Record Review of the Week

Ola, long time since I last rapped at ya but I've been laid up for a bit after an accident I had involving the brake pedal on my Toyota. So I've been sitting around waiting for my typing fingers to mend.

With all that time on my hands I had lots of time to just chill and listen to music. I love music. All kinds of music. Except for rap. And hip-hop. And 'New' Country. Or any ballads sung by people who sound like Celine Dion singing songs for dead people. And 'world' music, with the exception of Bollywood soundtracks (but only from the mid 1960s.) Or punk post-1979. Not too nuts about doo-wap either. Or classical, unless it sounds like Danny Elfman. Yes, I love LOVE all styles of music. But when I come across something I really like, I just play the same CD over and over again.

Other than the complete works of Andy Kim (including his phase as 'Baron Longfellow') what I've been listening to the most is Volume 2 of 'Under the Covers' by Sid & Susie. Whom you may know better as Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs. He of California sunshine power-pop fame and she as lead-singer of 'The Bangles.'

Just prior to my convalescence, I had been listening to Volume One by the duo and it occured to me that if that disc had gone over as well as it should have (named by some as the best CD of the last five years,) then maybe they would try it again. So when I checked out Amazon and saw a Vol. 2, well ya coulda knocked me over with a feather. I immediately walked down to Grooves and picked up a copy. Turns out it had actually been out a while.

But what does being 'current' matter when you are talking about people doing cover songs from over a couple of decades ago?

Volume 1 was devoted to the songs Sweet and Hoffs grew up on from the 1960s. Of course The Beatles are represented. And the fact that they chose to cover 'And Your Bird Can Sing,' is typical of their choices. They go for the obscure songs as well as the obvious hits of the era. 'The Kids Are Alright' by the Who is followed by 'Sunday Morning,' by the Velvet Underground. Neil Young is represented twice - once with 'Cinnamon Girl,' a song which radio-play has kinda numbed me to - as well as 'Everybody Knows This is Nowhere' - a song I will never tire of.

Regardless of who is singing lead, it's the boy/girl harmonizing that makes it all work. Without diverting from the original, they aren't so much reinterpretations but unabashed homages. Hoffs singing 'Different Drum,' opens with the same unbridled joy as the Linda Ronstadt original but it's enhanced with Sweet's backing vocals. On something like the Bee Gee's 'Run to Him,' Sweet's voice has a familiar Gibb-like quality without being obvious about it.

These are 'covers' after all, so while they are close to the originals, they all have that boy/girl harmonizing going on which sets them apart. As for being 'homages', what's most important is that they maintain the 'attitude' of the originals.

Which brings us to 'Under the Covers, Volume 2.' You want to hear someone recreate the spirit of an original, all you need is Sweet's dead-on intonation which kicks off Tom Petty's 'Here Comes My Girl' - slightly snarling in a dead-end job in this stupid small-town, Sweet embraces these lyrics as much as any 'young' person living here in Hicksville, Ohio would - "You know, sometimes I don't know why, but this ol' town just seems so hopeless..."

Volume 2 is devoted to covers of '70s songs. Some are hits some are misses. But what's interesting is that while the choices in song-selection on Volume 1 where what you might expect from children of the '60s, themeatically, Volume 2 is more coming-of-age stuff. In short, a lot of the songs are just about sex. Young love and young lust.

Let me put it to you this way - first song is 'Sugar Magnolia' by the Grateful Dead in which Hoffs sings of "rolling in the rushes down by the riverside." Then we have Hoffs imploring her boyfriend in the words of the Raspberries to "Go All the Way." Followed by Fleetwood Mac's 'Second Hand News' in which it's Sweet's turn to implore his date to "lay me down in the tall grass and let me do my stuff."

If you listened to the radio in the 1970s, you would be familiar with most of this stuff. But there are surprises. I could never understand the appeal of the Grateful Dead so it was a pleasant surprise that 'Sweet Magnolia' didn't suck. The Beatles are represented by little known solo works by Lennon - 'Gimme Some Truth,' and George with 'Beware of Darkness.' Things kind of clang with 'All the Young Dudes' and the momentum comes to an abrupt stop with 'I've Seen All Good People' by Yes - if only because prog.rock seems a bit out of place sandwiched between Tom Petty and 'Hello, It's Me' by Todd Rundgren.

But overall, it's a joyous trip. I tell you, when the mandolin starts up in 'Maggie May' and Hoffs has a Rod-the-Mod raspiness to her vocals when SHE sings this love song of lament for an OLDER WOMAN (!), well I almost burst my pants. I fantasize about that kind of stuff every night and was moved deeply on an emotional level with the gender-reversal of lead-singers here.

And right afterwards when she sang lead on that wonderful piece of AM-radio overly-sweetened sentimentality 'Everything I Own' by Bread - why, I'm not too proud to admit that it reduced Sonny to tears. In fact, I went out and bought 'Bread's Greatest Hits' just based on Sid and Susie's cover of it.

So there you have it. Two CD's for songs from the first two decades of music for people of my generation. Rendered with love and affection by two kids who grew up listening to and being influenced by that music. And in two-part harmony, no less. This ain't your kid's CD of 'ironic' cover-tunes by those punkers Gimme Gimme and the Me-Too's.

And unlike the first CD, I no longer have to worry about a follow-up. At the end of the liner notes is the promise "See you next time." That's an intriquing tease. They've covered the '60s and '70s, so logic compells me to believe that the '80s might be next.

But if you remember that old saying - "If you remember the '80s, you really *were* there. And we apologize." With a disc devoted to the eighties, one of the obvious song selection choices would be 'Walk Like an Eygptian' by the Bangles. But I personally prefer 'Goin' Down to Liverpool to do Nuthin'.

And if they make it to the '90s, will we hear a reimagining of Sweet's 'Girlfriend?'

What I'd really like to hear on a 90s cover-comp would be 'BBC' by Ming Tea. Ya, baby!