play me this one

[fflo]

Watched some more of "The Wire" today. I'm starting to get into it. After seeing the episodes on the first disc, kinda "eh" so far, I'd listened to a part of a commentary track to one & been roundly put off by the commentary-doing dude & how thoroughly impressed he was with himself and his colleagues and all the genius abounding about. I mighta given up on the show, despite the draw of the Baltimore thing, if I hadn't been talking about it to disclaimerwill, whose enthusiasm encouraged me to continue.

I recently read, in this blog entry I clicked to after coming across & digging the Domaje rendition (which you can hear/snag there), that each new season there's a new cover of the theme song, Tom Waits' "Way Down in the Hole." And here's a piece from the Balto City Paper about the show's background music & the guy who does it, if you think you might be interested in that.

The one thing in that commentary track that's stuck with me in a less put-off way was the story of how, when one of the show's creators or early producers or somethin' was dying, in some bed somewhere in NYC, the commentary track guy and some other people went all over to find a copy of the (first-year version?) of the theme song to take it to play for him, cuz man he sure loved that song.

So I was thinking about that today, and about what song somebody should go find a copy of to bring and play for me when/if I'm laying dying somewhere. The first cut that came to mind was this one, which would indeed, I declare, be a darned good choice:

  .mp3 >-->  "Tin Roof Blues" -- Louis Armstrong (live)
                                        (with some line-up of his All-Stars, it looks like)

It was one of my first favorite songs/recordings. Discovered on one of my folks' records, a knock-off label's odd assembly of various Louis numbers, including a couple featuring the intriguingly nicknamed Earl "Fatha" Hines, as the sparse notes managed to mention. In my head as a kid I was pronouncing it to rhyme with "bath-uh"---had not the first clue where somebody could get a moniker like that one, it sure is a funny and mysterious world out there.

What can I (or somebody you love) track down & put in your ears one more time, if/when it's coming right down to it? Got an idea?

Comments

[disclaimerwill.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you're starting to dig The Wire! I hadn't realized that its theme song was written by Tom Waits (his version serves as the season three theme; I'd just assumed that they'd recruited him for that season). Neat! I wonder if I have his original somewhere...

Fun topic, the deathbed song! I've got two dogs staring expectantly at me right now (we're watching Bubba, Bev's parents' terrier, and he and Cora enjoy sitting side-by-side and looking at me like dual Eddies-from-Frasier), so it's a bit hard to think deeply, but my first instinct is to pick "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" by Radiohead.

Ideally, the video should be projected on the ceiling over my bed:

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

Funny, but I've actually thought way too much about deathbed music lately. It wasn't lost on my that something I played on my piano was the last music my brother heard before they carted him off the the ambulance where he died. And someone on my friends list was singing to her father-in-law the moment he died.

I don't want to hear a recording on my deathbed. I want a freind to be singing or playing an instrument when I die. The choice of song depends on what song the friend knows and can sing well.

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

i dunno about a deathbed song, but i heard a really nice song that i'd wish my loved ones to be able to say summed up their lives....mine included. It was Irene Reid doing "Here's To Life." http://www.sendspace.com/file/mftu78

Not sure if it's a cover or not, because the actual physical CD is not sitting in front of me at this moment. I bought this CD (Million Dollar Secret) after hearing "What I Did For Love," which I think was done by Grover Washington Jr. a while back. She does a swinging version of it that'll make you snap your fingers. (Stay tuned for that.)

http://www.amazon.com/Million-Dollar-Secret-Irene-Reid/dp/B0000069TT

I'll look forward to reading the Balto City Paper about "The Wire." A. and I will dive into watching those sometime. I haven't seen any of them yet.

[fflo.livejournal.com]

My computer isn't authorized to play your file, according to iTunes/copyright thingie. You can authorize 5 computers to play it or somethin', but you'd have to do so with your password. I did hear the first strains, however.

[sprig5.livejournal.com]

well. that's annoyin'!