The Pax Plena Song of the Week comes to you courtesy of country music, and the the late 1980s.

Doubtless, few will remember what they were doing during the hot and dusty summer of 1988. Yours truly was roughly five years old (almost six!). President Reagan appointed Judge Anthony M. Kennedy to the United States Supreme Court that spring. Microsoft had just released Windows 2.1. And, perhaps most memorably, later that December, Pan Am Flight 103 would explode over Lockerbie, Scotland.

But sometime, during the lowly month of August, Capitol Records would release the third album of country music upstart Dwight Yoakam titled Buenos Noches from a Lonely Room.

The album, by most accounts, had little promise.

To many in southern Oklahoma, a genuine citadel of country music, Dwight Yoakam was a shtick performer – an ugly cross between an epileptic Elvis Presley, and a skinny Vince Gill. Regardless, Yoakam’s album skyrocketed to the top of the Country Music billboards. And, leading the way was our song of the week, The Streets of Bakersfield. Little promise, indeed.

Aside from its underdog appeal, what makes our song unique is its obvious Southwest influence. From the accordion, to the guitars, to the subject matter, The Streets of Bakersfield is rife with the music and energy of the Southwest. In no other region of the world would one expect to find the imagery of the working man so seamlessly melded with the hope of a better life and the reality of bad luck. As a result of this vivid narrative of the American west, it is not difficult to imagine the plight of a drunk, staggering down Chester Avenue in sunny Bakersfield, CA.

Even more than this, the song hearkens back to a musical era, not so long ago, that our society has already forgotten. Country music in the style of Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens is all but gone, replaced with the pop country of Lady Antebellum and Taylor Swift. Nearly three years ago, I described Dwight Yoakam’s style as a rare deviation from the “kitsch of Nashville.” And even though Nashville is underwater tonight, the statement remains mostly true.

With that, while the song remains up for posterity and the ad revenue of YouTube, please enjoy our Pax Plena Song of the Week, The Streets of Bakersfield. If nothing else, enjoy the traditional country music of the 1980s, and memories of what was a much simpler life.

The Streets of Bakersfield by Dwight Yoakam and Buck Owens

I came here looking for something
I couldn’t find anywhere else
Hey, I’m not trying to be nobody
I just want a chance to be myself

I’ve spent a thousand miles of thumbin’
Yes I’ve worn blisters on my heels
Trying to find me something better
Here on the streets of Bakersfield

Hey you don’t know me but you don’t like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

I spent sometime in San Francisco
I spent a night there in the can
They threw this drunk man in my jail cell
I took fifteen dollars from that man

Left him my watch and my old house key
Don’t want folks thinkin’ that I’d steal
Then I thanked him as I was leaving
And I headed out for Bakersfield

Hey you don’t know me but you don’t like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

Hey you don’t know me but you don’t like me
You say you care less how I feel
But how many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

How many of you that sit and judge me
Have ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?

The long week is over, and below is a Song of the Week to suit the occasion – particularly on this gorgeous Saturday morning.

Of the stars in this performance, Louis Armstrong needs no introduction. Danny Kaye, though, may be a bit more obscure. In case it jogs the memory, Danny Kaye was an actor/singer/comedian who famously starred opposite Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen, in the 1954 classic White Christmas. Anyway, by my estimation, Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye performed many a beat in the night club circuits of old. Fortunately for us, at least one of their performances was caught on tape.

Simply put, the video below is as fine an ad lib musical performance as any you will find. Ever. What really ‘makes’ the piece is how darn good they both were. We’ve since replaced true musical ability with the likes of Taio Cruz and Ke$ha, but at one point in time musicians actually had talent. The Armstrong & Kaye performance of “When the Saints Go Marching In” reminds us that this was so.

I could describe the song more, but as one commenter on YouTube wrote, ‘It is genuinely unfair for someone to be this good.’ So, please enjoy the Pax Plena Song of the Week, When the Saints Go Marching In.

Last night the wife and I watched Kevin Spacey’s “Beyond the Sea.” I’ve yet to see a truly terrible Kevin Spacey film, and his performance in “21” has only heightened my curiosity since seeing it last spring. Being a passive fan of Bobby Darin’s the movie looked like a slam-dunk Netflix order for the middle of the week.

We were not disappointed.

In the film, Spacey plays the part of crooner Bobby Darin, and actually sings all of Darin’s hits in the film (soundtrack available here), including our Pax Plena Song of the Week Mack the Knife.

Originally set to the 1928, Brecht – Weill Threepenny Opera, the German text of Mack the Knife tells the dark and twisted tale of murderer Mackie Messer, old Macheath, a.k.a. Mack the Knife. The opera opens with a minstrel solo comparing the villainous Macheath to the menacing teeth of a shark, before recounting Mack the Knife’s manifold robberies and murders.

In the 1959 Bobby Darin hit Mack the Knife, the early verse tells much the same story as the Brecht – Weill version, yet it continues apace offering a modern rendition of the tale. But what really ‘makes’ the song  is the contrast between its subject matter and its music. If one compares Brecht & Weill’s german moritat with the version sung by Darin, well, one could be forgiven for thinking the two have nothing in common at all. Far from becoming Brecht’s sinister figure, Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife could probably be a part of the show dancing on stage at The Copa with the legend himself.

Musically, the song captures the essence of the crooner/lounge era of American music – a point in time often referred to as music’s golden age. The song begins softly with a steady baseline, and builds with casual ease as Darin tells the tale of Mack the Knife. In a voice thick with coquetry, Darin ticks off Mack’s bloody murders to his female audience, subtly mocking any fears the story might conjure. Like most crooner songs, the swinging tempo makes an unmistakable cameo appearance, all while pressing toward the song’s denouement where Darin jubilantly proclaims: Macky is back in town! In the end, the big band music is so alive, and so exciting, it’s as if welcoming a serial killer to the city were a perfectly logical thing to do.

The video below is take from one of Darin’s early performances of the song. Alas, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Lyrics follow after the jump. Enjoy!

With finals beginning tomorrow morning, now seems the perfect time to resurrect the Pax Plena Song of the Week! 

The tune this week will be a familiar one to most.  Written in 1857 by Boston’s own James Lord Pierpont, the tune was featured prominently atop Diana Krall’s creatively titled Christmas album, “Christmas Songs” in 2005.

But do not let such a blasé album title fool you.  This Jingle Bells track boasts an up-tempo rendition of the popular holiday song as sung by one of Jazz’s most popular and sultry vocalists. It’s enough to make one wish for a sleigh and snow – even in the middle of the desert.

Besides some pretty sweet accompaniment from the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Krall’s version also features the elusive last verse of the song, imploring youngsters to give life a go. Not bad advice this finals week.

As always, lyrics follow after the jump, and a video of Krall’s performance appears below. Enjoy!

“Jingle Bells”
by Diana Krall

Dashing through the snow
In a one-horse open sleigh,
Over the fields we go,
Laughing all the way;
Bells on bob-tail ring,
making spirits bright,
What fun it is to ride and sing
A sleighing song tonight,

O Jingle bells, jingle bells,
jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh

[repeat]

Now the ground is white
Go it while you’re young,
Take the girls tonight
And sing this sleighing song;
Just get a bob-tailed bay
two-forty as his speed
Hitch him to an open sleigh
And crack! You’ll take the lead.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.


[repeat]

[Vocal Improv]

Hey, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells,
Jingle jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle bells, jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride
In a one-horse open sleigh.

Jingle bells, jingle all the way!
O what fun it is to ride

In a one-horse open sleigh.

I’m just crazy about horses!