I have just watched EDtv for the umpteenth time and the scene where he and the english chick are on the table about to have sex...there is a score of two songs there. I have finally found the first one, Dirty Water, but not by the artist that did it for the movie. I am looking for the second portion. It sounds like it is done by someone with a foreign accent or it actually is foreign language.
I cannot find it and i have looked for it for years. IF anyone knows, please drop me a line and tell me. Thanks, Rick.
By the way, right now i am listening to cobrastrike by the Teddybears. Heard it on the benchwarmers and looked it up. For some reason, i dig it.
Ozzy Osbourne, Let It Die. Great first track on his new album, Scream. Probably his best album since No Rest/No More Tears. The band line-up's all new to me, but Ozzy seems to attract stellar musicians. Other standout tracks are the first single, Let Me Hear You Scream and Time Won't Wait but I'm digging the whole album.
"Wake Up Everybody" by John Legend is a phenominal song I've quickly grown to love. I don't know who the female is dueting with him but she's terrific too. The Roots back him and Common, who has basically emerged as my favorite rapper, adds in a solid verse.
Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: "Wake Up Everybody" by John Legend is a phenominal song I've quickly grown to love. I don't know who the female is dueting with him but she's terrific too. The Roots back him and Common, who has basically emerged as my favorite rapper, adds in a solid verse.
Wake Up Everybody was originally written and recorded in the 70s, in my home town of Philadelphia, by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes . The Legend/Roots version is part of an all-covers album.
The big deal at the Spidey-Jazz Yahoo Group over the last 2 days was that a particularly MOST-SOUGHT track used in the cartoons was FINALLY identified! It's the loud, blaring piece heard when Spidey is "Swinging To the Zoo" in the 2nd season episode DIAMOND DUST. As it turns out, it's called "POWER DRIVE" by Johnny Pearson, and was used as the theme song of the Australian cop show, DIVISION 4.
Trying to find this one track has been driving members of the group crazy for the last several years...
An old Gil Evans recording, There Comes A Time. I'm actually a huge Evans fan, but I don't think it's one of his better works overall. As the cliche' goes, there are some sparks of brilliance, but it's generally a mish-mash.
I have unholy amounts of love for Into The Hot, though. One of the first jazz LPs I ever bought. Really should get the stereo fixed one of these days. Not being able to hear my vinyl the right way kinda' bites.
Originally posted by Cobalt Kid: [b] "Wake Up Everybody" by John Legend is a phenominal song I've quickly grown to love. I don't know who the female is dueting with him but she's terrific too. The Roots back him and Common, who has basically emerged as my favorite rapper, adds in a solid verse.
Wake Up Everybody was originally written and recorded in the 70s, in my home town of Philadelphia, by Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes . The Legend/Roots version is part of an all-covers album.[/b]
I had no idea it was a cover! I'm really loving their version of it! I'll def have to check out the original now.
Hope you enjoy it; Blue Notes' lead singer Teddy Pendergrass had some powerful pipes.
And I should make an addendum -- I think my previous post made it sound like the Blue Notes authored the song. They didn't -- it was written by John Whitehead, Gene McPhadden, and Victor Carstarphen, and produced by Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff.
Red Heaven, the 1992 Throwing Muses masterpiece. Everything about it is perfect, so far as I'm concerned.
(And let the record state: TM was never "grunge" or "alternative." They've always done their own damn thing, though they flirted with the stereotypical "college sound" on 1989's hunkpapa. Which wasn't bad, but kind of diluted what I think of as their distinctive sound.)
Today it's Peter Case's second solo album: The Man With The Blue Postmodern Fragmented Neo-Traditionalist Guitar (1989).
Most reviewers just called it Blue Guitar.
Case was taking a break from the rawer, "power-pop" sounds of his work with The Plimsouls and going more into folk-rock mode, as with his previous solo record.
I guess to a lot of people, the arrangements are dated, but to me it holds up beautifully. I also remember people made fun of him for supposedly ripping off Springsteen, which just made me roll my eyes. I've always found Springsteen to be overrated, and the idea that nobody had the right to sing about the down-and-out without getting Bruce's permission first was pretty damn stupid.
Anyone who really knows me knows what a huge fan of System of a Down I am. Well, they've been on "hiatus" since 2005, but I've loyally supported the interim projects of its lead singer Serj Tankian as a solo artist and its guitarist & drummer performing as Scars on Broadway. Both first albums were very good and helped fill the void SOAD has left pretty admirably.
Serj released his second solo album Imperfect Harmonies last month, and I'm enjoying it quite a bit despite (or perhaps because?) it's quite a departure from his solo debut and especially from anything SOAD ever did.
Serj has a really unusual voice to say the least. It's very rangy and he frequently explores his range with some pretty dissonant and unpredictable notes. I don't think his is a voice that everyone would automatically enjoy. It's kind of nasal at times, and he enjoys using it in unconventional manners. But to me it's haunting at times, often beautiful and just unique and exciting.
In Imperfect Harmonies, he moves pretty much completely away from electric guitar and instead heavily favors orchestration as his primary music. There's not a single one of its eleven tracks that doesn't feature a good deal of orchestral backup. Yet he uses it in such a way that it still feels like a rock album and most of the tracks are fairly up-tempo, so it's not a snoozefest full of sappy love songs. In fact maybe one or two of the tracks can be possibly classified as such.
If there's a downside to Serj's lyrics, it's that there's a tendency to at times to be overly verbose. Witness a sample of his lyrics to "Borders Are":
fear is the cause of separation backed with illicit conversations procured by constant condemnations national blood-painted persuasions
here's my song for the free no it's not about praise and publicity corporatocracy what a hypocrisy aristocracy versus democracy
fear is the cause of separation backed with illicit conversations procured by constant condemnations national blood-painted persuasions
If those read kinda verbose, you can see that the lyrics sound awkward and crowded at times. Also obvious, like with System, Serj tends to have a heapin' helping of politically-skewed songs which can turn some off. There's also a good share of relationship and otherwise non-political songs as well.
The more I listen to this album, the more and more I'm enjoying it. I was skeptical about buying it as the pub made it clear this was orchestra-heavy. Normally, I don't go for that sort of thing in large doses; I'm definitely a lover of the electric guitar. But if the execution can be this entertaining and multi-dimensional, then I'd definitely be game for more of the same. A solid effort through and through.
If you're curious at all, here's a link to two videos from the album:
Today it's Marilyn Mazur's Future Song, from 1992. (Recorded in 1990.)
Mostly instrumental jazz-rock. Aina Kemanis provides some vocals, but they're usually abstract and meant to blend in with percussionist Mazur's soundscapes, rather than to draw attention to themselves.
It's a big sound for a small group (Most tracks are just Mazur and another drummer/percussionist, Kemanis' vocals, and alternating electric/acoustic bass and guitar. Occasionally there's a horn or two added.) I'm always freshly surprised to be reminded that the ensemble is so small.
The tone veers violently between sunny and stormy. So to me it's very Autumnal and appropriate to where I live. The first track in particular ("First Dream") has some nightmarish passages that seem right for the day, as well. A lot of Mazur's work veers more into New Agey or minimalist territory, but I find this side of her much more satisfying to listen to.
You can find her on youtube , if you feel so inclined.
A compilation of bands labeled "Dream Pop". Sigur Ros, Cocteau Twins, Beach House, and others. Some of these seem to be to in thrall to their effects pedals, but there's some nice stuff here.
Just got back from spending Halloween weekend down in Asheville, North Carolina for Moogfest 2010. Ostensibly a celebration of Robert Moog and his famed synthesizer, I only actually saw one band using one. That being said... awesome time!
It was really more my wife's genre of music than my own, but I still had a blast. We saw Mountain Man (sort of an acapella old-timey folk group), School of Seven Bells (fantastic guitar), my wife's favorite singer, Jonsi (the lead from Sigur Ros - billed solo, but backed up by the rest of Sigur Ros anyway ), Massive Attack, and my absolute favorite show of the weekend, Thievery Corporation.
Thievery Corporation was just sooooo good! I can't pin them down to a specific genre if you're not familiar with them, but it's sort of world beat meets trance. The energy at their show was just so positive, I'm an immediate convert.
The fact that almost everyone at the show was in costume made for a surreal experience... especially when, after having seen about my 20th girl dressed as Ramona Flowers, I did a double take when I saw a guy in the same costume in the men's room!
I almost posted this in my Fantabulous World of Eighties Enchantment thread in MMB, but I've started feeling a little funny about posting about music on MMB when all the musical action is going on in The Anywhere Machine.
Anyhow, lately Side Two of my old Go-Gos Greatest cassette -- originally released two decades ago;how time flies! -- has been getting played and re-played. Much as I love the pop hits on Side One, it's the more obscure songs on Side Two that I keep coming back to recently. They're darker, spunkier, harder, and punkier than people might expect if they only know the hits.
Long as I'm posting about it, I might as well run down the tracklist of Side Two and hopefully inspire some people to either fulfill their curiousity or have a nice trip down memory lane:
"You Thought"
"I'm the Only One"
"This Town"
"Lust to Love"
"Mercenary"
"How Much More"
"Turn to You"
...and just for good measure, Side One's "Get Up and Go" kicks up some dust as well, using the reliable old Bo Diddley beat.
For Christmas my wife got me the huge Beatles package that has every single Beatles album & single. I've listened to the Beatles all my life but most of those CD's were actually my parents, so now I have my own.
First up, the album I now consider to be my absolute favorite by them: Help!.
When I tell you I love this album, I can't overstate it. I'm listening to it like a pre-teen who just discovered music for the first time.
Man, what a solid album. I love, love, love the Beatles 'middle era' of their career (my parents favorite period of their music).
Just about every song on the album is an absolute classic. "Help!", the title song (and opener) is one of their best, catchiest tunes ever. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" has long been one of my favorite songs ever (and if I could play guitar the one I would learn immediately), "You're Going to Lose That Girl" and "It's Only Love" are quintessential Beatles classics.
But my favorite right now (and it wasn't always) is "I've Just Seen a Face". What an incredible song! After all these years, it still feels so fresh and new to me. It's quick tempo and the breezy way Paul sings it make me remember the first time I realized I really had serious feelings for a girl and how happy that made me feel. It totally captures that feeling.
"Help!" itself is one of the greatest Beatles songs ever! As much as I love the chorus, the verses are just special with how the lead and background vocals interact. LOVE that song!
Personally, I'm more a fan of the Sgt. Pepper/White Album/Abbey Road era, but I admit that I haven't focused as much on the albums pre-Sgt. Peppers. Only a couple of years ago did I purchase Revolver and Rubber Soul and experienced them as their own things. I enjoyed both a lot and pledged to get all of their albums at some point, but I still haven't done so as yet. Maybe soon.
Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: Rubber Soul is my favorite Beatles album.
Traditionally, Rubber Soul has always been my favorite, but just now (within the last 48 hours) I think I'm ready to proclaim Help! as my all-time favorite. Of course, that's a tongue in check comparison because they are both utterly fantastic.
One album I've never given a chance before but I'm also listening to (rotating with Help) is Magical Mystery Tour. Mainly, the end sequence in Across the Universe with "All You Need is Love" was so damn AMAZING that I've just been obssessed by the song (see: thread I started several months ago where FL harmonized for me ).
I plan to give each album a solid listen to over the next few months, as well as all the singles. I'll be doing it all out of order though to keep things as fresh as possible.
Been listening to My Chem's DANGERDAYS: the true lives of the Fabulous Killjoys pretty much nonstop since I got it for X-Mas. I love how it's so different from Black Parade yet still so good. I could see LASH clubbing to Planetary (GO), and the first two singles, Na Na Na and Sing are great songs-- love the videos, especially in that they're opposites, with the upbeat feel of NNN and the downbeat vibe to Sing. My current fave is the final track Vampire Money, a punked-out old-school rocker taking a jab at the current Twilight (
Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: [b]Rubber Soul is my favorite Beatles album.
Traditionally, Rubber Soul has always been my favorite, but just now (within the last 48 hours) I think I'm ready to proclaim Help! as my all-time favorite. Of course, that's a tongue in check comparison because they are both utterly fantastic.
One album I've never given a chance before but I'm also listening to (rotating with Help) is Magical Mystery Tour. Mainly, the end sequence in Across the Universe with "All You Need is Love" was so damn AMAZING that I've just been obssessed by the song (see: thread I started several months ago where FL harmonized for me ).
I plan to give each album a solid listen to over the next few months, as well as all the singles. I'll be doing it all out of order though to keep things as fresh as possible. [/b]
Interesting. I haven't listened to the pre-Rubber Soul albums in years, as I'd rather snobbishly dismissed them as a bit lightweight. You've inspired me to go back for another listen.
ATM, though, I'm listening to XTC's "Skylarking", the band at its most Beatles-esque thanks to Todd Rundgren's amazing production. (I think if John had still been alive in 1986, he'd probably have loved "Dear God.")
So I listened to two of the Singles compilations over the weekend, which was cool, but now I want to move onto a new Beatles album. Since I'm purposely not doing in any sort of order, I went next to SGT Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There isn't much to say that hasn't already been said--and I've always enjoyed the album--but I plan to at least try to give it a fresh listen this week.
One thing I've noticed is I'm actually enjoying the Beatles "With a Little Help from my Friends", where I usually skipped over it since Joe Cocker has the definitive, awesome version of that song.
Trawling through YouTube, I recently came across a few songs from the early 70's by a singer named Emily Bindiger. It was sort of a psychedelic-folky sound (sort of early Grace Slick crossed with Natalie Merchant). Here's a few samples:
I tracked down the rest of the album, just called "Emily" and the whole thing was just phenomenal. It seems it was her only solo album, recorded when she was just 16, backed by the French psych band Dynastie Crisis. It was so good, though, I wondered how why I had never heard her before.
Well, a bit of googling later and it turns out that I have heard her... obscurely... in every decade of my life. It seems that after this album, she toured with Leonard Cohen, and later recorded with him, being the female half of the duet on "Who by Fire," which was one of my favorite songs as a teen. A few years later, she was cast in the children's program, "The Great Space Coaster," which I watched every morning before school as a little kid. She later got into voicing TV jingles, being the voice behind, "Wait'll we get our Hanes on you..." and "Trust Sleepy's... for the rest of your life." More recently, she's been performing with an a capella group who, somewhat notably, sang the "Spider Pig" song from the Simpsons Movie.
I've been listening to the Oxford American's latest Southern Music CD. Alabama (the state, not the band) is the focus this year. Some great stuff you've probably never heard before.
Rick Wakeman: THE SIX WIVES OF HENRY VIII JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH THE MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF KING ARTHUR AND THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE NO EARTHLY CONNECTION WHITE ROCK CRIMINAL RECORD RHAPSODIES ROCK N ROLL PROPHET 1984 G'OLE COST OF LIVING CRIMES OF PASSION SILENT NIGHTS
(The early-80's albums tend to be a low point, sadly... but he got much better again in the mid-late 80's... at least for awhile.)
On the other hand, I dig BIG DADDY'S album "SGT. PEPPER'S". They redid the entire album in the style of various 50's rock & roll artists.
"With A Little Help..." in the style of Johnny Mathis' "It's Not For me To Say"
"Lucy In The Sky..." in the style of Jerry Lee Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On"
"Within You Without You" done as a spoken-word poem recited by a Greenwich Village coffee house beatnik
...and the kicker...
"A Day In The Life" as a Buddy Holly tribute. The "John" section in the style of "Peggy Sue", the "Paul" section in the style of the flip side, "Everyday", the finale as a tribute to "Heartbeat", and the END, as the sound of a plane crash followed by the news report of Buddy Holly's death.
Wakeman went thru what I'd consider a rough period in the early 80's. Then from about 1986-93, he seemed to get more inspired than ever. Not only was he doing some of his best albums ever, but he was also knocking about about 4 albums PER YEAR.
But about 1994 the inspiration seemed to fade... and sadly, the number of albums didn't. So he was continuing to knock out dozens of albums which just weren't grabbing me, and a lot of these were hard to track down or expensive, or both.
then I read how due to mind-numbingly bad business management, he was somehow-- incredibly-- NOT getting any royalties at all for ANYTHING he wrote before 1996... (It's no wonder he kept knocking out so much new stuff.)
This is a side project of Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliot, a highly knowledgable fan of the obscure (to Americans) British rock of his 70s adolescence. Here he sings on a collection of covers of the various offshoots of his all-time favorite band, Mott the Hoople. Kudos to Elliot, especially for unearthing the title track of Ian Hunter's "Overnight Angels." That album was considered a disaster at the time, and even most Hunter fans (as well as Hunter himself) haven't a kind word to say about it; I've never heard the album (it was never officially released in the States), but this song, at least as interpreted by Elliot & company, is awesome.
Hey, my overpriced CD from Italy arrived today. In perfect shape-- a miracle, the guy wrapped it in a thin plastic store bag with some tape, and only put some bubble-wrap on one side. Amazing the jewel case wasn't cracked. Cheapest mail-order packaging I've ever seen anybody do.
The Brotherhood Of Man was a "studio group" put together by a producer, and presumably its members were all unknown and anonymous to the public back in 1969-71 when this stuff was done. Someone online made the sarcastic (and somewhat funny) comment that "Nobody between the ages of 12 and 30 would be taken in by this". At the time, I was 13, my Dad was 53. HE bought the 45, not me!
I'm guessing at one of his weekend playing jobs, someone asked him about the song, "California Sunday Morning", the next day he went out and bought the record, played it, learned it, and the next weekend, was able to play it on the job. He did that sometimes! It's just funny, considering he was so "out of it" when it came to "popular" music, and as it turns out, this song was never on an album, and the single NEVER charted in any country! Wow. Great song, though. You'd never know it was by a group from England.
(Just a little shout-out to all those fans of a certian comic strip. Also, eff the haters on YouTube's comments. It's a splendid cover version. Somebody save me from old fogies, especially the ones half my freakin' age.)
So as I mentioned a few months ago, I’ve been cycling through several Beatles albums while also taking breaks in between to listen to other things. As I mentioned, I listened to my two favorites albums, Rubber Soul and Help for quite awhile, and hear are some random thoughts on others. Of course, take any comments within the context of me being a huge Beatles fan, which is something I inherited from my parents.
I listened to Revolver for several weeks, and its an album I still like. I don’t like as much as the previous two albums, though it’s still a good listen. I’ve found over the years that “Eleanor Rigby” has just been too over-exposed for me on the radio and television shows and such that I end up skipping it more than listening to it. Being a big George fan, I like this two songs on the album “Love You To” and “I Want to Tell You”, but I know this is George just starting to show his stuff, and his best is still to come.
I jumped ahead then to Magical Mystery Tour, since I didn’t want to do them in order. Traditionally this album would get a pass from me in my listening for really no reason, so I really wanted to give it a listen. You know what? It’s quickly become one of my favorites. I have the release with all of the B-sides as well (I know its an EP based on the tv film, etc.). When listening to it like that, with the first 6 EP songs followed by the B-sides, it really kicks into high gear around the sixth song, “I am the Walrus”. I used to pass that song off as a bit of nonsense but it really grew on me in the “Across the Universe” film as done by Bono with the visual background to the scene. “Hello Goodbye” is next and that remains a powerhouse pop-song that is yet another example of why Paul is such a dynamic musical force. “Strawberry Fields are Forever” is another favorite which I interrupt as a Viet Nam song (caring little if that was the original intent). One song I still don’t love is “Penny Lane” for whatever reason, feeling its too poppy without the punch I like. Yet, I love, love, love “All You Need is Love” at the end, which I always have.
I then jumped back to SGT Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club band, and my thoughts verge on the blasphemous. You know, its really not one of my favorites. I like it, don’t get me wrong, and don’t dislike it, but I kind of feel it’s a bit ‘meh’. It does contain one of absolute favorite songs, and a contender for favorite Beatle’s song, “A Day in the Life”, which I can listen to literally 20 times in a row and not get sick of (and talk about a song just holding up over time). But the rest of the album is a lot of ‘take it or leave it’ for me. I like “Lucy” and as I mentioned sometime earlier in the thread I enjoyed the Beatles version of “A Little Help from my Friends” more now than I used to (but still disagree with Prof and Dev, believing Joe Cocker still dominates that song as the quintessential performer of it). When I was younger, I feel like it I liked it a lot more than I do now.
Being surprised at this turn of tastes, I then jumped ahead to Abbey Road, which I believe is the last real recorded album chronologically, as the Let it Be album was recorded before Abbey but released after. And I’ve been listening to it for basically an entire month at this point. Because what really surprised me is just how damn much I LOVE THIS ALBUM. I always liked it but never really dove into it before as I did with some others. Its good enough to deserve bullet points:
- the album starts with a juggernaut of a song, “Come Together”. It’s perhaps the greatest Beatles song for working out, driving, getting into a gang fight, etc. You can just feel the edge to it in every chord.
- As I said, I’m a fan of George so his two best songs “Something else else” and “Here Comes the Sun” are songs I absolutely love. George was my Mom’s favorite Beatle. To me, “Something else else” is one of the greatest love songs ever. Frank Sinatra does a magnificent version which I’ve always loved but George has the quintessential version. Like Frank says, it’s the greatest love song in the latter half of the 21st century. It is just so full of emotion and yet so unique.
- “Oh Darling!” is another favorite. It’s got that gritty sound they had at the end of their career and just so musically appealing in the background with the guitar. I’ve been singing it on and off for a month now, annoying my wife to no end. I listen to this song almost every day.
- “I want You (She’s so heavy)” is another song that is just a freaking monster. I really like it now after seeing it done so well in “Across the Universe”, where I can really dig the ominous portion of the song when it switches back and forth. Its really just a fantastic song that is two really good songs combined into one.
- And then at the end, the final series of songs just runs together so well it feels like its one long, groovy song to just take in all at once. From “Mean Mr. Mustard” to “Carry that Weight” I can almost get lost in the music, making me wish I was laying in the grass high on all kinds of drugs. “She Came Through the Bathroom Window” is in the middle there and it’s a great, great song.
I think Abbey Road has emerged as my other new favorite along with Help! Magical Mystery Tour (whatever you want to call it, album or whatever) is up there too, maybe not quite at Rubber Soul’s level but close.
^ The first time I ever heard Abbey Road, I was blown away by "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"! It's such a peppy song with such a dark theme, that I couldn't help but love it!
And that last run of songs bleeding into each other is quite a fun ride! And don't overlook "Because", Des!
It's a great song, perhaps too easily skipped by me still reeling from the power of "I Want You (She's so Heavy)" and then relaxed by "Here Comes the Sun".
I do appreciate it's brevity like the last half of the album. (Maybe I should think of it as the first part of the album?)
Been listening to Metallica's Re-Load as I've recently been filling out my collection of their CD's. This one isn't really bad at all, though it lacks as many memorable songs as their best albums. It's definitely better than Load.
And "The Unforgiven II" is just a freaking TERRIFIC song! Would it be heresy to suggest it may be better than the original "Unforgiven" song it's a sequel to?
Re-Load isn't bad at all, and IMO neither is Load, which has several great songs (like "Ronnie").
When Load and Re-Load came out I was totally the teenage fan who was devastated at the time. Metallica was my FAVORITE band in my youth. I eventually came to really dig Load a lot, though prob have never given Re-Load the same attention.
I always keep at least one album in my car. 'Puppets' is my favorite but all of the first 5 are great.
Right now it's Kill 'Em All, their most under-rated album. It's still killer.
Explaining a little more about my teenage / pre-teen obsessive tastes, my favorite bands were the four slash metal bands (though more Metallica & Megadeth than Slayer and Anthrax), Pantera (first four albums) and Iron Maiden, which came slightly later (mid-teens). From age 12-17, they rules my CD player.
Confession time: I didn't ever give Metallica a listen until the release of the Black Album. I was in college and only started getting into metal during the latter half of my four years there. Guns n' Roses was my "doorway" into metal mania. My friends got into GnR and the Black Album, and gradually so did I. From there, I started getting into Van Halen and a number of other metal standards.
Sonce my friends weren't into exploring earlier Metallica stuff, neither was I. I bought "...And Justice for All", but frankly it didn't please my ears the way the Black Album did. It's not hard to see why because the Black Album was their most commercial release to date. So it was a "gateway" album to get people to try metal, but the previous albums might not automatically thrill people who liked the Black Album...especially "Justice" which is their most 'Death Metal'-esque contribution, IMO.
When "Load" came out, it was a big disappointment for me because of it's fairly big departure in style from the Black Album. So I kinda checked out from Metallica fandom for a long time.
In the age of music downloads, I started to reconnect with them, discovering the awesomeness of their catalogue in the process. "Death Magnetic" also helped. I bought it and found it to be a pretty strong release overall that was a fairly successful effort to recapture the sound and feeling of some of there earlier albums.
Eventually, that lead to me making an effort to physically get all of their CD's, so I could play them in my car (during my long ride to work) and listen to all of them in their entirety without cherry-picking songs from downloads.
I'm glad I did! To me downloading songs can never compare to owning and playing an album. Metallica's albums are great listens front-to-back and deserve to be experienced as such. I now have CDs pf all except "St. Anger" (which I'm tempted to skip based on mostly poor reviews). I'll be giving "Load" its first re-listen since I first bought it after I give "Re-Load" a couple more.
"Master of Puppets" and "Ride the Lightning" are definitely the best! I waver between both as to which is my favorite. "Kill 'em All" is raw but definitely rocks really hard. "...And Justice for All" probably has Lars' most technical, pervasive and powerful drumming of all their albums.
Honestly, the Black Album suffers a bit over time by comparison. It feels like their most commercial work. The songs on it tend to get boring after a while, which is not true of their other albums. "Unforgiven" and "Wherever I May Roam" particularly just seem overblown and repetitive.
What's great, though, is seeing my kids get into them! They're loving "One", "Sanitarium", "Master of Puppets", "Ride the Lightning", "Seek and Destroy" and lots of others. I'm raising Metallica fans!!!!
Youre totally right about downloading losing a big part of the listening experience through the cherry picking of songs rather than listening to full albums. Definitely for a band like Metallica! That's also why I asked for the Beatles box set of CDs for Christmas.
'Ride' is my second favorite and my brothers favorite.
Totally agree on Death Magnetic, which was a huge surprise! IIRC, you're the one who told me to finally check it out.
I'd say pass St. Anger. I have it as a completist but after the initial listen when I bought it, I've never re-listened. Its their weakest effort by far.
Also, you're right on the Black Album. It's still a great, great album but it's a little too commercial when compared tithe first four. It's the less popular songs that I've come to love the most: "Of Wolf and Man", "My Friend of Misery", "Dont Tread on Me" and "The God that Failed". All of these songs are awesome live.
I own a ton of bootleg live CDs which are even better than the studio recordings. I used to collect them when I was a teenager.
You know, in the reverse way of you, I became interested in GnR through Metallica. I'd originally passed them over prob b/c they were too popular, but eventually got into them after listening to a bootleg copy of their concert with Metallica in 1992 in New Haven.
I've always LOVED "Don't Tread on Me"! A lot of people who reviewed that album cite it as their weakest track. They think it's overtly patriotic and refutes everything they said on "...And Justice for All". To me, it was always meant to be taken ironically. After all, the "snake" analogy doesn't strike me as particularly flattering! I also love "Sad But True" and "The God That Failed". They play "Sad But True" live a lot still, but those others rarely get played anymore.
What do you think of the latter two Unforgivens?
Ironically, I rarely listen to GnR anymore. "Appetite" is awesome, but everything else (what little there is) is downhill. "Chinese Democracy" is actually pretty listenable, but without Slash and the gang, I consider it more of an Axl solo album. It's a shame that GnR didn't do more. It's mostly Axl's fault but still a shame.
Originally posted by Dev Em: Now I have to listen to that...
Oh, and Dev...."The Unforgiven II" has kind of emerged as my soundtrack for Lon and Kalla. Many of the lyrics (and the overall tone) really seem to fit their relationship:
Lay beside me, tell me what they've done Speak the words I want to hear, to make my demons run The door is locked now, but it's open if you're true If you can understand the me, than I can understand the you.
Lay beside me, under wicked sky Through black of day, dark of night, we share this pair of lives The door cracks open, but there's no sun shining through Black heart scarring darker still, but there's no sun shining through No, there's no sun shining through No, there's no sun shining
What I've felt, what I've known Turn the pages, turn the stone Behind the door, should I open it for you?
What I've felt, what I've known Sick and tired, I stand alone Could you be there?, 'cause I'm the one who waits for you Or are you unforgiven too?
Come lay beside me, this won't hurt I swear She loves me not, she loves me still, but she'll never love again She lay beside me, but she'll be there when I'm gone Black heart scarring darker still, yes she'll be there when I'm gone Yes, she'll be there when I'm gone Dead sure she'll be there!
What I've felt, what I've known Turn the pages, turn the stone Behind the door, should I open it for you?
What I've felt, what I've known Sick and tired, I stand alone Could you be there?, 'cause I'm the one who waits for you Or are you unforgiven too?
(Solo)
Lay beside me, tell me what I've done The door is closed, so are your eyes But now I see the sun, now I see the sun Yes now I see it!
What I've felt, what I've known Turn the pages, turn the stone Behind the door, should I open it for you?
What I've felt, what I've known So sick and tired, I stand alone Could you be there?, 'cause I'm the one who waits, The one who waits for you
Oh what I've felt, what I've known Turn the pages, turn the stone Behind the door, should I open it for you? (So I dub thee unforgiven)
Oh, what I've felt Oh, what I've known!
I take this key (never free) And I bury it (never me) in you Because you're unforgiven too
Stevie Nicks latest album "In Your Dreams" is my most recent musical purchase. It's infectious. The reviews have been positive. Some saying that is the best that she's done in years. I even read one that called it the best of her career. I don't know if I would go that far -- but it is really, really good. It's just feels good to have her voice back in my life on fresh and new music.
When my last girlfriend and I were going through a rough time, this became my favorite song:
Perfect by Marianas Trench
Please sing to me, I can see you open up to breathe. Fast words make it easier on me, If the points to never disappoint you, Somebody's got to tell me what to do I just wish you could have seen me When it used to come so easy. I'd like to say that it's easy to stay But it's not for me, Cause I'm barely here at all.
Slow down now, the secrets out And I swear now I can make this perfect. What you want, what you need has been killing me. Trying to be everything that you want me to be. I'll say yes, I'll undress, I've done more for less and I will change everything till it's perfect again.
Went bombin' round youtube and started making a list of songs just for fits and spickle.
Rock kills kid- Paralyzed Foster the People- Pumped up kicks Adelle- Rolling in the deep Sixx AM- this is gonna hurt Rev Theory- Hell yeah The Racontuers- Steady as she goes Seether- Remedy Ugly Kid Joe- I hate everything about you Godsmack- Voodoo The killers- somebody told me Wolfmother- woman Wolfmother- Joker and the thief Danzig- Mother The Cult- Soul Asylum Tantric- breakdown Keane- somewhere only we know
I've decided to try to keep track of everything I listen to this year. Here's the CDs I've spun so far today, in no particular order, with commentary:
The Church, "Starfish" - The biggest-selling album by the Australian proto-goths is often criticized for its slick Hollywood production, but I find the sound to be a timeless tonic.
The Cure, "Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me" - Second only to its predecessor, "The Head on the Door" as my favorite album by the English proto-goths. It goes down like ice cream...or just like heaven.
Morrissey, "Kill Uncle" - The Morrissey album that it's always been hip to badmouth, and even my usually contrary self has to partly agree that it's not one of his better ones, although there's only a couple tracks that I find outright bad (I always skip over them, of course.) If the mix weren't so sterile, it would be a better listen. And for what it's worth, his hair never looked better than on this album.
Right now I'm listening to:
Julian Cope, "Saint Julian." Cope's first of two back to back "sell out to the mainstream" albums, and by far the better of the two, although his gift for melodic hooks deserts him on some of the album tracks, and "Planet Ride" sounds like a bad imitation of Peter Gabriel's more commercial stuff. But "Trampolene," "World Shut Your Mouth," "Spacehopper," "Eve's Volcano," and "Shot Down" all rock hard and true.
Currently listening to another Cope album, "Peggy Suicide," which I hadn't played for a while, because while his 90s albums are arguably the ones where he found his own voice, I now find that I much prefer Cope as a quirky 80s popster than a grumpy 90s hippie. Still, "Peggy Suicide" has some of the best psychedelic music recorded since the 60s.
The Cars, "Heartbeat City" - My Anglophiliac listening tendencies make it only natural that I'd like the Cars, as they had far more left-field influences than most American bands of their generation (Ric Ocasek's vocal stylings owe as much to Roxy Music's Bryan Ferry as they do to Buddy Holly.) That said, "Heartbeat City" is the only one of their albums that I can listen to from beginning to end, and it's tempting to give the credit to super-producer Robert "Mutt" Lange, arguably the greatest producer in rock music from 1979 (AC/DC's "Highway to Hell") to 1987 (Def Leppard's "Hysteria.") It's as 80s slick as 80s slick comes, but sometimes that's a good thing.
The Cars, "Door to Door" - Originally intended as a back to basics album after the painstaking approach of Mutt Lange, there is no small irony that the worst tracks are the ones that sound most like the early Cars albums, and the best are those most in the same vein as "Heartbeat City."
Morrissey, "Your Arsenal" - To my mind, this is Morrissey's masterpiece. Produced by guitar hero Mick Ronson (David Bowie, Ian Hunter, Bob Dylan), the album has a thick, muscular sound that nonetheless gives the songs plenty of room to breathe. And, oh, what songs! Kicking off with the brisk "You're Gonna Need Someone By Your Side," we then stomp along with "Glamorous Glue," where Morrissey laments globalization (in 1992!) The next two tracks are among Morrissey's most controversial -- the softly menacing "We'll Let You Know" refuses to flinch from the insular ugliness of hooligan culture, leading many to believe he was glorifying it; "The National Front Disco" is a bucking stallion of a rocker which again refuses easy answers to the queasy topic it broaches, in this case lost and confused youths who are easily led down the road of right-wing extremism. And just when the album threatens to become oppresively grim, we get a triad of frisky pop songs: "Certain People I Know" (an affectionately bitchy appraisal of Morrissey's circle of friends), "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful" (a venomously bitchy swipe at Morrissey's rivals), and "You're the One for Me, Fatty" (self-explanatory.) Then, once again, before the album seems like it's going too far in one direction, comes another shift: the acoustic dirge "Seasick, Yet Still Docked", the most "typical" Morrissey song on the album, but a lovely number nonetheless. The album climaxes with the one-two punch of "I Know It's Gonna Happen Someday" (a string-laden ballad featuring an unusually hopeful lyric) and "Tomorrow" (which seamlessly alternates between power chords and a steady chug-chug.) This, to me, is what should have been the future of rock and roll, not the thud and blunder of grunge. Still, I can take comfort in knowing that this album holds up much better than other, better selling and more influential albums of its time.
Morrissey, "Vauxhall and I" - The follow-up to "Your Arsenal", recorded after the death of Ronson and two other members of Morrissey's circle, does a 180-degree stylistic turn towards an ambient softness. The mourning singer wrote some of his best, most clear-eyed lyrics for this album. The only problem I have with it is the uniform sweetness of Steve Lillywhite's production, which works beautifully on the ballads but gums up the rockers with sticky aural caramelization. Still a remarkable album, a favorite of many Morrissey fans, and the singer's own favorite of his solo albums.
Currently playing...
Bob Dylan, "Live 1975" - Documenting the tour known as The Rolling Thunder Revue, on which the lead guitarist was the great Mick Ronson, this double-CD set makes a good case for Dylan as a still-vital writer and performer in the decade immediately following the one with which he is most associated.
Today's theme has been (allegedly) lesser albums by great artists...
Morrissey, "Southpaw Grammar" - The follow-up to "Vauxhall and I" seems to have started out as a return to rockier territory, but something went awry. What we ended up with was a bunch of rather samey-sounding rock songs bookended by two overlong monstrosities, although at least the first monster, "The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils" works as a sort of post-punk update of pomp-rock. "The Boy Racer" and "Reader Meet Author" stand out among the shorter tracks, while the middle track, "The Operation", would be the catchiest thing on the album if it weren't for the gratuitous drum solo and guitar wig-out. A hard album to love, but there's something perversely compelling about it.
Morrissey, "Maladjusted" - I think this one is underrated, and that the problem most people have with the album is that the mellow and/or frivoulous tracks are much better than the ones where Morrissey bares his teeth. Lead single "Alma Matters" has a lovely melody, "Trouble Loves Me" is a beautiful ballad that should have been a single, "Roy's Keen" is a camp delight, and "Papa Jack" is a sort of refinement of the previous album's sound. "Ammunition", "He Cried", and "Wide to Receive" are all pleasant enough. Overall, the album seems to anticipate the relocation to sunshiny, easy-going Los Angeles that Morrissey embarked on soon after its release.
Julian Cope, "My Nation Underground" - This is the one where he pretty much just gave up and tried to be a compliant little pop star. Thankfully, he shook off that malaise and has never looked back. And the album's not uniformly terrible -- the oldies covers are fun, "I'm Not Losing Sleep" is decent, and "Charlotte Anne" (charlatan, get it?) is a standout; even Cope admits, in hindsight, that "Charlotte Anne" was the one song on this album that he got just right.
It may come as a surprise that I like some of R.E.M.'s albums, even though they were the godfathers of mall-ternative rock. But they did it first, and they did it best.
"Life's Rich Pageant" - As I just don't "get" their first three albums, their fourth is my personal number one. Teaming up R.E.M. with John Melonhead's producer, Don Gehman, must have seemed a recipe for disaster, but the proof is in the pudding. The beautiful "Fall on Me" should have been a much bigger hit than it was, "Flowers of Guatemala," "Swan Swan H", "Cuyahoga," and "Why Don't We Give It Away" are all lovely, and most of the uptempo ones are both fun and thoughful. "Superman" (a cover of a sixties obscurity) and "Underneath the Bunker" are just plain fun.
I don't own the fifth album, "Document," because I think the only decent thing on it is the cover of Wire's "Strange," and otherwise it's a dreary and colorless attempt at a "rawk" album.
"Green" - A nice variety of styles on display on their sixth album and first for a major label, my favorite being the hit single "Stand."
"Out of Time" - Another grab-bag of styles, this one is more uneven than "Green", but it has two of my favorite songs of theirs, "Shiny Happy People" (yes, I like it, and I make no excuses) and "Losing My Religion." The only dud on it is the churlish opener, "Radio Song."
"Automatic for the People" - A masterpiece of contemplative ambience, comparable to Morrissey's "Vauxhall and I" from two years later. Not a bad track on this one, and if "Life's Rich Pageant" is their Saturday night album, then "Automatic for the People" is their Sunday morning album.
Madness, "Madness" - A band that is not to blame for its load of bad American imitators, these Londoners playfully blended English music hall, Jamaican rhythms, and universal carnival keyboards, while adding enough substance and melancholy to avoid being purely whimsical. This compilation, which introduced the band to Americans, is a combination of UK hit singles with selected tracks from what is generally considered their best album, "The Rise and Fall."
Madness, "Total Madness" - A later compilation notable for including six of their later, less successful singles, which in hindsight are just as good as their earlier ones.
Nick Lowe, "Labour of Lust" - One of the best albums to come out of the New Wave movement, it was recently reissued with the proper amount of tracks and sequencing. Playing the role of irrepresible but nonetheless lovable rock & roll rascal, Lowe unleashed a dozen melodic tales from the road, including his biggest hit, "Cruel to Be Kind."
Elvis Costello, "The Very Best of..." - The only two Elvis C. albums I own are this compilation and the covers collection "Kojak Variety." I think the guy has a facility for the clever turn of phrase, an exquisite taste in music, and is great at talking and writing about music (his liner notes are often more entertaining than the albums,) but he's just not much of a composer or singer (although I find his much-mocked voice to be more endearing than annoying.) This compilation gathers most of the highlights from the first decade of his career. IMO, it peaks early with the peerless UK #2 "Oliver's Army" (sometimes the charts don't lie.)
Squeeze, "Singles 45 & Under" - At their best, bandleaders/singers Glenn Tilbrook & Chris Difford blended their contrasting voices and lyrical outlooks to make some terrific pop songs...and one terrfic album (see below.)
Squeeze, "East Side Story" - Another of the best albums to come out of the New Wave movement, this is a delightful assortment of tunes and styles from start to finish, and includes the band's career high, "Tempted," (sung not by Tilbrook or Difford, but by Paul Carrack, who has a richer, fuller white-soul voice that made all the difference -- if only Carrack had stayed with the band longer.)
Lily Allen, "It's Not Me, It's You" - Proving she was much more than a celebrity for its own sake, her second (and possibly final) album revealed her to be a sly social commentator while showing a greater emotional range than her relentlessly sweary and sarcastic earlier work; oh, she can still spit venom with the best of them (one track is titled "F*** You" -- maybe that's where Cee-Lo Green got the idea), but the most affecting moments are the confessional ones, my personal favorite being her ode to her complicated relationship with her mother, "Chinese" (as in, "We'll get a Choinese an' wotch TV.")
The Style Council, "The Singular Adventures of the Style Council" - My Anglophilia has, surprisingly, never translated into a real appreciation of Paul Weller. But of his three phases -- the angry young New Waver of the Jam, the pseudo-continental white soul crooner of the Style Council, and the gruff confessional singer/songwriter of his solo career -- I prefer the Style Council by far. It doesn't all hold up, especially the later songs, but the sincerity of Weller's love of black music puts it head and shoulders above the majority of his 80s peers.
Heaven 17, "Higher and Higher, the Best of..." Human League offshoot whose songs hold up better than those of their sister group, maybe because they weren't as popular in America and so didn't get overplayed on the radio and reduced to fodder for ironists with nothing better to do. Having said that, my favorite is their only US Hot 100 entry, "Let Me Go."
My favorite period for The Black Watch was during the time that J'Ana Jacoby was in the band. Their later stuff seems good, I grant you. But it somehow lacks the push-and-pull that John Andrew Frederick seemed to have with Jacoby when they were working together.
Anyway, if you have 77 cents plus postage that you're not doing anything with, you could do a lot worse than this mini CD. It's got Cure-ish flourishes and sugar-sweet strings (used more for irony than for real sentiment), and Frederick and Jacoby both sing like SoCalifornia angels with English degrees (or maybe just plain old Anglophilia) and snarky little horns visible just below their halos.
Poor Lardy. I never did remember to follow through on that.
And if you want un-ironic strings, there's always XTC's Apple Venus (I only own the stringless demos: Homegrown and Homespun, at present.) Or anything by Ralph Vaughn Williams.
Cleome, you've given me the idea to play some XTC later. Thanks.
Funnily enough, my favorite albums of theirs are the two they recorded with outside producers -- "Skylarking" (Todd Rundgren), and the ever-underrated "Nonsuch" (Gus Dudgeon, who, unlike Rundgren, didn't see the album through to completion.)
Nonsuch had the bad luck to come out at the ascendancy of the <strike>Mallternative</strike> Grunge era.
So did the Throwing Muses' Red Heaven, which I think of as being one of the best rock albums ever. TM and XTC don't have much else in common apart from doggedly doing whatever the frak they feel like doing, and to blazes with what's popular. That's why I love them both so much.
Another album that got buried in the early 90s youthquake was the Psychedelic Furs' "World Outside," which was their best since "Forever Now." The Butler brothers then tried to jump on a bandwagon with their next band Love Spit Love, which has been lost to the tides while the best of the Furs endures. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Donald Fagen, "The Nightfly" - One half of the Steely Dan braintrust retains the smooth sounds of L.A.'s finest sessioneers, but tones down the irony considerably. The result is a surprsingly warm and clear-eyed album, Fagen looking back at his formative years -- specifically the late 50s/early 60s -- affectionately but lucidly, avoiding the soppy nostalgia that most of the rest of his generation fell prey to (although that didn't stop Howard Jones from taking the lyrics to "I.G.Y." at face value and doing a clueless cover version.)
Lately I've been relistening to Simon and Garfunkels Bridge over troubled water. The only living boy in New York always reminds me of Oliver's dad. Things may not have worked out with him but I still love that song.
After reading the posts above I'm going to dig out some Madness and Psychodelic Furs and relive my twenties
I like Simon & Garfunkel a lot, their solo careers not so much, especially not Simon's. I think that, like a lot of rock stars, he lost touch with the everyday world at some point, and his lyrics became patronizing and pretentious. Just my opinion.
Had a road trip to Dartmouth just before Christmas so I took the opportunity to switch out the CDs in the car. This is what's now been in rotation since then:
I've been listening to a lot of 60s stuff lately. Right now I'm going through a Byrds phase. Their first half-dozen albums are rarely less than interesting. The one I have on right now is The Notorious Byrd Brothers, whose opening track, the brass-driven "Artificial Energy", just had to have influenced the first Teardrop Explodes album!
Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: Have fun, Harbi.
I like Simon & Garfunkel a lot, their solo careers not so much, especially not Simon's. I think that, like a lot of rock stars, he lost touch with the everyday world at some point, and his lyrics became patronizing and pretentious. Just my opinion.
FWIW, Art Garfunkel's Scissors Cut is mostly a sweet, unassuming record that probably would've been heavily played on "Adult Contemporary" stations or on VH1 if either had existed at the time. Some of the songs cry out for full-blown cheese-laden arrangements that they sadly didn't get. Which makes sense, given that most or all of them were written by the dude who wrote "MacArthur Park."
Case in point. (The YouTube poster not only gets the title wrong, they attribute it to the wrong LP. "Watermark" isn't bad, but its arrangements sound even more dated now than the SC ones do.)
I'd love to hear this one again. Maybe it's about to cycle around into "so-bad-it's-good" territory, whereupon billions of irony-loving hipsters will pounce on the vinyl version and drive its price up into the triple digits. (Not that anyone should pay that much, but... )
Love that album, Harbinger. You inspired me to post a Youtube link on the Amazing Covers thread. She also does the most haunting cover of "Whiter Shade of Pale" on Medusa.
Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: I've been listening to a lot of 60s stuff lately. Right now I'm going through a Byrds phase. Their first half-dozen albums are rarely less than interesting. The one I have on right now is The Notorious Byrd Brothers, whose opening track, the brass-driven "Artificial Energy", just had to have influenced the first Teardrop Explodes album!
The early Byrds albums are terrific! They not only had solid hits but put together nice broad perspective albums. They get tons of praise for their harmonizing--and rightly so--but u think sometimes they're underrated for their talent as musicians beyond that. Great array of instruments, grew lead vocals, the occasional off the beaten path arrangement...all groovy stuff!
Wow, lotta love for the White Stripes upthread. They too are a one-hit wonder for me. I love Seven Nation Army , but the rest of their music does nothing for me.
Ditto Finger Eleven and Paralyzer , or Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Weapon of Choice , one hit wonders, the lot of them!
Enjoying the hell out of Lea DeLaria's Bulldyke in a China Shop CD (1992). I actually had a chance to pick it up years ago at a women's bookstore, and passed. Then hated myself, because I didn't see it again until two weeks ago-- in the marked-down bin at a record store in Seattle. Woo!
Since I loved mid-90s Comedy Central stuff (when they still had tons of stand-up) AND great jazz vocals, this is pretty much the best of all possible worlds for me. I love love love that Lea remembers Mary Lou Williams' "In The Land of Oobla Dee," which almost nobody on the planet ever plays or sings.
After coming across an article talking about a recent reissue, I decided to listen to an album I'd heard referenced a lot over the years, but never got around to checking out, the prototypical shoegaze album, My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless":
I'm halfway through the Lightning Seeds "Cloudcuckooland," listening to it for the first time. So far, it's a wonderful collection of pure pop (rather appropriately, there's a song on it called "Pure".) It's so wonderful, I had to post about it right away.
Now I'm listening to a Church compilation -- I've never heard anything of theirs other than the brilliant "Starfish" album. The compilation is titled after their biggest hit, "Under the Milky Way", and has great liner notes.
^^The Church compilation turned out to be two-thirds excellent. Loved all the 10 pre-Starfish tracks, indifferent about the 5 post-Starfish tracks.
Will definitely try to track down all their pre-Starfish albums, especially Heyday, which was produced by Peter Walsh, who also produced Simple Minds' New Gold Dream, one of my favorite albums of all time.
In the meantime, I'm spinning Starfish for the first time since the beginning of this year, which I noted earlier in this thread. Still love it.
And up next: Bauhaus, 1979-83 Volume One and 1979-83 Volume Two.
My re-reading of the Bronze Age Defenders (see the Gy'mll's forum) has inspired me to spin some of my favorite weird 70s rock music. So far, I've listened to two albums by T-Rex (Electric Warrior & The Slider) and one by David Bowie (The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust.)
I've been listening to "Life's Rich Pageant" by R.E.M. like I was a high school junior again. It's never fallen out of my top ten albums in what, 25 years? It's never sunk to just nostalgia, it sounds better now than it did when it came out. A song like "Hyena" is maybe not a classic but they beat the tar out of it and made it better than it had any right to.
Matlock, I love "Life's Rich Pageant." It's quite possibly my favorite R.E.M. album. My favorite songs on it are "Flowers of Guatemala", "Cuyahoga," and "Fall on Me."
I think "Flowers of Guatemala" is a pretty under rated track and kind of a turning point toward a more direct political theme. "These Days" has sort of been my personal anthem lately. I could ramble on about R.E.M. for a long time - they really were the band I grew up with.
so I picked up Slash's apocolyptic love cd and decided that while I liked the song linked above, you're a lie, i like Bad Rain much better. Think its a song I could come closer to learning to play, simple, basic, powerful. that's how I like my hard rock.
The Foo Fighters Greatest Hits. Never realized how many songs I actually liked by them. As I listened to the cd the first time, I realized I knew pretty much every song on it.
It's not groundbreaking music, but good fun Rock and Roll.
Now I've moved on to the "other side" of 1987 in music: The Smiths' "Strangeways, Here We Come." Although there's not a huge gap between Lep and the Smiths on songs like the former's "Armageddon It" and the latter's "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before," as both bands were heavily inspired by 70s glam in general and T-Rex in particular.
"With the Lights Out", the Nirvana Box set of early recordings, later demos and rarities. It's pretty crazy stuff, including some awesome covers from house parties before they were signed, and a pretty cool rough cut of "Teen Spirit" with a different set of lyrics.
Two new to me bands... Orange Goblin, who have that classic 80's heavy/trash metal sound Battlecross, fall into the Nu-Metal genre for sure but in line with the better bands of that sound
Slade: the Collection, '79-'87. Great as their rough-and-ready 70s songs are, in my opinion the quality of their output didn't decrease one bit during their slightly glossier 80s comeback. They were always one of the greatest good-time, good-humored rock and roll bands, and this is the rare two-disc anthology that is worth the extra disc.
I watched the video of "Run Runaway" just a few days ago, and it reminded me of a friend who looked like Noddy Holder! Unfortunately, he took offense when I told him that.
Now it always makes me think fondly of my pal, C... who was devoted to his cats and his standard-size poodle. He was also the guy who insisted on getting me so drunk on my 30th birthday that I literally could not stand up.
But wasn't the whole point of posting that unflattering photo to make fun of them?
Go on, post!
And by the way, this thread is still technically on topic, because I listened to their first album recently for the first time in years. It sounds very dated.
Originally posted by Fanfic Lady: He took offense? How dare he? What guy wouldn't want to look like this?
He might have been reacting to Holder's goofy antics in the "Run Runaway" video. In my view, Holder and the rest are having such a good time, who cares if they're goofy or not?
I seem to have misplaced a lot of my old cd's, cause some of the things I wanna listen too, I can only find the cd case for. Rick James' Icon album has been in the cd player for over a month now.
I listened to the Beatles' White Album on the way home from Charlotte today. I never gets old!
I think today, for the first time, I realized that it wasn't chock full of their biggest, signature hits like their other albums. In a way the White Album is all the better for that, I believe.
Originally posted by Lard Lad: I listened to the Beatles' White Album on the way home from Charlotte today. I never gets old!
I think today, for the first time, I realized that it wasn't chock full of their biggest, signature hits like their other albums. In a way the White Album is all the better for that, I believe.
Good observation, Lardy. You've helped me finally figure out just what that certain je nes sais quoi about the White Album actually is. Thank you.
I agree about the White Album too. George Martin has stated he'd have preferred to pare it down to one album of just the "best" tracks more along the lines of "Rubber Soul" or "Revolver." I'm glad the band had the clout to put the whole thing out. I'm sure we would've lost at least two George Harrison songs and they rarely went back to songs they'd discarded after earlier sessions. Personally I've tried to figure out my own one-disc White Album and I can't do it.
As to what I listened to today: two Blake Babies albums, "Earwig" and "Sunburn." Even the throwaway tracks are steeped in that late 80's "college rock" sound that I'm still a sucker for.
Lately, I've been frequently spinning Kate Bush's debut album, "The Kick Inside." It's a testament to her talent that, while she has followed it up with even greater albums, the debut still sounds as fresh and frisky and bursting with potential as I imagine it must have back in 1978.
This is part of my chronological revisiting of Kate's complete discography. The IMO underrated "Lionheart" is up next.
Got my mother the Ultimate Bee Gees 2 disc set, so of course I finally ripped it to my MP3 player and have listened to it every day for the last week or so.
Even watched a documentary on them a few days ago. A truly talented group of brothers who are unfairly considered the Disco guys by way too many people.
They had a long career before and after that period. So sad that only Barry is left.
Tops of Trees, by harpist Carol Emanuel (1992). She's somewhat well-known to jazz fans for working in improv groups with free/noisy jazz musicians like John Zorn. But here she's mostly in duos or trios, playing modern-day pieces with a half-classical, half-jazz feel.
There's some atonality, but also strong melodic sensations coming through most of the pieces. My favorite is "How Long is the Coast of Brittany?" I guess it's kind of dated now, but Emanuel's playing is energetic and atmospheric without lapsing into New Age noodling, while a group of female singers provide wordless "siren" vocals to punctuate the strings. "Listening to Robin" and "Singing Sands" are the most listener friendly pieces: good to wake up to on a Sunday morning.
I know she's made at least one other disc since this one came out, but I haven't bought much new music in the last few years.
[ETA- Just had a chance to hear the newer one, called Allow It To Happen (2010). So far, not impressed. There's way too much emphasis on New-Agey lyrics and "lite" classical arrangements this time around for my taste. Though technically the playing is good.]
Well, I've got a new stereo in my old truck, one that will take cd's and has a usb port. So, Carol's gonna take a look at my gear, and see if we can take all my old albums on cd and copy them to a flashdrive. Then see if I can plug it in and listen to it in the truck. If I do, I can listen to about 100 different albums.
Lately I find myself really getting into strong guitar songs and adult voices. Thin, reedy voices... I get that they appeal to some folk, but I've always liked powerful tastes in food, powerful colors in art and powerful sound. Perhaps its because i'm trying to learn guitar (Well, I say I am, but Im usually too damn tired or dirty to do much lately. Ain't life a bitch.) so, I'll be posting some things I like that keep to the strength theme.
They Might Be Giants - Join Us Tragically Hip - Fully Completely (honestly I didn't switch off of this disc for a good week or more). Jimmy Fallon - Blow Your Pants Off Ramones - Adios Amigos! Bob Marley and the Wailers - Live! Gorillaz - Gorillaz
Today I listened to selected songs from Morrissey's 2004 comeback album "You Are the Quarry." The album is half-brilliant, with some of the best songs of his career...
"Follow You, Follow Me" was the first Genesis song I ever heard. It still pulls at the heart strings.
(And they look so young . . .)
My favorite Genesis song is Land of Confusion , in part because of the irresistible Splitting Image video but also because the song expresses the frustrations of the Reagan era/Cold War wind-down.
I love the lines, "I won't be home tonight/Our generation will put it right." They sound almost hopelessly naive but also optimistic for the future.
I Can\'t Dance is just awesomely catchy for me, it gets stuck in my head all the time.
Home by the Sea is another favorite. I have no idea what it's about, but I was reading a lot of Poe (Annabelle Lee, in her sepulchre by the sea...) and Lovecraft when it came out, and the song creeped me out with lines like 'shadows with no substance, in the shape of men.'
I liked Tonight, Tonight, Tonight until it became a beer jingle...
Tonight's excusion into Youtube began with Genesis and to Murray Head's One Night in Bangkok . This song was part of a Broadway musical called "Chess," and was composed by Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderssen (better known as the male half of Abba) and Tim Rice (lyricist of "Jesus Christ Superstar" fame).
The lyrics are a little hard to understand at first, so here's a transcript .
Originally posted by Set: Home by the Sea is another favorite. I have no idea what it's about, but I was reading a lot of Poe (Annabelle Lee, in her sepulchre by the sea...) and Lovecraft when it came out, and the song creeped me out with lines like 'shadows with no substance, in the shape of men.'
It's basically about a burglar breaking into a haunted house.
Quote
Originally posted by He Who Wanders:
I love the lines, "I won't be home tonight/Our generation will put it right." They sound almost hopelessly naive but also optimistic for the future.
That's actually what's always bothered me about the song. Rutherford's lyrics just seem so hopelessly naive. It just always feels like there should be some sort of ironic twist in the song that never comes. I've always preferred the much-less-catchy but much-more-introspective Feeding the Fire which covers similar Cold War themes.
Renaissance never really grabbed me. I was only interested in them as a peripheral connection to the Yardbirds (Keith Relf and Jim McCarty were original members of Renaissance), but their music was very haunting and beautiful.
The song's naivete harkens back to the '60s, when bands of that era thought they could change the world with their music. Naive, yes, but I find it hopeful that every generation thinks it can make a positive difference.
I still admire the lyrics, "There's too many men, too many people/making too many problems/And not much love to go round. . . . This is the world we live in/And these are the hands we're given/Use them and let's start trying/To make it a place worth living in." It's not the most profound statement, but in plain language they urge the listener to take action with whatever talents and skills are at his or her disposal to bring more love into the world. Not a bad goal, indeed.
There was definitely a surge in 'musical activism' with things like Farm Aid and 'We Are the World' and various bands making a commitment to not play Sun City (in South Africa) as a protest against Apartheid, etc. Suddenly rich and popular people with tons of money and tons of fans, asking themselves, 'is there something I should be doing with all this other than blowing it all on parties and coke?'
Various bands and artists touched on the Cold War / Soviet theme, the Scorpions singing 'only love can bring down the wall, someday', Sting singing that Russians 'love their children too,' even Elton John singing about a forbidden romance with someone named Nikita 'with eyes like ice on fire,' etc. (back when he wasn't 'officially' gay yet, and people could poke fun that he'd 'accidentally' used a Russian man's name for the woman he was expected to be singing about...).
And Billy Joel, with 'We Didn't Start the Fire,' trying to wrap his head around how strange the world had gotten in his generation.
Don't forget Aerosmith's "Janie's Got a Gun," about child molestation. (Or, better yet, maybe we should forget it.)
Some of these songs probably genuinely attempted to address wrongs; others may have been bandwagon jumpers: "So-and-so wrote a socially relevant hit; let's see what we can come up with."
Back in the '60s, songs with socially relevant or political protest lyrics were new enough that they seemed more genuine, particularly when they were obviously not intended for radio airplay ("I Feel Like I'm Fixin' to Die Rag" by Country Joe & The Fish). Even popular artists like John Lennon risked being laughed at for using their fame as a bully pulpit to express their views.
In the era of MTV, though, there was nothing controversial (from an American standpoint, at least) about "Sun City," "We Are the World" or "Russians". Those songs merely confirmed sentiments already agreed upon most listeners. A bit more controversial and more clumsily genuine was "Do They Know It's Christmas?" by Band Aid (the song that kicked off the charity movement of the '80s)--clumsy because, as someone on TV pointed out a few years ago, it was condescending to people in Africa (of course they knew it was Christmas), but at least the song's heart was in the right place.
Social relevance and rock 'n' roll is always an awkward marriage. Many rockers simply don't know what they are talking about, but they have the clout to get their message across, and they have the means to motivate young people. On the other hand, simplistic views of complex social issues (such as the "our generation will put it right" mentality of "Land of Confusion") can do more harm than good. Young people who try to make change and find out it's not so simple may give up or retreat into cynicism and selfishness. Some argue that's what happened to the Woodstock generation in the '70s.
Part of the difference between the 60s and the 80s is that rock bands of the 60s were typically young people from solidly working class backgrounds, and so "socially relevant" songs often reflected more directly their experiences. A band like Genesis (and I think this generalizes to a lot of 80s "rock stars"), by contrast, were from a mostly upper middle class background (they were formed at an exclusive private school), and were well in their thirties and quite wealthy by the mid-80s, and so their attempts to come off as "socially relevant" tend to come off much more artificial.
With regards to the "naivete" of "Land of Confusion", part of what's frustrating to me is that typically they tend to be a much more cerebral band, and that there tends to be a theme running through a number of their songs that one should distrust the hubris of anyone who claims that they're going to suddenly make the world better. So LoC kind of generates a reaction of "haven't you guys listened to your own songs?" whenever I hear it.
As I recall, Phil Collins came from a working class background whereas Rutherford and Banks had been students at Charterhouse. But, as you point out, Collins was in his 30s and quite well off (and extremely popular as a solo artist) by the time of "Land of Confusion" -- the lyrics of which were written by Rutherford, in any case.
In the '50s and '60s, rock 'n' roll was by its very nature controversial, socially relevant, and a form of protest. By the '80s, this was no longer the case, and so attempts by artists of that era to come off as such do seem to fall flat if not come off as hypocritical.
I wouldn't say that the activism of the 80's fell flat. An event like Live Aid was unheard of at the time in terms of its scope and benefitted a lot more people than Woodstock ever did. Yes, they were very different things, but while the pop musicians of the 80's did not represent the counter-culture, they represented a segment of the "haves" that made sure to remind us of the "have-nots", which in the "me" decade, perhaps was a bit counter-culture.
Artists like U2 were certainly protesting. Springsteen was certainly protesting. (despite what Reagan might have thought) Just because they didn't represent a counter-culture didn't make their message less relevant. Personally, a lot of the people in that overly-romanticised counter-culture of the 60's weren't doing much more than being self-indulgent - especially in rock. Folk was the more socially-minded music of the time anyway.
I agree with you, up to a point. There is romanticizing of the Sixties, but it comes from both sides: the worshipers and the detractors.
Over the last year, I've done some reading on the history of People's Park, for instance. It's not something that was ever mentioned in the mass media nostalgia trips that took place in the Eighties when the Sixties were being discussed. I think one reason it wasn't mentioned is because it flew in the face of many myths about the era: both pro and con.
I have mixed feelings about events like Live Aid. Yes, they pointed towards the generosity of some very wealthy, influential people. But they also pushed a notion that it was no longer realistic for we, the "commoners" to expect economic and social justice from our own elected leaders. Our main hope was random largesse from celebrities. (I feel the same way about events like Comic Relief, which grew against a backdrop of social programs being slashed all over the place during the Reagan Era.)
Trying desperately to jump-start my day here. I started with the Traditional Jazz show on KMHD. Now I've moved on to a mix of Black Watch songs. (The California pop band I've plugged here before, not the Scots with bagpipes.)
Though if I can't pull myself together soon, I might need some bagpipes. Or else a collection of Viridis Lament's Greatest Hits.
"Maybe maybe maybe you just haven't met The Wrong People yet..."
Parliament - Funkentelechy Vs. the Placebo Syndrome Beastie Boys - Anthology Jack White - Blunderbuss Soundgarden - King Animal Tragically Hip - Now for Plan A Sheepdogs -Sheepdogs Black Keys - El Camino
After coming across an article talking about a recent reissue, I decided to listen to an album I'd heard referenced a lot over the years, but never got around to checking out, the prototypical shoegaze album, My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless":
In the half-year or so since I made the above discovery, I did listen to "Loveless" again... and again... and again.
I was basically kicking myself for letting what was the perfect capstone to the music of my youth fly under my radar for so long (21 years!). After listening this thing to death, I can say that "Loveless" feels like the definitive statement on the mid to late '80s wave of post-punk, goth, and shoegaze music that defined my teens.
On the other hand... if I had discovered it any earlier, I would have had to wait the over 2 decades that everyone else did for My Bloody Valentine to issue their follow-up album.
As it stands, I only had a six month wait as - this past weekend - the new My Bloody Valentine album, simply called "m b v", was released... and it's freaking amazing.
Apparently, "m b v" was started just after "Loveless" but wound up getting shelved for the next two decades. The first few songs definitely feel that way, almost as though they could have been "Loveless" outtakes that have been polished up for reissue. Somewhere around track four, though, the entire thing takes a sharp turn into the unknown... and blows my mind.
I don't know if there are any other My Bloody Valentine fans on LW, but - if so:
Am going through a classical phase - Brandenburg Concerto by JS Bach (especially part 3 in G major). Ol has Muse Black Holes and Revelations playing almost constantly from his room these days and Bach makes a nice counterpoint to that racket.
I dug out some Belle and Sebastian last weekend! I'd almost forgotten how much they channeled Roxy Music at time in particular the Blues are still Blue.
The "Rock/Pop" setting on iTunes. Does that now officially count as either a quaint or passe' way to listen to music?
"Meet Za Monsta" by PJ Harvey (from To Bring You My Love) is playing. If that doesn't wake me up in the next minute, I probably died in my sleep and just haven't admitted it to myself yet.
Ol's addiction to Muse has reminded me that I used to quite like Queen so I've dug up my copy of Innuendo. A good friend passed away two years ago and had These Are The Days of Our Lives played at his funeral. It makes me sad, but in a strangely good way.
Lately... mostly country music and sports news. I'm very out of touch with anything new in rock. Not to much real rock out there for me (and by real rock, I mean rock as I know it. Other's mileage may vary.)
If you go to the full reply screen, one of the buttons at the top is "Enter a media tag" (It's the fourth one over from the smiley face). Click that, then select "Youtube Video", and copy/paste the link to that.
I've gone back to "Hot Sauce Committee Part II" in my car this week. The album continues to grow on me, though I'd still say "Make Some Noise" and 'long Burn the Fire" are the strongest tracks.
Aaron Neville's latest is called "My True Story" and is advertised as revitalizing some of his favorite songs from the doo-wob era and beyond. Works for me. I'm having trouble finding new music that resonates with me, so Neville's smooth vocals wrapped around some classic tunes is getting me by.
Considered a transition from Bossa Nova to "Tropicalia," I believe. What a talent she was. If I was drawing comics, I'd totally model my next character after her.
Yep, discovered youtube and 60s music the first time they put the fast internet on sale. It was the only thing I missed about fast internet when the year was up.
Right now I'm spinning the Sundays' "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic," quite simply a wonderful album. It's ethereal and wistful but without overdoing the sweetness.
Simple Minds' "New Gold Dream", one of my favorite 80s albums and in my opinion the band's best album. I like their next two albums more than a lot of fans do, but "New Gold Dream" was lightning in a bottle.
Yesterday, it was a couple of CDs by jazz great Dexter Gordon, via YouTube.
It was very helpful, too. Because a ton of stupid crap happened that I couldn't get a handle on no matter what I did. Also, my boss was being a royal butt and there was nothing I could do about that, either.
My favorite Gordon CD is Our Man In Paris. It's definitely on YouTube. If I was sending a new fan out for 5-10 jazz cds to get them started collecting, that one would have to be in there.
A the risk of completely obliterating my street cred here, I'm compelled to admit that I just watched nearly two hours of programming on Great American Country centering around Lady Antebellum tonight. First a concert; then a special on how they got together and hit the big time. I swear I listen to practically NO country music at all--I mean, my three favorite acts are Metallica, System of a Down and the Beatles, and I generally like heavy guitar rock--but I have an inexplicable weakness for Lady A!
I've never admitted this to ANYone! But I'm among friends here...right?
Lardy, the boys of Lady Antebellum grew up here in my community. (The county's new venue is the Lady Antebellum Amphitheatre.) They're friends of friends. So that makes you a friend of a friend of a friend of Lady A.
The presence of Nick Lowe's wonderful song Cruel to Be Kind in He Who's latest Top 40 thread has inspired me to spin the two Lowe albums in my collection, the excellent "Labour of Lust" and the more uneven but often inspired "Jesus of Cool."
Originally Posted by Paladin
A the risk of completely obliterating my street cred here, I'm compelled to admit that I just watched nearly two hours of programming on Great American Country centering around Lady Antebellum tonight. First a concert; then a special on how they got together and hit the big time. I swear I listen to practically NO country music at all--I mean, my three favorite acts are Metallica, System of a Down and the Beatles, and I generally like heavy guitar rock--but I have an inexplicable weakness for Lady A!
I've never admitted this to ANYone! But I'm among friends here...right?
Of course you're among friends, Lardy. You don't ever have to worry about that. Especially considering some of the stuff I've admitted to liking.
A the risk of completely obliterating my street cred here, I'm compelled to admit that I just watched nearly two hours of programming on Great American Country centering around Lady Antebellum tonight. First a concert; then a special on how they got together and hit the big time. I swear I listen to practically NO country music at all--I mean, my three favorite acts are Metallica, System of a Down and the Beatles, and I generally like heavy guitar rock--but I have an inexplicable weakness for Lady A!
I've never admitted this to ANYone! But I'm among friends here...right?
I guess they just disappointed a bunch here, canceling a concert. I'm pretty sure the concert had been sold out so they must have had some other reason.
Never heard of them myself before they made the news for canceling but I don't tend towards those channels.
Thing is, I could probably only name and sing a bit of maybe five of their songs...if that!
It was definitely "Need You Now" that put them on my radar. Hearing it on the Muzak at work and, oddly enough, on literally the only episode of "Glee" I've ever watched kind of ingrained it into my consciousness.
I will say it's very unusual for a band to have both a male and female lead singer who consistently sing together on every track (as far as I know anyway). I mean, you have bands like Fleetwood Mac with male and female leads, but they mostly switch off songs. Maybe part of what I secretly admire about Lady A is that their perpetual male/female duet singing/songwriting format is actually pretty innovative?
Lardy, I like my rock hard, fast, and loud. But.. with so many "rock" acts just being andro pop, I listen to a lot more country now than I ever did before. So, Lady A ain't bad. It's when you start getting the justin beeber's of country that I lose all hope and leave it on the sports channels for days on end.
But I like country honky tonk and hard blues. Just think "there ain't nuthin' bout you" or "Hillbilly Deluxe" for my country tastes.
One thing about the better country acts is that they can flat-out SING--as opposed to yell or scream or rap or whine, etc. Certainly, Lady A features some very appealing vocals that play off each other well.
Originally Posted by rickshaw1
But I like country honky tonk and hard blues. Just think "there ain't nuthin' bout you" or "Hillbilly Deluxe" for my country tastes.
A the risk of completely obliterating my street cred here, I'm compelled to admit that I just watched nearly two hours of programming on Great American Country centering around Lady Antebellum tonight. First a concert; then a special on how they got together and hit the big time. I swear I listen to practically NO country music at all--I mean, my three favorite acts are Metallica, System of a Down and the Beatles, and I generally like heavy guitar rock--but I have an inexplicable weakness for Lady A!
I've never admitted this to ANYone! But I'm among friends here...right?
Don't feel bad Paladin...I'm sure by now you know how my tastes veer towards extreme metal but...
I like Lady Gaga
And I've been listening to my favorite 80's band lately
I had Pure on a few weeks ago. I really liked Sense from the next album and the Life of Riley.
I remember a punk/post punk series of interviews and someone mentioning that the person she knew would do well was Ian Broudie. He was constantly working away trying to improve, while some of the others really didn't have that kind of drive at all.
After the teardrop...well exploded, I only really knew Cope from World Shut Your Mouth. Good single, which I kept seeing him perform on some elaborate chair thing. Then seemingly nothing.
I next heard about him when he released his book The Modern Antiquarian. It's that kind of work I know him best for now.
Cope's solo career is basically three phases, divided roughly by decade: there's the 80s, when he was burning with a creative fire but didn't quite know what he was doing or what he wanted to be. That's actually his best work, IMO; there's the 90s, where's he's much more self-assured, but also too much crustiness for me; and there's the 00s to date, where he no longer worries about meeting the masses halfway, real love-it-or-hate it stuff -- I, sad to say, hate it.
The Cope albums I'd recommend without hesitation are his first two, "World Shut Your Mouth" (which, cheekily, doesn't have that song on it), and "Fried." The third one, ("Saint Julian", which did have "WSYM"), is half a great album, half uninspired. Of the 90s stuff, "Peggy Suicide", "20 Mothers", and "Interpreter" still get the occassional spin from me.
[quote=Fanfic Lady]The Cope albums I'd recommend without hesitation are his first two, "World Shut Your Mouth" (which, cheekily, doesn't have that song on it)/quote]
That's naughty. Way to mess with people looking to pick up your album, just for that one.
IIRC, all he had at first was the title, which was a favorite expression of one of the Liverpool scenesters. He wrote the song either right before the WSYM album or right after, but didn't record it until after the Fried album.
Well, I just got home with a crate full of LPs given to me by a co-worker, most of which are 80s rock, so I guess that's what I'll listening to for the next few weeks. So far all 65 of them look to be in excellent condition (except for one that is missing its cover and is covered with dust).
Well, I just got home with a crate full of LPs given to me by a co-worker, most of which are 80s rock, so I guess that's what I'll listening to for the next few weeks. So far all 65 of them look to be in excellent condition (except for one that is missing its cover and is covered with dust).
I have a couple milk crates in the garage, along with a rather at one time middlin to high end stereo/amp/player that will probably never again see the light of day. I think I have Saturday Night Fever, lol.
Today, to celebrate the release of Morrissey's autobiography on the American side of the Atlantic, I had an all-day musical Moz-a-thon, playing in chronological order:
After posting some lyrics from Falco's "Der Kommissar" on Non Sequitir's Very Relevant Thread, I did some research (Wikipeida, natch) and was surprised to find that Laura Branigan had covered the song as "Deep In the Dark." Here's her version:
I didn't realize this was Ozzy. I liked it before I knew. Still like it, and that's something considering I've never really liked his stuff. He's become like an idiot savant it seems. He's a doddering old man who can barely talk or walk, but put him in front of a microphone and he drops 30 years and two tons of drugs.
Currently listening to another S&tB album, the eclectic all-covers set "Through the Looking Glass". This one's available in its entirety on YouTube, so enjoy:
Discovered this one recently on my local rock station. I'd describe the song as Joan Jett meets "Another Brick in the Wall". Might have to check out their other stuff....
One of the few covers I've ever heard that are close enough to being as good as the original. And Debbie Harry was a childhood crush no only for the body but for the voice and attitude as well.
This song used to be impossible to find (except live versions). Whatever company produced it did a great job of yanking it down whenever it popped up on youtube, but they seem to have relaxed that vigilance.
It's got a great sound to it.
When I was young, my parents were cross-country truck drivers, and we'd listen to what was 'trucking music' back then (now a days, it would be called country), and this song reminds me of the great music from those days.
Having just finished listening to the new Morrissey album, "World Peace Is None of Your Business", I thought I'd share my first impressions.
The opener and title track, co-written by guitarist Boz Boorer, Morrissey's best collaborator now that Alain Whyte is gone, is everything a Moz fan could want -- great tune, great vocal (he's in good voice throughout the album), lyrics that are sharp, witty, and timely.
The next track, "Neal Cassady Drops Dead", has nothing going for it other that its clever title. Co-written by keyboardist Gustavo Manzur, it's a plodding rocker with childish gross-out lyrics.
On the other hand, "I'm Not a Man" has great lyrics which find Morrissey demolishing the male stereotypes that he has never been able to live up to (best bit: rhyming "T-Bone steak" with "cancer of the prostate".) The music, written by guitarist Jesse Tobias, doesn't quite compliment the lyrics. At almost eight minutes, it's the album's longest track and a missed opportunity at a grand epic.
"Istanbul", co-written by Boorer, is a heartbreaking ballad about a father in the title city losing his son to senseless violence.
"Earth Is the Loneliest Planet", the second and final Manzur co-write, is, surprisingly, driven mostly by synthetic beats which do no favors to the Morrissey-by-numbers lyrics.
Things look to be moving back in the right direction with the frisky opening minutes of "Staircase At the University", co-written by Boorer, until the lyrics take a tragic turn that is ham-fisted where "Istanbul" is graceful, and the song meanders its way to the end.
Some much-needed levity follows in the next two tracks, both co-written by Tobias. "The Bullfighter Dies" is two solid minutes of blackly comical Shadenfreude, while "Kiss Me A Lot" is an uptempo joy despite Morrissey's surprisingly banal lyrics.
Then come the worst two songs on the album, also Tobias co-writes. "Smiler With Knife" is both lyrically and musically tedious, failing to mine the black humor inherent in the premise that Morrissey actually wants the title character to kill him. As for "Kick the Bride Down the Aisle", the title pretty much says it all; it's not as offensive as Morrissey's previous flirtation with "ironic" misogyny, the previous album's "It's Not Your Birthday Anymore", but it comes depressingly close.
"Mountjoy", is, surprisingly, the most forgettable song on the album, despite being co-written by the usually dependable Boorer. I can remember very little about it, other than it didn't have much of a tune and the lyrics were familiar Morrissey tropes.
The closing track, "Oboe Concerto", is, thankfully, not an instrumental. In fact, it's not clear exactly what the title phrase has to do with Morrissey's mourning of friends and people he admires who have passed away. But Boorer writes a decent melody which wraps up things on a moderately positive note.
The production on this album, by Joe Chicarelli, is a quantum leap over the late Jerry Finn's awful job on Morrissey's previous album, "Years of Refusal." The sound is full and rich, and the rhythm section of brothers Matt Walker and Solomon Walker get an overdue chance to strut their stuff in the studio.
Overall, the Morrissey album that the new one reminds me of the most is 1995's "Southpaw Grammar", which was also very uneven and had a tendency to meander. But unlike 2009's "Years of Refusal", this one at least has some songs I will be listening to again (and again and again) in the future.
"World Peace Is None of Your Business" is the first fruit of a two-album record deal. If nothing else, it proves that Morrissey can still deliver an album that has its shining moments. I'm hoping that the second one is an outright triumph rather than a qualified success.
I heard Charlie Haden's Wayfaring Stranger for the first time on NPR's Fresh Air a few days after his recent passing. Quite a lovely and moving rendition, especially knowing that it was the first time he'd sung in public since he was 15 years old.
I probably heard Japanese Whispers in bits and pieces numerous times before I ever got a copy. Come to think of it, I heard the Head on the Door even more, and didn't own a copy of that for quite a while. There were always Cure fans around if I wanted to listen to it.
The reissues are definitely worth a look. But I think you did right to get off the train after Wish. None of their recordings since then have done anything for me.
Yes! that makes it look as though I had a clue. Thanks Fickles. Now I can be a music connesconnosur snob.
Close to Me remains one of my favourites down the years. That was from The Head on the Door, I think? It was a few years before I knew anyone else that liked them.
Yes! that makes it look as though I had a clue. Thanks Fickles. Now I can be a music connesconnosur snob.
LOL
Originally Posted by thothkins
Close to Me remains one of my favourites down the years. That was from The Head on the Door, I think?
Close to Me was indeed from The Head on the Door, as were In Between Days and A Night Like This. Of the tracks on that album not released as singles, my favorite is Push.
Cure discussion? Since you didn't ask, the definitive (*) top 5 albums are
1. Head on the Door 2. Disintegration 3. 17 Seconds 4. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me 5. Pornography
(*) Subject to change based on mood, the weather, time of day and what happens to be in the car at the time.
It's funny how tensions lead to removal of Lawerence Tolhurst (Lol, before the letters were used for something else), with Gallop and others famously declaring he did nothing in the band, yet the quality unmistakably dropped in his absence. He must have added something to the mix, even if it was just to antagonise everyone.
Andy Bey's Shades Of Bey. (1998) Outstanding jazz singing, and a great cast of musicians. Including one of my all-time favorites: The pianist/composer Geri Allen.
1. Head on the Door 2. Japanese Whispers EP 3. Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me 4. Disintegration 5. Wish
As for Queen I loved the video for Radio Ga Ga, set in Metropolis. I hadn't seen Metropolis when the Queen video came out, but the tiny clips and images I had seen had already marked it out as something special.
I thought Tolhurst was fired before Disintegration?
He was dismissed before it was released, but is still credited on the album ("Other instruments"). There are conflicting stories as to how much (if at all) he contributed.
Long as we're talking about the Cure, it's worth mentioning Robert Smith's contributions to Siouxsie and the Banshees. He had TWO stints as the Banshees' guitarist, and was the prime mover behind their wonderful cover of the Beatles' "Dear Prudence".
And, as heretical as it might sound, I think the Banshees' "Nocturne" and "Hyaena", both with Smith on guitar, are both underrated albums.
Most likely inspired by the Dear Prudence cover posted above, I've spent a good portion of this weekend rediscovering the Beatles. And when all is said and done, my favorite Beatles album still is, and will always be, this one:
I heard Charlie Haden's Wayfaring Stranger for the first time on NPR's Fresh Air a few days after his recent passing. Quite a lovely and moving rendition, especially knowing that it was the first time he'd sung in public since he was 15 years old.
For being such a jazz fan, I don't own nearly enough of his work. Two of his excellent collaborations with Geri Allen on CD. Etudes being the most enjoyable of the two, I think. Plus, ECM's The Ballad of the Fallen on vinyl. But he's a very modest presence there. It's a very all-for-one-and-one-for-all effort.
Then, would you believe that today I found this for only two bucks at a church rummage sale? Mixed in with piles of easy listening. Of course I pounced on it. I will listen to it in the coming week and report back.
One band I listen to replaced their vocalist a while back and released a new album so I've been listening to them quite a bit. The new lady on the mic is a Canadian too, so extra bonus!
Cobie's positive reaction to my post in the Amazing Covers thread of the Runaways' cover of the Velvet Underground's "Rock 'n Roll" inspired me to post their entire debut album here:
Even though lead singer Cherie Currie is spelled by Joan Jett on said cover, I like Cherie's voice better than Joan's. It's deep and rich, anticipating Patty Smyth by several years.
Listening to lots from Jesus Jones today, as I'm off to see 'em soon. Thanks to Fickles posts to get me to check what they were up to these days, just in time for a tour.
thothkins: International Bright Not-as-young-as-I-used-to-be Thing.
"Lights" is the one song of hers that I love unconditionally. Unlike "Burn", I didn't get sick of it after hearing it a million times. Her other songs I can take or leave.
It's not really going out on a limb but I've been listening to a LOT of Beatles lately. I'm a huge fan but I've never had a complete catalogue and what I had was a mix of battered CDs and useless cassettes (since I don't have a cassette player these days.) I made it a quest to replace them all earlier in the summer and I'm only missing Yellow Submarine to have everything lined up on the shelf. I may just iTunes the 4 songs I need from it for now. I haven't really been able to listen to some of these songs properly in years. I listened to the first four albums plus related singles and b-sides at work the other day and it was pretty amazing to hear them back to back like that. My mp3 player is groaning under the strain of so much Beatles since I mixed in some Anthology and BBC tracks. I've been listening to their second album, "With the Beatles" most of all; it's really the last time they flexed those late-night Hamburg muscles. They weren't quite in "cheeky mop-top" high gear yet.
*Technically speaking I am literally right now listening to Neil Young at the 2014 Farm Aid concert. He still sounds pretty much as good as ever. He's playing some old favorites and some newer stuff. The new stuff is pretty unvarnished in the messaging, but these aren't really times for subtlety I guess.
Well you nailed that. The band I grew up with and a song originally off what's probably my favorite album of all time. I just posted about buying up the Beatles catalogue, and R.E.M. will be next I think. I missed out on some good stuff in the later years (and some pretty weak stuff to be fair.) Thanks for the tip of the hat!
A coworker passed me a copy of the next-to-last album "Accelerate" and I was really happy with it. It seemed like the "rock" album I always wanted "Monster" to have been.
Yes, it is definitely better than I thought it was at the time. Based on the pre-release hype (Back to Rock!) I was expecting something more like "Document." Needless to say "Monster" was something else entirely so I was never going to like it right out of the box. I've heard live versions of some of the deeper cuts that made me re-evaluate it for the better.
Upon hearing Faith No More is working on a new album, I dug out their last album from 18(!) years ago, "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime", and gave it a new listen. I remember hating it when I first got it, but it's been playing constantly these past few days, and while it's not my favorite FNM album (Angel Dust!), it's really good on its own merits. I think my initial disdain for KFAD,FFAL was the lack of Jim Martin on guitar, but I can see where he and the band had grown apart stylistically.
The title track, "Richochet", "Take This Bottle", and "Caralho Voador" are my favorite songs.
Yes, it is definitely better than I thought it was at the time. Based on the pre-release hype (Back to Rock!) I was expecting something more like "Document." Needless to say "Monster" was something else entirely so I was never going to like it right out of the box. I've heard live versions of some of the deeper cuts that made me re-evaluate it for the better.
TBH, having been introduced to them through their first couple Warner Bros albums, I struggled for a long time with most of their IRS albums. I loved Lifes Rich Pageant straight out of the gate, but the other four took a lot of listens to appreciate. Challenging music can often be rewarding.
Thanks to Fickles, I've been on a Beatles kick this week too. So much I'd not really listened to before. Not to mention so many influences I can see on other bands. Chemical Brothers was the obvious one I'd not picked up before as their Let Forever Be is eerily similar to the Beatles Tomorrow Never Knows.
I've not listened to REM for a long time. I seem to recall thinking it was all getting a bit samey after over a decade (an opinion based on a passing thought probably). I remember The One I love being on a tape that my brother was given. So, when I saw an album at a second hand store I asked for it. That turned out not to be Document but Life's Rich Pageant going quite cheap for some reason.
As for Faith No More: musically some great stuff, but I never quite thought the vocals quite compared. Mind you, the lead singer must have passed puberty now, so that my well have got better too.;) What was the reason the old lead singer was dropped? Not that I thought that compared too well either to the music.
Thoth, glad to learn I inspired you to reacquaint yourself with the Beatles.
Regarding REM, I think albums like 1994's Monster and 1998's Up were a deliberate effort to prevent their sound from getting codified into formula. When audiences proved resistant to change, they retreated to safer ground on those albums' respective follow-ups, 1996's New Adventures Hi-Fi (one of my least favorite albums of theirs) and 2001's Reveal.
I liked "Up," it has a nothing-to-lose vibe since it was their first album without Bill Berry. I think some of the drift after that may have also been due to not having a permanent drummer. Having Bill Riflin play on their last couple albums gave them a more coherent "band" feel.
I am waiting patiently for a Mike Mills solo album, I'd be more interested in that than a Michael Stipe one to be honest.
Bah! Must be a locational thing, as I've just watched it.
Mind you, I heard they didn't like Mondays because they didn't like the Reading, Writing & Arithmetic. I had to tell them that they were thinking of the Sundays, and they disbanded in the huff.
I'll listen to that shortly, EDE, but first, I want to post another XTC comic-book-related song, a rather apropos one considering that other thread you just started tonight:
Speaking of Andy Patridge. The reason I was listening to XTC was after I listened to someone else, following an interview he did.
I only caught the last few minutes, but he stopped a record on the programme as he he was a little to emotional to let it continue playing. It just had such an effect on on him. It was possibly the Kiss, and he said that Judee Sill was quite the influence on him. This is another one of hers...
This morning I listened to No Vacancy: The Best of the Motels. Wonderful 80s New Wave pop, thanks to Martha Davis's powerhouse voice and sharp lyrics. My favorite cut:
Prepare to be shocked -- I'm posting a YouTube video for a Madonna song! Everybody at Legion World knows I generally despise Madonna, and while i still dislike her as a person (I think she's a cultural vampire and a heartless, soulless poseur), I can't deny any longer that she's done some good songs over the past 30 years.
This particular one is special to me, because it was co-written with Alain Whyte. For those of you not in the know, Alain Whyte was Morrissey's principal co-writer from 1992 to 2009. Over the past few years, he has written a bunch of songs for current pop and R&B singers, and he had one song on Madonna's last album to date. I think it's good, and I hope it inspires people to investigate further into the extremely talented Alain Whyte's songwriting catalog.
I've been listening to the Breeders "Last Splash" album a lot the last few days. I've been exhuming some cd's from the 90's that I haven't listened to in ages. That one holds up very well for me, along with "Star" by Belly. They're kind of twinned in my mind since those albums came after a lineup of the Breeders that included Tanya Donnelly.
I realized that it seems like there's a lack of female fronted bands on the radio these days. We have 2 "alternative" stations in Atlanta (whatever that even means any more) and I can't remember hearing many female voices at all. Am I wrong there?
Sadly, matlock, what you say is all too true. "Alternative" or as I like to refer to it from about 1993 onwards, "Mall-ternative," has become a boy's club.
Who would have ever thought that a seemingly generic teen-bubblegum demi-star would turn out to be a fine interpretive singer? But that's exactly what Mandy Moore proved in 2003 with her wonderful all-covers album "Coverage". It's hard for me to pick just one song off it, but I decided on this sensitive reading of one of Elton John & Bernie Taupin's finest songs:
And as a bonus, here's the original plus its underrated sequel from Elton's best 80s album, "Reg Strikes Back":
Arguably the most important/influential album released in September 1991, despite what people might've thought at the time about a noisy trio out of Seattle whose mega-selling album was released a week later...
Classics like Zep, AC/DC, Cult and some new stuff like Muse, Rev Theory, Sixx am, Slash with Miles Kennedy, In this Moment.
Im not into the screaming death thrash metal, but stuff like Stoned by Alice in Chains...heck, even a little Judas in there. Bad Girfriend by Theory of a Deadman...
Just stuff more like hard rock than the pap on the radio lately.
I've been listening to a lot of Madness the last couple of days. I love 2 Tone/2nd wave ska, although they moved on from that after their first two albums. Their fourth record "Madness Presents the Rise and Fall" is one of my favorite albums ever.
Two tone/ ska took me a very long time to get into. I think a lot of that was due to a perception of it, and its fans, here.
I know what you mean, Thoth. When ska hit it big in the States in the mid-late 90s, it was easy to be put off by the many hooligans who were into it. But that wasn't yet an issue in America in the 80s, where most listeners/viewers heard and saw the surface whimsy in Madness, but missed out on the gritty underside.
...and then I resumed my chronological rediscovery of Morrissey's entire catalogue. Having finished the Smiths yesterday, I started the solo recordings today.
I had hoped that if I had the stomach to listen to "Kill Uncle" in its entirety that I could do the same with "Years of Refusal", but I couldn't. ("Years of Refuse", more like.)
But, in the interest of covering every era of Morrissey, here's a B-side from the "Years of Refusal" sessions that's far superior to anything on the album proper. It was one of the last songs that Alain Whyte wrote with Morrissey before they regrettably parted ways.
And, finally, two songs from Morrissey's most recent album, bringing us to 2014.
The first was a hard choice between "Istanbul" and "World Peace Is None of Your Business", but I ultimately decided that since I had already posted the latter in the Your Latest Favorite Song thread, I should post the former here.
That's kind of funny that you posted "Happy Hour," thotkins. We had a "team outing" today and towards the end I was suddenly alone with my boss, my old boss, and their boss. They'd all had a few drinks and were making dinner plans for places that are probably a little to posh for my salary. At least they're really good people to work for and my boss is pretty hilarious with a few drinks in her. It wasn't as bad as in the song, but I can still relate.
I was lucky enough that my night out on Friday was a standard few drinks after work in a place I really like. Anything more organised than that gets me thinking of Happy Hour.
The dB's - The Sound of Music - they should have been bigger than they were. This one traded the quirky power pop of their first couple albums for a more traditional rock sound that would have probably been pretty radio friendly if it had come out in 1994 instead of 1987. Peter Holsapple could write uptempo songs, sad songs and funny songs, sometimes all at once.
I haven't been able to find my CD of it in a couple years and because I am a big dork about internet I just realized I could find it on Spotify. So next up on the parade of stuff Matt lost, Husker Du - Warehouse: Songs and Stories.
Ha. I'm not surprised. I like some of her band's songs, and I love her entire first solo album, but it's been clear for a long time that she's not a nice person.
Oh, Propaganda love here. It was someone mentioning the Simple Minds connection that got me interested. At that time I hadn't remembered that they did "Duel" that has that little Japanese flourish that so good at the time, and the great chorus. But I had really liked that when it was released.
p: machinery hit me right in my liking of German electronic music. Something else else of a guilty pleasure as I never knew anyone else that liked it growing up.
It was my dad that really liked the song I remember most from them. Heaven Give me Words. That was a few years later, is a bit different than their earlier stuff and had a lineup change. I remember he used the simple minds connection to get my brother to be interested (fail). But my dad bought the album. Although I probably mocked, it's a great song, and another guilty pleasure.
Thanks muchly Fickles. That cheered me up. Not that I needed cheering up. Just cheerier
Oh, Propaganda love here. It was someone mentioning the Simple Minds connection that got me interested. At that time I hadn't remembered that they did "Duel" that has that little Japanese flourish that so good at the time, and the great chorus. But I had really liked that when it was released.
p: machinery hit me right in my liking of German electronic music. Something else else of a guilty pleasure as I never knew anyone else that liked it growing up.
It was my dad that really liked the song I remember most from them. Heaven Give me Words. That was a few years later, is a bit different than their earlier stuff and had a lineup change. I remember he used the simple minds connection to get my brother to be interested (fail). But my dad bought the album. Although I probably mocked, it's a great song, and another guilty pleasure.
Thanks muchly Fickles. That cheered me up. Not that I needed cheering up. Just cheerier
You're very welcome, Thoth.
I love Claudia Brucken's voice. She's got that Teutonic doom-and-gloominess down to a science.
After P-Machinery, I went and listened to Front 242 and Nitzer Ebb... I quite like the hard percussion and the repetitive beats make it good for exercising. At least, that's what people who exercise told me when I played it to them.
Like ska, there's a bit of an image issue for some of this stuff, as it was fairly aggressive, industrial music for the time.
While I was listening to that a Laurent Garnier track appeared on the right. Here's Flashback, which had a nice bit of commentary about 3 mins in, about something in French music that was going on at the time and has since too.
Re: Soraya - I think that's ones appeared somewhere on here previously. Which isn't a complaint as I still got a chuckle at how bored the audience looked, while she's putting in all that effort for the cameras.
I'd probably think the same thing of a lot of TV variety performance show audiences, if I ever watched any.
My hypocrite alarm has reminded me that audiences here are really tough to get started too. Bands have to put in a fair bit of effort to get a response.
I love the Phineas and Ferb music. It's well-written, and in most episodes brilliantly funny. Are you listening to the show soundtrack or the movie one (which isn't quite as good, but still has a few gems)?
When I saw the Moz in concert last summer, there were 2 songs I hoped he would do the most. He did neither of them. This was #1 on my list. It's a forever feel-good song for me despite the creeper lyrics. that last "aaaaaaaaaah let me in" gets me every time!
The only song he did from his early 90s heyday was TOMORROW. From the 80s he did MEAT IS MURDER and EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY. Everything else was from more recent times that I wasn't familiar with. I was disappointed but still glad I went, how often will Morrissey come to Memphis, after all?
Dear mid-twenties matlock of summer 1997, grab that bottle of Sutter Home and that pack of Marlboro Lights and hide in that little apartment because real life is coming at you soon. At the end of the summer you'll meet your wife and you'll have to put away the 3rd rate impression of a background character in a Fitzgerald short story. Listen to "Song For The Dumped" one more time first though since this album is the soundtrack of your life between mid March and the end of August, 1997
Been listening to a lot of new stuff in the truck lately. New "rock" station that plays a lot of stuff like Cage the Elephant and Artic Monkeys. No idea who most of them are, but some good stuff.
You're very welcome, Thoth. I haven't heard all of Sparks' albums, but of the ones I have heard, the only one I consider an unqualified artistic success is "Kimono My House". The others do have their moments, though.
You're very welcome, Thoth. I haven't heard all of Sparks' albums, but of the ones I have heard, the only one I consider an unqualified artistic success is "Kimono My House". The others do have their moments, though.
Yeah, I;d have to agree with that, although some of my favs come later on. But hey, since Sparks got to kiss Jane Wiedlin, I'm through with cool places. In fact I'm through with being cool. Just like these guys...
As teens, a couple of the guys from Devo were in a garage band with fellow Ohioan Chrissie Hynde. Here's a song from her recently released first solo album that shows she's still got it:
Another blast from the past. This one got me through the last couple years of high school even though the specter of mall-ternative rock was looming menacingly:
Finally got to listen to Chrissie Hynde's entire debut solo album, "Stockholm". It's arguably the first satisfying album she's recorded since the third Pretenders album, "Learning to Crawl". It's available for free on both Spotify and YouTube. Check it out.
Ooh, Asia, blast from the past! Loved that band (although I'll admit to loving their album covers even more than their music!).
Latest '80's earworm I woke up with in my head (which is crazy, since I hadn't heard this song for at least 20 years! The eternal mystery that is my brain...)
If it wasn't for Weird Al and 'I Lost on Jeopardy' I'm not sure I would have even remembered the name of this band!
Thanks for sharing, Set! I hadn't heard that one before.
There's a couple of great songs on the Lost Boys soundtrack (and it's a decent movie, too boot!). Check out Cry Little Sister (from the sountrack, Gerald McMann), as well. It's got a funky beat, and, topping even the sax, they use one of those giant pipe organs you find in churches!
Must be a beast to haul that thing around on tour...
Ha! I was listening to INXS when I checked this thread! (Mystify, Never Tear Us Apart, Disappear and New Sensation, and newer stuff like Pretty Vegas and Afterglow).
So much good stuff. Their Greatist Hits is great for car travel.
Oh, Dead or Alive were friggin' brilliant! Youthquake was one of the best albums of the 80s, and Rip It Up was one of the best remix albums of the 80s.
Almost nothing. [grumble] Computer died, phonograph died... no money to get them fixed right now, even though I'm working like a dog. [grumble gripe whinge carp]
Just the iPod for company, and with this latest string of techno-fail I'm almost too paranoid to take it out of the house with me. Something else else could happen to it.
I 'm feeling your pain. My MP3 player (actually an old palm pilot I've had for years) has had problems, and I've just replaced my PC(again) so...ouch and what little I was listening to has died off apart from some videos here.
I'm gonna' finally take the turntable in to hopefully be fixed next weekend. Since we'll be separated for awhile after that, I've relented this evening.
So far I've played Dorothy Donegan's Live and Donnybrook With... LPs. Followed up with Buddy Miles' Booger Bear and Them Changes.
Listening to the highlights from the 1994 Van Morrison tribute album "No Prima Donna". Here's my Top Five tracks from the album:
1. Marianne Faithfull, "Madame George" 2. Elvis Costello, "Full Force Gale" 3. Sinead O'Connor, "You Make Me Feel So Free" 4. Hothouse Flowers, "Bright Side of the Road" 5. Lisa Stansfield, "Friday's Child"
I feel too lazy ATM to post the YouTube videos, but I hope this thread inspires at least a few people to investigate.
For no real reason I listened to Dexy's Midnight Runner's version of "Jackie Wilson Said" about 5 times the last few days, partly because the original is not on Spotify and I have no desire to dig for my ancient "Best of Van Morrison" CD. It's a good version nonetheless.
Madness are wonderful. As I said earlier in this thread, I think their later, less successful singles are just as good as their biggest hits. "Uncle $am" is not only a fun song to listen to, but also lyrically it's more relevant than ever.
And... turntable is now FIXED! Mostly. I think one of the speaker connections is still a bit weird, but never mind.
I now have a HUGE stack of new used vinyl from the dollar bin: Maxine Sullivan, Tracy Nelson, CSN, Climax Blues, and [swoon] Carmen McRae! I can't wait until tonight so I can lounge around and listen to them!
Emm yeah, not exactly a unique voice and I can't tell if it's meant as homage or sarcasm.
For an Ohio boy, the lead singer has some interesting connections to a teacher type like me. He went to a newish religiously based private school that actually put its money where its mouth is by building an additional high school in a poorer neighborhood (in addition to the usual preppy location) and the endower followed fairly conservative principals to becoming megarich rich but then bungled it all by becoming involved with Michael Milkin.
^^That's another favorite of mine, Stalgie. I first heard it when I was 12 and my older cousin sent me a mix tape with the entire "Forever Young" album on one side.
A song by obscure band Australian Crawl called "Unpublished Critics" that shares more than just a basic chord progression with GnR's "Sweet Child O' Mine"--
Robin Thicke and Pharrell lost in court to Marvin Gaye's estate over "Blurred Lines" ripping Gaye's songs off... Aussie Crawl's song predates GnR's by 6 or 7 years. The difference being Gaye's fame over AC's obscurity... kind of fascinating. Okay, nothing to see here...
I listened to a bunch of different versions of an old Civil War era folk tune called "Goober Peas" yesterday just to assure myself it actually existed. Kids in Georgia still sang that kind of thing back when I was in 2nd grade. We also sang "Dixie" which I think has been retired, thankfully.
Ha, on my daughter's social studies final today there was a question about food items eaten during the Civil War and one of the ones mentioned were goober peas. She said it was really hard not to laugh and sing a little of it.
Meanwhile on thoth Island... Brains: Stop watching bird videos with your cat! Can't you see the Fickles Alert! thoth: Ah, I wondered why it had gone all disco. And that's just the answer! To the jukebox Brains! Select 1980s and Punch It!
I listen to Pandora when I'm working and I tend to go to the Lorde station ... a lot of Sia there, but also I've been vibing on Birdy, old-school Garbage, Metric and Chrsitina Perri.
But other than that, You should absolutely listen to Mike Doughty's "Stellar Motel" album.
Meanwhile on thoth Island... Brains: Stop watching bird videos with your cat! Can't you see the Fickles Alert! thoth: Ah, I wondered why it had gone all disco. And that's just the answer! To the jukebox Brains! Select 1980s and Punch It!
SHUT THE FRONT DOOR! I love L B!
poor thing had such a hard time getting a record contract because she could sing too many octaves ...
Been rolling on some harder stuff lately. Pop Evil. Godsmack. Artic Monkeys. Really liking Black Keys. Not much really new for me, but I'm liking it right now.
The Mississippi Delta was shining Like a National guitar I am following the river Down the highway Through the cradle of the civil war
I'm going to Graceland Graceland In Memphis Tennessee I'm going to Graceland Poorboys and Pilgrims with families And we are going to Graceland My traveling companion is nine years old He is the child of my first marriage But I've reason to believe We both will be received In Graceland
She comes back to tell me she's gone As if I didn't know that As if I didn't know my own bed As if I'd never noticed The way she brushed her hair from her forehead And she said losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow
I'm going to Graceland Memphis Tennessee I'm going to Graceland Poorboys and Pilgrims with families And we are going to Graceland
And my traveling companions Are ghosts and empty sockets I'm looking at ghosts and empties But I've reason to believe We all will be received In Graceland
There is a girl in New York City Who calls herself the human trampoline And sometimes when I'm falling, flying Or tumbling in turmoil I say Oh, so this is what she means She means we're bouncing into Graceland And I see losing love Is like a window in your heart Everybody sees you're blown apart Everybody sees the wind blow
In Graceland, in Graceland I'm going to Graceland For reasons I cannot explain There's some part of me wants to see Graceland And I may be obliged to defend Every love, every ending Or maybe there's no obligations now Maybe I've a reason to believe We all will be received In Graceland
... (love smooth reggae like this) but have been on a Dolly Parton kick all evening.
I had forgotten how awesomely talented this lady is. Amazing vocals, amazing song-writer and she plays so many instruments too. And she seems so lovely as well!
The song I've probably pressed "Repeat" on more than any other tonight is "Baby I'm Burning". I grew up listening to a couple of Dolly albums but I didn't hear this song until I was in my mid 20s. I love it! It has such a driving rhythm. I find it almost impossible to resist jumping up and dancing around the room to it. I wish I could have lived through the disco era.
Which got me in the mood to listen to "Court and Spark:" really hard to find quality videos. Couldn't find one live of "Twisted" but did find this. Some powerful voices represented.
I'm getting back to my musical roots, which in this case means a bunch of old-timers shamelessly jumping aboard the late-80s hair metal bandwagon.
I won't try to make the case for this song being a serious work of art, but when those processed harmonies soar, I feel like I'm a tween again, only much happier and more centered than when I was actually a tween.
I've been really into Bluegrass these last few months. I just love the instrumentals, both the slow, sad ones and the quick-paced adventurous ones. Chris Thile is one of my favorites! And the song I posted, "Big Sam Thompson" is probably my favorite of all the Bluegrass songs.
I should have known you'd know him!
I've always loved Irish music, given my family history, and Bluegrass is similar with it's own culture and distinctions. Being from Connecticut, I never heard much Bluegrass at all until my 20's. I really would love to visit the parts of the country where its a dominant part of the culture, like Kentucky, etc. I've the Deep South many times and have had plenty of exposure to the Nashville / country scene (and my wife is a huge country music fan since she was a kid), but I'd love to get to a part of the country where I could sit back, relax, and get some homegrown bluegrass and homegrown whiskey.
I was pretty much raised on mainstream country, which for the most part I can't really stand now, but I'm a huge fan of Appalachian folk (as well as English/Irish folk), and like a lot of the artsier bluegrass, though I'm not as up on it as I'd like to be.
I was pretty much raised on mainstream country, which for the most part I can't really stand now, but I'm a huge fan of Appalachian folk (as well as English/Irish folk), and like a lot of the artsier bluegrass, though I'm not as up on it as I'd like to be.
It's really been the Pandora App which I can play through my car that has been so great in exposing me to so much Bluegrass that I otherwise would never find on my own. There's so much great music out there!
This also confirms my long held belief that when Eryk and I meet in person, it'll be in the mountains of Appalachia, listening to local Bluegrass and sipping Apple moonshine!
"Adore" by Alex Parks. I listened to this about a hundred times in a row today. Recommended if you're feeling sad or want to feel sad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx3V3LEFmdQ
I was pretty much raised on mainstream country, which for the most part I can't really stand now, but I'm a huge fan of Appalachian folk (as well as English/Irish folk), and like a lot of the artsier bluegrass, though I'm not as up on it as I'd like to be.
This also confirms my long held belief that when Eryk and I meet in person, it'll be in the mountains of Appalachia, listening to local Bluegrass and sipping Apple moonshine!
Well, them's my roots too. And moonshine's legal in Tennessee now.
I was pretty much raised on mainstream country, which for the most part I can't really stand now, but I'm a huge fan of Appalachian folk (as well as English/Irish folk), and like a lot of the artsier bluegrass, though I'm not as up on it as I'd like to be.
This also confirms my long held belief that when Eryk and I meet in person, it'll be in the mountains of Appalachia, listening to local Bluegrass and sipping Apple moonshine!
Well, them's my roots too. And moonshine's legal in Tennessee now.
You best get your moonshine jars ready when I finally make my way down your way!
Somehow I'd never listened to Roy Wood's Boulders album until tonight. I suspect I will be making up for that in the future.
My dad like ELO. He also had a fair knowledge of the precursors to ELO, including Roy Wood's influence from The Move. But I've found that overanalysing it isn't the best approach. Just listening to it, and listening generally to any reaction seems to be best.
Here's Jeff Lynne's doin' disco (mid ELO I think) that I picked up in a thrift store.
This is Halloween | The Nightmare Before Christmas (Danny Elfman) Night on Bald Mountain | Disney's Fantasia (Mussorgsky) Opening Theme | Dracula (1931) Night Journeys | Dracula (1931) Ghostbusters | Ghostbusters (Ray Parker) It's Only Forever | Jim Henson's Labyrinth (David Bowie) If I Apologized | Mirrormask (Iain Ballamy, Neil Gaiman) Suicide is Painless | M.A.S.H. (Johnny Mandel) Long Ago and Far Away | Pan's Labyrinth (Javier Navarrete) Time Warp | Rocky Horror Picture Show Science Fiction Double Feature | Rocky Horror Picture Show Tubular Bells | The Exorcist (Mike Oldfield) Imperial March | Star Wars (John Williams) The Empire Strikes Back Disco | Meco Nimue's Song | Camelot - (Lerner & Lowe) Smile | Charlie Chaplin (Orchestral Piece) Smile | Lyrics-John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons; preferably performed by Judy Garland Segue: Algeria Touchshriek | David Bowie The Witch Doctor Song | Davis Seville Ghostriders in the Sky | Johnny Cash Thriller | Michael Jackson Keep on Lovin' You | REO Speedwagon (I Always Feel Like) Somebody's Watching Me | Rockwell Planet Claire | the B-52s Rock Lobster | the B-52s Maxwell Edison | The Beatles Frankenstein | The Edgar Winter Group Hall of Heads | They Might Be Giants We Will All Go Together When We Go | Tom Lehrer Werewolves of London | Warren Zevon Excitable Boy | Warren Zevon Don't Let Us Get Sick | Warren Zevon Hall of the Mountain King | Peer Gynt (Edvard Grieg) Buffy the Vampire Slayer | TV Theme Song Casper the Friendly Ghost | TV Theme Song The Addams Family | TV Theme Song The Munsters | TV Theme Song Twilight Zone | TV Theme Song Molly Malone | (Irish Traditional - Sinead O'Connor) Puttin' On the Ritz | Young Frankenstein (Irving Berlin) Young Frankenstein Opening Theme | Young Frankenstein (John Morris) Phantom of the Opera (Andrew Lloyd Webber) | Complete Soundtrack Wicked | Complete Soundtrack
Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol on audiobooks. Driving a truck now, radio is shit, stations buy their programming from the same guy all over the nation. Same shit all the time.
Some "Come on, Eileen" reminiscing in the Shoutbox inevitably made me think of Dexys Midnight Runners' quirky but compelling cover of Van Morrison's "Jackie Wilson Said".
I wish I knew how to embed like all of you cool kids do but I can't so I'm just going to post this link.
I listen to so many Golden Oldie stations that I sometimes think I must have already heard every single old song out there and that there's nothing new for me to discover....
So when I hear a decades old song that I a) have never heard before; and b) instantly love, it's a bit like finding a mint condition of Adventure Comics #247 in a back issue bin filled with thousands of terrible 90s Image comics.
Such is how much I've fallen for this 1970 song by Dory Previn, an artist I'd never heard of before either.
But since hearing it in the final scene of the latest episode of Scream Queens about an hour ago, I must have listened to this song about 20 times! I. LOVE. IT.
The song has a fascinating background too! Google it if you're interested.
This was the previous old song that I only recently discovered and became immediately obsessed with.
The first time I heard it was about a week ago when it came on the radio as I was parking my car and I don't feel weird admitting that I had burst into tears by the end of it.
The song perfectly encapsulates my own emotional struggles at the moment.
It's by Roy Clark, who's probably well-known by most of the Americans here, but who is an unknown quantity to most Australians:
I was going to click it, but then I saw it's ten minutes long. I'll listen to it during the day tomorrow. TBH, I haven't cared for much of what he's done over the past 35 years since "Scary Monsters".
Thanks EDE. I hadn't heard that one. Trying too hard to start. A little bit drum and bass (oddly the last Bowie one I remember had this in it too), a little electro and a little radiohead.
The vocals hold it together, both because of Bowie's confident ability and because the space that he creates allows various influences to have some moments without feeling shoe horned in there out of desperation. There's some jazz later on for example. But it doesn't feel cluttered. Having nearly ten minutes also helps no doubt.
There's an astronaut in the video, and I suppose 'cause it's Bowie the obvious conclusion is that it's Major Tom.
I'm not jumping up and down over it. It's okay and I'd be interested to hear more from the album. That's mainly due to his voice more than anything.
I definitely heard the Radiohead comparison upon first listen, along with the Scott Walker-influence that everyone seems to be making a big deal about. There's also an element of continuing on from some bits of the Berlin trilogy filtered through the more modern influences.
I'm digging it more with each listen. It's nice to see him trying to do something interesting when a lot of his peers are pretty much content on just repeating the same old thing.
Lots of back voice acting cd's, mostly based on Robert Crais books. Enjoying the stories, but the very bad line readings in some spots as well as the bad "men doing a woman's voice", especially the southern accent, are a bit offputting.
Sergio Leone's Dollar Trilogy has perhaps the best score to a film series ever made. Ever single track is amazing. Plus, it makes great studying music!
That song takes me back too, Fanfie. It used always play on the radio when my mom would drive my sister and I to school to school in the late 90's.
A bittersweet song for me:
I remember listening to this song for the first time at the end of my senior year of high school when I first used to drive. My commutes to an internship I was doing often had me drive down a long backroad that seemed to stretch for an eternity so to break the monotony I would pop this album on and just watch the scenery pass by. It's one of those songs that just makes you forget all your worries about what the future holds and it still takes me back to a simpler time in my life.
Don't ask how I can go from insulting a singer in the MMB to listening to his entire debut album. I've long had something of a love-hate thing with Tom Petty, but after hearing his first album for the first time, instead of just the hits from it, all I can say is that it's pretty damn good!
Okay, so I listened to the next three Petty albums on YouTube. The second one is almost as good as the first, but the third reminded me why I'm so ambivalent about him: in-your-face overproduction, hammy vocals, everything multi-tracked to headache-inducing proportions. The fourth was marginally less oppressive, and it had one of the few Petty songs that I make no apologies for liking:
I'm not a fan of plodding dinosaur rockers UFO, but their most commercial album, 1980's George Martin-produced No Place to Run, had a couple of decent tracks:
Next to the Beatles, George Martin's longest and most productive association was with the band America, those quintessential 70s soft-rockers. Interestingly, while more than half the songs on their 1975 multiplatinum best-of album, "History", had not been produced by Martin, the veteran produced remixed all the songs he hadn't originally produced. Most likely more people are familiar with the remixes than the originals. I'm sure they're not everyone's cup of tea, but their hits were a large part of the soundtrack to my carefree preschool years, and so I make no apologies for liking them.
Not a huge UK hit at the time of its 1963 release, this George Martin-produced, Lennon/McCartney-written song has amassed a large number of fans over the decades. In the 80s, the Smiths used it as their entrance music:
More gems from the Dollar Bin: Mel Torme' (as mentioned in that neighboring thread). Also, Erroll Garner, Wanda Jackson, and Kalapana (Seventies Hawaiian pop, kind of Doobie Brothers-ish).
I did knuckle under and shell out full (used) price for this beauty:
Continuing my current obsession with bands featuring women playing instruments, I found this beauty yesterday for very little cash. Beat up but still playable:
The soundtrack to my recent reading of the book "Small Town Talk" (see the So What Are You Reading? thread) consisted of a Bob Dylan marathon yesterday, followed by a Todd Rundgren marathon today.
A channel away after the footy the other night was an old show brought back for a one off reprise. I caught the last 5 minutes, in which was this from a Ukrainian pop group.
The final episode of Luther had a remix of the Cure's "A Few Hours After This" play through the credits. It's a B-side I only own on tape, which should indicate how long it's been since I've heard it. I was still able to sing along with the entire thing. Some songs just stick with you.
This VERY 80s Roxy Music synth-rock cover of one of the Byrds' most well-known self-written songs will doubtless seem like sacrilege to many listeners, but I like it. Roxy's leader, Bryan Ferry, has a prolific but erratic history of recording covers (the same Roxy album featuring this song has another cover, a laughably bad version of Wilson Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour.")
Although Nico's dour monotone isn't everyone's cup of tea, I actually prefer this version to the Bowie original; Bowie's vocals were IMO a bit hysterical on the original, and when his voice would crack (which was often), it sounded to me like nails on a chalkboard.
Star Trek TNG is not my favorite Trek show, but I do have a sentimental spot for the best episodes of the middle seasons (s3 to s5), because that was the first Trek TV I ever watched (my gateway to Trek were the movies with the TOS crew and the Trek comic books of the 80s and early 90s.)
FYI, the TNG theme was originally the theme for the first Trek movie. IMO, the latter is unwatchable, but what a great piece of music it contributed to the franchise! Thank you, Jerry Goldsmith -- hope you're conducting celestial orchestras in heaven.
And, of course, HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY, STAR TREK!!
FYI, the TNG theme was originally the theme for the first Trek movie. IMO, the latter is unwatchable...
No! It's so interesting to watch again! It's like opening up a time capsule. Such a pastiche of 2001 and Rod Serling or something. It's like they just didn't know what to do with themselves. and yet Decker/Bald Chick was such a precursor to Riker/Troi.
FWIW, I can kinda see where you're coming from, because there are some allegedly overproduced, incoherent, and directionless movies that are extremely unpopular with most viewers, which I actually love. To name two examples, "Event Horizon" and "Exorcist II: The Heretic."
The latter also has a wonderful score by the great Ennio Morricone:
I struggled with iTunes and finally puzzled out the track-buying process, just so I could own the version of this super-unsuccessful Blues LP which enjoyed an amazing 1,000- copy run when I was nine years old. I do recommend it.
Now you know why I've been gone so long. I'm not real good at understanding computer stuff.
Note to self: maybe naming a business enterprise "Oblivion" wouldn't be such a great idea if I ever want it to expand past the corner of the laundry room.
You'd think a track like Fast Fast Women and a Slow Race Horse" would have had some staying power for the title alone.
I'm going through the old radio episodes of X Minus One, sci fi stories from the 1950s. Good stuff for the most part and interesting how many of these stories may have been the source for more modern tales and movies (body switching, time travel, renegade computers). There's a lot of Mars, quite a few are set in the far flung years of the 1990s and, for the most part, it's all men, except for one story about a feminist society (which turns out to be man-crazy).
Ooh, nice. Thanks, Cleome. I'm relieved that I'm not the only Cetera/Chicago fan here at Legion World. I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, though, that my gateway to vintage Chicago was the David Foster Produced Comeback Era.
Out of respect for you and other fans who haven't yet made themselves known, I shan't post videos of any 80s Chicago hits.
You should post 'em anyway. I mean, we have a guy here whose thread is called "Dungeon Of Schlock" and the board is still standing, so...
On my quest for a jazzed-up version of the song, I found a video of an adorable teenage girl doing the drum parts in one of those rock-star games. I thought she did well, but her cat was not impressed and dozed off about halfway through. Critics.
Whenever I get around to it, I'll try to post videos with album covers and single sleeves instead of the actual music videos. Ye Gods, even by the standards of other veteran rock bands pandering to MTV at that time, Chicago's videos were awful!
And I'll have to do a search for that "kitty-kritik" video. Thanks.
Oy. I'm pretty sure that one day during my not-so-adorable teen years, I tried to rip the cable box out of the wall and stomp on it during Chicago's "Stay The Night" video. Or maybe it was Asia's "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes."
Either way, I'm pretty sure I wasn't allowed to go watch TV at that friend's house after that. Ohhh... yeahhh... I had some issues.
The very last record I've dated and put away in my collection* is her appearance leading an all-female group on a 10" disc called Cats Vs. Chicks. The cover's in terrible shape: literally falling apart. But the record itself sounds fine, and given how jacked-up the prices are for these things now, I was lucky to score it for around five dollars when I did.
One disappointing thing: the EP cover shows cartoon images of Pollard and "rival" bandleader: the great trumpeter Clark Terry. ("Terry vs. Terry." Get it?) But the cartoons are White, while in real life both artists were Black.
*Completing an organizing project that's taken at least a year and a half. I was really determined.
When I was very little I got to go with my mom to meet a very special lady. She was so beautiful and elegant. I was most likely three going on four but I fell in love. That was the day Julie London stole a little boy's heart.
Oy. I'm pretty sure that one day during my not-so-adorable teen years, I tried to rip the cable box out of the wall and stomp on it during Chicago's "Stay The Night" video. Or maybe it was Asia's "The Smile Has Left Your Eyes."
Either way, I'm pretty sure I wasn't allowed to go watch TV at that friend's house after that. Ohhh... yeahhh... I had some issues.
BUT I'M BETTER NOW! Really.
The worst part for me is, even the worst of the old videos (OK, maybe not the very worst) look almost endearing today next to some of the Gods-Awful horror movie/gore/sex/near-nudity/pseudo-ironic-hipster-creepiness/instantly-dated-CGI-effects/pretentious-director-freshly-graduated-from-film-school videos from the past 15-20 years.
The inner science nerd in me has fallen love once again. Makes me want to get out those old genetics text books again. Ugh...maybe not. But I do want to rewatch Cosmos.
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of "Legally Blonde: the Musical." My daughter's school is putting it on starting Thursday and she's on the Tech Crew. She's played me about half of it in the car already anyway. It's not bad.
The Original Broadway Cast Recording of "Legally Blonde: the Musical." My daughter's school is putting it on starting Thursday and she's on the Tech Crew. She's played me about half of it in the car already anyway. It's not bad.
I remember liking the first Legally Blonde movie but hating the second.
Best wishes to your daughter and all the others in the crew & cast.
I actually have the CD edition of that soundtrack album (bought it used a few years ago), mainly because I like most of what Eurythmics have done. I don't listen to it that often (too depressing, perhaps even more today as the Orwellian fantasy has gotten closer to reality), but I do think it's good for what it is.
With our new truck we get Sirius XM radio free for 6 months. Not sure we'll keep it but for now I'm digging Lithium (90's alternative & grunge). A little too heavy on the STP and not enough Canadian content, but otherwise a really nice mix. Its companion channels "1st Wave" (80's alternative) & XMU (current alt) are pretty cool too.
With our new truck we get Sirius XM radio free for 6 months. Not sure we'll keep it but for now I'm digging Lithium (90's alternative & grunge). A little too heavy on the STP and not enough Canadian content, but otherwise a really nice mix. Its companion channels "1st Wave" (80's alternative) & XMU (current alt) are pretty cool too.
We get a free trial this time of year and First Wave is my go-to and Lithium is close behind.
There are a few CBC channels way up past all the talk ones and there's a really good one that seems to be all Canadian alternative stuff. It's another favorite of mine even though I can't ever remember any of the band names.
I have sirius in the truck and have some sports and such, but I really like Soul Town. I tend to cycle through the rock stations because they all fit supertight niche's and you have to go through a lot of new junk (sorry, screaming ain't singing) to get to the occasional good stuff.
Planning a trip to the thrift store later today, so spun a bunch of things I want to donate: just to make sure they were in sound shape. (Sorry.)
I've decided to send away my pair of Carla Bley LPs, though I have some of her stuff on my computer anyway. So no big deal. My main beef with her as that often her compositions seem to be more about the idea of music than all that interesting on their own terms. On the other hand, she takes many chances, always has great performers in her stable, and sometimes I enjoy her self-admitted corny sense of humor. (You sometimes have to wait a spell, or know a bit about jazz, before you get the payoff, though. She doesn't run to broad parody a la' Spike Jones.)
Wow. Haven't seen that video in years. Bananarama later had a No. 1 hit in the US with "Venus." Here's the original by the Dutch band Shocking Blue (also a US No. 1, way back in 1970):
Speaking of '80s girl groups, this has become one of my favorite videos of the '80s--although I'd never heard of it until about three years ago. I love the dance routine they do, and the song isn't bad, either.
But what I'm really listening to a lot these days is old Guess Who songs, which, I've come to realize, are among my favorite tunes of all time. Here's the famous Bachman, Cummings, Kale and Peterson lineup from their 1983 reunion tour, singing "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature."
Wow. Haven't seen that video in years. Bananarama later had a No. 1 hit in the US with "Venus." Here's the original by the Dutch band Shocking Blue (also a US No. 1, way back in 1970):
I actually had no idea that Bananarama was doing a cover with "Venus". Thanks for dropping knowledge, HWW!
Lucked onto two Emily Remler LPs for eight bucks total last week. I've been listening to them a lot. Remler, "nice Jewish girl" from my homestate of N.J., started her career in the mold of Wes Montgomery. She was beginning to branch out into her own thing, even dabbling in fusion, when she died of drug abuse complications at 32. Still makes me sad to think about it. Just an awful waste in a field where women artists were already so few and far between.
Because the work-in-progress 4th installment of my Dr. Gy'mll's forum essay, "The Foresaken Fangirls of the Direct Market Era," will cover the first half of the 70s, I've selected a trio of old reliable favorite albums from that time frame:
Elton John, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road"
T. Rex, "The Slider"
Lou Reed, "Transformer"
PLUS: Selected tracks from a Roxy Music best-of collection, released about 15 years ago; a fair amount of Roxy purists bristled at the inevitable omissions, but I find it more satisfying overall than even their best studio albums.
Slowly getting the Discworld series on cd. You can read his stuff and see clearly the explainations for why and how people act the way they do right now in this current climate.
What I think makes this song great is that, while love IS obviously the answer, the lyrics totally honest about how difficult it can be in practice. Another reminder of Todd's songwriting genius (BTW, he's celebrating his 70th birthday this coming June. Will I be starting a new thread to celebrate the occasion? Oh, yes.)
Thanks, He Who, for the kind words and for the link to the more well-known version of that song.
I like that version perfectly well, and I'm glad it got a Rundgren-penned song on the radio (IIRC, Todd R burned a lot bridges with radio programmers around the middle of the 70s.) But even though Dan & John are technically better singers than Todd, I do think his vocal has more passion and raw emotion to it.
Rundgren's version comes across as more ethereal and "arty" to me (nothing wrong with either). ED & JFC were the acceptable voices of mainstream pop radio in the late '70s. They were as middle of the road and white bread as you could get. That said, I like Dan's vocal performance here. He puts in a lot of passion as the song builds.
I know I'm making my biggest effort yet at keeping negativity in my posts at a minimum, but I can't hold back on this (though I'll keep it brief.)
"Green Light," Lorde's long, long, LONG-awaited official new single (not counting "Magnets," by Disclosure, on which she was technically a featured guest), is, IMHO, bloody awful. "Green Cheese," more like. Gives me flashbacks to the very worst of Alanis Morrissette.
And I really liked both "Magnets" and her moderate hit single "Team" a lot, so I had hopes...
Now I'll stop, so that you can all judge for yourselves:
On March 25th of this year, Elton John will be turning 70.
It's all too easy to take him for granted. I certainly have gone through extended patches of listening to very little of his work.
But in recent months, I've been spinning a lot of his stuff, particularly the "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" double-length album, which IMHO would have been his best if it had been five tracks shorter, and if the sequencing had been different.
So here's an alternate sequencing I came up with for the album, and, to reiterate, with 12 tracks rather than 17:
1. "SATURDAY NIGHT'S ALRIGHT FOR FIGHTING" 2. "ROY ROGERS" 3. "I'VE SEEN THAT MOVIE, TOO" 4. "SWEET PAINTED LADY" 5. "THE BALLAD OF DANNY BAILEY (1909-34)" 6. "YOUR SISTER CAN'T TWIST (BUT SHE CAN ROCK 'N ROLL")" 7. "GREY SEAL" 8. "FUNERAL FOR A FRIEND/LOVE LIES BLEEDING" 9. "GOODBYE, YELLOW BRICK ROAD" 10. "CANDLE IN THE WIND" 11. "BENNIE AND THE JETS" 12. "HARMONY"
"Steal Away" by Rob Dupree. I heard it on the radio and it haunts me occasionally. I am starting to hate the formality in "mature" adult relationships.
"Steal Away" by Rob Dupree. I heard it on the radio and it haunts me occasionally. I am starting to hate the formality in "mature" adult relationships.
That takes me way back...to my late teens and early 20s, when I was retreating from "mall-ternative" rock and prefab rap, and seeking refuge in the soft rock and pure pop of my childhood. Of course, the difference the 2nd time was, I was actually paying attention to the lyrics -- and relating to them.
I'll be posting videos and thoughts on him off-and-on all day.
I'm starting with the ONLY ONE of his truckloads of early-to-mid-70s US Top 10 hits that NEVER gets spun on either oldies stations or classic rock stations, even though I think it's one of his very best songs ever! Pay close attention to the lyrics and you'll see why I 'd have loved to hear Axl Rose in his prime sing this song. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone in between, "HONKY CAT":
One of my goals with this Elton John 70th Birthday Tribute is to avoid the most obvious, and most overspun by radio, songs, in favor of illuminating other sides of his artistry.
With that in mind, here's one of my favorite EJ deep-cuts of all time, from his breakthrough self-titled album, released in 1970:
Like a lot of showbiz survivors, EJ has been quite savvy at adjusting his style to fit the moment, but unlike some lesser artists, he's never forgotten that a decent tune and a good beat take priority over a desperate grab for street cred.
That said, his next album, "Tumbleweed Connection," is one of his most dated, being as I think it is an over-deliberate pastiche of one of his biggest influences of the time, the roots-rock icons known as The Band. OTOH, the closing track, "Burn Down the Mission," does come pretty darn close to capturing some of his heroes' woodsy flavor, and it has one of his lifelong collaborator Bernie Taupin more pointed set of lyrics:
Guitarist and singer Aiko Shimada (still living in Seattle, last I heard) only made a few CDs. But most are small gems, especially her last to date: Like Hannah.
They're not easy to describe, and if a major label tried to package her as either the usual Adult Contemporary lady singer-songwriter or peddler of New Agey-World stuff, listeners would probably be confused and disappointed. Her lyrics are sparse and mysterious, and the unconventional arrangements on discs like Another Full Moon often create a sense of alienation and even occasional menace that make them linger in my mind for hours afterwards. Still waters, and all that.
EJ's fourth album, "Madman Across the Water," is arguably his most consistently rocking album, and having wisely decided to dispose of the cornball Bad Hollywood Western Movie trappings of "Tumbleweed Connection," it holds up as a decent, if samey-sounding, platter of earthy early-70s rock.
Ironically, the original 9-minute version of the title track was actually recorded during the "Tumbleweed" sessions, with one of my favorite guitarists of that generation, MICK RONSON, shredding like there's no tomorrow. The version they went with is perfectly good, but the Ronson one...WOW.
And here's an actual track from "Madman", and a very good one:
Somewhere below the grand hotel There is a tunnel that leads down to hell Take the dumbwaiter, the laundry chute Then sneak through the hall past the boys shining boots Then left at the courtyard through the old garden Where all the bellhops smoke with the guards And then you run to the old lake house Down to the old lake house Run to the old lake house where it begins
Under the floorboards there's a deep well That leads to a spring that sprung up in hell That's where old devils danced and kissed And made their blood pacts in the ancient myths And running through forest they screamed in chorus While piercing fair maiden's chests with their horns And then they lay in the grass 'til the dawn came Sleeping away 'til the dawn came Lay in the grass where now stands the grand hotel
The Maître D' and a fancy chef Silver's real, the liquor's top shelf Play some tennis, swim in a pool Stroll the garden shady and cool You won't care that the devils Won't mind that the devils Won't know that the devils are near
Somewhere below the grand hotel There is a tunnel that leads straight to hell But no one comes up for the souls anymore They come for some comfort and for the dance floor And hiding sharp horns under fedoras Do not disturb signs instead of a chorus They toss and turn 'til the dawn comes On soft sheets 'til the dawn comes No one sleeps at the grand hotel
Room service, mini-bar Scented soaps, chauffeured cars Stay a day, stay a week Here's the tunnel, take a peek Just call up your friends at the front desk Any hour at the front desk Call up your friends at the grand hotel You'll always have friends at the grand hotel
I have been haunted recently by an alternate reality in which Judy Garland did not die at the age of forty-seven.
But rather, in 1998, at the age of seventy-five, starred opposite her longtime friend, Mickey Rooney, in the Broadway adaptation of The Wizard of Oz at The Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York.
My wife and I are huge "Seattle Music" (better term than grudge) fans, and this was awful to hear. We both loved Soundgarden and I followed Cornell around these last years as his voice is just one of the best ever. (In fact, it was Pov who first clued me in to what Audioslave actually was).
Pearl Jam is my wife's favorite band so Temple of the Dog was always sacrosanct to her. We've been playing it non-stop since the news came in.
Another Seventies jewel from Brazil, by Catia de Franca. As with the great Marlui Miranda, I couldn't hope to afford it in a million years. All praise for the fans who upload this stuff for everyone's enjoyment.
I know I'm making my biggest effort yet at keeping negativity in my posts at a minimum, but I can't hold back on this (though I'll keep it brief.)
"Green Light," Lorde's long, long, LONG-awaited official new single (not counting "Magnets," by Disclosure, on which she was technically a featured guest), is, IMHO, bloody awful. "Green Cheese," more like. Gives me flashbacks to the very worst of Alanis Morrissette.
And I really liked both "Magnets" and her moderate hit single "Team" a lot, so I had hopes...
Now I'll stop, so that you can all judge for yourselves:
Well, the video is sure cliched and cheesy. The song's all right, though. I'm pretty sure I'll have forgotten it completely by tomorrow.
Cleome, the 2 things that really bother me about that recent Lorde song are:
- The way she caterwauls tunelessly and with seemingly no point other than to give the song a facade of "edginess" (hence the Alanis comparison)
- The way she appropriates elements of soul and gospel with the same cynical insincerity as, say, the very worse of 80s mainstream rock songs, i.e. "I Want to Know What Love Is" or "Roll With It."
I wouldn't call it tuneless, just kind of generic. There are styles in voices on the pop music charts, just like there are styles in hair, clothing, production, and so on. If my eyes were closed listening, I'd have a hard time distinguishing her from 10-12 other successful female pop stars of the hour.
Agreed about the appropriation thing. Of course, that's as old as the history of pop music, and most of us would have much smaller playlists if we eschewed everything with that same problem.
I know I'm making my biggest effort yet at keeping negativity in my posts at a minimum, but I can't hold back on this (though I'll keep it brief.)
"Green Light," Lorde's long, long, LONG-awaited official new single (not counting "Magnets," by Disclosure, on which she was technically a featured guest), is, IMHO, bloody awful. "Green Cheese," more like. Gives me flashbacks to the very worst of Alanis Morrissette.
And I really liked both "Magnets" and her moderate hit single "Team" a lot, so I had hopes...
Originally Posted by cleome51
Well, the video is sure cliched and cheesy. The song's all right, though. I'm pretty sure I'll have forgotten it completely by tomorrow.
Man, none of Lorde's songs will ever measure up to this, her best ever.....
Watch guitarist Moreno almost run away with the show halfway through.
It's with real embarrassment that I note my last SBJ purchase is ten years old. Excuse me. I need to rectify this because who needs grocery money, anyway?
Lardy, Cleome, to each their own. This is who I consider the most promising artist of this decade to date, a Welsh lass of mixed Greek/Welsh descent with three albums under her belt (and, FTR, Album 1 is very good retro-80s pop, Album 2 is a bit overambitious but I give her an "A" for effort, and Album 3 is a huge leap forward into the realms of Siouxsie Sioux and Kate Bush in their respective primes!)
The above wasn't actually a Lorde song but a faux-Lorde song that appeared on an episode of South Park! (Hence, the above) See, there was this story arc where Randy Marsh (Stan's dad) was secretly Lorde. So they created this "Lorde" song for him to perform. Though the vocals weren't actually done by Lorde, they got an actual pop star, Sia, to perform it. I find it surprisingly catchy!
A friend of mine told me a few weeks ago that South Park (which I have to admit I haven't watched for 10-15 years) has been back on top form in recent seasons. There's the proof, as well as the perfect incentive for me to finally start catching up. Thank you.
She has a nice voice, but the arrangements don't really do it for me.
Right now, I'm taking stock of several CDs I just loaded onto the computer and archived. Including Calexico's excellent live Scraping. I already regret adding it to the trade/donate box, but I've gotta'. There's no damn room around here. (So what else is new?)
I go through phazes of what I listen to. Granted, given a lot of the posts here, I'm probably more middle america music, pedestrian to a lot of folks. But I likes whut I like. Tonight, it's power.
Yes! I think it was my first cassette tape purchase, actually. I loved Time, in particular, but Yours Truly 2095, Ticket to the Moon and Rain is Falling were also neat.
Just found a cheaper-than-expected double set of his Impulse stuff. Very happy about it as $5/LP is pretty much a steal for Coltrane's work. I own very little of it, for that reason.
Meanwhile, on the other side of Music-Land, I was thinking about this obscure 80s ditty for some reason... for the first time in about 20 years. Where's FL? She might appreciate it.
This song has been on my mind all day. I went with Kim's cover because...well, please forgive me, Bowie fans, but while he wrote some truly great song lyrics, his voice has always given me speilkas, and always will.
I think the spirit of MLLASH himself was watching over me last month. I was at the RE-TAILs thrift store in Vancouver... mostly to drop off some things, and to pet kitties. (It's a store run by WA. State's Humane Society.) But I found four (!!!) great-condition LPs from Emmylou Harris, and I couldn't wait to get them home. Seventies goodness! (I remember her matched-set video of "Mister Sandman" and "I Don't Have To Crawl" playing on cable TV as filler... before the age of MTV. Time flies.)
Right Here Waiting by Richard Marx One Call Away by Charlie Puth I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston All I Want for Christmas Is You by Christina Aguilera As Long As You Love Me by the Backstreet Boys Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You by George Benson
A Prisoner BBC audio series. At the same time as it condenses some of the series, it adds some depth in other places. It stars someone who sounds like the original, and he becomes increasingly frustrated when his James Bond plans don't work there. The writers have pushed forward the technology of the original. That giant beach ball fits in very nicely with the other toys that have been upgraded. Two episodes in so far.
I seem to be in A Very British Mood this morning...
T. Rex, "A Beard of Stars" -- The "awkward phase" album between their acid folkie phase and the acid glam phase that made them famous, but a good listen nonetheless. Morrissey selected one deep cut from this album, "Great Horse," for his "Under the Infuence" album of favourite songs by other artists. And speaking of the Mancunian Madman...
Morrissey, "My Early Burglary Years" -- Some people complain about the overlapping songs on his numerous odds-and-sods compilations, but in spite of it all, I'll still enough of a fan to own almost all of those comps. This is one of the best, as it includes *both* the gorgeous 1994 B-side "I'd Love To," an obvious valentine to his then-partner Jake Walters, one of those songs that makes me forgive all of M's varied sins, *and* the 1996 non-album single "Sunny," which laments the end of the same love affair and has one of M's most heartfelt and heartbreaking vocals.
Billy Bragg, "Don't Try This At Home" -- Every US fan considers this his best album, and every UK fan considers it his worst. No, I'm exaggerating. Almost 30 years after its release, it holds up much better than expected, and includes his beautiful cover of Fred Neil's "Dolphins." It's kind of like William Bloke's equivalent of Julian Cope's "Saint Julian" -- both attempted "sellout" albums that didn't *sell* as well as hoped, but which *did* introduce a lot of discerning listeners (especially American ones) to these artists, and served as gateways to their more challenging work!
While I've series two of The Prisoner awaiting, I was listening to the Quatermass Memoirs. Great British sci/fi horror that started off as a BBC series before Hammer made three films. There was a fourth after that. The Memoirs have Quatermass telling his story between the third and fourth films. Oddly, it also has the author intersect with this, explaining some of the cold war reasoning behind the stories.
I'm not too far into it, as I keep dozing off as I listen to it las thing at night. Or into the early morning, as the poor sleeper's thread will attest to.
Audio adaptation of Stephanie Land's Maid. I'd heard a couple of teasers over the last couple of days for it. But I wasn't that interested. But it came on while I was looking for something to listen to and I was hooked very quickly. A sobering reminder of societal wrongs alongside a great mother/daughter relationship.
That's the only Cardigans song I like. I remember borrowing the album from the library, thinking there'd be other songs that were just as good. Nope. Not a one. In my opinion.
Oh yeah, I was listening to a BBC full cast audio of Dracula. It seemed a bit like the Coppola movie. Sure enough, after a quick search it was made around the same time. Auntie Beeb was ever quick on a cash in. They've streamlined parts much as Coppola did, and gone with the darker tone. But they've kept a few other things from the book to keep it interesting. The ending is really abrupt in this version too. It could have done with a bit more on the tracking down of the vampire Lord. Instead, we get some highlights and then it's off to Castle Dracula for some stabbiness.
In their "infinite wisdom" (ha, ha,) Slade's record label in America left both those songs off the album, which was less imaginatively retitled "Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply," after a British B-Side which wasn't on the original album.
I’m really sorry to hear this. My thoughts are with his family and friends.
Talk Talk offered something distinctive, yet accessible through their singles. While being a sign of where bands of the time could develop, I think they also looked back to the albums released in the 1970s. At least in terms of not producing something geared solely for a few chart releases. I got the feeling that friction played a part in his departure from the industry.
Posters promoting Morrissey's latest album have been removed from railway stations after a commuter complained.
Adverts for the new album by the former Smiths singer have been taken down on the Merseyrail network.
Morrissey has previously expressed support for the far-right For Britain party and earlier this month wore a badge with its logo on during a TV show, but he denies he is a racist.
Merseyrail apologised and said the posters did not reflect its "values".
The adverts, which contain no political message, were removed after a traveller on a Southport service to Moorfields contacted the company to ask if it agreed with Morrissey's opinions.
The man, who asked not to be named, told the BBC he was not "offended" by the posters and did not demand they were taken down.
He said he just questioned the company on whether they were appropriate.
In a statement, Merseyrail said: "Any content used within advertising on the Merseyrail network does not reflect the organisation's values and we apologise for any offence the publication of these posters may have caused."
The company said advertising was managed by an external third party.
Morrisey has not responded to the rail company's decision. But in a message on his website on Friday, he said: "With voice extended to breaking point, I call for the prosperity of free speech; the eradication of totalitarian control; I call for diversity of opinion; I call for the total abolition of the abattoir; I call for peace, above all; I call for civil society."
Basically anything in the hard rock category right now. Simplistic notes and chords, and distortion helps because it hides how bad I am at copying them.
In general, ELP have probably held up the worst for me of the more popular 70s prog groups. Even when I'm in the mood for a keys/bass/drums trio, there's about dozen bands I'd go to ahead of them, including both Emerson and Palmer's prior groups.
On a related (but more positive) note, I recently listened to Yes's biggest-selling album 90215 for the 2,000,000th time. Still a highly enjoyable listen, although I found myself getting impatient with "Leave It" and "City of Love" (neither of them have ever been my favorite tracks on the album.) At the same time, I can appreciate the closing track, "Hearts," better than before -- it's definitely epic, and often quite beautiful.
LOL Yeah, "City of Love" is only one of many examples of why prog bands should never try to get "funky."
EDIT: Couple more thoughts about Yes's 90125:
Trevor Rabin is an amazingly versatile guitarist and songwriter who seems to have rarely had the right material or the right set of collaborators or the right working atmosphere. No wonder he went into scoring movies.
My very favorite moment on the entire album is Jon Anderson's defiant cry of "I believe in eternity," in "Hold On."
It was really a combination of G.I. Joe, Transformers, and super-heroes that should have been the ultimate 80s property, but never quite lived up to its potential.
No, Set. Take a better look -- like, maybe, the album cover -- and you'll see that it *is* a Kix song.
As to the power ballad you linked to, it's not bad as they go, and I give them credit for doing a tougher, more serious lyric than usual for that sub-genre, but just because it was their only real hit doesn't make it their best song. Not by a mile.
Ha. It sounds so different to the whole one Kix song I know, I thought it might be a bad image on the youtube video and another band entirely! My bad!
It is interesting how many bands are famous for one song, which doesn't necessarily accurately represent their general sound. I love some oddball songs like Cheap Trick's After the Flame, which sounds little like the usual 'Dream Police' type stuff they are more known for, or Corey Hart's 'The World is Fire' which is nothing like 'Sunglasses at Night.'
I find that I prefer the deeper cuts of quite a few bands, over their more popular, better-known stuff, like with Manfred Mann's Earth Band, famous for songs like 'Runner' or 'Blinded by the Light,' while stuff like 'Eyes of Nostradamus' and their version of 'Demolition Man' are, IMO, cooler.
A while ago, I listened more-or-less randomly to a few tracks from the Flower Kings' "Space Revolver" album. I found I tend to like the short, sweet ones better than the longer ones.
One of the interesting things about the Flower Kings is actually the diversity of reactions to their music. I've been reading comments on them for at least twenty years now, and I've seen so many people say something along the lines of "They have good songs, but there's always so much filler on their albums." But when you look closer, there's very little agreement on which are the "good songs" and which are "the filler". Even rankings of albums seem to vary wildly from one fan to another.
So, yeah, it's pretty normal that you'd enjoy some of the tunes more than others.
A lot of people that I've introduced this album to have been like, "It's good, but it sounds pretty much like just another early 80s British New Wave album."
I wonder if I'd still like TTX so much if they had been yet another one-or-two-hit wonder from the MTV Age?
At the very least, their lead singer, one Julian Cope, deserves credit for deliberately sabotaging any chances of that happening, and moving on to an erratic but often rewarding solo career!
Euro-style melodic melodrama: It's admittedly an acquired taste. A taste I acquired when my parents and I moved to Latin America when I was 3 years old. Lots of Spanish-language covers of Italian songs during my most impressionable years, oh yes.
Fast-forward to the mid-2000s, and Italian songbird Laura Pausini, who has a huge Latin American following and almost always records alternate Spanish-language versions of her albums, gifted the world "Io Canto"/"Yo Canto" -- an entire album of 70s, 80s, and 90s Italian golden oldies.
Out of 16 tracks, there's only one I always skip over (and that's Track 9, "Y Mi Banda Toca Rock." Because it so *does not* rock.)
I love the other 15 almost equally, but if I had to pick just one, it'd be Track 16, "Por El Camino" (which roughly translate to "Follow Your Own Path".) I think it's a brilliant, heart-stirring, and more than anything, *uplifting* gem of a song.
^^That's cool. The whole "Andalusian prog scene", of which Triana were arguably the leading representative, didn't have nearly the international impact as, say, the Italian scene, but it does make sense that it would have had some presence in South America.
The lead singer has a bigger, fuller voice than any of the ladies from the Go-Gos or the Bangles. That's quite refreshing.
Yeah, that tape was in heavy rotation when I got my own place in the late 80s (after arriving on the West Coast). It alternated frequently with Al Stewart's *Last Days Of The Century*. The not-quite-out-of-the-garage vs. the slick, radio-friendly thing. Somehow I managed not to get whiplash. (Like when I'd alternate 1930s Count Basie and Throwing Muses. )
(BTW, your MST3K connection: the Aquanettas were named after the *actor* Aquanetta, who appears briefly in that timeless rock-climbing dog: *Lost Continent*.)
The lead singer has a bigger, fuller voice than any of the ladies from the Go-Gos or the Bangles. That's quite refreshing.
Yeah, that tape was in heavy rotation when I got my own place in the late 80s (after arriving on the West Coast). It alternated frequently with Al Stewart's *Last Days Of The Century*. The not-quite-out-of-the-garage vs. the slick, radio-friendly thing. Somehow I managed not to get whiplash. (Like when I'd alternate 1930s Count Basie and Throwing Muses. )
(BTW, your MST3K connection: the Aquanettas were named after the *actor* Aquanetta, who appears briefly in that timeless rock-climbing dog: *Lost Continent*.)
OMFG, the one who says "Sacred mountain taboo!" over and over again? She rivals the jazzman from the "Killer Shrews" movie for Most Racist Caricature Ever Seen In a Bad Movie Roasted On MST3K.
Who would have ever expected a third-string teen-bubblegum singer to emerge, in adulthood, as one of the most compelling and accomplished artists of her generation?
I've been a Mandy Moore fan since 2003, shortly after she ditched the peroxide and the glittery lip-gloss, and recorded an album of 70s and 80s covers (all but one of them originally recorded before she was born) behind her label's back. The result, "Coverage," cost her a recording contract but won her a cult following. By the end of the 2000s, she had released two commercially disappointing/aritstically-successful follow-ups, "Wild Hope" and "Amanda Leigh." Then she ended up married to uber-creep alt-rocker Ryan Adams, a talentless poser whom she has subsequently (post-divorce) accused of emotional abuse, and who appears to be a serial manipulator of young, vulnerable female musicians. Bastard.
Moore's acting career was restored a few years ago by the success of "This Is Us," and now she has finally released a new album, "Silver Landings," co-writing the songs with several collaborators including her second husband, Taylor Goldsmith.
"This Is Us" had the mixed blessing of showcasing her covering yet another mellow 70s favorite, Lowell George's trucker anthem "Willin'", which is unfortunately best known for Linda Rondstadt's atrocious version.
I would say that if Moore truly has a forebear from her parents' generation, it would have to be the late Nicollete Larson, whose talent far outweighed her ambition, resulting in her only having one real hit. But what a hit!
So if you like that kind of thing (and I most certainly *DO*), then "Silver Landings" is the album for you. I give it a strong 8 on a scale of 10, due to its haphazard sequencing, opening with one of the weakest tracks; overall, I'd say it has four great songs, four half-decent ones, and two duds.
"Come From Away" soundtrack. Just went to see it today (Second last performance before Australia stops meetings over 500) and loved it. Fantastic musical, one of the best I have ever seen. Now listening to it again.
Ann, that's a funny coincidence. I'm hooked right now on a YouTube re-mixer guy from the Midwest, who had "Lotta' Love" on his list of re-dos.
When that song first hit, I thought N.L. was singing, "You know I need a lady, not solitude." I remember thinking that was kind of daring for a "normal" radio song. Then my sister ruined everything by correcting me.
(There are quite a few of these songs that I'm hearing for the first time. We got all the crossover stuff on FM radio back in the Seventies, but there was no all-dance station I knew of. Plus by 1979 I was still only 13 years old, so not hitting too many discos. Heh.)
The lead singer has a bigger, fuller voice than any of the ladies from the Go-Gos or the Bangles. That's quite refreshing.
Yeah, that tape was in heavy rotation when I got my own place in the late 80s (after arriving on the West Coast). It alternated frequently with Al Stewart's *Last Days Of The Century*. The not-quite-out-of-the-garage vs. the slick, radio-friendly thing. Somehow I managed not to get whiplash. (Like when I'd alternate 1930s Count Basie and Throwing Muses. )
(BTW, your MST3K connection: the Aquanettas were named after the *actor* Aquanetta, who appears briefly in that timeless rock-climbing dog: *Lost Continent*.)
OMFG, the one who says "Sacred mountain taboo!" over and over again? She rivals the jazzman from the "Killer Shrews" movie for Most Racist Caricature Ever Seen In a Bad Movie Roasted On MST3K.
Heh. I think *Master Ninja* doesn't get enough credit [sic] for its really obnoxious racism, except maybe from the folks who do the "It's Just A Show" podcast.
A BBC found this to be music to help him through the lockdown, and ended up doing a profile on what was known of her. Lovely enough for me to get the album.
That first song was a big, cheesy load of yuck. I lasted about 40 seconds.
The second song has long been a favorite of mine, even out of a ton of Julian Cope songs that I love.
Some fun facts:
Cope changed the spelling from Trampoline to Trampolene as a homage to Chuck Berry's Maybelene (sp?) He wanted the song to sound like ZZ Top covering Chuck Berry.
Of the other musicians featured, bassist James Eller later joined The The, drummer Chris Whitten later joined Paul McCartney's Flowers era band (nice work if you can get it.) Lead guitarist Donald Skinner has a long and complex history with Cope dating back to the very start of Cope's solo career (for those not in the know, Cope had originally been the lead singer of the New Wave band Teardrop Explodes. Duran Duran considered TX the only serious threat to their ascension; they needn't have worried, because TX...well, imploded quickly.
The shooting of the video for Trampolene was not fun. Cope was trying to stay off drugs, but some bright spark snuck cocaine onto the set, and everyone copped an attitude.
Thoth, Supergrass was one of those groups that I wanted to like, that I tried to like, but in the end I just had to admit I don't like.
Maybe it was a generational thing, maybe also a North/South thing. I do like this tuneful bunch of scruffs, who were older and from the North. In fact, I listened to their album in its entirety just a few days ago.
I skipped past one of theirs just yesterday. It's invariably There She goes. Released and rereleased as their momentum sifted away and other bands, influenced by them, took different directions. I think in the end, even some of the La's got bored of it, and went off to form Cast.
Since we're oop norf, here's something different from the above that comes from a Sunderland group called the Cornshed Sisters. Saccharine sentiment warning on lyrics. It was written during lockdown somewhere in Bonnie Scotchland. But I got a nice '80s feel from the music. Lovely and poppy.
Getting some late night airplay, in the cool spots at the Beeb in the last few days, are Naked Roommate. Album's out at the start of September, and so I'll have to make do with this live version for now...
Not lost on me that this was at the Rickshaw stop.
The Cadillac Three. sometimes I gotta let my country freak fly.
Dorothy. Good sound to them.
Reverand Parsons Big Damn Band.
My son showed me a group named UGO. Or maybe that's the name of an album or song. He's into the current psychedelic scene. They were okay. I like Kraughbin more, though. And he's really turned on to them.
So, with all the talk of ELO in the Shoutbox, I just discovered this super-cool high quality version of "lost" ELO track "Beatles Forever" was recently posted on Youtube!
So, with all the talk of ELO in the Shoutbox, I just discovered this super-cool high quality version of "lost" ELO track "Beatles Forever" was recently posted on Youtube!
I finally read the first few Discworld novels earlier this year and really enjoyed them. Clever writer. Haven't read the Dresden Files but they sound like fun.
I've been passing time at work and doing computer stuff at home by trying to bring up every 1980s song which skated briefly across MTV when I was just a bored teen fascinated and irritated by this new thing-- both at the same time. A lot of them I didn't even like all that much. I was just trying to test whatever remains of my memory at this late date. lol.
Aaanyway, even if you're not wild about this one, you've gotta' admire the panache it took to love on Motown at a time like 1982.
Having not had anything to listen to when working, I've put on the radio for the last couple of weeks, while I'm seconded to another area. It's '80s too. Some of my favs...
1. Eurythmics - It's All right (Baby's Coming Back) 2. Swing Out Sister - Breakout 3. Fergal Sharkey - A Good Heart 4. Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants to Rule the World 5. Talk Talk - Life's What You Make It 6. Thompson Twins - Hold Me now 7. INXS - I Need You Tonight 8. Jane Wiedlin - Rush Hour 9. Fleetwood Mac - Everywhere 10. Bangles - Walk Like An Egyptian
Nice list, Thoth! I like all but one song on it. And that would be "Walk Like An Egyptian." But I do get some comfort out of my conviction that that piece of poo is the *real* legacy of the overrated Slits (eff Viv Albertine and her book of lies and her horrible facelift.)
Well, it was the last one on the list when I was going...um... so it's likely to be replaced easily enough. I'd be super interested to hear more about your thoughts on Viv Albertine's book. I've not read it.
Well, it was the last one on the list when I was going...um... so it's likely to be replaced easily enough. I'd be super interested to hear more about your thoughts on Viv Albertine's book. I've not read it.
She's basically Geri Halliwell with superficial lefty politics instead of out-and-out Thatcherism. They're both obnoxious, self-obsessed, product-placing, name-dropping ramblers. She's also like, "Oh, Sid and Johnny and all them were just regular kids, regular blokes." No, they weren't. And she's just as irregular as them. Which would be okay if she could back it up with actual talent. Finally, I can appreciate that she's had some truly terrible life experiences, but her public persona is such that I find it almost impossible to sympathize with her, much less empathize. Other people's mileages may vary.
Ah, Little Steven. An automatic deal-breaker for me, due to his association with Brute Shitbrains.
Well, now he's more remembered as Tony Soprano's right-hand man.
I guess it's a bad time to bring up Southside Johnny then. o_0 I dunno', this has very Huey Lewis-like overtones, but the sweetening of the female chorus sets it apart... makes it a bit less ponderous.
I'm sure I've said before that the only Springsteen song I really like is "Tunnel Of Love," which all his fans hate because it doesn't sound like him at all.
I'd easily replace the Bangles one with Big Audio Dynamite's E=MC2. Here we are in the '80s and here's Mick Jones now... who's he with...oh, hi Viv...um....
EDIT: I can't think of a Springsteen one I like more than Tunnel of Love.
Someone made me a B.A.D. tape when we were in NYC art school and I played it pretty much daily. I don't know why I drifted away from them, but I did remember to add that song when I was doing my 80s obscurity walk.
mr_cleome asked me why I didn't just put together a YouTube playlist and make it permanent. My response, "Oh, yeah that's just what I need. Another slapdash, half-finished project to finish out the year."
By the way, I've noticed that Memory likes to play the trick where a song from the start of a decade is remembered as being part of the previous decade. This, for example, is (The Blessing's *Let's Make Love*) 1991 but it should really belong to the late 80s, pre-Grunge era:
I bought the BAD II album for Rush. I've never listened to the rest of it.
Years ago, I bought a used cassette of KISS's "Crazy Nights" for the title track* , which I'd heard on Ecuadorian radio when I was 13. I've *tried* to listen to the rest of the album, still haven't gotten all the way through.
*I've never understood why the song is called "Crazy, Crazy Nights," but the album is called "Crazy Nights."
A lot of The Outfield... Singer/bassist Tony Lewis just passed, joining guitarist John Spinks, who died several years ago after a battle with cancer. Discovered I only own about half of their discography, and listened to their second album, BANGIN', in which I found my new favorite song by them-- NO SURRENDER.
When I read Pov's post I thought "never heard of them" Then, thinking of HWW's top 40s where I'd come across lots of new things, I made a little mental note. which I promptly forgot. Ann's post told me to take a look. Despite being British, I'd really never heard of them. No impact whatsoever. I've not even heard any of their material on the radio. No Surrender is good, and I wonder how much I'd have liked them had I heard something years ago. Thanks Pov and Ann.
I'm considering buying "Best of" albums of the Moody Blues and the Alan Parsons Project. I only know and like 2 or 3 songs of each that I know of, but I like the styles of those songs and would like to hear more. Any fans of either or both?
My favorite Moody Blues songs are from their mid-late 80s comeback: "Your Wildest Dreams" and "I Know You're Out There Somewhere." Overall, I tend to prefer the songs written by Justin Hayward, which are usually romantic and melodic, to the rockier and more experimental songs by the other members.
For me what makes the "Classic Seven" MB albums work is the balance/contrast between the different members. It's Hayward's romantic ballads sitting along side Lodge's rock and roll numbers, with Roy Thomas's childlike whimsy and Mike Pinder's more philosophical explorations, and the occasional bit of Graeme Edge's poetry. The loss of Pinder and decreasing influence of Thomas makes the 80s albums much less memorable, though you still have some particularly strong Hayward singles.
Of course, a greatest hits album is going to be dominated by Hayward and Lodge, because most of the singles were theirs. One thing to look for is whether it includes "Go Now" from the original lineup featuring Denny Laine (later of Wings). It tended to be left off collections for a long time, but I think more recent ones tend to include it.
None of the compilations on iTunes include "Go Now". I think, though, that I've narrowed my choice down to one that has a lot of good material, including a long version of "Nights in White Satin".
Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out if "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me" are the only 2 Alan Parsons Project songs I know. Both songs are excellent, so I'd like to buy a compilation and hear more.
Best ofs/compilations aren't always the be all/end all of my interest in an artist. If the material is good enough, I will definitely dive deeper. Witness how I started with an ELO compilation and now happily own the majority of their discography!
I'm considering buying "Best of" albums of the Moody Blues and the Alan Parsons Project. I only know and like 2 or 3 songs of each that I know of, but I like the styles of those songs and would like to hear more. Any fans of either or both?
I ended up getting a compilation album of both. I've sampled Alan Parsons first because "Don't Answer Me" is my favorite single from either band. The two I knew for sure were that and "Eye in the Sky". I also listened to the instrumental "Sirius" (a tune I think everyone will recognize as being played in stadiums and various other events), which serves as an intro to "Eye in the Sky", "Psychobabble" and "Prime Time". The latter two are after and before "Don't Answer Me" and are nice songs.
Just with these five, I feel it's already earned the purchase price.
Funny thing is, Apple has the songs, "Games People Play", "Time" and "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" as the most popular tracks on the compilation, and those weren't the one's I recognized! (Pretty sure I'll know "Games People Play" when I hear it, though.)
Also, using the same Apple gift card to buy the above two, I bought "Pet Sounds" by the Beach Boys, an album I've seen on "best album" lists consistently, up there with "Sgt. Peppers" and the like. Though it only contains two songs I recognize, the album is a sonic treat. The vocals and the instrumentation are complex and very masterful. There's no doubt why Brian Wilson is spoken of in such awe.
I definitely need to listen to it more to see if I ultimately agree with the critics that it belongs in the upper echelons.
Pet Sounds is one of those albums that I recognize as really good whenever I hear it, but I've never really gotten heavily invested in myself. It must have been pretty mindblowing in 1966, though.
I'm considering buying "Best of" albums of the Moody Blues and the Alan Parsons Project. I only know and like 2 or 3 songs of each that I know of, but I like the styles of those songs and would like to hear more. Any fans of either or both?
I ended up getting a compilation album of both. I've sampled Alan Parsons first because "Don't Answer Me" is my favorite single from either band. The two I knew for sure were that and "Eye in the Sky". I also listened to the instrumental "Sirius" (a tune I think everyone will recognize as being played in stadiums and various other events), which serves as an intro to "Eye in the Sky", "Psychobabble" and "Prime Time". The latter two are after and before "Don't Answer Me" and are nice songs.
Just with these five, I feel it's already earned the purchase price.
Funny thing is, Apple has the songs, "Games People Play", "Time" and "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" as the most popular tracks on the compilation, and those weren't the one's I recognized! (Pretty sure I'll know "Games People Play" when I hear it, though.)
Since this post, I've become certifiably obsessed with the Alan Parsons Project. I've listened to the compilation twice all the way through and have done some research about the group on the internet.
The APP was fairly unusual. The only 2 official members were Parsons and Eric Woolfson, and there was no actual band in the traditional sense. Parsons and Woolfson created and produced the songs and albums and had various sessions musicians perform them. Parsons had been a producer and engineer (the latter on the Beatles' "Abbey Road" and "Let It Be" and Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"). Woolfson had been a songwriter and sessions musician. They used talent they'd worked with in those capacities to perform their music, including members of Ambrosia and Pilot, among others. Each album had two or more lead singers on different tracks. Parsons and Woolford did perform on each album but mostly in supporting capacity, until Woolfson started singing lead more and more. It is Woolfson's lead vocals on their big hits "Time", "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me". Even after those successes, he never sang lead throughout an album. Each album has some kind of theme or concept to it and all contain instrumental pieces. They never performed live on tour during the APP's existence.
After 11 albums, Parsons and Woolfson parted ways. Woolfson worked in musical theater to incorporate APP music into musicals. Parsons worked on solo albums created similarly to the APP style. Woolfson passed away in 2009.
Beginning in '93, Parsons, with Woolfson's blessing, formed the Alan Parsons Live Project to finally bring their music into live concerts. Parsons performs live with the band, contributing backing vocals, additional keyboards and synthesizer and backing guitars. He sings lead on "Eye in the Sky" and "Don't Answer Me" and has quite a lovely voice that is similar to Woolfson's. The band does not consist of APP contributors; presumably, many of those still surviving tour with their own bands. The current main vocalist is P.J. Olsson, but in true APP fashion, other band members sing lead, as well. You can find many of their performances on YouTube. I watched one made for German television all the way through. I thought it was awesome.
The APP has been described as progressive rock, but the overall effect is a soft rock sound. (I mean, there's even some '80s sax on several songs! ) I usually don't go for a lot of soft rock, but the sound is full and very lush. Lots of orchestration and complex arrangements. I think every track I've heard would still be a treat without vocals, but I don't want to imply the vocals are uninteresting. I prefer Woolfson's vocals the most, but all of them are terrific. I will definitely be getting individual albums of theirs, beginning in the near future.
I think what you had with the APP was a venue for two creatives, who had great success behind the scenes, to work through their desire to create their own music, while being reluctant to be front and center out of their comfort zones. Both of them eventually became more comfortable over time with Woolfson emerging as a vocalist and Parsons embracing live performance. I feel this was an unusual 'project' in many ways but one that produced some real magic over time. And I definitely "...believe in the power of magic"!
Thanks! In addition to my growing obsession, I think of you when I wonder whom amongst my friends would enjoy them, which helps compel me to share what I'm discovering here. I could be very wrong, but I imagine you'd dig them.
Yeah, they're definitely in my wheelhouse, but I haven't spent a lot of time with them. I do own Parsons' first solo album, Try Anything Once, bought back when I was in high school, but I don't remember much about it.
Nice to know I know you that well, at least! I might eventually try Parsons' solo work. I'd be wary of it being inferior to his collaboration with Woolfson, though.
Apparently it didn't make much of an impression on teenage me. Looks like it has Eric Stewart (of 10cc and the Mindbenders) on it. I'm sure I had no idea who he was at the time, though.
That I never knew! Thanks, Lardy. Yeah, all kidding aside, the early Ambrosia records are definitely well-crafted melodic prog. So I can see where they'd find common ground with Parsons.
I've fallen down The Sweet rabbit hole...It started with "Fox On The Run" on the Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 Soundtrack, but I'm currently listening to '74's SWEET FANNY ADAMS... Favorite songs are "No You Don't" and the title track...
I've fallen down The Sweet rabbit hole...It started with "Fox On The Run" on the Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 Soundtrack, but I'm currently listening to '74's SWEET FANNY ADAMS... Favorite songs are "No You Don't" and the title track...
The Vol. 2 soundtrack's inclusion of "Mr. Blue Sky" is what sent me on my ELO kick the past few years!
me some "Out of the Blue"! Definitely my favorite ELO album (with the caveat that it and "Time" are the only ones I've listened to all the way thru sequentially--I'm a big fan of using shuffle on my iPhone). I think "Big Wheels" is my favorite track, even separate from the rest of the Concerto.
BTW, when I bought the recent "Live at Wembley" JL'sELO album, I was a bit perturbed to see that they performed both "Standin' in the Rain" and "Mr. Blue Sky" separately in different parts of the performance.. Why not just do the whole Concerto together? I know the concert-goers would appreciate and love it!
me some "Out of the Blue"! Definitely my favorite ELO album (with the caveat that it and "Time" are the only ones I've listened to all the way thru sequentially--I'm a big fan of using shuffle on my iPhone). I think "Big Wheels" is my favorite track, even separate from the rest of the Concerto.
Oh wow, ELO's Time was the first cassette tape I ever owned and bought with my own money! I love the songs Twilight, Yours Truly 2095, and, uh, all of them, really!
Cool fact: Much like Secret Messages, Time was originally planned as a double album! Apparently there are at least two tracks from those sessions ("Sad Affair" and "Time Transporter") that have never been released in any form.
Oh no! I just found out that Louis Clark, conductor/orchestral arranger/occasional keyboardist for ELO, passed away on the 13th.
sorry to hear that.
I played Dr Hook's greatest hits this week. It's the first time I've heard lots of them. I found a fiver on the street, a verse into Millionaire. I quite liked the tongue in cheek approach to a number of them, which gives it something more than a lot of easy listening ballad styles. I quite liked the mesh of influences too, like country, soft rock and I was picking up a little light funk later on.
Eh, "Do Ya" has terrible lyrics. It's like a nerd pretending to be a ladies man. Unless it was meant as a parody of the machismo of the early 70s when Lynne wrote it?
Anyhow, the riff is great, the melody is strong, and the beat is good, and those are the things that keep me listening to it again and again.
It was originally a B-side to the final single by a band that was no longer the main focus of its members, so he might not have put a lot of effort into polishing up the lyrics.
D.F. could readily do that blue-eyed Soul growl when he felt so inclined, despite everyone remembering him more for lite-rock ballads like "Longer," if they still remember him at all.
The WIlburys were SO GOOD. Loved both of those albums. Always thought it was such a shame that Orbison died so young right when his career was re-accellerating.
Glad to learn you're a Wilburys fan, too, GL. Regarding Orbison, I try to be philosophical about it -- he'd endured career setbacks and terrible tragedy, then found both true love and a great manager in the same woman, and staged a comeback of the type almost never seen. He also seemed to be a good person with good values who had arrived at the best possible place in his life. So, even if it meant we wouldn't get any more music from him (bar the posthumous collection of "Mystery Girl" outtakes) maybe he was just meant to go out on top.
I like that outlook on him, Ann. I'm just a year younger than he was when he passed, and that is a little weird to think about, but many of us are getting there. He gave us some amazing work, as did the rest of the Wilburys.
Come to think of it, I'm kind of gobsmacked that Dylan and Lynne are the only two left.
I'm a huge Tom Petty fan and greatly lament his loss. Obviously, a huge Beatles fan, too, so that was a huge blow. Orbison had one of the most unique, angelic voices.
Lynne was the only one I hadn't heard of at the time. I'd heard many ELO songs but didn't know who they were by. Only in the last 2-3 years have I come to appreciate Lynne and ELO in a BIG way.
Never been a big Dylan fan. I admire his significance and artistry but feel no personal connection with his music. It's amazing, though, how the Wilburys brought out his fun side, something I and many others didn't know existed!.
I hadn't heard - is Dylan in poor health? I know he recently sold his catalog for a very large sum, but I had not heard anything about his health.
Lardy, yes pretty much the same, although I enjoyed Dylan as folk music was a great way to learn guitar, so there was a lot of his music in that book of songs from back in the day. And same for Petty & the Beatles.
But also same for Lynne and ELO. I definitely appreciate his music, its definitely groundbreaking and considerably advanced electronic music in the 70's and 80s (the man is a master producer), but I've not got the bug (but there's no doubt that it is good stuff).
The whole happenstance of how the group came to be is so cool, and I wish we saw more of that (I guess the closest that I'm aware of from today's musicians is the Highwomen group in Country).
As far as I know Dylan's health is okay, though he's nearly 80 and smoked for decades. I appreciate him a lot more as a songwriter than as a performer.
I'd agree with the songwriter take about Dylan, EDE. His performance style is definitely one that takes time, at least or modern sensibilities.
For example, I was driving my (almost) 16 year old home from school yesterday and I happened to come across "Like a Rolling Stone" on the radio and stuck with it She looked at me like I was an alien, but we talked about his contributions etc and she seemed more receptive (MOST LIKELY - she was humoring me), but she knows the Hendrix 'Watchtower' and had no idea that Dylan was the creator of that song. So I'll take the little wins with today's generation.
I do have a sentimental spot for "No More Lonely Nights."
One of the best solo songs, elevated because of the David Gilmour solo at the end.
But I kinda do wish he'd not perform as much as well. I've seen him twice, in 1990 and in 2002, and they were great concerts. His more recent performances he REALLY relies on the band.
Nice selection! I will say that I think the work that came out of the Lost Weekend timeframe was some of his best, even though that included a decent amount of covers.
Too many good music links got munched in the Legion World Great Crisis. Not that I'm Queen of the Board or anything, but from now on I'm gonna describe/name whatever I post, just in case we lose them again. I'd suggest everyone do that if they have time.
Anyway, Antietam's "Attract Mode" (2004) ... still a huge favorite of mine after all these years. No one does longing like this group. (I named a fanfic chapter after this song once. Heh.)
Oh, and apologies to the fans here, but I'll take this disc over anything by most 1980s super-groups (The Wilburys, The Honeydrippers, etc.) any day of the week:
This popped on my playlist today and kind of knocked me sideways. I remember hearing it and enjoying it when it was first released, but maybe the last year has made it more emotionally relevant:
Ivy - I forgot to add - '99 popped up on the same list. I wasn't familiar with Barns Courtney before, but that's cool serendipity - he's on my list now!
Never been a big Dylan fan. I admire his significance and artistry but feel no personal connection with his music. It's amazing, though, how the Wilburys brought out his fun side, something I and many others didn't know existed!.
I prefer his more reflective, introspective songs (which often do bring out his witty side) to what he came to sardonically call "The Finger-Pointin' Songs."
My parents are/were big snobs who just pretended that Dylan had passed on once he went electric.
At least I'm not quite THAT hidebound about my musical tastes anymore, though I can still be kind of snob.
I fondly remember the first time I heard "Everybody Must Get Stoned" on FM radio and thought to myself, "Wow why does this guy sing like Tom Carvel? Why does this sound like someone tried to play a polka LP but they keep pressing their thumb down on the record while it tries to turn?"
I think I must have had no idea that this was THE Bob Dylan whose folk songs my own folks used to love so much.
To be fair, it's Tom Waits who REALLY sounds like the Tom Carvel of singer-songwriters.
The thing I like about Dylan's work is that it's so artless musically yet so artful lyrically, that his songs (his less overplayed ones, at least) lend themselves to such a variety of interpretations.
I'm too lazy at the moment to find the video and post a link, but my absolute favorite Dylan lyric is "My Back Pages," and I think the Byrds' version is superb!
And BTW, the best Tom Carvel impersonation ever is Joel Hodgson's.
I love Hodgson, but man he got T.C.'s verbal stylings all wrong. I'm guessing they didn't broadcast the ads where he grew up. So it was probably TV's Frank: the one-time East-Coaster, who tried to describe the voice to him. But without YouTube or a wav.file readily at hand it just didn't come off.
But I forgive him. <3 I do love his Borscht Belt Comedian voices.
When I hear Tom Waits songs sung by someone like John Hammond, I can appreciate them a bit more.
Patty Smyth did a decent version of Tom Waits' "Downtown Train."
And I like the Rod Stewart version, too. It may be middle-of-the-road, but Trevor Horn's arrangement and production made it a cut above the rest. And consider this -- if Stewart hadn't rushed his version into production, we would've had to endure hearing "Downtown Train" sung by...BOB SEGER!
The indy cartoonist Lloyd Dangle had a story where his job as a teenager was handing out bowling shoes at the local alley in Detroit. One time, he had to scold a couple of Silver Bullet Band members for trying to go play without their proper footwear on.
All the main cues from the 80s adventure cartoon "Silverhawks," from Bernard Hoffer, the composer of all the "Thundercats" cues (both shows were Rankin Bass productions)
Eh. Post-pseudo-ironic fish-in-a-barrel humor. Never been my thing, even though my own generation invented it. One of many reasons I have trouble relating to my own generation.
Culture shock, Pov, culture shock. I moved to the States in 1990 just as "punk broke" (HA HA) and the tectonic cultural shift left me alienated and bitter.
My oh my, I doth protest too much. I'll go look for some nice melodic song to post here.
Eh. Post-pseudo-ironic fish-in-a-barrel humor. Never been my thing, even though my own generation invented it. One of many reasons I have trouble relating to my own generation.
Okay I must say I'm deeply offended at the thought of being old enough to be part of Jonathan Swift's generation. I mean yeah I'm old but not THAT old.
Adjacent to our discussion a few weeks back about the Wilburys, this popped up on my Reddit feed today. I hadn't realized it had been remastered, but its one of those performances where if I see it, I have to watch it. No exceptions:
Yeah, I had not heard it before - it came up on one of those iTunes playlists that get generated from whatever you've been listening to, and I was totally blown away.
I love those random moments like that - its like finding money in a jacket pocket you haven't worn for a while.
Weirdly, that wasn't what I meant to link. I was going for his biggest hit, but somehow linked a random album instead.
Glad you enjoyed it, though. He's one of those artists with a really long career who has gone through a lot of different phases, from super-experimental stuff to straightforward pop. I saw someone compare him to an Italian Bowie earlier today. I'm not as familiar with his stuff as I'd like to be, but I've enjoyed most of what I've heard.
Just thinking about Garland Jeffries last night for some reason. For decades he's been pitching a tasty stew of "classic" rock, reggae, electric blues, "roots" rock, etc. I don't know why I haven't kept up with him better.
One of those guys who can sing anything well. As recently as 2017, he was still recording. I think I'm going to pick that LP (*14 Steps To Harlem*) up today, despite the ever-shrinking amount of space I have on my computer.
G.J. is the kind of artist I think of when I grumble about the narrowness and hidebound thinking that governs "Classic" rock radio, even back in the days when DJs had more control than they do now.
Sam Phillips -- a singer-songwriter that Cleome and I both like. She's that good. Here's a favorite of mine from 1988's "The Indescribable Wow," her first major-label album:
There is actually a great HBO documentary named "How can you mend a broken heart" that goes through the history of the band with Barry. Its a great watch if you like the band and get a chance to see it.
This album has recently vaulted past "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" as my favorite from The Peter Gabriel Era. Because I now believe "Lamb," while an excellent work in its own right, feels much more like a one-off (or even, arguably, as the template for Gabriel's solo career.) "Selling" is a great deal more...quintessentially Genesis. Which is why I was surprised, while doing research, to find out that, of the five people who made up the band lineup at the time, only Steve Hackett has an unconditionally favorable view of "Selling."
SEBTP is probably my favorite Genesis album. If everything goes right, I'm hoping to see Hackett perform it in the spring (two years later than originally planned, because of covid).
The Lamb is definitely an oddball, being so dominated by PG, while SEBTP is much more balanced in contributions by all five members. It also goes for a weird "American urban" vibe, in contrast to the "British pastoral" sound that 70s Genesis is most noted for. Two of my favorite late 90s albums (IQ's Subterranea and Spock's Beard's Snow) were heavily modeled on the Lamb, though.
SEBTP is probably my favorite Genesis album. If everything goes right, I'm hoping to see Hackett perform it in the spring (two years later than originally planned, because of covid).
Yay. Cheers, EDE. Got my fingers crossed for you that everything goes right with the scheduled concert.
Originally Posted by Eryk Davis Ester
The Lamb is definitely an oddball, being so dominated by PG, while SEBTP is much more balanced in contributions by all five members. It also goes for a weird "American urban" vibe, in contrast to the "British pastoral" sound that 70s Genesis is most noted for.
Agreed, and agreed again. It was sort of their way of adapting to the incoming punk rock shake-up. That they were the youngest of the big progressive rock bands is probably what helped make "Lamb" something far better than the bandwagon jumping that other old-guard rockers got into.
Originally Posted by Eryk Davis Ester
Two of my favorite late 90s albums (IQ's Subterranea and Spock's Beard's Snow) were heavily modeled on the Lamb, though.
My three favorite Simple Minds albums -- 1980's "Empires and Dance," 1981's "Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call," and 1982's "New Gold Dream" -- are the ones where singer/lyricist Jim Kerr is most audibly drawing from his admiration for "Lamb."
Remembering Sister Double Happiness from the early Nineties. Seems unfair that they didn't hit it bigger. At the crossroads of "roots" rock, Blues, and late Eighties power ballads. I can never forget this song about the inability to forget.
Sometimes there's just no explaining why you wake up with a song in your head all morning and you break down and play it even though it's not your favorite song or favorite band.
Posting "Long Live Rock and Roll" as a joke in a Gy'mll's thread has actually led me to rediscover how good Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow was.
All three lead singers had their strengths and weaknesses -- the late, legendary Ronnie James Dio was at his best with grandiose proto-metal weirdness; Graham Bonnet gets a bad rap, largely because Blackmore has badmouthed him unceasingly, but he's actually my favorite of the three, the most versatile and possessing the kind of voice I'd listen to read the phone book; Joe Lynn Turner was only good at ballads in my opinion, but some of those were very good (i.e. "Stone Cold.")
So not listening to, per se, but I received Anatomy of a Song for Christmas, and am about to dive into it. It has stories and interviews of the creation of over 40 popular songs, so I'm looking forward to digging in!
Blame Sally's countrified pop of 2009: Night of 1,000 Stars. Hardly a bum song in the lot. Wikipedia says they're still active. I wish they'd put out something new again.
(You Rumours fans might enjoy "Hurricane" and "Constance, No More.")
I've been really into the 2021 Dune movie and have been into the Hans Zimmer soundtrack lately. He also has two accompanying works that augment the main movie score.
I looked him up on Wikipedia and when it mentioned his later albums inspired by and in collaboration with NASA and ESA missions Rosetta and Juno I immediately recognised having heard his music in some of those organisations documentaries. Thanks for highlighting him Ann.
They are coming to town in June and I literally just bought tickets. Can't friggin wait!
So we saw Tears for Fears live on Sunday at MPP - perfect weather, too - and they were really, really good. Curt was a bit pitchy most of the night, but I was impressed with Roland still being able to bring the goods vocally. And the band was really tight. Recommend the show if you can see it this summer.
I've been listening to a lot of 60s stuff lately. Right now I'm going through a Byrds phase. Their first half-dozen albums are rarely less than interesting. The one I have on right now is The Notorious Byrd Brothers, whose opening track, the brass-driven "Artificial Energy", just had to have influenced the first Teardrop Explodes album!
The above post was made by me in 2012. Now I'm rediscovering the Byrds yet again, prompted by my recent learning of the death of Byrds expert Johnny Rogan, which actually happened in January 2021 but passed me by at the time. He also wrote books about Ray Davies, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and...um...The Vegetarian of Hate, the last of whom I'm ashamed to say I was once a fan of.
Anyhow, the Byrds still sound both time-locked and timeless, which is what I find most fascinating about them.
And finally, I hope this post brings back Legion World's greatest Byrds fan: Outdoor Miner.
I am currently listening to every song that was on the pop charts from 1958 - 1999. It's different. I like it. I wrote a computer program that makes the playlist for me. My kids think I'm weird.
Genesis, in honor of Eryk Davis Ester's return to active posting. Welcome back, EDE!
Today, I've spun "...and then there were three..." and "Wind & Wuthering." Next, probably "Duke" (my personal favorite of the Collins Era) and "Shapes" (aka the self-titled one.)
EDE's back? No wonder my router died, and the telecoms guy spent time wondering what was going on at the exchange box.
I was listening to some David Byrne / Brian Eno stuff the other day. My football club has a new manager by the name of Mr Jones, which got me listening to Talking Heads.
My favorite of the three singing members of Fleetwood Mac, she was one of the few white women whose voice I considered genuinely soulful. Great keyboardist and songwriter, too. She will be missed.
I'm heartbroken by Christine's death, as she was (to me) one of the best musicians in the group (as well as downplaying her own drama in the band). And let's not forget that Christine Perfect was a BLUES keyboardist at heart.
As far as I'm concerned, all of Fleetwood Mac's best of the best songs had her as the songwriter.
My wife and I saw them on tour a while ago (I honestly don't even remember when, but it was one of the tours where it was the classic lineup). She closed the show solo with "Songbird" which is SUCH a great song. I can still hear her singing it live and its making me tear up thinking about it.
RIP Christine. Your voice is truly among the angelic now.
From Christine's pre-Mac band, Chicken Shack, a lovely cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind." That song seems to bring out the best in artists -- Rod Stewart also did an excellent version.
From Christine's pre-Mac band, Chicken Shack, a lovely cover of Etta James' "I'd Rather Go Blind." That song seems to bring out the best in artists -- Rod Stewart also did an excellent version.
Will definitely be spinning his first solo album, If I Could Only Remember My Name. As lovely as a lot of the stuff he did with CSNY and the Byrds is, and as good as the several solo albums he recorded in his final years are, IICORMN is his truest and most innovative work.
He and Graham Nash were on the David Gilmour "On an Island" album and performed live with him on the Royal Albert Hall concert. Such an amazing voice.
I was listening to the Feedback show on SiriusXM last night on my way home and they were talking about him. Apparently he was very prickly, but you always knew where he stood on anything, including other people.
He and Graham Nash were on the David Gilmour "On an Island" album and performed live with him on the Royal Albert Hall concert. Such an amazing voice.
That album has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. And my favorite Pink Floyd album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is mainly Gilmour's work.
Originally Posted by Gaseous Lad
I was listening to the Feedback show on SiriusXM last night on my way home and they were talking about him. Apparently he was very prickly, but you always knew where he stood on anything, including other people.
That's one of the main reasons I like David Crosby better than Neil Young.
He and Graham Nash were on the David Gilmour "On an Island" album and performed live with him on the Royal Albert Hall concert. Such an amazing voice.
That album has some of the most beautiful music I've ever heard. And my favorite Pink Floyd album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, is mainly Gilmour's work.
I prefer "The Division Bell" but your point on "On an Island" is SPOT ON. That year (2006, I think) I happened to listen to it just after going on a beach trip and it captured my mind for literally months. ("The Blue" among others, including the obvious title track...)
And the live versions (especially the Live from Gdansk) are AMAZING
So this morning I had one of those rare pop music experiences, of the kind that leave you tingling all over and feeling good about life.
I discovered recently that my local Lite FM station is now geared toward people my age. After I got over feeling old, I started enjoying myself. And today, they played Toto's 1984 hit "Africa."
That's one of those song I've never gotten tired of despite its ubiquity. But today, WOW. It was like a cosmic convergence, the perfect song at the perfect time.
Technically, this should be in So What Are You Watching Part 2, but there's no images, so...
See, I still have my old super-deluxe DVD box set of the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon, and the special features disc includes a radio-drama style production of the unproduced series-finale script (written by the estimable Michael Reaves, whose recent passing prompted me to dust off this box set in the first place.)
The production is quite good, with excellent narration and mostly solid voice acting (except for the actor playing Venger, who lacks Peter Cullen's awesome baritone range.) It's also worth noting that Katie Leigh, one of the original cast members, is present, in not one but two roles, as siblings Bobby and Sheila.
As for how it all ends, click the spoiler box below.
Venger IS Dungeon Master's son, as had been hinted at in earlier installments. The kids restore Venger to his noble pre-corruption self, and Dungeon Master rewards them by opening a portal home, then giving them the choice of either returning home or staying and having more adventures. The viewer is left to decide what they chose.
Greatest Hits and Classic Queen -- these two compilations combined span their entire studio output. Sure, there are many omitted singles, and no deep cuts, but still a very satisfying listen.
Andy Rourke's last major musical project, the dance-rock trio D.A.R.K., was also the last major musical project of Dolores O'Riordan, best known as the Cranberries' frontwoman (she passed away in 2017.) They released one album, "Science Agrees."
The soundtracks for the first six Star Trek movies.
Star Trek 4 (the eco-hippie/time-travel one with the whales) will never be my favorite entry, but I seriously overlooked Leonard Rosenman's music for it! Simply wonderful!
From now on, that soundtrack is going to be my go-to music for writing my Legion fan fics.
For all that he could seem like the stereotype of the multi-millionare baby boomer, he wrote a lot of good songs -- some surprisingly sensitive, some genuinely funny.
And anyone who could get a song about burgers into the Top 40 is okay by me.
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Love both of them! Now I'm hankering to listen to them!
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Originally Posted by Eryk Davis Ester
Originally Posted by Ann Hebistand
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Love both of them! Now I'm hankering to listen to them!
Love both of these so much, but "Wildflowers" is my pick of the two. I need to get the Super Deluxe version, which includes the entire intended double album that Petty intended it to be, plus demos and live versions. The live version of "It's Good to be King", which clocks in at around 12 minutes, iis a must-have, IMO!!!
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Originally Posted by Eryk Davis Ester
Originally Posted by Ann Hebistand
Tom Petty, "Full Moon Fever" and "Wildflowers." One a short and sweet party album, the other a sprawling work of introspection -- both equally brilliant!
Love both of them! Now I'm hankering to listen to them!
Love both of these so much, but "Wildflowers" is my pick of the two. I need to get the Super Deluxe version, which includes the entire intended double album that Petty intended it to be, plus demos and live versions. The live version of "It's Good to be King", which clocks in at around 12 minutes, iis a must-have, IMO!!!
Ooh, thanks for the heads-up about the Super Deluxe Wildflowers, Lardy! Will definitely check it out.
It makes me very happy that you and EDE both love those two Tom Petty albums as much as I do!
The sole album by 90s skogsprog supergroup consisting of members of Anekdoten and Landberk, it's apparently mostly covers of music from European horror soundtracks, plus a couple of originals.
Lots of Electro Swing lately. Don't know why but the different instruments, the different arrangements and styles, they just grab me. I've always liked horn sections in music, especially the more nasty and gritty. And yet the new Swing stuff, while retaining the nasty grit, seem to make it a lot more musical.
Oh hell, don't ask me, I don't know what I'm trying to say.
James Taylor's 1985 album "That's Why I'm Here." Best know for the title track and the absolutely wonderful cover of Buddy Holly's Everyday.
You don't need to know it's his first post-rehab album to enjoy it, but I think that helps explain why it's his best since the early 1970s. In my opinion, at least.
Warning to vegans and vegetarians: avoid Mona, a cheap joke in bad taste. I'm offended by the song, and I'm a carnivore!
For the first time in a long time, I turned the lights off, put on some quality headphones and listened to Peter Gabriel's soundtrack for "The Last Temptation of Christ"
A decade after the "end" of his "Classic Era," the Northern Irish mystic made an album as great or greater than previous ones. I rate it even higher than "Astral Weeks!"
One of the few live albums I can still listen to, it has aged like fine wine. The perfect summation of her early work, it's got most of the obvious hits and beloved deep cuts, along with superb deeper cuts and even a couple of excellent songs not yet recorded at the time. I happen to think that Mitchell's trilogy of studio albums immediately following "Miles of Aisles" -- "The Hissing of Summer Lawns," "Hejira," and "Don Juan's Reckless Daughter" -- is her best and most audacious work, with the live album as a raucous farewell party for the flaxen-haired folk-rock queen persona that, unfortunately, a lot of more casual Joni fans just refuse to let go of.
R.I.P. Jimmy Hastings, legendary winds player most associated with the Canterbury sound (particularly his brother Pye's band Caravan), but who can be found on albums from Brian Ferry to Chris Squire to Radiohead.
So here's a thing I've been into lately. If you're at all a fan of the *general* music scene, I highly recommend the Soundup Podcast hosted by Alan Light and Mark Goodman. They used to host a show on SiriusXM called Debatable and would talk about all kinds of music news and then go into a lot of cool details about the music, artists or both.
They do a twice weekly show where the second show gets to have audience participation (which I may or may not have experienced recently...)
Anyway here's the website and you can check your podcatcher to get the podcast itself: https://sounduppod.com/
RIP to Mike Pinder, last of the original lineup of the Moody Blues and a key player in the classic lineup that produced their "Core 7" albums. He didn't write the hits, but his songs were usually the deepest and most interesting. He's also notable for introducing John Lennon to the mellotron, which resulted in "Strawberry Fields Forever".
And thanks for that bit of data about introducing Lennon to the mellotron -- I absolutely LOVE "Strawberry Fields Forever" (and, in fact, I've been spinning my CD of "Magical Mystery Tour" once a day since last weekend! Synchronicity!)
Yeah, "Om" was his. His Wikipedia page has a complete list of his songs.
I should also have pointed out that he was usually the one who recited the poetry written by drummer Graeme Edge ("Breathe deep the gathering gloom...")