Son Of Sam

I found a handful of CD singles recently, a bunch of releases from the early 2000s, nearly a quarter of a century ago now. CD singles were generally good value for money, often three or four songs/ tracks and retailing at under £3.00, sometimes under £2.00. Unlike a lot of vinyl, most have actually depreciated over the intervening years and are now listed on Discogs for pennies (or a few pounds by chancers on ebay). This one came out of the pile, a three song single by Elliott Smith released in 2000, taken from his album Figure 8. I haven't posted anything by Elliott Smith previously, something that surprises me a little- however I'm not sure that this is his best work, the XO and Either/ Or albums being the ones I tended to play back in the 90s. Son Of Sam was the second single from Figure 8, his fifth album and the last studio album released during his lifetime. 

Son Of Sam

According to Smith the song isn't about the serial killer of the same name but about creativity and destruction, two topics he was well qualified to write about. These were the pair of B-sides/ extra songs...

A Living Will

Figure 8

Elliott plays everything on these recordings, guitar, piano, organ, bass and drums as well as singing. Figure 8 is a cover of a song by jazz musician Bob Dorough and gave Elliott's album its name despite not appearing on it. The song is just Elliott's voice and some organ, over and done with in under two minutes. 

Elliott's breakthrough albums in the mid to late 90s, especially XO and Either/ Or, made him famous and brought him some rewards including an Oscar nomination but he was a troubled soul and unsuited to fame. He had issues with drink and drugs and mental health problems, plus a diagnosis of ADHD. He died in October 2003 aged 34 from two stab wounds to the chest, probably self inflicted. 

Alameda is from 1997's Either/ Or, a sparer sound than the songs from the Son Of Sam CD single above, just Elliott's acoustic guitar, multi- tracked vocals and some drums that sound like they're not an actual kit but some cardboard boxes in the corner of the room.

Alameda

Trugoy The Dove

More sad news for 2023. I hadn't even got around to writing about the death of Burt Bacharach when it was announced that Trugoy The Dove had died aged just 54. Trugoy The Dove, also known as Plug 2 and Dave Jolicouer, was one of the trio of Long Island friends who formed De La Soul and who in 1989 released one of the most important records of that year, their debut album 3 Feet High And Rising. It's difficult to overstate the impact De la Soul had on 1989, an album and a bunch of songs that crossed over between all kinds of scenes and audiences. De La Soul's songs could be heard wherever music was being played,  songs like Eye Know and The Magic Number fitting in perfectly alongside Soul II Soul, The Stone Roses, Black Box, Inner City, 808 State and Happy Mondays. The day- glo graphics, long sleeved t- shirts, CND symbols, irreverent attitude to sampling and Daisy Age, positive lyrics made them stand out in a year when Public Enemy and NWA also made era- defining hip hop records but with a very different sound and tone. In 1989, it felt like wherever you went where good music was being played, De La Soul were part of it, their songs stitched into the feel good times of that year. 

'Three is the magic number', the hook from one of their best known 1989 songs, was sampled from a 1973 Bob Dorough song aimed at helping American kids in the 70s and 80s learn maths. They laid it over the drums from Double Dee and Steinski's Lesson 3, first written and demoed onto cassette in 1986. They had multiple legal wranglings over sample clearance and then with the record label Tommy Boy and had finally sorted out many of their legal issues last month, with The Magic Number finally appearing on streaming services

The Magic Number

De La Soul would go on to make several more albums, the follow up De La Is Dead saw them try to move on from the Daisy Age styles and 1996's Stakes Is High saw them still in good voice and top form. Later on they recorded with Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's Gorillaz, making Feel Good Inc, one of the stand out Gorillaz songs and co- written by Trugoy/ Dave. 

RIP Dave Jolicoeur.