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What I know is that veteran songwriters Gerry Goffin & Carole King wrote The Porpoise Song for the Monkees.

The Monkees actually played the instruments on the song and recorded it for the soundtrack for their film Head (which is an acerbic and trippy criticism of themselves – the movie was written by the Monkees and Jack Nicholson).

I have been obsessed with The Porpoise Song for many years and have collected recorded versions of it. Oddly, the first version I ever heard (and perhaps my favorite) was Bongwater’s cover of it which is on their double LP Double Bummer.

Now you can enjoy the original and all the cover versions of The Porpoise Song too thanks to:

http://porpoisesong.muxtape.com/Update: No you can’t – ’cause the man took muxtape down

If anyone knows of other versions please pass along the information.

Today I picked up the new Steve Earle album, Washington Square Serenade. I had read some really good pre-release reviews of the album which perked up my attention. I have never been a huge Steve Earle fan – and I’m not sure why because I tend to think him a good song writer.. I just didn’t dig the style much.

This album changes that. Its brilliant.

Perhaps its because Earle now lives on the same street that the cover for Bob Dylan’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan was shot on. Perhaps its his advanced age with advancing wisdom and abilities. Whatever has brought the change, Earle has really grown as a songwriter and has abandoned some of the twang sound he once used a great deal of. This album brings some of his pseudo outlaw country into early 60s Washington Square folk troubadour music. Its a blend that works.

Even his cover of Tom Waits’ Way Down In The Hold works with this new “mashup” of styles. But the heart of this album lies in the lyrical quality of the songs. Songs like Steve’s Hammer, Tennessee Blues, City of Immigrants, and Days Aren’t Long Enough are incredibly engaging musically and lyrically. His politics are there, but not as on display as most Earle detractors would have you believe.

Take the New York City tribute City of Immigrants for example. The music blends what might be mistaken as a World Music percussive sound with simple folk instruments and well-thought out lyrics:

Livin’ in a city of immigrants
I don’t need to go travelin’
Open my door and the world walks in
Livin’ in a city of immigrants
Livin’ in a city that never sleeps
My heart keepin’ time to a thousand beats
Singin’ in languages I don’t speak
Livin’ in a city of immigrants

Which is then brought further forward with a female chorus singing:

All of us are immigrants
Every daughter, every son
Everyone is everyone
All of us are immigrants – everyone

The songs have hooks, but not cheap ones – and they’ve hooked me.