MPS MIXTAPE PRESERVATION SOCIETY HOUR 29

So I skipped my podcast last week-- I was entertaining a special friend from out of town and didn't have the time nor the gumption to sit down and make this list, as easy as it seems to be.

In case you aren't aware, I am making a mixtape version of covers of songs from The Beatles aka The White Album. The previous podcast consisted of Part One, which is composed of songs from Sides 1 & 2 of the famous double album. This week covers Part Two, which is Sides 3 & 4.

In actual fact, this particular mixtape project was more difficult than I expected it to be, simply because I second-guessed nearly every single song I decided to use. In terms of comparison to the original playlist I'd made, a little over half of them survived the transition to this new mixtape. I discovered so many better renditions of songs from the White Album that I had a hard time deciding on which ones to use. In some cases I also had to re-record several different versions of the same song from the same artist because I was unable to conveniently find higher-quality versions online.

In the process, I made some startling discoveries... all of which I will note as I run down the list of this week's podcast.

First and foremost, I had to play "House We Used To Live In" by The Smithereens in honor of Pat DiNizio, who passed away this week. The Smithereens never got their proper due, but I recognized their powerful songwriting prowess and their influence on bands as diverse as Ted Leo, Suzanne Vega... and a little band from Seattle known as Nirvana. In fact, the first time I heard "About A Girl" by Kurt Cobain and company, I recall thinking of The Smithereens instantly. "House We Used To Live In" is my favorite song by this overlooked and underrated group and it's a shame that yet another great musician has fallen to the wayside in these heady times.

After the formalities and brief intro, I launch into Underground Sunshine's faithful cover of "Birthday". They hailed from the Midwest and only had a few hits, some of them covers of other artists.

Lucky Peterson handles John Lennon's "Yer Blues" masterfully. Never has a white man's blues been interpreted so effortlessly by a black musician. I have this theory that only African-American artist should ever cover The Beatles, because they do it the best... although there's plenty of good stuff by good ol' Whitey on this list.

Harry Nilsson, a friend of Lennon's after the breakup of The Fab Four, is a good example of the white boy faction in re: covering The Beatles. His version of "Mother Nature's Son" is almost letter-perfect. 

The Feelies are the entire reason why I ever started a tribute mixtape to The White Album in the first place. Their version of "Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey" is a high-octane joyride through everything good and pure in pop music. This mix exists as an excuse to foist this rendition of a nutty Lennon ditty upon an unsuspecting populace in prompt fashion.

I replaced the Ramsey Lewis version of "Sexy Sadie" with one that Paul Weller did. I hadn't heard the Weller version and was amazed that I hadn't discovered it until recently. I love the Lewis version but Weller's is heartfelt, whereas Lewis was doing what everybody else in the 60's did when it came to The Beatles: released an album of their songs and hoped people bought it. Lewis' version had mad soul, but Weller loves The Beatles with a passion, so I went with his instead.

There's a lot of good covers of "Helter Skelter" (and I decided against sampling snippets from the Charles Manson documentary from 1973 for this podcast at the last minute) but the best version I ever heard was never recorded: it was performed by a band called Sharkbait, and they were on the second stage of Lollapalooza '92. The band had five drummers and a front man who shoved a working jackhammer down his Speedo in front of the ecstatic crowd. I've never found their version in any format anywhere, so I'll just go with Pat Benatar's... because I like her voice and she rocks.

Yim Yames is a member of My Morning Jacket and his actual name is Jim James. I am not into MMJ but I was pleasantly surprised by his take on "Long Long Long", a divisive George Harrison tune that you either love or hate. I liked Yames' version enough to replace Tanya Donelly's cover, but Donelly resurfaces later in the mix so it's not a huge upset.

I didn't want to use Stone Temple Pilots or Imagine Dragons' versions of "Revolution I" (the latter being the one I previously used), and there's really only one version out there of the actual "Revolution I" as it was done on the album, and that's the one Phish did in their infamous Halloween show... no one ever does it that way; they always do it in the style of the single. But I wanted to refrain from using any of Phish's versions because it's almost like cheating... like, why don't I just use EVERY version from their White Album tribute? So I was elated to find that the Minions from "Despicable Me" did a cover. And it made it to the mixtape playlist. Well played, Minions.

Adrian Holovaty is a software programmer and a lover of gypsy jazz a la Django Reinhardt. He's pretty good, too. His cover of "Honey Pie" is kind of amazing as fuck (or Amazing AF, as the kids today put it) and I used it on the last mix so it still has enough juice to stay in its place in the lineup.

And then there's Terry Manning's psychedelic and whacked-out version of "Savoy Truffle" which runs ten minutes-plus and takes listeners on a journey that not even Mr. Harrison himself, in all his transcendental meditative glory, could ever muster. It used to be, IMHO, the highlight of this entire mixtape... that is, until I discovered...

Throwing Muses' version of "Cry Baby Cry". I never heard them do this before. It's a B-Side of a single from the last album they did before Tanya Donelly jumped ship to form Belly. Also confusing matters is that Throwing Muses have a song called "Cry Baby Cry" that has nothing to do with The Beatles at all. But upon finding this hidden gem, I have been listening to it on a loop for almost the past 24 hours. It's that incredible. Lead vocalist Kristin Hersh keeps only the first and last verses, then repeats the chorus endlessly until her voice fades out. She also eschews the trippy time measures in favor of a straight-forward musical delivery, which is odd considering how TM never shied from complex time signatures or odd tempo tinkering. Either way, it's now one of my all-time favorite songs by anyone anywhere.

Finally, to round out the mixtape, there's Alarm Will Sound's faithful reproduction of "Revolution 9" and then Karen Carpenter and company give "Good Night" an easygoing treatment. But after "Cry Baby Cry"nothing else seems to matter. It's all filler from here on out. In fact, maybe the entire Off-White Album idea is just superfluous in light of what Hersh and friends did for that tune.

But that's why I love doing this podcast: because no matter how much I think I know, there's always something to uncover and reveal. And sometimes it changes your life.