ipodshuffle

Why I Didn't Get Work Done Today

So Zoilus (via Idolator) came up with the concept of "Famous Songs Rewritten as Limericks" yesterday.  And of course I couldn't resist:

Stevie Ray brought his Strat to the jam
When DB said "I'm through being glam.
"I'll no longer be soulful,
"'Sperimental, or doleful,
"So Let's Dance and cash in. Where's my gram?"

Third Avenue and 53rd
I stand without saying a word
Where once I turned tricks
Stabbed a guy just for kicks
Now it's luxury condos ... absurd!

I go driving round Boston pre-dawn
And I must make a Stop and Shop run
Modern music sounds great
Out on 128
I'll always keep the radio on

Never thought that I'd end up a killa
So goodbye Mom, I'm leaving the villa
Vocal choirs heroic
Left me feeling quite stoic
But who the hell is this Bismillah?

Night driving doesn't get better
The moon's pink and I'm loving the weather
My message, though traffic
(To the 'hip' demographic)
Is 'Please buy the Volkswagen Jetta'

Shall I get you a drink, Maggie May?
Though I'm used, I don't care what they say.
While you're older (and how)
Please enjoy my youth now
'Cause 'Hot Legs' is just five years away.

Iggy Pop: "Dum Dum Boys"

Ah, such a pleasure to get out of the office after a semi-annoying day, put on the headphones on the way downstairs, and hit the streets of NYC with the sound of 'Dum Dum Boys' in my ears. It's all there - Iggy's attitude in full force, the propulsive groove, and above all the guitar riff that makes me want to call up my rock-crit thesaurus for words like 'snarling' and 'sinewy.'

For some reason the true genius of this song eluded me for many years, which is odd since as a Bowie-fanatic you would have thought I'd have consumed THE IDIOT completely and not left a morsel of meat on the bones.  I guess, thinking about it, when the album came in '77 it sort of fell between my early adolescent Bowie fanaticism and subsequent going back and discovering all the offshoots - at the time I was into all the new bands, and (maybe by virtue of his association with Bowie, who knows) Iggy didn't seem quite so new and current.  (Hey, I was a kid, what can I say?)   When I got into it a few years later, as I remember it, 'Nightclubbing' was the big underground hit on the album at the time, 'Funtime' and 'Sister Midnight' got some play as well; then a few years later people noticed that here was the original version of 'China Girl.' For me it wasn't until hearing Sugar cover 'DDB' live that it was fully revealed to me. It was a great mid-set break, with Bob digging into the guitar part with gusto and Dave Barbe channeling Iggy in all his short-guy glory...

Rock that cello!

Any half-decent sensitive songwriter can use a string section to add a little late-night moody Nick Drake atmosphere; the trick that takes real talent is making cellos (and their little cousins) *rock*. The king of rocking cello songs is Lou Reed's 'Street Hassle,' which has certainly seen its share of 'Best Songs Ever' lists, at least in my cohort. Another strong contender is 'Love Me Madly Again' from Bryan Ferry, already discussed here. As far as more recent examples .... I'm thinking, I'm thinking! Alejandro Escovedo works in a very rocking string section live, with clear inspiration from 'Street Hassle,' which he combines with his own 'Falling Down Again' for a genius suite. There's Rasputina, who I must admit I've never actually heard - I'm sure they're a perfectly worthy band, but somehow the marketing schtick (goth chicks! in Victorian underwear! playing cellos!) outweighed anything I'd heard about the music. I guess we could also count the intro to 'Bittersweet Symphony' here as well, and I have a vague memory of the Dambuilders having a pretty rocking viola player, but overall nothing really standout comes to mind...

Update: My God, how could I forget "Never Stop" by Echo and the Bunnymen? Not so recent but oh so genius...

Not that I focus on lyrics but...

And speaking of 'The Message' (which we were if you're reading chronologically) I guess it qualifies for a funny category of songs I've been thinking about - and that is, I must confess a weakness for songs where the lyrics show an evolution in understanding the world... songs like "You Say You Don't Love Me" (Buzzcocks), "Stolen Car" (Beth Orton), and I suppose "Accidents will Happen" by Elvis C.

It's often really just a lyrical sleight of hand trick - tweaking a line in each successive verse or chorus -

You say you don't love me / Well that's alright with me 'cos I'm in love with you / And I wouldn't want you doing things you don't want to do

You say you don't love me / Well that's alright with me 'cos I have got the time / To wait in case someday you maybe change your mind

You say you don't love me / Well that's alright with me I'm not in love with you / I just want us to do the things we both want to do...

but it works...

U2's "One" named greatest song ever

Oh those English and their "greatest song ever" polls. Well the latest has "One" by U2 in the top slot. Here's the BBC News article (source - Sh*thappens blog).

Most days, my #1 would probably be "Here Comes the Sun" (as we've established, I'm old...), though Bono and the boys would make it pretty close to the top with "I Will Follow"... But on the other hand I hate making those commitments because any list like that is always going to change and also can't reflect the full breadth of anyone's musical interest...

The greatest song of the 80's

... was (as everyone knows) the Coldcut remix of Eric B and Rakim's "Paid in Full". The brilliant original track (that flow, that bassline), merged seamlessly with the Ofra Haza vocal track - which at the time, in that context, sounded like it came from another planet... In some ways you could call the track one of the first mash-ups, though I'm sure there are earlier examples.

But also part of what made it great was that it was underground - the remix was just out on a white-label pressing, so if you weren't friends with the right clued-in DJs it was pretty hard to find. Now the damn thing is everywhere, it's on like three soundtrack albums, two Eric B and Rakim hits comps, and it took me about a minute of online searching to find a link to this passably-listenable 2-minute stream. Which makes me feel a little sorry for people today who may not experience the same thrill of the search, looking for a cool rarity in every record store for months or years... now it's all out there somewhere, it's just a matter of digging it up...

Ramones: "Blitzkrieg Bop" (1977)

Volume 2 of The First Time Ever I Heard That Song: 15 songs that made an impact

Or at least I think it was '77. It's all explained here, which I wrote the week Joey R died. I guess this was my first pass at online music / life commentary - it started out as just an e-mail of reminiscences to friends, but then got a little big and unwieldy so I decided to post it instead. It still rings true.