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  • FORTY-FIVE REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE #40: The Great Popeye Con

    Jesse Johnson (w/Sly Stone)'s "Crazay" 45

    JESSE JOHNSON  “Crazay” (Featuring Sly Stone)  b/w  “Drive Yo Cadillac” (A&M Records #2878, 1986)

    Money Mike might’ve already covered this track a while back in his brilliant Infatueighties column, but given the random nature of 45 RPM, our rich musical history is destined to repeat itself here at Sonic Clash, so here goes…

    Between the scattershot, flannel-clad, pre-grunge indie slop-rock of young, bored, snowed-in white kids like The Replacements, Husker Du and Soul Asylum, and the glitzy, chart-topping new-wave glam-funk of poon-crazed urban youth like Prince and Morris Day & The Time, Minneapolis was providing a fair chunk of America’s musical sustenance by 1986.  And as deeply indebted to reclusive geniuses like Bob Dylan and Black Flag as the former were, the latter borrowed so many pages from the Sly Stone Book Of Brilliance-Smashed-By-Insanity that it was only a matter of time before either certain hermits emerged from hiding, or the scene imploded in on itself in a cascade of ego, drugs and violence.  Turned out all of the above.  But not before one great, though very brief, comeback.

    Shockadelica, on-again/off-again Time guitarist Jesse Johnson’s 2nd solo LP, showcased this self-penned-and-produced single, which features an ebullient Sly Stone making his first major recording appearance after a near-decade hiatus.  Though sung as a duet, Johnson takes a gentlemanly backseat, politely allowing Sly to steal the show.  Which he does, of course.  This is an example of one of those tracks that comes together perfectly, where all the elements are aligned and nothing is missing or out-of-place.  Backstage may have been a cesspool of crack addiction, fatal sexually transmitted diseases, and botched suicide attempts, but on stage was sheer joy.

    Watch the video for Jesse Johnson\’s \”Crazay\” (Featuring Sly Stone) on YouTube

    And for one brief, shining, gorgeously fulfilling moment, it seemed like Sly Stone was back.

    He wasn’t.

    NEXT WEEK: An early World Music smash, courtesy of a duo from Trinidad.

  • New Release of the Week 6/16/09: George Harrison

    Harrison

    It’s about time that the Quiet Beatle was rewarded with a compilation that was worthy of the thirty-odd good years of music he gave us. For the longest time, the only hits album Harrison had was “The Best of George Harrison”, and that cut off somewhere in the mid-Seventies. Today, that changes. “Let it Roll: Songs by George Harrison” contains not only Seventies classics like “My Sweet Lord” and “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)”, but adds in Eighties favorites like “Got My Mind Set on You” and “All Those Years Ago”, and tosses in a few tracks from the Harrison-founded Concert for Bangladesh. Don’t know why it took so long for something like this to (pardon the pun) come together, but George fans can now rejoice. If only they’d thrown in a couple of Traveling Wilburys songs. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.

    Here’s some other stuff hitting record store racks (real and virtual) today.

    Jonas Brothers Lines, Vines & Trying Times: I bet you guys were expecting this to be the new release of the week, eh? Well, I try to slot albums I actually have a chance at buying in that space (which is why The Black Eyed Peas didn’t make it in last week), and I can’t say that you’ll ever catch me buying a Jonas Brothers CD. Not that they need any help, mind you. Aside from it’s cutesly rhyme-y title and the threat of a “darker” Jonas Brothers, this album contains a cameo from the rapper Common. I hope he got paid a LOT of money to destroy his own career.

    Don Henley The Very Best of Don Henley: The last Don Henley hits compilation came out in late 1995. Since then, Don’s released exactly ONE studio album. So the point of this album is…so we can hear “Taking You Home” alongside “The Boys of Summer” and “Dirty Laundry”? This album comes in a regular 14-track version as well as a deluxe 20-track version, which contains four extra tracks as well as a DVD containing six videos. I still don’t get why anyone would want this. If you have the last Henley comp, “Actual Miles”, you can get his one other studio album, “Inside Job”, for less than five bucks used. Oh, the mysteries of the music business…

    Michael Buble Michael Buble Meets Madison Square Garden: In lieu of a new studio album, fans of the standards-crooning Canadian can feast on this CD/DVD combo, which features Buble adapting his smoove pipes to songs ranging from Billy Paul’s “Me & Mrs. Jones” to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, from one of his sellout dates at the World’s Most Famous Arena. Thank God for concerts, because no one’s going there to see the sports teams anymore.

    Will Downing Classique: Speaking of smoove, Downing has been one of R&B’s more consistent balladeers, picking up the slack after the loss of legends like Barry White and Luther Vandross. He was diagnosed with an auto-immune disorder that briefly confined him to a wheelchair (is it me or do male R&B singers have shitty luck?), but now he’s back and still as romantic as ever. Unlike his normally covers-heavy albums, “Classique” contains mostly original and self-written songs.

    A complete list of this week’s releases can be found here.

  • The Top 100 Singles of the ’00s, #92: “Oops (Oh My)”

    tweet

    You know, I was all set to call Timbaland one of the most overrated producers of his era, if not all time. Then I looked over this list and realized that there are seven songs on it (including this one) produced by Mr. Mosley, significantly more than any other producer or production team. More than The Neptunes, more than Kanye West, more than Dr. Dre (who I don’t think is on this list at all). So maybe it’s time to reconsider…

    Tweet’s debut single “Oops (Oh My)” was a step forward for all sexually liberated females, with lyrics that dealt as forthrightly with masturbation as any other hit record I can think of. It was also one of the most odd songs to hit the Top Ten on the pop charts, with the most purely tribal sound of any pop single in recent memory. Erase the unnecessary rap on the single version by Fabolous, and consider the cooing and moaning of Missy Elliott on the song’s bridge, and you might also have the most covertly sapphic hit single of the decade (the rumors about Elliott and Tweet actually being a couple add a new wrinkle to the song’s vibe). Think of this as the female version of “SexyBack”. Go on, girls-get your sexy on.