Below we have eight records that are in some way associated with my people. Bookended by a record by a nice Jewish boy from Brooklyn singing about a gospel tent show, and a noted disturbed and not Jewish anti-semite backed by Yo La Tengo, who celebrate the eight nights of Hanukkah in Hoboken almost every year with a star-studded Festival of Lights. In between we get noted Yids: The Lovin' Spoonful, The Clash (singer Mick Jones); The Strangeloves, who pretended to be Australian brothers, but were in fact the songwriting team of Feldman, Goldstein and Gottehrer; Joey Ramone AKA Jeffrey Hyman singing a song co-written and produced by psycho-Jew Phil Spector, Leslie West (nee Weinstein) fronting Mountain in a guilty pleasure of mine as well as my second favorite cowbell song; and a semi-rare B-side by Mr. Zimmerman himself.
Spin your dradles and rock.
Download:
"Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show" mp3
by Neil Diamond, 1969.
available on The Neil Diamond Collection
"Nashville Cats" mp3
by The Lovin' Spoonful, 1966.
available on Hums of the Lovin' Spoonful
"Gates Of The West" mp3
by The Clash, 1979.
available on Super Black Market Clash
"Baby, I Love You" mp3
by The Ramones, 1980.
available on End of the Century
"Angels Flying Too Close To The Ground" mp3
by Bob Dylan, 1983
available on UK Single "Union Sundown"
"Mississippi Queen" mp3
by Mountain, 1970.
available on The Best of Mountain
"Cara-Lin" mp3
by The Strangeloves, 1965.
available on I Want Candy: The Best of the Strangeloves
"Speeding Motorcycle" mp3
by Daniel Johnston with Yo La Tengo (via telephone)
from Nicholas Hill's Music Faucet on WFMU, 1990.
available on Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo
Happy Hanukkah, Ted! My mom's Jewish, dad's Protestant, so I'm imbued with guilt of all kinds. Mom did her best, taking us kids to Temple for a bit, but organized religion never took hold in the Humphries household. We'd celebrate Christmas along with a menorah, for good measure. I always felt the best Christmas album was Phil Spector's A Christmas Gift For You - every year I fit a song from it in my Christmas post.
ReplyDeleteA nice addition to your wonderful Hanukkah post would be some Kinky Friedman and Mark Knopfler. L'shanah tovah tikatev v'taihatem!
Thanks Dean.
ReplyDeleteHappy Hanukkah to you as well. Mark Knopfler produced and played guitar on "Angels Flying Too Close to The Ground." Next year I'll try a more ambitious Hanukkah post.
Happy Chanukah.
ReplyDelete"my second favorite cowbell song..."
Dare I ask for... more cowbell!?!
Originally Nashville Katz, maybe??
ReplyDelete"Nashville Katz" that's good. i always liked "St. Louis Jews"
ReplyDeleteAnd yes there is a cowbell post, somewhere down the line, but don't hold your breath...
tb