March 9 - Chocolate Cake

Today's song is in celebration of Sammy, who so happens to turn 22 today. She came into my life when I started dating her mother, Christine, in the summer of 2013. I always have a hard time finding the right word for our relationship, but I am considering her my daughter and love her like she was my own flesh and blood. Anyway, I do believe that birthdays should be celebrated with cake, and I am particularly fond of chocolate cake.

"Not everyone in New York would pay to see Andrew Lloyd Webber
May his trousers fall down as he bows to the queen and the crown"

A more irreverent way to open an album - and a song - is difficult to find. Andrew Lloyd Webber is as far as I have been able to see the richest musician in the world, outworthing (I like that word... I think it's new) greats like Elton John and Paul McCartney. The band was Crowded House, the album was Woodface, which ranks really high on my list of great pop albums, and the song was Chocolate Cake. They have a nice acoustic sound to them on this album, with great vocal harmonies by brothers Neil and Tim Finn. I think my friend Are was the one who really turned me on to Crowded House and let me borrow (and tape) Woodface. I had heard and greatly enjoyed their first hit single, Don't Dream It's Over from 1986, but I had not heard a full album until I listened to Woodface, which is packed with great songs: It's Only Natural, Four Seasons In A Day, Fall At Your Feet, and Weather With You, to name 4 out of the first 7 songs on the album (5 if you include the song of the day, Chocolate Cake). It is produced by Mitchell Froom, who also produced Elvis Costello's Mighty Like a Rose (from March 5) and Richard Thompson's Rumour and Sigh (yesterday).

The thing about Woodface is that I don't necessarily have any specific memories attached to it, aside from playing it over and over again at Helmen Kurssenter, which was a place that held several conferences and seminars I attended throughout the 90s. The one specific time I am thinking about, Woodface was played side by side with Lou Reed's Magic and Loss, which is a great contemplative album, so it must have been 1992 by the time this happened. However, when I think about Woodface, I always get in a good mood. It's like just remembering the music from the album lifts my mood. It's been a while since I listened to it, but looking at a list of albums from 1991, I saw it again and promptly purchased the digital version at Amazon.com, which happens to be my main dealer - maybe even pusher - of music, which remains my drug of choice. Next to chocolate cake, of course...