Al Cooper is a great overlooked songwriter.His album,Easy Does It,is a double length tour de force.He wrote more than half the tunes for this double LP,and played a myriad of instruments as well!This one is my favorite right now, mainly because it mixes well with my miserable winter. Instumentally, it has a sort of"Indo-blues"quality, with sitar(played by Mr. Cooper himself) and tablas against a lilting string ensemble.It's a song of lost love and it's dreaded illumination:"...As the sun it slowly rises, there is judgement in it's glare/And it seems too much to ask, to light a face that isn't there..." A real treat of a tune, and a must for any fans of american songwriter stuff with a touch of sad humor.Also check out his sprawling version of the Big Joe Williams tune "Baby Please Don't Go" and another original,"She Gets Me Where I Live".

Funny double entendres from mysterious doomed gay star of the 1930's. It can be heard online at queermusicheritage or thedoctordementoshow.com. Quick wit and chatty singing style that is like Dwight Fiske or Spivy, but far more musical and accessible. Nightclub classic, a jewel of an era and style no longer heard.

I almost know nothing about the Chad Mitchell trio, except that John Denver was in the group. I'm not even sure that this is the same guy for that matter. I guess it's really not too suprising that an old folkie would team-up with geniuses like Bob Dorough & Stu Scharf for a little boot in the ass, since those guys seemed to be working a lot of crossover pop material. That's really the reason I picked this up, basically to see what could happen.

The record ends up being incredible actually. Imagine a mix of "golden throat" type schmaltz, Tom Rapp-ish hip folk, Nilssonesque melodrama, and the poetic and jazzy humor of Scharf & Dorough and that will sum it up. It can grow on you for sure.

This track is in the sort of word jazz thing in a highly characterized way hard to describe without taking up too much space... just listen. I think this was a piece from an Alan Arkin LP. Suppose I will have to get one of those now.

it's about time i recommended some vreeswijk. after all he's one of my very favourite artsts, and pretty obscure outside scandinavia. it's hard to decide wich song to post, as i guess you'd have to be scandinavian to enjoy the masterful, deceptivly simple lyrics. the best way to describe the man is as kind of a swedish crossbred of serge gainsbourg, tom waits and bob dylan.
this is one of his best-known songs, a qusasi-joyous melancholy number about death and hopelessness.
i once heard someone say something that summed up the power of this guy pretty well: "I don�t understand swedish, however I do understand Cornelis Vreeswijk"


the best place to start if you're interested n an initial taste, is probably the new 2-cd set. if you're like me, youll soon advance to the original lp's and the 5-cd set "master cees memoarer".

lyrics:
Somliga g�r med trasiga skor, s�g vad beror det p�?
Gud fader som i himmelen bor kanske vill ha det s�.
Gud fader som i himmelen bor blundar och sover s�tt. Vem bryr sig om ett par trasiga skor n�r man �r gammal och tr�tt?
Vem bryr sig om hur dagarna g�r? Dom vandrar som dom vill.
Medborgare, om ett hundra �r finns du ej l�ngre till.
D� har n�n annan tagit din stol, det vet du inte av.
Du k�nner varken regn eller sol ner i din m�rka grav.
Vem bryr sig om hur n�tterna far? Jag bryr mig inte ett sp�r. Bara jag f�r ha mitt ansikte kvar dolt i min �lsklings h�r.
Jag �r en tvivelaktig figur, duger ej mycket till. Bakom ett h�rn st�r d�den p� lur, han tar mig n�r han vill.
Somliga g�r med trasiga skor tills dom har slutat g�. Dj�vulen som i helvetet bor f�r sig ett gott skratt d�
a very, very bad and rushed translation of the lyrics,most of the humor and finer points are lost but at least you'll know what's it about:

some walk around in bad shoes, say, why is is it so?
maybe the good lord up in the sky wants it that way.
the good lord up in the sky sleeps calmly now.
who cares about a pair of bad shoes when they are old and tired?
who cares how the days pass? they go the way the want.
fellow citizen, in a hundred years you will no longer exist.
someone else will have taken your chair, but you won't know about that.
you'll feel neither rain nor sun, down in your dark grave.
who cares how the nights pass? i don't care at all.
as long as i get to keep my my face tucked in my love's hair.
i'm a questionable character, not good for much.
behind a corner death lurks, he'll take me whenever he wants.
some walk around in bad shoes/ until hey walk no more
the devil, who lives down in the hell/ will have a good laugh then.

An underrated '70s singer-songwriter, Ackles was a weird hybrid of Scott Walker and Brecht-Weill. He had a macabre, darkly humorous streak, but he could be almost embarrassingly sentimental at times; this is one of those times. It's a delicately orchestrated ballad about a guy whose family left him because he didn't have time for them. Comes from his best album, 'American Gothic.'

The consistent high quality of the ever expanding oeuvre of Fay Lovsky doesn't make it easy to pick one song to examplify her work, so I'll just go by the moment and will choose my present favorite Sequoia, a humorous ode to a wooden californian characterised by a laid back bluesy pizzicato groove and tremelo glissandi especially towards the end, where they tickle the tree to a dramatic finale. All instruments on this track are acoustic (drums, bass, guitar, violins) and the sound is warm and direct as usual.

Imagine James Brown and Bob Marley's genius and charisma plus a broader musical knowledge, much more danceable beats, complete ease at improvisation, and a wicked sense of humor. This didn't happen in the US or in the UK - it happenned in Africa and it was done by Nigerians in a Nigerian studio & for a African audience. Little, wimpy Euro-American civilization: now that you got it on CD, listen and learn.

A peculiar recording from the early 40s in Cuba. This song sounds like a Carl Stalling, Raymond Scott, or Leroy Shield piece from a cartoon. Abrupt tempo changes, a cool bass clarinet. Unlike any other song I can think of, except "Sangre Africana" also by Valdes.

this is a twisted sort of house/techno number that will appeal to non-lovers of house. Its heavy enough, tweaked enough, etc. and the vocals are nice and twisted. dark, but still humorous "im losing my mind"

Otto Preminger's "Skidoo," starring Jackie Gleason, Carol Channing, and Groucho Marx, among others, is best described as a psychedelic gangster film. While the film itself is mostly forgotten, Harry Nilsson gave it a memorable soundtrack, including "The Cast and Crew," which was played over the credits.

Wait. Did I say "played over?" This song IS the credits. The COMPLETE credits. Yes, going as far as mentioning the copyright line ("Copyright MCMLXVIII/By Sigma Productions Incorporated/Your seat's on fire") and people such as negative cutters, set directors, etc. And he puts in every little detail:

--"Photographed in Panavision and Technicolor/Director of Photography: Leon Shamroy, A.S.C. Hmph."

--"It's a Paramount (TM) release, a Gulf + Western company." (Yes, he sings "TM" and "plus.")

So, it's the movie credits. But he sings them, and he sings them in an interesting and humorous way. You have to pity the poor guy: he had to take all these names and occupations, fit them into a song, and make it interesting. And he even performed it live on television once, on "Playboy After Dark" in 1968.

I intensely adore this song. It's delicately executed, yet the lyrics are so bold that it's somewhat jarring.

Also, I think Jill Sobule is tragically underrated. She's astonishingly talented, intelligent and humorous. I say, listen to her work, you won't regret it.

on a post-moldy peaches roll today.
lo-fi, blackly humorous, unrelenting singer-songwriter antifolk material. the lyrics are a stream-of-consciousness portrait of life in lower-class america, filled with weirdo pop culture references. i fell in love with this song from a badly recorded live version, available on her homepage: http://www.kimyadawson.com/audio/10_Kimya_Dawson_-_The_Beer.mp3
there`s an album version of the track on "my cute friend sweet princess", but i think it lacks a lot of the drive from the live recording (and the sound quality`s not really that much better, anyway. i wonder how this would sound on one of those ludicrously expensive hi fi sets that guys in cornflower-blue shirts tend to buy)

"even though i`ve never ever been in a band,
i`ve got cool as black ice tattooed on my hand.." gotta love that line.

There are many memorable cuts on this soundtrack, and I essentially picked this because it's the longest. Anyway, Komeda's score is perfect for the film -- humorous maybe but definetly very, very creepy.

Nice mellow one from A&M master arranger Nick DeCaro (Claudine Longet, many more), but this is probably my fifth "favorite" song off of this wonderful album, with versions of songs by Stevie Wonder ("happier than the morning sun") and Joni Mitchell ("all i want") that even the composers would have to admit have value added. I don't know if Ms. Mitchell necessarily sees the humor in changing the lyric "I want to knit you a sweater" to "I want to lift your sweater", but I do. Also a radical arrangement of "tea for two" only Bob Azzam can compete with. Nice comments by "konsu" on Nick's earlier album only show up if you put a space between "De" and "Caro".

country shuffle with fiddles and down-home vocal harmony. short humorous track about summertime heat. catchy, easily repeatable without getting bored/sick of. near the top of my current favorites playlist and has been for weeks. it's available online at dmusic and mp3.com.au FREE. if u aint heard it and like broad americana...do yourself a favor and download it now. u won't be disappointed. their other tracks are as good!

With Saint Etienne being one of my favourite groups of the last decades (and possibly the best british pop group today) it's really hard to pick a track, it wouldn't be hard to recommend dozens of amazing tracks they did the last 15 years. That said, "Fascination" is the only new song they produced since Finisterre (2002) and it was included on their first compilation released in the US. It doesn't really matter if they embrace a more late 60s style a la Good Humor or a more electronic or dance approach to their music, due to Sarah Cracknells distinctive voice and Stanleys and Wiggs' ear for strong melodies it always sounds essentially Saint Etienne. This one is a heartfelt, bittersweet song, with an almost Hip Hop-ish basic beat, lush synths, floating harp-like electronica and a great piano melody.

Vastly under-rated. I hear Ringo was involved with the writing so I guess its his humor that I like

This song has become known as one of the quintessential "Now Sound" numbers, and I go a LONG way back with it as far as memories go! As a kid in the sixties I used to love the Benson and Hedges cigarette commercials-although I was very much anti-smoking even then! But the cool theme music and humorous content of these commercials was a hit with us kids. Well, flash forward to the mid-1980's...I was doing my usual record collector thing in a local thrift store and came across an album called "The Dis-Advantages of You" by the Brass Ring, a group that I had several 45s by already. It looked interesting, so I picked it up...and was blown away by the first track, which was that wonderful Benson and Hedges theme that I remembered from childhood. I
couldn't believe my luck in stumbling across it, and
it immediately became one of my all time favorite tracks. The cool, wordless female vocals, whimsical melody, and smooth saxophone playing never fail to transport me back to the 1960's of my youth! I did some research on the song at the time and was surprised to find that it had been a chart hit in the spring of 1967. I was listening to the radio a lot back then and didn't recall hearing it. But rediscovering this recording really was a highlight of my musical development.

This is a really catchy and funny pop song. Dr. Frank is a masterful songwriter and this is among his finest efforts.

When I think of my favorite stuff by Tom Waits, I always look back to the time when the writing and arranging of his songs were more playful, avant pop exercises, colored by a range of intense and deep emotional swatches, yet always with humor. My favorite stretch in his catalog of work is from Swordfishtrombones to Franks Wild Years (Marc Ribot?). Songs were always off-kilter, tenuous, unpredictable...far-away organs played against a punchy latin rhumba beat...oh, here comes the circus, jolted by a bended-note/feedback guitar part. Wha?

I heard a lot more characters in his voice, too. The sideshow barker, the Ironweed hobo, the cocky but sensitive playboy, or the frustrated, suburbia-warped freespirit looking to make a break.

This track off Franks Wild Years feels like an old, worn out, spaghetti western-inspired guitar shuffle. Its whispered from the lips of a grizzled shopkeeper in a soon-to-be ghosttown, telling his concerned companion the need to reach for where your dreams dwell: "out where your enemies lie." There's little consolation against what most likely will be an exercise in futility, but necessary nonetheless, to carve out some sort of happiness. Get used to it.

Somehow it seems to fit these times very well...

Find this song! It is by far one of the funkiest things I've ever heard, it absolutely screams party. The lyrics repeat "dance and shake your tambourine, your funky tambourine, tambourine, tambourine". The instrumentation may get a bit repetitive for some, but the sheer funkiness and humor of this song will put a smile on your face while you're dancing the night away, without a care in the world. I especially get a kick out of the background voices, that seem to approve the shake that this song has. It sounds like it was recorded at a party and a time that you could only dream about experiencing. I like to play this song with the pitch up to about +4, which makes the experience all the more intense.