Welcome to Wild Weekend #44, the all-women edition. Why, I dunno. Just is. Just enjoy. On this week´s menu: soul, lofi, more soul, country, folk, and flamenco. Have a wild one.
First we´ll visit The Scene Of The Crime, soul veteran Bettye LaVette´s red hot ´07 collaboration with the Drive-By Truckers. Exhibit A: the Lavette/Patterson Hood composition Before The Money Came, a fingerlickin´ good autobiographical barroom stomper. "I was singing R&B back in ’62, before you were born and your mama too..." And to ring in the festive season in style, let´s pass the mic to the lovely Cynthia Dall, once prominently on stage in a vintage wedding dress with Smog. Quite a sight, I remember well. You can hear Smog mastermind Bill Callahan, her then-boyfriend, on guitar here btw.
Bettye LaVette - Before The Money Came (The Battle Of Bettye LaVette) MP3
Cynthia Dall - Christmas (California) MP3
More soul: everybody knows Piece Of My Heart as one of Janis Joplin´s signature tunes with Big Brother & The Holding Company, but Aretha´s older sister Erma sang it first. Written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns, it wasn´t that big a hit when first released back in ´67. Strange, as that pumpin´ piano alone is worth the price of admission. But Erma found justice a decade or three later, when her Piece Of My Heart finally topped the charts on the back of a jeans commercial. Next we´re moving firmly into country territory with the incomparable Tammy Wynette, who´s on a journey to the wilder side of life here. Seeing her live in concert once, mainly singing from a barstool, and with a dress change between almost every other song, is something I still remember fondly. "If you like ´em painted up, powdered up, then you ought to be glad, because your good girl´s gonna go bad..."
Erma Franklin - Piece Of My Heart MP3
Tammy Wynette - Your Good Girl´s Gonna Go Bad MP3
"Hurting like a woman and crying like a baby..." Or:
another original of a song interpreted so well by Bonnie Prince Billy and Tortoise on their
The Brave And The Bold covers collection. Don´t think Melanie Safka is all
Lay Down and
Candles In The Rain and stuff, she could carry intense teenage pregnancy psychodramas like
Some Say (I Got Devil) to perfection as well. Heavy stuff. And it´s bye bye and
adios for now with some hotblooded flamenco
puro from one of the
Mujerez. Presenting Dolores Agujeta, a hell of a singer from a famous Jerez De La Frontera flamenco dynasty.
¡Agua!
Melanie - Some Say (I Got Devil) MP3
Dolores Agujeta - Llévame Contigo MP3
