music Archives - Page 254 of 261 - Ramblin' with Roger

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: thanks to the Census Bureau.

The “event became a national holiday in 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving. Later, President Franklin Roosevelt clarified that Thanksgiving should always be celebrated on the fourth Thursday of the month to encourage earlier holiday shopping, never on the occasional fifth Thursday.”

We are thankful that FDR provided that extra shopping period. Otherwise, Thanksgiving would have been a week later in 2000, 2006 and 2007, and would be a week later in 2012, 2017, 2018, 2023, 2028, 2029…

Seriously, I am thankful for all sorts of good things, not the least of which is music:

Sam & Dave – I THANK YOU.
Led Zeppelin – THANK YOU.
Sly and the Family Stone – THANK YOU FALETTINME BE MICE ELF AGIN.

My daughter’s current favorite joke:
Why did the turkey cross the road?
Because it was the chicken’s day off!

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.