UPDATE: MP3 links no longer valid.
To celebrate how much Danny’s new CD is just what I needed, I wanted to post some MP3s. However, instead of posting some tunes off of Danny’s new album, which you should just go buy for yourselves, I shall instead post a few of the tunes that Danny used to cover during his live shows. His repertoire was immense, and these are just a couple of the tunes that I didn’t really know (or know how much I liked) until Danny’s cover introduced me to them, or made me look at them again in a new light.
- Tom Waits – Clap Hands
- I was already a Waits fan in the years before Danny, but I had really only understood Beatnik Tom and hadn’t “gotten” stuff like Raindogs or Swordfishtrombones yet. One of my favourite Danny live memories is of him doing this song and slipping in an aside of “not literally” to the clapping-along audience between lines of the chorus.
- The Boomtown Rats – Diamond Smiles
- While I had ‘The Fine Art Of Surfacing’ in my collection long before I ever heard Danny do this tune, it took Danny’s version for me to realize just how much I love it. He really invested that “how many real men any of us know” line with such a brilliant bitterness. (Of course, I also always wanted to take him aside and explain the Barbara Cartland reference, and that it was a “lamé” belt.)
- Ben Harper – Another Lonely Day
- I had never heard of Ben Harper in the days before Danny. Damn, this is a good song. Danny’s bittersweet and soft cover, in the back room of the Walper pub, was a thing of beauty.
- Elvis Costello – After The Fall
- Here’s another track that was in my collection long before Danny, but that took on a much improved standing after hearing his cover. I had no idea how really, really creepy this song’s lyrics were until I heard Danny’s nigh-sociopathic rendition of it.
- The Clash – Lost In The Supermarket
- Danny had three Clash tunes in heavy rotation, back in the day: this one, Spanish Bombs, and Straight To Hell. I came to love them all, but this one is the one I like the most. Danny’s version was so very sad… I remember my friend Liz was visiting on the night of Danny’s going away concert, just before his years in Ottawa, and how he broke her heart with this song.
- XTC – The Mayor Of Simpleton
- Danny also did a number of XTC tunes, but this was always my favourite. He made it so damned cheerful. (The MP3 here is from a radio show on KROQ, rather than from an album.)
