had this on a tape for ages and have recently found a japanese copy of the cd on impulse-awesome jazz/soft/easy vibes straight out of the free design school of harmonies-today [ a jefferson airplane cover i believe] is a jazzy/psych number that makes me half close my eyes and dream of places far away and times past-i would recommend the rest of the album too-all soft pop and sitar jazz...mush better than his fusion nonsense [bar the theme to starsky and hutch] from the 70's.the album is called the honey suckle breeze and is a revelation.
from the honeysuckle breeze (impulse stereo AS-9163), available on CD
I haven't heard any other versions of this song, although I can't imagine anyone else making it their own to extent Ms Simone does. With just a piano and her voice, it's such a beautiful yet majestic song.
He's a psychobilly from the woods. His bearded figure foraged out to tell you what he saw, and he's pared his story down to the bare essentials so that his story is your story. "Over the hill, like always you know/ where Billy and Frankie and Henry and Joe/ they beat and broke me hard and slow/ to prove that I was nobody." His wound is your wound, and you follow the lyrics through as he wonders what gave him his redemption. And though you never thought of yourself as having found redemption per se, it seems like you must have. Essentially, Bonnie Prince Billy makes boys cry.
from Ease on Down the Road available on CD - Ease On Down the Road
There's something about Devendra Banhart you can't put your finger on. Becuase your finger's turned into a talon or a claw or a hoof and the song you were trying to pin down has squirmed away under the table, or has turned into a gaseous dream vapour and floated out the window. He's got a scattered, witchy, completely original voice that whispers little kid secrets, then belts passionately with a heart been done-wronged, then tries to put on the withered seduction of a wrinkled hag lost on an island for years. Then comes the workaday little chorus. La dee da dee AH! How does this song still remain so allusive, so cooool, after so many listens? I got no clue. Do you?
available on CD - Oh Me Oh My How the Days Go By
14 Jan 04 ·executiveslacks: I know exactly what you're talking about. I have that album as well and there's something - although I don't know what - that makes me keep putting it back on. It must be that voice. For the longest time, I couldn't even tell if Devendra was a guy or girl.
Very lo-fi indie pop, there's something incredibly endearing and plaintive about this song. Guitar, drum machine, toy keyboards, and multi-tracked vocals.
available on CD - Blackbean and Placenta Sampler No. 3 (Black Bean and Placenta)