I spent three days in Maine this past weekend. I was in the Southwestern tip of the state, in a village called York Harbor, where a good friend got married. I stayed in a turn-of-the-century inn, not far from Kennebunk, slept in a four-poster bed, and ate my fill of lobster. On Saturday morning, as I cast an eye over the clothes I was to wear during the ceremony, I realized I had not packed any cufflinks. No bother — wasn’t that a Brooks Brothers store I passed on my way into town? Yes, I believe it was. Surely they would have a fine pair of cufflinks for me.

I walked out to my convertible, lowered the top, fired up the engine, and pulled out of the Inn’s gravel parking lot. As I merged onto the two-lane road separating the inn from the sea, I reached for my iPod, but it wasn’t there. I knew, however, that there were a few odds and ends in the glovebox I might listen to — mostly two-dollar CDs I picked up during the fire sales that accompanied the death throes of the Tower Records empire. I reached into the compartment and pulled out…Morph the Cat, Donald Fagen‘s latest solo album. Hmm.
Continue reading »

Do you think of coming up with good song titles as an important ability for a songwriter? Almost all songs are named after a few words in the song’s lyrics, usually in the chorus or hook. There are some notable exceptions, such as Moby Grape’s “Omaha”.

Today I got in the mail the Rhino Handmade reissue of T-Bone Burnett‘s Proof Through the Night/The Trap Door/Behind the Trap Door. There are a few very clever song titles on there. “Having A Wonderful Time, Wish You Were Her” is my favorite, but “The Law Of Average” and “My Life And The Women Who Lived It (No. 1)” are good too.

This is just kind of a time-waster kind of thread. What are your favorite song titles, irrespective of the value of the song itself? Albums too, I guess, since the name of this thread comes from the title of the most recent Autechre album.

Here, from a mailing list I’m on:

SLY STONE RETURNS

The soul legend is back for a tour of Europe that starts July 12 in Perugia, Italy and includes shows in Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Spain, and England. All these shows coincide with the brand new release of his famous Sly & The Family Stone albums. Brand new remasters with bonus tracks.

Dates:
07-12 Perugia, Italy – Umbria Jazz Festival
07-13 Montreux, Switzerland – Stravinski Hall (Montreux Jazz Festival)
07-14 Gent, Belgium – Blue Note Records Festival
07-15 Rotterdam, Netherlands – North Sea Jazz Festival
07-19 Nice, France – Nice Jazz Festival
07-20 Pori, Finland – Kirjurinluoto Arena (Pori Jazz Festival)
07-23 Paris, France – Olympia Hall
07-27 San Sebastian, Spain – Jazzaldia
07-28 Bournemouth, England – Opera House CBC

The pool is open. You can pick that this will happen. You can pick that it will not happen at all and the date that it is cancelled. You can pick that it will be cancelled in progress and pick the date of that event.

And, on a scale of 1 to 20, with 20 being the worst, you can pick the magnitude of disaster that this tour will be in the event that even one show occurs.