miscellany

Notes on Cat Power's The Covers Record

Many of the songs on Cat Power's "The Covers Record" were unfamiliar to me, so I was curious to track down and hear the originals. This is what I've learned to date, including catalog numbers of CDs currently in print:

1. Satisfaction: The Rolling Stones, "Out of Our Heads" (ABKCO 7249, also available on several compilations)

2. Kingsport Town: Bob Dylan's version, an outtake from "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan" sessions, is available on "The Bootleg Series" box set (Legacy 65302), which also includes Paths of Victory, an outtake from "The Times They Are A-Changin'" sessions

3. Troubled Waters: Michael Hurley, "Armchair Boogie"; this 1971 Raccoon LP has been out of print for many years, but an authorized cassette dub is available from Packratz

• The U.S. release mistakenly credits Arthur Johnson & Sam Coslow, who wrote the very different song of the same title recorded by Duke Ellington with vocals by Ivie Anderson.

4. Naked, If I Want To: Moby Grape, "Moby Grape" (San Francisco Sound 4805)

5. Sweedeedee: Michael Hurley, "Armchair Boogie" (see notes for track 3)

6. In This Hole: Cat Power, "What Would the Community Think?" (Matador 202)

7. I Found A Reason: Velvet Underground, "Loaded" (Warner Special Products 27613, Rhino 72563, A&M 527 887)

8. Wild Is the Wind: Nina Simone, "Wild is the Wind" (Mercury 846 892)

9. Red Apples (Smog, "Red Apple Falls" (Drag City DC116CD)

10. Paths of Victory: Bob Dylan, "The Bootleg Series" (see notes for track 2)

11. Salty Dog: first recorded as Salty Dog Blues by Papa Charlie Jackson, available on "Complete Chronological Recordings, Vol. 1 (1924-1926)" (Document 5087)

• Chan Marshall says she learned this song from her grandmother, who likely learned it from the better-known versions by the Morris Brothers or Flatt & Scruggs.
• Her version includes a mangled version of two lines from Brown's Ferry Blues ("Two old maids a-sitting in the sand, Each one wishing that the other was a man"), first recorded (I think) by Sam McGee, available on "Sam McGee 1926-1934" (Document 8036).
• The phrase "salty dog, candy man" does not appear in McGee's or other early versions of this song, though it is found in many later interpretations. Neither do early versions of Candy Man Blues, first recorded (I think) by Mississippi John Hurt, available on "Avalon Blues: The Complete 1928 Okeh Recordings" (Legacy 64986), include the phrase "candy man, salty dog," common in later interpretations of that song. The two phrases are related: "salty dog" meant horny man, "candy man" was a boast of sexual prowess.

12. Sea of Love, Phil Phillips & the Twilights: hit single in 1959, available on many compilations

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