Rush - Tom Sawyer
(Mar 13, 2012 - 23:09) | Far as I'm concerned, Rush can do no wrong. Their last 2 albums were the best they've made, I think, Vapor Trails and Snakes & Arrows. Their newest is supposed to come out at the end of May 2012. The new one is called Clockwork Angels. From the Rush wikepedia entry:
"Clockwork Angels" an "epic song" and a "multi-parted piece". <10> Peart said of the still in-work album in May 2011, "I intend it to be my highest achievement lyrically and drumming wise."<11>... science fiction novelist Kevin J. Anderson, a long time friend of Neil Peart, announced that he would be writing a novelization of Clockwork Angels. He also revealed information about the album's concept:<14> In a young man's quest to follow his dreams, he is caught between the grandiose forces of order and chaos. He travels across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy, with lost cities, pirates, anarchists, exotic carnivals, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life".
|
Tori Amos - Space Dog
(Mar 13, 2012 - 23:02) | I love Tori Amos, when she isn't too weird. This one is just a shade weird, but not way out there, so I like it. Some of her albums are awesome, especially Scarlet's Walk and the Beekeeper. She keeps the weird out of those and focuses on the pretty. Then check out the lyrics, she's telling an interesting story.
|
Fleetwood Mac - Woman Of 1000 Years
(Oct 31, 2008 - 22:59) | Some folks should try listening to this whole album all the way through. The ideal conditions would be a cold winter's day, with a fire in the fireplace, hot chocolate in your cup, and some enhancement with a smoken weed (I don't do that stuff anymore but just being honest, as paying attention to the intricacies and soundscape will be enhanced and that's what you should be listening for).
There will be very few who will survive that experience, even without the smoken enhancement, who will not appreciate this record. It was groundbreaking in a quiet way, full of intricate beauty. It's funny seeing people diss it here because it's so much more than it seems from a quick listen on the radio.
|
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
(Oct 31, 2008 - 22:51) | Love the Who like sound in XTC on this and other tunes, getting a great tempo going and then just simple power chords. And then that great use of sustain on the electric guitar, that just gets me totally thrilled every time I hear it. Love this song, great turned up loud too.
|
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Lucky Man
(Oct 31, 2008 - 22:47) | huebdoo wrote:Was this not from Brain Salad Surgery originally? if so - best album cover / concept / design ever done by any band
Sticky fingers close second (with real zipper) or
No, this is from the first album... the self titled one. A great record altogether, still one of my favorites though Brain Salad is terrific. There's a similar song in style though different lyrical content on Brain Salad, called Still You Turn Me On, another great hit of theirs. Tarkus would round out my top 3 ELP essential CD's. Trilogy's got some great songs, like From the Beginning, but I find it more uneven in quality than the other 3.
|
Michael Franti and Spearhead - Yell Fire!
(Oct 31, 2008 - 06:59) | lwilkinson wrote: Yes he does get the ditto's worked up. But, I love the recent news, "Russia invades Georgia; the Ukraine may be next!".
The lib's keep using the phrase, "The end of history so lets just all get along", but Putin just proved that wrong so maybe we really do need a kick-butt kind of guy (or gal who likes mooseburgers) in the White House.
Funny how the cowboy in the WH now screwed up so bad that he let Putin invade Georgia. Time was, when the cowboy took office, Russia was begging us to take all their nukes away from them and turn them into a weak but more peaceful little state. Our giant idiot from a village in Texas decided disarmament of Russia was a bad idea and refused to take their nukes out... WTH???
We need someone with brains in that office, not some airhead who claims she can see Russia from her house and can't tell a Russian spy plane from a U.S. commercial jet. As to the libs saying it's the end of history so let's just all get along, that must of been right out of Druggie Limbaugh's lying mouth since I've never heard Obama say that. When stuff happens, you want someone in there who knows up from down, and keeps their other hand ready on their gun as needed rather than raising it and shooting their friend in the face full of pellets when a little quail is hopping around behind him.
|
Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years
(Oct 31, 2008 - 06:41) | jools wrote: I am so impressed as I have never understood the meaning of any of their lyrics!! Now, what is My Old School about.....
This link should answer your question about My Old School. There are a number of different interpretations about the facts involved in the song. The facts are that Fagen and some friends were busted for marijuana at Bard College, that's the reference to "I'm never going back to my old school" since he was ticked off the school did that and supposedly refused to attend graduation ceremonies as a result. There's a number of interpretations about the role of the girlfriend in the song, if you click the link you'll see. The way I interpret that is simply that Fagen portrays a girlfriend in the song as being a cheater and kind of a wild woman who also wants to be treated like a princess, but ends up in the jail for prostitution, so the character in the song dumps her as well as the school. I think that regardless of the facts of the incidents Fagen based the song on, he may have taken some creative liberties to tighten it up and hold it together as its own story as portrayed in the song, but that's just my interpretation. Hope that helps.
|
Ancient Future - El Zaffa
(Oct 31, 2008 - 06:14) | dantheman wrote: I took guitar lesson from Matthew Montfort. A good guitarist, and a good teacher. The one key thing I remember is that he had a band (I don't think this one) that opened for the Ramones, and he slagged them for being out of tune, and only knowing three cords.
Sounds like Matt alright. But I can vouch for the fact that Matt liked some of the Ramones' tunes, particularly I wanna be sedated. We used to conjure up that lyric fairly often for amusement. But Matt, being a genius guitar player, can easily diss the technique challenged bands out there with an offhand comment, a quick joke, and a shake of his head, and then he'll qualify that with a humble, "but they made millions, so what do I know?
|
Tori Amos - Father Lucifer
(Oct 31, 2008 - 05:52) | I like Tori and think she is an exceptional artist and musician, but she misfired here. Some of the backing vocal is off key and the horns are horrible in the mix. Whether intentional or not, it's ugly musically; I do give her props for trying for an unusual sound. As to the lyrics and such, I can't even get that far past the musical cacophony in this tune.
|
Barenaked Ladies - Easy
(Oct 31, 2008 - 04:53) | rtrudeau wrote:
I agree with you! Perhaps you could have expressed it better, but who doesn't trip over their words sometimes? Next time, just don't personalize your comments so much (word to the wise).
I have often felt that the bands you listed are dismissed here because of who the are rather than what they play. "It's Coldplay - Dave Matthews - U2 - haven't heard it - but it must suck." That's just silly, but it happens over and over.
Thanks, good comment, and you said it all better than I did...
|
Rosanne Cash - Hope Against Hope
(Oct 31, 2008 - 04:19) | Excellent. Thanks for playing Rosanne Cash and this genre.
She and Mary Chapin Carpenter are my favorite of this kind of crossover country/folk tinged pop rock genre, both good songwriters, fine singers with excellent bands. I have most of Chapin's CD's and some of Roseanne's and none have disappointed me, quality stuff every time out. I do love this type of music, and hope to hear more artists of this kind if you have them in the vault.
|
The Stills - Being Here
(Oct 31, 2008 - 04:08) | Wow this is good.
Sounds kind of like it's of out of the same genre as Queen and the Who, with symphonic elements, yet just basic rock with some terrific bridges to spice it up nicely and drive the music into ecstasy.
|
Indigo Girls - Least Complicated
(Oct 31, 2008 - 02:33) | Such a sloppy tune, with off key singing, bad recorder, tinkly keyboard parts that don't fit, ick. This is when I stopped listening to them after those 2 fine first records. I can't understand how this got to the final cut, it's so unprofessional and doesn't go into the Neil Young or Bob Dylan category of an inspired despite sloppy performance.
|
Elvis Costello - Radio, Radio
(Oct 19, 2008 - 03:47) | toterola wrote:
Hey. If you really live in North California, then you know about KFOG. I swear, if it weren't for KFOG, RP, and NovaM radio, I couldn't make it.
Yeah, I live too far north of the city to get reception for KFOG. I used to like that, and KPOO public radio had great music shows back in the '80's when I lived in SF. KPOO had the best 50's and doo wop music and the best '60's soul music shows I've ever heard in my life. Their blues, jazz and psychedelic rock shows were excellent as well. Up here, it's all Clear Channell affilliates, and the public radio & the one alternative 'rock' station essentially play folk music the vast majority of the time. I listened for a while, and now tune it out. I like new folk, but it gets old fast when it's all that gets played. Basically radio up here in Son Cty sucks gigantically.
|
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
(Oct 09, 2008 - 03:13) | lathyris wrote: OMG! He doesn't actually say "sodomy is such a part of you", does he?! I always that that's what he said, and only now, so many years later, did I check the lyrics and find out that I was wrong! "Inside of me and such a part of you!" That's MUCH BETTER! I can now, finally, like this song without feeling dirty.
Funny, me too, I always thought this was a profound disturbing song about some horrible childhood he had to overcome; come to read the lyrics and find out it's just a weird but clean adult love song and just his inner child he's singing about. Now I'm kind of disappointed. Always loved this song though and still do, it's passionate and has a nice Cure-like tempo and soundscape to it. Now I could join the archive of misheard lyrics; Dave Barry wrote a hilarious series on that in one of his books.
|
The La's - There She Goes
(Sep 29, 2008 - 04:12) | smilestoomuch wrote: I was completely pissed off when Sixpence None the Richer recorded this song, slapped it on to the end of their album and re-released it within months and then passed it off as the first (or second) single of the album. This version is MUCH better! Does it really make sense when a (straight) chick sings it?
Totally agree... Record company suits really like to get those bands with a woman singer to do these, got the Sundays to do Wild Horses, 10,000 maniacs with Peace Train, etc. Sometimes it works ok, often it doesn't and most times inferior to the original because as these bands seem to always say in their interviews, they really didn't want to do the song. Just because the simpleton idiot record company suits prefer a sure thing (old recycled hit) over promoting the best singles from that band. Sixpence added nothing to this, and it made no sense to have a hetero (christian even) lady singing this song whatsoever, what you can't change it to here he comes? Anyway, bravo to the LA's, good single, nice album altogether, but they imploded, lead singer/songwriter was too much of an unbalanced character to survive the music biz and ticked off his band, the producer, and the label from what I read, so all we have is that one CD by these guys.
|
The Police - Invisible Sun
(Sep 29, 2008 - 02:28) | islander wrote: shades of Synchronicity here, and that is not a good thing. You can almost feel the point where they said "they say this will sell more albums, so let's give it a whirl"
So wrong— this was recorded before Synchronicity. LOL so of course there were 'shades' of the future release built from this one.
This is my favorite Police CD, to my mind their best lyrics and songs.
And this:
There has to be an invisible sun
It gives its heat to everyone
There has to be an invisible sun
That gives us hope when the whole day's doneAnd they're only going to change this place
By killing everybody in the human race
And they would kill me for a cigarette
But I dont even wanna die just yet I always thought was such a powerful statement, chills me every time I hear it. I had no idea about what some said were the political intentions behind the song (such as the Ireland troubles), the lyrics and music on their own merit are a very powerful statement about inner spiritual power overcoming any political oppression, ordinary frustration with the system, or a terrible threat to one's life. I think of Lech Walesa, Nelson Mandela, or on a far more ordinary life level just myself or anyone surviving a bad day when I hear this insightful and moving song.
|
Bob Marley - Them Belly Full (But We Hungry)
(Sep 29, 2008 - 01:59) | Mugro wrote:
His belly full too. Your point?
My point:
"Cost of livin' gets so high,
Rich and poor they start to cry:
Now the weak must get strong;
They say, "Oh, what a tribulation!"
Them belly full, but we hungry;
A hungry mob is a angry mob.
A rain is fall, but the dirt it tough;
A pot is cook, but the food no 'nough."
Bob Marley's lyrics to this song deal with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer, but the poor get angry when they can't get their basic needs met. That's what the song is about. During Katrina, the poor were left hungry to die for days. That was a policy decision, never happened before in my lifetime in this country, ever. McCain was celebrating his birthday cake with Bush when this was going down. So Marley's song applies to what happened those days completely.
So you can say that Ted Kennedy let a woman drown 30 years ago but to compare it to thousands of people drowning, starving, and/or losing their homes due to a deliberate policy is a fascinating stretch. Because it's quite clear that we have all become expendable, and that is something that never happened before in my lifetime either.
The only apt comparison of Bush/McCain with Kennedy is that all of them are rich and well fed, while the poor go hungry. And there I would agree with you. And there Marley's song would still apply.
And the irony is that those who ignore that a hungry mob is an angry mob, well that is a very dangerous thing to ignore. Yes, it's much wiser to make sure the people are fed and can afford to buy their bread, see their doctor and live in their home, to build the levees high enough and rescue the people and feed them in a disaster. I really wouldn't want to be around when that angry mob suddenly explodes, and I don't plan to be. I'd rather be somewhere far away, listening to Bob Marley in a hammock on a sunny day sipping a nice cold ice tea or a margarita.
|
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Hold on to Yourself
(Sep 29, 2008 - 01:43) | Aegean wrote:I was just funnin' with ya... music is one of those things where there is no accounting for taste (yours or mine). You are just as entitled to your opinion as anyone else. Unlike the hit-and-run putzes who take sound-byte potshots (to any song they don't like, not just this one), your commentary has actually been thoughtful.
However, with a 6.7 average from 336 listeners who cared to vote, you don't appear to speak for the plurality (who knows what the majority actually thinks... although having said that, it occurs to me "majority" and "thinks" may be related only as oxymorons!)
I generally avoid initiating a dump on songs I don't like (yes, they do exist!), reaching for the mute button and recording a low rating instead. I figure a diatribe from me is not likely to change any opinions!
Am I right? 
Yeah, I try to resist making a negative comment about a song/artist most of the time, but now and then feel it may add to the discussion in some way, or I just can't resist. Nick Cave irritates me more than the few tunes I don't like on RP, especially with how often he sometimes is played. I'd agree with you that positive, informational and thoughtful comments usually have more value. In this case, your response gave me a new perspective on his work I hadn't seen before, so that to me is a worthwhile part of the discussion, even though I still dislike the artist.
|
Tommy Tutone - 867-5309 (Jenny)
(Sep 29, 2008 - 00:49) | kvmrdj wrote:Though these songs are terrible, they aren't great. As a Jenny I wish something in the contemporaty genre with my name could come along the caliber as Nat Cole's "Portrait of Jenny" Ideas?
Jennifer Juniper, by Donovan (Leitch). You've probably heard it on the oldies stations. Nice song, not on the level of Nat Cole perhaps, but still way classier than Tommy Tutone.
|
Miles Davis - Concierto De Aranjuez
(Sep 27, 2008 - 03:14) | Wow, this is one of the most beautiful pieces of jazz, from the masterpiece Sketches of Spain. If it hurts your ears, that's messed up.
I can understand not liking jazz or some of the more challenging jazz pieces that are cacophonous or layered or intricate etc., but this is sheer beauty.
It's simply pretty no matter what genre.
This could not possibly 'hurt' your ears, and if you say it does you are engaging in hyperbole. You might not 'like' or understand it, but it is as pretty as a classical string quartet playing Handel or the Beatles.
|
Sebadoh - Willing to Wait
(Sep 24, 2008 - 04:36) | lwilkinson wrote:
Take all this tongue in cheek but the moral to my moralizing is simple; nothing is black or white and we all need to have balance in our lives in all aspects, including how we view each other when in emotional turmoil esp. when we say we want one type of person (while inside we actually want something different).
As you get older and hopefully wiser you'll discover that the classic "chick view of men" isn't all that accurate (nor is it from the other, male, side).
Very true on the latter part of your post. My point is don't fear your inner 'feminine' side; if you don't let yourself cry, you likely may not be able to 'get over it and move on'. That includes the most macho soldiers or policemen who have to deal with the death of their pals. Of course it's not appropriate for them to cry when their pal is shot and at that moment they're needing to neutralize a criminal or an enemy, but later when they're reflecting on their colleague and freind dying in action, it is appropriate. That's part of my point. It's scarring to repress that part of yourself to the point where if you do, then men really do act it out through violence, accidents, physical illness. Lots of research studies back that info up. That doesn't mean, as a guy, you should slobber your tears at everyone either. And a woman who's a real partner to a man will appreciate your humanity when you do show it appropriately, she doesn't want you crying at the drop of a a hat but most women don't want a guy who's stone cold all the time either. But moreso my point was directed at the kind of comments around here that too often say that some kind of band or song isn't manly because it expresses emotions that really the poster is afraid of, and covers over their fear by blurting out some ridiculous pseudo macho comment. It's a silly way to put a band down, and more revealing of the poster than the band or song. Your comment on the other hand was thoughtful and has my respect.
|
The Cure - Love Song
(Sep 24, 2008 - 04:04) | sub-arctic wrote: Isn't this everybody's favourite The Cure album?
It seems to be for most people here, and for many rock critics. But my favorite is the more poppy upbeat Wish. The cool thing about the Cure is their music has had enough different phases, lineups and sound configurations that many people can have different favorite Cure albums, a mark of a more interesting band exploring its own creativity, changing and growing.
|
John Lennon - Imagine
(Sep 24, 2008 - 04:00) | lemmoth wrote: The most beautiful sentiments ever put into a popular song expressed within one of the most beautiful melodies ever, written by......a man who was the most brutally honest famous person that I can think of. A man who openly talked about his own frailties and insecurities and questioned his exalted status, but who constantly challenged orthodoxy and just wanted to know why...or better yet why not? Imagine that.
 Beautifully said, and in a short concise way you expressed the essence of the man and the artist, who inspired many of us when we were young and did not know who we were, to find someone who seemed to show a way through the confusing darkness in the world.
That's how I feel again when I see John's drawings and paintings on exhibit. They may not be the best technically nor are they on the level of a great painter, but the beauty, spirit and playfulness simply raise my spirit. But his songs are truly great art in part for the reasons you expressed so well, and for so many more reasons.
|
Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
(Sep 24, 2008 - 03:44) | Excelsior wrote: Guys, guys - enough political bickering. Let's all find some common ground. No matter what your political leanings, I'm sure we can all agree that this is a wretched and overplayed song, regardless of its "message."
I'm with you Excelsior, on everything you just said, except for "wretched and overplayed song", have to agree to disagree with ya there. Regardless of that, your comment was classy and cool, maybe that's where we can all be raised to a common "higher ground". Stew showed a lot of class in his last comment as well, I was able to feel like we did find a common ground there as a result.
|
John Lee Hooker - Dimples
(Sep 24, 2008 - 02:16) | Great backing band's sound makes me give this a decent rating despite Hooker's horrid "singing".
|
The Raconteurs - The Switch And The Spur
(Sep 22, 2008 - 02:50) |
This tune's a weird and interesting blend of Tex-Mex, mid '60's psychedelic rock, mid '70's folk rock, 90's rock, and bits and fragments of other things. I like it, it holds together in its own weird way.
|
Bob Marley - War
(Sep 17, 2008 - 03:16) | 99 wrote: The Crusaders killed but did not murder.
The people they killed would beg to differ, they were murdered for not being a Christian with a sword held to their heads, and that's murder. The children's crusade was another phenomenon long recognized by historians as a low point in all of human history, where little children were taken from their parents' homes and forced into that Crusader army. Just because some religious guy wearing a funny hat and robes says go and kill doesn't make it holy or not murder. Did you flunk history in elementary school?
|
Bob Marley - War
(Sep 17, 2008 - 01:03) | 99 wrote: This is not an anti-war song. Bob is saying that people will claim their God given rights by any means necessary.
Clearly you know nothing about Marley, his career, beliefs or philosophy.
The lyrics are very much intended as an anti-war song, "derived from a speech made by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I before the United Nations General Assembly in 1963... Haile Selassie 1 gave the speech calling for world peace at the 1963 U.N. Conference in New York City. The song uses part of Selassie's speech that calls for equality among all without regard to race, class, or nationality in his hymnal cry for peace... It also asserts, quoting Selassie directly, that until the day of an equal society, there will be war... In the original speech, Selassie urged U.N. officials and country representatives, to disarm their nuclear weapons and to end international exploitation (specifically with Africa). The song honors Haile Selassie I while calling for action against racial inequality and international injustice."
The song quotes much of Selassie's speech (most of the info I'm referencing is at the link here, you can read the rest of his speech that is in the song there). Regarding this part of the speech, "We Africans will fight, if necessary, and we know that we shall win, as we are confident in the victory of good over evil... Selassie reminded his listeners that these are only words; their value depends wholly on our will to observe and honour them and give them content and meaning." That's an anti war song citing prophecy about wars and rumors of war, and Selassie's anti war speech.
Junior Marvin, former Wailers guitarist in an interview at reggae-vibes.com, also verifies the song's anti war meaning. He says this about the meaning of the song War: "Like 'War,' America's at war," points out Marvin. Marley borrowed the lyrics to 'War' from a speech Haile Selassie I (aka Ras Tafari) gave to the United Nations."I think the time has come for a big peace movement, which is what Bob started then, 'movement of Jah people,' the One Love Peace Concert in Jamaica," says Marvin. "9/11 was a wake up call for everyone on the planet and now we've gotta learn from that." "Cultures should work together and share knowledge," says Marvin, "rather than 'tearing each other's throats out.'" "In the long run, it's gonna be beneficial to everyone to just chill out," he adds.
That's just the tip of the overwhelming evidence about Marley and his career, beliefs and message that have nothing to do with your bizarre interpretation. Bob Marley's entire career was opposed to the very ideas you spout about using religion to justify war, the record is long and available to examine. Your post is inaccurate and full of some weird right wing Christianist pro war agenda. You're free to make that interpretation of the song for your own personal meaning, but don't go around ascribing it to Marley. Your kind of agenda laden ignorance and dishonest, aggressive revisionist history just leaves me without words to describe how bizarre and annoying it is.
|
Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin
(Sep 16, 2008 - 00:44) | Ag3nt0rang3 wrote: You've got to admit it's a little discordant to see Dennis Hopper, a counter-culture hero, shilling for an investment company. I have no problem with people licensing their music or image for commercials, and I don't think much of the false culture/counter-culture dichotomy, but the irony there is just too much.
It is, but Dennis Hopper's been vocal about being a Republican since Reagan, so not surprising, but still anachronistic.
|
World Party - God On My Side
(Sep 15, 2008 - 23:52) | Dave_Mack wrote:
I came here to say that this sounds like Jellyfish, though not nearly as good. I've always thought Jellyfish was about equal parts Queen, Beach Boys and Beatles. Spilt Milk is really an amazing album. (Sorry for the non-World Party commentary. But not very sorry.)
World Party steals overtly and blatantly riffs, melodies, lyrics and ideas from all over the classic rock and soul spectrum from the Beatles to the Stones to Prince, to Jellyfish ripping off Queen. One of the reasons I looove World Party.
|
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Hold on to Yourself
(Sep 14, 2008 - 21:50) | Aegean wrote:
This is an appealingly melodic tune about existential alienation, and one person's way out of it.
I have no idea why the boxed review aspires to trash the band's entire body of work! Perhaps it's a transient delirium. Let's hope it's not contagious!
I hear ya on the lyrics to this tune, a bit more interesting than some of his other songs, but musically I just find it below the quality of mind numbing. Thanks though for your comment because it made me revisit the words to this song and see that there was something to it that would spark interest for some, and helps me understand what Cave is about beyond his usual fake stagecraft, that maybe there's more artistry to him than I thought, though beyond one or two songs I doubt I could get past his dreary musical approach, and his hideous subject matters.
|
Elvis Costello - Radio, Radio
(Sep 11, 2008 - 05:50) | rcurrier wrote:
DJs are narcissists. They think everything revolves around them, so the surest way of getting airplay is to sing about the only that matters: radio. (The exception that proves the rule being Bill, of course.)
Much of radio no longer has dj's, but if they do, the dj's have zero to do with the songs chosen. Some of the dj's are already pre-programmed as part of the disc on the station, so a lot of stations are just empty shells with a janitor and a tiny staff to make sure all the electronic equipment runs— much cheaper for the corporation owning a bunch of stations. The local ad sales staff is usually way bigger than the dj's and cheaper to pay. Songs are pre-programmed on discs chosen by people in suits with demographic and sales charts, and that's when it isn't based on payola (remember Spitzer in NY broke a big payola scandal that was just the tip of the iceberg) or other marketing considerations that shove out any of those pesky fiscally unreliable creative concerns. It used to be that radio stations would 'try out' new bands, artists and songs in certain parts of the country ("markets") to see if they get popular there and get sales to advance to more markets and go national. That was the way it used to be. Now most of the music is already pre-programmed by people in suits somewhere, with their damn graphs and calculators. And the dj's, if they actually are in the studio and not programmed previously in the disc, are there in between the songs to chatter or be 'personalities'. Video might've wounded the radio star, but the suits killed the radio stars dead, dead, dead. Welcome to the machine.
|
Carla Bruni - Quelqu'un m'a dit
(Sep 11, 2008 - 01:34) | nate917 wrote: I kind of wish I were that guitar. My low E string would be totally taking care of business.
Ever see Bedazzled? The funny original with Raquel Welsh? That's where Blake Edwards makes a pact with the devil to try to win Raquel, and ends up as a fly on the wall, literally, and jumping on a trampoline, etc. LOL.
Ok, Carla is hot enough to wish being a guitar, but as the movie showed, I think I'd be better off bein' myself...
|
Paul Simon - Peace Like A River
(Sep 11, 2008 - 00:30) | This was the first album I ever bought. I was in 7th grade. The second one, not too long after that, maybe a few months, was Alice Cooper's Killer, a big change in my ear and attitude, into coming home after junior high hell and going into the basement, sitting in the dark and relaxing with turning up the stereo on the hard rock. The third one shortly thereafter was The Who's Who's Next. I'll always remember those three. After that I bought too many to remember the order. So those three hold a special place in my mind for how they affected me.
This Paul Simon record was a pretty good record, though the subsequent Rhymin' Simon was a masterpiece and paled this one in comparison to my later ear. But this one prepared my ear for Bob Dylan and all the other singer songwriters I got into a couple years later, with the quality lyrics and song writing on it that I could spend some hours reading over and over and listening to, and at that age thinking about and trying to figure out the meanings, while tuning out the TV blaring in the living room and procrastinating my homework.
|
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Hold on to Yourself
(Sep 10, 2008 - 00:55) | Nothing horrifying about Nick Cave except the bad music. The horror storytelling is fakery and really doesn't in any way evoke anything true to life/death, it doesn't really inform or get us in the mind/heart of a perpetrator or victim, not that I'd like to anyway— in that respect it's not as awful as it could be thankfully, merely dreary. Nor is it campy enough to find amusing/entertaining. It's just a failed gimmick. I can get how it appeals to some folks who like the macabre genre, that's fine. But I don't buy that there's any artistry here beyond stagecraft, just dreary noise. This tune in particular isn't so bad, it's just dull.
|
Jerry Lee Lewis - Rock and Roll (w/ Jimmy Page)
(Sep 10, 2008 - 00:21) | I thought this was Dread Zeppelin... actually was surprised it was Jerry Lee instead of Tortelvis.
This tune kind of lends itself to this kind of arrangement what with the melody and the words being very much from the tradition of those 50's rock songs. Interesting, but the original metal version does much more for me, like basically it just rocks... this sort of snoozes along but I give it a decent rating for being interesting.
|
Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
(Sep 09, 2008 - 22:33) | stewliscious wrote:
Ok, let me try again with civil discourse.
|
Thanks, stew, I really appreciate that you replied civilly and thoughtfully.
Where I disagree with you and probably Ross is that I don't see EC as assuming a role of superiority to criticize the U.S. I think he's simply using his free speech rights as an artist, and I think EC kind of nailed it as to what has been going on in the US when he called it 'gangster time' because we have a govt. that does behave completely outside our laws for their own enrichment, like a gangster outfit. And I do think that has been very true for the past 8 years, and not prior to that, though crimes occurred before GWB they weren't on the scale we have to live under now.
As to the rest of your comment, you certainly make many valid points that I don't disagree with. I think where you and presumably Ross and I part on this, if I read you right, is that you perceive EC as attacking the US to sell records, and making money off the country he's attacking. I don't see it that way at all. I see it that he's making a creative artistic statement about the state of our country's govt. And criticizing our govt. or something our country does does not mean you hate the country and its people or any of that. They are entirely different things. That was kind of the point I was getting at in my brief original reply to Ross' comment. As to whether EC is being exploitative or heartfelt, neither of us can know for sure, so we're free to agree to disagree on that and your view on that is just as valid as mine. I think it's cool that you feel musicians should express their dissent against injustice, so we agree wholeheartedly there.
Thanks again for your thoughtful reply. It makes the comment board more interesting to read, and advances the discussion, and is a lot more enjoyable when there is civil discourse instead of hangin' out in the gutter.
|
The The - The Beat(en) Generation
(Sep 09, 2008 - 22:05) | Excellent song.
Mind Bomb's a very good record, ex-Smiths guitar player Johnny Marr joined The The on this album and played a major role in the sound of it. Maybe the subsequent Dusk CD was even better, I liked it much better musically, there are some very catchy songs on it, although Mind Bomb has better and more powerful content in the lyrics. Johnny Marr sure gets around— Electronic w/ the New Order's Bernard Sumner, The The, Modest Mouse, and it seems everything he's on board with comes out great, except for his own band, the Healers, which somehow fell flat. I tried to like that Healers CD, but despite the awesome guitars, it just falls flat, seems he's better when working with a quality songwriter. He's also joined a Brit band I never heard of called the Cribs, so I hope RP plays some Cribs!
|
John Lennon - Imagine
(Sep 08, 2008 - 03:37) | MJMJ wrote:
Having no personal possessions and no religion, and everyone believing in exactly the same things is the ultimate goal of all socialist and communist utopias. Can't think of any other movements that share all 3 goals.
This song has nothing to do with goals, it's an imagining. But, gee I guess you're right and that means this song was a secret plot by John Lennon to dupe us all into believing in Karl Marx. I guess John Lennon was secretely a communist (despite his repeated trashing of communism in the song Revolution and in interviews) and his Beatles music took those scary tribal African rythms to corrupt our children so that they would dance and think about sex, and the Russians would be able to take us over.
|
Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
(Sep 08, 2008 - 03:23) | + stewliscious wrote:
I love EC but I can't rate this higher than middling. He's at his worst on his high horse taking a swipe at the USA.
Note: ROSSinDETROIT: Don't even go here dude. This andrewimft character has only just begun, I told him one time New Order sucks just because they suck and somehow he turned it into an Orwellian plot on my part to overthrow the world. I have never met anyone from Michigan that I didn't get along with in a big way, I hear ya and I know where you're coming from. Just tellin ya: he is a little wack.
Really? I don't go around the boards here telling people you're whacked, just because we disagreed on something. By the way, it's spelled whack. I let your posts speak for themselves as they should and let people make up their own minds. People here are adults and don't need your advice about me to decide who's whacked or not. Of course, you could intellectually defend Ross' argument that EC is taking a swipe at the USA, instead of calling me a name. Then we could all have an intelligent and respectful discussion while disagreeing. That's called civil discourse in case you never learned it in the working world or in high school or college.And you're a little loose with the truth too, fact is on the True Faith song comment page, you didn't say New Order's True Faith song sucked because they sucked, you said New Order sucked because they were sensitive guy music for guys with manicures who get on your case about eating tuna. A bunch of people corrected you not just me. Maybe you could go around the boards here and point them out too and call them whacked. And everyone who looks on that comment board can see I never "turned it into an Orwellian plot on your part to overthrow the world" except in your bizarre imagination. You're building quite a record here, stew, with your fudging the truth about what you and others say, your exaggerations, your name calling and your bad mouthing other people for no reason. I don't much care anymore what you say about other topics, but my patience with your borderline stalking of me is wearing thin. My last post to you was in agreement with you on the Pearl Jam song Black comment page, and I gave you a positive response. As I said there, I am sure there are some things we agree on and RP has a lot of great music, isn't that cool. If your topic is about me, I very strongly suggest you should leave it at that.
|
The Pretenders - Stop Your Sobbing
(Sep 04, 2008 - 05:31) | NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: I spent 25 years of life convinced CH was English... .. the things you learn at RP.
Well, she started the band in England with mostly Brits, so that might have thrown you. She hung out with all the new wave and punk bands of the time, the Pistols, the Jam, etc. Then she and the band came back to the US and conquered it.
|
Mason Williams - Classical Gas
(Sep 04, 2008 - 05:28) | vandal wrote:
Summer of '68, 9 years old, and I pissed off my parents by turning this up every time I heard it on the radio in the family Pontiac . . .
Funny isn't it? The sounds that annoyed that generation of parents seems so tame today. Can't imagine having to tell Junior, turn that infernal rap crap down!!!
|
Pearl Jam - Black
(Sep 04, 2008 - 05:05) | stewliscious wrote:
Hear me and hear me now: I actually agree with andrewimft on this one. I .... I'm lost.
Hey that's cool... betcha we'll agree on at least a few things...
There's a lot of great music to like here at RP...
|
Hooverphonic - Club Montepulciano
(Sep 02, 2008 - 04:06) | ktnsb wrote: handcuffs and Hale-Bopp. 
|
John Lee Hooker - Spellbound
(Sep 02, 2008 - 03:49) | madaxeman wrote: Am I the only person who finds J.L.H.'s one chord boogies boring? The man is soooooooo overrated.
I agree completely... I think he's awful. Not sure about his early career, perhaps he wrote some good songs, but the last 20 years is just coasting, incredibly repetitive style, awful.
Others have been forgotten, somehow Hooker gets the press and accolades— Willie Dixon for example is a fantastic song writer, and was a fine elderly performer. I saw him in his '70's and he was still terrific.
|
New Order - True Faith
(Sep 02, 2008 - 02:35) | stewliscious wrote:
Let's summarize:
Hate New Order > call them Tuna whiners > get hate mail from sensitive people who tell me not to hate... (etc, etc)...
Clearly the problem is mine. Lighten up bro, it ain't that deep.
Someday when you read comments as they actually are, without adding and imagining them as 'sensitive people', hate mail, dissertations, soap boxes, etc etc., then I won't feel the need to clarify inaccurate portrayals. I don't really care about your own problems with these imaginary issues of yours, so, as you say, 'it ain't that deep' to me.
I am lightened up and I don't even need any helium to get there... I don't have a problem with you...so as far as I'm concerned the matter is closed... this is a really cool song, and we're all moving on to other subject matter.
|
Cake - Mahna Mahna
(Aug 31, 2008 - 02:54) | Still picturing Arte Johnson and Ruth Buzzie on little scooters falling down sideways...
That was before the Muppets and still is etched in my mind.
|
U2 - Pride (In the Name of Love)
(Aug 31, 2008 - 01:51) | Probably my favorite rock song ever...
You can dance to it on the dance floor at a bar, or turn it up at home and sit still and listen in quiet awe.
It rocks off your stereo, lyrics full of timeless deep meaning and feeling, and a melody that moves me... And it just rocks, and soars high, and dances me.
Unforgettable Fire... simply fantastic from start to finish.
|
Lemon Jelly - Homage To Patagonia
(Aug 30, 2008 - 01:57) | MissJenn wrote: Patagonia is the bottom-most section of Argentina (and Chile).  
It's where Ushuaia is - it's the southernmost city in the world.
The terrain there looks, well, it looks like the way this song sounds.
  *** purple skies,
 
lots of flat wide places broken on the left by the Andes Mtns, hardly any roads or people,
rheas (they're like ostriches) run wild ***
 
|
Barenaked Ladies - Easy
(Aug 29, 2008 - 05:56) | DeeCee1109 wrote:There are cool people on RP? Where?  All I was trying to get at was that the attitude of hating these bands with a kind of virulence that comes with acting as if these bands are 'not cool' and should be shunned rather than the songs listened to on their own merits. I wasn't anyone singling out or any individuals, my post was generalized to make that point, evidently I expressed it clumsily.
|
Fleetwood Mac - Tusk
(Aug 29, 2008 - 05:14) | Hannio wrote:
So, he was pretty much the designated driver for producing the records. I guess somebody had to do it.
Yeah, I think it was Mick Fleetwood who wrote a biography of the band, and he was pretty honest in telling what happened behind the scenes, and Lindsey was the designated driver for all of those records, and particularly during Rumours the band was the most drugged out.
|
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe
(Aug 29, 2008 - 04:28) | I love this song... it just rocks .  
It's weirdly original yet the beat and the melody are awesome. That Murmur record was incredible.
|
New Order - True Faith
(Aug 29, 2008 - 03:40) | stewliscious wrote:
Would someone kick out Andrew's box of soap from under him and get the poor scrawny fella a tuna sammich!
Gee stew, are you trying to censor my free speech? I thought you were better than that and capable of intelligent dialog. Changing one's mistaken ideas and being big enough to admit it comes in handy. Of course, some people find it too threatening to challenge their preconceptions.
And I like eating tuna, and I like dolphins too, and I don't get manicures. Whatever your problems are with the tuna people who bother you so much, it's clear they're your problems, and not New Order's or anyone else's here.
Matter of fact, I don't think it's stupid to try to save the environment so we all have it, instead trashing it like a slob, and I don't think it's soap boxy to provide factual info instead of trashing people and bands with mistaken stereotypes based on your own personal drama problems.
|
William Shatner - Common People
(Aug 28, 2008 - 05:02) | suddenchad wrote: 29 pages of comments on this. 29. I don't think a single, legitimate musical act has drawn anywhere near this amount of commentary. What is wrong with all of us? Thankfully, I just missed this today. As I said somewhere around...oh, I don't know, page 15 or so...this was a mildly humorous novelty piece when I first heard it. Now? After about the thousandth time? It is so *#!!*#@ irritating that the next time I hear it, I am going on an RP strike. And I'm a guy who's usually all about being positive. When I log on, it's (usually) to say good things about songs I like. Enough! The joke is played! We get it. Ha, ha, hammy Bill Shatner, idol of nerds, doing a hard rock song. Oh so funny. Enough!
I hear ya, but it could be worse... It could be Pat Boone's In A Metal Mood, one of the worse records ever made perhaps (hard to be sure when you think of the all super bad records to choose from.) But Pat tried to do what Shatner does, only being serious about it instead of self mockery. It is hideous— metal hits can be made into good jazz big band music, but Pat's arrangements are tone deaf pure and simple, and his singing isn't singing, it's forced, off key, grating and much worse than Shatner's whatever it is.
|
Fleetwood Mac - Future Games
(Aug 28, 2008 - 04:43) | dburges wrote: Sounds completely interchangeable with early Manfred Mann and other bands of the era. Hiring Buckingham/Nicks- brilliant!
Huh? I don't hear Mannfred Mann at all. And this predates MM, or at least MM's radio hits.
Future Games album along with Bare Trees, the other one cut by this version of Mac, invented an entire style of dreamy, scenic, storytelling, emotionally rich 'soft rock' with instrumental depth and harmonies. The Eagles and a number of tons of later '70's bands to the present were influenced by it. Those two CD's are meant for a winter's cold day while your at home tending the fire place.
Not at all like MM's pound the pop into your head style of taking Springsteen tunes and playing them like Golden Earing or Alan Parsons but more amateurish.
|
Robert Plant - 29 Palms
(Aug 28, 2008 - 04:24) | jpfueler wrote: The left loves it when people die and they can attempt to point a finger at others.
Like Global warming, they paint Iraq in as bad a light as possible and ignore any facts.
They also could care less how their "facts" and world veiw may help enable the pain and strife they so love to decry. Darfur comes to mind. Somolia does as well.
Bush's deaths in the war on terror have now reach the half way point of the deaths under Clinton....and Clinton didn't have a "declared" war during his term.
Guess what... the facts are that Somalia was GWH Bush's war, he was the one who decided to go in that mess and handed it over to Clinton as soon as he got in office, otherwise we would never have been there. And we never went to war in Darfur under either Clinton or Bush, so what you are saying about that completely makes no sense. We've been at war in Iraq for 5 years now, and your comparison math on killings doesn't add up right by any objective measure or criteria. Maybe before spouting off you could both check your spelling and your facts.
As to the left loving it when people die, that kind of smear just maked you look as ridiculous as your nonsensical hate speech is. Nobody likes it when people die, except a few nutjobs in prison who committed a sadistic crime. Everyone wants several basic things in life, to prosper in their chosen work, to prosper in their material life, to prosper in their love life, to be safe from harm, and to live as good a life as possible. Most of us, hopefully, wish to give back to society and others. We just disagree on how to get there. You and your pals think we should spend most of our money on fighting Iraqis so that we can 'stay safe from terrorists' or keep our oil supply so we can pay exorbitant prices for gas, while the vast majority of the rest of us in the country would instead like to use that money for roads, schools, creating jobs, and fixing places like New Orleans. Perhaps sometime you could try to convince us your approach works better with persuasive logic instead of using falsehoods and smears.
And this is a great album by Robert Plant, one of my favorite CD's these days.
|
Belly - Untitled And Unsung
(Aug 28, 2008 - 01:55) | Mmm... hot music, sexy song... good and soft in the belly and the rest to imagination inside the nifty rythms.
|
Pearl Jam - Black
(Aug 25, 2008 - 02:59) | splooge wrote: Oh, this song is absolutely dreadful. Please stop playing it.
I notice the only ratings you give are ones and tens, nothing else. Either you hate or love every song you hear, or what you are trying to do is influence the play list with your ratings, lobbying, instead of actually giving an honest rating to a song. Sure we all sometimes up or down rate a bit to influence the play list, but all ones and tens is just lobbying. Here's some news: RP is not going to play only the songs you like, and not play only the songs you don't like no matter what you post on the comment board or how you rate the songs. RP sure plays the songs/artists I don't like no matter what I do, thankfully for me that's only a small few.
This song is a classic roar of Vedder's voice and Pearl Jam's guitars, it rocks. And RP is going to continue to play it. Your lobbying methods are not working, perhaps because Eddie Vedder rated this song a 10, and personally lobbied Bill to play it. That Eddie Veder rocks, and he gets around.
|
Everything But the Girl - Missing
(Aug 25, 2008 - 02:03) | tobstar wrote: don't know what version this is but it's certainly not the one that took the UK charts by storm back in the day.
They had a lot of re-mix versions. This one is the original from the CD, which I have. A good CD, but a bit uneven in quality.
We Walk the Same Line from the CD is a great song though, about the devotion and true love of a couple to each other:
When it's dark baby,
there's a light I'll shine,
and if you're lost, I'm right behind,
cause we walk the same line.And if these troubles
should vanish like rain at midday,
well I've no doubt there'll be more. And we can't run and we can't cheat,
cause babe when we meet
what we're afraid of,
we find out what we're made of. So if you lose your faith babe,
you can have mine,
and if you're lost, I'm right behind,
cause we walk the same line. Troubled Mind is another good cut too.
Both are quirkily thin looking, one reason for Ben Watt to look like that is because he is on a very restricted diet, due to operations removing part of his intestines after contracting a rare life threatening autoimmune disease called Churg-Strauss syndrome. Tracy's just a thin lady I guess. Their ability to survive Ben's illness and recovery and the rock music world intact as a couple, and as creative musicians to make beautiful music, to me, is quite impressive.
|
Wolfsheim - Approaching Lightspeed
(Aug 24, 2008 - 23:51) | matz wrote: Yeah, I totally must agree to this. We listen to RP for some two years or so and we never bought more songs before, not only CDs from Amazon Germany but also special songs from iTunes Music Store. My wife always has a big list of songs at iTMS waiting to be bought finally. And GEE they will be! So if any weirdo considers free internet radio makes the music industry suffer he has to admit: he is terribly wrong!
I think it's more about CONTROL. Here in America, Clear Channell and its associates like to have complete CONTROL over programming, market research, demographics, the sure thing, lowest common denominator. This also CONTROLS the culture quite conveniently. Because the men & women in the suits with their calculators and charts KNOW BETTER than music lovers and don't give a crap about the sophisticated music buyer and that demographic's effects on sales. Then they wonder and whine and point to other reasons sales are down, it can't be because of their suffocating, tyrranical, insane, imperialistic CONTROL over content, could it? Of course not, it's file sharer's faults and the internet's fault, and DVD movie sales fault, and bad bands not selling's fault, etc. Now run out and buy the new Hillary Duff CD, the new American Idol winner's CD, the latest rap CD, and another copy of your not worn out classic rock CD— that's an order, soldier maggot citizen.
|
Grateful Dead - Ripple
(Aug 24, 2008 - 02:40) | Paul_in_Australia wrote: First Grateful Dead track I have ever heard....just fate Is this representative of the rest of their work?
Yes, and no. The Dead have essentially 2 styles. One is the coherent song structure, like Ripple. The other is a more meandering long jam with a lot of "Grateful Dead style" guitar riffs (I call it noodling around on the guitar). IMO, I don't like their jams which are mostly off of their live albums, but also appear on some studio tracks as well.
Ripple is a very good example of their regular normal songs, which I usually find quite likeable. So yes, it is representative of those kind of offerings from them, even when they mix in a bit of disco/funk (Shakedown Street) or folk & country styles, it still sounds fairly similar to Ripple.
|
Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream
(Aug 22, 2008 - 00:48) | cvandoren wrote:
Sheesh. Talk about an over-reaction. I'm confused - who is the "sad idiot who needs professional help"?
And you go out of your way to offer a snide remark quoting me out of context, for no rational reason. Pretty reactive and lacking in reading comprehension. Since you think my post was so horrible, perhaps you enjoy people posting about threatening to shoot Bruce Cockburn or other rock stars for some weird long grudge, and can offer an intelligent defense of that position, or snide remarks are all you have to offer.
|
Alejandro Escovedo - Dear Head On The Wall
(Aug 19, 2008 - 01:07) |  Sounds like someone stole Nick Cave's vocals and concepts while stealing arcade fire's music and band, while borrowing words from the cure's head on the door... No thanks... do not want 
|
New Order - True Faith
(Aug 17, 2008 - 02:10) | stewliscious wrote: Sorry, I blasted the Smiths as the whiney band of the 80's. These guys? qualify also. Sounds like a guy? that gets manicures and cries when you tell him that dolphins died when he ate a tuna sandwich. Substance, Lack of.
You haven't heard this band right. New Order ain't sensitive guy lyrics. Just read them, and check out Electronic, a side project where all the lyrics were about creepy criminal types. You don't know what you're talking about in how you characterize them and what their about. Secondly, the sensitive guy type you decry is way better than all the jerks who run around trying to control people and the world with their fists, guns, bombs, and a thousand ways to pollute, hurt, kill, maim. Too bad you don't get that. And my comment is not a critique of those who like to pack heat for hunting or self defense either. New Order is two things: catchy melodies on synths, and quirky lyrics that tell a nifty story. In this case it's a spiritual awakening they're describing when trying to get clean from drugs, but it doesn't matter it could describe any awakening. Hopefully you'll have some of those in your life, because without realization of a better life, one is just running around placing your faith in the transitory desperation of the moment's lack of gratification. That's not sensitive guy talk, that's common sense. It might not be your cup of whiskey, but New Order is not what you imagine it to be.
|
Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
(Aug 17, 2008 - 01:12) | lazylemming wrote: i can't figure out why this song is not well liked. steve nieve's crazy work on the organ alone makes this track enjoyable for me.
yeah, the EC haters make no sense at all. I get that some don't like his singing, that I can understand, it can be an acquired taste. But this song rocks— and the lyrics are nifty, it has a lot of energy and excitement. And EC always has innovative riffs that are very melodic and draw from infinite inspirations, incredible musical vocabulary.
|
Elvis Costello - American Gangster Time
(Aug 17, 2008 - 01:10) | ROSSinDETROIT wrote: I love EC but I can't rate this higher than middling. He's at his worst on his high horse taking a swipe at the USA.
Really, so the US is squeaky clean and has no crime in its govt.? And no one should be allowed to say anything about that? And you think artistic critique of that is the same as knocking the whole country? On that you'd be extremely wrong, and wrong headed.
|
Squeeze - Another Nail For My Heart
(Aug 17, 2008 - 00:33) | esotericderek wrote: You know, they're back together and have another US tour planned for later this year.
Thanks for the great news! Last I'd heard, they had broken up and Tilbrook had made a couple of solo albums that to me showed he's mediocre and not up to genius level without Difford and the band... Looking so forward to any new CD's they cut, every one of their later CD's has been consistently good and delicious. Squeeze are one of my all time favorite bands.
|
John Lennon - Imagine
(Aug 16, 2008 - 23:54) | Ulises wrote: Not all of us believe in a worker's socialist paradise.
And where in this song does he speak of a worker's socialist paradise? Nowhere— your ears are filled with some kind of bizarre winger wax. Google and read the lyrics and educate yourself about the topic at hand before spouting off prejudices. Nowhere does it say anything about socialism or even workers. It's an imagination of what a spiritual brotherhood of man could look like. Ever imagine being in love? Ever imagine having a great job? Ever imagine something better about anything? That's what this song is about.
|
John Lennon - Imagine
(Aug 16, 2008 - 23:50) | kalkin84 wrote: idiotic, unrealistic, fantastic message. No clear thinking, intelligent human being would ever come to these conclussions. 1
So you would rather imagine a world of death, killing, unhappiness, greed, division and hate?
The song doesn't come to a conclusion— it just imagines and dreams of one idea of what a better future could look like and offers hope. Albert Einstein once said "the true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." Imagination is not a prescription by the letter for what should be done, it is an artistic brainstorm that can evoke inspiration and hope. You've misheard this song completely.
|
The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
(Aug 16, 2008 - 23:28) | greyfin10 wrote: I totally dig where you're coming from. Part of me fears being a music snob, but the other part of me revels in it ;) Well... music, beer, code, etc. I guess its not exactly snobbery when you are eager and willing to pull people up the mountain to enjoy the view with you... I guess the test is how you react when you're little secret love of a band becomes universally popular. Do you rejoice or do you say "they were so much better back then"?
Funny you should say that since Morrissey has so many lyrics addressing that... from the great song Half A Person:
She was left behind, and sour
And she wrote to me, equally dour
She said : "In the days when you were
Hopelessly poor
I just liked you more..." And there's a whole bunch more like that in Smiths/Morrissey songs... He really explores the whole fame/popularity/success/coolness factor a lot, with a great deal of wit, including in such songs as "We hate it when our friends become successful". . And then there's "Frankly, Mr. Shankly" where Morrissey makes fun of ambitious bands, himself, his image, and makes perhaps the funniest smackdown of the music industry ever: Frankly, Mr. Shankly, I'm a sickening wreck
I've got the 21st century breathing down my neck
I must move fast, you understand me
I want to go down in celluloid history, Mr. ShanklyFame, Fame, fatal Fame
It can play hideous tricks on the brain
But still I'd rather be Famous
Than righteous or holy, any day
Any day, any day But sometimes I think I'd feel more fulfilled
Making Christmas cards for the mentally ill
I want to live and I want to Love
I want to catch something that I might be ashamed of Frankly, Mr. Shankly, this position I've held
It pays my way and it corrodes my soul
Oh, I didn't realise that you wrote poetry
I didn't realise you wrote such bloody awful poetry, Mr. Shankly Frankly, Mr. Shankly, since you ask
You are a flatulent pain in the arse
I do not mean to be so rude
Still, I must speak frankly, Mr. Shankly:
Oh, give us money !
|
Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
(Aug 14, 2008 - 01:25) | Paul_in_Australia wrote: Whenever I used to log on to RP and look at the playlist, I noticed that I seemed to have just missed Death Cab for Cutie, and so I became curious what their music sounded like, and wondered if they would always be the phantom band that escaped me
So this is the first of their tracks that I have ever knowingly listened to, and one of life's mysteries is solved for me. A solid 5 after all that! And they don't possess my heart.
This is one of their weaker songs, in my opinion, and not very representative of their sound which is usually more upbeat and less long. Keep listening for their other songs, and see what you think then. I think many of their songs are quite good, they do have good lyrics and a nice layered soundscape; this song's just ok.
|
Cake - Short Skirt Long Jacket
(Aug 13, 2008 - 04:38) | roggles wrote:
Wow. I don't know which lyrics you read, but, well... wow.
These lyrics paint a perfect (and very coherent) portrait of the girl. By paying attention to details normally neglected by your typical gushingly trite love song they grab your attention and create a real living sense.
This girl is an ass-kicking go-getter business type, with an incredible hidden sexiness (the short skirt hidden by the long jacket). By meeting in a bank, it sets up the perfect anti-romance. This ain't no flower-in-her-hair, puppy-dogs and ice-cream, nancy girl. She'll whip you into shape and then send you an invoice. She'll do the hundred yard dash in high-heels, and beat you.
In fact these lyrics are so clear, I can almost feel her firm handshake (which is what you'd get - none of this kissing on the cheek business with her)
Maybe you should read them again. Or clear your mind first. Or both.
I already got that part of it... it's all on the surface and completely obvious, unlike the deeper aspects of the Dylan or the Replacements' songs I cited... That's why I do like this song as I said, it's fun and ok, but it's not great, it's completely superficial like so many of Cake's songs. And there's nothing wrong with that either, but it makes it light fun, but in my opinion not great. The kind of woman Cake's describing would last a week, while Dylan's and Westerberg's girl could become a wife.
|
John Mellencamp - Rain on the Scarecrow
(Aug 13, 2008 - 04:23) | Stingray wrote:
tzzzzzz...
Man, you´re completely nuts!!!!
For more than one reason...
I had rated the song a 6 when I posted my comments since it's well written and performed, and the lyrics are quite good about the important political subject of rights of small family farms and workers, even though I hate his singing. Evidently you don't get nuance, which occurs in my posts. So are you going to post 4 more times about this because I didn't rate the song a 10, with your extremely persuasive style of insults, exclamation marks and one sentence emoticon style of argument? Maybe I should start down rating this song more based on that, but I won't.
|
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Where The Wild Roses Grow (w/Kylie Minogue)
(Aug 13, 2008 - 03:38) | Worst song I've ever heard on RP... below zero.  It's not horrifying and chilling, nor is it campy horror, nor is it scintillating drama, it's just a cardboard attempt at shock, with dull music. It's dullingly awful, in a smirking posing attempt.  The musical equivalent of a failed attempt to violate.
|
Norah Jones - Sinkin' Soon
(Aug 12, 2008 - 03:51) |
In a boat that's built of sticks and hay,
We drifted from the shore,
With a captain who's too proud to say,
That he dropped the oar,
Now a tiny hole has sprung a leak,
In this cheap pontoon,
Now the hull has started growing weak,
And we're gonna be sinkin' soon.
Hmm... wonder what that's about. A lot of the songs on this CD are about a similar subject... hmm... could it have something to do with the state of America? No, it couldn't be.
|
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
(Aug 12, 2008 - 03:15) | Akaiila wrote: Still don't get Dylan and the hero worship... The song's ok, one of his best, but it's just killed by being that long. What was good becomes just repetitive and droning... Definitely too much of a good thing.
The reason it's long is because of the lyrics— he had a lot to express. Ever sit down with a CD and read the lyrics while you listen to the album? Try it sometime. With some artists it can even detract from the music, but in Dylan's case it not only enhances it but often explains its transcendence and certainly makes one understand the song and its structure. Why, why do these Dylan lovers like these long droning songs— we like the lyrics and the story it tells and when you sit and really listen to the whole thing, you get it, you might like it or not, but you get it. And I do think he's amazing for being able to write such long lyrics (as well as often it being sheer poetry) and remember them when he performs, it's an amazing skill. This song is about a prima donna woman who suddenly has to live on the street and be homeless and rely on the help of strangers, suddenly the people she looked down on she no longer looks down on, she's humbled. But even more, it's about anyone in a high position having the tables turned on them and being humbled— an old theme dating back to the Prince and the Pauper for example, to cite just one archetypal image it evokes. Read the lyrics while you listen to the song.
|
R.E.M. - I Remember California
(Aug 12, 2008 - 02:16) | I'll weigh in on this: best song on their worst album— Paul Fox, an awful producer ruined their songs with an unsubtle block of sound approach that sounds like it was recorded using jackhammers in an empty concrete room. The songwriting on this record is good, the delivery is wrong and clunky.
Fox hurt XTC with his production of Oranges and Lemons, he damaged 10000 Maniacs with Our Time In Eden, and almost completely destroyed They Might Be Giants with John Henry. Either that, or he has a knack for catching bands in a transitional phase expirementing with putting their sound in a giant tin can.
|
William Shatner - Common People
(Aug 12, 2008 - 01:35) | Ag3nt0rang3 wrote: Though I wouldn't go so far as to say that, he is certainly much better than his work on Star Trek would suggest. In fact, the fact that his acting in Star Trek is so consistently bad is probably a sign of his talent. ( a good actor under bad direction will stay consistently bad, but a bad actor will get somewhat better as time goes on).
My opinion is the opposite. Kirk's the best thing he's ever done. TJ Hooker? ugh. Trek Wars was ok, but he wasn't as sharp in it. Never saw the Practice or Boston Legal, so I don't know about that, but his other acting jobs, well the best were when he was making fun of himself and his image... Just watch the original pilot of Star Trek where the original actor who was supposed to be the star of the show, who played Captain Pike, is just so dull and mediocre in comparison. Remember in Star Trek, Shatner had to deal with a dumb network that gave the show a small budget and was always trying to axe the show. In fact Gene Roddenberry wanted a woman captain and the network wouldn't let him do it, so they had a macho Shatner instead who also had to battle his own oversized ambitious ego in order to cut a good scene. Despite himself, he created an iconic character that's unforgettable— some find it abysmally laughable, while others (including myself) find it campy but powerfully very compelling.
|
Detektivbyrån - E18
(Aug 07, 2008 - 23:05) | DoctorHooey wrote:
Oh please, the accordian has been used in so much different music, it's nuts to enforce this automatic association with polka.
This is a really cool track.
It's not the accordian but the beat. The rythmic structure is exactly like polka.
|
Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You
(Aug 07, 2008 - 22:47) | earthbased wrote:
No. People that are hard of hearing think GR sings similar to BD.
That guy must have been thinking of Bob's Stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues again, which disses the southern good old boy network thuggery and its cultural miscreants in between a surreal rant. That ain't this.
|
Stealers Wheel - Stuck in the Middle with You
(Aug 07, 2008 - 22:34) | MM_Prague wrote:
Here's the cover of a K-Tel album back in the 70's that had this song on it... :-)
Actually despite all the naysayers, this album and this band were good— clever lyrics and good music. They were like the Squeeze of their day for a brief time, this wasn't Bread or Air Supply.
This was the real cover of the album it was on: 
|
Soft Hearted Scientists - Diving Bell
(Aug 06, 2008 - 03:56) | KevinM wrote:
This is a schizophrenic song. The song starts out stupid with the scat (or whatever you call it) for the first 25 seconds, gets really good for the next 2 1/2 minutes, then gets stupid again for the next 1 1/2 minutes when the guy narrates his story about Billy Ray Cyrus and then it gets good again with the chorus section. So I went over to last FM and copied the audio from the song and edited out the stupid parts and voila! I've got a really great song to put on my iPod (with just a very slight bump in the middle of the song (I can live with that).
That spoken part is a spoof of the Moody Blues when they did that sort of thing back in their Nights in White Satin days— and perhaps spoofing Dylan a bit too. It's quite funny. This is good stuff, kind of like XTC in their psychedelic spoof incarnation, The Dukes of Stratosphere.
But it's cool that you can edit tunes to your liking now— glad you're happy with it, and that's a nifty new role for technology. I can think of a number of tunes that could use some tweaks, when the song went wrong, just cut and paste and it's so much better... that would really salvage some ABBA for me! 
|
Nina Simone - I Put a Spell on You
(Aug 06, 2008 - 01:40) | miahfost wrote:
No no no! Only Screaming Jay Hawkins can do this.
NO, just a different INTERPRETATION.
Nina's version is romantic, intense, steamy, powerful... Screaming Jay's is just incredibly creepy and scary... but both are great in their own way.
That's what's great about a well done cover— when the interpretation changes, it gives the song a new meaning.
|
Sebadoh - Willing to Wait
(Aug 06, 2008 - 01:34) | spieler wrote:
Arnie would say: "Music for girlie-men!"
As if macho guys never get their hearts broken.
Of course they do, they just don't like to show it. Or they subvert their hurt into workaholism or fun activities like car crashes, serious illnesses, broken legs, fist fights and other stupidities. Wow, it's really absurd how afraid some guys are to have feelings. You know what, macho guys in places like Italy aren't afraid to cry. And like Michael Stipe said, everybody hurts, and he wasn't kidding, even though he was whining (actually I don't like that song much, but he was right.) Macho guys, it's ok if you pretend you never experienced this song— and it's ok if you cry in secret, we won't think you're any less masculine. It's really ok, really.
|
Television - 1880 Or So
(Aug 06, 2008 - 01:25) | Who are these guys? And why do they sound like other people?
Well, these guys were a very influential early new wave band in the late 1970's/early 80's that never had much commercial success but had a cult following. Critics in NYC kept asking who'd get big first, the Talking Heads or these guys. These guys always made literary lyrics with interesting songs built on often elaborate quirky guitar riffs. Nice to hear them here— they should be a staple of alternative radio.
|
Metric - Rock Me Now
(Aug 05, 2008 - 00:59) | gekkosan wrote:
Awww... you just wanted to show off your "vintage" toy collection! 
LOL... sure,
because those toys sound better than this pretentious toy band.
|
The Pretenders - Middle Of The Road
(Aug 05, 2008 - 00:50) | maclochness wrote:
Saw Pretenders in 82 or 83 at Blossom Music Center, outside Akron, not far from where Chrissie grew up. Simple Minds opened. Couldn't exactly understand it (perhaps b/c of the state I was in?), but could have sworn she dogged northeast Ohio in between a couple of her songs. Anyone else there who remembers?
You're probably thinking of her song about the tearing down of nice towns for ugly shopping mall box store strips that she criticized in her song "My City Was Gone":
"I went back to ohio
But my city was gone
There was no train station
There was no downtown
South howard had disappeared
All my favorite places
My city had been pulled down
Reduced to parking spaces
A, o, way to go ohio...
I went back to ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From seneca to cuyahoga falls
Said, a, o, oh way to go ohio"
She's not dissing Ohio, but careless urban sprawl, and what happened to Ohio (and all over the country) as a result when there was ugly sprawling urban development. She's from Ohio and has talked about this and this song a lot over the years.
|
Traffic - Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys
(Aug 05, 2008 - 00:43) | Most over played songs on the radio (and everywhere you went, to people's houses, etc.) in the 1970's:
Low Spark of high heeled (glammed out rock n roll) boys
Dark Side of that there Moon (and almost every song on that there record)
Layla (original electric version back in the day when it was the only version)
Stairway to heaven —somewhere near the cash register
Horse with No Name (which they should have a name for by now)
American Pie
Me and Bobby McGee
Bennie and the Jets
There was a time when I never wanted to hear these things ever again. Thankfully, that decade ended and those notes faded away like the low spark of... oh never mind.
|
Billy Bragg & Wilco - When The Roses Bloom Again
(Aug 03, 2008 - 22:15) | aragon wrote:
Billy and Wilco? Who'd have thought? Great pairing!All of a sudden I feel like hearing "Greetings from the New Brunette", "Help Save The Youth of America" and "The Warmest Room" from Talking with the Taxman about Poetry. Just rapidly got "Mermaid Avenue". Great Album!! Can't forgive myself for not having bought it back in 1998. Never too late.
Get "Mermaid Avenue Volume II", you won't be disappointed. In my opinion, it's even better than number one.
|
Bruce Cockburn - Creation Dream
(Aug 03, 2008 - 22:12) | Ulises wrote:
My first encounter with Mr. Cockburn was in the early 80s. I was assigned to unit that conducted training for foreign units that had to deal with Marxists, Leninists, Maoist, drug runners, et al., ad nauseam. His song "If I had A Rocket Launcher" was making the rounds on college radio. The first time I heard it I called the radio station and asked them to play it again so I could catch the lyrics. I was shocked to discover that the hate and animosity was directed at ME. I flew in helicopters and watched the "bad guys" scatter as we flew over them. I'm still looking for that shithead, who can't pronounce his last name correctly, through my scope.
First, this song isn't about that, has nothing to do with it. It's about a creation dream. As everybody knows, much of Cockburn's lyrics aren't political, much of it is about spirituality or relationships. Which means your outburst is basically off topic trolling.
Second, there's no more Contras and Marxists fighting in Latin America anymore, except maybe for those stupid Shining Pathers in Peru. They're almost all democracies now. Third, these things aren't personal, but you're taking it that way. When someone writes a political song against your work or your cause, it's not personal— their expressing their right to their own opinion in a free country. It only makes you look like a sad idiot who needs professional help when you say you're looking for him through your scope. You're obsessing over a war that's long over, and it makes you look strange. Perhaps you should get professional help before it's too late.
Third, I don't see what you're doing here, considering the content of the majority of songs here probably doesn't meet with your agreement. Maybe you'd be happier at a country radio net station, or somewhere where the content won't ever offend you or trigger your PTSD. Or maybe you're just a freak who wants to get our attention by nonsensical ranting and everything you said is a weird fantasy you made up that never really happened, and you spent the Contra wars in your mother's basement hiding from the sunlight.
|
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck - Brazil
(Aug 03, 2008 - 01:00) | goldberry wrote:
Everyone should be an atheist! If not, they will be tortured and/or ridiculed!
Actually, Scientology is not theistic, they don't believe in a god. They believe a person can become enlightened by becoming 'clear' of their neuroses caused by bad experiences in this and past lives, so they have a process called 'auditing' in which their members pay a lot of money to get 'clear'. That in itself isn't too weird and might be beneficial (except for the money part), but what does get weird are the cultish aspects— that over time, the more one gets involved, the more personal life, money and decisions are often controlled by more senior members over the individuals, and also the beliefs that are peddled once one is in deep are very odd, such as demons and spirits fighting, aliens from other planets involved in our world etc., not to mention some of the criminal misdoings of the church in real estate and other matters busted by the U.S. and German governments.
As to your post, I don't know if you were being straight up or sarcastic, so I'll leave that one alone.
|
Perry Farrell - Song Yet To Be Sung
(Aug 03, 2008 - 00:21) | I like this, a nice change in sound from his old Jane type stuff. Generally I didn't like most of the Jane stuff, and he seemed like that was all he'd do.
|
Jethro Tull - Nothing Is Easy
(Aug 03, 2008 - 00:16) | Tomulas wrote:
If Spinal Tap had a flute player, they'd sound something like this boring dreck.
This from someone with all one ratings, and no other ratings, not a single rating other than ones. That's called trolling. So your opinion, an ignorant one, is worth as much as what your ratings say about it.
|
Pink Floyd - On The Turning Away
(Aug 01, 2008 - 01:22) | This song just has terrific lyrics:
On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
"Don't accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others' suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away ...
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting it's shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that we're all alone
In the dream of the proud
On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerised as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night
No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
It's not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?
To me it says one shouldn't turn their heart to stone, that good can and must prevail, and it is our duty to reach out and make it happen and not turn away.
|
Hothouse Flowers - Don't Go
(Jul 30, 2008 - 02:20) | Saw these guys live at a free outdoor summer concert in downtown Denver after they came out with this record. They were absolutely awesome, spiritual, sensual, dance-a-riffic. Then a couple weeks later I saw them again as they were the opening band for a Midnight Oil concert I had tickets for. At that gig, they were terrible— flat, uninspired, sluggish, sloppy, dreary. I went from thinking they were an awesome folk version of U2 to a total dud. This album was good, but still can't compare to the memory of the good concert they did.
I read that one of the guys in this band is now in a band with Elvis Costello's ex-wife.
|
Tori Amos - Taxi Ride
(Jul 30, 2008 - 01:37) | bhudevi wrote:
This is one of the catchiest songs on what is, in my opinion, Tori's best album. Not as profound as much of her work, but easy to enjoy.
Others might have other personal favorites, but I agree this album is simply terrific from start to finish. And what I like best is that all the songs are stunningly pretty, just like this song. None of her more challenging odd sounding songs on this record— and I do like some of her more weird songs, some not, but this record is just sparkling with harmonies, melodic beauty, and richly textured and catchy. It's the one that sold me on Tori. I should also add that I haven't fully grasped all the lyrics, which tackle a lot of female identity and women's struggles as well as feminist themes that Tori is obsessed with, but the songs are all part of a cycle in a whole concept album on this record.
|
The Shins - Sleeping Lessons
(Jul 30, 2008 - 01:32) | redtex wrote:
I come here to listen to music. If I want to read the lyrics I'll head for the library.
I stuck through the entire song (again) and still not getting it. But I will suffer the few flaws of the playlist as the positives of RP far outweigh the negatives.
That's no excuse. You don't have to walk, run or drive to the library. All you have to do is google the song name plus the word lyrics and find it for free in 5 seconds. What effort is that? There really is no excuse.
|
Elvis Costello - Peace, Love and Understanding
(Jul 29, 2008 - 23:38) | Hannio wrote:
That's why I'm voting for Obama. When he's president, all wars will cease. Even the jews and the arabs will love each other.
LOL— that's some fine weed you're smoking.
So, uh we shouldn't try to improve our lot in life, and just give up and give in because it's all screwed up, eh. I certainly don't think that's the way to handle things. After all, what we just tried was a bunch of screw ups who thought we'd be greeted in the streets of Baghdad with flowers when all the experts told them we wouldn't be, but they didn't listen because they knew better than everybody else.
Maybe we ought to try to go back to what always worked pretty well for us in the past— negotiate peacefully and cut deals that benefit everyone while our military might hangs around as a threat as the last resort, but a strong deterrent to others, instead of the the other way trying to waste our soldiers and money swatting flies with giant hammers, war first, torture, detain, use uranium bullets and in our tanks against our own people, that sure made sense, and look at the crappy results.
|
Bob Dylan - Workingman's Blues 2
(Jul 28, 2008 - 23:09) | In his autobiography Chronicles, Dylan tells a funny true story about how, when he had a serious arm injury and thought he might have to give up guitar, writing songs, and his music career, tried to look into other careers.
One of the careers he looked into, among many different others, was selling real estate. He instructs his personal assistant to get all the info about it he can and then educate him on the subject. Shortly after about an hour or two into the presentation by his assistant, Dylan says bluntly, I can see I am just not cut out for selling real estate. Forget it." The way he tells the story and how he tries looking into all sorts of other professions without finding any remotely suitable is quite funny. This song about working people's plights makes me think about that part of the book where Dylan considers working some kind of regular job like most people.
Dylan manages to heal his arm, and after about a year hiatus from song writing (this was just before the Oh Mercy record), he has a dramatic dream that he's compelled to write down, and from that, writes his first song in a year, and is able to play it on the guitar for the first time since his arm injury. All of this leads to full healing of his arm to the surprise of his doctors, and in his words creative renewal, with the songs written for the Oh Mercy record which Dylan felt was more inspired than the work he had done for several years prior.
It's a very compelling read, Chronicles, and Dylan is quite humorous in describing his struggles.
|
Taj Mahal - Mockingbird (w/ Etta James)
(Jul 26, 2008 - 02:54) | Ugh. These two fine musicians almost save this wretched song but can't. Carly Simon's version has to be one of the worst songs ever recorded, or one of the most annoying.
|
Beastie Boys - In 3's
(Jul 26, 2008 - 02:49) | Is this their out take of an out take of a rejected unfinished jam for the rare cuts and out takes record?
It's not worthy of inclusion anywhere else.
|
Chemical Brothers - Surface to Air
(Jul 26, 2008 - 02:47) | handyrae wrote:
I'd like it better if it were not quite as long. It got annoying after a while.
I agree, it was too long... parts of it were likeable, other parts were just wasteful repetitive or sonically dreary synth programming... Sounded an awful lot like early New Order.
|
The Raconteurs - You Don't Understand Me
(Jul 26, 2008 - 01:20) | This is very good... I like it... almost retro... this song reminds me of late '70's stuff like Stephen Stills, CSNY, Poco, and Souther-Hillman Band, great harmonies within a repeated musical theme jammed on, with a touch of '80's style punctuations in changed tempo. Quality stuff.
|
Elvis Costello - Spooky Girlfriend
(Jul 25, 2008 - 23:28) | Droidac wrote:
Any idea of what this song is about? The gender-bending has me a bit confused.
I don't get a gender bend out of it, but maybe others see that in it. Some of the lyrics:
I want to paint you with glitter and with dirt
Picture you wit innocence and hurt
The shutter closes
Exposes the shot
she says, "Are you looking up my skirt?"
When you say "No"
She says "Why not?"
I want a girl to turn my screw
To wind my watch, to buckle my shoe
And if she won't her mother will do
Cos when she does as she's told
We'll all turn platinum and gold
The rest of the lyrics are easy to find by googling.
My interpretation is he's talking about a certain kind of woman the character in the song wants, which says as much about the guy as the woman. The guy's kind of a ruthless player type, the girl is kind of helpless and compliant and insecure and loose. I also interpret it as a play on the old hit by the Classics Four— "Spooky", in that song the loose woman had the upper hand and was leading a helpless boy around, in this song it looks like the roles are reversed completely from "Spooky".
|
Midnight Oil - Antarctica
(Jul 25, 2008 - 04:44) | Ulises wrote:
Oh please. Let this be the one place in the world where I don't have to listen to greenies, enviros or whatever the hell you call yourselves. Stupid dickheads!
Too bad you're not intelligent enough to understand that if it weren't for 'greenies' the air you breathe, water you drink, and food you eat would be polluted enough to kill you. Because it's because of the greenies that we have laws and regulations that make Exxon pay for the spill that screwed up your Alaska waters, and keep our standards strong enough so that the environment we live in is healthy.
In fact, you'd be much happier living in a communist country like China were the pollution is so bad it kills people on a daily basis, and they have as little tolerance for 'greenies' as you do. You could join the Party's army there and beat up on the greenies like they do. It would be the perfect place for you, because here in America most of us realize we're all in the same environment and breathe the same air, and have to find ways to listen to each other, get along, and pass legislation that benefits everyone including businesses and the environment. Since you don't understand that, maybe you and your winger hater friends could all move to China where your behavior is not only accepted, but the norm for the ruling party and its agents. In fact, I hear Beijing is very nice this time of year, except for the horrible air pollution that makes everyone cough all the time and shortens their life spans, but since you would never mind that, I'm sure you would be really happy there.
|
The Coral Sea - Under The Westway
(Jul 25, 2008 - 03:52) | macadavy wrote:
Sheesh! I can understand skittishness regarding castrati - but what you macho males got against countertenors? (click here)
Shhh.... macho closeted homosexual guys have an anxiety tantrum whenever they hear anything they remotely associate with gays... high singing voices, sensitivity, understanding, caring, knowing how to cook, heck even nice shoes... Don't say the word countertenor, it might raise macho closeted guys' blood pressure.
It's ok macho closeted guys, we understand that you are secretely bi or gay, and don't worry, we can't see you in your room when you secretely pull out your gay porn videos. Us straight guys who are completely secure about our sexuality don't have any anxiety when we hear a male singer with a high voice or anything else that triggers you closeted boys. In fact, us straight guys who are completely secure about our sexuality really don't care if you're gay or anyone else is.
|
Neil Young - Cortez The Killer
(Jul 25, 2008 - 03:37) | lwilkinson wrote:
I love Neil Young's romantization of everything, well, "NEIL" which is probably why I hate him so much.
I'll agree that Neil does over romanticize many things... nature, Native Americans, horses, motorcycles. Not so much relationships, women or drugs— his songs on those topics seem more grounded in realism.
But on the other hand, what about those Aztecs? For one thing, they discovered chocolate and were chocolate conneusers. I'm not thrilled with them, but were the conquistadors better? I don't think any of us would have enjoyed living under either regime. Neil might romanticize, but he does it as an artist to make points about ruthless conquerors, lost innocence, lost connection with nature in our culture and a number of other things. There's art there— and I can understand it's not the kind you like, and may be he does it too simplistically for your taste, but it isn't totally stupid, it has a power, beauty and meaning for those of us who dig it.
|
Mose Allison - The Seventh Son
(Jul 25, 2008 - 03:20) | copymonkey wrote:
Does The Who (or maybe pre-Who High Numbers) do a version of this one too? Seems like i remember an early brit-rock version of this
Wikipedia says Seventh Son "is a song written by blues great Willie Dixon", who's written many great songs. "It was released as a single... in 1955. It has been also been recorded by artists such as: Johnny Rivers on his album Johnny Rivers Rocks the Folk... John Mellenkamp, on the album Rough Harvest, and... Mose Allison, Sting, Climax Blues Band, ...and Long John Baldry."
I suspect the one you're thinking of is the one by Johnny Rivers, which I'd heard a lot on many oldies radio stations in the past. I'd like to hear Bill play the Climax Blues Band version, they were quite a good band.
Wikipedia says the Seventh Son "is a concept from folklore regarding special powers given to, or held by, such a son."
|
Tom Waits - Step Right Up
(Jul 25, 2008 - 03:04) | One of the few Tom Waits songs I really like, pure poetry and funny, and I like the jazz arrangement in the music. Usually what I don't like in his songs are the musical arrangements, and it's all very artistic but doesn't please my ear. But this one I've always liked a lot, it's like being at a good beatnik poetry reading.
|
The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun
(Jul 23, 2008 - 02:12) | tapatia wrote:
While you're correct that there is no proof that this song was written/recorded under the influence, it's a safe bet that this song is about drugs - specifically, heroin.
I think you and the others are reading way too much into it. The Beatles themselves thought it was pretty funny how people read things into their lyrics. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's part of the fun to have your own interpretations and discuss it.
I always saw this song as a pretty straight forward (although surreal) satire of drug addicts, gun lovers, and religious fanatics, and what they all have in common-- happiness found in a warm gun (the needle for the addict, the religion for the religious fanatic, the gun for the gun lover).
It's well known Lennon didn't like the shooter mentality, as shown also in Bungalow Bill on the same album.
|
The Beatles - A Day In The Life
(Jul 23, 2008 - 01:16) | ThePoose wrote:
Ringo thinks Revolver was their second-greatest, with the White Album taking top spot. I believed that before I knew he was of the same opinion, so I was gratified to hear that I was on the right track.
capandjudy wrote:
It is a tough call. Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The "White Album", and Abbey Road all stand on their own merits independently.
One can debate which of their releases were the best, and come up with different valid reasons.
But one thing to remember is simply how influential every release they put out was and how much it radically changed the entire pop landscape with every release. They virtually invented a number of rock styles with every record.
The early I wanna hold your hand stuff-- sheer ecstatic rockers with great harmonies, evolved into more thoughtful tunes on Revolver and Rubber Soul that influenced every singer-songwriter type to this day, including at the time a huge influence on Bob Dylan. Highway 61 and the electric performance at Newport Folk Festival was directly influenced by the Beatles.
Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery encouraged other bands to explore string and horn arrangements, classical music and other genres. Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears took their cue from Sgt. Pepper on how to create horn and jazz influenced pop rock. The concept album concept also influenced many.
The White Album was greatly influential as well, with such songs as Helter Skelter influencing the later early metal/hard rock bands.
Their movies Hard Day's Night, Help and Yellow Submarine all influenced how bands viewed rock film and later, how to create rock videos.
Every release of theirs had profound effects on the rock music world, and even classical as conductors and composers such as Leonard Bernstein were influenced as were jazz, folk, bluegrass and other artists.
Day in the Life opened up a whole new vision for many musicians on how to incorporate different elements in a composition.
|
Collective Soul - Listen
(Jul 22, 2008 - 03:53) | MLavender wrote:
Collective Soul had some very catchy riffs. ...shame their vocalist and lyrics are so poor.
His singing improved a lot on the last few CD's especially starting with Disciplined Breakdown and especially Dosage. He even lists a vocal coach in the credits of I think Dosage. But if you listen to that CD, you'll see he really learns how to use what he has much better. Granted the texture and range of his voice isn't lovely, but he has developed into a clearer and more nuanced harmonic voice, and it's gotten quite good.
Saw them on tour and not only do they awesomely rock, but they play with passion and put on a great show— and Ed Roland is a very charismatic front man, but you can't tell that without seeing them. They've been one of my most favorite bands now since I heard Dosage a few years ago.
|
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter - The Dreaming Dead
(Jul 22, 2008 - 03:22) | Good songs like this sound like masterpieces after a string of techno oriented underdeveloped 'songs' on the playlist. Real singing and a real guitar riff like this song is much better than formless knob twisting, button pushing, and key pressing.
|
Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Drought of 2013
(Jul 22, 2008 - 02:34) | Steven_G wrote:Unsure of this group (which first got together in high school). Anyhow, this was very interesting -
(click here) to see the entire article
Actually, they started out earlier in the '80's. They were a bar band in Boulder, CO and I saw them many times in the early days. Back then, they were pretty good musicians but did not do much more than play bluesy songs with a lot of Stevie Ray Vaughan covers and originals that imitated Vaughan's style on guitar. IMO, good but boring. They soon got to be very popular locally. Their style since going national is quite different from the early stuff, and much better.
As to Todd Mohr doing the artwork and production, etc, can you say gigantic egotistical control freak? Because he was back then, arrogant as heck. If you weren't a hot young woman, you didn't exist at his gigs or even the supermarket or Target. I know a lot of geniuses and successful people are partly successful due to high self-esteem, but he really ain't no genius, and his ego's bigger than his music.
|
Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Drought of 2013
(Jul 22, 2008 - 02:28) | techer2 wrote: anyone have the lyrics to this? i'm not finding them very easily through the lyrics link
Took a little tracking down, but not too hard on google:
In 2010 I took her in and said Id love her till
the sky has lost her blue and the rivers all run still.
Followed her till she came in and put her hand in mine.
Then we lived in green fields but now its just a shame.
Cities which once grew like weeds, now shipwrecks on the plain.
750 days since a drop of rain.
Then came November and my lover hid up rye.
Drank it in the swelter as she laughed as the red sun died.
She said she was gonna leave me and head out to the sea-side.
Catch a cloud and ride.
Never such a thing.
Politicians blamed each other.
The preachers swelled with pride.
The wealthy killed each other and the poor gave up a smile.
Cause 750 days without a drop of rain made everyone the same.
Link to lyrics here: (click here)
Pretty good lyrics, though the music could be more interesting.
|
Super Furry Animals - Some Things Come From Nothing
(Jul 22, 2008 - 02:10) | At least this has a likeable melodic phrase and the sounds relate to the song, and there's an actual song in there, as opposed to a lot of the techno we hear that has dissonance, mindless repetition, no sense of melody or song structure... nothing...
This is too long, and a bit too lazy/casual in musicianship, but it's a real song I can find likeable.
|
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
(Jul 22, 2008 - 00:56) | I always wondered what this song was supposed to really be about. Also wondered if it was written about the Altamont concert incident. Wikipedia explains:
On the recording of the album , Jagger said in a 1995 interview with Rolling Stone, "Well, it's a very rough, very violent era. The Vietnam War. Violence on the screens, pillage and burning. And Vietnam was not war as we knew it in the conventional sense..." On the song itself, he concluded, "That's a kind of end-of-the-world song, really. It's apocalypse; the whole record's like that." The lyrics of the song speak of seeking shelter from a coming storm, painting a picture of devastation and social apocalypse while also talking of the power of love:
" Oh, a storm is threat'ning, My very life today; If I don't get some shelter, Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away "
" War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away; War, children, it's just a shot away, It's just a shot away..."Merry Clayton... and Jagger finish the song with the line, "Love, sister, it's just a kiss away."
Turns out this song what this song is really about is what I always just thought it was about... But it's a good one.
|
Elvis Costello - Peace, Love and Understanding
(Jul 21, 2008 - 23:06) | jbtidwell wrote: nope, there's nothing funny about any of those things... us cynics just find the notion of ever achieving any of those things as being funny
So, you'd rather give up trying for peace, love and understanding, and instead join in spreading war, hate and intolerance? That makes a lot of sense. 
|
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
(Jul 21, 2008 - 03:44) | This is the kind of song that makes you want to drop everything and just start to dance wherever you are as soon as you hear it. That's how great, and what kind of a great song it is.
|
The Who - Join Together
(Jul 20, 2008 - 19:52) | Ag3nt0rang3 wrote:
I hereby formulate AgentOrange's law:
The band or artist most often played on Radio Paradise is that band or artist which most irritates/annoys/bothers you.
Which can also be formulated thusly:
Each listener perceives that the band they most object to is played more often than other bands, regardless of the number of actual plays of that band.
Thank you...
Here I thought I was going crazy hearing that tedious poseur Nick Cave so often, while others complain about bands I like that don't seem to be overplayed...
Your law is the prime directive of RP. 
|
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Midnight Man
(Jul 20, 2008 - 18:32) | A little Nick Cave sucks. A lot of Nick Cave, like one tune per hour practically in the past few weeks, is beyond bad. He's nothing but a poseur.
Nick Cave, go away.
|
Little Feat - Let It Roll
(Jul 20, 2008 - 06:18) | "If my motor's runnin' right, we might lose control tonight" --one of the most unintentionally funny lines written.
I always thought this was a Greg Allman tune in his bloated druggie days, like the horrid "I'm no angel"  .
I like the Feat plenty, but this tune is just a viagra away from has been ville. I'll pass on this "I'm still an immature 60 year old bad boy as long as I can find my bifocals and geritol" genre, and forgive the Feat for a momentary lapse. I'm sure this is a fun tune for some people, and that's cool.
|
Billy Joe Shaver - Thunderbird
(Jul 20, 2008 - 02:45) | Meh.
Good guitar playin' almost saves this, but the lyrics and singin' 'style' are the kind that gives country music a bad name.
There's plenty of country music I can like, but this ain't it.
Nice geetar feedback effects at the end too. I'm willing to give his other tunes a listen if RP plays 'em, but if it's gonna be more of that I'm a bad boy type lyrics, meh.
|
Ani Difranco - 32 Flavors
(Jul 20, 2008 - 01:57) | Ani, just let Alana Davis sing this as she did and all your other songs. You're a fine songwriter but...
oh this performance blows.
Even Sinead, Janis Ian and even Helen Reddy came to realize that gimmickry and sloppiness is no substitute for straight up getting it right and delivering.
|
The Pretenders - Don't Get Me Wrong
(Jul 19, 2008 - 02:20) | TheFriendlyCat wrote:Oh.
God.
The.
Eighties.
 (don't crucify me, please!)
Hating a decade is lame and a silly prejudice. I mean really narrow minded to shut your ears to a period, any period of time has things for you to like and not like.
Should I hate the '50's because of Pat Boone when there was great doo wop vocal music to enjoy or Elvis Presley? Should I hate the '60's because of some wretched song by a bubblegum band and tune out the Beatles? Should I hate '70's music because of Afternoon Delight and close my ears to Led Zeppelin? Should I hate the '00's because of some idiotic rap or techno song and tune out Gnarls Barkley or the great songs I hear on Radio Paradise.
OF COURSE NOT.
Oh.
God.
Another
Stupid
remark
about
the Eighties
or a decade
to hate.
You have now been crucified, but trust me, it ain't too bad, I went easy on ya, and by now you're probably being resurrected from the dead as we speak.
|
The Jayhawks - I'd Run Away
(Jul 19, 2008 - 01:51) | I had this CD (tape) back in the day. Played it a lot, really liked it, quality stuff. This band did not always put out a consistently good record-- they had some weird lineup changes and record company interference/pressure and wrong producers, but on this record every cut is full of great harmonies, good songwriting and played with feeling.
|
Elvis Costello - Walking On Thin Ice
(Jul 19, 2008 - 00:17) | I don't know, I don't think of Yoko when I hear this. I think of walking on thin ice, it evokes that feeling pretty well when Elvis does it. When Yoko does it, it evokes more umm... Yoko and shrieking. But when Elvis does it, I am transported into walking, not skating away, on the thin ice of a brand new day, with a cool Farfisa organ sound with nifty guitars.
|
U2 - Two Hearts Beat As One
(Jul 19, 2008 - 00:09) | siandbeth wrote:
"Bono's not that bright"? Using his celebrity to bring uncomfortably brutal realtime issues to our knowledge deserves respect.
Jelani wrote:Maybe if you watch an episode of South Park your tiny mind will get it.
Appreciating Bono persuading dumbass right wing senators to spend money to help poor people who really need it to survive, when no one else could open up their stone cold hearts is evidence of a tiny mind, but a snotty comment about a snotty satire on South Park is evidence of greater intelligence.
Oh, ok. 
|
Spirit - Fresh Garbage
(Jul 18, 2008 - 23:23) | one of the first great environmental rock songs:
Look beneath your lid some morning,
See those things you didn't quite consume
The world's a can for
Your fresh garbage . . .
of which Spirit did a few (Nature's Way comes to mind)
|
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
(Jul 18, 2008 - 02:09) | flyboy wrote: Glaciers melting in Alaska is normal. Otherwise we'd still have a landbridge to Russia, wouldn't we? And you yourself just stated that the floods in Iowa have happened before. It's just been a while.
I've been puzzling over how it seems that a lot of people are trying to follow two different "sciences", religiously I might add, that seem to be contradictory. On the one hand you have the religion of evolution, that says that all things are changing all the time and everything adapts to its climate. On the other hand you have the religion of global warming, which says that we have to keep everything exactly the same, and change is bad, and the polar bears are incapable of surviving a 1/2 degree increase in temperature. How do people practice both religions simultaneously without admitting that obvious contradiction?
Where your analysis breaks down is when you say people are following the religion of global warming, and that there are two religions of science. No, there is science and there is propaganda.
Science is not religion. It's based on factual information that lead to the best available hypotheses-- not hypothetical, but testable phenomenon that actually occur when submitted to repeated expirements. The only reason a hypothesis exists is because science recognizes that new evidence can change things, but in the meantime a tested hypothesis is as true as gravity, as magnets, as the world being round. Otherwise you would never have the invention of medications that actually work, medications tested with control groups in legitimate studies. That is science. You should try taking a college introductory course to science, everyone should get better science instruction in high school.
Polar bears are already dying because their food supply runs out when their ecosystem is drastically altered. It's not the temperature that affects them, but what happens to the environment they're in due to the temperature. Ice melts and then they are unable to get from one place to another as they used to, while the seals that they eat, which they depend on up there in the arctic since there is nothing much else they can eat there, the seals migrate further away to other locations since they can swim much better than the bears.
What is propaganda is the creation of an alternative fake "science", by right wing businessmen, to promote their agendas. In that kind of alternative science, facts are cherry picked to reinforce a predetermined conclusion. And that is so with the global warming deniers, as well as the intelligent design designers. Who profits from nothing being done about global warming? Oil companies who fund GWB and the right wing, who can drill where there once was ice. Like with Katrina, they don't care how many people die or are displaced as a result. Reputable studies have shown San Francisco and Oakland airports at the rate of water rising now, would be underwater in 20 years. That is scientific fact. That would cost our government a heck of a lot of money to rebuild two airports. And that is just one tiny example of the impact. The facts just simply don't support the idea that global warming is a religion or a hoax. You can 'believe' that it isn't due to human impact, greenhouse gasses, and is a natural occurrence, but that doesn't change the FACT that it is occurring and that water levels are rising, threatening airports and coastal cities. It doesn't change THE FACT that something NEEDS to be done about it before it's too late. And what can slow it down or stop it is doing sensible things that reduce greenhouse gasses, benefit the air you breathe and the water you drink to be cleaner, and hurt no one but arrogant rich jerks' tiny percentage of profit margin who don't want to retrofit their corporations so that the impact is reduced.
|
Moby - Porcelain
(Jul 18, 2008 - 01:14) | EssexTex wrote:I heard that he and some of his friends like to walk around social functions with their "old men" hanging out of their pants...how many people out there have seen Moby's dick? 
LOL. "I heard somewhere" is the new stupid, where any rumor can be put out with no factual backing...
'Course I can tell you're just making an absurd joke with a play on his name... and Moby Dick. Good one.
Due to my sexual preference, I have no interest in seeing any of such a thing or anything like it. If he has a sister, I'd be much more interested. Unfortunately, I didn't turn up anything desirable this way: (click here)
Only canines, and stuffed canines, sigh.
|
Moby - Porcelain
(Jul 18, 2008 - 01:07) | Yet another artist the too cool for their own shoes people here have decided is uncool, with no rational reason other than now it's not cool with the too cool people. Like Coldplay, Snow Patrol, REM, U2 etc. Fortunately the comment board isn't reflective of the overall ratings, so we can continue to hear a variety of music.
I've never much liked Moby, but this particular tune has a nice feel to it, kind of meditative and pleasant. I can imagine dolphins swimming underwater, a beautiful day with the warm sun in the sky, and someone humming a pretty tune on a boat while I float along restfully with a nice mixed drink and watch the few clouds pass by.
|
R.E.M. - Can't Get There From Here
(Jul 17, 2008 - 04:42) | Funny, Fables of the Reconstruction used to be the definitive alt rock CD. It had weird, dissonant songs and extremely pretty songs on it, all with dense rich poetic lyrics about archeology, politics, techtonic plates, traditional folk music, ancient old gizzards, and other unusual subjects. It was art and not too commercial, yet they scored on the charts with Driver 8. Stipe's singing, lyrics and songwriting, and Buck's guitar styles on this CD were subsequently imitated by scores and scores of new bands. I think it's one of their best.
It's funny how now some people think it's talentless, especially considering this very CD influenced just about every alt and indie rock band thereafter.
|
Neil Young - Goin' Back
(Jul 17, 2008 - 04:33) | wferrier wrote:
Lived in a commune many years ago in central PA and somebody played this every morning as a wake up call.
What does this song mean anyway?
Lyrics:
In a foreign land
There were creatures at play
Running hand in hand
Leading nowhere to stay
Driven to the mountains high
They were sunken in the cities deep
Livin in my sleep.
I feel like goin back
Back where theres nowhere to stay
When fire fills the sky
Ill still remember that day
These rocks Im climbin down
Have already left the ground
Careening through space.
I used to build these buildings
I used to walk next to you
Their shadows tore us apart
And now we do what we do
Driven to the mountains high
Sunken in the cities deep
Livin in our sleep.
I feel like goin back
Back where theres nowhere to stay.
I'm not sure what the song means, but my interpretation is Neil's recurring theme in his songs about love of nature and disdain for the cacophony of city life and civilization, and his theme of being present in the old days (in another life) when nature was replaced by civilization.
"I feel like going back, to where there's nowhere to stay" --I'm not sure what that means, whether he's invoking travel, or wandering in the wilderness, or celebrating the moment when you're in nature and purely living in the joy of the moment. But it's my interpretation that that's what he's getting at.
It'd be interesting for others to weigh in on what they think the lyrics to this beautiful song mean, they are not all that concrete and more ambiguous and open to interpretation.
|
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man
(Jul 17, 2008 - 03:02) | Paul_in_Australia wrote:
Here is Mr Jones obituary and here are some Dylan interviews. it seems uncharacteristic that his Bobness dealt with the encounter with the journalist in such a literal way when so much of his work is shrouded in figurative language and imagery.
But I guess we shouldn't shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means
That would require a giant shovel, but it could be pretty interesting... figurative language and imagery, especially Dylan's, can take people to so many different places.
|
Ancient Future - El Zaffa
(Jul 17, 2008 - 02:25) | Bandleader and guitar player Matt Monfort was a good friend of mine in high school. Back in high school, he was playing John McLaughlin and Mahavishnu Orchestra licks on the guitar flawlessly! That was his favorite band and he used to learn everything he could from those records. This guy is a seriously awesome musician, and in this band he fuses world music with jazz to create exquisite beauty. You'll hear asian, indian (from india), african and mediterannean music fused with jazz in their songs. They also use instruments from all over the world. The level of musicianship in his band is very phenomenal.
|
Michael Penn - Me Around
(Jul 17, 2008 - 02:17) | Pretty predictable-- those who can't get sophisticated word play lyrics and a musical composition that also plays around with tempo and pattern can't stand it.
Those of us who do get it like it a lot, a real big talent commercial radio and record company suits couldn't handle. I joined the cult following on this guy after I bought that brilliant MP4 CD of his.
|
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man
(Jul 16, 2008 - 02:21) | Paul_in_Australia wrote:
Here is Mr Jones obituary and here are some Dylan interviews. it seems uncharacteristic that his Bobness dealt with the encounter with the journalist in such a literal way when so much of his work is shrouded in figurative language and imagery.
But I guess we shouldn't shovel the glimpse into the ditch of what each one means
Thanks for the interesting links and post. It seems like Mr. Jones changed to drop out of the stifling role of his square job and pursue his real dreams in life... a great story. Great clip of Dylan with the Time reporter (that's Mr. Jones, and similar or the same as the Don't Look Back clip), which shows Dylan's views on Time Magazine and establishment journalism.
|
Elvis Costello & T-Bone Burnett - The People's Limousine
(Jul 15, 2008 - 21:42) | Carly wrote: this is a new sound for me to associate with Elvis Costello. the other stuff i've heard of his seems to sound a lot different. i prefer the sound of this song....
He has a lot of different sounds he's explored in his career, this one is from the King of America CD sessions but not on the original release, but a bonus track available on the reissued CD.
That CD, which is excellent, is more acoustic, folk music influenced, drawing from Dylan, Eric Burdon and the Animals and the early '60's folk-pop scene as a musical backdrop for EC to write great lyrics encompassing personal relationships, political scandal, moronic wars, and social injustices performed within a very tuneful melodic folk-pop context playing acoustic guitar with organ and electric guitar riffs much like Highway 61 era Dylan. His song about domestic violence leading to the destabilization and neofascism of societies ("Little Palaces") alone is worth the price of admission, but every song on it is great. It's a great CD. If you like this song, try the CD.
|
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man
(Jul 15, 2008 - 20:23) | rachlan wrote: Wow! I just spent a little bit of time reading peoples interpretation of this song... I always thought it was about the closed-minded intellectual...
Didn't mean to criticize your post, but clarify. Your interpretation on all points was pretty good and has plenty of validity beyond the original meaning of the song, certainly it's valid to say the words describe an arrogant intellectual etc., but your interpretation only missed the original subject matter of the song, which is (was, back in the day) very well known, and Dylan has reiterated it in many an interview.
|
Bob Dylan - Ballad of a Thin Man
(Jul 15, 2008 - 20:14) | rachlan wrote: Wow! I just spent a little bit of time reading peoples interpretation of this song... I always thought it was about the closed-minded intellectual who doesn't get how the times are changing and looks down on those who dont fit his idea of normalcy, but find this way of being is biting his ass without knowing why. But there are a lot of posts claiming that every line is some sort of homosexual allusion. They seem to be very strong in their idea that this is what the song is really about.
No, it's well known and documented that this song is about a reporter named Jones from Time Magazine who interviewed Dylan before the Highway 61 sessions and then wrote an ignorant hit piece on him. This song is all about how a reporter can be a propagandist when he has an agenda rather than an open mind reporting the facts. If you watch "Don't Look Back" a documentary about Dylan, you'll see Mr. Jones, this uptight guy in a suit and tie, trying to interview Dylan and asking him incredibly stupid questions, but basically in that scene Dylan just rips into him and tells him he doesn't understand anything about him.
This song is amazing, because it's of course relevant today and describes quite well, as it did then, the self righteous reporter who thinks they're a good guy as they give to charity and such, but the way they do their job is as an arrogant propagandist for a corrupt establishment.
That's what this song is about and has always been about.
|
Bob Dylan - One More Cup Of Coffee
(Jul 13, 2008 - 00:33) | Pyro wrote:
Now if only the fiddle player could play in tune.
That might be from Dylan's one take/best take philosophy of recording. He doesn't always hold to it, but often he'll just do a song in one take or take the one he thinks is the best take inspirationally even if the instruments weren't tuned perfectly or somebody made mistakes. Neil Young often does that too. It can be pretty annoying to listen too, but then on the other hand, it can capture a very fresh and inspired performance in the studio.
|
John Mellencamp - Rain on the Scarecrow
(Jul 12, 2008 - 01:33) | He'd be better off hiring someone to sing his well written songs-- like Santana usually did, even Zappa got others to sing things so you didn't have to hear his voice too much. Yet he refuses to even try it.
His version of Brown Eyed Girl is horrendous. I had this Scarecrow CD, and every song was well written and ultimately unlistenable because the man is a terrible singer.
At least Neil Young, Bob Dylan and most of the other not so great singers know how to use what they do have well enough, know the phrasing, emotional impact, etc. I know some here at RP can't deal with them, but it never bothers me because they make their voices integrate with their songs so that it is musical.
This guy just drags his voice through a song like a long cough from a wretched cigarette, and it makes a good song he made stink like bad cigarette smoke.
|
Modest Mouse - Ocean Breathes Salty
(Jul 12, 2008 - 00:36) | penguinja wrote:
Can someone explain Modest Mouse to me, please? Because I know lots of people that like them and I've tried listening to them and for some reason I just can't like them. I try, I really do. Everyone says their old music is better, but it's just.... not likeable. I like other singers with weird voices, like Bob Dylan and Colin Meloy, but I can't deal with Modest Mouse. anyone care to explain to me why they're good?
Teko wrote:
Same here. Modest Mouse fans are an intensely dedicated lot, and lord knows I've seen enough posts on other songs that say "I love this, it sounds like Modest Mouse!". Believe me, I'd like to love a band named 'Modest Mouse'. But everything I've heard goes beyond 'challenging'... it sounds ugly and un-entertaining. Is there a song I should start with so I can 'get it'?
What did it for me was their video for Dashboard... seeing the creative visual accompaniament finally made me get their music, which before that seemed just like pointless cacophony until then. Now I like them... the way I understand it, they seem like they have a different sort of surreal art film view on things, and the lyrics are poetic with lots of puns and playful, the whole package is kind of like a musical trip through some weird museum housed in an amusement park. Each song does tell a complete story in itself quite creatively, and the music accentuates it, so it helps to read the lyrics while listening or watch their videos.
Hopefully people will recommend what MM Cd's they think we should start with, but I want to get We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, I like it. I just read on their wikipedia entry that Johnny Marr is now a member of the band.
|
Waldeck - Memories
(Jul 12, 2008 - 00:20) | She's got Madeleine Peyroux beat on how to sing in that style-- way better than MP on that account, but her music backing is way worse.
They need to trade bands, and all will be well with the world.
|
James Gang - Funk #49
(Jul 11, 2008 - 01:52) | Ntropy wrote:
You're talking about disco. Not funk. Funk was around before disco. Mid-late '60's for Funk.
And maybe they meant Funk #49 as bad smell #49? Possibly?
You're correct-- both about the start of funk & the white boys of James Gang probably not knowin' much about it. I mistakenly mixed disco with the funk, but as they say, you can't do it without the funk.
But I remember in the '70's funk was slang for a bummer, a bad mood or being down and out, or as you suggested, stinky. I think funk as the bad times is more what they had in mind, especially seeing as how the words are about a cheating girlfriend/wife and trying to confront her about it.
|
Led Zeppelin - Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
(Jul 11, 2008 - 00:01) | sdn wrote:"baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby"
Nope, not repetitious at all! 
And you would like the song better if each word he sang was different???
Baby sweetie honey bunch lady lovemuffin dollface oh wuggles shmoopie woopies darling lovedove snugglypoo...
Oh, ok
|
Nick Lowe - Cracking Up
(Jul 10, 2008 - 23:31) | This is like an updated adult version of Mama Told Me Not To Come.
Love it. Nick Lowe is such a great musician, producer, songwriter. 
|
Pixies - Here Comes Your Man
(Jul 10, 2008 - 23:24) | jcjoh wrote: sounds like a 60's neighborhood garage band.
That was part of their evil plan-- they were actually trying for that kind of sound on purpose.
|
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
(Jul 10, 2008 - 22:59) |
One large step in that direction would be to hire a real producer and throw out the reverb...
Spot on, this is a decent song with nice vocals and horrid production.
I read that they recorded in a home studio, so yeah they would benefit from some outside expertise.
That's an understatement, but hey, if they're indies then forgivable, if they're used to making records, it's not.
It really sounds like it was recorded in this studio:
I love those harmonies.
These guys are really young, they should only get better.
Yeah, as they evolve into land life forms, they could be awesome 
|
Morcheeba - Fragments of Freedom
(Jul 10, 2008 - 22:36) | Stairway + Frank goes to Hollyweird synth effects + techno repetition = not something I like.
"(ouh, maybe you're right)
When the party's over
You got no way to go... "
This is not a fun party at all, so why worry about it being over? "Mama told me not to come!!!"
|
Cake - Short Skirt Long Jacket
(Jul 10, 2008 - 20:06) | mikedill wrote:
This song is one of my guilty pleasures. I know I shouldn't like it, but I love it.
roggles wrote:
Why on earth shouldn't you like this? It is awesome! Some of the best lyrics I've ever heard in a song, combined with a funkaliscious beat. Makes me not even care that I probably spelled funkaliscious wrong...
I just read the lyrics, and probably shouldn't have. They're shallow and meaningless. Ultimately his portrait of the girl he wants has no logic or coherent sense and creates no meaningful picture. I can think of scores of songs with better lyrics. Like the Replacements' Achin' To Be, or Dylan's You Belong To Me, where you really get a picture of the woman, and it goes on to portray other deeper sentiments.
Nonetheless, this is a fun song, it's well played, so I have liked it, but it's been overplayed in my region's commercial channels; I'm giving it a good rating but it's merely cake and not life sustaining meat, veggies, carbs, excellent fruit, high quality chocolate or ice cream. And it's not the kind of cake made by a great chef, but it's not Safeway cake either, it's an ok cake from a homemade quirky bakery.
|
The Tragically Hip - Stay
(Jul 06, 2008 - 18:59) | pdemeester wrote: This one's not bad but try some of their earlier stuff . . . New Orleans is Sinking, Locked in the Trunk of a Car, Little Bones, endless amounts of poetry.
Which CD's of theirs do you or others recommend as their best ones?
I'd like to check those out.
|
The Tragically Hip - Stay
(Jul 06, 2008 - 18:26) | DisplacedNorthrnr wrote: In my opinion the hip is an average band with a few decent tunes.
I disagree with the "average" description. I think that it is precisely their un-average-ness that has kept them from making it "big" in the American market.
Their lyrics and musical sensibilities are too witty and nuanced for American success, but their music being rather average and not standing out makes it impossible to dent the American market. Contrast that with Barenaked Ladies-- they do have some strong melodic songs that can break through American radio, while they are less subtle and intellectual than the Hip.
The Hip remind me of Travis, a UK band huge over there that can't get anywhere in the US. Tried to like Travis and can't, I assume Travis taps into the sociocultural vibe in England and makes some statement that fits with the times over there that doesn't translate here, since their music and lyrics are, to my ear, slightly above average. The Hip are more interesting but musically not that much better. There are just some bands that fit into a time and place in a country that evokes something powerful for those who were there, and I assume that's the case for Travis and the Hip. I can't think of an equivalent popular American band that fell flat in Europe but I'm sure there are some examples.
I still like hearing the Hip and Travis on radio & RP just to get a feel for the popular bands in those countries, and they are good enough for a pleasant listen.
|
Metric - Rock Me Now
(Jul 06, 2008 - 16:46) | This song pretends to be clever, and is not, and is merely 
|
Metric - Rock Me Now
(Jul 06, 2008 - 16:40) | Oh boy, this one again... "Rock me now
It's a one room city the wall to wall to wall to wall goes to street to street to street"
worn out monkey cymbal toy music
|
Bonobo - The Fever
(Jul 06, 2008 - 16:33) | fredriley wrote:
Bonobo monkeys are humankind's closest relative in the ape kingdom, and are marked by a highly social and peaceful society in which sex is used constantly as a social glue. They really are a 'make love not war' species, in stark contrast to our other near relatives, chimpanzees, who act in comparison like a bunch of psycho homicidal hooligans.
That was their claim to fame, until a new recent in the field research study found out they weren't always peaceful and did engage in violence as do other chimp groups.
However, they do use sex as a social lubricant and stress reliever for intergroup conflict, and that makes them different from all other chimps.
|
Squeeze - Pulling Mussels
(Jul 05, 2008 - 05:23) | fredriley wrote:
They were pretty highly rated, and as a consequence highly/over played over this side of the Pond. Perhaps if I'd heard their numbers a few hundred less times on FM radio I'd appreciate them more.
They were underplayed here in the U.S., so I think they're about the greatest band that never made it in the U.S... too lyrically clever and tunefully smart for US radio. I'm a big fan of their brilliant little stories contained within songs made in a pretty chord progression then a bridge, then a key change, with harmony throughout and arpeggios at the end. One of my most favorite bands.
Bands that have been overplayed here I sometimes had to listen to after they were big to appreciate and enjoy them, after I had to ignore them.
|
John Lee Hooker - The Healer (With Santana)
(Jul 04, 2008 - 20:41) | Santana saves John Lee Hooker, the most overrated blues guy ever. Hooker is interminably always playing the same riff, the same singing style to endless repetition. Not sure what gave him such a good rep... maybe I never heard his early stuff.
This is way better than Hooker's screechingly dull version of this song with his own band without Santana. This isn't singing that Hooker is doing by the way, it's some kind of awful whatever. If he's a 100 years old, I'll forgive him, otherwise not.
|
Röyksopp - Poor Leno
(Jul 04, 2008 - 20:36) | 
Another cowbell based techno tune in search of being a coherent song.
|
Paul Simon - Another Galaxy
(Jul 04, 2008 - 20:12) | planet_lizard wrote:
heard PS being interviewed once and he explained how he usually wrote the music first including the melody and then came up with the lyrics - and now it's so obvious whenever I listen to him that it irritates me a bit - the words always sound shoe-horned and clunky - unlike the music which feels so much more natural
coyote620 wrote:
I heard that same interview, and couldn't agree with you more!
The lesson here is never listen to interviews on how they make their music!
...Or, don't let it influence you so much.
(actually I have to confess it made me find his music irritating for about 3 months after that interview... must be human nature... finally I did get over it and prevent myself from thinking about it).
|
Steely Dan - Reelin' In The Years
(Jul 04, 2008 - 03:13) | I always liked this line:
You been tellin me youre a genius
Since you were seventeen
In all the time Ive known you
I still dont know what you mean
in a song full of good lines and a whole wistful attitude-- ok she dumps him and he's sadly wondering about her, asking her if she's still reeling in the years, sort of longing for what became of that old flame, but angry about it, and then he realizes what a weird lady she was. Brilliant, plus it comes with those great harmonies and guitar riffs.
|
Aimee Mann - Save Me
(Jul 04, 2008 - 02:41) | The lyrics to this song are so great... really captures the horrors of dating better than any I've heard.
Love the song and Aimee, but like the studio cut better, it's crisper and the harmonies are better.
This song is fun to play on the guitar too, the rythms she puts in her songs in the interplay of the vocals and the guitars is very fun to play, and carries me away into the joy of a beautifully made song.
|
Roy Buchanan - The Messiah Will Come Again
(Jul 04, 2008 - 02:11) | I forgot this guy got forgotten. A guitar god in the '70's but more on the instrumental fringe of things. Great for a winters day background music. Thanks for bringing him back, RP-- a case of another older artist I forgot to collect records of and should one day correct that and not forget his soulful playing.
|
Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love
(Jul 04, 2008 - 01:51) | This is great, the early real thang.
And I had no idea the lyrics to this one were so whacky:
I walk 47 miles of barbed wire,
I use a cobra-snake for a necktie,
I got a brand new house on the roadside,
Made from rattlesnake hide,
I got a brand new chimney made on top,
Made out of a human skull,
Now come on take a walk with me, arlene,
And tell me, who do you love?
He's really got a nice 'dark humor' here, man.
Romantic?... yeah if you like snakes and skulls, I guess so.
|
Josh Joplin Group - Gravity
(Jul 04, 2008 - 01:47) | Lots of organ and guitar riffs around real clever lyrics in fully fleshed out mini prog rock/alt rock excitement, kind of like Joe Jackson or Elvis Costello on their second CD.
Nothing like the dull, plodding instrumentation on their first one here and underdeveloped songwriting.
|
Josh Joplin Group - Gravity
(Jul 04, 2008 - 01:34) | The second CD by this group ("The Future That Was") is way better, and a different sound altogether, with super clever poetic and humorous lyrics. On that one they sound more like Ben Folds with Elvis Costello and a touch of Squeeze. Well worth a listen and a purchase of the 2nd CD, but I never was able to like this first one, it seemed quite ordinary. But I am a fan of the 2nd one.
|
Michael Franti and Spearhead - Yell Fire!
(Jul 03, 2008 - 02:38) | Jelani wrote: My point is that his point is inconsistent and unfocused; according to what I can make out of the lyrics.
Actually the lyrics are available easily with the magic of the net, so there's really no excuse for trying to make out the lyrics and then saying they make no sense:
Everyone addicted to the same nicotine
Everyone addicted to the same gasoline
Everyone addicted to a technicolour scream
Everybody trying to get their hands on same green
I'd hardly call that unfocused or inconsistent.
All you have to do is read them here: (click here)
They aren't unfocused at all; you might not like what he says but there's no reason not to access it.
|
The Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm
(Jul 03, 2008 - 02:30) | Insert repetitive comment about hating song:
or just enjoy the Pumpkins' swift acoustic guitar riff w/ intense disturbing lyrics delivered with nifty alt rock arrangement:
     
|
Jesse Cook - Red
(Jun 30, 2008 - 00:17) | healyf52 wrote: Hey, when these cats start playing this stuff on STEEL string guitars, THEN I'll be impressed. Nylon strings are for wussies!
LOL. Not just Helter Skelter 'blisters on my fingers' but bloody stumps!
|
Santana - Dance Sister Dance (Baila Mi Hermana)
(Jun 29, 2008 - 23:35) | Droidac wrote: Wow, what a great song! Why can't he keep doing stuff like this instead of those horrible collaborations that we've been subjected to over the last several years!
No Alex Ligertwood (lead singer) and this version of his band that cut several excellent pop records in the '80's... they're all gone on to other things.
After that group's record sales started heading down, he disbanded it and did a bunch of different jazz collaborations with Buddy Miles, McCoy Tyner and other jazz artists, until the '90's when he started doing the guest vocalist pop records.
|
Velvet Underground - There She Goes Again
(Jun 29, 2008 - 18:07) | Mugro wrote: Primitive crap.
Well, you can hate your own music history and be in denial about what made everything after possible, or discover the original and what made it special.
|
Crowded House - Four Seasons In One Day
(Jun 29, 2008 - 17:35) | EssexTex wrote: I accept they're talented, so much so that I find them dull..almost too perfect if that makes any sense.
There's a simplicity to what they do, and it's pop oriented but the lyrics sometimes have subtlety and deeper meaning. It's all about the harmonies, melodies, guitars with a bit of an Aussie touch, Beatleesque.
But if you just accept it for its simple beauty it can get a hold of you. I wasn't sold on them until I heard Woodface, which was so beautiful, then I accepted the more pop stuff on the first CD. Don't try to accept them as brilliant music history geniuses, but as nice craftsmen of pretty pop music with a bit of an intelligence to it.
But it may never catch you and continue to bore you.
|
Steely Dan - Deacon Blues
(Jun 28, 2008 - 03:05) | LisaF wrote: I think the music-listening world can be neatly divided into two camps, those who listen to lyrics and those who don't. This is not my favorite song by the Dan, but I'm an aficionado (got everything they've ever done). However, if you belong to the camp that DOES listen to lyrics, you have to doff your cap to this one... Lyrics just don't come a lot better than that... You can say what you want about the music, the style might be your cup of tea, might not, but the musicianship is, like all Dan songs, impeccable. Humbly submitted...
Good analysis.
And the thing about this song is that the words tell a great story, it's about the essence of being the bohemian in NYC life, who was never materially successful but enjoys what he feels are the finer things in life, playing music, making love, staying up all night jamming and love making, and being an 'expanding man' who through this bohemian lifestyle grows in his music and sophistication. There's his viewpoint of the romance of such a life, and the singer's viewpoint of the tragedy of this guy who'll end up drinking and dying behind the wheel and wasting his life away, which the character fights against by wanting a name for himself--Alabama U. football team's the Crimson Tide, so why can't he be Deacon Blue?
It's really an amazing, moving portrait but to me it goes on beyond that to where it speaks to all of us who look back on our lives and evaluate what we've accomplished or not, what we wish for the future, and our sadness and hopes about that, our trying to grow before our time is past.
Sorry to get all deep on you, but this is why this song is one of my favorites and deeply moves me. So those of you who say this song has no feeling, understand, for some of us, this song is full of deep feeling. |
Bruce Springsteen - Spirit In The Night
(Jun 27, 2008 - 23:32) | When Born To Run came out, they hyped Springsteen as the new Dylan and I didn't buy it.
Later, I got Darkness on the Edge of Town and loved it and started to listen to all of his stuff. Mannfred Mann's versions of 2 of the songs on Greetings from Asbury Park kind of kept me disinterested in getting that CD. But much later, only a few years ago, I got Greetings from Asbury Park, the first one Bruce did, and was blown away. What a great record! Wow, just wow.
Now I understood where this curse of the 'new Dylan' they put on him was about. The lyrics are astounding, pure poetry, and the music is great.
|
Peter Murphy - All Night Long
(Jun 27, 2008 - 23:25) | JohnBauer wrote: 80s hair band sound. Awful then, and worse today.
You're misinformed. First, Peter Murphy was in Bauhaus, one of the most influential expiremental alternative bands ever, and not big hair. Yes, on occasion they were theatrical and sported some odd hairdos but that was not at all what they were all about, and cannot be defined as one of the stereotypical mindless big hair bands of the '80's. Second, his solo stuff, he's mostly sporting stylish shorter hair and it's alternative rock songwriting, nothing to do with Flock of Seagulls or Poison or any kind of big hair bands of the '80's. If anything, his history is the antithesis of big hair bands-- substance and musical exploration within a pop format.
Ok, you now can return to hating this music, documentary over, and I will continue to enjoy it and his spectacular career.
|
Sinéad O'Connor - Downpressor Man
(Jun 27, 2008 - 21:14) | ethanpil wrote: What a lame and pointless version of Nina Simone's song Sinnerman.
This is one of the worst attempts at a remake of any song. Ever.
Do your ears a favor and listen to the original... Even the techno remix of Sinnerman is better then "Downpressor Man"
I just looked at the lyrics of both songs side by side.
Looks like Peter Tosh took Sinnerman as an inspiration, but it's by no means a copy, and the lyrics do really differ in some important ways. Sinnerman is fairly simple, Downpressorman elaborates more on the oppressor, whereas sinnerman is about oneself.
I don't see any reason to not like downpressorman, unless you believe we are all only sinners and no one ever oppresses us-- if that's the case, you may be just lucky or masochistic.
According to the wikipedia entry on Sinnerman, Tosh and Bob Marley used to play Sinnerman in the Wailers and then Tosh wrote Downpressorman and they played that too.
I think there's plenty of room for both, I've always liked Tosh's version of downpressor, and Sinead does a good spin on it too.
|
The Stranglers - Skin Deep
(Jun 26, 2008 - 00:16) | This likeable tune was among the kind of songs that were the staple of FM alternative rock radio stations until Clear Channell bulldozed those stations out of existence and paved them over with giant piles of concrete dreck.
Hearing this tune reminds me of the time America had freedom and quality on the radio back in the day.
|
Madeleine Peyroux - Blue Alert
(Jun 25, 2008 - 23:17) | psg wrote: As much as I enjoy jazz in most of its forms, I just can't get into her voice. Something about it just irritates the hell out of me. I find it's like trying to listen to someone when they have not cleared their throat ...
I agree, I think her voice is mostly a gimmicky style she's parlayed into success. She overuses that style when in many instances real singing would carry the song and its meaning better, and it makes me doubt she has the chops at all if she has to resort to this and can't deliver holding notes longer, and not bending them in tiny breaths all the time. People compare her to Billy Holliday and other singers with that style, but in my opinion she's inferior as Holliday and most other jazz singers of that style would also have other skills on display and not be this one trick pony. But I do think it works well on this song, and I do like this song quite a bit.
|
Thomas Dolby - She Blinded Me With Science
(Jun 25, 2008 - 22:58) | flyboy wrote: Al Gore's theme song. Only his is "I'm blinding you with junk science so you'll feel guilty about burning fossil fuels and give me money to make your guilt go away by buying carbon offsets, kind of like buying your way out of purgatory, except this isn't a religion, it's science, wink wink, nod nod."
Yes, right wing Christian and Republican corporate funded 'science' that starts with conclusions and searches for 'facts' to match it, that suppresses and eliminates objective data and unbiased research is the best alternative to that junk science Al Gore works with. And those glaciers melting in Alaska are just normal, as are the floods in Iowa where it hasn't flooded in centuries.
|
Beatles vs Radiohead - Karma In The Life
(Jun 25, 2008 - 17:01) | rah wrote:
how much talent did it take to put a urinal on the wall in a museum? or to silk-screen a photograph of marilyn monroe nine times in a square? or to paint a canvas blue?
Not much.
In fact, that's the problem with so much post modernist art, the standards are in the toilet, or uh urinal.
Now when Marcel Duchamp did the found urinal and put it on a stand, no one had done that before, and that made it interesting. No one had mimeographed Marylin Monroe multiple times on one canvass before in a cartoon style. After the 500th time, I'd say it's time for a moratorium on that kind of junk.
But this piece of music is dumb, it doesn't even sound like Radiohead, it sounds like the piano vocal track from Day in the Life plus the "We buried Paul" background rumblings in "I am the walrus". It's amateurish at best. No one's done this particular piece of tripe before but that doesn't make it interesting.
In its only defense, I would say it's not painful to listen to, it's merely pedestrian.
|
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
(Jun 22, 2008 - 01:59) | toterola wrote:
It's long been bandied about that Bob was on speed and booze when he wrecked his bike, and nearly died.
As for the presence of "bath-tub" speed in the '60s, the recipes for that stuff have been kicked around ever since American G.I.s and the OSS got them from Nazi Germany. Hell, they even sell the recipe on the internet!
Thanks for your interesting post. I always wondered about Dylan's accident.
The US Army and Air Force has used speed for a long time during wars. But they're not alone, the use of drugs with troops sadly occurs in many times and places.
Still, Dylan's rapid fire delivery of some of his lyrics while they might have originally been speed induced on some classic songs, which would be interesting to know, there's no question the guy can amazingly really deliver when it comes to phrasing out a long poem of song pretty much anytime, high or not.
|
The Smithereens - Behind the Wall of Sleep
(Jun 22, 2008 - 01:50) | Behind the wall of sleep is just one of their hits; it's ok, but what's really the good stuff is Blow Up and 11.
Try those two CD's in your car. They drive absolutely great. Two of my favorites for driving.
In my opinion, those two CD's are perfect from start to finish while the others are uneven. Those 2 CD's simply rock, nothing too fancy, but clever enough songwriting and lyrics and played just right to rock, no flaws. If you like those two, the third one I'd get is God Save the Smithereens, not as good in the car or in general, but still overall a decent CD.
|
Carbon Leaf - The War Was In Color
(Jun 21, 2008 - 18:20) | rogerclark wrote: What's funny is your comment about the National Guard and how they lose everything. They gain my respect and it's sad they do not gain your respect. But of course you have their best interest at heart don't you? While you sit with the freedom to tell them how stupid they are for protecting your right to speak freely, they fight for it. So thanks for fighting for them.
Respect, eh? So how come is it that the Natl. Gaurd, which was traditionally used for domestic needs including helping people recover from natural disasters, and was traditionally the way for people to serve who didn't want to be in wars as they were usually brought in as a last resort, how come is it that the Natl. Gaurd is in Iraq?
The reason is Bush exhausted the troops he had, and so his idea of respect for people in the Gaurd is to use them in a way they weren't intended to be used. And to deprive them of normal terms of service, by extending their stays, keeping them from their families and loved ones and their jobs and livelihood. These were what we used to call 'weekend warriors' because they'd just train on the weekends and work or go to school weekdays. Some respect.
Add to that the disrespect shown by Republicans for our troops by underfunding their health care, denying them benefits, vetoing GI Bills, and not providing the right armor, tanks, tools and protection to do their jobs, plus docking their pay when they do come up with their own resources, is that respect?????
Hell no.
|
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
(Jun 21, 2008 - 17:44) | toterola wrote:
Does the word "methamphetamine" mean anything to you?
The meth of Dylan's time was called speed, uppers. Much milder and less toxic and crazy making than today's meth, much simpler chemically, but still plenty bad for you. Very addicting, but easier to recover from and less damage to body and mind than today's meth.
I didn't hear about him doing speed then, but wouldn't be surprised, he had a drug/alcohol period for awhile, and certainly was known to like weed.
|
The Cure - Jumping Someone Else's Train
(Jun 21, 2008 - 17:35) | Glockman45 wrote: What IS Robert singing about then?
Lyrics:
Don't say what you mean
You might spoil your face
If you walk in the crowd
You won't leave any trace
It's always the same
You're jumping someone else's train
It won't take you long
To learn the new smile
You'll have to adapt
Or you'll be out of style
It's always the same
You're jumping someone else's train
If you pick up on it quick
You can say you were there
Again and again and again
You're jumping someone else's train
It's the latest wave
That you've been craving for
The old ideal
Was getting such a bore
Now you're back in line
Going not quite quite as far
But in half the time
Everyone's happy
They're finally all the same
'cause everyone's jumping
Everyone else's train
Jumping someone else's train
Jumping someone else's train
Jumping someone else's train
I'm not sure what it's really about; my interpretation is it's about people pretending to be hip and following the latest fads and not being genuine, but I'm not sure. Mostly I just love the music, which is absolutely great classic Cure and just jumps off the stereo and rocks.
|
Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
(Jun 21, 2008 - 17:31) | alph wrote: First rap song ever?
Poetry set to music.
Rap is just another form of poetry, at its best, otherwise it's just egotistical noise posing as poetry or music as a cover.
Those who fear poetry don't like it, those who love poetry and poetic music, get and love Dylan.
|
Bruce Cockburn - Burden of the Angel-Beast
(Jun 21, 2008 - 17:26) | Lyrics:
From the lying mirror to the movement of stars
Everybody's looking for who they are
Those who know don't have the words to tell
And the ones with the words don't know too well
(CHORUS:)
Could be the famine
Could be the feast
Could be the pusher
Could be the priest
Always ourselves we love the least
That's the burden of the angel/beast
Birds of paradise -- birds of prey
Here tomorrow, gone today
Cross my forehead, cross my palm
Don't cross me or I'll do you harm
(Chorus)
We go crying, we come laughing
Never understand the time we're passing
Kill for money, die for love
Whatever was God thinking of?
(Chorus)
I think it's beautiful, and my interpretation is that it addresses, with wonderment, the predicament of our own consciousness as we grapple with the angel and beast in ourselves & in others... They're quite interesting lyrics that could provoke a lot of contemplation with some fine music in the song.
|
VAST - Dead Angels
(Jun 20, 2008 - 04:27) | Jeremy_Cherfas wrote:
Who, me?
No, you're comment was perfectly neutral, I was referring to things like multiple barf emoticon images--
the sorts who overly express their unhappiness over something pleasant.
Not your cup of tea is fine with me-- there's things on here I feel that way about, no big deal.
|
VAST - Dead Angels
(Jun 20, 2008 - 04:23) | Let's see... terrific melody, awesome harmonies, nicely done guitars, well done song...
hmm... that gaurantees the peanut gallery will toss tomatoes and cry waaaahhhh...
But the rest of us...   
|
Martha Wainwright - See Emily Play
(Jun 16, 2008 - 04:09) | This is really cool, more of a feminine interpretation of this song. Makes me feel like it's a sweet mom singing it of her child whereas the Bowie and Syd Barret versions, while awesome, are just more musical trippy trips. Syd's version's more like his girlfriend's acid trip and Bowie's is more like wistful about a tripped out woman. This version is sweetness instead of psychedelic.
|
Midnight Oil - Antarctica
(Jun 16, 2008 - 02:03) | Open season's just begun
There must be one place left in the world
Where the skin says it can breathe
There's gotta be one place left in the world
It's a solitude of distance and relief
There's gotta be one place left in the world
Yes, because it's open season on nature and its natural resources.
So if you ever were in nature, enjoying how it cleansed your mind and fed your soul with its beauty, and then found out that place was slated for destruction, then you can understand this song. If not, then I pity you.
|
Barenaked Ladies - Easy
(Jun 16, 2008 - 01:56) | Bands that a group of cool people at RP say we have to hate:
BNL
REM
Coldplay
U2
Talking Heads and David Byrne
David Matthews
and a handful more. Why? They had some hits. How horrible, that means all of their music is to be hated and not listened to on its own merits.
IMO about this song: it's pleasant and well played, better than the drivel on commercial radio, but nothing particularly special. But nonetheless a pleasant listen just for the good melody and quality musicianship.
|
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
(Jun 16, 2008 - 01:25) | Paul_in_Australia wrote:
The melody was allegedly inspired by Metal Guru by Marc Bolan.
I always loved the line 'the Leeds side streets that you slip down' and the way he sings 'provincial'.
Nice.
Thanks for the info and the link, very interesting. At the site you linked to, they quote Johnny Marr on the origins of Panic:
'Panic' came about at the time of Chernobyl. Morrissey and myself were listening to a Newsbeat radio report about it. The story about this shocking disaster comes to an end and then, immediately, we're off into Wham!'s 'I'm Your Man'. I remember actually saying 'what the fuck has this got to do with peoples' lives?' We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we're expected to be jumping around to 'I'm Your Man'... And so -- 'hang the blessed DJ'. I think it was a great lyric, important and applicable to anyone who lives in England. I mean, even the most ardent disco fan wouldn't want to be subjected to that stuff, would they?"
|
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Please Read The Letter
(Jun 16, 2008 - 01:15) | madaxeman wrote: Some of you don't like this?
W.T.F.?
They don't like it because it isn't what they're used to hearing from Robert and Allison, so that's not ok, Plant and Krauss need to get back into their little boxes and perform in the same format people are used to, like trained monkeys.
First off, I'd give them praise for trying something different as artists, and second it comes through that it's actually excellent music once you sit down and listen to the CD 2 or 3 times all the way through.
|
Aaron English - Like Smoke
(Jun 16, 2008 - 01:04) | anchoresse wrote:
If you think THOSE are intelligent, you should see the TONS of awful poetry I wrote in fifth grade. You'd probably enjoy it. Want me to email them to you?
Nah, spare me that... but uh, I was speaking in relative terms to numetal, LP in comparison to the rest of the even worse dreck. Got any nu metal you think is any good? I haven't heard much yet of it I can tolerate.
|
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife 3
(Jun 15, 2008 - 03:03) | Rockabobbie wrote: I know very little about The Decemberists, but the intro to this song grabbed me by the scruff of the neck, what with its early 80's alternative bassline (think Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, et al.).
Lots more influences in their songs, in this one I hear Traffic in the drum part and the harmony vocals, the fiddle parts recall the band Renaissance, and the keyboard parts are reminiscent of Jethro Tull. This whole CD is full of interesting influences.
|
Kirsty MacColl - Libertango
(Jun 15, 2008 - 01:47) | She also did a lot of backing vocals on Smiths tunes, and a few other artists in her circle.
A very interesting and unique songwriter, but sometimes her records didn't as good a production as needed.
|
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries
(Jun 15, 2008 - 01:45) | EditorTom wrote: This track sounds a lot like some stuff by an American Indian blues guitarist named Bill Miller, that I saw open once for Tori Amos (I think). I'm pretty sure the Miller track I'm thinking of is called "Dreams of Wounded Knee", from his album Red Road.
Michael Hedges is the very originator of a whole style of playing guitar, Bill Miller came later as did Kaki King, and many others who now play this style featuring a number of innovations but also a very beautiful, harmonic soundscape compositionally. He is a great musician who should not be forgotten and needs to get the recognition his work deserves.
|
Joe Cocker - With a Little Help from My Friends
(Jun 13, 2008 - 21:39) | David Clayton-Thomas (of Blood Sweat and Tears) he is not. Too bad this isn't BST. They would play it with a real swing, and David would really sing it.
This is more like BTO (Bachman Turner Overdrive)-- not a compliment. Cocker is such a sentimental faker of emotion, in between the drugs, maudlinly bad with a one trick pony style of singing.
|
Genesis - Counting Out Time
(Jun 13, 2008 - 21:23) | Art_Carnage wrote: Wimp-rock at its very worst. Just awful.
Evidently you have no understanding of this song at all. It's about a teenage boy thinking he can have sex with a girl by following a procedure he read in a book but by doing so he just upsets her. It's a satire of the macho stereotype of how a guy's supposed to bed a woman and pretty funny. I have no idea where you get 'wimpy' on that except maybe for some brain dead Texas idea of whatever you don't like you label 'wimpy' or liberal. Get your head out of the sticks, there's a world of facts out there. You simply don't understand the song.
|
Grateful Dead - Friend Of The Devil
(Jun 11, 2008 - 04:32) | macadavy wrote:
Well there goes the farm! Sure glad I'm not in America. (Wait a minute! Which one? North, South or Central?)
Golly - I'm hard put to think of one Dead song that's good enough for you to listen to - maybe 'Ripple' could edumacate you? (Live version, of course!) (please see below).
I'm good with Ripple, I love Box of Rain, and Truckin', Sugar Magnolia's all right.
Anything that's a real song by the ex-Warlocks and not noodling around.
|
Velvet Underground - I'm Waiting For The Man
(Jun 07, 2008 - 03:35) | Excelsior wrote:
junebaby65 wrote:
I guess.....I still think this is boring and overrated....sorry folks. Does nothing for me..
It's an original pre-punk punk song-- all the punkers were inspired by this band and this song, that's part of what makes it a classic.
|
Sheryl Crow - Home
(Jun 07, 2008 - 02:35) | I like this song. Nicely sung, sweet and simple.
I like a few Crow songs (My favorite mistake), but mostly don't like much of her music because of her incredibly stupid lyrics (all i wanna do, if it makes you happy) that make her or the character she portrays sound extremely unlikable, her rip-off obvious conventional riffs and melodies (name any/every of her songs) and her extreme commercialism-- selling songs (soak up the sun) for a corporate commercial jingle before releasing it as her own single and album, when she is already filthy rich. At least she didn't sell the Beatles catalog to corporate commercials like Michael Jackson did.
|
Bruce Hornsby - Great Divide
(Jun 06, 2008 - 23:37) | WonderLizard wrote:
Only surviving Grateful Dead keyboard player...
wandersahn wrote:
nope, Tom Constantine is still kickin'
Just like Spinal Tap's drummers, a position that's strangely hard to fill.
|
Grateful Dead - Friend Of The Devil
(Jun 06, 2008 - 23:32) | Favorite song of every homeless wino in America. Whenever someone's playing guitar on the street, you'll hear this song requested by the stumblers. Truly idiotic lyrics, though poetic, about some rich wino. Hey man, play FRIEND OF THE DEVIL-- by AC/DC??
I think you can tell I hate this song, even more than I dislike live Dead noodling. I do like a lot of the Dead's songs-- real songs: the ones that aren't live versions, and have verses, choruses or refrains, and beginnings and endings, and aren't longer than 7 minutes. But not this one.
|
Stevie Wonder - Superstition
(Jun 06, 2008 - 23:03) | Krispian wrote: Is it true he plays all (or most) of the instruments on this album?
According to wikipedia and cduniverse, he plays all the keyboards, harmonica and drums on both cd's. He gets more sidemen on talking book including Jeff Beck on guitar, David Sanborn on sax, plus others on horns and bass and backing vocals.
On Innervisions, he does all the vocals and most of the instrumentation except guitars, some organ and some percussion (bongos, congas and shakers).
Pretty amazing.
|
Talking Heads - Pulled Up
(Jun 06, 2008 - 02:08) | Art_Carnage wrote: Not a good as the "regular" version.
Yeah, the original version has some kind of amazing rythmic charge to it where everything is in sync extremely sharp, the sound levels go with the words and the whole thing jumps up. It's like astonishing-- this version isn't quite as sharp.
|
Fleetwood Mac - Child of Mine
(Jun 02, 2008 - 03:00) | MojoJojo wrote:
David Cassidy would get carpal tunnel just trying to play these Danny Kirwin/Bob Welch riffs, and Shirley Jones would get carpal voice trying to sing Christine McVie's phrasing here. The rest of the family would be frightened by the bell bottoms and smell of weed.
That's why they're applauding.
 
|
Arcade Fire - Haiti
(Jun 02, 2008 - 02:15) | mwstennis wrote: 8 --> 7 for the band's endorsement of Obama.
I'll give a '1' for this hideous song, and a 10 in my mind for the band's Obama endorsement.
|
Santana - Incident At Neshabur
(Jun 02, 2008 - 00:26) | EssexTex wrote: I just don't get it...I know he's talented and I try, I even saw him in concert back in the 90's....it was awkward, he was talking to the crowd about world peace etc, and they started telling him to shut up and get on with the music..I must admit I felt sorry for him.
Well, come on up north to California, Seattle, Wisconsin, even Colorado... places where we won't be yelling at him to shut up and play when he talks about world peace, but listening and cheering, then getting into the gentle sway of the music and the intensity of the riffs.
Back in the late '70's, I stopped going to concerts for a few years because the audiences were so high on cocaine and bad drugs, that they yelled and barfed to the point of drowning out the Jethro Tull and the Jefferson Starship gigs I saw, also making security so uptight they wouldn't let you do anything but sit like a stone in your seat, no dancing allowed. Thankfully, that was over by 1978.
Get out of the sticks and into civilization once in a while, check it out. Don't know if it'll make Santana sound better, but it will improve the audience, which could improve the experience. If the audience is full of knuckle draggers, well it makes it less fun.
|
Coldplay - God Put A Smile Upon Your Face
(May 31, 2008 - 04:00) | DD closemindedmoron wrote: hahah, very funny. When we have girlymen come into the gym trying to bench the bar that is one of our jokes. We usually say, "hey, why don't you go put one of your ColdPlay albums on."
You and the others talking about gayness are in the closet and extremely gay, it's so obvious. Otherwise you wouldn't have to talk so big... and research has shown that the most homophobic, macho talkers are the ones who are most stimulated by gay porn. They've hooked guys up to electrodes and the ones who 'hated gays' the most and claimed to be more hetero than others were the ones who got the most physically stimulated when they watched gay porn at the research lab in these studies.
So keep telling us how gay Coldplay is, gay this gay that-- telling us how gay you are. Frankly we don't care, it doesn't bother us that you are gay, since there's nothing wrong with it anyway.
|
Santana - Soul Sacrifice
(May 31, 2008 - 02:13) | RobRyan wrote: Song is OK...but is there any Santana song less than 12 minutes long?
I'm pretty sure that Carlos is somewhat tone deaf though.
Beyond Appearances, a whole super CD full of great short pop songs... he's had a long and varied career with lots of cool stuff that's not just the famous stuff everybody thinks of.
As to tone deaf, that would be true if your ear is tuned to the F sharp on your electric pencil eraser, then yes, Carlos would be tone deaf to that. Yes, Carlos is as tone deaf as Frank Zappa, John McLaughlin, Allan Holdsworth, Al DiMeola, and Adrian Belew-- all those guys who are so tone deaf their guitar licks are impossible for anyone else to play, yeah tone deaf... 
|
Santana - Soul Sacrifice
(May 31, 2008 - 02:06) | Ichthyologist wrote:Is Santana really relavent anymore? I didn't think so.
Hmm.. I think Rob Thomas and the several other pop stars that had HITS with Santana in the last couple of years beg to differ.
But if album sales aren't relevant (and his records were selling very well), then I suppose one could argue that a legend who pioneered various styles of guitar playing, latin and jazz rock has no influence or import today. One could argue that, and be wrong.
|
R.E.M. - Until The Day Is Done
(May 29, 2008 - 22:51) | I like this, this is more like early REM -- Green Grow the Rushes type stuff. Pretty, hypnotic and transcendent.
|
Etta James - Hound Dog
(May 29, 2008 - 22:42) | The_Enemy wrote:
Elvis NEVER said that. Nor have I ever heard that Elvis withheld royalties or credit from anyone so he can hardly be said to have stolen songs.
http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/presley1.asp
Matter of fact, by all accounts Elvis Presley was very respectful of African American musicians, socialized with them, and took his time out to help some of them get their careers going. From wikipedia:
Little Richard said of Presley: "He was an integrator. Elvis was a blessing. They wouldnt let black music through. He opened the door for black music."<5> B. B. King said he began to respect Presley after he did Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup material and that after he met him, he thought the singer really was something else and was someone whose music was growing all the time right up to his death.<6>
Up to the mid 1950s black artists had sold minuscule amounts of their recorded music relative to the national market potential. Black songwriters had mostly limited horizons and could only eke out a living. But after Presley purchased the music of African American Otis Blackwell and had his "Gladys Music" company hire talented black songwriter Claude Demetrius, the industry underwent a dramatic change. In the spring of 1957 Presley invited African American performer Ivory Joe Hunter to visit Graceland and the two spent the day together, singing "I Almost Lost My Mind" and other songs. Of Presley, Hunter commented, "He showed me every courtesy, and I think he's one of the greatest."<7>
|
R.E.M. - Photograph (w/ Natalie Merchant)
(May 26, 2008 - 02:43) | suddenchad wrote: Really, really wish I understood the hate for these guys. REM and the Maniacs were probably my two favorite bands of the 80s--really kind of rescued that dreadful decade for me. REM to my mind saved rock music from the dreadful onslaught of the synthesizer and the hair bands.
It is ridiculous, especially considering most of the alt rock bands the haters like so much instead wouldn't exist if it wasn't for REM --their sound and songwriting style which paved the way for so many, and their way of managing to be in the music business on their own terms and not conforming to what they were told to do. They refused to make the kind of records they were told to make, and then built a following by touring where they wanted to at smaller venues, repeatedly building a following. Then they were able to parlay that into airplay on the radio from their concert fan following requesting their songs. They built a whole way of getting alt rock into the limelight and making a living that so many bands learned from.
|
Eddie Vedder - Society
(May 26, 2008 - 01:10) | Darn that Eddie Vedder. He sounds like Eddie Vedder!
I sure like the texture of Eddie Vedder's voice, it's like a tornado inside a beehive full of honey and stingers.
|
James Gang - Funk #49
(May 26, 2008 - 01:07) | Ntropy wrote:
Funk did exist when this song was written. It had been around for awhile. It just wasn't often played by white boys from Cleveland.
wikipedia says:
In what is considered a forerunner to disco style clubs in February 1970 New York City DJ David Mancuso opened The Loft, a members-only private dance club set in his own home. <1> <2> Most agree that the first disco songs were released in 1973, but some claim Manu Dibango's 1972 Soul Makossa to be the first disco record
Funk 49 was released in 1970.
Now you James Gang boys ought to time travel to 1976 and listen here to this Wild Cherry music now:
Play that funky music, white boy...
Er, uh, you mean plug my here electricky geetar in this here amp and wail?
Well, ok Joe, that sounds mighty fine, but uh it don't remind me of that there Wild Cherry, no sir.
But it'll do. Hey-- give me a maraca to shake, this is some good rockin' music here.
Whut? Sleep all day, out all night, I know where you're going... dada dada dum dum
That Joe Walsh is awesome, funky uh no, but awesome.
|
Paloalto - Breathe In
(May 26, 2008 - 00:31) | spunkyboy62 wrote: Pleasantly Travis-y. This is the type of music that I would have thought is extremely radio-friendly (like Travis) yet doesn't get any airplay (present company excepted).
So true.
Clear Channell and its clones hate radio friendly rock, unless their friendly statisticians can prove it will move as many donuts and car ads as Shock Jock Morning Yellers and afternoon classic rock of yore hits you over the head a million times before.
|
The Samples - Long Walk Home
(May 25, 2008 - 23:50) | Best band to come out of Boulder, Colorado IMO. They started out doing Police covers and originals that sounded just like the Police. Then at some point, they really got good on their instruments, and started adding some jazz improv to their songs and took off to a whole other high level of composition and musicianship. Nice guys too, and their lyrics are spiritual and environmentalist. Good music you can sway dance to, and bliss out on, and subtle enough to keep your attention.
|
Oasis - Sunday Morning Call
(May 25, 2008 - 03:22) | I like how this is different for them, more keyboard based, I didn't recognize it was Oasis at all. But the essential good musical composition and playing is there-- these guys know how to write a good song and cut a good record, two skills many bands lack.
|
Elvis Costello - Inch By Inch
(May 25, 2008 - 03:15) | rocco1207 wrote: Up to this one I had bought every EC album religiously, as soon as they came out. With this record the magic just seemed to be missing. He's had a few hits here and there but the brilliance seems gone... I have no desire to buy his records anymore.
I thought this was his weakest record, but the subsequent ones are mostly consistently good, especially Blood & Chocolate, King of America, and Brutal Youth. Those are all outstanding, IMO, and nearly as good as any of the early stuff.
|
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck - Brazil
(May 25, 2008 - 02:40) | duggerd wrote: I rate this 8+ - inspired...
I have none of Corea's work to refer to. Great musical talent and a "different" view of life are nothing new of course.
Corea is one of the great jazz musicians of the 1970's. Then he had a famous rock-jazz fusion band called Return To Forever, which featured many famous great jazz musicians, bassist Stanley Clarke (another Scientologist) was in it most of the time, and Al DiMeola (great jazz electric guitarist & flamenco acoustic guitarist) was in it for a while. Those Return To Forever records are worth listening to. Return To Forever had some similar sounding elements to their contemporary jazz rock fusion bands Mahavishnu Orchestra (with John McLaughlin) and Weather Report.
Corea also did a number of solo acoustic and other acoustic piano oriented jazz records as well as some with full symphony orchestras and other jazz group configurations-- kind of explored various kinds of bands and sounds. He mostly does his own compositions but sometimes covers classic jazz pieces.
He's had a huge influence in the jazz world.
Definitely check him out, especially if you like jazz.
|
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck - Brazil
(May 25, 2008 - 02:26) | It just blows me away that Bela Fleck can play complex real jazz (not just his own excellent sometimes jazz derived compositions) on the banjo, and play it technically well and with beautiful results. Truly amazing.
|
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck - Brazil
(May 25, 2008 - 02:25) | duggerd wrote: I rate this 8+ - inspired. Knowing nothing of Corea, I went Wiki-hunting to find out more. I quote the following from his entry:
Under the "special thanks" notes, found in all of his later albums, Corea mentions that the author L. Ron Hubbard, founder of the Scientology movement, has been a continual source of inspiration. In 1968 Corea discovered Dianetics, Hubbard's principal work, and in the early 1970s developed an interest in Hubbard's science fiction novels. The two exchanged letters until Hubbard's death in 1986, and Corea even did some work on music Hubbard had written, noting, " was a great composer and keyboard player as well."
Is this true? I have none of Corea's work to refer to. Great musical talent and a "different" view of life are nothing new of course.
Yes, it's true that both Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock, and also Al Dimeola are Scientologists.
Even though I don't trust the Scientology movement leadership, I can put that aside and appreciate these terrific musicians' work. As to Hubbard's music, I've never heard it, but I'd be as skeptical of it as I am of his other creations.
|
Nick Lowe - When I Write The Book
(May 25, 2008 - 02:19) | kazuma wrote:
One of my old favorites. Sure wish I'd seen these guys play. I bet it was a riot.
Yeah, this song is on the Rockpile record, IMO the best one album band ever.
That record is a masterpiece of intelligent Beatles influenced rockabilly genius. One of my all time favorite CD's, and each time I pull it out and play it, it stays on my player for a couple weeks or more.
|
Talking Heads - Listening Wind
(May 25, 2008 - 02:17) | This is the song that got me into the Heads and then new wave and punk.
At that time in 1981, I hadn't yet gotten into punk or new wave, I was still into the '70's music.
This is the song that changed everything for me. After hearing this song and that album at my friend's house with a little smoken enhancement, I understood the world had changed, and music had brought new forms of poetry, gritty dirt and beauty to my world.
This is a great, great song about how a terrorist evolved from American intervention, done in a very innovative and entrancing way. And it was nothing like anything I'd heard before, and it was absolutely spell binding.
From this song and CD, my ears opened to Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, the Sex Pistols, the Pretenders, ska and all the great new wave music and punkers of the early 80's.
|
Sniff 'n' The Tears - Driver's Seat
(May 25, 2008 - 00:21) | dkwalika wrote: Takes me back to Sault Ste. Marie.
Great year.
Yeah, this takes me back... to the cut-out bins (out of print one hit wonders) in the record store.
Actually, this tune isn't so bad, it's kinda cute in its own weird way, though a bit monotonous, it cannot harm any small animals and probably will make your small dogs wag their tails.
|
Snow Patrol - Set The Fire To The Third Bar
(May 24, 2008 - 22:44) | farbenblinde wrote:
Yes, I am little surprised it is Snow Patrol. However, I still don't like it. Snow Patrol is mostly for teens I think
lattalo wrote:
I thought so too, but then I heard Open Your Eyes and realised that this band wasn't/isn't just a pop band. I think that maybe in the future that they will produce an album that we will all remember.
Hardly a teen band. Check out their lyrics and music from the last 2 releases-- lots of adult subject matter and they really tell a story, for instance about addicts and recovery and many other subjects, or just write with lyricism and poetry about relationships, and the music is diverse in its pop influences and directions. These guys are seriously talented and for real, and will come out with something that will open a lot of eyes in the years to come.
|
Coldplay - Don't Panic
(May 24, 2008 - 22:36) | Great song, great lyrics.
Bones, sinking like stones,
All that we fought for,
And homes, places we've grown,
All of us are done for.
Manages to be chilling and inspirational all in one simple sequence with a driving acoustic guitar and a nice soaring Gilmouresque electric guitar riff.
|
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
(May 24, 2008 - 22:24) | DrConcrescence wrote: Exactly- You weren't from upstate NY in the 80s were you? Had this on my walkmen back in college was guaranteed to change my walk....
DC
No, in Colorado at the time. A big favorite among us 20 year olds at the time. I didn't even like the VF all that much at the time but for that song and a couple of others, though the record with this tune got a lot of play at friends' parties because it all made us horny. I suspect this song was a nationwide phenomenon at least in college towns back then.
|
R.E.M. - World Leader Pretend
(May 23, 2008 - 03:17) | lwilkinson wrote:I like the music and the song but then I've always liked REM (rapid eye music).
But ....... I just went and read the lyrics after reading all the comments.
Guess what!
This could apply to most any Prez if you use just a little imagination ..... Take Bill Clinton ...... "I fit the weapons my self" (my sex toy cigars) ... "I wage war on myself" (why am I cheating on my wife?
So let's just enjoy the music and everybody lay off the political comments like a bunch of dull salary-men/empty suits going nowhere in a hurry with nothing better to do than nip at Bush.
After all ..... after Nov. we all get to pick on Billary or Obama.
You're so vain, you're so vain  
You probably think this song is about you, about you, about you, (and your idiotic  right wing politics) you're so vain  
Gee, Bush was just a poo liddle victim.
|
Pete Yorn - For Us
(May 23, 2008 - 02:40) | element1 wrote:
Are we talking about the same song? I'm pretty sure I've heard this on commercial radio, along with a lot of other Pete Yorn...
Ha. Some places in the country commercial radio is so bad you can't imagine, completely Clear Channel sanitized. Where I live is a plenty liberal area just an hour north of San Francisco, can't get any SF or Bay Area stations here, just the worst dreck imaginable out here. If the song wasn't a hit yesterday it isn't played, and if it was a hit today not likely unless it's Third Eye Blind or Hillary Duff or some crap like that on every station. NO Peter Yorn, I can gaurantee you. I used to live in Boulder and commercial radio was better there. So results may vary!
|
Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb
(May 23, 2008 - 01:55) | kaviksdad wrote:
No one plays the pauses better the DG. It's not always the notes you play that make the music - oftentimes it's knowing when not to play the notes as well.
So true --Gilmour finds the zen in the composition and plays it on the guitar.
Gilmour is the definition for tasteful. A master of the melody on the guitar, inventing a style that has spawned legions of imitators of his tone and texture. But not only is he the original, but his sense of musical phrasing is simply superb in its beauty and power.
|
The Cure - Burn
(May 22, 2008 - 02:50) | Stefen wrote: Much better than other songs by The Cure. Must be a different era than the usual play.
The Cure had several different phases and lots of lineup changes.
The early stuff is somewhat gloomy, more moody and often musically expiremental. After all, back then they were considered majorly goth. Then they went into a more New Wave kind of pop influenced sound but with their own unique twist, like the songs Boys Don't Cry and Lovecats. Then there's the Wish era stuff which is even more upbeat and melodic, though elements of that started earlier. That's not to mention other things they tried like horn arrangements on the Kiss Me cd. So they've definitely got different kinds of sounds.
|
Big Head Todd & The Monsters - Broken Hearted Savior
(May 22, 2008 - 02:07) | They've made I don't know how many versions of this song. They've got two or three hits and each of those they've re-recorded a whole bunch of times trying to get another hit with the same hit with a bit of a different twist to the tune each time, acoustic or electric, bluesy or rootsy or whatever.
Still, I think they've got some good songs, like Bittersweet, and I prefer the more acoustic version version of this song that has better timing in it, this version is just monotonous and doesn't serve the lyrics well the way the other version does.
These guys were big shots in their hometown Boulder Colorado. I lived there when they were up and coming and they were arrogant as heck, they thought they were too special when all they could do back then was imitate Stevie Ray Vaughan. We used to call them Big Swelled Head Todd. I only respected them years later when they actually wrote some decent songs and came up with their own sound.
|
Gabriel Rios - Broad Daylight
(May 22, 2008 - 01:06) | Reminds me of some Brazillian pop music I've listened to with the rythm of the children's almost chanting voices, the thumb piano and keyboard parts. Wonder if Rios got it from that source of music or just channeled it randomly on his own.
|
Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat
(May 22, 2008 - 01:02) | Hmm... gotta correct myself, I was thinking about the video for the song Dashboard.
But I have to say that it was the video for Dashboard that was the first thing that finally made me like and understand Modest Mouse. Before seeing it, I just did not get them at all.
Now I like their lyrics and their sound, it has some unique and fun features that are very engaging.
|
Modest Mouse - Missed the Boat
(May 22, 2008 - 00:58) | The video for this song is great.
That sold me on the song; I liked it ok before the video, then liked it even more after the video. Sometimes a video can be better than the song, but in this case I think it just delivered the substance of the song so well that it served the song.
|
Silversun Pickups - Rusted Wheel
(May 21, 2008 - 23:50) | Odyzzeuz wrote:
What the heck is this song about?
Lyrics:
So you cant hold a star in your hand though
at least you can hold on to another plan
rusted wheel planted still
i can tell it's summer from the
size of the bugs that fly through my window
flying through my window
rusted wheel planted still
rusted wheel can't move on
i can tell it's winter from the
size of the lump in my throat
got a lump in my throat
rusted wheel planted still
rusted wheel can't move on
and it feels just like the ground
but trapped in another way
just still in the ground
and it feels just like the ground
and trapped in another way
just still in the ground
so you can't hold a star in your hand though
at least you can move on to that better plan
rusted wheel planted still
rusted wheel can't move on...
Must be about being stuck in life like a rusted wheel, I guess, unless it's about not being able to hold a star in your hand because the surface temperature is too scalding hot, and science has yet to solve that problem as latex gloves don't protect your hands well enough.
|
Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars
(May 16, 2008 - 06:44) | This and the other Mermaid Ave. CD are like a new Dylan's Basement Tapes to me. Similar fresh, lyrical and musical feel to them. A great couple of classic CD's by Bragg & Wilco & guests making unfinished Woody Guthrie songs into a masterpiece.
|
Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars
(May 16, 2008 - 06:40) | cutterjudd wrote: WTF...Keep your political drivel for some blog else where. If I want politics I'll watch the Communist News Network (CNN). If you feel so guilty then go help the poor and let this heartless bastard listen to music here on RP
In that case maybe you shouldn't listen to Billy Bragg or most of the musicians on RP whose political views would upset your narrow little brainwashed Fox News fact free mind. In fact, Billy Bragg is a socialist. Maybe you could try to go back and get that grade school degree you've been putting off, it might teach you how to use the library and the net for information and facts.
|
Arcade Fire - Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)
(May 16, 2008 - 06:30) | These guys just don't do it for me. I listened to a whole bunch of their songs trying to figure out what the fuss was about. What I saw was a lot of instrumentation but second rate musical compositions.
I still respect these guys-- they're darn good musicians. Bands like this I just can't down rate, I just figure they're good but they're not for me. So I don't bother rating it at all unless I think that song is particularly horrible or great. Anyhow I take it song by song and try not to dislike every song by a band I don't like. But these guys I can't dislike them either, they leave me just uninterested.
|
Turin Brakes - For The Fire
(May 16, 2008 - 06:21) | lawman wrote:
Is there some irony here I'm missing? The Wikipedia entry (which I checked because I think this track is GREAT) says they started up in 1999.
Sorry-- I was speaking of Pavlov's Dog back in the day. I never heard of Turin Brakes until it was played here.
|
Turin Brakes - For The Fire
(May 14, 2008 - 22:48) | RadioDoc wrote:
LOL! Another 70's KSHE refugee!?! I don't think David Surkamp could sing this low!
Not unless he got over his helium addiction!
Actually, my friends and I 'discovered' this band on vinyl at the used record store back in the day in the '70's-- I never heard them on the radio until decades later; we all liked it back in high school days since it reminded us of the Airplane and Rush with a different prog/folk rock twist to it.
|
Ben Harper - Steal My Kisses
(May 14, 2008 - 01:50) | plight wrote: Evidently this song was inspired by his toddler, who was constantly running around, obliging him to 'steal' his kisses. I don't care much about lyrics in general, but i think this song would have been so much more endearing if it had been about that little vignette and the joy of fatherhood. Instead, we get some vague mishmash about relationships again--gee, never have heard that before.
likewise, "how great it is to be a dad" is a dangerous territory for otherwise talented musicians to write about; it often comes across as maudlin and trite. He had a chance to turn in some really stellar work here with a great groove and subject, so it's sad that he settled for mediocrity both musically and lyrically.
He can do much better, as others have said in fewer words.
-PL-
(edit: that same authenticity might be part of why jack johnson is so widely enjoyed for similarly casual grooves; whereas ben sometimes falls into cliche or standard call-and-response stuff, jack always feels pretty honest.)
Nicely said, I agree.
Graham Parker had a great song about fatherhood on Deep Cuts from Nowhere called Tough On Clothes, gist of the words being his child was hard to keep up with, have to go to the store as she or he grows in spurts, just bought some clothes yesterday but now they're worn or outworn, but it isn't it what it's all about for working blokes and how I love my kids. Touching, funny and true plus excellent musically. Struck by Lightning also has many great songs about family and children.
|
Aaron English - Like Smoke
(May 11, 2008 - 22:29) | Just to be a little more fair and accurate, there are some 'good' nu metal bands if you can stand that type of sound. Linkin Park is one that has some intelligent songs.
|
Aaron English - Like Smoke
(May 11, 2008 - 22:16) | Thorbert wrote: is this the nu-metal the kids are talking about?
No, this is much tamer, though it has some musical elements of it in a limited way.
From wikipedia:
(nu metal)... fuses influences from grunge and alternative metal with funk music, hip hop and various heavy metal genres, such as thrash metal and groove metal.
Nu metal music emphasizes mood, rhythm, and texture over melody. Often, nu metal songs use rhythmic, syncopated riffs played on distorted electric guitars with strings detuned to lower pitches to create a dark and thick sound...
many nu metal bands came from Southern California. Bands such as Snot, Manhole, Linkin Park, Human Waste Project, P.O.D., and Korn are early nu metal bands all from Southern California
If you hear Korn, Linkin Park and their 'successors' it sounds like a lot of rappin' and screamin' over some very harsh thrashy, minor key guitar attack with lyrics about violence to women, children, others and self, which I find mostly unlistenable. Tune in to one of those atrocious Clear Channel based 'heavy metal' stations nowadays and that's what they play. It sounds much more like Marylin Manson or Nine Inch Nails with rap tossed in and drone-ish segments along with some thrash style punk guitar styles with vocal stylings that are probably the most annoying kind of screaming ever heard. It's all designed to upset your system as much as possible. I think I dislike it more than any other musical genre, although there are a few interesting songs or bands in it, I probably dislike it more than thrash, bad rap, bad country, annoying bubblegum pop or any other bad music as nu metal seems aimed to really give you a headache and make your day miserable.
|
Barenaked Ladies - If I Had a Million Dollars
(May 11, 2008 - 20:56) | Teutates wrote: Yeesh to all critics - lighten up.
This song is based on Canadian nostalgia. Once upon a time, when the lottery was introduced in Canada, the grand prize was one million dollars. Everyone wishfully wondered what they would do with a million dollars; it was a popular topic, easy icebreaker, just like talking about the weather. What would you do with a million dollars I heard this in school, home, holidays, just about anywhere.
Just a song to bring back memories.
Thats all.
Thanks, because I had no idea that was the context. I love the Gordon record, it's full of funny songs like this one which is very funny. I especially love that song making fun of bubblegum boy bands, New Kid on the Block. The lyrics are great, as is the sweet lyric on their classic Brian Wilson. And I love 'One Week' another great very funny song, and that record Stunt is very good. The rest of their records didn't do too much for me, but I really like those two.
|
J.J. Cale - Crazy Mama
(May 11, 2008 - 20:50) | What I like about JJ Cale is his diversity and good songwriting. Don't particularly like this song, but the cool thing is his work is so diverse that over time you're likely to find something by him you can really like. And he's a very fine musician and songwriter. Some of his songs you'd never realize he wrote them when someone else covered them. Truly an American original.
|
Sinéad O'Connor - Downpressor Man
(May 11, 2008 - 20:44) | horstman wrote:
Lets see.
She ripped up a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live.
I'm not Catholic, and I don't really respect absolute authority, but that's a pretty negative statement.
And it's enough for me to dislike her as an artist. If she doesn't like his politics, or the church's, that's one thing, but SNL hired her to sing, not be a political spokesperson for all things anti-Catholic. To be provocative is one thing, but bad taste is bad taste, and she expressed it in spades.
Do you get the point now?
Well, if you read the wikipedia entry on her, you'll find she apologized and asked the Pope for forgiveness, although she's also said she didn't completely regret doing it. She's also said she wanted to be a catholic priest and was ordained in a schismatic catholic sect as a priest, although now she claims to be a rastafarian. She's also disclosed she's bipolar.
Point is, though she has issues, she's moved on. Can't we all move on, and maybe most of us can forgive.
|
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
(May 11, 2008 - 16:19) | parrothead wrote:
George Martin deserves a lot of credit for this tune.If it was not for him, Paul's tune inside his head would have never made it out in this form. A true masterpiece! And for all of you out there that don't like McCartney. If it was not for Paul no one would have ever heard of John Lennon, except for english pud dwellers that like live music back in the 60's if you know what I mean..
gjeeg wrote:
No, what the fuck do you mean?
Woah, you never know when one of those english pub (pud?) dwellers are going to turn up here on RP and take offense.
|
The Beatles - Eleanor Rigby
(May 11, 2008 - 16:15) | Beatles sucked because they didn't have the lovely Linda McC to sing for them some silly love songs.
Just kidding.
|
The Decemberists - On the Bus Mall
(May 09, 2008 - 22:45) | horstman wrote: I let my 12 year old son listen to this when he went to bed (music listening at bedtime is ritual for him). Needless to say, he had trouble sleeping that night not to mention pretty scary nightmares. Need I say more?
If he can listen to the Pogues, Clash, Clapton, Stones, Stone Roses, etc, etc and be a happy boy the next day (and the one after that) it pretty much sums up that the Decemberists are not a class act.
Oh, and they don't do anything for me either. Usually don't comment negatively about bands (don't like, don't listen) but this one struck me as worthy of my negative comment.
For your 12 year old, this band writes about disturbing subjects in a cinematic manner, I could see how it would give him nightmares.
That doesn't make them a bad band, it makes them inappropriate for your son at this age. I can understand your not liking the music, but saying they aren't a class act is not an accurate way to describe things.
I think the Smiths' first album with lyrics about molesters, child murderers and discovering homosexual love would be inappropriate as would some later Pink Floyd (the Wall isn't exactly great bedtime music). That doesn't make them bad bands; acquired tastes perhaps, but not bad artists. In comparison there are rap and heavy metal bands with lyrics that appear to celebrate exploiting or being violent to women, gang life, murder etc. that does make them not only bad for children but also discerning adults can tell its usually total crap.
|
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence
(May 09, 2008 - 02:35) | Back in the '70's, the Guess Who were thought by many to be awful, including myself. 20 years later, I decided I really dug those songs of theirs a lot.
Depressed Mode is another case just like that. Back when they were big, I thought they were horrible, and they were one of those bands most of the critics also disliked.
I did like that song Policy of Truth even back then though. But now, these days, listening to the old gothers, I find them much more acceptable and even interesting and compelling sometimes. Their negative qualities of pretentiousness and creepy/gloomy lyrics seem almost quaint in retrospect and their good qualities of tunefulness, good phrasing, and technical prowess with programming a simple synth or two actually seems to outweigh the bad elements in their music and makes it enjoyable.
|
Cake - Sheep Go to Heaven
(May 08, 2008 - 02:32) | A perfect case of lost in translation:
a_genuine_find wrote:Do black sheep go to heaven too?
 
...and don't good goats go to heaven?
superfido wrote:
this is a dorky comment that tries to start a conflict where there isn't one.
LOL!! The black sheep and good goat controversy comes to RP and goes Net viral!!
I guess American humor doesn't translate in Swedish, but I'm sure some Swedish jokes will be over my head as well.
|
Violent Femmes - Blister in the Sun
(May 08, 2008 - 02:26) | This song takes me back...
We used to go crazy and dance in other people's living rooms when this came on. Wherever you were, if it came on, gauranteed every body would drop what they were doing and start to dance to it, because it was sort of agreed to in my circle of friends that this song was required spontanious dancing material.
Seems weird now. But um, back then there was nothing like it. It sort of was the first punk acoustic tune, so it kind of started a whole genre and sound people take for granted now and go so what?
And, best of all, it made everybody feel like having sex.
So we loved it.
|
Ramones - Do You Remember Rock N Roll Radio
(May 08, 2008 - 01:26) | jjbix wrote: I guess I should have seen these guys live because their recordings are soooo pedestrian. Overrated group, what is all the fuss about? Sounds like a garage band, and not necessarily a good one!
Punk = garage. DIY.
Guess you missed it.
Ramones didn't want to be good, they wanted to play 3 chord songs about stuff in NYC. Simple and honest stuff you could slam dance to.
Ultimately, lots of their stuff sucked, but most of it was fun, and their good stuff was great in its own way.
|
Donovan - Season Of The Witch
(May 06, 2008 - 02:51) | mojoman wrote: This is okay, but I prefer Richard Thompson's version.
Well, uh, this is the original version by the guy who wrote it, so that makes it sort of, um, a classic version.
I hope Bill plays the Richard Thompson version, I bet it's good too.
|
Zombies - Time of the Season
(May 06, 2008 - 02:48) | redeyespy wrote: Classic, yeah, but this song always seemed like a 4 minute obscene phone call.
It is-- the lyrics are inane. Who's your daddy, is he rich like me? Basically they're coming on to the women who already have boyfriends and are trying to score with them. Sick.
But I still like the song anyway, guilty pleasure I guess, and the Zombies, I don't know I just like that combo of Rod Argent's keyboards and the different kind of sound they put out.
|
Roy Orbison - She's A Mystery To Me
(May 06, 2008 - 02:41) | uh, just try singing this or any Roy song.
I wager most will be gasping for breath, none will be able to belt out the full on parts, and the high notes-- laughter.
The guy is a championship singer, one of the best pure singers of all time.
Plus this song is so classic, though a later one-- the women we love are a mystery to us men and ever remain so. She's a mystery, and then there's this dark angle to the lyrics too that evoke the fear and edge in relationship. It's a great song all around.
|
Jean-Luc Ponty - Ethereal Mood
(May 06, 2008 - 02:26) | Wow, this is great. Never thought I'd hear Jean Luc Ponty here at RP! Awesome.
One of the best concerts I ever ever saw was John McLaughlin Orchestra w/ Jean Luc Ponty. It was like seeing Bach and Vivaldi play together along with other beyond top notch musicians playing the most intricate, difficult, beautiful, ecstatic and harmonic music imaginable.
|
Nitin Sawhney - Mausam
(May 06, 2008 - 02:15) | arserocket wrote: I love it ...... give me this over Pink Floyd anyday.
Sorry to break it to you, but this is Pink Floyd from their Umma Gumma Yumma Hanamana Humma Drumma album. Nitin Sawhney is just Nick Mason's girlfriend's pet name for Nick backwards, and Mausam is what they called their dog. This is from back when they did some tunes under some fictional names.
|
Ray LaMontagne - Be Here Now
(May 06, 2008 - 02:02) | This one reminds me of some of the music from the psychedelic era-- the Moody Blues-ish kind that wasn't too strange but more scenic. Very pretty tune, I like it.
|
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - Please Read The Letter
(May 06, 2008 - 01:55) | An excellent CD. Feels more like a Robert Plant solo album with Allison getting in a few tunes of her own and harmonizing. Robert goes folky and slightly bluegrassy, but it works, and it is beautiful. Great musicians with fine results to listen to. It's a grower, I've liked that CD more each time I hear it, there's a lot of subtle instrumental touches and the compositions and arrangements make more and more sense with each hearing, and it's beautiful music.
|
Pearl Jam - Masters Of War (Live)
(May 05, 2008 - 02:37) | Frater_Kork wrote:This is a perfect showcase of talent versus crap.
Compare this live track by Eddie Vedder to this miserable presentation by Dave Matthews played a few hours ago. (Yes it's a different song, but the live set up is kinda the same)
The difference is of course that Eddie can sing and play a guitar successfully while Dave should go back to his frat closet.
Ironic, though that Dave is about unfrat as you can get. And your attitude is 100% frat stereotype-- in your face kind of belligerence. No offense to mature acting frat dudes everywhere who have nothing to do with the stereotype thrown at Dave Matthews.
And of course these two songs have nothing in common in comparison. Dave & Tim Reynolds just did some jam tours, it's a certain kind of thing. This is a terrific cover of Masters of War by Vedder. No comparison. Dave Mathews uses his voice like a saxophone, an instrument to weave into an improv semi jazz arrangement. Vedder rocks and sings with passion but his voice is more of a trumpet. There's room for all kinds of good music here, except for haters/trolls who always have to find a spot to put down some performer they hate. By the way, this next song Bill just put into the rotation reminds me of your favorite musician and he sucks, so there, yeah that's it, a valuable comment that adds plenty here, now I feel trollishly better than everyone else.
|
Neil Young - Like a Hurricane
(May 05, 2008 - 02:21) | lemmoth wrote:
And because I had the ability to say what I feel, people only write part of it, because its news that I would agree with Reagan. So they say Neil Young supports Reagan, so &*&*'em, I don't care what they do.
Everyday is different. Sometimes I like George, sometimes I don't like George Bush."
Good points, except for one detail. Neil Young wrote that song "Let's Impeach the President" about GWBush, and made a whole CD against Bush and his stinkin' war.
So his feelings aren't quite so nuanced anymore on that particular subject.
|
Chick Corea & Bela Fleck - Mountain
(May 05, 2008 - 01:37) | Lots of good YouTubes with Chick Corea & Bela Fleck, great performances. Saw one with those two plus Al Jareau scat singing the jazz piece they all did-- sublime, beautiful and amazing.
|
Coldplay - Warning Sign
(May 05, 2008 - 01:04) | cutterjudd wrote: I have been reading some negative opinions about Coldplay. And thats OK, I can be negative in a circuit of positive I guess thats why we attract...LOL.
But I am new to Coldplay and I really enjoy their music....IMHO
Don't worry, plenty of us love/like Coldplay. I think they're one of the best, and Rush of Blood one of the top CD's of the past few years.
|
Sam Bush - Stingray
(May 05, 2008 - 00:46) | h_in_bristol wrote: Never heard Sam Bush before.
This is really great, thanks Bill!
Chances are you have heard him in:
New Grass Revival-- his famous band
and playing on tour and in studio with/for:
Leon Russell
Garth Brooks
Dixie Chicks
Neil Diamond
Jerry Douglas
Steve Earle
Béla Fleck
Richie Furay
Nanci Griffith
David Grisman
Emmylou Harris
Wynonna Judd
Alison Krauss
Leftover Salmon
Lyle Lovett
Tim O'Brien
Dolly Parton
John Prine
Tony Rice
Butch Robins
Linda Ronstadt
Peter Rowan
Shel Silverstein
Ricky Skaggs
Shania Twain
Doc Watson
Don Williams
Trisha Yearwood
But best of all, he's an originator of the new grass style of bluegrass.
|
R.E.M. - Electrolite
(May 04, 2008 - 23:00) | randomprime wrote:
When did Mills leave?
I meant Bill Berry, the drummer, OOPS.
|
Coldplay - Spies
(May 01, 2008 - 04:43) | Great lyrics:
I awake to find no peace of mind
I said how do you live
As a fugitive?
Down here, where I cannot see so clear
I said what do I know?
Show me the right way to go
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cos you know
And the spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no
'Cos they're all spies
They're all spies
I awake to see that no one is free
We're all fugitives - look at the way we live
Down here, I cannot sleep from fear, no
I said which way do I turn?
Oh I forget everything I learn
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so bad 'cos you know
And the spies hide out in every corner
But you can't touch them no
'Cos they're all spies
They're all spies
And if we don't hide here
They're gonna find us
And if we don't hide now
They're gonna catch us when we sleep
And if we don't hide here
They're gonna find us
And the spies came out of the water
But you're feeling so good 'cos you know
That though spies hide out in every corner
they can't touch you, no
'Cos they're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
They're just spies
|
Snow Patrol - Shut Your Eyes
(May 01, 2008 - 00:16) | joanie wrote: there are the artists...and there are the admirers, these are the artists... i saw them live.
So true.
The video of their song Chocolate, watch it at YouTube. That is art-- people rushing around the crowded square, trying to survive time as counted by the hourglass. End of the world or a relationship, human frailties and flaws, fidelity/infidelity or just a heart stopping moment of realization, beautifully done with a great tune.
And the video of their song Spitting Games, I've played it over and over, it's infectuously rocking and played with precise pleasure.
|
Elvis Costello - Beyond Belief
(Apr 30, 2008 - 23:58) | junebaby65 wrote: Always loved his voice....really underrated...
He's a great singer with a vocal texture that's an acquired taste. The amazing thing is how great he is musically as a singer. When you listen to the harmonies and the notes he hits perfectly in his backing vocals, like on Hoover Factory or some of his soul tinged or chorus laden harmony songs or on the Get Happy CD, you're just blown away. It is awesome.
The irony is that his voice sort of has a wretched tone quality he was born with yet he's perfected the art of singing as a musician. And I believe he's taught his wife Diana Krall how to sing. She's the opposite-- her vocal texture is pretty yet in the past her delivery was so casual it had no depth and no feeling and was dreadfully dull. Since they've been together, she's developed much more depth of tone and feeling and her phrasing is so much better. I can't but help believe he's taught her how to really sing.
|
The Decemberists - The Perfect Crime #2
(Apr 30, 2008 - 23:05) | horstman wrote:
That said, this song is a 5.4 and is just marginal. If it weren't for the Al Stewart factor, it wouldn't have any appeal at all. Too disco fever meets James Bond.
I can understand folks not liking the song for one reason or another, but this is not Al Stewart-ish other than the nasal vocal, and it has nothing to do with disco or Bond.
It's rythmically and sonically more similar to the new wave era, and those of us who have the CD know what this band is about-- very diverse sounding songs, with much progressive rock in it (sounding like Traffic, Tull, Genesis at times) though this song isn't like that. And the lyrics on the CD are all about the crimes of the rich (war, exploitation, theft, etc.) against the rest based on being set in various historical settings, especially the early industrial and late pre-industrial era of robber barons.
Perfect Crime's all about how robber barons use people of lesser means as hit men for their crimes and are never caught:
The bagman's quaking at the fingers
The hand-off glance a little lingers
A well-dressed man in the crosshairs
A shot rings out from somewhere upstairs
There's much more to this CD, song and band than the haters here get. I can understand not liking it, but bashing it with incorrect descriptions is not fair to this music, which many of us like because that CD is quite exceptional, and worth a listen if you like progressive rock and lyrics on deeper themes than sex, drugs and rock n roll.
|
Nickel Creek - Smoothie Song
(Apr 30, 2008 - 01:12) | chirpie wrote: This album is recorded really well. It's not "dark sounding" but at the same time they didn't compress the hell out of the dynamics.
A great CD to own to show off a good hi-fi rig. :-)
Produced by the great Allison Krauss.
I think that's the best thing about the album as it didn't stand up to repeated listenings for me-- I wanted to like it a lot, but heard too many fatal flaws in the band's performances on it, but I think this band will get better, and they are already better than much of what's out there.
|
Strawbs - Lay Down
(Apr 30, 2008 - 00:53) | These guys had several truly great records in the '70's. This song is after the lead singer lost his voice-- it used to be much better.
Hero and Heroine was a record I played over and over back then, and it really expanded my musical mind with a different bent of folk rock-- perhaps it was a big influence on Richard Thompson's later style. The lyrics were a bit of a revelation to my young teen mind, all about some frank realistic discussions of sex and break ups and such I'd never known before in the midst of really awesome harmonies and mellotron/synth symphonic progressive folk rock.
|
Johnny Cash - Rusty Cage
(Apr 29, 2008 - 23:47) | Just a couple or so years ago, there was a bunch of CD's out of big band jazz vocal doing grunge and metal rock songs in the jazz vocal style. Some were good, some not. And I'm not speaking of the laughably bad famous Pat Boone record, I'm talking about legit attempts.
This Cash cover is interesting, mostly I like it because Cash makes it his own.
|
Mick Jagger - Memo From Turner
(Apr 26, 2008 - 00:59) | alanb wrote:
It sounds more like a weak attempt to imitate Dylan. Sincerest form of flattery and all that aside, I must say that Jagger is no Dylan. But then, Dylan is no Jagger either. ;-)
Agree that Jagger isn't in Dylan's lyrical league, but Mick does still write some good poetic lyrics on occassion surprisingly, and this is one of the better ones, IMO.
|
Thunderclap Newman - Something In The Air
(Apr 26, 2008 - 00:06) | softjeans wrote:
Amen. "The revolution's here?" Yeah, right.
Though I kinda like the dopey piano solo with handclaps...once a decade or so.
Give the original a break-- they really did think they'd have a revolution in 1969, except they were too stoned, sexed up and spaced out to follow through with it. But at least it was kinda momentarily believable when he released it.
|
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
(Apr 25, 2008 - 23:43) | Ag3nt0rang3 wrote:
Of course, "Panic" is a great place to start, what an amazing song, perhaps my current favourite Smiths song. My first Smiths song was "Asleep", and I loved it. Yes, I was a mopey, depressed teenager.
The amazing thing about Panic, not just the greatness of that song. There actually was an incident in England where a very stressed out or deranged or perhaps sensible Smiths fan went to a commercial radio station (back in the '80's when the Smiths were big in the UK) and by gun point forced the DJ to play nothing but the Smiths for 24 hours (or until he was arrested). I always wondered if Panic was written about that incident or preceded it.
I got into the Smiths the first time watching their video of Sheila Take a Bow on MTV or VH1 broadcast a couple years before they broke up. I was blown away by how they just played the song with such conviction, originality and musicianship-- that opened my ears and then I bought Louder Than Bombs and played it over and over, because the lyrics, the original mesmerizing guitar playing and the synthesis of all the elements, especially the way the rythm section holds it all together, was awesome.
|
R.E.M. - Electrolite
(Apr 12, 2008 - 01:21) | TJOpootertoot wrote:
I think it's their most underrated album.
It was basically all recorded on the road at soundchecks and in dressing rooms.
Well worth a purchase if you like REM at all, IMHO.
I agree. I was surprised after I got it that this one failed to chart well for them. It's one of the better ones before Mills left but never got much attention or airplay. Yeah, if you're enough of an REM fan to collect all their better stuff, add it to your collection, it's a keeper not a klunker.
|
Eels - Friendly Ghost
(Apr 12, 2008 - 00:25) | Interesting bio on Mark Everett at the Eels entry at wikipedia.
I didn't know he was originally performing as the Man Called E. More of a techno pop/Bowie-esque thing then, it made a bit of a splash on FM alt rock radio back in the 90's when that still existed before Clear Channell came along with its bulldozer and levelled those stations to the ground. I really liked that Man called E record. I had no idea he's an Eel now, no wonder I like these slippery Eels. This guy is quite talented.
|
Dr. John - Honey Dripper
(Apr 12, 2008 - 00:08) | Very cool, I thought this was even more old timey like out of the Fats Domino 1920's-40's era.
|
Joe Cocker - Cry Me a River
(Apr 08, 2008 - 23:43) | His vocal 'stylings' have been learned by such 'notable' singers as John Mellenkamp and Bryan Adams. Rasp 'n' retch until the melody suffers and bleeds and is finally destroyed.
The over the top cry me a river of raspy upchucking ciggarette and so boozed I can't stand up style. I don't normally like to knock a song, but this performer...
Even Tom Waits is a better 'singer'.
|
Kate Bush - Army Dreamers
(Apr 08, 2008 - 22:59) | Watch the video on YouTube, it's great.
This song's all about the young boys who get sent to war and never come back, and never get to be the men with careers, marriages, and lives they could have had. "What a waste".
Very powerful in that unique Kate B. way.
|
James Gang - Funk #49
(Apr 08, 2008 - 22:16) | fredriley wrote:I think "funk" in the title is a typo... 
That's because funk music didn't exist then. This 'funk' is what was known as a bummer, being in a funk.
|
The Psychedelic Furs - The Ghost In You
(Apr 08, 2008 - 21:56) | Jack_Jefferson wrote: This doesn't sound psychedelic to me.
It isn't. It's furry instead. New wave fur that is, the kind of fur you put on your earphones and then dance.
The psychedelic part is in other songs of theirs where there's a touch bit less fur.
|
Bob Marley - Jamming
(Apr 08, 2008 - 20:35) | Great song to dance to. Even a not very good reggae bar band can make you dance to this song and feel blissful. That's some good songwriting somehow, even if simple, something about the joy inside it. Thanks to the passionate genius of Bob Marley.
|
The Doors - The Spy
(Apr 08, 2008 - 20:33) | Hannio wrote:
I'm sure everything will be totally different when Hillary is in office. I do so long for that day. Nobody will have to worry about government intrusion, then.
Wingers always have an excuse for Bush. It's always someone else's is fault, someone else is as bad. When the mosquitos bite, I don't blame the birds. When it rains, I don't blame the snow.
What's it in the water down there that does that?
|
John Martyn - May You Never
(Apr 08, 2008 - 19:52) | Great song, classic too. I love a well played, great musicianship on a simple song structure on just the guitar with voice and with uplifting words. Beautifully done by a master like Martyn.
|
Rolling Stones - Ruby Tuesday
(Apr 08, 2008 - 19:48) | CafeRacer wrote: What the heck is that thing that sounds like a buzzy bug that keeps popping up in the background? great song, though.
It's likely the string double bass that Bill Wyman and Keith Richards played on the song. Wyman plucked the strings while Richards used a bow for that effect you hear (according to wikipedia), combined with the recorder and keyboards makes it all sound psychedelic.
|
Men At Work - It's a Mistake
(Apr 06, 2008 - 03:28) | jjbix wrote: It was sort of cute 15 years ago . . . now it's just trite.
Considering it's a timeless song about a nuclear accident by great musicians I'd say it transcends the oldie genre into aomething more special, as are a good CD's worth of their smart tuneful songs.
|
Jeff Healey Band - Angel Eyes
(Apr 06, 2008 - 01:06) | Honeyman wrote: RIP Jeff.
Great song...written by John Hiatt.
I've always wanted to hear the Hiatt original, though I've always loved Healey's version.
I sang this once at a kareoke at a bar, my girlfriend loved it. Guys, if you can learn to sing this song, your girlfriend will dig it.
|
The Beatles - Taxman
(Apr 05, 2008 - 23:42) | AphidA wrote: This should be Hillary or Obama's campaign theme song. A show of support for massive taxation.
Ha, ha, ha. Silly, it's the Republicans who always prosecute lower income & middle income people with the IRS and let the rich slide, and the Republicans who lower tax rates for the rich and increase them for the poor. It was Reagan who did a massive restructering so that more was taken out of your paycheck unless you were rich. He also taxed waiters & waitresses and other previously exempt groups. Oh, ok let's go back to the myth-- yeah them Demmycrats are going to raise yr taxes and them Rethuglicans are not dictatorial vampire criminals, yeah that's it.
And BTW, if you listen to the Beatles tune, they call out both the PM's for the Torys and Labor-- basically saying the govt.'ll tax you no matter what party. 'Course we don't need roads, hospitals or anything, we should just keep our money and count it on the rubble, that'll bring true happiness.
And I love this song, it's a great one.
|
The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
(Apr 05, 2008 - 23:11) | Best thing they ever did?
I'd say it's the least good they did. The first album is a knockout. So is Louder than Bombs (or Hatful of Hollow which has many of the same tracks). The Queen is Dead is pretty terrific too. And on this CD, I like the Headmaster Ritual and Well I wonder, they rock you into the bone of your spine and mind.
|
Donna The Buffalo - If You Only Could
(Apr 05, 2008 - 22:20) | This is the long jam song where the dj gets up, goes to the bathroom, eats his dinner and calls his girlfriend. Dj's love songs like that to have on their shift.
Actually, this was pleasant background music even though a bit noodly long.
|
Rickie Lee Jones - Up from the Skies
(Apr 05, 2008 - 22:04) | meower215 wrote: RLJ uses her voice like an instrument. I love her, would LOVE to hear something from the Magazine.
thanx for playing her
Yes, Magazine and Pirates are my favorites, would love to hear some of those cuts of sublime harmonic folky jazz pop.
|
The Who - The Rock
(Apr 05, 2008 - 21:33) |
If that's the best of The Who, why are they often being compared to the Beatles and the Stones? I just don't get it.
Well, for one thing this piece is an instrumental. No, I wouldn't call it their best. Who's Next or Love Reign O'er Me are better.
But it's a matter of taste. These quys had a huge influence, especially on how to use synthesizers, on progressive rock bands and compositions, and on the kind of sound and stage performance as well as they were pioneers of the concept album. Led Zeppellin was heavily influenced by the Who. These guys are great musicians, but either you like their sound or you don't. But they do have a lot of energetic and also thoughtful songs.
|
Gotye - Puzzle With A Piece Missing
(Apr 05, 2008 - 21:27) | burdell wrote: This is a dub song. (Yes, the Police were influenced by dub as well) I think the first dub song I heard was from the Clash. And probably my favorite all time dub band is Black Uhuru. If you like this sound there is an entire genre of music out there for you.
Dub is originally a Jamaican reggae style, a subcategory in reggae that started in the '60's, and the Clash and American or Brit reggae groups like UB40 got it from Jamaican reggae. Dub's characterized by some sound effects, drum effects, vocalizations similar to scat and rap, and lots of echo over a reggae drumbeat and sometimes much more reggae instrumentation.
Used to be you'd hear a whole afternoon once a week of just dub reggae on your favorite public fm radio station.
|
Goldfrapp - Little Bird
(Apr 02, 2008 - 16:08) | Wow I like this.
Never heard it before.
Kind of like Cocteau Twins, the Sundays, even Radiohead, psycho delio tronic sonic beauty.
|
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
(Apr 02, 2008 - 15:43) | andrewimft wrote: This used to get played at a lot of Halloween and New Years Parties back in the day, when I was only a lad.
And it was always fun, and fun to dance to.
(I was going to say that the first time, before I spaced it out).
|
Oingo Boingo - Dead Man's Party
(Apr 02, 2008 - 15:42) | This used to get played at a lot of Halloween and New Years Parties back in the day, when I was only a lad.
|
Hellecasters - Inspector Gadget
(Apr 02, 2008 - 15:40) | iTuner wrote: If this guy has so much talent, why is he playing this crap music?
Hmm... that crap music you're referring to is called jazz.
Maybe he just likes to play JAZZ on his geetar, and frankly when you're that good you can play just about anything, including stuff that people who are used to pop rock don't understand nor know how to listen to.
|
Pink Floyd - Fat Old Sun
(Apr 02, 2008 - 14:22) | This band hasn't been the same since Bob Klose left.
(snark)
David Gilmour just has a beautiful gift for melody from the beginning to the present.
|
Neil Young - Human Highway
(Mar 31, 2008 - 23:25) | I wouldn't call Comes A Time one of Neil's country records, since most of the songs are more just acoustic folk tinged rather than country, though this song and a couple others do have a country flavor and some steel guitar twang. But I'd call it one of his best acoustic records, with a lot of pretty open chord songs and harmonies, and great songwriting.
|
The Sundays - Here's Where The Story Ends
(Mar 31, 2008 - 23:18) | is the rest of this album this good?
This is from the 1st CD, I think there are two great cuts, this song and one other. The rest of it isn't quite as catchy but still solid and worth listening to.
The other 2 subsequent CDs, Blind and Static & Silence are outstanding from start to finish and are more entirely in this style except they feature more electric guitar mixed in with the layers of acoustic guitars.
Truly a great band. Those 2 CD's stayed in my car a long time. Love, love, love 'em, and never get too tired of it. Every time I go back to them, I end up playing them for a few weeks again. Those 2 later Cd's I highly recommend.
|
Chris Isaak - Round 'n' Round
(Mar 31, 2008 - 22:44) | RobK wrote:
Do you know you're leaving out a few?
I'd recommend this one (SF Days) and Forever Blue for sure. Baja Sessions is excellent but it's mostly stipped-down covers of his songs, plus some others. It has a great sound to it though and shouldn't be left out. Speak of the Devil is also really good. I don't have the one (or two) after that.
Always Got Tonight is excellent too. He's consistently good. AGT is more variety-- different rock styles on each song, but all the songs are great.
|
Traffic - John Barleycorn
(Mar 30, 2008 - 23:02) |
Who is john Barleycorn and why did he have to die?
Read the lyrics, because this song is so rich and the tale has so much history in English folk music, that there are many interpretations of the meaning.
Traffic's version is outstanding.
|
The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You
(Mar 29, 2008 - 03:55) | Ray Davies is a master at the bridges in a song, this one is spectacular and makes the whole song. So many lesser songs would be way better if they had good bridges. His lyrics and intelligence and musicality are still on display in the early stuff like this when he was just learning the songwriting craft.
|
Tracy Chapman - Talkin' Bout a Revolution
(Mar 29, 2008 - 03:50) | I have to agree with some that I've always found the lyrics somewhat dumb though I like the sentiment overall and the feel of the song; when it came out it seemed really dumb since revolution seemed about as far away as one could imagine and I thought she sounded ultra naive though heart in the right place. Anyhow, I think most of the time evolution is better than revolution.
That said, I think much of this is way more serious discussion and thought and poring over a song that essentially is much simpler and not very deep really.
The simplicity of the song sometimes makes me like the song more, other times less.
|
Stephen Stills - So Begins The Task
(Mar 29, 2008 - 02:52) | One of those records that was played everywhere at one point by people in the '70's, if you didn't own it (I didn't), you'd hear it a lot anyway.
I liked it better later, seeing the jams were pretty good even if I initially hadn't liked the songs all that much, it is good background music.
|
k.d. lang - I Dream of Spring
(Mar 29, 2008 - 02:18) | No argument about the voice. Other than Constant Craving, which is a classic, I find her stuff too, um, MOR, though ... too suited to your local lite FM station for my taste.
Well, she's always changing genres and doing different stuff, and it's not at all all MOR.
Invincible Summer is a favorite CD for me, it's like sunny pop rock but with a lot of strange twists in the songs, like unusual key changes and complete changes of melody but it all stays poppy and pretty yet not your usual commercial stuff, too complex for a top 40 listener to handle. And if you like Constant Craving, that whole album, Ingenue is entirely filled with Constant Craving kinds of pop songs which for lack of reference I'd call Joni Mitchellesque.
Then she did pure jazz pop duets with Tony Bennett. And of course that doesn't mention the previous start with country music. She gets around, and it's not all just MOR.
She is an absolutely top notch singer, and I think she'll likely be a legend someday.
|
R.E.M. - Supernatural Superserious
(Mar 29, 2008 - 01:46) | I like it better than recent ones of theirs. Do they have another permanent or session drummer? It sure sounds like it this time.
That drum machine just did not work with their tunes once their drummer left, I think it killed their sound and whole dynamic.
|
Muse - Knights of Cydonia
(Mar 28, 2008 - 23:57) | Queen, The Who, Zepplin; reminds me a bit of each.
Wow, and I hear also early Scorpions, Cream, Metallica, Uriah Heep, Jellyfish, Soundgarden, Rush and, well, Muse.
I am way impressed with this, I'd not really heard this one before.
|
Fleetwood Mac - Man Of The World
(Mar 28, 2008 - 23:29) | gekkosan wrote: Oh wow..! A learning experience! I literally knew nothing of Fletwood Mac's history and music previous to Rummours... and so I knew nothing of Peter Green and his - I'm just learning- awesome talents.
This is one of the things I love best about Radio Paradise!
You're in for a treat, because there's 3 prior eras of Mac for you to enjoy, and I think all 3 incarnations of the band lineup/sound were terrific: the early bluesy Mac with Green and Jeremy Spencer, the pretty, mellow soundscapes of the Danny Kirwan era (Future Games, Bare Trees) and the creative pop of the Bob Welsh/Christine McVie songwriting era (Hypnotized, Heroes are hard to find). Of course some of those lineups overlapped a bit, but each of the 3 had a distinctive different sound to the band. All great stuff, you really can't go wrong with any of the albums these lineups produced though some are stronger than others or may be more to your liking than others, they are all musically delicious.
|
Harry Manx & Friends - Voodoo Child
(Mar 28, 2008 - 23:22) | I find this likeable background music but have to agree the combo of instruments and vocals really doesn't work, since it's live I can forgive it for being an improv session but parts of it do reek-- not to be listened to too closely. I like that they tried it, I don't like so much that they released it, but I figure they didn't hurt any small animals while doing it so there's no great harm done.
|
Tori Amos - Space Dog
(Mar 28, 2008 - 23:07) | I like it when Tori takes her dog out for a walk in space, it's very cool.
Way to go Mr. Microphone
Show us all what you don't know
Centuries secret societies
He's our commander still
Space Dog...
So where's Neil when you need him
Deck the halls it's you again
It's you again
Somewhere someone must know the ending
Is she still pissing in the river
Now heard she'd gone
Moved into a trailer park
So sure we were on something
I'm not sure what she's talking about, but I like it a lot.
|
Peter Schilling - Major Tom (Völlig Losgelöst)
(Mar 28, 2008 - 23:03) | Actually the German version of this song is about a German astronaut, not in space, but lost in Texas where some are so narrow minded that they hate the song he sings.
At least that's what I think it's about when I read the comments, or else my German is bad, but better than my Texan.
By the way, let me apologize to all Germans and foreigners here at RP and explain that Texas is not really part of the U.S. Texas actually invaded the U.S. in 2000, and ever since we Americans have been living under the Texan occupation as well as we can. Sorry about that.
|
Dave Alvin - Highway 61
(Mar 28, 2008 - 01:58) | I like this, the way it's darker than the Dylan version.
Abraham: Say What? Well, all right, I'll do it.
Yikes, it's chillingly cold the way he does this tune.
|
New Order - True Faith
(Mar 28, 2008 - 00:16) | newyorkone wrote:
The lyrics are meaningless for the most part. Bernard Sumner has stated on numerous occasions that he hates writing lyrics and that most of the time it's just made up nonsense just to fill space. He cared more about the music.
Maybe, but I think Sumner was just snowing some pesky journalist on. Lots of musicians do that. NO is not known for liking journalists, and who can blame them.
The lyrics on Electronic's first album (Sumner & Johnny Marr's band) are obviously telling stories about shady characters; they aren't meaningless. I can imagine some of his early stuff he winged it at the start, but can't imagine it's all nonsense, the interview sounds more like the nonsense.
|
Pixies - La La Love You
(Mar 28, 2008 - 00:10) | reverber wrote: Does this sound kind of like a Smiths song to anybody else?
Cody
Yah, if you add surf guitar, told Johnny Marr to tune his guitar an octave low, told Morrissey to toss out his lyrics and put in la la love you instead plus some wicked whistling, it does.
|
Midnight Oil - Beds Are Burning
(Mar 27, 2008 - 23:56) | Mugro wrote: I know that this song was written about aborginal land in Australia and how Midnight Oil wante this land given back to the aboriginies, but I think of this song now when dealing with the corrupt spendthrift Dems running the Massachusetts state government.
I want to go up to the fat cat old boys in the legislature and tell them to give us our tax money back -- "the time has come, a fact's a fact, it belongs to them, we're going to give it back!"
Ha, ha, yeah and Romney/Bush/McCain and them Rethuglicans are your big liberators. Wingers sure are hilarious in their delusions. Ya know what? Peter Garrett wants to take your tax money and fund social programs, he's a socialist. So start hating this song along with the Dems.
Me, I'm loving Midnight Oil and progressive political change.
|
The Who - I'm Free
(Mar 27, 2008 - 23:48) | fretman wrote:
With the exception of "Pictures of Lilly" I don't believe they did a love song...
Try Bargain, Love Reign O'er Me, You Better You Bet to name just a few.
|
Tommy Emmanuel - Over the Rainbow
(Mar 27, 2008 - 23:25) | Reminds me of a Les Paul arrangement on this tune, though it has other elements and uniqueness and total mastery of the geeetar as harp in Emmanuel's mind blowing playing. I bet more people would like it if it wasn't Over the Rainbow.
|
Jesse Cook - Cri
(Mar 27, 2008 - 23:07) | Some people can't tell a mullet from regular long hair hippie hair.
But that's not surprising, next thing you know those clowns will be spelling morons morans, count on it.
|
Live - Supernatural
(Mar 27, 2008 - 14:45) | I don't know about this CD, but 'V' and Birds of Pray were great. I thought their two Cd's before that suffered from being overdone and not getting the songs produced right, but those 2 subsequent CD's were all excellent songs, more like the first album in that respect. Great in the car and at home, totally solid songs and tuneful and inspired. I keep hearing that Songs from Black Mt. is very good too, and I plan to get it, but haven't heard it yet.
|
Ani Difranco - Little Plastic Castle
(Mar 27, 2008 - 14:32) | Ani de good songwriter but she always resorts to gimmicky vocals and sloppy playing technique as some sort of statement, which makes it so that I never like her tunes unless someone else does them.
|
Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat
(Mar 27, 2008 - 14:07) | No, I was wrong, Leaky Boat was on Time and Tide, not Conflicting Emotions which had Message To My Girl.
Time and Tide was pretty good, and lots of songs about the ocean on it.
|
Split Enz - Six Months in a Leaky Boat
(Mar 27, 2008 - 14:04) | Keyboard player Eddie Raynor, highly underrated, gave the Enz much of their unique sound. It shows on this song. He really was great. This Cd was probably my least favorite of the post theatrical and more poppy Enz configuration, but it's still a decent record. And it has Message to My Girl, a beautiful song that sort of started Neil Finn's Crowded House style of ballads.
|
Cowboy Junkies - I Saw Your Shoes
(Mar 27, 2008 - 13:42) | They should release more outakes and b sides.
I like this much better than almost all of their regular album output that I've heard.
|
The Decemberists - Summersong
(Mar 27, 2008 - 00:21) | Deadwing wrote: Just bought this CD recently and it's just great! Some of you guys need to just lighten up
This is a great CD, I was blown away by it. There's Tull, Traffic, U2, all kinds of great influences in one long original series of songs about war, classism, the power of money, tragedy, and iconic imagery woven in with incredible diverse and delicious music. A great newer band that's really taken their work up to a very high level from where they were before.
|
Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot
(Mar 27, 2008 - 00:15) | harmaton wrote: omg, wtf is that poetry at the end of the song?
Yes, in most countries, poetry is loved, respected, adored.
Even here in the dumbtastic Slob-ovia U.S., some people get and like and love poetry, including Patti Smith's, at the end of a song, and no it isn't rap, and it doesn't end like others songs that go sha la la la, or yeah yeah yeah, or on the c note or the fade, how about that for daring originality in a rush of climactic sound that fits all together dancing barefoot.
|
Mark Knopfler - What It Is
(Mar 26, 2008 - 00:04) | Yah, old people, is what it is:
The drinking dens are spilling out
There's staggering in the square
There's lads and lasses falling about
And a crackling in the air
Down around the dungeon doors
The shelters and the queues
Everybody's looking for
Somebodys arms to fall into
And it's what it is
It's what it is now
There's frost on the graves and the monuments
But the taverns are warm in town
People curse the government
And shovel hot food down
The lights are out in city hall...
A walking stick from my hotel
The ghost of Dirty Dick
Is still in search of Little Nell
And it's what it is
It's what it is now
Oh its what it is
What it is now
Song of troubled times and a life span from youth to the walking cane, with a nice celtic rythm, is what it is.
|
Sweet - Love Is Like Oxygen
(Mar 25, 2008 - 23:50) | One of the very first big hair bands. Them and Slade (the first Slade that did Cum On Feel The Noize).
Alice Cooper was more theatrical but just around that time, Sweet and Slade came along, and it was what? Party down with permed big hair, spandex and an androgynous look. Then David Bowie came along took their look with better music, and these guys disappeared until the 80's when Motley Crue and a thousand other posers came along in footsteps of Sweet and Slade, without the music, melodies, chops or brains.
|
The Who - Baba O'Riley
(Mar 25, 2008 - 23:19) | "Who's that bangin' on the piano?"
"I don't know."
Answer: Pete Townshend!
The great Nicky Hopkins (who played on so many great '60's and 70's classic rock albums, including the Beatles and Stones) played piano on "The Song Is Over" and "Getting in Tune"; bassist John Entwistle played the piano on his own song, My Wife.
This all according to the wikipedia entry on Who's Next.
|
King Crimson - One Time
(Mar 25, 2008 - 19:52) | I don't own any KC, but eveytime I hear one of their songs, I am taken in. What's the best KC album to own?
I'd start with Discipline, because I think it's the most accessible introduction. An excellent CD, and much of it is more easy to listen to and enjoy as a starter. There's sweet ballads like the lovely ballad "Matte Kudasai" which anyone is likely to like, similar to "One Time" but much prettier in my opinion.
There's a few rockers like Elephant Talk and Discipline which feature the unique KC twist on rock, all in all a likeable CD most non KC fans would probably like. This CD features the great Adrian Belew on lead vocals and guitar, former Yes drummer Bill Bruford, and bass stick genius Tony Levin-- an incredible supergroup lineup.
The other suggestions people have made are all excellent, but I think this CD is the best to start with if you're not yet a full familiar fan of the band.
|
XTC - Senses Working Overtime
(Mar 25, 2008 - 03:00) | dctrpunda wrote: I bought an XTC CD once just to have the whole alphabet of artists in my collection. Listened once, never played it again, in retrospect, not sure what I was thinking..
Judging a band by one song or CD is simply wrong. Lots of bands have one great CD, or several good ones and others not so good. They may have different attempts, moods and styles that appeal/don't appeal to you.
English Settlement, Skylarking, and Nonesuch are the best ones to try. Then report back if you still didn't find something to like.
|
Midnight Oil - Dreamworld
(Mar 25, 2008 - 02:19) | Saw these guys on the tour of the Cd after this one. Rumor about the concert was they were going to come out and play entirely acoustic and mellow the whole evening.
Then these Midnight Oil tricksters came out and did the opposite-- it was all electric and very loud, heavy metallic. And great, an awesome concert.
|
Alison Krauss & Union Station - The Lucky One
(Mar 25, 2008 - 02:12) | I'm not a big bluegrass fan when it comes to recorded music though I respect it and the players, but it is a fun musical form to listen or dance to live though.
Allison Krauss is on a whole other level beyond the musical form. Her singing is some of the best in any genre, an incredible singing voice that I absolutely love. Her fiddling and the rest of her top notch players in the band take it to another level, like the Beatles of bluegrass or something.
I have all her albums, she is a favorite of mine yet playing a musical format I'm not a fan of. And I'd say New Favorite is one of my favorites, the musicianship on that record is astounding. The Lucky One is from that CD originally.
|
The Innocence Mission - I Remember Me
(Mar 25, 2008 - 00:58) | Wish these guys had gotten more airplay. They came on the scene just as radio began shutting everyone out except Brittany, 50 cent and sure hits of yore played o'er & o'er.
They had a vocal/guitar sonic soundscape approach to song much like the Sundays or a more coherent version of the Cocteau Twins. Less of a traditional pop approach and more of a soundscape element.
|
Leo Kottke - Snorkel
(Mar 24, 2008 - 23:59) | Exquisite.
Slide, 12 string? Makes the guitar sound like a banjo, a harmonium, a harpsichord and a happy animal.
Totally tremendous.
|
Bruce Cockburn - Wait No More
(Mar 24, 2008 - 23:50) | Bruce is totally amazing on the acoustic guitar. Deserves as much recognition for his acoustic playing as he's had for his fine songwriting, lyrics and diverse musical compositions.
|
Traffic - Heaven Is In Your Mind
(Mar 24, 2008 - 17:58) | Traffic's psychedelic album, and their first album, and perhaps their best or one of their best.
Very pure and musical, the later stuff was more deliberate not that it isn't good too.
|
Underworld - Trim
(Mar 24, 2008 - 03:44) | I like the banjo and guitar, the synth is ok but the drum machine was a bad idea. Get a drummer, please, it would improve the tune greatly. Sounds amateurishly sloppy and repetitively irritating with that cruddy drum machine setting. Makes me yearn for New Order or Yaz or Erasure, at least they know how to use drum machines properly.
|
The Clash - Lost in the Supermarket
(Mar 24, 2008 - 02:14) | Such a great song.
Years ago, I used to be a janitor in a health food supermarket, when they played this on the radio, I'd crank it while sweeping or mopping.
The words and music are the best rock. One of my favorite songs ever.
|
Psychedelic Furs - Love My Way
(Mar 21, 2008 - 02:22) | A 25-year-old song in 1982 would have been from 1957. Music changed so much in that time. Is music not changing as fast anymore? Why not? Is it because we are baby boomers and the largest demographic ever and started the change in the sixties and it will stay the same until the 2020's when most of us are gone?
No, it's because Clear Channell controlled radio and MTV controlled TV music channells suck, and don't allow for good new music. That's why I listen to RP to hear and learn about the good new music in the mix.
|
Sebadoh - Ocean
(Mar 21, 2008 - 02:15) | This has a more early raw new wave sound like early Graham Parker and the Rumour, early Elvis Costello.
I always loved that sound. You can dance to it, the guitars are great and the lyrics make you think, and it has a raw energy to it.
|
John Hiatt - Pirate Radio
(Mar 21, 2008 - 01:39) | This tune is a celebration of rebel radio bucking the system, putting on real music:
Well, those electric sheep to the valley they keep walkin
On the radio waves selling tennis shoes and beer
It induces sleep when that dj starts his squawkin'
I'm lookin' for one song to save me on this midnight clear So how far do we have to go to hear that pirate radio?
One song that could steal our hearts
Before they turn into silver and gold
Well I'm drivin' my care real slow and my baby wants to know
When we gonna hear our song on that pirate radio?
|
David Bowie - Sound and Vision
(Mar 21, 2008 - 01:36) | This CD was one of those ground breakers and the styles on all the different cuts influenced the sounds of a whole bunch of subsequent alt rock bands. Now it's been kinda forgotten.
I got this one only a few years ago and was blown away by how good it is, and how influential it really was, you can hear the source of a lot of later things from this one. Eno was helping Bowie stay clean and sober in Berlin when they cut this, and once again Eno had a pioneering influence.
|
Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser
(Mar 21, 2008 - 00:53) | Best thing about RP is they play a bit of jazz, world music, country classics and classics of different genres.
There are plenty of other stations that give you only alternative rock. The mix here is great, not too disorienting but it flows with high quality.
|
Jethro Tull - Bouree
(Mar 21, 2008 - 00:16) | This is the great old classic version.
They re-did it again on their Christmas Album, nice new version that's got a different tempo and feel to it though very recognizable, both versions are great. That Christmas Album is outstanding and not just seasonal, stylistically more like an updated sequel to Songs from the wood.
Saw Tull in mid 90's when Ian Anderson hit the early '50's, they were top notch in form and Anderson jumped around in tights like a ballet master rock star in fantastic condition. Must do yoga and eat organic, or maybe it's the ageless smoker and meat diet.
|
Robert Plant - All The King's Horses
(Mar 19, 2008 - 23:31) | This is one of those songs that are amazing in their circular simplicity and perfection. I got the chords and played it on my acoustic guitar, it's easy yet there's a certain complexity to the arrangement in terms of the subtle emphasis in the measures. Really masterful.
That whole CD is one of my favorites of the past few years. Robert Plant is still making some great music.
|
Björk - Human Behavior
(Mar 19, 2008 - 23:25) | Sounds like some song ideas from Kate Bush mixed with Yoko Ono's vocal stylings, and a few tortured dogs who were not harmed in the production of this song, only their tales were gently pulled.
|
Peter Tosh - Mystery Babylon
(Mar 19, 2008 - 23:14) | From wikipedia entry on Peter Tosh:
After an illustrious career with the Wailers and as a solo musician, he was murdered at his home. Though robbery was officially said to be the motivation behind Tosh's death, many believe that there were ulterior motives to the killing, citing that nothing was taken from the house
|
Oi Va Voi - 7 Brothers
(Mar 17, 2008 - 01:51) | Nice smorgysbord buffet of latin, klezmer, meditteranean, india, folky, gypsy, jazz and other tasty flavors in a yummy dish. Great to have worldly world music on RP.
|
Romeo Void - Never Say Never
(Mar 17, 2008 - 01:24) | I remember when this song came out and had a lot of air play.
That punk-ish new wave tune sure made a lot of people horny.
|
Vast - Frog
(Mar 17, 2008 - 01:18) | This tune reminds me of the Smiths with Jim Morrison singing lead instead of Morrissey.
Pretty nifty.
|
Thievery Corporation - Strange Days (Doors remix)
(Mar 17, 2008 - 01:02) | Sampling + a disco beat and a little fuzzy guitar = lazy way to make some cash.
I don't hate it, only because it's the Doors, but this is a little bit like having the Doors on your stereo while your neighbor plays some second rate disco coming in through your window.
|
Bruce Cockburn - Night Train
(Mar 16, 2008 - 23:35) | nigelr wrote: Wondered who was working the acoustic.......
Bruce Cockburn (vocals, acoustic, electric & resophonic guitars, dobro); Bonnie Raitt (slide guitar); Colin Linden (mandolin); Joe Macerollo (accordion); Janice Powers (keyboards); Gary Burton (vibraphone); Rob Wasserman (bass); Gary Craig (drums, tambourine, percussion); Bob Weir, Ani DiFranco, Jonatha Brooke, Patty Larkin, Bob Weir, Maria Muldaur (background vocals).
Info from CD Universe website, pretty reliable.
Bruce is an outstanding acoustic guitar player, one of the best just playing the acoustic guitar. I've seen live acoustic solo, absolutely stunning playing both technically and with feeling.
|
|
Delicious!! 
; "Idea"){kind=small}
A hungry man is an angry man. 
Me no like Arlo Guthrie. He not caveman, he hippie.
:puke: 
