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‘Tiny Dancer’ was written in 1971 by Elton John, with lyrics by Bernie Taupin. Apparently “the song was written by Taupin to capture the spirit of California in 1970 encapsulated by the many beautiful women he met” (wiki), who presumably, were all under 5 feet tall and pretty good at dancing.

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I reckon Ben Folds actually does an excellent version, considering it’s just his voice and a piano it sounds incredibly full. Also, you’ve gotta love those glasses and the open-mouthed Elton impression.

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Also, this song always just makes me think of this scene from Almost Famous

…and now I’m all goosebumpy.

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KS

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Muddy Waters left Chess Records in 1975 and this version of ‘I Want To Be Loved’ is taken from his first album to be released by Blue Sky, Hard Again. Along with ‘Mannish Boy’ and ‘I Can’t Be Satisfied’, ‘I Want To Be Loved’ is a re-working of a previous recording done while signed to Chess and it stands in pretty sharp contrast to the original—It feels harder and more boisterous and sounds like the musicians are having a bloody fantastic time playing it. For comparison, here’s the original:

Which do you prefer?

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Johnny Winter’s production worked so well that he recorded another 2 albums with Waters. These were to be the most successful records of Waters’ career.

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KS

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If you know this song, you’ve probably heard the LaVern Baker version of it…which is also very good…

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Both Bessie and LaVern belong to a grouping of female singers that go “HRRRAARRURRHH” in a fairly powerful way when they sing. It’s great!

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Bessie Smith was an interesting character. One site describes her as: “a rough, crude, violent woman”. Another as:

“a big woman, who was known for her temper, her hard drinking, her sexual appetite—which included relationships with lovers of both sexes—and her willingness to fight for what she wanted, sometimes to the point of using physical force. But when she sang, Bessie Smith mesmerized her audience.”

- Pop Matters

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‘On Revival Day’ was written by Andy Razaf and originally recorded by Luis Russell and His Orchestra. Bessie Smith’s version was recorded for Columbia Records in 1930. She tragically died 7 years later in pretty gruesome car accident. Still, she’s a bit of a legend, and one of the key ladies in the history of blues music. Bessie started singing in a travelling show as a dancer and singer back in 1912 and made her first recording for Columbia in 1923 and a further 159 over her career. Nicknamed The Empress Of Blues, she was one of the most popular female musicians of the 1920s and 30s.

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KS

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When I first heard this song on a blues compilation album I’d never heard of Chris Whitley. The song totally caught me though, and I started trying to find out a bit more about him.

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‘I Forget You Every Day’ is from Chris’ debut album, Living With the Law, on Columbia Records in 1995—his first solo album of 12 in his 22 year career. He tried to completely reinvent his sound on every record, so while this track is indicative of the bluesy, rootsy feel of his debut, by the time he reached his final album, Soft Dangerous Shores, in 2005, he was exploring the use of loops, keyboards and rumbly noises. The New York Times described him as “restless, moving into noise-rock and minimalist jazz evoking Chet Baker and Sonic Youth as much as Robert Johnson”.

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I love this song though. His voice is so haunted and expressive. And there’s just the right amount of guitar solo to let it soar and not fall into the trap of fret-wankery. It’s the kind of song that makes you want to lie on the floor in a dimly lit room and just listen as it plays out loudly and fills the space. It’s beautiful.

Wikipedia lists a whole bunch of famous fans, but this quote from Dave Matthews really shows what a musicians’ musician he was:

“I feel more passion for his music than I do for my own. I have a fervent, religious devotion to the magic that Chris Whitley makes”

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The saddest part of this story is that Chris Whitley died in 2005, aged 45, of lung cancer. I’m excited to explore more of his back catalogue but at the same time incredibly sad that I’ve missed the chance to enjoy the anticipation of waiting for a new album.

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“[When] Chris Whitley died…with him went a big part of modern American blues music. There aren’t many fighters for the cause, and Chris never gave up on his mission. His somewhat prostrated place in pop culture earned him a sidebar of an obituary, but to those who knew his work, it registers as one of the most under-appreciated losses in all of music.” — John Mayer, Esquire Magazine

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KS

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So ‘Satellite of Love’ isn’t exactly a hidden gem, per se — I mean, if you know any Lou Reed songs at all, it’s pretty likely it’s either going to be ‘Walk on the Wild Side’, ‘Perfect Day’ or this. The audience at this live version though, either seem to be completely oblivious or just very, very slow—it all gets a bit Stars In Their Eyes when they start applauding after Lou’s sung the first line.

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Originally released as a single in 1973, from the album, Transformer, ‘Satellite of Love’ wasn’t a massive hit at the time, but is now a concert and greatest hits staple. It’s been covered quite a bit by other artists too; U2’s version is probably my favourite - here’s a video of them playing it live, with Lou Reed:

…Incidentally, I’ve always particularly liked the prominence of the falsetto “bom bom bom”s in the U2 version.

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Morrissey had a crack at it too:

The swagger of the “Harry, Mark & John” section in this version is pretty nice.

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There’s also been versions by The Bravery (thankfully I couldn’t find you any video evidence of this), Eurythmics and Perry Farrell, amongst others. But none of that matters, because the important thing is that the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain also covered it (and do particularly lovely “bing, bang, bong”s)

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Winning.

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KS

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Today’s pick is this little underrated gem by the Manics. This was a single back in 2002 and got to #6 in the charts, but these days it doesn’t seem to get the same attention and love as all those “classic” Manics tracks.

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This video is taken from our beloved Top of the Pops (RIP) and the guitar James Dean Bradfield is playing is actually one that belongs to Richie Edwards—the band’s guitarist who vanished in 1995.

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There’s no big story behind why I’ve picked this track today, it just feels a bit different to other MSP tracks (kind of reverby and whooshy, no?) and the way the chorus rises out of those verses is just lovely. Enjoy!

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KS

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We’re nearing the end of my week of Rock Heroes posts and I couldn’t let the week pass without mentioning Jimi. For me, when it comes to rock heroes, it may be cliched but Hendrix was my first love and is very likely to be my last!

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At 33 years young, I wasn’t lucky enough to have been there to witness it first time around but I was fortunate enough to have a father (my own personal rock hero) with impeccable rock credentials to have been exposed to Jimi very early on.  The very first time I heard this track was a total watershed moment for me.  This was the reason i begged my dad for an electric guitar of my own (he bought me a Korean Fender Squire - yeah thanks dad!) and after much desperate trying, the very reason I put it back down when I realised I was utterly useless and decided to work for catalogue instead - was if I couldn’t be as good as Jimi, I didn’t even want to try!

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The trouble with Jimi is I couldn’t find an audio-only video that did his live performance justice and I couldn’t find a live performance that quite captured how utterly breathtaking his studio recordings were - so here’s a live one to go with the audio only above.

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This also crops in one of my favourite films of all time, Withnail & I. Few things are cooler than this.

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Recently a history fanatic friend of mine commented that “you know you’re a history fan when you still get upset thinking about the library of Alexandria” referring to the fire some 2000 years ago that destroyed some of the most important works of literature of all time—possibly even the original Bible.  Well I feel the same about guys like Jimi.  You know you’re a catalogue music fan when it still upsets you that these guys were taken so soon.

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James Marshall Hendrix, my ultimate rock hero, I salute you.

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LM