Two Kinds of Love: On the Radio

On Sunday 14th April 2013, the Washerman's Dog was invited to co-host the weekly world music radio show on Melbourne's iconic PBS 106.7 radio station.  The Dog selected the playlist and came up with the show's theme which was Love: Divine and Human.

For those who want to here the broadcast click here.

For those who prefer to have the music without the barking of the Dog you know where to go:

        Track Listing: (Human Love) 

01 Love, Love, Love [Shaukat Ali]

02 Mere Ranjha [Akhtar Ali]

03 Puchha Kisi Ne Haal [Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan]

04 Galiyan De Kakhan Wangon [Reshma]

05 Ghar aae ni mera [Suraiya Multanikar]

06 Ek Pardesi Much Aankh Bagi [Dana Barmal]

07 Mera Laung Gawacha [Musarrat Nazir]

08 Yeh aarzoo thi tujhey gul [Ustad Amanat Ali Khan]

09 Karachi Valie [Rabbi Shergill]

here

    

    Track Listing (Divine Love)

01 Tere Bin [Rabbi Shergill]

02 Inka Bhed Bata Mere Avdhu [Prahlad Singh Tipanya]

03 Pir Muradia [Jagat Ram Lalka]

04 Mae Ni Main Kinu Akhan (Baba Shah Hussein) [Hamid Ali Bela]

05 Pir Pagaro [Bijal Khan Mehar]

06 Na Mein Dharmi [O.S.Arun]

07 Mai Saanware Rang Rachi [Pandit Jasraj]

08 Sabka Malik [Sadhna Sargam and Chorus]

09 Matwaro Badal (Meera) [Pandit Sanjeev Abhyankar]

here

Love's Many Splendours: John Hiatt

John Hiatt

Love, in many of its infinite guises, is explored on Bring the Family like on few other contemporary albums. John Hiatt’s last chance masterpiece from 1987 is in many ways the best and most complete exposition of that four lettered word ever put to tape.  I know that’s saying a lot but I’ve not yet come across another record where each song is a precise and concise sermon on LOVE.

Starting out with Memphis in the Meantime, (which needs to be played LOUD to appreciate the song’s full joyful impact) Hiatt treats us to the love that can only be found dancing with your sweetheart in a sweaty honky tonk, then shows us love betrayed by cowardice (Lipstick Sunset), lost love (Alone in the Dark) and the kind of love your lover provides when you’re feeling weak (Have a Little Faith in Me). And which one of us haven’t felt eternal gratitude for our unbelievable luck in finding the love of our soul mate/saviour (Thank You Girl).

And so it goes.  It is hard to believe that Hiatt, who in 1987 was a washed up, broken down, dropped-by-his-record-label ex-drunken underperforming musician, when he and some mates (Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, Jim Keltner) scrounged enough cash together for a half a week’s studio time to put together a final attempt to get the industry’s attention. This does not sound anything like a man out of ideas. Each song is an eloquent extolling of this Thing Called Love every bit as pithy and quite a bit more succinct than Shakespeare’s celebrated sonnets.  

Tip of My Tongue in which he Hiatt regretfully rues the wounded love he’s created ‘with three angry words’ is absolute perfection. Every word is essential as is every world weary note played by Ry Cooder. There are so many great songs on this record. Take Stood Up, which is review of how he sobered up, and ‘stood up.’ 

I don't know about you

But there's a lot of things

I never stood up to

Even as I turned and walked away

I guess that's why I'm standing on my own

two feet today

Unlike almost every other love rock ‘n roll love song in history, Stood Up is a giant unabashed song of love to himself. The album wraps up with the fantastic Learning How to Love You. What man has not wanted to sing this song to his wife, girlfriend or lover? 

From the first kiss in the schoolyard
Til the last heart broke in two
I didn't know it would be so hard
Learning how to love you
There was a life that I was living
In some cracked rearview
Where no future was given
To a heart untrue 

Still I thought that I was so strong
That my will could force me through
I didn't know it would be so long
Learning how to love you 

Bring the Family is quite simply one of the best American records of the last 30 years.   It is fun, full of music of the highest calibre and a genuinely honest, warts and all, mature, vulnerable, irascible telling of love’s eternal story.

Track Listing:
01 Memphis in the Meantime
02 Alone in the Dark
03 Thing Called Love
04 Lipstick Sunset
05 Have a Little Faith in Me
06 Thank You Girl
07 Tip of My Tongue 
08 Your Dad Did
09 Stood Up
10 Learning How to Love You

here