My legal and tax-filing status has been changed. And that's all I'm gonna say here, except that (despite what you may think if you don't listen to The Beatles all the way to the end) I'm a happy, happy boy.

Gabriel Mann and Maxayn Lewis - Free At Last
mirror 1 -- mirror 2
The Beatles - Oh! Darling (early take)
mirror 1 -- mirror 2

Janis Joplin - Tell Mama

Everybody's all, Oh Mark, have you seen Cadillac Records yet? And I must reply, nope, heard it wasn't that good. I'll catch the DVD.

Also, I'm a fan of Etta James. I know Etta James, and Etta James is (a person who was seen live in concert by) a good friend of mine. Beyonce is no Etta James. Please allow me to educate all you pop-followers: This is how you cover Etta James.

This is Ms. Janis Joplin (Official MySpace Wiki AMG), live in 1970 in Calgary, three months before her death, backed by The Full Tilt Boogie Band. (The film of this was shown on MTV as a music video during the 80's.)

Before I finish this post, I have an embarrassing confession to make: I'm late to the Janis party. One week ago, all I'd heard from her was a "best-of," which totally failed to capture the magic I've been loving from her all week at work. I'll put it simply: Janis is a goddess. There's no other word for it.

Janis Joplin - Tell Mama
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The Jackson Five - I Saw Mommy --ing Santa Claus

This is one of the treasures of my music collection, with a great backstory. Many years ago, while the internet was in its infancy and the earth's crust was still cooling, I met a guy online and traded some tapes with him (I can't find him these days, so I won't name him and maybe get him in trouble). He claimed to have an uncle who worked for Motown during the early 80s, who gave him all kinds of rare outtakes. I have a wonderful 90-minute tape of this stuff, with vocal flubs and studio chatter.

And then there's this.

As previously mentioned, this blog is officially neutral on the subject of cussing in Christmas songs. I apologize for the censor's bleep -- apparently that's on the original tape my friend's uncle copied. (No telling what generation that tape is, hence the low fidelity.) Close listeners will note that this appears to be the original backing track -- since the vast majority of Motown records were recorded first as instrumentals, then the vocals added*, apparently this is an alternate vocal take from Michael and the boys. Now I personally think this is absolutely adorable and hilarious in a juvenile way, but there are others who would find this offensive, so I understand why this will never officially see the light of day.

I'm posting this on Wednesday, December 10th. I'm also starting a pool to see how long it takes Motown to serve me legal papers to remove it, so get it while you can.

The Jackson Five - I Saw Mommy --ing Santa Claus (Adult version)

*Longtime readers of this blog will already know this, as Motown songwriter Barrett Strong told you this in this post.

Happy Birthday Louis Armstrong!

Louis Armstrong would be 107 today.

Here it is -- the first time I've posted twice in a single day. But it's Satchmo's birthday, and I have a lot of things I want to say about the best Louis Armstrong file on my hard drive. (This recording courtesy of my excellent brother, who also took that Mike Doughty picture from a few days ago.)

This is a 1970 recording of "What A Wonderful World," featuring Oliver Nelson's orchestra and a bittersweet spoken intro. Two years after his original version was a major UK hit, Louis went into a studio and laid down this record, clarifying the song as hopeful rather than triumphant.

The spoken intro is so sad, yet so hopeful. It speaks to the heartbroken youths of 1970, and to the adults who had always liked Louis Armstrong. It speaks to the hopes Louis (and the songwriters) had for humanity during what seemed to be one of its deepest crises. It speaks to all of us who get depressed with how wonderful the world is definitely not, and then Louis starts singing, and all that pain is somehow lessened. This recording is musically more upbeat than the original version, which can be a little jarring, but hang in there.

I have other versions of this song laying around in various places, but none of them can hold a candle to Pops here.

Happy birthday, Satch.

Zip file link
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Stagger Lee Saturdays - Pacific Gas and Electric

Pacific Gas & Electric formed in 1967, and members of the band also played in The James Gang and Canned Heat. The band also provided the music for a Liza Minnelli film, Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon.

This version of Stag was used during Quentin Tarantino's section of Grindhouse last year (one of three to be used in movies in the last 18 months or so). I can imagine just how much Quentin must love Stag, but this is not a blog about what I imagine famous movie directors do or do not like. This is a blog about music.

This is a great, rootsy blues-rock version of Stag, with some lyrics that don't appear in many versions. We all know Stag is a bad man, but is he bad enough to whup the devil? Listen and learn...

Pacific Gas & Electric - Stagolee
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