WARMER MIXTAPES #466 | by Jamie N Commons
1. Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band | Too Much Time
There’s a few real simple R'n’B gems that often get overlooked with this guy... It's tracks like this that make you realise how striking and expressive his voice is... I hear a lot of Howlin’ Wolf in his vocals, but he takes it somewhere completely different. Such a great premise as well... Too much time to be without love. See also I’m Glad.
2. Sam Cooke | A Change Is Gonna Come
Outstanding vocals, the arrangement with the orchestra draws so much out of a fairly simple chord sequence. Released the year of his death... Makes you wonder... When he got cut down in this sort of form... What would have come next?...
3. Blind Willie Johnson | Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground
This song is almost unique in the sense that it doesn’t have any lyrics, but tells you more than almost any other song out there... Such unbelievable presence in his voice... This track defines the Blues for me... And they sent it into space so you know it’s good.
4. Bobby Charles | I Hope
One of the best breakup songs, he finds a slightly different angle to most songs in this vein which is pretty hard to do when approaching such an age old subject. As on many songs on this list as well he says as much with his vocal tone as he does with his lyrics to convey the feeling of the song.
5. The Spencer Davis Group | Keep On Runnin’
Steve Winwood was something like 16 when he did this vocal... Unbelievable. This track still just jumps out the speakers almost 50 years later... Sign of a classic record I guess.
6. John Martyn | Over The Hill
I always seem to get more excited with guitarist’s strumming hand rather than what fancy fret work they’re doing. Unbelievable playing by everyone involved on this track... Made plans to make a pilgrimage to visit/stalk John Martyn in Ireland couple years back... Set the dates and everything... He sadly passed away a few weeks prior unfortunately...
7. The Allman Brothers Band | Midnight Rider
One of my favourite bands... Groove, melody, vocals, harmonies, song writing... Perfection.
8. The Doobie Brothers | Long Train Runnin’
This song’s got serious groove in a way you don’t really hear much in Modern Pop music... Just the sound of great musicians playing together...
9. Josh T. Pearson | Woman, When I’ve Raised Hell
Apparently Pearson didn’t initially want to release on the album this track on due to its highly confessional and personal subject matter (Last Of The Country Gentlemen)... Really glad he came around... The lyrics and content are pretty tough but there’s so much beauty and honesty with that though.
10. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds | Into My Arms
Always hard to write love songs without them coming out too over the top and wet... Cave achieves such sentimentally with such poise on this song... One of the all time great songwriters in my opinion, and still very much at the top of his game with the new Grinderman stuff...
+11. Tom Waits | Down There By Train
Waits wrote this for Johnny Cash and Cash did a version on his first American Recordings album. This is the version for me though... Possibly my favourite lyrics in any song... I’ll have this one at my funeral please.
