All seven and we’ll watch them fall
They stand in the way of love
And we will smoke them all
With an intellect
And a savoir-faire
No one in the whole universe
Will ever compare
I am yours now and you are mine
And together we’ll love through all space and time
So don’t cry
Today all seven will die.

I think it was December
She couldn’t ever sing any better
And lies in the meadow with her hands tied behind her back

Don’t you feel like breaking out
If you want to fly, push your doubts aside
I will follow you into the sun
That is all that I can do
Like I’m talking through the wires of a telephone

But I’ve known many who would gladly swim to get to where you are
To the depths of the ocean where all hopes sank, searching for you
I am sorry to tell you it never gets better or worse*

It’ll come clear
But his brain was in his ass
In the drunk tank
And your eyes like smoke and your prayers like rhymes

*the second line of, yes, This Is Hell by Elvis Costello. This song is stalking me.

I’m not a big fan of unreleased music–bootlegged concerts, demos, etc. Most of it has, at best, more historical/novelty value than musical value. Production values are often spotty, and songs are sometimes incompletely arranged or even unfinished.

Even with Rhino’s great reissues of Elvis Costello’s records, all of which contain copious bonus materials, the results are uneven. Some tracks show Costello’s brilliant songs bubbling up from his imagination, and some are otherwise enjoyable tracks that simply didn’t fit the original record thematically. But many are scratchy demos or live cuts that sound really bad. I usually listen only once and then delete them from my iPod.

But I just found the unreleased Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash sessions, recorded in 1969 for a Columbia studio album that was never finished. Only one track, “Girl from the North Country,” saw the light of day, on Dylan’s excellent Nashville Skyline album.

These tracks, largely, aren’t great. The mp3.com page I’ve linked to is accurate in saying that Cash does better work here than Dylan, who is off-key and out of time. (Although as I type this, “Ring of Fire” is playing, with John and Bob alternating vocals, and Dylan’s voice is in good form, so it’s not all bad.)

But, man, with guitar work by Carl Perkins, it’s fun to think about what this record could have been.

Blessed with a profound imagination, he used the gift to express all the various lost causes of the human soul. This is a miraculous and humbling thing. Listen to him, and he always brings you to your senses. He rises high above all, and he’ll never die or be forgotten, even by persons not born yet — especially those persons — and that is forever.

–Bob Dylan, on Johnny Cash

15 shuffled songs from my iPod:

Cold, Cold Heart, Hank Williams
Hang Wire, Pixies
Mary Anne With the Shaky Hand, The Who
Turkish Song of the Damned, The Pogues
Metropolis, The Pogues
Arizona, The Constantines
Ride Me Down Easy, Waylon Jennings
I Remember Nothing, Joy Division
Honky Tonk Heroes, Waylon Jennings
Coming In From the Cold, The Delgados
Half As Much, Hank Williams
This Is Hell, Elvis Costello
It’s A Beautiful Day, Pizzicato Five
Martha, Tom Waits
A Singer of Songs, Johnny Cash

Couple thoughts: Who the hell are the Constantines? So that’s what the Delgados sound like. I think I’m one of the last people in New York to hear them. And, oh great, it’s the return of the “This Is Hell” mind virus. Sigh.

In honor of the ShufflePlay Game, the next 15 shuffled songs on my iPod:

Lalaland, Sea Ray
Twist the Knife, Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
El Camino, Goh Nakamura
Let Me Get up on It, Tom Waits
Glow Girl, The Who
Teenage, Tribeca
Names, Cat Power
Like a Prayer, Junkie Brewster
Just So (Pepito Remix), Dealership
Havalina, Pixies
Dream, Douglas Heart
Allison, Pixies
Slow Rollin’ Low, Waylon Jennings
Interzone, Joy Division
Whip the Blankets, Neko Case & Her Boyfriends

Barry Ritholtz, at the IPac blog, makes the case that shuffle is the new radio. From my own experiences, I can see what he’s saying. I love loading up new music (from band sites, music blogs, or iTunes) onto my iPod and just playing them at random.

Lyrics courtesy the (unofficial) Elvis Costello Home Page.

CHORUS:
This is hell, this is hell
I am sorry to tell you
It never gets better or worse
But you get used to it after a spell
For heaven is hell in reverse

The bruiser spun a hula hoop
As all the barmen preen and pout
The neon “i” of nightclub flickers on and off
And finally blew out
The irritating jingle
Of the belly-dancing phoney Turkish girls
The eerie glare of ultra violet
Perfect dental work

CHORUS

The failed Don Juan in the big bow-tie
Is very sorry that he spoke
For he’s mislaid his punchline
More than halfway through a very tasteless joke
The fr�ulein caught him peeking down her gown
He’s yelling in her ear
And all at once the music stopped
As he was intimately bellowing “My dear . . .”

CHORUS

The shirt you wore with courage
And the violent nylon suit
Reappear upon your back
And undermine the polished line you try to shoot
It’s not the torment of the flames
That finally see your flesh corrupted
It’s the small humiliations that your memory piles up

This is hell, this is hell, this is hell.

“My Favourite Things” are playing
Again and again
But it’s by Julie Andrews
And not by John Coltrane
Endless balmy breezes and perfect sunsets framed
Vintage wine for breakfast
And naked starlets floating in Champagne
All the passions of your youth
Are tranquillised and tamed
You may think it looks familiar
Though you may know it by another name

CHORUS

This is hell, this is hell.

You are light-tasting
Open up your ribcage
I was born in Dixie in a boomer shack

Her head is in a bitter way
Past three o’clock
Standing on the corner with the low-down blues

Oceans lay between us and the things we think we need
The ragman draws circles up and down the block
The worms crawl in

Well my time went so quickly
The island it is silent now

His heart organ was where it should be
Waiting for the big fall
Don’t you worry about me
There’s a man going ’round taking names

Jen and I saw the Pixies last night, at Hammerstein Ballroom, and I don’t know what to say that won’t sound like a cliché, but I will say this: There’s still no band like the Pixies. The Datsuns opened for them, and despite how much the hipster kids love that band, they sounded anemic and dead in comparison.

I also thought the Pixies just looked funny when they came out. Kim Deal in her blue sweater, looking just like the cutest mom in the neighborhood. David Lovering and Charles Thompson like your weird uncles. Most surprising, though, was Joey Santiago–slim, handsome, and rocking that shaved head. He was hotter than all the string-haired Datsuns combined.

I don’t go to many shows, and I’ve only been to shows in small clubs lately, so I’d forgotten the power of a huge sound system blasting your body so hard you can feel the sonic. The Pixies were in my body as much as they were my head.

If you want a more coherent review, you might try this morning’s New York Times.

The next 15 shuffled songs on my iPod:

Such Great Heights, Iron & Wine
Shake Your Rump, Beastie Boys
Queensboro Bridge, David Mead
Monkey Gone to Heaven, Pixies
Reasons to Quit, Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson
Vice from the Inner Soul, The Confusions
Rock a My Soul, Pixies
The Card Cheat, The Clash
Eugene’s Lament, Beastie Boys
Under the Bridge, Sandy Silver
I Don’t Get It, Cowboy Junkies
Disorder, Joy Division
New Dawn Fades, Joy Division
A Well Respected Man, The Kinks
Police & Thieves, The Clash

Alas, it’s in pukey old Boston. Which sucks, because if it were in NYC, I’d move hell and earth to be there. I mean, to me, that’s like Sting appearing with U2 or something.

But anyway, the show will apparently be archived on the etown site, soonish, and I will get a copy, oh yes, and it will be mine.