In My Head Until I Die

Quick links to music blog goodness:

Ickmusic is not just your headquarters for all things Springsteen, but also for all things Prince. Pete has posted an after-hours club show from 1988 that features, among other things, a lengthy version of the Temptations' "Just My Imagination." The Temps' record is an all-time favorite of mine, a performance filled with longing for an unattainable woman. In Prince's version, he's not only attained the woman, he's slow-dancing with her in the living room on the way to the sack.

I Am Fuel, You Are Friends sings the praises of Lucinda Williams' Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, newly released in a double-CD version I wish Santa Claus had brought for me. If you're only going to own one album by Williams, Car Wheels is the one to have--but once you have it, you'll probably want some more.

Hurry over to JB's Warehouse Music Annex for some vintage Bob Seger, featuring 1966-67 singles with the Last Heard (which struck me as kind of interesting to hear, but not essential) and 1969 tracks from the Bob Seger System, including "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," which you know, "2 + 2 = ?," which you may not, and "Noah," which you should.

And finally, over at WFMU's Beware of the Blog: the Chicken Fat Record. Although the mp3 posted at that link is of a 1980s remake, the 1960s original, recorded by Robert Preston at the behest of John F. Kennedy for his physical fitness initiative, has been playing in my head for almost 40 years. In elementary school, I had a gym teacher who made us work out to it--and maybe you did, too. I'd long since given up hope of ever hearing the original again--except when fragments of it popped into my head unbidden--but Beware of the Blog kindly provides a link to Preston's original. After hearing it one more time today, it's a safe bet now that it will continue to live in my head until I die.