It’s singer/songwriter week here at the “5 Songs” series. Alejandro Escovedo has been one of my Top Ten rock & roll guys since his first album - Gravity - in 1992. There’s an entry about him in my blog Growing Old With Rock & Roll if you wanna check out this link. Okay, here we go with today’s tunes…..
“PARADISE” / 1992
This was the first tune I ever heard Alejandro sing. I was familiar with him as the lead guitarist of a band I liked in 1982 called Rank and File, and then he was in a band with his brother Javier, The True Believers, who I never got to hear because Columbus radio sucked in the 1980’s until CD101 in the 90’s.
“Put You Down” / first released 1996, performed here in 2021.
“CASTANETS” / first released 2000, performed here in 2017.
“ALWAYS A FRIEND” / first released 2008, performed here with Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, 2008
“CHELSEA HOTEL ‘78” / released 2008, performed here in 2009.
One last note; Alejandro will be performing here in Columbus on Tuesday, March 10th at Natalie’s Grandview. Ticket info here.
Ricki C. is 73 years old and has two dresser drawers full of black rock & roll t-shirts, which he wears incessantly. He also has a hand-tooled leather hippie belt from 1972 that still fits. He has congestive heart failure and prostate cancer and KNOWS that all this rock & roll nonsense has to stop someday.
But not yet.
Ricki has also recently decided that he is going to outlive Donald Trump, so that he can visit Florida or New York or wherever to piss on Trump’s grave.
BONUS VIDEO
“GRAVITY” > “FALLING DOWN AGAIN” > “STREET HASSLE” / first released 1993, performed here in 2013.
If you’ve made it this far in the blog, cats & kittens, you’re probably digging the Alejandro tunes from a little to a large extent. I don’t normally ask your indulgence for 10 minute tunes, but I’m making an exception here; partly because it’s a medley of three different tunes, partly because it’s just such a great song by Alejandro, and partly because of the great interpolation of Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle” into the piece. Reed died just 12 days before the performance detailed here, and I feel like the band was feeling that loss somewhat more than previous performances of the song.