So, for today's Rewind, I give you my favorite songs I like to sing along to. If I'm being really honest, it's more like songs I think I can sing the hell out of.
They're mostly one-hit wonders, but such good stuff. Oh, and these videos are some 80's gold.
First up is one of my all-time favorite 80's songs evah. T'pau's "Heart and Soul." Best line: I used to have a lover with a Midas touch. IF I HAD A NICKEL, PEOPLE.
Next would be my theme song, "Goody Two Shoes" by the one and only Adam Ant. Best line: You don't drink, don't smoke/What do you do/The subtle innuendos follow/There must be something inside.
This one would be a duet. It's "Obsession" by Animotion. It's the song that spawned a million stalkers -- if you listen to the lyrics, it's nuts. The video makes exactly ZERO sense. Best line: My fantasy has turned to madness /And all my goodness /Has turned to badness.
Lastly, totally not a one-hit wonder and completely the opposite of the other videos today -- The Commodores with "Nightshift." I love this song. Major love. When I sing this one in the car it's dangerous, because I have to do the hand motions. It's a fab song, more subtle than "Brickhouse," (obviously) and it's about Marvin Gaye and Jackie Wilson, who both passed away in 1984, the year before this song came out. The Kerry Blog is all about musical education, is it not? This video is perfect. The outfits at the end SO remind me of Isaac from the Love Boat, it's good times. Best line: At the end of a long day/It's gonna be okay/On the Nightshift.
So, my good friend Will requested a "where are they now" on Edie Brickell after my 80's Sunday Rewind post (because apparently his Google is broken) and since I am here to educate as well as amuse, here's the update.
It's been 20 years since Edie Brickell and New Bohemians had their hit "What I Am" and New Bohemians have had two good follow-up albums:
1990's Ghost of a Dog and 2006's Stranger Things. Edie's band showed a great deal of promise with their hit album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, but Ghost of a Dog didn't come close to matching that kind of success, as is the usual thing with sophomore albums. The only song released from that album was "Mama Help Me" and I bet you don't remember it. Still, it's a good album. My favorite song off Ghost of a Dog is "He Said," have a listen.
On the personal front, Brickell married Paul Simon in 1992. I know, seemed weird to me when I learned this back in the day -- but wait -- it's going to get a little weirder. They met when she was performing on Saturday Night Live and according to Wikipedia she says he was standing by the cameraman, "He made me
mess the song up when I looked at him," she said with a smile. "We can
show the kids the tape and say, 'Look, that's when we first laid eyes
on each other.'" Makes me wonder what would have happened if Steve Martin would have been hosting that night.
By 2005, Brickell was headed for one-hit-wonderland when Microsoft put her song "Good Times" on the Windows 95 cd-rom. Nothing says indie-bohemian like Microsoft. Anyway, there it was and Brickell was in the spotlight for a bit with the song going to #22 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Good Times" was from Brickell's 1994 solo effort, Picture Perfect Morning. In 2003 she put out Volcano, which didn't fare well at all.
Now for the good news (and that weirder part I was talking about).
Last year Edie Brickell and her step-son, Harper Simon, formed The Heavy Circles and recorded an album of the same name. I don't know what the band name means, they could have called themselves Harper and Edie for all I care because this collaboration is pretty fantastic. I'm just glad they didn't call themselves Oedipus Complex. Harper has inherited his dad's talent and the album showcases the best of what Edie does -- haunting vocals, and then surprises you with rockin' vocals in songs like "Dynamite Child."
The Heavy Circles album is definitely worth getting if you've enjoyed any of Brickell's past work or if you just like good music. It's well-produced, multi-layered, and soulful. I really haven't heard anything like The Heavy Circles in recent years. The album is decidedly different from her work with New Bohemians and the songs are full and interesting, a little poppy, a little rock and roll. I had to look at my iTunes to see what they were classified as and they're under Alternative, which proves Alternative has come to mean anything that doesn't easily fit a category.
A good example of not fitting any of the standard classifications is the first track, "Henri," which needs to be in the David Lynch film about Henri Matisse's paintings. What? It could happen.
"Better" is a fun song reminiscent of The Beatles with fun piano and guitar, so of course I love that. Oh, did I mention that Sean Lennon did some work on this album as well? He did, but I can't find any information on what he performed on.
My favorite song on the album is "Confused." It's ethereal and lovely. I super love the melodies on this one. By the way, I would SO put it in the title sequence of a film where the heroine is deciding between two men. Seriously, will someone please give me a job picking music for movies? I'm adding this to the list of jobs I'd be perfect for -- this is not a long list, believe me (but that's another post).
Everyone's going to get The Heavy Circles now, right? Good. It's good stuff. I hope y'all feel bathed in knowledge now, I'll be back to my usual shenanigans later. I'll dig up something for 80's Sunday Rewind tomorrow and I've planned something special for Tunes You Need Tuesday (although this post would definitely suffice). Y'all have a superfantastic weekend, download The Heavy Circles, jump in a pile of leaves, have a nap, and take a drive: this is the stuff autumn weekends are made of.
Regina Spektor is getting quite a bit of attention of late and it's all well deserved and wonderful. She has a great story and I thought you might like to hear what her Wiki says:
Spektor was born in Moscow, USSR to a musical Jewish family. Her father, Ilya Spektor, is a photographer and amateur violinist.
Her mother, Bella Spektor, was a music professor in a Russian college
of music and now teaches at a public elementary school in Mount Vernon, New York.[1]
Spektor learned how to play piano by practicing on a Petrofupright that was given to her mother by her grandfather.[2] She was also exposed to the music of rock and roll bands such as The Beatles, Queen, and The Moody Blues by her father, who obtained such recordings in Eastern Europe and traded cassettes with friends in the Soviet Union.[1] The family left the Soviet Union in 1989, when Regina was nine and a half, during the period of Perestroika, when Soviet citizens were permitted to emigrate. Regina had to leave her piano behind.[3]
The seriousness of her piano studies led her parents to consider not
leaving the USSR, but they finally decided to emigrate, due to the
ethnic and political discrimination which Jews faced.[4]
By now y'all know I love my quirky pianists. Spektor is most certainly the quirkiest and most eclectic girl in the music industry that I know of. Not to mention wildly talented as well being a lovely vocalist who doesn't have to dress up in outrageous costumes or make the tabloids for attention. Her music speaks for itself.
Her 2006 album Begin To Hope is superfantastic. Here's "Fidelity" from that album.
I went back and forth over whether to share this next song with you or not. "Samson" is a jewel. It's my favorite song of the past few years (period) and it's one that can make me cry and I strangely identify with and just adore it. I play it often. "You are my sweetest downfall/I loved you first/Beneath the sheets of paper lies my truth" just kills me. You'll have to hear it, but I think "you are my sweetest downfall" may be the most poetic phrase I've heard in years. The "beneath the sheets of paper" part reminds me of my unpublished novel (sigh). So, that's my song. Maybe you'll like it too.
Spektor's latest album, Far is out now and the current single is "Eet." It's lovely.
And the perfect song to listen to after "Eet" is "Dance Anthem of the 80's" for the -eet sounds. Here's a fabulous live clip.
So, that's my Regina Spektor post. I hope y'all enjoyed it as much as enjoy her music.
Today's Rewind with Edie Brickell is a little different. There were two songs I wanted to share and I didn't put any research into it or look up any other songs because it's all about the two I had in mind. Everyone remembers Edie Brickell & New Bohemians for their song "What I Am" from their 1988 album Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars, and while that's a great song, "Circle" was always my favorite. I think it still holds up.
I also loved "Nothing" because of the lines
"There's nothing I hate more than nothing
Nothing keeps me up at night
I toss & turn over nothing"
So, that's it. Just a little Edie Brickell for today. It's good stuff. Enjoy your Sunday.
Back in 1991, amidst the sea of grunge bands (which I hated) from Seattle that were ever-present on the radio, there was a gem of musician who appeared on my radar and his name was Matthew Sweet. His music was refreshing and happy and I loved it, and still very much love it. I remember the half anime/half performance video of his first song, "Girlfriend" and Sweet performing the song on the Regis show, which means it was either a holiday or I was skipping school, who knows. I bought his first album then and now have his music on my iPod and listen to it often.
Over the years, Sweet has kept a lower than low profile, but he's still making records and touring. His last release was Sunshine Lies, from last year and in 2006 he recorded an album of duets from the 60's with Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles. I love their take on The Beatles "And Your Bird Can Sing." This past summer they put out an album of covers of 70's duets -- how fun is that? 100% fun -- that's how much.
If you're a fan of power-pop or just love good music, I suggest you get his best-of release, Time Capsule, on iTunes right now and put in heavy rotation on your iPod, but for now listen to three of my favorite Sweet tunes.
"Girlfriend"
"You Don't Love Me"
"Time Capsule"
And because I love alternate versions of songs, a fab version of "Girlfriend" from the reissue. Enjoy.
Here's a little known Kerry fact for you: I discovered one of my still-favorite bands, The Lemonheads, by way of the now defunct Sassy magazine. Loved that magazine, but that's another post for another day.
I've been doing a lot of searching for visual inspiration for the ScrapFest! print materials, but one cannot have visual inspiration without musical inspiration, and this evening I turned to the Lemonheads for said inspiration. Here are a couple of my favorites from Evan Dando and company.
My all-time fave, "Confetti." Love love love this song.
The wonderful "Into Your Arms."
And "It's About Time." This song has great lyrics like "patience is like bread I say, I ran out of that yesterday."
I've been in a funky mood and would like to have a do-over for this week, please.
This mood brought me to my Counting Crows playlist and the song "Good Time," which is one of my favorites (my Adam, guitar, and banjo -- shut up). This song is for real. Love the lyric, "it's no easier for you some days/You wish you could tell him it'll be ok/but you feel a little shy these days/cause everybody goes away." And of course the best part of the song is the refrain over the last minute of the song, "I really love the red haired girls, I'm just another boy from Texas."
I love the Van Morrison. I have since I was a kid, when I discovered my parents' albums (that are now in my possession) which were a treasure trove of musical goodness of Aretha, Otis Redding, and Morrison. His Band and the Street Choir was my favorite then and I still love it. Back then it was all about the voice and the sax, but now I appreciate the subtlety of some of the songs, the lyrics, the genius of a singer/songwriter who makes you feel. And he hails from Ireland. A soul singer from Ireland. Sweet.
Here's a blurb from Morrison's Wikipedia:
Van Morrison (George Ivan Morrison, OBE, born 31 August 1945 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is a critically acclaimed[1][2] singer and songwriter with a reputation for being at once stubborn,[3][4] idiosyncratic,[5] and sublime.[6] His live performances at their best are seen as transcendental and inspired;[7][8] while some of his recordings, such as the studio albums Astral Weeks and Moondance, and the live album It's Too Late to Stop Now, are acclaimed as among the greatest ever made.
Known as "Van the Man" by his fans, Morrison started his
professional career when, as a young teenager in the late 1950s, he
played a variety of instruments, including the guitar, harmonica,
keyboards, and saxophone, in a range of Irish showbands who covered the popular hits of the day, before rising to prominence in the mid-1960s as the lead singer of the gritty Northern Irish R&B band Them with whom he recorded the garage band classic, "Gloria". His solo career began under the pop-hit oriented guidance of Bert Berns with the release of the hit single "Brown Eyed Girl" in 1967. After Berns' death, Warner Bros. Records bought out his contract and allowed him several sessions to record Astral Weeks in 1968.[9] Even though this album would gradually garner high praise, it was initially poorly received; however, the next one, Moondance, established Morrison as a major artist,[10]
and throughout the 1970s he built on his reputation with a series of
critically acclaimed albums and live performances. Morrison continues
to record and tour, producing albums and live performances that sell
well and are generally warmly received; sometimes collaborating with
other artists, such as Georgie Fame and The Chieftains. In 2008 he performed Astral Weeks live for the first time since 1968.
You've heard "Brown Eyed Girl" and "Gloria" at least a hundred times, so I thought I'd give you some of my favorites.
"If I Ever Needed Someone" is a beautiful song that I've always liked. It's a prayer, it's desperate, it's honest, and it's just a magnificent song.
"Into the Mystic" is a definite favorite. It should be required listening for everyone, especially those growing up with the Disneyfication of music these days. The title is perfect and sounds like a book I'd like to read, if it were a book.
Next is an odd one. "Crazy Face" has lyrics that sound like something you would dream.
All the people were waiting for Crazy Face
He said he'd meet them at his favourite place
Dressed in black satin, white linen and lace
With his head held high and a smile on his face
And he said:
'Ladies and gentlemen, the prince is late'
As he stood outside the church-yard gate
And polished up on his .38
And said:
'I got it from Jesse James'
See? I told you. It reminds me a lot of Counting Crows lyrics. You know I love that.
Y'all know I love my Counting Crows. I needed a little "St. Robinson and His Cadillac Dream" this morning, and not just because my name is in the song. It's one of my favorites, lyrics are fun and love the mandolin and how Adam does my favorite line of the song. I'm sure you can guess it, it's not hard.
This post has been a long time coming. I've finally found LOTS of decent quality videos that allow embedding. So, the 80's Sunday Rewind is jam packed full for you today. Yippee.
The Pet Shop Boys have been one of my favorite bands since 1986. Please was one of the first albums I bought, then Disco, Actually, Introspective, Behaviour, and the other one-word albums that followed. It's always been interesting to me to grow up with a band. There are several bands I feel that way about, Pet Shop Boys being one of them, one that I've been a fan of since their first album. And being been a fan for so long, I couldn't tell you what it is exactly that hooked me. I loved the synth pop then, the almost spoken word style of singing Neil Tennant is now known for, the full sound of their songs, thoughtful lyrics -- there are so many things to love about PSB.
I thought I'd give you my favorite of their 80's tunes as well as two 80's leftovers from '90 and '91, one of which is "Being Boring," which I can't say enough good things about. I love a literary song. "Being Boring" references Zelda Fitzgerald and her quote, “...she covered her face with powder and paint because she didn’t need
it and she refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring. She
was conscious that the things she did were the things she had always
wanted to do.” Love that. PSB said the song is about the ideals you have when you're young and about growing up, and the lyrics reflect that. My favorite lines have always been:
Now I sit with different faces In rented rooms and foreign places All the people I was kissing Some are here and some are missing In the nineteen-nineties I never dreamt that I would get to be The creature that I always meant to be But I thought in spite of dreams Youd be sitting somewhere here with me
That's good stuff.
First up is the first PSB single, "West Eng Girls," then "Love Comes Quickly," followed by the capitalist theme song "Opportunities (Let's Make Lots of Money)." One of the greats, Dusty Springfield joins PSB on "What Have I Done To Deserve This," then our 80's leftovers, "Being Boring" and "Jealousy" round out the videos today. "Jealousy" is wonderfully orchestral and the vid features a fabulous fight scene at the end -- such a good video from that era. So, enjoy my Pet Shop Boys today, it's good times.
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