Hosting a large family gathering on Thursday has left me with less time than usual for theme-mongering. So here’s a nice selection of random stuff.

Dolapdere Big Gang “Smoke On The Water” (Deep Purple)
Generous reader Steve Wiles sent me this song all the way from Turkey. He tells me that these guys are a Romany band whose debut album consisted entirely of 80s/90s songs covered in this style. It makes me want to belly dance.

Rob Wasserman and Lou Reed “One For My Baby (And One More For The Road)” (Frank Sinatra)
Session bassist Rob Wasserman put out an album in the early 90s called Duets where he played duets with various artists. Presumably all the ones that owed him a favor. It was a hit-and-miss affair but I really like this song.

I went to see Lou Reed when he was touring for his New York album. He played pretty much the entire album, took a break, and came out for a second set, which he started with this song. Very cool.

Violent Femmes “Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?” (Culture Club)
Gordon Gano’s adenoidal vocals just fit this song so well.

Ol’ Yeller “In God’s Country” (U2)
I don’t like U2. I find their music prententious and I think Bono is a preening self-righteous prick. But this song does work well with pedal steel guitars weeping all over it.

Lou Rawls “Evil Woman” (Spooky Tooth)
You probably haven’t heard of Spooky Tooth. You probably have heard of Gary “Dreamweaver” Wright. Spooky Tooth was his band before he set out for a solo career. ST were pretty big in England but never really made it in the U.S. I’m sure that some reader in the U.K. will get a kick out of this one. Even if you don’t know the original you can still enjoy this great funky version of it.