Led Zeppelin, "Bring it on Home"

9 Days to Find a Home



Led Zeppelin II was famously trashed by critics when it arrived (check out the Rolling Stone review, which looks hilariously close to something one would read on Vice or Pitchfork in 2015) in 1969. Listening to "Bring it on Home" I can tell why. Led Zeppelin is so ingrained in the roots of American music that today one could argue that they're artistically closer to John Lee Hooker than Metallica. But in the '60s, it must've sounded like Blueshammer to purists.

It took major cajones, or lack of self-consciousness, for a group of white, hard-rockin' British 20somethings to adapt Sonny Boy Williamson song (and a phrase that had already been a hit in both Sam Cooke and Bo Diddley's repertoires) into their own headbanging original, without even crediting songwriter Willie Dixon. To be fair, the Page riff sonically overwhelms Dixon's, to the point where Zeppelin owns the song at least as much as the Beach Boys own "Surfin' U.S.A." And judging from the amount of bands that have covered "Bring it on Home" since Led Zeppelin, I'd argue, to paraphrase Bob Dylan on Dylan Thomas, that Zeppelin did more for Sonny Boy Williamson than Williamson did for Zeppelin.

Derek and the Dominos, "Layla"

Emma is a (literally, I fear) sleepless humanitarian. I won't hear from her for months, or even years at a time, but sometimes she'll call me when she's 15 minutes away from my home, stopping by New York for a quick UN Conference in between ecology work and community organizing in South America. She's one of the most accomplished people that I know, but she's never heard "Layla."



With the restless energy of a pixie, Emma was gushing to me about listening to Eric Clapton's Unplugged record on the way to New York, which includes a popular version of "Layla" more in tune with blue-eyed blues and and soft rock that Clapton is currently akin to. I grumbled something about the original being better, and her reaction was the musical equivalent of when someone finds out that a movie they cherish was originally a book.

Who dares talk about "Layla" anymore? Who talks about "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "Satisfaction?" There's not much that I can say that hasn't been said better (I like Robert Christgau's 1970 review and Chuck Klosterman's "The Ninth Day" chapter in Killing Yourself to Live). But today I'll write that I love both how innovative and how traditional "Layla" is. It's a proto-metal song that's catchy enough for Beach Boys fans, a plugged-in, blues-based shuffle with Duane Allman on guitar and a sonata's worth of movements. When Martin Scorsese uses Jim Gordon's piano segment to emphasize a montage in Goodfellas, its closest companion is the use of Mascagni in Raging Bull.



That blend of classical and anti-establishment sensibilities has been distinguishing metal for decades. Years after he praised "Layla," Robert Christgau trashed Metallica's Master of Puppets in his Consumer Guide, writing that the band's "stock in trade is compositions not songs" and that he was "no more likely to invoke their strength of my own free will than I am The 1812 Overture's." Eric Clapton should be as proud as James Hetfield and Tchaikovsky.

Best of the Cars

"As I'm buying a car this week (!) you should each make me a playlist about cars," my sister texted her music nerd friends a few days ago. So much for all the other work I was supposed to do this week.



Best of the Cars

1. AC/DC, "Highway to Hell"
2. Public Enemy, "You're Gonna Get Yours"
3. The Clash, "Brand New Cadillac"
4. Gary Numan, "Cars"
5. Arcade Fire, "Keep the Car Running"
6. Guided By Voices, "Motor Away"
7. Tom Waits, "Ol' 55"
8. Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"
9. Tom Petty, "Runnin' Down a Dream"
10. The Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Crosstown Traffic"
11. Wilson Pickett, "Mustang Sally"
12. T-Rex, "Jeepster"
13. Van Halen, "Panama"
14. The Dead Milkmen, "Bitchin' Camaro"
15. Prince, "Little Red Corvette"
16. The Who, "Going Mobile"
17. War, "Low Rider"
18. Howlin' Wolf, "Cadillac Daddy (Mr. Highway Man)"
19. Alice Cooper, "Under My Wheels"
20. The Beach Boys, "I Get Around"
21. The Beatles, "Drive My Car"
22. Chuck Berry, "No Particular Place to Go"
23. Big Star, "Back of a Car"
24. Janis Joplin, "Mercedes Benz"
25. Neil Young, "Long May You Run"

Let the good times roll.

The car song is one of the most celebrated rock traditions, a move that made careers for Chuck Berry, the Beach Boys and Bruce Springsteen, among others.  To help cut this down to 80 minutes, I enforced the one-song-per artist rule. Thus we get "No Particular Place to Go" and "I Get Around," plus the Springsteen quota filled by singer-songwriters who wrote better car songs (Waits, Petty, Young.)

The first track that sprung to mind was "Cars," by honorable one hit wonder Gary Numan, and the obvious Prince, War and Wilson Pickett choices were also too awesome to resist. Of course I also had to include "Highway to Hell" and "Panama," both deservedly canonized yet unappreciated as car jams, as well as the amazing "Your Gonna Get Yours," Chuck D's uncharacteristically materialistic hymn to his 98 Oldsmobile. Maybe Flavor Flav got into his head.

At the risk of alienating both of my readers, I think that blues songs are best heard on mix CDs. Robert Johnson and Howlin' Wolf's talents stand out more next to Tom Petty and Alice Cooper than they do next to shoddily-recorded alternate version demos of the same song three times in a row. I also like the Arcade Fire and Dead Milkmen songs better out of their original context.

I still love the Who and Jimi Hendrix contributions, almost unreasonably, and "Back of a Car," like everything else from the original Big Star records, makes me swoon. #1 Record/Radio City is one of those things that probably gets an advantage if it finds you when you're still young enough to enjoy shaving.

Enjoy the tunes, Sis! Drive safe.

Jimmy Cliff at Prospect Park

Jimmy Cliff is reggae's Bruce Springsteen. His performances are joyful, high-energy marathons designed to keep their entire audience out of their seats for the rest of the night. If Cliff had any cynicism about playing his 40-year-old hits for a crowd of Ras Trents at his Tuesday show at Prospect Park, he hid them under a voice and body that exhibited more agility than can be expected of a man pushing retirement age.



Debuting this summer's Celebrate Brooklyn concert series, Cliff set an impossibly high bar, high-kicking his way out on stage to open with "You Can Get it if You Really Want." Leading with his best-known song, Cliff dared himself to follow his biggest hit for two hours and delivered, familiarizing the audience with every song through interaction, call-and-response and dance instruction that proved he was by far the greatest prancer in the bandshell.

A natural showman and crowd-pleaser, Cliff's setlist played like a Best of on shuffle. "Many Rivers to Cross," "Sitting in Limbo" and "Wonderful World, Beautiful People" ushered out the setting sun, and his version of "I Can See Clearly Now" freed itself from Cool Runnings. In his fifth decade as a performer, Cliff is still reimagining his biggest hits, bestowing us will a beautiful, all-drums take on "Rivers of Babylon" and updating "Vietnam" to include Afghanistan.

As an interpeter, he also took most of the cheese out of Cat Stevens' "Wild World" and surprised all of us by skanking through Rancid's "Ruby Soho" early in the set. Cliff's proto-ska rhythms (think of him as Chuck Berry to the Clash's Beach Boys) make him an underrated punk rock influence, but the master clearly got it, nailing Armstrong and Frederiksen's harmonies like a man who was born to sing and dance.

If you go to one reggae show in your entire life, make sure that it's Jimmy Cliff.

Boyz II Mom

My mom doesn't ask for much, except for a mix CD two days of the year. One of these days comes on a Sunday in May.



Boyz II Mom

1. The Beatles, "Mother Nature's Son"
2. Warren Zevon, "Mama Couldn't Be Persuaded"
3. Mr. T, "Treat Your Mother Right"
4. Ozzy Osbourne, "Mama, I'm Coming Home"
5. Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, "Motherly Love"
6. Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys"
7. Bob Dylan, "Mama, You Been on My Mind"
8. Funkadelic, "Cosmic Slop"
9. Marc Rizzo, "Mamasita"
10. John Lee Hooker, "Mama, You've Got a Daughter"
11. The Rolling Stones, "Have You Seen Your Mother, Baby, Standing in the Shadow?"
12. Neil Young, "New Mama"
13. Danzig, "Mother"
14. The Jackson 5, "Mama's Pearl"
15. 2pac, "Dear Mama"
16. Pink Floyd, "Mother"
17. Merle Haggard, "Mother Tried"
18. John Lennon, "Mother"
19. Johnny Cash, "Send a Picture of Mother"
20. Paul Simon, "That Was Your Mother"
21. The Beach Boys, "Mama Says"
22. Stevie Wonder, "Easy Goin' Evening (My Mama's Call)"

22 recordings of boys honoring moms in song.

With my mom's preferences in mind, metal is at a minimum. Ozzy was of course the first to spring up, and Danzig's "Mother" is almost as cuddly these days. Marc Rizzo from Soulfly pulls off an impressive flamenco number on "Mamasita," but Mom's tastes are more reflected in the Beatles and Stevie Wonder picks.

Of course a Mother's Day mix needs a lot of country ("Mama Tried" being the one I can relate to most,) and I got to rescue 2Pac and Pink Floyd tracks from records that I used to bother Mom with. I actually like both of them better in this context, and I'm hoping she will, too. With the Stones and Beatles, I shunned the obvious choices ("Mother's Little Helper," "Your Mother Should Know") and wound up with better songs. Not that I'm elitist enough to admit it.

Luckily, two of my favorite sources for music, Rob Sheffield and Sound Opinions, also came up with playlists for me to cherry pick from. This resulted in Funkadelic's terrific "Cosmic Slop," which I hadn't realized counts as a mom song, a wistful a capella number from the Beach Boys and most notably, "Treat Your Mother Right," which could not exist if not for mixes like this one.

Listening again, I'm wondering if the Zappa and John Lennon choices were appropriate. I guess that many boys have complicated feelings about their mommies.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom Apatoff.

Download here: Boyz II Mom