I stayed up late last night making mix CDs for people, but when I woke up this morning I remembered that our UPS is out at work so I can't send anything for a few days. Decided to post some songs in the mean time. In the remotest hour of the night, my sleepy brain was just randomly picking a bunch of songs I'm really into, but now in the cold blue light of day I'm looking at my song selection and I seem to have chosen tunes in a peculiar spirit of romantic pessimism. Yeah, what. They're all awesome, so get on that.

The Gems - I Can't Help Myself

Linda Scott - I've Told Every Little Star

Percy Sledge - You Really Got a Hold on Me

The Honeys - The One You Can't Have

Chet Baker - I Fall in Love too Easily

Nothing much going on tonight. Get home from the gym, ate dinner, log on to the internet, and no one's really updated their livejournals tonight. Get with it, folks, I'm bored!

Anyway, here's a song I'm obsessed with:



Yusef Lateef - Sister Mamie

From Yusef Lateef's Live at Pep's album. I know almost no one on my friends list likes jazz, but, you know, get over it. The droning bass and drum vamp that starts the song just hypnotizes my brain with its sinister power, and then Lateef comes in with a...what the hell is that? An oboe? A stritch? And he's like an atomic eel. Killer.

I just sit here and click play over and over again. Addictive stuff. Evil, addictive stuff.

I'm preparing a new chronological post, but until then I'm updating with my current obsession, Del Shannon.

Shannon was an early 60s pop singer/songwriter, generally discarded as a mere sub-Beatles teen idol. But his songs generally have a weird, distressed undercurrent of abandonment and loneliness ("Misery") that floats them far above the usual teen-idol fare. Or with songs like "Hats Off to Larry", which is about Del cheering for the guy who broke his ex-girlfriend's heart--and, awesomely enough, Del wants his ex to know that even though her new man has thoroughly broken her, he (i.e. Del) still wants her back. Lesson: don't ever leave me.

He had a few big hits in the mid-60s ("Runaway"), but his tendency towards lyrical heartbreak eventually became full-blown clinical depression and he was ultimately a drunk and a suicide. He's also one of the few male singers to make falsetto sound cool. Check him out.

Del Shannon - Misery

Del Shannon - Hats Off to Larry

Del Shannon - Little Town Flirt

Del Shannon - Do You Want to Dance

Del Shannon - Stranger in Town

Del Shannon - Break Up