Baby I Love Your Way: M. Doughty - "Real Love"

BIG MOUNTAIN - "BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY" (1994) (Cover of 1975 Peter Frampton hit)

I bet you love how that video was mixed with "Reality Bites" (1994). I do too, kids. I do too. One of my favorite parts in that film is when Ethan Hawke mockingly sings "Baby I love Your Way" to Winona Ryder because he caught her making out with Yuppiehead Ben Stiller in the car to that song. It just made you want to jump his bones and belt him in the mouth at the same time. Unlike that particular emotion, "Baby I Love Your Way," is a feature where I will focus on a uniquely delightful cover song by a 90's musical artist.



M. Doughty - "Real Love" (2000)

Seeing how I mentioned Mary J. Blige and her seminal 90's record, "What's the 411?" (1992), I just had to throw in one of my very favorite cover songs ever. M. Doughty, of 90's crazy beatnik NYC one-of-the-best-ever band Soul Coughing, recorded this song in 1996 for what would eventually become his first solo record release, "Skittish."

Now, I could go on and on about Soul Coughing, because I was maniacally in love with their sound. Imagine Cake, but really, REALLY good. But what it comes down to is this: Lead singer and lyricist Mike Doughty is just so damn likeable. So likeable, in fact, that though I was on the receiving end of very cold coldness when working as part of the publicity team for his poetry book, "Slanky" (2003), for a small press that shall not be named, that he was having problems with, I loved him anyway. Nothing personal. He's a New Yorker that I relate to, being able to convey the sadness and isolation that comes with trying to forge a deeper-than-a-hookup relationship in the city that never sleeps. He took that talent and wrapped it all up into one cover song, "Real Love."

Another reason that I really appreciate M. Doughty and this cover song is that I always really liked how, in Soul Coughing and his solo work, he always gave a nod to the black music of the city; a true understanding of how the music not only informs the music of NYC, but American music in general. This is not something that can be underestimated in a white band that played an effed up fusion of R&B, jazz, hip-hop and whatever else you got, kitchen-sink style. Otherwise you have Cake.

Please enjoy a live video of Doughty playing "Real Love" at Mexicali Blues in Teaneck, NJ in 2006:



If you like what you see and you live on the Right Coast, M. Doughty will be playing Maxwell's in Hoboken, NJ (1039 Washington Avenue) on New Year's Eve, December 31, at 10pm. It is never too early to figure out where you will be realizing that you are never going to make any resolutions to better yourself, let alone keep them.