music Archives - Page 220 of 261 - Ramblin' with Roger

George Harrison would have been 70

Here are a dozen Harrison songs. Only the Top 2 are for sure on the list. It seems to change a lot, depending on what I’ve been listening to most recently.

When John Lennon died in 1980, I was devastated. When George Harrison died in November 2001, I was melancholy, but I knew he was sick, so I wasn’t surprised. But as time passed, I realized I missed him more and more. Incidentally, All Things Must Pass was my high school prom theme.

I felt sorry for George in the Beatles. He’d write songs and they wouldn’t make the album, because those two other songwriters in the group dominated. That explained why the All Things Must Pass album had three LPs, including an instrumental experiment.

Unique among the Beatles, George’s first greatest hits album included Beatles songs, even though there were arguably enough of his solo works to make their inclusion unnecessary; this was an insult to the artist by his soon-to-be-former record label, in my view.

Here are a dozen Harrison songs. Only the Top 2 are for sure on the list. It seems to change a lot, depending on what I’ve been listening to most recently. I have all the Harrison solo studio albums, excluding some compilations.

Links to songs.

12. Blow Away (from George Harrison – GH) – Always liked the guitar line.
11. Love Comes to Everyone (GH) – guitar intro by Eric Clapton is quite nice.
10. Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) (Living in the Material World- LITMW) – In one of the later verses, I like how the chorus is sung off the beat. And more than occasionally, I relate to its message.
9. All Those Years Ago (Somewhere in England -SIE) – Harrison’s tribute to John Lennon, featuring Ringo Starr on drums, as well as Wings members Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine on backing vocals
8. Let It Down (All Things Must Pass -ATMP) – Lovely song. Can’t find the album version, unfortunately, but this is nice, too.
7. Devil’s Radio (Cloud Nine – CN) – Like the somewhat nasal quality of the vocal.
6. Living in the Material World (LITMW) – Story of the Beatles, in part. And when he sings, “We got Ritchie on a tour,” and Ringo plays a little drum solo, it always cracks me up.
5. What Is Life (ATMP). On the extended CD of ATMP, there’s an instrumental version of this song that I like nearly as much.
4. Got My Mind Set on You (CN) – I think I like this as much for the surprise element at the time. George hadn’t had an album in five years, let alone a hit single. This muscular Rudy Clark cover seemed to come out of left field.
3. Not Guilty (GH) – At the time, some people thought this was in response to the My Sweet Lord/He’s So Fine lawsuit. (No, but This Song, from Thirty-Three and 1/3 was.) Not Guilty was actually recorded with The Beatles in 1968 for The White Album; like many of his songs, it was not included. However, you can find a louder version on the Beatles’ Anthology 3.
2. Wah Wah (ATMP) – Love the volume, the guitar line, the choir of vocalists, pretty much everything.
1. When We Was Fab (CN) – This telling of the Beatles’ story, though, is the best of the songs in that specific genre.

A couple of Traveling Wilburys songs in the mix.
The last time I wrote about George, which was the 10th anniversary of his death.

Let’s get physical music

If the digitization of music has rendered the perception of the album as defunct, I would still argue that vision of at least some artists are broader than the hit single.

I’m listening to the pre-show of the only musical podcast I listen to regularly, that being Coverville. Brian is setting up the show, realizes that some song is “protected,” so that we wouldn’t hear it if he played it, and decides to download a replacement song. He’s in Amazon when he discovers he can download the album but only if he also gets the physical album.

Getting the actual CD may have been a hassle for him; he goes through a couple of dozen songs a week, after all. Having moved a few times, I know that owning the tangible LP or CD is some work. Yet I still do.

I was at work, and we were talking about the death of the album in music. A pundit I read had suggested that the album, as a piece of musical expression, only existed for about a decade, from 1967 and Sgt. Pepper to the beginning of the punk era. I SO disagree; there were plenty of albums before ’67, and not just in soundtracks and jazz.

I know Frank Sinatra was creating something other than a group of tunes to support the single back in the 1950s. British bands such as The Beatles and Rolling Stones didn’t even put singles on the albums; that was an American affectation to put the single on the album and pad it with a bunch of presumably throwaway tunes.

In any case, the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, the Butterfield Blues Band’s East-West, and the Beatles’ Revolver, all from 1966, all feel like albums, as opposed to a bunch of songs thrown together, to me.

If the digitization of music has rendered the perception of the album defunct, I would still argue that the vision of at least some artists is broader than the hit single. I suggested to my colleagues that the album may have died with Green Day’s 2004 American Idiot, but I was being too glib. Paul Simon put out an album, So Beautiful or so what, in 2011. Springsteen puts out albums. I’m sure there are others.

While talking at work, a couple of us are remembering a Linda Ronstadt collection. Neither of us could remember the album title – it turned out to be Simple Dreams – but we remember the album cover; our favorite song was I Never Will Marry, with Dolly Parton, BTW. The physical recollection of the artwork helped us to remember the music better, something often lost these days; one CAN download the art, but it seems that it doesn’t happen that often, percentage-wise.

My colleague’s daughter had gotten into the group the Shins. I went home and put away the physical music I had played over the last couple of months, and while refiling in the S section came across the Shins myself. I had forgotten that I had owned it! For me, it was a rediscovery, like randomly looking at the shelves in the library and picking a book to read. Could I have found it electronically? Of course. But the overwhelming number of songs on my iTunes makes me oddly less adventurous; maybe it’s just my affectation.

In any case, I’m also rather suspicious of all the music on the cloud or in iTunes, for reasons Dustbury touches on.

Unread books, and rock song comparison

I’ve seen so many productions of Shakespeare’s comedies that I no longer remember which ones I’ve actually read.

The blogger MDS from Pantheon Songs – check out his sites if you like music – wants to know:

1) what are some of the books that you’ve wanted to read but never got around to reading because of whatever reason or circumstance?

So many…let me limit this list to books that are actually in my possession, and specifically in the office of the house, as opposed to the living room or the attic:

Personal History – Katharine Graham
The Brethren (re: Supreme Court) – Woodward and Armstrong
Wired – Bob Woodward
Crossfire (re: JFK) – Jim Marrs
Undaunted Courage – Stephen Ambrose
The World Is My Home – James Michener

As a member of the board of the Friends of the Albany Public library, I would buy a book from each of the authors. But I hadn’t read any of them until I read Wicked by Gregory Maguire last year. I’ll be reading some of them.

Then there is Shakespeare. I’ve seen so many productions of his comedies that I no longer remember which ones I’ve actually read, aside from The Merchant of Venice. I’ve read none of the histories or romances. I’ve read most of the tragedies, though not Titus Andronicus or Timon of Athens.

2) “Fortunate Son” or “The Weight”?

Interesting question. Never thought of Fortunate Son [listen] as more than an excellent song by a very good band, Creedence Clearwater Revival, though I agreed very much with its sentiment. The group had more number 2 hits on the US charts without having a number 1 hit than anyone, I believe. I never had any CCR albums until they broke up.

I owned The Band’s first four or five albums more or less when they came out, though I did get the second album (the brown album) before the first. The Weight [listen] was on their first album, Music from Big Pink; I’ve been by the actual pink house in Ulster County, NY. The song appears in the movie Easy Rider. For reasons of commerce, their version does not show up on the movie soundtrack, replaced by an iteration by a group called Smith [listen].

For my taste, the song was covered too often, and the song started to get on my nerves, though I like Aretha’s version [listen].

Time passes and I can appreciate The Weight for the great, no, anthemic, tune it is.

December rambling

The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012. There are some incredibly inspiring pictures in here, but warning: Some of these may break your heart.

Eddie at Renaissance Geek has melanoma, which he’s having removed tomorrow. For reasons he explains, he’s named his new “friends” (his word) Nigel and Sixtus. Good luck, buddy.

SamuraiFrog writes: “The trailer for Now Is Good promised me only half of what I’m feeling right now, after having watched the film this morning.” Very touching blurring of film review and personal recollection.

On Facebook, I posted A Note to You, Should You Be Thinking of Asking Me to Write For You For Free by John Scalzi, which Jaquandor cited twice this month. It got a LOT of support from creative types.

Batman and the Golden Parachute.

Liberal values.

The last man on the moon was 40 years ago. That was only a 3.5 year period of moon exploration.

Stephen Colbert interviewed Jon Stewart “at the Wellmont Theatre, a fundraiser for the Montclair Film Festival. While the two have discussed their work onstage together before, this was their first lengthy public one-on-one. And despite their 14-year professional relationship, each brought forth stories that surprised both each other and the sold-out audience.”

The power of words.

Pale blue dot (Sagan).

Calendar of meaningful dates.

The 45 Most Powerful Images Of 2012. There are some incredibly inspiring pictures in here, but warning: Some of these may break your heart.

The best (and worst) media errors and corrections of 2012.

Zeitgeist 2012: Year In Review.

Steve Bissette’s Pop Culture Injustices of 2012. Marvel/Disney figures prominently.

Each year around this time, the good folks at Turner Classic Movies release a long, stylish video noting those in the movie business who’ve passed away since January 1.

Arthur@AmeriNZ on Robert Bork, and Dustbury on Fontella Bass, both of whom died this month.

It’s not that I don’t care; it’s just too hard. Literacy Privilege: How I Learned to Check Mine Instead of Making Fun of People’s Grammar on the Internet.

Bokeh? In photography, “basically it is when something is in perfect focus and the background is blurred.”

Mike Sterling’s 9 years of blogging.

Many comic book heroes have roots in the Hudson Valley, the area I went to college. Hmm – have you guessed MY secret identity?

How Superman’s Butt Saved Christmas. “Blame SamuraiFrog for this one, folks — he gave me the title! I deny all accountability,” Jaquandor pleaded. “Except for the part where I write the following tale. Which I’m doing stream-of-conscious, right off the top of my head. No editing.”

Based on the trailer for the new Superman movie, I might actually watch Man of Steel. Don’t think I’ve seen a Superman film since Superman II, more than 30 years ago.

ADD on the end of American Elf.

Paraguay Landfill Harmonic Documentary Features Recycled Orchestra.

Ukulele Orchestra of GB – Fly Me off the Handel.

The opening number of Fiddler on the Roof done in Lego.

The first world problems rap.

Theme from the movie To Kill a Mockingbird by Elmer Bernstein. Some yahoo on the Internet suggested that Atticus Finch was a failed lawyer because his client was convicted. Oy.

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

GOOGLE ALERTS

An extraordinary entrepreneur and executive in the social services industry with over three decades of diverse professional experience in the field, Roger Green has routinely exhibited the passion, vision, dedication, and diligence necessary to be mentioned among the elite. As a result of his phenomenal body of work, Mr. Green has earned inclusion in the distinguished network of leading professionals with Stanford Who’s Who.

Christmas is A-Comin’ by Leadbelly

Polite Scott’s Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar – 2012

My father had, and I currently own this album, pictured. It came out in 1960, I believe because I listened to it a lot.

The LP came out well after Leadbelly died, in 1949. I’ll have to write about him sometime. And it got me thinking about the song Christmas is A-Comin’ [LISTEN], which is very short, well under two minutes. There’s a much longer album, Leadbelly Sings For Children, which including all the songs on my album, plus several more; Amazon says it came out on CD in 1999. And it’s the cover of that album that shows up in the video.

And I have to wonder how the parents of those children would have felt if they knew the man entertaining them was a convicted felon. Wouldn’t happen today, but then, the man had a shot of redemption.
***
“Christmas gift suggestions: To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.”
~ Oren Arnold

Jack Benny Goes Christmas Shopping

Christmas Miracles

Potpourri of tunes

Hey, I know one of those guys in the front row

A flashmob medley.

Peanuts Christmas 1960 and 1961 and 1962 and 1963 and 1964.

Polite Scott’s Comic Book Cover Advent Calendar – 2012

There’s very little that Muppet videos cannot fix..