Category: Music

Friday Music

It’s really hard to get up and get going when it’s a rainy, thunderstormy day.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

A couple of you liked the techno that I had posted, so here’s some more….sorta. It’s a techno cover of a 70s rock classic, and the mixture turns out to be a ‘peanut-butter and chocolate’ kinda thing, because it actually works pretty well. Apollo 440 – “Dont Fear The Reaper”.

Here’s a quirky little tune with some odd lyrics. I’ve liked Cake ever since they happened to release a cover of “I Will Survive” right when I was going through my divorce. This is my second favorite track by them (with the more well known “Going The Distance” coming in a distant third): Cake – “Frank Sinatra”.

A few weeks ago, I gave you some Scissor Sisters, and talked about how the song in question (“Take Your Mama”) was channeling the spirit of 70s-era Elton John. Apparently, a mash-up DJ thought the same thing, because here is an absolutely BRILLIANT mash-up of the song with “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”: Scissor Sisters vs. Elton John – “Take Your Mama Fighting” I think I might even like that more than the original mix.

I’m a big fan of early-70s “blaxploitation” movies…I’m a sucker for crime dramas (which they pretty much all were), and combine that with a sense of style and some kick-ass music, and I’m hooked. The music is really incredible, too…of course, you’ve got to look beyond the whole “wakka-chikka wakka-chikka” guitar stereotype and give it a critical listen….and also realize how ground-breaking this stuff was, not only in composition, but in language and subject matter. My personal favorite: the soundtrack to “Superfly” by Curtis Mayfield, who had the brilliance to craft a score for a film that essentially glorified a drug dealer, by doing songs (for example, “Freddie’s Dead”) that were often negative and critical of what you saw on screen, acting as a counterpoint. Give a listen to Curtis Mayfield – “Pusherman”, marvel at the tight composition, and realize what a shock it was in the early seventies for him to sing: “I’m your mama, I’m your daddy, I’m that nigger in the alley.“

From there, we’ll move on to some 1980s Euro-new-wave bombast: Ultravox – “Hymn”. Only Midge Ure could sing “until MY kingdom come” without a hint of irony, and have you totally buy it.

Way back, I posted a track by Kula Shaker. Here’s another: Kula Shaker – “S.O.S.” This one isn’t in Hindi, but it definitely comes from the same alternate universe where the psychedelia of the late 60s continued uninterrupted until the present day. It manages to be retro and modern at the same time. Love the lyrics on this one as well: “Every time I turn some microscopic worm is telling me he’s “it” — dressed in robes of cosmic ego, crawling ’round in shit. I read the news, but the news didn’t fascinate. I stayed at home and watched the media ejaculate.“

Faith No More were a strange bunch. One of the earliest groups to hit with a rap-rock fusion (the track “Epic”, with the famous goldfish-flopping-out-of-water video, was their first hit single), they took a musical risk by including a cover of John Barry’s instrumental theme to the film Midnight Cowboy on their album, “Angel Dust.” Not what you’d expect, and a really excellent cover to boot: Faith No More – “Midnight Cowboy”. I’m sure it confused many a frat-boy who were expecting more metal-tinged rap stylings.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a track from the soundtrack to Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Quentin Tarantino always fills his movies with great music, and this film was no exception. If you haven’t picked up the two soundtrack CDs yet, do so. Santa Esmeralda – “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” is a Mariachi-tinged cover of the classic Animals track…and for those of you who have seen the film, it plays during the duel between the Bride and Oren Ishii.

More music in 7.

It’s really hard to get up and get going when it’s a rainy, thunderstormy day.

Here’s what I’ve got for you this week:

A couple of you liked the techno that I had posted, so here’s some more….sorta. It’s a techno cover of a 70s rock classic, and the mixture turns out to be a ‘peanut-butter and chocolate’ kinda thing, because it actually works pretty well. Apollo 440 – “Dont Fear The Reaper”.

Here’s a quirky little tune with some odd lyrics. I’ve liked Cake ever since they happened to release a cover of “I Will Survive” right when I was going through my divorce. This is my second favorite track by them (with the more well known “Going The Distance” coming in a distant third): Cake – “Frank Sinatra”.

A few weeks ago, I gave you some Scissor Sisters, and talked about how the song in question (“Take Your Mama”) was channeling the spirit of 70s-era Elton John. Apparently, a mash-up DJ thought the same thing, because here is an absolutely BRILLIANT mash-up of the song with “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting”: Scissor Sisters vs. Elton John – “Take Your Mama Fighting” I think I might even like that more than the original mix.

I’m a big fan of early-70s “blaxploitation” movies…I’m a sucker for crime dramas (which they pretty much all were), and combine that with a sense of style and some kick-ass music, and I’m hooked. The music is really incredible, too…of course, you’ve got to look beyond the whole “wakka-chikka wakka-chikka” guitar stereotype and give it a critical listen….and also realize how ground-breaking this stuff was, not only in composition, but in language and subject matter. My personal favorite: the soundtrack to “Superfly” by Curtis Mayfield, who had the brilliance to craft a score for a film that essentially glorified a drug dealer, by doing songs (for example, “Freddie’s Dead”) that were often negative and critical of what you saw on screen, acting as a counterpoint. Give a listen to Curtis Mayfield – “Pusherman”, marvel at the tight composition, and realize what a shock it was in the early seventies for him to sing: “I’m your mama, I’m your daddy, I’m that nigger in the alley.”

From there, we’ll move on to some 1980s Euro-new-wave bombast: Ultravox – “Hymn”. Only Midge Ure could sing “until MY kingdom come” without a hint of irony, and have you totally buy it.

Way back, I posted a track by Kula Shaker. Here’s another: Kula Shaker – “S.O.S.” This one isn’t in Hindi, but it definitely comes from the same alternate universe where the psychedelia of the late 60s continued uninterrupted until the present day. It manages to be retro and modern at the same time. Love the lyrics on this one as well: “Every time I turn some microscopic worm is telling me he’s “it” — dressed in robes of cosmic ego, crawling ’round in shit. I read the news, but the news didn’t fascinate. I stayed at home and watched the media ejaculate.”

Faith No More were a strange bunch. One of the earliest groups to hit with a rap-rock fusion (the track “Epic”, with the famous goldfish-flopping-out-of-water video, was their first hit single), they took a musical risk by including a cover of John Barry’s instrumental theme to the film Midnight Cowboy on their album, “Angel Dust.” Not what you’d expect, and a really excellent cover to boot: Faith No More – “Midnight Cowboy”. I’m sure it confused many a frat-boy who were expecting more metal-tinged rap stylings.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a track from the soundtrack to Kill Bill, Vol. 1. Quentin Tarantino always fills his movies with great music, and this film was no exception. If you haven’t picked up the two soundtrack CDs yet, do so. Santa Esmeralda – “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” is a Mariachi-tinged cover of the classic Animals track…and for those of you who have seen the film, it plays during the duel between the Bride and Oren Ishii.

More music in 7.

A pretty eclectic mix for you this week….

In honor of last night’s viewing of the advanced screening, I give you “The Ballad of Serenity”, which, being the theme to the Fox TV series Firefly was actually not a part of the film…I’m hoping that it’s eventually put in over the end credits when the film is complete.

On the way home from the movie last night, I heard this new song on 97.3 The Planet: Luce – “Buy A Dog” I’m not sure why, but it hooked me immediately. Something about the guys voice, I think.

One of my favorite guitar hooks of all time is featured in Crosby Stills & Nash’s “Dark Star”, which, despite lyrics which are fairly clearly about a woman, has always made me think of far-flung space operas with starships zooming off into the night. Yes, that makes no sense. I’m a geek. Sue me.

The link here is a bit slow, but when I stumble across somebody who’s got a copy of one of my favorite techno songs online, I can’t pass it up. Darude – “Sandstorm”. It’s pretty much a love-it-or-hate-it kinda thing in my experience….if you don’t have a tolerance for what a friend of mine once called “thump-thump music”, you’ll probably not be too much of a fan. Me, I eat this stuff up.

In honor of securing tickets for and myself, I’ll put up one of my favorite Duran Duran songs from their latter period, when they weren’t getting much radio attention, but were still producing some brilliant material. Duran Duran – “Out of My Mind” was featured on the soundtrack to the Val Kilmer film version of The Saint (which will quickly tell you, given the opportunity, is a bastardization of the character, bearing almost no similarities whatsoever to the character that Leslie Charteris wrote about).

A bit further in the way-back machine, we come to the 1980s, and the best-known single by Nik Kershaw – “Wouldn’t It Be Good”. I still have the entire Human Racing album. Love this stuff. Kershaw’s most famous single would get even more exposure when it was used in the John Hughes film Pretty in Pink, but for some strange, unknown reason, Hughes opted to have an unknown band, the Danny Hutton Hitters, record an essentially identical cover of the song rather than use Kershaw’s original.

Nothing says “80s dance club” more than the piercing falsetto of Jimmy Somerville, whether singing with The Communards, or here with Bronski Beat – “Why?”. I spent so much time listening to this kind of stuff in my room that I’m pretty sure that my mother must have thought I was Gay at least once.

In case you are among the uninitiated, I’ll fill you in: Dario Argento is one of the most brilliant directors in the horror genre. For many of his films, he teamed with the Italian progressive-rock group Goblin, who created unique scores to accompany the disturbing imagery onscreen. Here is the 1977 theme song to Argento’s best-known work, a surreal and nightmarish film about an American ballet student enrolled in a prestigious German dance academy, which turns out to be run by a diabolist coven under the command of a centuries-old “Black Witch”: Goblin – “Suspiria”

Another favorite film track of mine: The film version of The Shadow, with Alec Baldwin, was right up my alley–pulpy goodness abounded. Even better, the closing credits to the movie featured a song written by Jim Steinman, composer of “Bat Out of Hell” (and much of the rest of Meatloaf’s oeuvre), “Total Eclipse of the Heart”, several tracks from “Streets of Fire,” etc., whose bombastic, melodramatic anthems are amazingly recognizable even though he doesn’t perform his own work. Taylor Dane – “Original Sin (Theme From The Shadow)”.

…and, lastly, we have Kate Bush – “Hounds of Love”….because, well… Dude. It’s Kate Bush.