One of many records you might not have realized were produced by Elvis Costello (another good example being The Specials' debut), the Pogues' second effort yielded a number of classics, "A Pair of Brown Eyes," "Sally MacLennane" and "Dirty Old Town" among them. Not to be missed, however, are sentimental paean to the wrong side of town "The Old Main Drag," Philip Gaston's ode to the laborer "Navigator" and the traditional "I'm a Man You Don't Meet Everyday," an autobiographical tale told by a Kildare landowner buying rounds at his local pub, in this iteration sung by bass player -and Costello's wife- Cait O'Riordan. While the songs stand on their own, the genius of Costello's production is that he managed to suss out the Pogues' strengths without smoothing over the hard earned rough edges that made them so compelling in the first place; in his own words, "to capture them in their delapidated glory before some more professional producer fucked them up."
Some other thoughts:
#444, Boogie Down Productions' Criminal Minded: One of the first hip hop records to incorporate dancehall reggae influences, Criminal Minded also foreshadowed the gangsta rap phenomenon later exemplified by NWA. Sadly, DJ Scott La Rock was killed in a neighborhood dispute shortly after the release of this record.
#443, Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963: A blistering set from Cooke, including favorites "Chain Gang," "Cupid," "Twistin' the Night Away" and an especially strong "Bring it on Home to Me." Cooke would meet an untimely end, under very sordid circumstances, not two years after the recording of this performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment