A Backseat Driver in the Car of Love

I’ll make this quick (late, tired), but here are a few songs I’ve been digging lately.

• Dexys Midnight Runners, “Seven Days Too Long” (buy here)
• Chuck Wood, “Seven Days Too Long” (buy here)

Last week I had Searching for the Young Soul Rebels on, the first Dexys album, and boy was it popping. Our guests that night seemed to like it, too – more than the new Six Organs of Admittance, which was removed from the stereo by request after a track or two. In general I go back & forth on Rebels. Sometimes I find it blah, sometimes I find it, well, popping. (The Chuck Wood original of “Seven Days Too Long” is brand-new to me, and so far my gut-instinct affection remains with the Dexys version.)

I bought Too-Rye-Aye when I was 13 or 14, lured of course by “Come On Eileen,” and liked it a lot, especially the brassier, more obviously soul-influenced stuff (the stuff most like the preceding album, I would later realize). Have never heard any of the other proper Dexys albums, though, and I’m mildly curious.

And speaking of British facsimile soul that actually holds up pretty well –

• The Jam, “Stoned Out of My Mind” (buy here)
• The Chi-Lites, “Stoned Out of My Mind” (buy here)

No disrespect to the Chi-Lites, but the Jam’s version of “Stoned Out of My Mind” – which was one of several soul covers on the Beat Surrender EP, and really might as well be the Style Council – seems a little more realized to me, with the little production frills enhancing rather than obscuring the song’s kick. The Chi-Lites original has its own charms, though, mainly the superior vocals, and I wouldn’t want to live in a world without either.