Cutting right to the chase, my answer is Mercury Blues by David Lindley off his 1981 first solo record, El Rayo-X. This version of an older blues tune, credited to K.C. Douglas and Robert Geddins, has nearly every element I have to have: fast tempo with crisp aggressive percussion, lyrics about love gone bad and, perhapsdefinitely, most important of all, slammin’ muddy blues guitar driving the train all over the tracks and into a fiery climax that barrels right into concrete wall. Damn if it isn’t infectious and danceable too!
That said, no one will confuse Lindley’s nasal, high-pitched vocals for Placido Domingo or Paul McCartney yet they mesh well with the plaintive, up, down, and then hopeful lyrics: I stole my bestfriend’s girl ’cause I got a Mercury ’49, he got lucky stole her back again but no matter, I’ll win her in the end.
Lindley’s guitar playing, riff-driven rhythm guitar part underlying a sizzling slide guitar lead, rides off the four bar drum opening into the stratosphere before calming down just a tad when the vocals come in but right after the first chorus he lets loose on melodic, fuzzy slide.
Drums are by Ian Wallace, formerly of English art rockers King Crimson. Bass is contributed by either Bob Glaub or Reggie McBride, can’t say for sure as the credits aren’t song-specific. There’s also some nice organ playing on other tracks by Little Feat’s Bill Payne but left off on this tune for a sparser, more airy sound. Wallace’s drum kit is also supplemented with rollicking percussion that falls somewhere between ska and Latin beats.
The rest of the album is fun and good rock, particularly a couple of old Bob Fuller blues songs, She Took Off My Romeos and Quarter of a Man, and the covers of Smokey Robinson’s Don’t Look Back (better by far than Jagger’s duet with Peter Tosh) and the Everly Brothers’ Bye-Bye Love.
“What,” I hear you asking, “isn’t there a Bruce Springsteen track you think is a better answer to the question? After all, you’ve said time and again that he far and away makes your favorite music.” Not quite. I have him with two of the top five (Thunder Road and Cover Me) but in rock and roll you get extra points for being somewhere in the one hit wonder/not-quite obscure swimming pool. Rounding out the five are Thin Lizzy’s Cowboy Song (from Live and Dangerous) and the Stones’ prescient Sympathy for the Devil.
[Karl, a cool Philly rocker in his own right, has a list up in response. What’s yours?]
You may not realize it but you probably hear David’s playing several times a week on one of the hundreds of tracks by other artists which he pitched in lead guitar as a session musician, also extra credit points for Lindley. Going back to the ’70s he played with Jackson Browne (for which he is probably best known, including his falsetto vocals on Brown’s live version of Stay), Warren Zevon, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, David Crosby, Terry Reid, Graham Nash, Bob Dylan, America, Eddie Money, Iggy Pop and Rod Stewart.
Oddly, my copy of the CD gives the title as Mercury Man, which jives with my memory from back in the day. Whatever. Lindley’s track got plenty of airplay in the ’80s but he never really followed it up to build a solo career; I think his tastes are bit too eclectic for that.
Definitely a song to grab from iTunes, Amazon or wherever you get your music these days.
BillSaysThis 