Wilco leader (and Uncle Tupelo legend) Jeff Tweedy recently performed the song “Pecan Pie” in a video for Bedstock, a music benefit sponsored by MyMusicRx for the Children’s Cancer Association. Bedstock features artists making videos of performances from bed in solidarity with ill children and teens. The event started in 2014.
“Pecan Pie” first appeared on the album Down By The Old Mainstream (1995) by Golden Smog. The band was a 1990s alt-country supergroup that included Tweedy.
Tweedy performs a solo acoustic version of “Pecan Pie” in the video for Bedstock. Check out what is maybe the best love song that says so much about pies.
And a piece of pecan pie, And you that’s all I want; Just a piece of pecan pie, And all I want is you.
If you never got to see Ray Charles live, you may find some solace in watching this outstanding complete performance from 1981. Apparently, Charles gave this performance at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium on January 27, 1981. The show features the Edmonton Symphony backing up Charles.
After the opening song, “Riding Thumb,” the setlist includes songs such as “Busted,” “Georgia On My Mind,” “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and “What’d I Say” before closing with “America the Beautiful.” 2024 UPDATE: Unfortunately, the entire concert video is no longer online, but you can check out Charles performing “Take These Chains From My Heart” from the same concert.
Loretta Lynn has released a new album to glowing reviews, Wouldn’t It Be Great (2018). To promote the album, Lynn has released a video for one of the new songs she wrote for the album, “Ain’t No Time to Go.”
The album highlights Lynn’s skills as a songwriter, as she shows herself in wonderful voice at the age of 86. In addition to new songs by Lynn, the album also features new recordings of “God Makes No Mistakes” (from Lynn’s album Van Lear Rose) and Lynn’s classic “Coal Miner’s Daughter.”
Lynn’s daughter Patsy Lynn Russell and Johnny Cash’s son John Carter Cash produced the album. Russell also co-wrote “Ain’t No Time to Go” with Lynn.
The video for “Ain’t No Time to Go,” by director and photographer David McClister, features Loretta Lynn on a country porch contemplating mortality. But it is a happy contemplation, featuring laughter and dancing. Check it out.
Following an odd grassroots campaign to get Weezer to cover Toto’s hit song “Africa,” Weezer now has its first Hot 100-charting single in twelve years. To help promote and celebrate the band’s unlikely cover, Weezer has produced a video with “Weird Al” Yankovic leading the band.
In the video, Yankovic portrays Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo. And he busts out his accordion near the end of the song for a solo. Check it out.
The “Toto” video may look familiar to Weezer fans. The look copies Weezer’s own video for “Undone (The Sweater Song).” Here is the video for that song.
Toto, flattered by Weezer’s cover of their classic “Africa,” returned the favor earlier this year. They covered Weezer’s song, “Hash Pipe.”
What song would you like to hear Weezer cover next? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In 1963, boxer Cassius Clay, who soon would become known as Muhammad Ali, recorded the album titled, I Am the Greatest. The title may not really describe the great boxer as a singer. But Ali was aided on one of the songs by one of the world’s greatest singers, Sam Cooke.
In this short interview, Cooke explains to Dave Clark that he had been working with some young singers. And the subject of his song with Ali, “The Gang’s All Here” comes up.
The combination of the music star and the rising boxer garnered some attention, with The New York Times covering the recording session of the song, which was arranged by Horace Ott. During the session, according to Peter Guralnik’s biography of Sam Cooke, Cooke provided guidance while keeping everyone’s spirits up. And Ali played around on the drums and recited poetry.
While Ali and Cooke were working on the song for the album, Harry Carpenter interviewed Ali for the BBC sports TV show, Grandstand. During the interview, Cooke showed up and exchanged some quips with his friend Ali. Then, the two sang a segment of the song they recorded together, “The Gang’s All Here.”
Here is the recording of “The Gang’s All Here” from the album. The tune add some tweaks but is based on the old classic “Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here,” which was written in 1917.
The original song features lyrics by D. A. Esrom based on a tune written by Arthur Sullivan for the 1879 show The Pirates of Penzance. Check out Muhammad Ali’s take on the song.
Six months after releasing I Am the Greatest, Ali lived up to the title of the album. The twenty-two year-old boxer became champion of the world by beating Sonny Liston in the ring on February 25, 1964.
(Note: In Peter Guralnick’s excellent and well-researched biography of Cooke, Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke, he describes that the above Grandstand interview with Cooke and Ali took place after the Liston fight in 1964. But in the video, Ali says that he and Cooke are working on the song, which was released in 1963. So it seems more likely that the Grandstand interview above took place after Ali fought Harry Cooper. That fight took place in 1963 at Wembley Stadium, Wembley Park.)
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