Tag: music

Beatles Island Songs, 193-184

Hmm, those early Harrison vocals, this one again on a cover, are taking a beating on this list.


The rules of engagement

193 The Long and Winding Road from Let It Be, a perfectly adequate song from McCartney, but the epitome of funereal, from a Beatles POV.
192 Do You Want to Know a Secret from Please Please Me (US), Introducing the Beatles/the Early Beatles (US). A Lennon and McCartney original, with a weak, though endearing, Harrison vocal.
191 Don’t Pass Me By from the white album. Its most famous attribute may be its place in the “Paul is dead” myth: “You were in a car crash, and you lost your hair.” Written and sung by Ringo.
190 Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand” the German version of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”; released in the US on Something New. It’s fine; I’ll wait for the English translation. This probably ranks higher than the other German song from sheer exposure.
189 All Together Now from Yellow Submarine. Sounds like a kiddie song, but with lyrics like “Can I take my friend… to bed?”
188 Devil in Her Heart from With the Beatles (UK), Beatles’ Second Album. Hmm, those early Harrison vocals, this one again on a cover, are taking a beating on this list.
187 Oh! Darling from Abbey Road. A McCartney insincere blues, as opposed to, say Helter Skelter.
186 For You Blue from Let It Be. An insignificant Harrison song from that last released album.
185 Your Mother Should Know from Magical Mystery Tour. One of several McCartney dance hall songs. Don’t dislike it, just find it disposable. Though I do like it in the context of the TV movie
184 Dig a Pony from Let It Be. Unfortunately, the cliche about digging for a pony through a particular muck was stuck in my head re this Lennon song. ‘Nuff said.

I’m Walkin’, Yes Indeed

I will regularly be posting something called I’m Walking; it means, no time for blogging.


In some very specific ways, it has been a difficult year for me. One of my great joys was playing racquetball at the local YMCA. I did that from December 1982 until it closed at the end of April 2010. My racquetball buddies shifted to Siena College’s courts, and I tried that for a couple of weeks, but it proved to be untenable, schedule-wise. In any case, now that I’m taking the Daughter to school every weekday, it wouldn’t have worked out, even if I were still had the Y as an option.

Well, at least I have my bicycle. Well, I DID, until it was stolen from me about a month ago. I was less than six feet away when it happened, and I was so ENRAGED – I hate it when I’m enraged, not AT ALL a good place for me to be – that I’ve barely mentioned it. (It’s a maroon Trek hybrid that has been subsequently seen twice by friends, once at Lexington and Clinton, once behind the main library; it’s a very distinctive bike.)

So, in order to get ANY exercise, at least until we get the stationary bike fixed, I’ve taken to getting up and walking in the morning. Or walking to and/or from church. But walking takes more time than biking, and time is not fungible. The only time I have available is that hour between 5 and 6 a.m. when I usually blog.

Therefore, I will regularly be posting something called I’m Walking; it means, no time for blogging. But I won’t leave you folks TOTALLY bereft and will post a music video or two, at least initially about walking.

I’m Walkin – Fats Domino, a #4 hit in 1957, exactly where it charted the same year for Ricky Nelson.
Walking to New Orleans – Fats Domino, a #6 hit in 1960. Domino needed to be rescued in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in the summer of 2005.

 

Beatles Island Songs, 203-194

Unfortunately, I never heard this song much, since I didn’t have Introducing the Beatles on Vee-Jay until much later and it never showed up on an American Capitol album until nearly a decade after the group broke up.


The rules of engagement

203 Across the Universe from Let It Be. One of the Beatles songs performed much better by other people, but I never warmed up to the Lennon version.
202 Sie Liebt Dich, the German version of “She Loves You”. Quaint, but I’ll opt for the English version.
201 Till There Was You. My antipathy toward this song is not the Beatles’ fault. This is from With the Beatles (UK) and Meet the Beatles (US). WITH has six cover versions, including five rhythm and blues tunes, but MEET has only one, this tune from The Music Man. I was really annoyed with Capitol Records by this choice, and the song became the flashpoint of my disdain.
200 Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby Beatles for Sale (UK), Beatles ’65 (US). Never thought much of George’s vocals on this Carl Perkins song.
199 You Know My Name (Look Up the Number), the B-side of the Let It Be single. This is a comedy song, funny in parts, but ultimately unsustainable.
198 Mean Mr. Mustard from Abbey Road. It’s from the medley, and I like it, but it’s 48 seconds.
197 Boys from Please Please Me (US), Introducing the Beatles/The Early Beatles (US). this is a Shirelles’ tune and Ringo sounds uncomfortable with the gender switch; it just doesn’t work for me.
196 Maxwell’s Silver Hammer from Abbey Road. Too silly. And Steve Martin’s version in my head doesn’t help.
195 There’s a Place Please Please Me (UK), Introducing the Beatles (US). Unfortunately, I never heard this song much, since I didn’t have Introducing the Beatles on Vee-Jay until much later and it never showed up on an American Capitol album until nearly a decade after the group broke up. Besides, it sounds a little out of tune.
194 Long, Long, Long from the white album. An underrecorded, seemingly unfocused Harrison tune.
***
The Beatles are on iTunes. This is great for the proliferation of the music, but having purchased it several times already, it affects me personally not a whit. Well, unless they release NEW music…
***
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!

The Meme with the Red Tattoo

Beatles, Joni Mitchell, Johnny Cash, Beach Boys, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder


This is a music meme – I LOVE music memes, stolen from SamuraiFrog:

First album you bought – Beatles VI.
Last album you bought – Laura Nyro and Labelle – Gonna Take a Miracle.
Favourite debut album – Boston. Or America.
First album you listened to all the way through – the movie soundtrack to West Side Story, probably.
Last album you listened to – Lyle Lovett – It’s Not Big, It’s Large.
Favourite album of 60s – Beatles – Revolver. Or Beach Boys – Pet Sounds.
Favourite album artwork – Beatles – Sgt. Pepper. Or Beatles – With the Beatles, which has that same iconic picture as Meet the Beatles in the US
Most underrated album – Beach Boys – Sunflower.
Worst album you own – The Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg. A really lousy recording.
Best album to dance to – a compilation called Sun Splashin’.
Favourite album of 70s – Paul Simon – Still Crazy After All These Years.
Album you like, but you never thought you would – there are two that stick out because friends hated them: Emmylou Harris – Wrecking Ball, and Joni Mitchell – The Hissing of Summer Lawns.
Most overrated album – I can go with Radiohead – OK Computer.
Best album to cheer you up – – any of the early 1970s Stevie Wonder.
Most disappointing follow-up album – Chicago at Carnegie Hall, bloated four-album set.
Favourite album of 80s – Talking Heads – Speaking in Tongues, largely because I saw the group on that tour at SPAC.
Best album to relax you – Beach Boys – Pet Sounds.
Favourite second album – Meet the Beatles, assuming that Introducing the Beatles was first.
Most listened to album – This is difficult because of the different US and British iterations of Beatles albums. Possibly Sgt. Pepper. Or Pet Sounds. Or Still Crazy.
Favourite album of 90s – Johnny Cash – Unchained.
Last album you recommended to somebody – Johnny Cash’s third American album.
Last album you downloaded – I don’t remember, but it was an artist I had never heard of.
Most pleasing follow-up album – Paul Simon – There Goes Rhymin’ Simon.
Favourite album of 00s – Johnny Cash’s fourth American album.
Favourite third album – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Electric Ladyland.
Favourite fourth album – Joni Mitchell – Blue.
Favourite album of 10s* (so far) – Bettye Lavette – Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook
Favourite album of all time – probably Revolver, UK version.

* I take the possibly unpopular position that while 2000 was (obviously) the last year of the 20th century, it was also the first year of the 00s; no rule that the decade markers and the century markers need to coincide, which I explained here. So the 10s begin in 2010 (or 1910), the 20s in 2020 (or 1920), etc.

 

Neil Percival Young is 65

Don’t Let It Bring You Down “guaranteed to bring you down…it starts off slowly, then fizzles out altogether.”


Before our work unit moved to Cubicleland, we used to have offices, with doors. And we used to play music – out loud, not using headsets – in said offices. For a time, I shared an office with my boss Mary, who had very catholic tastes. I played (and play) a very eclectic set of music. And there were only two musicians she ever objected to, both because she just couldn’t stand their voices: Willie Nelson and Neil Young. Neil, in particular, was a particular irritant because she’d hear his music more often on the radio. Moreover, she and Neil are both November Scorpios.

Suffice to say, I love Neil Young. Here’s a none-to-clear video about his love of trains and his son Ben who has cerebral palsy.

I decided to look at Neil’s discography. But if I commented on every record I owned, it’d take forever.

*I own

1963 The Squires “The Sultan” b/w “Aurora”
1966 Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield
1967 Buffalo Springfield – Buffalo Springfield Again
1968 Buffalo Springfield – Last Time Around
Neil Young – Neil Young. Not only do I have this album, I even reviewed it here.
1969 *Buffalo Springfield-Retrospective
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. This is the album with the wonderful handclap driven Cinnamon Girl, which undoubtedly is one of my 50 favorite uptempo songs, plus two classic, lengthy – around 10 minutes each – tunes, Down By The River and Cowgirl in the Sand.
1970 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Déjà vu. Features Neil’s Helpless.
Neil Young – After the Goldrush. This was my Neil college album. Only Love Can Break Your Heart was a minor hit (#33), but probably my favorite song was When You Dance I Can Really Love, an even more minor hit (#93), but which I most associate with my college sweetheart; also, I love it starts off really slowly but picks up tempo – get to the end, then go back to the beginning.
1971 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – 4 Way Street. A live album with the first version of Neil’s “Ohio” (“tin soldiers dead and Nixon coming”) that I owned. Also contains a funny monologue intro about Don’t Let It Bring You Down “guaranteed to bring you down…it starts off slowly, then fizzles out altogether.”
1972 *Neil Young – Harvest. Contains his only top 30 single, the #1 Heart of Gold. From the liner notes of his Decade album, I got the sense that the commercial success made him uncomfortable.
Neil Young & Graham Nash – “War Song” b/w “Needle and the Damage Done” – have War Song on a Warner Brothers Loss Leader album. It eventually shows up in the 2009 box set.
Neil Young – Journey Through the Past
We now come to the me, poor college student section.
1973 Neil Young – Time Fades Away
1974 Neil Young – On the Beach
1975 Neil Young – Tonight’s the Night
Neil Young – Zuma
1976 The Stills-Young Band – Long May You Run. The title song, one of my favorites, appears on Decade.
1977 *Neil Young – American Stars & Bars. Featuring Like a Hurricane.
Neil Young Decade – a greatest hits (as it were) album. With “Sugar Mountain”, a B-side not previously on an album, though played often on my college radio station.
1978 Neil Young – Comes a Time
1979 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Rust Never Sleeps. I prefer Hey Hey, My My (Into The Black) over My My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue), because it’s LOUDER.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live Rust. The songs from Rust Never Sleeps ARE ALREADY live.
1980 *Neil Young – Hawks & Doves
1981 *Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Re-ac-tor
1982 *Neil Young – Trans. Lots of vocoder stuff including yet another version of Mr. Soul which I may prefer to the original.
1983 *Neil Young & the Shocking Pinks – Everybody’s Rockin’
1985 Neil Young – Old Ways
1986 Neil Young – Landing On Water
1987 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Life
1988 *Neil Young & the Bluenotes – This Note’s For You – the title song’s about rockers selling out to commercial interests.
Crosby Stills Nash & Young – American Dream. Neil’s stuff was the best on the album.
1989 Neil Young & The Restless – Eldorado
Neil Young – Freedom. Features Rockin’ In The Free World, twice, plus his version of Wrecking Ball, which Emmylou Harris covered.
1990 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Ragged Glory
1991 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Arc Weld
1992 *Neil Young – Harvest Moon. Besides the title song, painfully tied to an old relationship, I especially like From Hank To Hendrix.
1993 Neil Young – Lucky 13
Neil Young – Unplugged. Quite fond.
1994 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Sleeps With Angels. Favorite song: “Piece Of Crap”
1995 *Neil Young – Mirror Ball. Grungy album with members of Pearl Jam.
1996 Neil Young – Dead Man
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Broken Arrow. Loud first side, more mellow second.
1997 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Year of the Horse
1999 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – Looking Forward
2000 *Neil Young – Silver & Gold. Middle four songs feature vocals by Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris.
Neil Young – Road Rock v1
2001 Buffalo Springfield – Box Set
2002 Neil Young Are You – Passionate?
2003 Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Greendale
Neil Young – Greatest Hits
2005 Neil Young – Prairie Wind. On my Amazon list.
2006 *Neil Young – Living With War. Perhaps too pedantic, but I liked it anyway.
Neil Young & Crazy Horse – Live At The Fillmore East 1970
Neil Young – Living With War: In The Beginning
2007 Neil Young – Live At Massey Hall 1971
*Neil Young – Chrome Dreams 2. Features the 18-minute Ordinary People, which, surprisingly, works for me.
2008 Crosby Stills Nash & Young – CSNY/Déjà Vu Live
Neil Young Sugar Mountain – Live at Canterbury House 1968
2009 Neil Young – Fork In The Road
Neil Young – Archives Volume 1 Box Set
Neil Young – Dreamin’ Man Live ’92
2010 Neil Young Le Noise

A great article about Neil I came across.

Ramblin' with Roger
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