Friday Random 10: What the Big Boys Do

Once again, we celebrate the coming of the weekend by firing up the magic music machine and seeing what comes out of it.

"15 Days"/The Silos/When the Telephone Rings. One of the original alt-country bands, sounding pretty good here.

"Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters"/Elton John/Honky Chateau. Honky Chateau is the first album Elton recorded after achieving major stardom, and his confidence in the wake of his success is audible.

"Snowbird"/Anne Murray/AM Gold: 1970. What the hell is this doing on here?

"Let's Stay Together"/Al Green/Let's Stay Together. Wondrous stuff. In the end, it was kind of weird that Al Green found God; to lots of R&B fans in the 1970s, he was God.

"Helplessly Hoping"/Crosby Stills and Nash/CSN (box set). A recent article in Paste ("Making the Fantasy Band") mentioned this as one of the most beautiful harmony vocals in rock history, second only to the Beach Boys on "In My Room."

"Jack the Ripper"/Roy Buchanan/Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection. Cops a riff from "Taps" to begin with (albeit at triple speed), and takes off from there. The hardest-rockin' tune to turn up on a Random 10 to date.

"Domino"/Van Morrison/His Band and the Street Choir. From Celtic bard to R&B entertainer in three 12-inch vinyl steps, from Astral Weeks to Moondance to this.

"Some Guys Have All the Luck"/Rod Stewart/Storyteller: the Complete Anthology. I notice Rod is back atop the album charts this week with his fourth album of standards. How nice for him.

"Man Smart (Woman Smarter)"/C.J. Chenier and the Red Hot Louisiana Band/Alligator Records 25th Anniversary Collection. Little bit of zydeco here, with a hilarious lyric:

Little boy sat down and cried
Old man passed him, asked him why
He said "I can't do what the big boys do"
Old man sat down and he cried too

"Valse Hot"/Sonny Rollins/Ken Burns Jazz: Sonny Rollins. Until Rollins made this record in 1956, most jazz, especially bebop, was played in 4/4 time. This tune is the first jazz waltz (3/4 time), although you might hurt yourself if you tried actually waltzing to it.