Hey dear readers.
You are encouraged and enabled to leave comments on any article here in the ‘Bin. But, this is the official guestbook section of the Delete Bin, where you are encouraged to leave your regards, good or ill (but I hope mostly good). This is the place to tell me your opinions, and more helpfully, suggestions as to what you’d like to see on this here blog. And please tell me where you found us – I’m always curious about that.
Leave links to interesting content here too, preferably not your own site or a part of an affiliate or marketing effort, unless it’s really really cool, and other readers would directly benefit of course. Otherwise, I’d love to hear your recommendations. And of course, if you have a story idea, I’d love to hear those too.
Cheers and happy reading!
The Delete Bin 
Your “10 Songs” page is GENIUS! Great idea. Loved everything about.
Found you randomly by clicking on other peoples’ links.
Thanks Kim, and congrats to be the first person to sign the guestbook – a dubious honour, maybe. 🙂
The ’10 Songs’ series is a lot of fun to do, although it’s a bit time consuming to pull together an article. Look for more, although not too soon judging by my schedule for ’09.
Thanks for reading!
Hi Rob. Ha! I just figured out how to track wordpress comments I’ve made (months ago – “I Will”).
I’m still blogging about covers. Check out my Valentine’s Day tribute (Meet Me in Montauk) which features a new, sloppy but adorable cover of “I Will.” And a great cover of the Dylan song “Boots of Spanish Leather” – the best version of that song I’ve ever heard.
I nicknamed my little idea Pax Folkana. I always liked the sound of Pax Romana, and I figure folk music is as good a way as any to make peace with the world.
Re I’m Looking Through You: I saw that YouTube version, but I just didn’t like it as much as the one on Earle’s CD Train a’Comin.
Rob: We posted your excellent Happy Birthday George Harrison on our site–would really appreciate if you could post us somewhere on your site-sites of interest and/or websites you contribute to.
Thanks a bunch and hope to include more of your great stuff!
Hi Rob:
I recognize a kindred spirit, here. You like all the right stuff, you have the right passion and you are a great writer. This is a blog that I will come back to and one that I will feel compelled to respond to. Great work, and keep the flag flying, please!
Greil Marcus published a great book in 1979 called Stranded: Rock’n’Roll For a Desert Island (1979? How did that happen?). I’ve lost my copy, but the concept was that he invited some of the top music critics at the time (Lester Bangs, Dave Marsh, Robert Christgau, among others) to choose the one album they would want to be with on a desert island … the one LP they could listen to again and again for years until they were rescued or … It was a brilliant book, though dated now, obviously (and dated the day it came out, probably). But it was wonderful to read how all of these great writers responded to Marcus’ challenge, and the choices they made. All of them were interesting, some were mind-bogglingly “out-there” (like Trout Mask Replica”). The book is highly recommended, if you haven’t already read it … though, something tells me you have.
Your Ten Songs section reminds me a little of this idea. I wonder if you might consider inviting people to write guest blogs about the desert island disc concept: one choice, 250 words max … or something like that?
Just an idea.
Cheers and best wishes,
David Morton
Hey David – thanks for your kind words.
You know, I’ve read a bit of Christigau, and some Nick Kent, who is the Lester Bangs of England. But, I’ve never read any Greil Marcus. Strange, because I think that pop music is an important historical phenomenon much like he does. I’d love to get some guest bloggers on here and start a series; it’s a great idea. I know a few people who would be happy to do it, too. Hmm. Food for thought.
Thanks for comments!
I would heartily recommend Greil Marcus’ Mystery Train: Images of America in Rock and Roll, which is brilliant about the beginnings of rock music, but also explores The Band, Randy Newman and Sly Stone. Lots has happened in music since it was written, but it still holds up. He wrote another book about Bob Dylan, which I haven’t read yet.
Read Stranded, though, if the guest blog project appeals to you. It’s such a great concept and I thought The Delete Bin (great name, by the way!) would be a really good platform to resurrect the idea.
Keep up the great work!
David
Wow, Wow, Wow! This song has been in my head for 25 freaking years!!! I only heard it once in a car with a really hot blonde who I was dating at the time with her brother driving the car….I was drunk at the time and in my 20’s….I kept asking who is this? over and over again, finally the brother said, watch me (as he drove the car and said nothing…oh yea…THE DRIVERS!!) … and somehow it stuck in my head…been looking for it for so long and really appreciate that you put it up. What a memory!
John
Oh yes,
During this same glorious week in my memory, I saw on Canadian television a live clip of a girl band (I think they called themselves “the waitresses” and they were singing this great rock song called “you outta know by now”. Same time frame, back in likely the early 80’s or so…any thoughts on this one?
Again, Thanks very much!
John
Enjoyed your page and commentary.
I am looking for The Laughing Song that was played on the radio everywhere in the 60s. No lyrics: just a person chuckling low, then getting louder and louder. Before long everyone in the room, any room, I was in would be howling with laughter as it’s contagious. I was in a restaurant the first time I heard it (I grew up in Detroit with Motown) and even tho I worked part time for a disk jockey, I worked two jobs and just never got to this one because I had just moved on from the radio/TV station and never thought about years down the road when I would want to own it. And I do! I sincerely hope your memory is better than mine or you have contancts who could find it.
Thank you very much.
David: I really enjoyed your take on the 10 best Beatle covers. Every time I think I’ve seen all the albums that Duane allman did studio work, p pops another one with Wilson Pickett.
I’d like to add some additional cuts for your consideration.
1. You had Emmy Lou singing “For No One” from Pieces of the Sky, but I really think her best is her version of “Here There and Everywhere”, a song which I don’t think George Martin knew what to do with.
Sshe makes it country for sure, but my what passion she puts into that song!!
2. Although a jazzed version of the same song, George Benson also covers HT&E well, especially with the guitar and Benson’s classic “voicing” over the guitar. Check it out.
3. Another gem that’s buried in the rough is Al Jarreau’s version of “She’s Leaving Home” from his Tenderness CD.
4. My final addition is Larry Carlton’ and his wife Michelle Pilar’s version of “Things we said Today” Very R&B and your a minute into the song and have no idea a Beatles tune is coming. Probably never see this version live, as Larry does both acoustic and Electric guitar on the song. It’s on the GIFT CD I think.
Thanks for the blog space,
DM&FS
Hi Rob …
Here’s a Delete Bin blog post idea for your consideration. iTunes Genius playlists: Pros and Cons. And how the hell does it work?
Last night, for example, I selected Blue Canadian Rockies by the Byrds and hit the Genius button. One of the early songs on the generated playlist was a Richard and Linda Thompson song called Never Again … an achingly beautiful song that I never knew I owned. Well, perhaps I’d listened to it once, but had completely forgotten it. It was extremely gratifying to have discovered it in my collection. There were many others I had not heard before (to my knowledge) or that I had completely forgotten about. What a pleasure to re-discover the depth and breadth of the music I own!
Not sure how Genius works … how it matches music, but I have generally had great results. The only thing that bothers me about it is that Apple knows all the music I own and apparently knows more about my collection than I do. So that when I rhapsodize about the latest Genius playlist, it’s tinged with a slight off-taste that Apple has its fingers in my music.
Mostly it has won me over, and I think I can live with that slight intrusion … but it still bothers me a little.
So what are your thoughts, Rob? Have you played with it much? How often do you use it? What music have you re-discovered as a result of Genius? Inquiring minds want to know!
Cheers
David
Sounds like the perfect *guest post* idea, David! 😉
I just bought Blogscanada.ca, and after watching it sit idle for the last three years.
I hope to revive it as Canada’s premier registry of “news, information and blogging!”
That’s why I’m featuring your blog/site on our Best Blogs page with a direct link back to you!
Got a lot of money tied up in this sucker, so any advice or help you can give me would be most appreciated!
Allan W Janssen
London, ON
BlogsCanada.ca/com/net/org
CanadaBlogs.ca/com/net/org — (In the new year, the best of BlogsCanada?)
P.S. —-If you know some French guy who might want to run these two, please let me know!
BloguesCanada.ca/com/net/org
CanadaBlogues.ca/com/net/org
Thanks Alan – I noticed the link-love and appreciate it very, very much. I’ll add you to my roll, too. I don’t know too many French guys who aren’t actually from France. But, I’ll wrack my brain accordingly to see if there’s anyone I know who might want to purchase the domains.
Are you on Twitter? If you’re not, that’s my first piece of advice. 🙂
Dear Rob,
As a lover, singer and song writer of “soul music” I praise your dedication to this music. But, I take issue with a few elements of your blog. In the spirit of sharing, I would say that “Southern Soul”as a ‘sub-genre’ is a great achievement and nothing to be shuffled off to obscurity by blogs or categories. None other than The Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, Aretha Franklin, the wicked Wilson Pickett, Bobby Womack, and the recently re-discovered Candy Staton as well as countless others, utilized the Muscle Shoals(Alabama)recording studio sound as the base for their hits. This doesn’t include all of the hits recorded for Stax and Hi Records, Al green and Ann Pebbles to mention a few, that changed popular rock n’ roll and pop music as we know it. Soul music is not a “fad” to be rediscovered, it is one of the greatest artistic and un-reproducible contributions America has given the world. We don’t call the British Invasion a sub-category. It’s a Fucking statement in modern culture.
I can tell you share a reverence of this genre(soul)and I write these comments in the spirit of knowledge and sharing. There are many other artists who fall into the “lost” category. But Southern Soul, in my opinion, is unparalleled.
And on that note, drop me a line to share rare artist of this great genre.
SWS
Hey Shane,
Thanks a lot for comments here. I would be the last person in the world to reduce soul music, particularly Southern soul, to being a fad. I do think however that R&B had moved away from that sound by the mid-70s, and has only recently been revived in the mainstream by people like Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings, Eli Paperboy Reed, and even Amy Winehouse. This isn’t an indictment against the music which had come before, of course, but it is something of a rediscovery for many younger people who have not heard this style of music played in a live setting or on the radio. And not to quibble with you, but I would call ‘British Invasion’ something of a sub-category, simply because it is linked to a specific era. Anyway, at the end of the day, we can agree that music that has that spark is worth our attention. And soul music is all about spark.
Thanks again for comments!
This was in reference to Ann Sexton.
SWS
hey rob i have a song demo i might be to young to start a band but i think i have som e talent u might wanna consider and i havent done any bands and to u im pretty much a kid
Do tell, James. At the risk of sounding very old 😉 ‘who are your influences?’
many in fact to many to list
so rob how old do u have to be to be a famous singer ?
How old was Michael Jackson? I think it was 9.
o really thanks cause im 10 and i think im ready for fam
Cool. Just let Michael Jackson’s example serve as a warning as well as an inspiration. And good luck. 🙂
i already got a friend whos a good drumer and guitarist well he needs some work with the guitar but i wanted to know if u could help us make it big time
wat do u mean by let it serve as a warning
o im stupid i forgot can i add u on my space because we need to talk
im going to add u now butt it will say beast u no me
that wasnt as easy as i thought well wats ur middle name
Hi Rob …
Haven’t checked in for a long while and it’s so great to see you still churning out great blog posts with the same vitality and enthusiasm as ever.
I’ve been listening recently to someone called Karen Dalton, who was a 1960s Greenwich Villager and contemporary of Bob Dylan’s from those days. I checked in here to see if you’d written about her, and it appears not. Have you heard of her? Such a plaintive, world-weary voice with some interesting Billie Holiday ticks. She was a regular at the Cafe Wha? and Dylan mentions her in his Chronicles as the one of his favorites of the regulars at this club. I read somewhere that the Band song, “Katie’s Been Gone” from The Basement Tapes, is about her. She does a version of “In A Station,” which predates the Band’s version from Big Pink. I find her singing haunting in the same way as Nick Drake’s. She plays a 12-string guitar and long-neck banjo. Only three LPs, as far as I can tell, so not a large body of work — she died of AIDS in 1993. At least one of the albums has some cheesy commercial stuff, but her voice is very real, nothing gratuitous or superficial. You can hear strains of her style in Feist and a little bit of Adele, too.
Check her out, if you haven’t already. I’d be interested to see what you think. My leaning at the moment is her record, “In My Own Time”, but “Green Rocky Road” is an album of demos released posthumously that is also quite good. They all are, for different reasons.
I remain a big fan of The Delete Bin, and I hope you are thriving and healthy and well!
Cheers,
David
Hey David! Thanks for stopping by, for the recommendation, and for generally being supportive of this little blog of mine. I’m looking forward to your impressions for the coming year!
I just watched the movie “Snatch” A song at the very end had the lyrics “hah, hah, hah, hah” Who wrote it? Where can I get it?
Thanks
That’s Huey Piano Smith & The Clowns – “Don’t You Just Know It”. Click through to listen, and to buy on Amazon or on iTunes.
Thanks Rob,
I knew that had to be a New Orleans artist.
I remember “Rockin’ Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu”. That’s from back in my day. Good stuff.
heppy new year:)
he he:)
I will be coming back later to check this out—wanted to sign up and get started.
I think I may have read a book of yours, Rob Jones…your photo looks familiar.
Cheryl & Jeff
You’re a good writer, and when I find more time to explore I’ll probably find real good taste in you’re music choices as well. I love your profile too, and there are many of us who share your positions….. I got here via a song by Nick Drake on the profoundly moving movie 7 Pounds. At first I thought it was Colin Blunstone so I traced it through, much to my pleasant suprise it was another artist I get to find out about and enjoy. I love it when people find obscure and talented artists to support mainstream media, broadening all of our palettes and experiences here……. Thanks, Rob…… BR
I just happened to stumble across this. This is a great site! As a lover of all kinds of music except rap and opera, I am finding this very fascinating. Keep up the good work! Mark Geisler, DeKalb, IL