Posts Tagged ‘Coverville’
January 31st, 2012 | 
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Vernon Supreme for President. Just one of about four dozen candidates on the New Hampshire ballot.
From here: “When Steve Jobs died…, deification from the media and inconsolable consumers made gripes about Apple’s use of sweatshops seem like the cynical mumblings of contrarians. The problem is that there’s plenty of documentation and reporting that supports the criticism.” See also this: “Mike Daisey was a self-described ‘worshipper in the cult of Mac.’ Then he saw some photos from a new iPhone, taken by workers at the factory where it was made. Mike wondered: Who makes all my crap? He traveled to China to find out.”
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Tags: Arthur@AmeriNZ, Coverville, Etta James, Gabrielle Giffords, Jaquandor, Johnny Otis, Ken Levine, Kevin Marshall, Kickstarter, Mark Evanier, Muppets, obit, Roger Ebert, SamuraiFrog, Steve Bissette, Steve Jobs, Vernon Supreme | 
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I love good cover versions of songs. Came across a rather fine list from Popdose. And I so agree with the opening statement: “It’s generally agreed upon that if you don’t have any new flavor to add to the original, you shouldn’t bother doing a cover.”
Certainly can’t argue with the top two, “Respect” by Aretha Franklin*, originally performed by Otis Redding*; and “All Along the Watchtower” by Jimi Hendrix*, originally done by Bob Dylan*. Both of the original artists have acknowledged the transformative nature of these covers. A previous list I saw contained songs that I had never heard of in the Top 10, which I discovered were less than six years old; seems to me these songs need to stand the test of time
But I have one nit to pick over this list, and it’s around the song “I Heard It Through the Grapevine.” As noted here and elsewhere, the song by Motown staff writers Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong was first recorded by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles* on August 6, 1966. And Marvin Gaye* recorded his version on April 10, 1967. But Berry Gordy, the head of Motown, hated the song & vetoed the releases by both artists. Read the rest of this entry »
I happen to catch the song Magnet and Steel by Walter Egan at my bank, which is also a Starbucks You can LISTEN to it HERE. The backstory: Stevie Nicks sang on this track, and provided inspiration for the lyrics.
I’m a sucker for albums that have a title song but isn’t the title of the album. The album title is Not Shy, a reference in the song. “With you, I’m not shy.”
In Kill to Get Crimson by Mark Knopfler, the lyrics of Let It All Go include “I’d kill to get crimson on this palette knife.”
The title song of Simon and Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme is Scarborough Fair/Canticle. Negotiations and Love Songs, and Shining Like A National Guitar are collections of Paul Simon’s songs. The titles are taken from lines in the songs Train in the Distance and Graceland, respectively.
And of course, Nevermind by Nirvana is in reference to a word/words? in Smells Like Teen Spirit. (Oh, speaking of that song, a cover by 2 Cellos.)
Got any other examples of lines of songs that provide the title of an album?
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Tags: Coverville, Mark Knopfler, music, Nirvana, Paul Simon, Stevie Nicks, Walter Egan |
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Because I was out of town, I managed to miss a couple of significant cultural anniversaries. One was the 50th anniversary of the first real Marvel superhero comic, the Fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack “King” Kirby. Mark Evanier explains why it had a November cover date. Check out this hour-long Kirby documentary. And here’s a link to the intro to the FF TV show.
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The other was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Lucille Ball. I watched most, if not all, of the episodes of every single one of her ongoing series, from the seminal I Love Lucy (1951-1957; 8.9 out of 10 on the IMDB scale), which started before even TV Guide and I were born, but lives through the clever concept known as the rerun; to the star-studded (and too long, in my recollection) episodes of The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour (1957-1960; 8.6); to The Lucy Show (1962–1968; 7.3), which was the one with Lucy as Lucy Carmichael, Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz in the earlier shows) as Viv, and Gale Gordon as Lucy’s testy boss, Mr. Mooney.
Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: alcohol, Allman Brothers, Ashford and Simpson, Coverville, Fantastic Four, GayProf, Google, Jack Kirby, Katy Perry, Leiber and Stoller, Lucille Ball, Michael Jackson, models, movies, music, Natalie Cole, obituary, Spider-Man, Stan Lee, Star Trek, television |
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I recently noticed that tomorrow would have been the 100th birthday of Robert Johnson. Don’t think you know him? I suspect that, if you listen to music, you probably do. He’s the guy who over a reasonably short period wrote and recorded a number of songs that became staples of rock and blues artists.
Probably the first Johnson song I heard was Crossroads by Cream a song a/k/a Crossroads Blues.
There’s also The Rolling Stones’ Love in Vain and Travelling Riverside Blues by Led Zeppelin. Read the rest of this entry »
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Tags: Coverville, Eric Clapton, music, musicians, questions, Robert Johnson |
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Let’s face it: Bob Dylan didn’t/doesn’t have the prettiest voice in pop music. But his strength as a songwriter, especially early on, allowed listeners to become familiar with his songs through the performances of others.
Joan Baez, as noted previously, was an early advocate and performer of Dylan’s music, as were Peter, Paul, and Mary, who had two Top 10 songs written by Dylan way back in 1963, Blowin’ in the Wind which hit the charts in June and got to #2; and Don’t Think Twice, It’s all Right, charting in September, and ending up at #9.
But it was 1965 that Dylan really broke through Read the rest of this entry »
183 Honey Pie from the white album. More dance hall McCartney. This was apparently the music he learned from his father.
182 Polythene Pam from Abbey Road. Another 48 second song, which would have fared better in the medley. In fact the link is to the medley.
181 Blue Jay Way from Magical Mystery Tour. An interesting Harrison song about Los Angeles.
180 Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey from Beatles for Sale (UK), Beatles VI (US). Not one of their strongest covers. And it annoyed me that the Little Richard latter part wasn’t credited at the time.
179 Revolution 9 from the white album. This is too interesting, too weird to go out in the bottom 10. But ultimately too weird to keep.
178 Misery from Please Please Me (UK), Introducing the Beatles (US). As with There’s A Place, never on a US Capitol album until something called Rarities, long after the group’s demise. So it was largely out of my consciousness.
177 Flying from Magical Mystery Tour. Only instrumental in the canon, attributed to the 4 Beatles. Disposable filler. Read the rest of this entry »