Sleepy Dreams: A Playlist
By: A Considered Opinion
Tags: Music, Eddie Cochran, Roy Orbison, The Kinks, Rock

Sleepy Dreams: A Playlist

When it comes to beds there are only three subjects to write songs about, unless you count makeshift trampoline which I do not. Also, I want to be family friendly today so this list would be the other two…

1) A Kiss To Build A Dream On — Louis Armstrong: It would be objectively impossible to describe Satchmo’s singing voice as pillow like soft but it is full of warmth and comfort. Then his trumpet kicks in to send you floating off to a peaceful place perhaps even dreamland. Just beautiful stuff…

2) Sleepwalk — Santo & Johnny: A perfect instrumental and one that captures not only the essence of its title but the era it was recorded in as well. But there is a strange duality in it’s association — via mass media — with the 1950’s. I say that because at the same time it is romantically timeless and forever.

3) All I Have To Do Is Dream — The Everly Brothers: For many reasons, I tend to skip romantic Rock ballads. Many are lousy being either overwrought or overly simplistic. But there is a way to thread the needle between those two weaknesses and this would be the way.

The lyrics here are straightforward but reflect the all encompassing warmth of a passionate relationship. Combine that strength with the beauty of those two voices and you literally have a song that will stir the heart till the last heart beats no more.

4) Tired & Sleepy — Eddie Cochran: The semi-mythical doldrums of the early 1960’s Rock music scene may have,in fact, been brought on by a random series of tragic events. It really is hard to conceive of so many awful things happening to such a critically small group of talented people within such a short period of time.

Consider this mournful chronology of events that took place between 1957 and 1960: Little Richard renounced Rock & Roll, Jerry Lee Lewis married his cousin setting off a firestorm of historically odd but career killing backlash, Elvis joined the Army, Chuck Berry went to jail, Buddy Holly and Richie Valens died in the same plane crash and, finally, Eddie Cochran died in a car crash that further injured fellow passenger Gene Vincent. The Rock music scene was literally decimated.

Eddie Cochran for reasons that will always elude me was the forgotten soul in all that tragedy. While his signature song — Summertime Blues — is fairly well remembered he ain’t. This is partly because the most well known versions of that song were covers by other artists. That would be especially well and good if his original version sucked but it does not.

Moreover, Eddie was far from a one hit wonder, he wrote a string of great songs in a career as brief as Holly’s and they are almost as good. Oh yeah, and he could also play a mean guitar. The Brits took him more to heart then his fellow countrymen and his fatal car accident occurred while he was touring there. In short, he was Something Else.

5) Dream Baby — Roy Orbison: Roy — it would seem — was obsessed with dreams, releasing three major songs with that word in the title. In Dreams is the ballad and Orbison is over the top in its dramatic delivery.

This one is more understated and set to a stroll like arrangement. Moreover, it should have been titled Sweet Dreams Baby to aid the listener in distinguishing it from the others.

The last one is Dream You which is a Rocking arrangement from his final album, recorded shortly before he died. That album was considered a comeback, which make its biological finality so paradoxical. It really should have been the start of something, not the end. Yet, sadly, it was.

6) Sleeping — The Band: A fascinating, melancholy number from Stage Fright. The song expresses, Robbie Robinson’s ambivalence over his critical success of that time. He was in the unique position to see the toll such attention takes having worked closely with a certain Bob Dylan. This sort of mature, introspective songwriting is a reminder of the glories of the era, as well as the instrumental power of this band.

7) Dreaming — Cream: While everybody remembers — and celebrates — their instrumental prowess, it is often overlooked that these guys could sing. Here Jack and Eric give some harmonies a go. This is a fun one if you never heard it. Go listen!

8) Sleepwalker — The Kinks: In February of the second season of Saturday Night Live, The Kinks were the musical guests on what was — then — a groundbreaking show carefully watched by the post 1960’s Rock generation. For the band, their appearance was a wise strategic choice.

They needed a fresh start with the American Rock audience and this was it. But to understand what I mean you have to appreciate the band’s history up till then and it’s status at the time.

When you consider the levels of talent the Kinks possessed, the bands career trajectory is incomprehensible. They were at least as prolific and as talented as their British Invasion contemporaries: The Beatles, Stones, Who etc.

That they did not have the same level of admiration in the US was largely because of an odd misunderstanding that kept them from touring the US in the late 1960’s.

To be sure Ray Davies, the band’s principle songwriter, became more abstract and high brow as the decade progressed but you could say that about all the Invasion bands. By the early 1970’s, Ray was exclusively working on concepts or song cycles rather then distinct tunes.

But once again, this was not some lonely exercise is avant-garde creativity or a unique ego trip. Plenty of other Rock artists were pushing boundaries at that time.

That said, it is true that, as a writer, Ray was an unrelenting and unapologetic social critic and there is only so much audience tolerance for such things but I don’t think that was the whole story either.

The critical backlash against the Kinks, I believe, had something to do with their radical departure from their glorious beginnings. This wasn’t the same band that released You Really Got Me and All Day And All Of The Night — or Lola for that matter — and the critics held it against them.

In any case, time has proven those wags wrong. Sure, there are plenty of bad songs on Showbiz, Preservation and Schoolboys but there are also many fine ones. In fact, Super Sonic Rocket-ship from Biz made it into Marvel’s Endgame, so take that Rolling Stone Magazine!

But whatever the exact cause, the Kinks needed a reset in early 1977 and SNL was it. On their first number, they did a blitz of hits, ending with a rousing L-O-L-A. So that covered the past.

They used their second number, this one, to give American audiences a preview of the new assessable and harder rocking Kinks of the late 1970’s. It worked and this song kicks ass.

9) American Dream — The Heaters: As you know, The Go Go’s and the Bangles came out of the late 1970’s LA Punk scene. As with the Ramones, both those band’s drew inspiration from the Girl Groups and the Pop Hits of the early 1960’s.

By the 1980’s both LA bands were able to translate those inspirations into massive mainstream success. But was that melding of Punk and Pre-Beatles Pop limited to just those three bands? Of course not.

The Heaters were another such group and just one listen here will get you wondering…wondering how these women somehow eluded the same massive success. Yes their stuff is that good. Heartbreakingly good. Lead singer Theresa Robertson (her real name) is a vocal cross between Darlene Love and Ronnie Spector.

If you are a fan at all of that sort of music and vocals — and you should be — then you really need to track this band down. And if you love — or hate — the Bangles’ Eternal Flame, then check out All I Wanna Do. It is eons better. Just be ready to have your heart melted.

10) I Wanna Sleep — R. Stevie Moore: If you are unfamiliar with Mr. Moore, one quick listen would lead you to believe he is one of the many DIY post Puck artists of the early 2000’s. And then you look at the release dates and realize this stuff came out in the 1970’s.

So, obviously, Stevie was ahead of his time but that is partly an unintended consequence of his approach to recording. He literally was DIY instrumentally, playing everything himself, and to add to the strange feel of it all, he recorded himself at home rather then a studio.

That makes for an interesting backstory but here is where I question Stevie’s choice. None of this was necessary.

These songs would have worked — and probably would have worked better — if he had recorded them more traditionally. In other words, I am not sure these songs are improved by his low fi approach but give a listen and judge for yourself.

11) Let Me Dream If I Want To — Mink DeVille: There was a bunch of great bands that were part of the original CBGB’s scene that, for some reason, never had anything like the success of the bands you readily associate with that famous Bowery club. I am referring to groups like Tuff Darts, The Shirts and, most especially, this band. The vagaries of it all are astounding because they were all fantastic and of apiece with each other.

In any case, Willy DeVille (the band’s lead singer and songwriter) embraced the original Punk esthetic and this is audio proof of that. Just to add to the ironies of it all, he sounds a lot like Lou Reed here.

When their inevitable fate occurred to Willy, he expanded his musical palette first with Mink and then solo. Along the way he even picked up an Academy Award nomination.

Sadly, Willy’s personal life was full of heartache and demons. He died fairly young but not from excess but pancreatic cancer that was not caught soon enough.

As an artist, he could be gentle and sweet and, keeping with our theme, check out Even While I Sleep to hear post Punk Willy at his best.

12) Sleeping On My Couch — Del The Funky Homosapien: I will be the first to admit that my knowledge and collection of Rap and Hip-Hop is limited but I do own several songs by Del. But when I mentioned him to a Hip-Hop fan, I got a blank stare.

That sort of reaction is not really unusual. There are thousands of talented artists who work below the radar of popular notice for one reason or another. It partly inspires why I like to curate these lists so carefully.

So would it surprise you to know that Del is Ice Cube’s cousin and helped to write lyrics for Da Lynch Mob? How about the fact that he raps on Gorilliz’s Clint Eastwood?

The point really is that fun, quality music is waiting for your discovery. Discovery, however, can be hard work so maybe you should take a nap first.

Thanks for reading! Till next time!