I heard John Doe play last week. The fact that he’s still alive and performing puts him far ahead of many of his contemporaries from the 80s Los Angeles punk scene. Over the years he’s shown himself to be a wonderful songwriter and soulful singer with a deep love of American music. It was a great show and it made me want to hear more of his music. So here it is.

X “Breathless” (Jerry Lee Lewis)
Mr. Doe’s first band showed more affection for rock and roll’s origins than most punk bands. They really do take your breath away with this mile-a-minute rave-up. The harmonies between Mr. Doe and Exene Cervenka were a trademark of X. When I saw him perform he didn’t have Exene with him but he did have a chick singer who sounded an awful lot like her. The harmonies on the old X songs were perfect.

Giant Sand “Johnny Hit And Run Paulene” (X)
This is from a wonderful album of covers Giant Sand did called Cover Magazine. On it Howe Gelb takes on songs from everybody from X to Frank Sinatra, and makes them all his own. This version sounds even more desperate than the original.

The Knitters “Rock Island Line” (Johnny Cash)
In 1982 X got together with Dave Alvin of the Blasters and put out a country record as the Knitters. It was mostly covers with a couple of original songs. It was a pretty radical thing for that band to do at that time, and it rocked a lot of people’s worlds. Folks who never would have considered listening to country music figured it must be cool if X was playing it.

Johnny, ain’t you got no rhythm pigs?

Robbie Fulks “The Call Of The Wreckin’ Ball” (The Knitters)
The folks at Bloodshot Records considered that Knitters album to be so earth-shaking that they put together a tribute album featuring a different artist covering each song on the album. Famous smartass Robbie Fulks tackles this Knitters original about a sleazeball who enjoys stomping on chickens. And he sounds like he’s having just a little too much fun singing it.

John Doe & The Sadies “Take These Chains From My Heart” (Hank Williams)
The Sadies are a Canadian band that has a wonderful way with American roots music. They seem to back up just about everybody these days who records a roots record. Here they deliver a swinging version of Hank’s heartbroken plea.