Baby, Believe Me

This is the actor Kurt Russell singing. Not very funky, stiff white disco but the chorus is catchy. I think Morrissey should cover this. He should dress up like Elvis in the video also.

You Got Style

I fancy myself a stylist. I like the line about "your hair cut a half an inch shorter than mine" and I like how they get out of the corner of finding a rhyme for "class" in the chorus. The whole thing zips along and carries the optimism and joy of the sixties. This is what the people who sell records describe as a "mod dancer".

Walking In Different Circles

Sometimes the most inane of songs can have a resonance. Sometimes a phrase, whether musical or lyrical, can seem like the most profound expression of art. Then again, it might just be that people in real life at times of heightened emotion speak in the cliches of pop songs. Plus the fact that pop usually addresses the commonest of experiences. Who hasn't been in the situation described here?

In Jim's Garage

I fancy this song as hilarious (well, funny). A parody that also works as an example of what it is parodying. Makes me think of the sort of thing that Zappa would have done had he been genuinely funny. Sound effects by Lee Perry. In fact I wish Lee Perry had produced this, or done a dub of it at least.

Sweater

This song sounds like it should be by a cartoon band but it is not. It is by a real singer but it feels like a breeze on a hot day. Soon be summer.

Seventeen Ain't Young

Another song by a cartoon. The concept of authenticity in pop is a trick on teenagers (and their elders who really should know better). No one in pop is authentic, by definition. This band are as for real as any there has been. But seventeen is still quite young, really.

The Bells Part 2

By way of contrast with the previous post, this is the Phil Ochs original. Almost a different song.

The Bells

I fancy myself a campanologist and can often be found polishing my bell. Here is a sixties mash-up: Phil Ochs song, lyrics by Edgar Allen Poe in his Tin Pan Alley days, sung by future members of the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. Nice.

Can't You Hear My Heartbeat

I fancy myself a medical authority and would be surprised to encounter unaided audio evidence of a beating heart in the fashion envisaged by Marianne Faithful. And I am sure 9 out 10 Doctors would agree.