http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQGdXwqqm00
After a number of failed attempts to cover Will Oldham’s wonderful cover — on the Ask Forgiveness EP — of this song recently, I sought out the most famous original take for inspiration. It worked.
In anticipation of She & Him’s forthcoming contribution to this Buddy Holly tribute album, let’s revisit M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel’s 2009 collaboration on Hold Time-featured Holly cover ”Rave On” via the excellent Mike Please-directed official video above.
The living legend performing on the Oscar Brandt Hootenany television show very, very early on in her career, before she took the last name of her first husband, Chuck Mitchell, and influenced generations to come.
There are more performances from this broadcast online as well, but this one (at 1:30) and her return to the show in 1966 are my favorites. Joni was born to take the highway, indeed, all the way from Saskatoon to everywhere.
After sampling many painful renditions of George Harrison’s Abbey Road love song today, I was relieved to discover the Godfather of Soul’s fun take before giving up on the search entirely. As it turns out, Harrison himself is fond of this one:
Frank Sinatra, who sings it with his “Stick around, Jack,” says “Something” is the greatest love song of all time. He used to say it was the greatest love song of the year. Then the decade. So what he’s saying now is very nice… My personal favorite is the version by James Brown. It was one of his B-sides. I have it on my jukebox at home. It’s absolutely brilliant.
The “Quiet Beatle” should’ve been called the “Soulful Beatle.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RW8PFJTJJY
In this Lorne Michaels-produced 1976 clip, two officers from the California Highway Patrol’s “Surf Squad” take a certain Beach Boys singer/genius into custody for violating the “Catch a Wave” statute: “Failing to surf, neglecting to use a state beach for surfing purposes, and otherwise avoiding surfboards, surfing, and surf.”
(Via Dangerous Minds)
Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore recalls meeting his wife/bandmate (via Sonic Truth):
Kim wore glasses with flip-up shades and had an Australian sheepdog named Egan. She had an off-center ponytail and wore a blue-and-white-striped shirt and pants outfit. She had beautiful eyes and the most beautiful smile and was very intelligent and seemed to have a sensitive/spiritual intellect.
She seemed to really like me. I definitely liked her, but was scared, as always, to make a move. I was afraid to kiss her. We walked around a couple of times. One night, it got late and we were eating at Leshko’s, and I think she wanted me to ask her over. I only lived up the street. So we parted. She would take the subway, staying at gallery owner Anina Nosei’s place. Before she split, she actually touched my arm (!) and said, “See you later.”
She moved into a raw railway apartment on Eldridge Street, below Grand Street. The artist Dan Graham lived upstairs and had acquired the place for her. She invited me over one evening and I played this beat-up guitar she had. I knew the guitar because it belonged to an associate of the Coachmen gang, who left it at Jenny Holzer’s loft, where Kim had stayed, and somehow it was passed on to her. All she had was the guitar and a foam-rubber cushion for sleeping. That night was the first time we kissed.
(Photo by Rachel Chandler)
In which the future Wilco frontman performs in a dress at a 1985 Halloween gig with The Primitives, later renamed Uncle Tupelo. Oh, and they’re covering the theme song from The Munsters, naturally.
