music Archives - Page 81 of 268 - Ramblin' with Roger

Sept. rambling: AmeriNZ blog turns 15

Soldier, Sister, Savant

http://www.weblogcartoons.com/2006/06/27/weight-of-the-world/

The wonderful Sharp Little Pencil wrote a response post to my recent piece about neighbors. Hers is entitled The Noisy Neighbor and the Quiet Neighbor. This reminds me of an earlier period of blogging when the late Dustbury and I would inspire to write and expand ideas. Occasionally, Jaquandor and Arthur still do that with me.

And speaking of the guy who moved from Illinois to Kiwiland 26 years ago, he is celebrating his 15th anniversary of blogging. (As I noted to him, blogging that long is a sign of a crazed individual.)

In truth, I’d recommend the entirety of Arthur’s output in September. It is the month in which he deals with grief – two years or 104 weeks since the death of his husband Nigel. But he also addresses the idiosyncrasies of measuring time. (BTW, on that specific subject, see also John Green’s piece How We Spend Our Days.)

Also, I need to check out the book about and co-written by, my friend Diana de Avila, called Soldier, Sister, Savant. As one of the reviewers noted, “She survived a deadly motorcycle accident while serving in the military police; she overcame her devastation when diagnosed with multiple sclerosis; and one day, she awakened as an acquired savant.”

Linkage

Seven Days in January (General Milley)

As a juror in a criminal trial, I had to see the world differently

Disney Princess Theology and Talking About White Supremacy

CIA Factbook

Heroes of Ireland’s Great Hunger

Goodbye, Larry Elder

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Lukashenko

vaccine_research_2x — https://xkcd.com/2515/ his work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.

Patient questionnaires do no good unless we have the resources to provide useful responses

Two-Thirds of Recent First-Time Fathers Took Time Off After Birth

Forbes: The 25 Best Places To Enjoy Your Retirement In 2021. I’m unconvinced about several of these, especially those located in a desert.

The Meaning of Recurring Dreams

Psalms 3:16 and the Mandela Effect

In Memorium, 2021 Emmys

Peter Palmer, the living embodiment of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner, has died at the age of 90.

William Shatner reacts to various impressions of William Shatner…

The Top 10 Micro-Photos of 2021

Now I Know: The Officially-Living Person That Doesn’t Exist and On the Power of Listening and How to Stop a Menacing Walrus and
The Man Who Went the Wrong Way Into the History Books and
Why (and How) a Dead Man Committed a Murder and Ask the Elves for Permission First, OK?

MUSIC

Feeling Good – Nina Simone

Spellbound Concerto by Miklos Rozsa

Worried Blues – Gladys Bentley

End Title from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock

Ed Sullivan Show clips, all showing up on YouTube in 2021:

In A MellowTone Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong
You’ll Have To Swing It (Mr. Paganini) – Ella Fitzgerald It Ain’t Necessarily So – Cab Calloway You Keep Me Hanging On – Vanilla Fudge
Never My Love – The Association
Up On Cripple Creek – The Band A Girl Named Johnny Cash – Jane Morgan

Coverville 1371: Cover Stories for Florence + The Machine and Beyonce

That Beach Boys mondegreen can get mon-de-violent

What I’d have included: RS 500 list

The most successful crossover hit of the 1960s

When you Ask Roger Anything, he has to answer. Here’s something from my friend Walter regarding what I wrote about the Rolling Stone list of greatest songs.

But what WASN’T in the 500 that you would have included?

A brutal question. First off, it’s narrowed to the popular song, as opposed to tunes before 1930, so. definitionally, it’s lacking.

That said, the FIRST recording I thought of was Biko by Peter Gabriel, which, besides being a tremendous tribute, inspired a whole lot of activism. Ohio by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young was a response to a terrible event. For What It’s Worth by Buffalo Springfield was definitely a huge part of the soundtrack of the 1960s

There was a dearth of country music; one Patsy Cline, two Hank Williams, two Johnny Cash one Dixie Chicks, one Kacey Musgraves, a couple of others. I was hoping for something from Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Garth Brooks. I might suggest Baby, Now Tha I Found You – Alison Krauss; Man Of Constant Sorrow – Foggy Mountain Boys; I Fall To Pieces – Patsy Cline; and Hurt – Johnny Cash, for instance.

Only a handful of jazz tracks made it. I’d add Take Five – Dave Brubeck. And there was not much older music. Perhaps Nature Boy – Nat King Cole or – and why not? –White Christmas – Bing Crosby.

How about…?

As I’ve noted, The End Of The World by Skeeter Davis was the most successful crossover hit of the 1960s

Here are some more, hardly a definitive roster:

Theme from Shaft – Isaac Hayes. We CAN dig it.
Lady Marmalade – Labelle. Covered for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, but this is better.
Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins. Before Elvis.
Oh, Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison. For the growl alone.
Tempted – Squeeze. For the groan alone.

Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin
La Bamba – Ritchie Valens
The Twist – Chubby Checker. Twice went to #1. The Hank Ballard version is arguably better.
The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel. My favorite song by the duo.

The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time

Shouldn’t’ve is my favorite punctuation)

Missy_Elliott_Get_Ur_Freak_On The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time is yet another list from Rolling Stone. “For the first time in 17 years, we’ve completely remade our list of the best songs ever. More than 250 artists, writers, and industry figures helped us choose a brand-new list full of historic favorites, world-changing anthems, and new classics.”

First of all, it’s difficult for me to analyze when there’s about 10% of the songs I’ve never heard, and often never heard of. This is not a criticism of the list, only my deficiencies in music from about 1990 forward.

So these are pretty random observations. Some of the songs on the list I’ve written about before, though I haven’t linked to all of them because my reflections would be too long.

#497: Lizzo, Truth Hurts (2017) – 21st-century song I’ve actually heard!
#489 The Breeders, Cannonball (1993) – I have an irrational fondness for this. I have the album and the EP on which it came out
#461 Roy Orbison, Crying (1962) – I still contend the version by Orbison and k.d. lang is better
#436 Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe (2012) song that became a meme; even I couldn’t have missed it
#427 Sugar Hill Gang, Rapper’s Delight (1979) – probably the first rap song I ever bought; actually, it was the long version
#417 Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars, Uptown Funk (2015) – I heard this a LOT during rehearsals for a church musical. Seriously.
#401 Fleetwood Mac, Go Your Own Way (1977) – “Nicks has admitted that [the lyrics] angered her so much that she ‘wanted to go over and kill [Lindsay Buckingham]’ each time she sang it onstage.” Which is why I love it so much.

South Korean stars

#362 Kacey Musgraves, Merry Go ‘Round – love the wordplay
#346 BTS, Dynamite (2020) – I blame my daughter for me knowing as much about BTS as I do.
#336 – Hall and Oates, She’s Gone (1973) – There is a story about this
#332 -Rihanna ft. JAY-Z- Umbrella (2007). This has inspired at least five JEOPARDY clues
#318- Big Mama Thornton, Hound Dog (1953). Some of the seminal songs of rock and roll I might have placed higher.

#276 Buzzcocks, Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve) (1978). The answer is yes.
#269 The Righteous Brothers, Unchained Melody (1965) From my single experience DJing a wedding, play this song.
#251 Gloria Gaynor, I Will Survive (1978). I wrote about it here
#229 Woody Guthrie, This Land Is Your Dream (1951) – it’d be in my Top Ten

#191 Bobbie Gentry, Ode To Billie Joe (1967). Forty years after it was released, I wrote about it.
#175 The Flamingos, I Only Have Eyes For You (1959) – one of my favorite songs of all time
#115 Etta James, At Last (1960) Our wedding dance in 1999.
1960

Message songs

#45 Kendrick Lamar, Alright (2015). I first heard this in 2016 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame display Louder Than Words: Rock * Power * Politics #36 The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army (2003). “Jack White was futzing about on his guitar during soundcheck on one of the White Stripes’ Australian tours when he stumbled upon the weightiest hard-rock riff this side of Jimmy Page.”
#21 Billie Holiday, Strange Fruit (1939) – I wrote about it here. Its profile was enlarged by the movie The United States v. Billie Holiday

#10 Outkast, Hey Ya! (2003). One of the few 21st-century songs I introduced to my daughter
#8 Missy Elliott, Get Ur Freak On (2001). OK, I’ll own it. I had never heard this song before.
#4 Bob Dylan, Like A Rolling Stone (1965). I believe this was #1 seventeen years ago.
#3 Sam Cooke, A Change Is Gonna Come (1964). I believe that the song’s prominence in the movie One Night In Miami helped raise the song’s profile.
#1 Aretha Franklin, Respect (1967). Well, of course. Would have been my #1 17 years ago. Plus two Aretha movies, including one with this title!

Sept. rambling: Suicide prevention

Way Less Sad

NAMI: Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. “It’s Okay to Talk About Suicide”

Food insecurity soared roughly 9% last year for Americans

The LMNOPs of Caring for the Nursing Workforce: Healthcare systems can do more to prevent staff burnout

A Guide on Racism, Inequality, and Health Care for African Americans.

Household COVID-19 risk and in-person schooling

Fines Double for Refusing to Wear a Mask on a Plane

‘I’m learning firsthand how difficult it is to be shunned by people you love’: The vaccine wars are getting personal

Once-in-a-Century Weather Events Every Week

Why ‘I’ Hurricane Names Are Most Likely to Be Retired

What Bobby McIlvaine Left Behind, -Grief, conspiracy theories, and one family’s search for meaning in the two decades since 9/11

How can America wake up from its post-9/11 nightmare?

Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy (Erik Prince, 2010)

A Dozen Observations about Abortion, Texas, and the Supreme Court

Power Move: Charles Blow wants Black people to reverse the Great Migration and form majorities in the Southern states.

Journey with Jesus: Richard Rothstein on “The Color of Law”

Is it Better Not To Know?

‘SNL’ Alum Norm Macdonald Dead At 61

Sporting News

every_data_table — **https://xkcd.com/2502/ Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.**

Pittsburgh Pirates lineup from Sept. 1, 1971, the first time an AL or NL team had fielded an all-Black and Latino starting lineup.

60+ Key Stats About the Olympic and Paralympics

The Woman Who Invented Stuffed Animals

John Green: My Two Favorite Jokes. From the comments: “I went into the library and asked the librarian for a book on turtles. ‘Hard back?’ ‘Yeah, with little heads.'”

How Much of the World’s Bourbon Is Actually Made in Kentucky?

Surf the Vintage Internet

ZOOM: Celebrating 10 Years of Zoom: “Some of you have only known Zoom since early 2020.” Including me.

What Is a Squinting Modifier?

A 13,654 stick bomb

Now I Know: The Friend on the Bench and The Man Who Gets People Out of the Hospital and The Magical Place Where Everyone Can Play

MUSIC

Elegy by Mark Camphouse

I heard this song called Way Less Sad by AJR this week for the first time last week. It came out in February 2021. For the life of me, I recognized but could not immediately place the horn riff. No, not Chicago or Blood, Sweat and Tears or Earth, Wind and Fire. Finally, it came to me, without looking it up: the way too sad My Little Town by Simon and Garfunkel! Paul Simon even gets a writing credit for Way Less Sad.

Times Will Be Better – Elena Romanova

I Bought Myself A Politician – MonaLisa Twins

Flivver Ten Million by Frederick Shepherd Converse, played by the Buffalo Philharmonic, conducted by JoAnn Falletta

Michelle – Julian Neel

Arlington from John Williams’s score to JFK

17 Quotes on the Transformative Power of Music

Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders) is 70

“The farms of Ohio had been replaced by shopping malls”

One of my all-time favorite debut albums is Pretenders, released in 1980. It was by a group I thought was British. In fact, the lead singer. and primary songwriter was Chrissie Hynde, originally from Akron, Ohio.

She bounced around in the London and Paris music scenes for half a decade before the Pretenders were formed in 1978 with Pete Farndon (bass). James Honeyman-Scott (guitar, vocals, keyboards), and Martin Chambers (drums, vocals, percussion).

The second album, the less-than-inspired titled Pretenders II (1981) was solid. But then, Farndon was fired from the band in June 1982 and died less than a year later. “On 16 June 1982, Honeyman-Scott died of heart failure as a result of cocaine intolerance.”

After that, there was an ever-changing lineup, with Chrissie the only constant. When the group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005, only the original quartet was selected.

The band now has 11 albums, but I’ve heard only the first four. Still, Chrissie has remained a busy working musician with collaborations with Emmylou Harris, Ringo Starr, and Brazilian musician Moreno Veloso, among many others.

Songs

The chart refers to the Billboard pop charts. Songs leading to my favorite.

Brass in Pocket, #14 in 1980 – I enjoy this, at least in part, because she initially didn’t like her performance. “When we recorded the song I wasn’t very happy with it and told my producer that he could release it over my dead body… Now I like that song because it’s one of those songs that served me well.”
Jealous Dogs – featuring barking, always appreciated
I’ve Got You, Babe, #28 in 1985 – this cover of the Sonny and Cher classic is actually a Chrissie song with UB40, though it appears on the Pretenders: The Singles
Pack It Up – something about “your insipid record collection” always cracked me up
Back On The Chain Gang, #5 in 1983 – essentially Hynde, Chambers, and a pickup band of lead guitarist Billy Bremner of Rockpile, guitarist Robbie McIntosh, and bassist Tony Butler. It was used in the movie The King of Comedy, starring Robert DeNiro and Jerry Lewis. Love the clanging metal sound.

I Go To Sleep – written by Ray Davies, as was Stop Your Sobbing. Sleep was recorded by the Applejacks and Marion, but not officially by The Kinks. Davies is the father of Hynde’s daughter Eva.
Don’t Get Me Wrong, #10 in 1986 – I like the “jangly” guitar sound
Cuban Slide – part of the Extended Play EP between the first two albums
Mystery Achievement – last song of the first album
God Only Knows – the 2014 BBC all-star version of the Beach Boys classic features Chrissie
Middle of the Road, #19 in 1984 – she had said that the song refers to Tao Te Ching, which she interprets as “the middle way”
Precious – the first song on the first album. Howard the Duck is namechecked, the revered 1970s comic book, not the reviled 1980s movie
My City Was Gone, B-side of Chain Gang – “I went back to Ohio.” Great social commentary with a killer bass line.

Ultimate Classic Rock’s Pretenders list