'Twas nice while it lasted, but we're back to Late City yet again....
My introduction to this week's tune was--much like Fastball's "Out of My Head" from a couple weeks back--was an alternative station (channel number somewhere in the 1000's) on my local cable offering back when I still lived in Belleville, IL. The two songs were released approximately a year apart so my musical good fortune was strong from 1999-2000. Not the most exciting way to find new music, but it worked just fine....
While I wrote about the Eels in Vol. XVII, it was before I started doing short bios of each artist so I'm going to do a short bio just to give my legion of fans (all three of them) a little more to read. Mark Oliver Everett (commonly known as "E"), the brainchild behind the Eels, started as a solo performer in 1991 and released two albums. In 1995, along with Butch Norton and Tommy Walter, he branched out and the Eels were born. Over the course of the last thirty years, the Eels have won a Brit Award, toured extensively, and had a number of their songs featured in movie soundtracks (including this week's tune). Everett has been the only constant, as the band has had many incarnations (a number of musicians have only appeared on studio recordings, and a number have also only appeared as part of the touring band). For their career, the Eels have released twenty studio albums, eight live albums, five compilations, and seventeen singles. While they haven't had much in the way of commercial success, they've managed to sustain a thirty year career and released their latest studio album just last year.
"Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" was the first single released from their 2000 release, the rather florally entitled Daisies of the Galaxy. The single did not chart in America, but did hit #11 in the U.K. Similarly for the LP, which did not chart in America either, while hitting #8 in the U.K. (so many cool kids in Great Britain!).
Fun Fact: While this week's tune has not had its own post, it has been featured on Friday Night Jukebox before. In much happier times, I used it to celebrate Joe Biden being declared the winner of the 2020 Presidential election....
Other than being a series of vignettes that may show life's beauty in its everyday glory, I can't even begin to guess if "Mr. E's Beautiful Blues" has a point, other than it being a beautiful day, goddamn right, uh-huh. Still the song is catchy as all hell, and while doing my half-assed research I noticed for the first time how solid the drumming is. Everett, delivers solid vocals, though I'm guessing a number of them have his tongue planted firmly in his cheek (there is some nice falsetto work on the stanzas near the end, though whether it's to up its coolness quotient or some other reason, I have no idea). Sometimes a song just has a good groove, and that's what this week's song has--it keeps a smile on your face and a shimmy in your shake. Good enough for me, uh-huh, goddamn right....
Lyric Sheet: "Well, I don't know/How you're taking all the shit you see/You don't believe anyone/But most of all, you don't believe me/Only you..."
Enjoy:
Fuck Donald Trump
Peace,
emaycee
