From today's London Metro freebie newspaper (the 'On My iPod' feature).

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I Asked For Water (She Gave Me Gasoline) by Howlin' Wolf
This starts out loose and lazy but grooves just the same. A track like this really brings home what is wrong with a lot of modern music. Where's the soul? Old boys like Howlin' Wolf knew what to do.

A Fool In Love by Ike and Tina Turner
What a voice. What a growl. In another lifetime, I'd come back with the lungs, voice and moves of this woman.

Blind Love by Tom Waits
When I tie the knot, I would definitely consider this song for the first dance. This is a song I wish I had written - I get pen envy.

Fairytale Of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
I have a phobia of Christmas songs and this is the only one that I can stomach. It's a modern epic - although I'm pretty keen on traditional carols, too. If I hear it in Sainsbury's at Christmas time, I get a little spring in my step and push my trolley just a little bit slower.

Closing Time by Leonard Cohen
The sonics are pretty stinking, and I have a soft spot for them in a funny way, but look a little deeper and there is so much to be gained. He is without a doubt one of the greatest lyricists of our time.

No Particular Place To Go by Chuck Berry
Last summer, I had a drunken night out in Liverpool and the club we were in played this song. I couldn't believe how much fun it was to dance to. A classic from back in the days when records, guitars and pianos sounded the way they should.

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None of these have been previously chosen.

What do you think of Isobel Campbell? I heard her album with Mark Lanegan and was underwhelmed.

Did she say "wine"? it's actually "I Asked for Water (She Gave Me Gasoline)", quite a different cup of tea!

It occurs to me I prefer Isobel Campbell to her choices to be honest.
Ballad of the Broken Seas with Mark Lanegan has some great songs, as do her solo albums - but all are heavy on throwaway filler... not heard the latest one she has done with Mark though.
Oh, voted for C.Berry.

I liked Ballad of the Broken Seas as well and thought she was great live.

Ike and Tina Turner for me.

Ike and Tina Turner on the Sue label is about as good as good can be imo: Poor Fool; A Fool in Love; It's Gonna Work Out Fine; Jealousy; Tra La La....classics.
I'm on board with Fairytale of New York cuz it's a new take on a Christmas song and it's good: Well written, well performed and an excellent arrangement.
Chuck Berry? Chuck Berry!
I think the late Mr Wolf was quoted as saying gasoline. Had he been offered wine there probably would not have been a song written about the experience. :lol:

Wolf's tune is so closely based on a 1920s tune "Cool Drink Of Water" by Tommy Johnson that it's basically a cover version of same, it's reckoned that Johnson probably drank gasoline on occasion, as well as a particular brand of floor polish called "Canned Heat" that inspired the name of the 60s band, Johnson's fondness for extreme beverages were a major contributer to his early death.


Canned Heat Blues

Tommy Johnson's 'yodel' was a big influence on the Wolf's vocal style.

All these years I thought Canned Heat referred to Sterno which if treated with something[rubbing alcohol?] made a drinkable intoxicant.
Sterno was widely used by campers and caterers as a source of low to mid temperature heat with only a touch of the match...put the lid back on and it's out.

It looks you're right, it's not a brand, :ohdear: the old memory is a bit dodgy at the best of times:

http://www.archive.org/details/Cannedheat

I have been incorrect - wrong - so much lately that I'll take canned heat but only as one correct item that doesn't come close to balancing things out.
Question: Was Tommy Johnson the man "at the crossroads?" [Honest question; don't really know. I always thought it was Robt Johnson but I read somewhere it was Tommy[or maybe it was only a bad movie]

the guy in O Brother Where Art Thou going to the Crossroads was called Tommy Johnson, but I don't think the real Tommy Johnson did, well he never sang about the devil, and more likely he'd have sold his soul for a bottle of aftershave

I voted for Pogues and Kirsty MacColl . I like the work she has done with Mark Lanegan. Her solo Milk White Sheets didn't impress me much........

Once again, my vote here is rather arbitrary--I like diferent kinds of songs for different reasons. Having said that, I voted for Chuck Berry's No Particular Place To Go. Great tune, and IIRC, it predated The Rolling Stones' I Can't Get No Satisfaction with it's reference to, erm, 50% of the population's "that time of month". No, Chuck, I don't imagine you could unfasten that safety belt...

not my bag really

tom waits

Made that five for the Howlin' Wolf. Quite a November and whiskey selection, isn't it?

working now with Howe Gelb, I think.

I really rate the first Lanegan project, but the second is completely void of things to get attached to.

Who's Isobel Campbell?