Here we are again, time for another installment of the Sunday Six, where I let iTunes randomly serve me up six songs and I write a little bit about each one. This last week has been another whirlwind where I didn’t write anything, but you know what? I’m done feeling bad about that. Even if I only write these every Sunday, it’s better than what I was doing! I truly do hope to have some better content at some point, so fear not, there are things I’m thinking about that will eventually grace this page, but I guess I’m just trying to ease my way into it.
So here’s this week’s Sunday Six.
“Small Blue Thing” by Suzanne Vega
“Small Blue Thing” is from Vega’s 1985 debut album, which I frequently say is the most autumnal release of all time. Something about it just feels so “autumn in the city” to me. The version of “Small Blue Thing” that shuffled up this week was from Vega’s Close-Up series, in which she rerecorded a huge portion of her back catalog (long before Taylor Swift made it cool) in order to own her own masters and artistically revisit some of the songs that were “marred” by 80s production values. This version does not deviate much from the original and remains a favorite of mine.
In 2022, I finally, after 35 years of listening to her music, finally saw her live and we drove all the way to Ft. Collins, CO to do it. My partner sprung for VIP meet and greet tickets and she even signed my vinyl copy of 99.9 F!
“Puppet Man” by The 5th Dimension
The 5th Dimension is one of those bands that has legendary status in my family of origin, due in large part to the oversized role they played in our westward vacation in the summer of 1986. My father had put me in charge of the music and I decidedly did not live up to the challenge which, in hindsight, was a huge surprise. Left with basically no music that I had curated, we were prisoner to FM radio and a tape my father had that consisted primarily of the Bee Gees and the 5th Dimension. We listened to that tape for thousands of miles as we drove from western Iowa to Phoenix, AZ.
If you can believe it, “Puppet Man” did not even make that tape, but it’s a favorite of mine. It even has some not-so-subtle but subtle for its time innuendo (We’ll cracker jack till the crack of dawn / If you wanna see me do my thing, pull my string.)
“Closer” by Tegan and Sara
I don’t know that anyone was ready for the hard right turn that indie pop duo Tegan and Sara made into slick, commercial pop, but boy was it fun. “Closer” was the first we heard of this newer sound, and it really hit the spot. I think the rhymes in the chorus are what put it over the top for me.
It’s not just all physical
I’m the type who won't get oh so critical
So let’s make things physical
I won’t treat you like you’re oh so typical
I won’t treat you like you’re oh so typical
The only complaint I’ll level is that they rhymed “physical” with “physical” but we’ll forgive that because the song is so damn infectious.
“They Say It’s Spring” by Blossom Dearie
My favorite description of Blossom Dearie’s voice was by New Yorker journalist Whitney Balliett who said that it would “scarcely reach the second story of a dollhouse.” If that sounds like a criticism, I don’t think it was meant to be. Blossom’s unique baby-girl voice is so unlike anyone else’s. All of Gen X was exposed to it via the Schoolhouse Rock clip “Unpack Your Adjectives.” I was formally introduced to Blossom by way of the hold music at work, when the song “Rhode Island Is Famous For You” played and I furiously scribbled some lyrics down on a piece of paper so I could Google them later. I love the albums that Blossom did for Verve in the 50s, and “They Say It’s Spring” is pretty typical of the what she was recording at the time.
“Once You’ve Loved Somebody” by The Dixie Chicks
Listening to this song in 2024 is like listening to simpler times. It was before “the controversy” and before they took they became simply “The Chicks.” You can just feel the potential energy in the country trio as they were ready to take the world by storm. I have a soft spot for this album in general because it was a favorite of my spouse’s and in 1998, just as they were becoming huge, we had the great fortune to see them perform live (and for free) on the free stage at the Iowa State Fair - something usually reserved for unknown acts. Having booked it before breaking out, they played to an overflowing tent of fans. “Once You’ve Loved Somebody” is a pretty typical 90s country song, but it was fun revisiting it for this week’s Sunday Six because I honestly don’t remember the last time I listened to it.
“All Souls Night” by Loreena McKennitt
Loreena McKennitt is an artist I will always associate with my honeymoon trip to Chicago in 1997. We took a weekend off in the middle of the semester (we were both in grad school) and stayed at a fancy hotel in Chicago and the first night we were there, we went to a now defunct Borders and my spouse bought the Loreena McKennitt album The Book of Secrets. It was in heavy rotation during the trip and it led me down the Loreena McKennitt rabbit hole. The second album of hers I bought was The Visit, the album containing “All Souls Night” and it is arguably my favorite of her albums. It was only fitting that we finally saw McKennitt live in October of 1996, nineteen years after first buying the album that we would play so much. And I also picked up a signed vinyl copy of The Visit while I was there.
What’s in your heavy rotation this week? Let me know in the comments!