Mike Skinner disappointment

worldsgreatestmusicdad writes:

How could he appear live - with a gospel choir, for God's sake - and not do Never Went to Church? Otherwise the BBC Electric Proms show with choir and orchestra was impressive and he did play two of his best but Church is great music and a lot of his stuff isn't quite. It's often smart, funny, original - It Was Supposed To Be So Easy is one of my favourites - but not truly memorable.

The Streets - Never Went To Church (iTunes)

The Streets - It Was Supposed To Be So Easy (iTunes)

Day 'n' Nite by Kid Cudi

World's Greatest Music writes...

This has been going round my head. Big hit I think. I borrowed the link from the Cream Team blog.

Kid Cudi - Day 'n' Nite (there's only a remix available on iTunes so far)

Can't get this out of my head

worldsgreatestmusicdad writes:

Most readers of this blog probably watch Jools, though anyone can miss a week - I sometimes do. So you may not have caught Nicole Atkins a few weeks back. I'd never heard her before. I bought 'Maybe Tonight' the next day and I've played it over and over. It's one of those songs that gets straight to you and you can't believe it's not already a massive hit with its Bowiesque lyrics and strong tune. The performance is excellent as well. I love the way the opening ethereal strings are followed by the basic but effective beat. The song builds inexorably to the climactic chorus which doesn't disappoint. Apparently, Nicole Atkins has been compared to Orbison and you can see why. I'm surprised that she hasn't yet made it big. She surely will.

Nicole Atkins - Maybe Tonight (iTunes)

Sara Schiralli

Joe writes: Not sure where I heard about Sara but she is on MySpace (yes, really), and her music is lovely.

Sara Schiralli - Bang Bang (iTunes)

Another 'Blind Willie McTell'

worldsgreatestmusicdad writes:

When the The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 appeared in 1991 fans were amazed that one of Dylan's greatest songs, an outake from Infidels, had been left on the shelf for 8 years. Now the eighth 'official bootleg' album Tell Tale Signs has appeared and we find a track left off Time Out of Mind 11 years ago which will almost certainly be acclaimed as another lost classic. As with some of the best Dylan songs, it sounds like some other song you can't quite identify and yet it's really unlike any other song you've ever heard. If you're quick, you can follow this link to hear the whole album which is released on 7th October.

Bob Dylan - Red River Shore (Amazon)

Bob Dylan - Blind Willie McTell (iTunes)

the original demo of Without You, the song made famous by Harry Nilsson and Mariah Carey

Joe writes: The person who sent this to me wrote "Think you might be interested in hearing this. The original demo (different middle eight and no chorus!) of 'Without You'. This is Peter Ham at his Fender Rhodes in 1969 knocking out a song that would earn the industry millions and that he would never see a single penny from and that would ultimately drive both him and his best friend and co-writer to commit suicide. This is the most tragic tale in the annals of pop."

For more on this, read Peter Ham's Wikipedia entry, or this piece from his official website, written by the mother of his child.

Peter Ham - Without You (demo) (not on iTunes, but here's a link to buy the album from whence it came, on Amazon.com)