You Couldn’t Make This Stuff Up

1. The Band, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”
   I didn’t know the historical roots of The Band’s classic until I researched them for this list, and it gives this song about the end of the Civil War even greater impact than it had before. This version of the song comes from the remastered & expanded 4-disc boxed set of The Last Waltz that was released in 2002.
2. El Vez, “Frida’s Life Of Pain”
   El Vez isn’t just the country’s greatest Mexican Elvis impersonator and a world-class showman — he’s also one hell of a musical synthesist, blending two cultures’ sounds seamlessly. Here he sets the life story of Mexican painter Frida Kahlo to classic Memphis-tinged rock n’ roll music. If he ever brings his show to your town, do yourself a favor & go see him live — his show is as smart and fun ans his songs.
3. The Baseball Project, “Fernando”
   Keeping the south-of-the-border flavor going, here’s the best tribute to famed Dodgers lefty Fernando Valenzuela ever recorded. The Baseball Project is a super-group of sorts, featuring REM’s Peter Buck and The Minus 5’s Scott McCaughey among others, who released their debut Volume 1: Frozen Ropes and Dying Quails last year to decent critical acclaim. As you might be able to infer, all the songs are about baseball players, and “Fernando” is a standout. For a translation. look here.
4. Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again”
   I suppose if I added S&G’s “Mrs. Robinson” and a couple of others, I might have been able to make this an all-Joltin’ Joe list. In the late 90’s Wilco collaborated with UK folk firebrand Billy Bragg to set unrecorded Woody Guthrie song lyrics and poems to music, resulting in 2 albums of fantastic Americana, Mermaid Avenue Vols. 1 & 2. I think the song beautifully captures the everyman’s zeitgeist of the time DiMaggio was on his still-unbroken hitting streak.
5. The Two Man Gentlemen Band, “The Hindenburg Disaster”
   America’s finest banjo/upright bass/kazoo duo drops the knowledge again with this bouncy, old-timey ditty about the horrifying, deadly crash of the Hindenburg airship. Grim but fun stuff.
6. Manic Street Preachers, “Kevin Carter”
   The Manics have to shortage of controversial fact-based songs to choose from (”Baby Elian,” “Let Robeson Sing,” and “The Love of Richard Nixon” are just a few I considered), but in the end I settled on “Kevin Carter,” the unlikely 3rd hit single from their classic album Everything Must Go. The song reached #9 on the UK charts despite the subject matter: Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer in ‘94 for a photograph he took of a starving girl in the Sudan, but controversy swirled around his role as photojournalist, leading to his suicide later that year. At least the french horn solo in the song is pleasant.
7. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee”
   The story of Lee “Stagger Lee” Shelton has been told in song many times over, but I prefer Nick Cave’s version best — this ferocious live version taken from The Abbatoir Blues Tour album eats the studio version from Murder Ballads for breakfast.

Download: The Band, “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: El Vez, “Frida’s Life Of Pain” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Baseball Project, “Fernando” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Billy Bragg & Wilco, “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: The Two Man Gentlemen Band, “The Hindenburg Disaster” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Manic Street Preachers, “Kevin Carter” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)

Download: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, “Stagger Lee” (mp3)
(Right-click/control-click link to download)