Bongwater

Ann Magnuson
Oil on canvas paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2017

One of most exciting music videos on YouTube is a recording made on David Sanborn's Night Music that ran for two seasons on NBC from 1988-1990. The program is known as "the greatest music show on TV." In this particular episode David Sanborn (himself a notable jazz musician) is talking to Bob Weir of Grateful Dead fame. Then the band comes up: It's Weir with the band Bongwater and the Pussywillows with special appearances by Screamin' Jay Hawkins(!) and Roky Erickson. After a crazy jam Hawkins disappears and Bongwater plays You Don't Love Me Yet, one of their signature tunes which is an original of Roky Erickson (of 13th Floor Elevators fame). Here's a link (I highly recommend viewing it.)

Cat Power and the Animals

Cat Power
16 x 12 inches, oil on canvas paper, 2017

Some years ago I wondered what if Beth Orton were an animal what kind of animal she'd be. I suggested she may be a crow. One year later there was a song called Magpie on her (then) new album. Now, what kind of animal would Chan Marshall be? Of course Chan Marshall's alter ego is Cat Power, but I doubt her spirit animal would be a cat. There aren't many of her songs in which animals are named. I recall (from the top of my head) the Werewolf Song, a cover of a Michael Hurley original, then she did Salty Dog, an old blues song but that one's not about a dog at all. The newest Cat Power in my Top 100 is Sad Sad Song in which a killer whale plays a prominent role. The credits are Cat Power's but the lyrics are, in good blues tradition, an amalgam of various verses, some old some new, some hers, some by others. The whale verse appears to have been written by M. Ward, a contemporary West Coast musician. I don't see Cat Power a killer whale though, perhaps a zebra.

Competition

Tumivut: The Competition Song
16 x 12 nches, oil on canvas paper, 2017

The Competition Song has now been listed in the Top 100 for three consecutive years and, because of it, also gained its place in the all time list of 500 recordings (going back to 1983). The performers are not known (to me) by name. I found them on YouTube years ago. I looked through all the comments to get information about their identity but no dice (there's one comment in which one of the singers is referred to as Charlotte). The comments to this video are mostly made by horny guys who get a boner from watching (deep throat singing is a favorite pun). There certainly is an element of eroticism embedded in the performance, and in all "katajjaq" performances, but it's not really sexual at all. The song is at the core (at least right now) of what the Top 100 is about; the search for the ultimate music recording that would illustrate the the essence of musical performance, and its origin. The competitiveness of it is an ongoing topic throughout my 35 year top 100 history, as the project itself is competitive—the ranking of music. The #1 every week is the ultimate musical recording (subjective). The video descriptor is: "Tumivut - Inuit Throat Singing - The Competiton Song at Aboriginal Day 2010 at The Forks in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada." The performance is not intended as art but it's a game. A lot of skill is required to compete but the outcome is objective—there's no jury—the winner is the one who keeps singing with a straight face, not missing a beat, no laughing.

Patti Smith

Patti Smith
12 x 16 inches, oil on canvas paper, 2017

To Patti Smith poems are like prayers. In an interview she said that she gave up on religion but never on prayer. Her song lyrics are like prayers, some literally so (as in Gloria). Some of her songs are introduced by a prayer and some prayers are directed at specific people. In her lyrics she talks to (and prays for) Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, Robert Mapplethorpe, Patty Hearst (and many others, her Rock and Roll Niggers). Patty Hearst is addressed introducing a cover of Hendrix's Hey Joe, Brian Jones is spoken to introducing Lou Reed's We're gonna have a real good time together. Collected on UbuWeb are some early recordings by Patti Smith, poetry readings basically with minimal accompaniment by her longtime collaborator Lenny Kaye. These recordings are the groundwork for a series of highly important and influential albums she produced in the late seventies and early eighties.

CocoRosie

CocoRosie (Sierra and Bianca Casady)
Oil on canvas paper, 16 x 12 inches, 2017

The sisters Sierra and Bianca Casady started CocoRosie in Paris, France, in 2003, when they were both living there. Sierra and Bianca were nicknamed Coco and Rosie by their mother, hence the name for the group that initially only consisted of the two sisters. The two of them made tape recordings in their bathroom that later became their first album La maison de mon rêve. A number of tracks from this album had been on my iTunes for about a decade but somehow they never made the list of the top 100 until the song Terrible Angels randomly started playing on my computer the other day. It was my friend Wim, way back when, who suggested I listen to CocoRosie, stating he liked them much better than Cat Power (who I was listening to a lot then.)