It’s a good and straightforward arrangement of a really good song, but I don't feel like she's owning it, adding something of her own. It really sounds like a cover version, if that makes sense. It wouldn’t have made sense on Whatever and it's sad to hear that was why it was recorded...the album is chock full of melodic pop. 3.2 for me.
Baby Blue: 3/5 Let’s face it: this song is a 5/5 and Badfinger’s performance (especially the Pete Ham/Tom Evans harmonies) is simply beautiful. Todd Rundgren’s production is top notch and both the album and single mixes are exemplary. It might be Badfinger’s finest moment. And...it’s really a simple band arrangement. Aimee and crew make it sound difficult... Nice to hear Aimee try this one out but maybe she could have better captured Pete’s honest and sad lyric in a more acoustic setting? I dunno. For all of the bad that happened to Pete Ham, his songs always contained a bit of naive hope and trust. These are not Aimee Mann characteristics, are they? Aimee doing Baby Blue would be like Badfinger doing Invisible Ink. I wouldn’t go there if I were either....
Oh, I like Aimee Mann's version, but I'll agree that it's not as good as Badfinger's. Which I've just heard for the first time. Wow. There's a desperation to the original that Aimee doesn't pull off -- she evokes sadness, low-key resigned depression...at best. I think she makes the simple structure of the song sound simplistic. But it's a still early 90s power pop, a little more traditional sounding than other stuff on this album or I'm With Stupid. Is it the hit single the record company wanted? Uh, no. A little too sludgey for that. And it doesn't feel like it fits on the album, really, unless you just throw in all these B-sides and make it a 70 minute plus kitchen sink album. But the song is so strong that it comes through. 3.7/5
I'd say that Jimmy Hoffa jokes is a five out of five musically. Lyric is okay but not one for the ages. I'll give it 4.5/5 I definitely think this song belonged on the album, maybe with a slightly different lyric.
I'm surprised at all the ambivalence towards Take it Back. I think that's another winner that is clearly better than some of the songs that made the Whatever album. Another 4.5/5.
As for baby blue. Okay, well, this is a cover of a very good song. That's always dangerous territory. But I think she does a very good job here, and the guitar work is interesting. Honestly, I think as her covers go this is one of the best. Better than stuff like her cover of One, which people seem to like more.
Jimmy Hoffa Jokes.. I always loved this one- great use of space: 4.9/5 Baby Blue: I don’t know how anyone could hear the original and imagine Aimee Mann on it- but if Til Tuesday was already covering it live, maybe it came across better on stage. 2.5/5
It's a terrible thing to admit, but I only know "Baby Blue" from the finale of "Breaking Bad". I remembered it as a dynamic, dramatic power pop song in that context. Listening to Aimee's version, it seemed very uninteresting. "Sludgey" is a good word for it. 2.5/5.
Baby Blue Kind of meh, maybe because I know it’s not her own song and it’s unconsciously biasing me. Maybe her heart’s not into it, maybe I’m imagining that too. Anyway, only: 3.3/5
"Baby Blue" is a decent cover of a fantastic song. The Badfinger original can't be topped and this take, while enjoyable, can't really hope to scale those heights and would have stuck out rather badly had it been included on Whatever. Still, this makes for a good b-side. 3.7/5
Badfinger has been one of my favorites bands since I was a 12 and their first album was released. I was fortunate enough to see Badfinger in concert in 1974 (with about 100 other people). They were a band that was neglected by their record companies and were well and truly ripped off by their management. They should have continued to have hits and stayed on top of the charts but instead wound up in debt and they descended into has-been status. I think the decision to cover Baby Blue had to have been a reflection of Aimee and Michael’s experiences in the music business. I wish their cover of it would have been better realized, but it’s still pretty good.And everything @robcar said, too. 3.9/5
Note: I had planned to do some songs from a side project today, but I'm going to hold off on those until after the discussion of the next album. So today I'm going to start on the fifth album, Aimee Mann's second as a solo artist I'm With Stupid. While the gap between releases wasn't as extreme as the gap between Everything's Different Now and "Whatever", I'm With Stupid was still plagued by delays due to events that were outside of Aimee's control. After the release of "Whatever", Aimee spent much of 1993 touring, on her own and also as an opening act, most notably opening for The Kinks. She also seems to have moved to London and spent a good deal of time there, doubtless due to the relative success of "Whatever" in that market. Dave Gregory, ex-XTC, was part of her backing band and she toured with Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook, who became friends and professional collaborators, as did Bernard Butler, the virtuoso guitarist from the Britpop band, Suede. Notably, while covering an XTC song in concert, her botched delivery prompted audience member and notoriously performance-shy Andy Partridge to jump onstage and finish the song, which she later claimed was deliberate. Aimee found inspiration in London and wrote many songs while there. One of them, "That's Just What You Are" was recorded and included in the soundtrack of the highly successful American night-time soap opera Melrose Place. Eager to capitalize on the single's inclusion in the show, Aimee wanted to release "That's Just What You Are" as a single....but there were problems. Her label, Imago Records was going bankrupt and could not do any releases. At that point many of Imago's artists jumped ship and left the company; but Aimee was not able to do that, as she was not legally signed to the Imago Records, but rather directly to its owner, Terry Ellis. "That's Just What You Are" was eventually released as a single, but much later, and on a different label, after whatever momentum it might have had had been lost. Similarly her album was delayed as the company collapsed into insolvency and ASCAP withdrew their support. In the end, Ellis sold Aimee's contract (along with other artists who had not jumped ship) wholesale behind her back to David Geffen Company. Aimee was bitter about this, feeling that she could have negotiated a better deal than the one that Ellis got her, but was powerless to do anything about it. But on the bright side, finally, I'm With Stupid was released. Unlike "Whatever", which had been recorded over many years at many different studios, I'm With Stupid was a relatively simple affair: nearly the songs were recorded by Mike Denneen at Q Division studios in Boston, with some bits recorded in LA and London. Most of the songs were mixed by Jack Joseph Puig at Andora Studios. The album overall was stripped back and rockier and more distinctive compared to "Whatever", whose Aimee now considered to be trying to sound like many different songwriters: Badfinger, Simon and Garfunkel, Randy Newman... I'm With Stupid is also notable in that it was during the recording of the album (doubtless the sessions in LA) that Aimee met Michael Penn, the singer-songwriter who became her husband. As for the title, Aimee said that it had to do with the fact that she had been working with a lot of people she considered stupid and there seems to have been the usual frustrations with the record industry that had come to characterize her career. The album was released around a year after it was completed, in November 1995. While reviews were typically glowing, Aimee still had not yet overcome the stigma of being a "washed up 80s one-hit wonder " and the album was not commercially successful for a release on DGC. It reached #82 on the US Billboard chart; as of 2001, the album had sold 123, 000 copies in the United States The tracklist was: Long Shot (Aimee Mann) Choice in the Matter (Jon Brion, Mann) Sugarcoated (Bernard Butler, Mann) You Could Make a Killing (Mann) Superball (Mann) Amateur (Brion, Mann) All Over Now Par for the Course YOu're with Stupid Now That's Just What You Are (Brion, Mann) Frankenstein (Brion, Mann) Ray(Mann) It's Not Safe (Mann) (untitled hidden track)-Mann After that I'll cover the following songs: Momentum (Mann) {B-side, That's Just What You Are} Driving with One Hand on the Wheel (Mann){B-side, Long Shot} One (Harry Nilsson){1995, from For the Love of Harry: Everybody Sings Nilsson} Wise Up (Mann) {1995, from Jerry McGuire soundtrack} Christmastime (Brion, Michael Penn){1996, Aimee Mann with Michael Penn, from Just Say Noël} Nobody Does It Better (Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager) { 1997, from Shaken and Stirred: The David Arnold James Bond Project VA compilation album Astronauts 3-song single by Desk: (three songs in one day) Astronauts Come On If Forty To One (Mann, Peter Wolf){1996, Peter Wolf, Long Line} Starvin' to Death (Mann, Wolf) 1996, Peter Wolf, Long Line}
Today's song is "Long Shot", written by Aimee Mann; produced by Jon Brion; recorded by Mike Denneen and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig. Lyric. "Long Shot" was about a colleague who professed his love to Mann, thus straining their professional relationship: "Long Shot" was released as a single in Australia and UK where it charted at #86 and #126, respectively. In the USA, "Long Shot" also was released as a B-side on a split single with Coolio, "Gangsta's Paradise."(remember that one?) A radio promo featured a "clean" edit in which the numerous f-bombs were taken out. Aimee Mann: vocals, guitars (including solo), bass Jon Brion: guitar, percussion, backing vocal John Lockwood: guitar Stacy Jones and John Sands: drums Clayton Scoble: backing vocals A live version was released on Live at St. Ann's Warehouse in 2004.
She worked at a record store in Boston before she was famous, it also sold comics; it was called Newbury Comics.
I lived in that neighborhood at the time and shopped at Newbury Comics a lot. I remember Aimee from the store, but we never had a conversation deeper than "Cash or credit?"
