Another song in Italian

Another pretty song for driving around aimlessly in good weather is Ornella Vanoni's Italian hit from 1970, "L'Appuntamento" (with charmingly maudlin lyrics, translated to English, here). Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday, Friday, Sunday, Saturday--KABLAAMOOO! Oh, Apollonia! You didn't have a good grasp on the days of the week and you couldn't drive for sh-t, and now you've been exploded! I will avenge you! And then I will see how Diane Keaton is doing.

On Days Like These

Although he saw a fair amount of success in the 1960s, English crooner Matt Monro never enjoyed the kind of enduring fame that his voice and songs perhaps deserved. Much of this was due to simple timing: kind of like Marlowe to Shakespeare, Monro's star power was just no match for the living legend that was Sinatra. That that was the correct result does not diminish, however, the fact that Monro, working under producer George Martin, recorded some truly great songs, including one of my all-time favorites, "On Days Like These"--a song used very well (accompanying a Lamborghini Miura) in the opening credits of the original version of The Italian Job (1969). Here is the song:

Perhaps because of its role in a car-centric movie like The Italian Job, "On Days Like These" has become kind of the background song of choice for footage of old roadsters speeding through the countryside. Not only does it play as Mario Andretti drives his old, restored 1964 Indy roadster at the end of the IMAX film Super Speedway, but even amateur would-be Mario Andrettis have adopted the song for their own YouTube driving videos (examples here and here).

Okay, I'm getting this

Why? Because it looks rad, especially for recording guitar riffs quickly and easily. (Thanks to IG Blog for the heads up.)

Trisha Yearwood, Elliott Smith, and Celine Dion (in that order)

The title pretty much says it all. The year was 1997. Trisha Yearwood sings "How Do I Live" (Con Air) at the 70th Academy Awards knowing full well that 15-year-old LeAnn Rimes's version is better. Elliott Smith performs the rueful "Miss Misery" (Good Will Hunting) reluctantly--the producers had told him that the song was being performed live, either with him or without him--all the while avoiding eye contact with Jack Nicholson and instead focusing up at the balcony. And Celine Dion, of course, walks away with the Oscar for Best Original Song with "My Heart Will Go On" (Titanic). The award's presenter, Madonner (I think this is how the English say her name), sneers, "What a shocker," right before announcing the winner.



Later, Smith recalls the surreal event in general and Celine in particular: "She was really sweet, which has made it impossible for me to dislike Celine Dion anymore. Even though I can't stand the music that she makes--with all due respect I don't like it much at all--but she herself was very, very nice. She asked me if I was nervous and I said, 'Yeah.' And she was like, 'That's good because you get your adrenaline going, and it'll make your song better. It's a beautiful song.' Then she gave me a big hug. It was too much. It was too human to be dismissed simply because I find her music trite."

Well, I'm dismissing it, human or not. Because Celine Dion looks like a bird. A stupid, unpitchy French-Canadian bird.

For the Reverend Martin Luther King, sing

Today, April 4, marks the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. For a certain generation of people, especially those who were not alive at the time, that exact date is etched in memory thanks in large part to U2 and its song "Pride (In the Name of Love)": "Early morning, April 4 / a shot rings out in the Memphis sky / Free at last, they took your life / But they could not take your pride . . . ."

It has been often pointed out, however, that Bono's lyrics are not entirely historically accurate, as Dr. King was assassinated not in the "early morning," but rather at 6:01 P.M. local time. But as also has been pointed out, "About supper time, April 4" doesn't really seem to work, either. I think we can all forgive Bono this bit of artistic license, given the laudable intent behind the song:

No Duh Statement of the Week: Kim Deal seems pretty cool

Mountain Battles, the fourth album from The Breeders (who will be playing at The Meridian here in Houston on May 7), will be released next Tuesday, and advance reviews are already singing its praises. In fact, the songs can be heard in their entirety on the band's MySpace page, and from what I can tell, they sound pretty decent. While "Cannonball" and "Divine Hammer" from 1993's Last Splash are probably The Breeders' most popular songs, their 1990 debut, Pod, has great moments, too, especially since that album sounds more Pixies-ish than Belly-esque. One particular standout is this one minute forty-five second gem:

Kate Wolf

For the past twelve years, the Black Oak Ranch in Laytonville, California has hosted the Kate Wolf Memorial Music Festival in honor of . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . Kate Wolf. Wolf was a folk singer-songwriter from Northern California who released six truly amazing albums before passing away in 1986 after a long battle with leukemia at age 44. While Wolf was never as famous as some of her songs (which found more acclaim when recorded by others, such as Nanci Griffith and Emmylou Harris), she was a rare talent. Her melodies and maudlin-yet-somehow-sober lyrics ("I been walkin' in my sleep / countin' troubles, 'stead of countin' sheep") were always perfectly complemented by her clear, ringing voice. Her 1980 album, Close to You, is a definite 100 percenter, where each track from start to finish is good. It's probably in my personal top thirty or so favorite albums.

Because Kate died prior to the internet and without wide-reaching fame, there are few online videos of her. Here are two, however, from her 1985 appearance on Austin City Limits:

Streaming recordings of some other songs here and here.