Ziggy Stardust.
Wow. It almost sounds like the music was already written the moment David Bowie came up with the name. Mick Ronson might disagree...but that name.
Five years. This song demands you sing along with it with everything you can muster. I once sang this song so loud and with such gusto at an intersection that the van full of kids next to me ran a red light. Out of fear maybe....to get away from a guy butchering David Bowie, probably.
The last verse is my favorite, and when I heard it I fell in love with glam. Glam is not really about aliens or space travel, it's about a lonely guy filled with emotion watching a girl drinking a milk shake. He could walk in and talk to her but he knows he does not fit in. Instead he writes a song.
The emotions inside of this singer are so big and powerful that it takes made-up names, aliens and end of the world to express them. Wow.
Lyric of Note (As I heard it):
I think I saw you in an ice-cream parlor,
Drinking milk shakes cold and long
Smiling and waving and looking so fine,
Dont think you knew you were in this song
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Bob Seger - Night Moves
I love Bob Seger. Of the many records I own I do not own one Bob Seger recording.
The CD format broke when I was very young. My dad bought a Stranger In Town CD and he would listen to it on repeat because it was one of his only CD's. It was during the summer that my father would barbecue out in the backyard while blaring music through the open windows in the back of the house. Bob always sounds better while barbecuing in the summer.
Strangely enough "Night Moves" is not on Stranger In Town but I remember hearing it many times that summer. I cannot explain this.
Now, I did not grow up in the sixties and did not learn about love in the back of beat up 60's Chevy. But damn, this song makes me a nostalgic mess for growing up, my high school friends, my first kiss and my first love. All this stuff kind of sucked when it happened, but when "Night Moves" is on it become a glorious sepia toned trip that feels warm all over.
When I heard this record I did not anything about Bob Seger so I invented a story for Bob. Bob worked in a auto plant in Detroit full time right after barely graduating high school. His grades suffered because he tried to learn every Elvis Sun single on his guitar.
He would work all day at the plant and then would drag himself to practice with the Silver Bullet Band at night. All the practices would start out with a raucous cover of "Johnny B. Goode" and then would promptly deteriorate into drinking too much. They would try to play songs they don't know and would barely manage a riff before trying another song. The next morning Bob would scrape himself off his bed for another day of work at the plant. One day during a really humid summer day Bob is playing outdoors on the third stage at county fair. Between the cotton candy and the corn dogs a music producer sees Bob and the rest is history
Now we have allmusic.com and I know none of the above is even remotely true, but when Bob suddenly appears on my local Oldies station it all becomes true in my mind again.
Lyric of Note (As I heard it):
I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Aint it funny how the night moves
The CD format broke when I was very young. My dad bought a Stranger In Town CD and he would listen to it on repeat because it was one of his only CD's. It was during the summer that my father would barbecue out in the backyard while blaring music through the open windows in the back of the house. Bob always sounds better while barbecuing in the summer.
Strangely enough "Night Moves" is not on Stranger In Town but I remember hearing it many times that summer. I cannot explain this.
Now, I did not grow up in the sixties and did not learn about love in the back of beat up 60's Chevy. But damn, this song makes me a nostalgic mess for growing up, my high school friends, my first kiss and my first love. All this stuff kind of sucked when it happened, but when "Night Moves" is on it become a glorious sepia toned trip that feels warm all over.
When I heard this record I did not anything about Bob Seger so I invented a story for Bob. Bob worked in a auto plant in Detroit full time right after barely graduating high school. His grades suffered because he tried to learn every Elvis Sun single on his guitar.
He would work all day at the plant and then would drag himself to practice with the Silver Bullet Band at night. All the practices would start out with a raucous cover of "Johnny B. Goode" and then would promptly deteriorate into drinking too much. They would try to play songs they don't know and would barely manage a riff before trying another song. The next morning Bob would scrape himself off his bed for another day of work at the plant. One day during a really humid summer day Bob is playing outdoors on the third stage at county fair. Between the cotton candy and the corn dogs a music producer sees Bob and the rest is history
Now we have allmusic.com and I know none of the above is even remotely true, but when Bob suddenly appears on my local Oldies station it all becomes true in my mind again.
Lyric of Note (As I heard it):
I awoke last night to the sound of thunder
How far off I sat and wondered
Started humming a song from 1962
Aint it funny how the night moves
Felt - Magellan
I have a bad habit of obsessing about the minutia of music.
Once I latch onto a band I need to know all the details of their mythology and a complete discography. This happened recently with Felt when I paid too much for a Japanese import Absolute Classic Masterpieces V.2 for a single instrumental track called "Magellan." A decent instrumental as far as rock instrumentals go but musically not worth the investment. As far as having a import-only double Felt CD on my shelf, obsession satisfied.
The Felt story is a pretty crazy one. Deleting hit singles ("My Face Is On Fire"), dropping last names (Is it Hayward?), and a dash of mental instability for later.
I was curious after hearing Lawrence's name dropped by Stuart Murdoch. In the nineties it was a little hard for me to get a hold of Felt records. Again I paid way too much for Forever Breathes The Lonely Word. (Does anybody have better album or record titles than Lawrence? Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty, The Splendour of Fear, etc. How can the records possibly sound bad?) I also picked up the sublimely packaged 2-for-1 Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty/The Splendour of Fear. (It's all about the music man.)
It was not until the recent import reissue campaign last year that I picked up the rest of Felt's records. My favorite is Pictorial Jackson Review.
Lawrence is a chameleon pop genius who can make a great song in any genre. This continues with his Denim records, but strangely not with Go Kart Mozart.
Lyric of Note(As I heard them):
No lyrics
Once I latch onto a band I need to know all the details of their mythology and a complete discography. This happened recently with Felt when I paid too much for a Japanese import Absolute Classic Masterpieces V.2 for a single instrumental track called "Magellan." A decent instrumental as far as rock instrumentals go but musically not worth the investment. As far as having a import-only double Felt CD on my shelf, obsession satisfied.
The Felt story is a pretty crazy one. Deleting hit singles ("My Face Is On Fire"), dropping last names (Is it Hayward?), and a dash of mental instability for later.
I was curious after hearing Lawrence's name dropped by Stuart Murdoch. In the nineties it was a little hard for me to get a hold of Felt records. Again I paid way too much for Forever Breathes The Lonely Word. (Does anybody have better album or record titles than Lawrence? Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty, The Splendour of Fear, etc. How can the records possibly sound bad?) I also picked up the sublimely packaged 2-for-1 Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty/The Splendour of Fear. (It's all about the music man.)
It was not until the recent import reissue campaign last year that I picked up the rest of Felt's records. My favorite is Pictorial Jackson Review.
Lawrence is a chameleon pop genius who can make a great song in any genre. This continues with his Denim records, but strangely not with Go Kart Mozart.
Lyric of Note(As I heard them):
No lyrics
Monday, February 18, 2008
Animal Collective - Cuckoo Cuckoo
The Animal Collective were a band I was afraid to listen to for two reasons. First, words like "experimental" and "noise" were often used to describe their music. This scared me. Second, there is plenty of avant-garde music in my collection but my knee-jerk vision is of Yoko Ono screaming over a broken vase. For someone who loves a pop ditty, this is not an inviting image.
Also, I sometimes find music that is listed as "experimental" or "noise" is code for people who don't have much to say and hide the fact in difficult music.
Well it turns out the Animal Collective are none of the above and have churned out some great records. This track is from a record full of great tracks...it has a mesmerizing piano line that fights against a tide of dissonance as the song progresses. I was going to read the lyrics for the song, but I figured I should stick to what I think the lyrics because that is what I am reacting to
This song reminds me of trying to keep yourself balanced in a crazy world. There is a great ebb and flow to this song with lots of sounds and textures but it all returns to that piano line. It persists through the whole song. It feels like the song is about to tip over but that piano line perseveres.
Lyric of Note As I Heard It:
Sometimes all I want is one favorite song
And two to three minutes don't seem very long
Also, I sometimes find music that is listed as "experimental" or "noise" is code for people who don't have much to say and hide the fact in difficult music.
Well it turns out the Animal Collective are none of the above and have churned out some great records. This track is from a record full of great tracks...it has a mesmerizing piano line that fights against a tide of dissonance as the song progresses. I was going to read the lyrics for the song, but I figured I should stick to what I think the lyrics because that is what I am reacting to
This song reminds me of trying to keep yourself balanced in a crazy world. There is a great ebb and flow to this song with lots of sounds and textures but it all returns to that piano line. It persists through the whole song. It feels like the song is about to tip over but that piano line perseveres.
Lyric of Note As I Heard It:
Sometimes all I want is one favorite song
And two to three minutes don't seem very long
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