...to the Sublime

One Hit Wonders: Ronnie Dyson

Seems like Ronnie Dyson should've been a huge star. At 18, he landed a lead part in the Broadway production of "Hair"--that's him singing "Aquarius" on the original soundtrack recording. From there he went to an off-Broadway production of the rock musical "Salvation," which yielded the biggest hit of Dyson's career, ("If You Let Me Make Love To You Then) Why Can't I Touch You?" Written by Peter Link and C.C. Coutrney, the song is a great vehicle for Dyson's voice. (The vaguely Latin-sounding production has a nice marimba part and a swirling string arrangement.) The single sold a million copies and peaked at #8 on the pop charts in 1970. Dyson was signed to Columbia Records, which paired him with the fantastic Philadelphia producer Thom Bell on the 1973 album "One Man Band." But Dyson never broke through again. He recorded a few more albums, but then fell out of the scene. He died in 1990 at the age of 40.

Download 02 If You Let Me Make Love to You (Then Why Can't I Touch You)

 

This Shark Has Legs

San Francisco Giants pitcher Matt Cain tossed a perfect game this week, preserved by this fantastic catch by speedy center fielder Gregor Blanco. Gregor's nickname is El Tiburón Blanco--The White Shark. Explanation: he played for a team called the Tiburones in his native Venezuela and blanco is Spanish for "white." Anyway, he made me think of this great cumbia by the L.A. band, The Blazers.

Download 08 Tiburon, Tiburon

The Winding Road to "Sugar"

Music discoveries come to me in the weirdest ways: I was recently perusing the .99 cent rack at my friendly neighborhood record store when I came across "Sand In the Vaseline," a 2-disc compilation from 1992 by Talking Heads--discounted because it contained only Disc 2. OK, I'll take it. What the heck. Fast forward to a few weeks later when a friend loaned me a zip drive loaded with music from a defunct radio station. I opened the Talking Heads file and the only album there was--get this--Disc 1 from "Sand In the Vaseline." So I download it, start listening, and the first cut is "Sugar On My Tongue," which I only knew as a song by the rapper Trick Daddy (with guests Cee-Lo Green and Ludacris). The version of "Sugar" on "Sand In the Vaseline" was a two-track demo from 1975 and was later included on the 2005 reissue of the Talking Heads debut album. Somehow that got to the Trick Daddy camp and I love what he did with it. Here it is, along with the original. It's a double-play day at Sublime World HQ!

 

 

Download 08 Sugar (Gimme Some)

 

01 Sugar On MyTongue

 

Roll 'em Easy

I came across this photo sometime back but didn't realize until recently that there's a related song. "Roll Me Up" is from Willie's latest album and it's a collaboration with Snoop, Kris Kristofferson and Jamey Johnson. Snoop won't soon make anyone forget Ray Charles' classic country albums, but his lazy Southern drawl sounds pretty natural on this tune. As Waylon once sang: I don't think Hank done it this way. Or maybe he did.

Download 02 Roll Me Up