The Drifters - Under The Boardwalk
video
I can't listen to this song without hearing the Bruce Willis cover version in my mind. No song should have to endure what can only be called rape by a smug movie star completely unaware of how much they is embarrassing theirself. Needless to say, any hope of objectivity (a strong staple of this process, of course) is gone. What is pretty cool is that the night before this song was due to be recorded, Rudy Lewis, the lead singer, died of a heroin overdose. Not being one to waste good studio time, the band manager hastily recruited the previous lead singer, who'd recently been fired, to record the song. I'm suprised he didn't force him to wear Lewis's face as a mask. Bad. Ass. You can't imagine that happening with N*Sync, can you?
That's all I can say about this song because Bruce's smug visage is leering at me. Damn you Bruce Willis.
Verdict: Probably good, but ruined by Bruce Willis.
Tomorrow: The Smiths - How Soon Is Now
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Burn the witch!
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
video
Before I've even listened to this song, I am a little sceptical - the venerable Wikipedia says that Stevie Nicks wrote this song about Celtic witches and was "renowned for dramatic live performances of Rhiannon in flowing gowns". Which sounds like just my thing, on the list right after sticking 6 inch nails through sensitive parts of my anatomy. But Nicks was a reknowned party animal and druggie, so that probably goes along way to describe how an Arizonan would identify with a Celtic witch/goddess.
After listening to it, I can say the following:
(1) It starts with a relatively agreeable harmonised guitar and a bouncing bass
(2) Stevie Nicks has a decent voice, if in a rather 70s, whiny American way
(3) The lyrics are complete garbage, cod-philosophy/mythology in the worst posssible way
(4) It's not a bad song if you can completely disregard the lyrics and are into inoffensive, middle of the road parent music
I guess this is the kind of music my generation's parents used to listen to when they smoke dope, all dressed in corduroy flares and heck of sideburns. I can't relate. I don't even own an item of clothing made out of corduroy.
Verdict: If you can't say anything nice..
Tomorrow: The Drifters - Under the Boardwalk
video
Before I've even listened to this song, I am a little sceptical - the venerable Wikipedia says that Stevie Nicks wrote this song about Celtic witches and was "renowned for dramatic live performances of Rhiannon in flowing gowns". Which sounds like just my thing, on the list right after sticking 6 inch nails through sensitive parts of my anatomy. But Nicks was a reknowned party animal and druggie, so that probably goes along way to describe how an Arizonan would identify with a Celtic witch/goddess.
After listening to it, I can say the following:
(1) It starts with a relatively agreeable harmonised guitar and a bouncing bass
(2) Stevie Nicks has a decent voice, if in a rather 70s, whiny American way
(3) The lyrics are complete garbage, cod-philosophy/mythology in the worst posssible way
(4) It's not a bad song if you can completely disregard the lyrics and are into inoffensive, middle of the road parent music
I guess this is the kind of music my generation's parents used to listen to when they smoke dope, all dressed in corduroy flares and heck of sideburns. I can't relate. I don't even own an item of clothing made out of corduroy.
Verdict: If you can't say anything nice..
Tomorrow: The Drifters - Under the Boardwalk
Monday, March 2, 2009
Survival Instincts
Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Find the video yourself, I can't be bothered
Whenever I hear this song I think of men with moustaches in leather pants dancing with one another in a promiscuous way in early '80's San Francisco. That's a touch weird because I've never been to San Francisco, nor was I really sentient in the early '80s (having been born in '79). It's not a negative image, but I don't think it's really my scene. Which is not why I hate this song.
Instead, I hate this song for many different reasons. One is because it's shit. Another is because it's a karaoke staple and I despise karaoke. A third reason is because it's disco and I just can't bring myself to like disco. I don't even like the monotone-voiced Cake cover of it, and I like Cake. It's just a song that I hate, for good reason or not. Which is why I'm going to say that this is second only to Dusty Springfield in the worst songs I've listened to on this list and stop there.
Verdict: They did a lot of drugs in the disco era, which probably explains the music.
Tomorrow: Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
Find the video yourself, I can't be bothered
Whenever I hear this song I think of men with moustaches in leather pants dancing with one another in a promiscuous way in early '80's San Francisco. That's a touch weird because I've never been to San Francisco, nor was I really sentient in the early '80s (having been born in '79). It's not a negative image, but I don't think it's really my scene. Which is not why I hate this song.
Instead, I hate this song for many different reasons. One is because it's shit. Another is because it's a karaoke staple and I despise karaoke. A third reason is because it's disco and I just can't bring myself to like disco. I don't even like the monotone-voiced Cake cover of it, and I like Cake. It's just a song that I hate, for good reason or not. Which is why I'm going to say that this is second only to Dusty Springfield in the worst songs I've listened to on this list and stop there.
Verdict: They did a lot of drugs in the disco era, which probably explains the music.
Tomorrow: Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Pretty Sweet
The Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar
video
I have a feeling that this song is about heroin. I have no idea why. That said, I think it's also about slavery, both literally and figuratively with respect to heroin addiction, something the Stones obviously know nothing about. It's also about sadomasochism and oral sex. Pretty much standard Stones fare then, especially when Mick Jagger describes it as a song about drugs and girls (ever the deconstructionist, our Mick). Reknowned rock journalist Robert Christgau describes it as "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis". Perhaps I thus abandon my attempts to plumb the murky waters of analysis.
Not a chance. I have more grit than Christgau.
The song was performed for the first time at the infamous Altamont concert, which may or may not be an indicator of its effect on people. To be honest, it's pretty up-tempo but bog standard rock and roll in the Mick and Keith tradition of staccato guitar, funky bass and Mick alternately crooning, shouting and making the growly noise that Austin Powers makes, which I find slightly disconcerting. There's also, obviously, an acoustic guitar and electric piano in the mix, along with propulsive, cymbal-heavy drumming courtesy of the drummer voted most-likely-to-be-an-accountant- based-on-dress-sense, Charlie Watts. While I'm not really a huge Stones fan, working my way through the Rolling Stone list has made me appreciate exactly how good they were compared to their contemporaries (Boston, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, take note and stop being rubbish please). This song is far better than any of the other rock songs I've listened to on this mission so far, but is it good enough to take the coveted Best Song Yet title from Smokey Robinson?
Nope, it's good, and it's Rolling Stones down to the ground, but it's not that good. And it doesn't strike me as anything massively original from them, just another four to the floor rocker. Miss You was more original than this and more of a departure from their blues-rock direction.
Verdict: All Hail Keef
Tomorrow: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
video
I have a feeling that this song is about heroin. I have no idea why. That said, I think it's also about slavery, both literally and figuratively with respect to heroin addiction, something the Stones obviously know nothing about. It's also about sadomasochism and oral sex. Pretty much standard Stones fare then, especially when Mick Jagger describes it as a song about drugs and girls (ever the deconstructionist, our Mick). Reknowned rock journalist Robert Christgau describes it as "a rocker so compelling that it discourages exegesis". Perhaps I thus abandon my attempts to plumb the murky waters of analysis.
Not a chance. I have more grit than Christgau.
The song was performed for the first time at the infamous Altamont concert, which may or may not be an indicator of its effect on people. To be honest, it's pretty up-tempo but bog standard rock and roll in the Mick and Keith tradition of staccato guitar, funky bass and Mick alternately crooning, shouting and making the growly noise that Austin Powers makes, which I find slightly disconcerting. There's also, obviously, an acoustic guitar and electric piano in the mix, along with propulsive, cymbal-heavy drumming courtesy of the drummer voted most-likely-to-be-an-accountant- based-on-dress-sense, Charlie Watts. While I'm not really a huge Stones fan, working my way through the Rolling Stone list has made me appreciate exactly how good they were compared to their contemporaries (Boston, Jackson Browne, The Eagles, take note and stop being rubbish please). This song is far better than any of the other rock songs I've listened to on this mission so far, but is it good enough to take the coveted Best Song Yet title from Smokey Robinson?
Nope, it's good, and it's Rolling Stones down to the ground, but it's not that good. And it doesn't strike me as anything massively original from them, just another four to the floor rocker. Miss You was more original than this and more of a departure from their blues-rock direction.
Verdict: All Hail Keef
Tomorrow: Gloria Gaynor - I Will Survive
Monday, February 23, 2009
You shouldn't have to listen to this
Dusty Springfied - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
video, if you can be bothered to watch it
Good lord, is this the kind of dross they passed off as good music in the bad old days? Maybe I'm having a bad day, but this is terrible. I'm waiting for the obligatory verse sung in French to complete the picture. I can't listen to this anymore.
I'm staggered that this made the list. It starts with a french horn for the sake of all that is good and holy. That shouldn't be allowed unless Phil Spector is in charge. I can't even drag myself to research it. It's too awful.
Verdict: Kill. Me. Now... Please.
Tomorrow: Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar
Normal service resumes ASAP.
video, if you can be bothered to watch it
Good lord, is this the kind of dross they passed off as good music in the bad old days? Maybe I'm having a bad day, but this is terrible. I'm waiting for the obligatory verse sung in French to complete the picture. I can't listen to this anymore.
I'm staggered that this made the list. It starts with a french horn for the sake of all that is good and holy. That shouldn't be allowed unless Phil Spector is in charge. I can't even drag myself to research it. It's too awful.
Verdict: Kill. Me. Now... Please.
Tomorrow: Rolling Stone - Brown Sugar
Normal service resumes ASAP.
Middle of the Roadie
Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
This song sounds like it was written as the backing music for a beer commercial. You can almost picture three shiny white 30-something guys in cowboy hats sitting in the front of a pickup truck drinking beer and driving into the sun with this song playing in the background. They'd probably have guns too. It's not even a real song - it starts off pretending to be a live song and then sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom, which it probably was. Browne and his band recorded this road music(and their roadies) onstage, backstage, in various hotel rooms and on their tourbus. Thanks for the focus on production values, Jackson. That said, at least there's a song about a roadie masturbating to spice things up a bit
Country-tinged, soft focus guitar and piano, MOR vocals and even a slide guitar solo - this song (and album) has been described as the one album Jackson Browne's true fans don't own, and the one that everyone else does. Well, not me, obviously, because it sounds like Garth Brooks impregnated Boston. And, of course, this is an album that's been mythologised as the Odyssey of the tour band, a paen to the road musician, with Browne being compared to Gawain, of the Knights of the Round Table fame. So I suppose if Browne ever reads this he'll come and impale me with his lance (Ooo-er.. that said, I've heard it gets lonely on the road).
Well, I'll do my best to make it quick - this song is so middle of the road it wouldn't offend a nun with a hangover (I'll bet that even the song about the roadie jerking off is so MOR as to be innoffensive). I don't like it. It's a power-ballad to driving a big truck while wearing a cowboy hat.
I think you need to be an American to get it.
This song sounds like it was written as the backing music for a beer commercial. You can almost picture three shiny white 30-something guys in cowboy hats sitting in the front of a pickup truck drinking beer and driving into the sun with this song playing in the background. They'd probably have guns too. It's not even a real song - it starts off pretending to be a live song and then sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom, which it probably was. Browne and his band recorded this road music(and their roadies) onstage, backstage, in various hotel rooms and on their tourbus. Thanks for the focus on production values, Jackson. That said, at least there's a song about a roadie masturbating to spice things up a bit
Country-tinged, soft focus guitar and piano, MOR vocals and even a slide guitar solo - this song (and album) has been described as the one album Jackson Browne's true fans don't own, and the one that everyone else does. Well, not me, obviously, because it sounds like Garth Brooks impregnated Boston. And, of course, this is an album that's been mythologised as the Odyssey of the tour band, a paen to the road musician, with Browne being compared to Gawain, of the Knights of the Round Table fame. So I suppose if Browne ever reads this he'll come and impale me with his lance (Ooo-er.. that said, I've heard it gets lonely on the road).
Well, I'll do my best to make it quick - this song is so middle of the road it wouldn't offend a nun with a hangover (I'll bet that even the song about the roadie jerking off is so MOR as to be innoffensive). I don't like it. It's a power-ballad to driving a big truck while wearing a cowboy hat.
I think you need to be an American to get it.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Phil Spector meets Goodfellas
The Crystals - Then He Kissed Me
Video
Enter Phil Spector, gnomic production genius and songwriter, notoriously egocentric and difficult recluse (he once, famously, scared the Ramones by locking them in the studio and threatening to shoot them) and accused wife/girlfriend murderer. Despite all of this, his contribution to music is staggering - the Wall of Sound, girl groups, The Beatles' Let It Be, The Ramones' End of the Century (a somewhat dubious honour) and the song that received the most airplay in the 20th century (and ever) The Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.
Spector pioneered the girl group with group likes the Ronettes and the Crystals, working with Lieber and Stoller and songwriters from the Brill Building, creating his signature sound by putting together large groups of musicians playing orchestrated parts, often with more that one of the same instrument playing in unison, resulting in a Wall of Sound that was fatter and louder than his contempories' efforts.
This is evident in Then He Kissed Me, with it's galloping percussion, soaring strings, slightly distorted guitars, hurrumphing sax and the ubiquitous harmonised vocals. The result is the iconic 1963 song - a huge global hit and used to brilliant effect in movies like Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Like good Motown music, this is a timeless song - the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on a dirty tape player in someone's garage doesn't detract from what is, at it's essence, a beautiful love song sung with emotion and, in further keeping with the Motown essence, energy. The song seems to bounce along, propelled by the percussion and vocals. It never sounds particularly sweet or at all twee, something that a song like this would be pilloried for if it was released now. Basically, it's awesome, but not awesome enough to take the Best Song Yet award from Smokey Robinson.
Verdict: Classic
Tomorrow: Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Video
Enter Phil Spector, gnomic production genius and songwriter, notoriously egocentric and difficult recluse (he once, famously, scared the Ramones by locking them in the studio and threatening to shoot them) and accused wife/girlfriend murderer. Despite all of this, his contribution to music is staggering - the Wall of Sound, girl groups, The Beatles' Let It Be, The Ramones' End of the Century (a somewhat dubious honour) and the song that received the most airplay in the 20th century (and ever) The Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling.
Spector pioneered the girl group with group likes the Ronettes and the Crystals, working with Lieber and Stoller and songwriters from the Brill Building, creating his signature sound by putting together large groups of musicians playing orchestrated parts, often with more that one of the same instrument playing in unison, resulting in a Wall of Sound that was fatter and louder than his contempories' efforts.
This is evident in Then He Kissed Me, with it's galloping percussion, soaring strings, slightly distorted guitars, hurrumphing sax and the ubiquitous harmonised vocals. The result is the iconic 1963 song - a huge global hit and used to brilliant effect in movies like Scorsese's Goodfellas.
Like good Motown music, this is a timeless song - the fact that it sounds like it was recorded on a dirty tape player in someone's garage doesn't detract from what is, at it's essence, a beautiful love song sung with emotion and, in further keeping with the Motown essence, energy. The song seems to bounce along, propelled by the percussion and vocals. It never sounds particularly sweet or at all twee, something that a song like this would be pilloried for if it was released now. Basically, it's awesome, but not awesome enough to take the Best Song Yet award from Smokey Robinson.
Verdict: Classic
Tomorrow: Jackson Browne - Running on Empty
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)