Anaxila / Listens

"It's The Time to Disco" by Kal Ho Naa Ho [Film Singers]

2005-10-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

SONG TITLE: It's The Time to Disco
ARTIST: Film Singers - Sadhna Sargam, Sujata Bhattacharya, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam, and Shankar
ALBUM: Kal Ho Naa Ho
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2003
WORDS: HindiLyrix.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This song has a little bit of everything. It's part classic 70s disco throwback, part 21st century pop song, part Bollywood blockbuster. It rambles and it's jumbled and not all that coherent, but when she tells me It's the Time to Disco, I can't help but think she's absolutely right. The video for this song was playing on the TV behind me at breakfast the other day, and it was all I could do to keep my ass in the chair. I hear this song, and my feet want to dance.

"Shadows and Tall Trees" by U2

2005-06-25T15:51:00.000-07:00

SONG TITLE: "Shadows and Tall Trees"
ARTIST: U2
ALBUM: Boy
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1980
WORDS: macphisto
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

Bono and the boys were barely 20 years-old when they released their first album, and their youthful vigor still electric 25 years later. Bono's voice on this collection is nearly unrecognizable from later releases - it's primarily The Edge's unique guitar sounds that make it clear you're hearing the same band.

I've always thought Bono must have had a cold or something when they were recording this album. The studio track of "Gloria", which didn't make it onto the album, sounds like a man in desperate need of Benadryl. "Shadows and Tall Trees" has much the same nasal quality, though to a lesser extent than the other.

There are lots of great tunes on this first disc, but "Shadows and Tall Trees" always stood out as my favorite. I can't really say why; I guess the melancholy feel just appealed to my morose early 80s self.

Anyway, the song popped into my head this week while studying the tall skinny Ashoka and Palm trees at my hotel in India, and it's been great to rediscover an old favorite.

"Laura Non C'E'" by Nek

2005-06-18T02:19:00.000-07:00

SONG TITLE: "Laura Non C'E'"
ARTIST: Nek
ALBUM: Best of Nek: l'Anno Zero
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2003
WORDS: metrolyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I only have about 50 words of Italian, so I can't really tell you much about what the song means. I can tell you that something stupid took place and at one point he's sorry about something (though for all I know, it could be "I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to kiss my ass"). Inside my head, he's done something dumb and Laura's pretty pissed off about it, and he's demonstrating the sincerity of his apology by writing her this jaunty little pop song.

The tune is infectious - I can't seem to get it off "repeat" on my new iPod - and Nek is a real find. I realize that comparisons to pop superstars are trite, but he really does sound to me like the demon love child of Bono, Sting, and some cute boyband or another. And he's quite easy on the eyes as well.

"Fields of Gold" by Eva Cassidy

2005-03-19T11:12:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Fields of Gold"
ARTIST: Eva Cassidy covering Sting
ALBUM: Songbird
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1998
WORDS: Sting Lyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

There's something in Eva that pushes every Weepy Puddle of Goo button I've got. She can reduce me to a quivering pool of emotion with half a verse, no matter how well I know the original version or how many times I've heard her recording already.

As the some Washingtonian wrote:

When radio stations play Eva, their switchboards light up. Many callers say they were in their car when they first heard her and had to pull over to cry. "Eva evokes that kind of reaction. Not just 'She's good' but 'Who the heck is that?'" says Keith Grimes, who was a guitarist in the Eva Cassidy Band. Cassidy had great control, phrasing, and range. She was petite - five-foot-two - but could belt out a bluesy "People Get Ready" as easily as she could sing a delicate tune like "Autumn Leaves." Some who heard this soulful Scotch-Irish-German woman thought she was black. It's more than Cassidy's technical skill that grabs people. It's the sense as she sang that she was reaching from her heart to her listener's. "There are singers that have great instruments but are just singing the notes," says Grace Griffith, a friend and local chanteuse. "Other singers have emotion but not the instrument. Eva had both."

I never really understood what phrasing meant in vocals until I heard Eva sing songs I already knew. Rather than pushing the words out into the world, it feels like the music is being pulled straight out of her by some intractable invisible force, every idea whole and nuanced and carrying a weight of meaning that I'd somehow missed before. This gives it a fragile vulnerability that completely at odds with her technical polish.

I'm sure some of the force of these emotions comes from the fact that she's dead and gone, and never had much commercial success when she was alive. I like the idea that she was leading a normal humble unsexy life, carrying around this huge talent that hardly anyone ever knew about.

There are lots of great articles about Eva out on the web, which you can easily find with your favorite search engine. Two of the best are "When Chuck Met Eva" and "Echoes of a Voice Stilled Too Early", both lengthy profiles in the Washington Post. There's also an article up on the official website specifically about her cover of "Fields of Gold".

"Ghanan Ghanan" by A.R. Rahman

2005-03-12T16:10:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Ghanan Ghanan"
ARTIST: A.R. Rahman
ALBUM: Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2001
WORDS: in Hindi with pop-up English translation available
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This one is the latest entry on a long and glorious list of songs I've learned to sing phonetically. It started at the age of 11 with Menudo, when the fact that I didn't speak Spanish in no way diminished my teenybopper need to sing along. Not surprisingly, making the right Hindi sounds is a bit more challenging for this white girl than the Spanish ones. I have two additional decades of experience to apply to the situation, though, which pretty much means I can fumble along like a three year-old.

This is the first musical number of the first Bollywood movie I ever saw, and it is the standard against which all others are measured. Perfection!

"In the Summertime" by Mungo Jerry

2005-03-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "In the Summertime"
ARTIST: Mungo Jerry
ALBUM: In the Summertime
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1970
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

One-hit wonders Mungo Jerry somehow flew under my radar for the first 20+ years in which their hit was riding the airwaves. I first recall encountering "In the Summertime" a few years ago, watching VH1 Classics in a hotel room with KJV. It was one of those vids-before-they-made-vids classics. Sometimes the lead singer's lips moved with one line of the melody and sometimes with another, and it was awesome. Like many unsuspecting radio listeners in 1970, I soon fell victim to the song's catchiness, and the resulting earworm stayed with me for an insane length of time. My water fitness instructor has this song on her regular workout mix, which always gives me a happy.

I'm still shocked by the lack of guile in the if/then parts of the song. Couldn't we at least pretend in our pop songs that wooing someone is a bit more romantic and less opportunistic? But in a bizarre and unexpected way that sort of adds to its kitschy appeal for me. Maybe it's that being so open about their opportunism seems naive - they don't know yet that they're not supposed to be sexist classist pigs, which makes it nearly sweet.

Or something. I dunno. I have a hard time with this one. Mainly, I just like the song. The tune is catchy and irresistible.

"Me and Bobby McGee" by Melissa Etheridge

2005-02-26T06:33:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Me and Bobby McGee"
ARTIST: Melissa Etheridge covering Janis Joplin
ALBUM: N/A
YEAR OF RELEASE: N/A
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This week's selection honors the incredibly brave performance of the divine Ms. Etheridge and the 2005 Grammys this month. I admire Melissa for a million reasons, only one of which is her constant, unending bravery and willingness to go where others won't. Appearing on stage totally bald from chemo treatments for breast cancer, Melissa brought it to a new level. There are plenty of places to find video of her performance: here and here, for example.

I am highlighting a different Janis tribute Melissa did, however, as song of the week. It's the visuals that make the Grammy performance amazing. For pure musical goodness, her "Me and Bobby McGee" is a better choice. Enjoy.

"Save the Last Dance" by The Drifters

2005-02-19T09:44:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Save the Last Dance"
ARTIST: The Drifters
ALBUM: Save the Last Dance for Me
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1962
WORDS: love song lyrics
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I think pretty much every Queer as Folk US fan in the world saves a special place in their hearts for "Save the Last Dance". I am no exception, though my love for this song also pre-dates my love for the show. As has probably become clear to readers over time, unconventional love songs are the ones that get me going, and this one snuck up on me even as a kid.

Desperation and longing and lust have their places, sure, but so does quiet confidence. That's the part that always seemed the most out of reach to me, and therefore the most attractive. I always aspired to be the person who could enjoy their lover being the center of attention, flirting, goofing off, without having to establish territory and betray my own insecurity every minute. It's songs like this, that say as much about the singer as they do the object of their affection, that I love the most.

"Road to Nowhere" by Talking Heads

2005-02-12T10:13:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Road to Nowhere"
ARTIST: Talking Heads
ALBUM: Little Creatures
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1985
WORDS: text
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This song continues with my ongoing theme of The Futility That Is My Professional Life. Not to be too literal here, but something about hearing this one during the commute isn't too bad either. I don't have too much to say about this one, I guess. I just loves me those Talking Heads.

"You Don't Treat Me No Good" by Sonia Dada

2005-02-05T07:53:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE:"You Don't Treat Me No Good"
ARTIST: Sonia Dada
ALBUM: Sonia Dada
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1992
WORDS: soniadada.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I have a special, lifelong love for the kiss-off song. It doesn't matter if I'm happy or sad, coupled or alone, there's nothing that makes my heart swell like one party telling another to get bent. It's not enough just to quietly leave, it has to involve standing up and saying "fuck this, I can do better". Getting a little something off your chest. It's all about the fear, and overcoming it, and using that moment to say the things you've held back.

For obvious reasons, the most frequent targets for this message are lovers and bosses, but not always. These moments are equally great when they appear outside of music too - there's the Buffy finale when all the potentials were activated, and the elevator scene in Living Out Loud where Holly Hunter goes apeshit on her ex and screams out "god, what was I so afraid of that YOU were a better choice!?"

For the past 13 years, "You Don't Treat Me No Good" has been my shining example of the most perfect kiss-off song of all time. It's plaintive and empowered and peppy and I love it so. I can sing along at the top of my lungs and feel good doing it. There are other great songs on the same album, filled with self-torture and angst and bearing hilariously consistent titles like "We Treat Each Other Cruel", "You Ain't Thinking (About Me)", "Never See Me Again", "Deliver Me", and "I Live Alone". Sona Dada are an unusual band. For one thing, they're huge - seven regulars, plus sit-ins and specials. For another, they're incredibly stable, surviving about 15 years with almost no changes in line-up. I hear they're quite good live, but I've never had the pleasure.

As I was listening to this song this week on the way to work, I was conscious of how desperately I need to kiss-off my job. I started running down the kiss-off songs I keep in my head, and juxtaposing the job songs with the lover ones, and vice versa, and realizing they were all coming from similar emotional places. And while thinking of this song in relation to the nutty co-dependent goodness that is my professional life, things morphed until I was starting to envisioning it as a Mulder-centric X-Files vid. I shit you not. I was never a big Mulderfan, but somehow the thought of him finally saying "I'm gonna quit. I can't stand it. I'm gonna give it up and quit and ain't never coming back." filled me with the happy. Because if Mulder could do it, maybe I could too.

"I Don't Like Mondays" by Tori Amos

2005-01-29T07:36:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "I Don't Like Mondays"
ARTIST: Tori Amos covering Boomtown Rats
ALBUM: Strange Little Girls
YEAR OF RELEASE: 2001
WORDS: hereinmyhead.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I wanted to like Strange Little Girls much more than I was actually able to. Tori has done some great covers in her time, and the premise of this album - examining how men's pop songs portray women, especially women and violence - sounds right up my alley. I just couldn't get into it, though. Her cover of Eminem's "'97 Bonnie and Clyde" is brilliant, but not exactly something I could listen to for fun. She covers Depeche Mode well, but isn't very inspired. The exception: Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays".

The song was inspired by a 16-year old San Diego girl who shot up an elementary school in 1979 as the kids were arriving for the day. When asked why she did it, her response was "I don't like Mondays". She said a number of interesting things that day to explain her actions (see snopes for more details), but the Mondays comment struck a nerve.

This song is the best-known single by Boomtown Rats, a band I always wanted to like because of Bob Geldof in The Wall and Live Aid, but could never quite get there. Their original is a jaunty peppy pop tune, which is completely at odds with the subject matter. Tori's cover is, in a word, brilliant. Her voice brings a certain sympathy for the shooter while the music simultaneously underscores the tragedy with a schoolyard / carosel lilt.

Apparently my definition of "great song" includes "makes me cry like an asshole", because this one slays me every time.

"I Need You" / "Brand New Day" by Eurythmics

2005-01-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "I Need You" / "Brand New Day"
ARTIST: Eurythmics
ALBUM: Savage
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1987
WORDS: "I Need You" / "Brand New Day"
DOWNLOAD: right-click here and here

This week is a two-fer, because although these two are separate songs I always think of them as a single unit. They're buried at the tail end of the least-appreciated Eurythmics release of all time, Savage. Savage is as close as the duo ever get to a concept album. It's all Annie-written, and it follows a single arc from fucked-up relationship to cutting loose and feeling okay. Neither of these songs is the best Eurythmics has to offer by any stretch, but they are interesting and enjoyable simply because they are so un-Eurythmics.

"I Need You" is acoustic, for goodness sake. It is raw and unpolished both musically and vocally, which means it really pushes the envelope for them. The false start and the inappropriate background noise and conversation provide an unambiguous setting, the mundanity of which juxtaposes nicely with the pain and intimacy of the lyrics. It's one of those songs that hurts to listen to.

"Brand New Day" is a very disjointed song. The lyrics are extremely repetitive, and the music and tone shift from a capella to gospel overtones to synth pop all in a matter of a minute or so. But Annie's great on it, and if there's one thing better than Annie a capella, it's Annie singing alongside Annie. This song reminds me that I am uniquely lucky in my lack of religious baggage. I will always thank my parents for my total lack of religious indoctrination, which enables me to enjoy gospel sounds for their unique beauty without getting all conflicted about an oppressed youth.

"As Is" by Ani DiFranco

2005-01-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "As Is"
ARTIST: Ani DiFranco
ALBUM: Little Plastic Castle
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1998
WORDS: danah.org
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This is an unusual choice for me, in that I don't know the artist well. Yes, I'm going to have to turn in my feminista card, I don't listen to Ani DiFranco much. I don't have any problem with her, she just never came to me at the right time to really grab hold. I've found that I need to be going through some particular brand of hell for an artist to take control and make me her bitch, and Ani's day just hasn't yet come.

The exception is this song, which I discovered when Keewick used it for an Justin/Brian vid (a *perfect* song for them, by the way). It really struck me and went immediately into endless-repeat mode.

With a few notable exceptions, I don't usually go for love songs that are filled with sunshine and happiness and shiny forest creatures that frolick. Love is complicated, and portrayals of it as simple and straightforward and filled with divine light are really boring. They miss the mark, and on some level I hesitate to even call that feeling love. Love is hard and messy and not always pretty.

All of which is why I adore this song so much. I can't think of a more powerful declaration of love than to say, "I have no illusions about you. I went into this with my eyes open and I still picked you. I wish you'd get your shit together, but I'm with you anyway because that's who we are." Call it a bulletproof kink if you must. Complicated love: get some today.

"The Weakness in Me" by Melissa Etheridge

2005-01-08T22:23:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "The Weakness in Me"
ARTIST: Melissa Etheridge covering Joan Armatrading
ALBUM: Ain't Nuthin' But A She Thing
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1995
WORDS: joanarmatrading.org
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I've been betrayed by people who were supposed to love me. I started dating nearly twenty years ago; of course I have. Despite long stretches of serious relationships, it's almost impossible to imagine being romantically active all that time without stacking up a few betrayals. I've betrayed lovers too, but never by cheating. Sadly, the reverse is not true.

The betrayals that involved infidelity were the worst; it's not enough to know that your lover is dissatisfied, you get the extra fun of knowing there's someone they aren't unhappy with. Someone specific. Someone better. It's a terrible, terrible feeling.

Which is why it surprises me how compelling I find this song. Around the same time I was listening to this song on repeat, I also saw the Adrian Lyne film "Unfaithful", which is a second piece of entertainment that offers a sympathetic look at the one who cheats. Both of these got me remembering back to social psychology research I read in college.

The research says that it's as hard to be the dumper as to be the dumped, maybe harder. There are feelings of loss at the end of most relationships, even when you are the one choosing to end it. But if you're dumped, you know what to do. There are thousands upon thousands of hours of music, movies, and books in which to wallow. Friends and family are sympathetic. The dumper has no such social cues. No one weeps for the dumper, who has to navigate the ending alone, plus gets the extra fun of knowing they're causing pain and grief to someone who once meant so much.

This song brings it all into focus. Her pain is so exquisite. The singer is pleading, begging the new lover to leave; she knows she isn't strong enough to resist even though giving in goes against everything she believes. She knows its wrong. There's a half-hearted attempt, from the very start, to blame the lust object for being such a temptation, but it's clear that she's not really dodging responsibility.

Most images of the betrayer are entirely one-dimensional. She cheated. She's bad. The end. One has the sense that all cheaters are bad people who care only for themselves. As such they offer only self-serving, unsatisfying attempts to justify their bad actions: my lover is inattentive, doesn't love me any more, has it coming, deserves it. This one is incredibly brave to say that my lover doesn't deserve any of the pain I'm causing, and I know it's not right but I can't make myself stop, and what does that say about me as a person? New lover, please save me from my betrayal. Be merciful and leave me as I was.

It's quite possible that this song is responsible for any feelings of grace I have towards those ex-lovers I've been resenting for half my lifetime.

"Concerto, Op.35, In D Major: Allegro Moderato" by Tchaikovsky through Heifetz

2005-01-01T20:47:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Concerto, Op.35, In D Major: Allegro Moderato" (first movement)
ARTIST: Music by Tchaikovsky, Performance by Jascha Heifetz
ALBUM: Tchaikovsky & Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos
YEAR OF RELEASE: recorded in 1957
WORDS: N/A
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I really struggled with the decision to offer this selection as a SotW. Not because it's not extraordinary - it is. Only because it is 15+ minutes long, and therefore the file size is huge: 15MB. That's a lot of bandwidth, for me and for you. But in the end I had to, because this is a piece that's relatively unknown outside of classical music fans, and because it's my absolute all-time favorite.

After taking just under a month to compose his Violin Concerto in 1878, Tchaikovsky promptly offered the dedication (and first performance rights) to his longtime friend, violinist and teacher Leopold Auer. After spending some time studying the piece, Auer refused, dismissing it as "unplayable". It was finally produced a few years later, but with many modifications and a different soloist. The "unplayable" critique remains true today for nearly all violinists - they play a simplified version, and they maintain a slower pace. The most notable exception: virtuoso and Auer student Jascha Heifetz.

Heifetz recorded the piece three times, in 1937, 1950, and this one in 1957. There's a lot of debate about his role as an artist: his technical perfection is unparalleled, and some view it as emotionally cold. As one would-be biographer stated, "Whether or not we like what he does with his violin, there can be no denying that he elevated performance standards to a new level of exactitude. After Heifetz, a slurred phrase was no longer accepted as a soulful indulgence; it was only a slurred phrase."

I'm neither a musician nor a classical music freak, so my ability to articulate what makes this piece special is limited. Basically, it's incredibly complex throughout, but the real fun for me is in this first movement. At many points throughout the piece, it sounds like there are two violins playing a duet. There aren't: it's one violinist playing two separate parts simultaneously.

I first encountered this piece on a cassette tape my mother checked out from the local library about twenty years ago. She told me some of its background, and played this first movement for me. From that day to this, despite knowing it inside and out and listening regularly, I have never once failed to be moved to tears.

It's not really the beauty of the piece itself that I find so moving, though I'm a sucker for bombastic Russian composers. For me, it's about knowing that I am hearing one of the top performers in all history at the pinnacle of his career playing the most challening piece written, calling out like a message in a bottle to me from beyond the grave and through half a century of mist. I think about all the variables that came into play to create this single artistic achievement, about the fragility and ephemeral nature of that achievement, and the lifetime of dedication and sacrifice to bring it to life, and I cannot help but be swept away.

"Merry Christmas from the Family" by Jill Sobule

2004-12-25T20:23:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Merry Christmas from the Family"
ARTIST: Jill Sobule covering Robert Earl Keen
ALBUM: You Sleigh Me [also: Women of Christmas In the Garden of Lilith]
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1994
WORDS: cowboylyrics.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

It's probably pretty strange that this is my all-time favorite Christmas song. Much like the original Simpsons holiday special from way back in the day (before there was a series), this really speaks to the kind of holidays I remember growing up. My extended family was not about gathering around in fine clothes to speak in somber tones of religious miracles. We were the same people we were the rest of the year: loud, irreverent, and complicated. We always had a few people I could never quite place (Mabel? Who's Mabel? Where did Nathalie come from, and where did she go the rest of the year?) as well as a revolving door of significant others, more kids than I could count, and a steady supply of chaos and emerging needs.

I've never heard the original Robert Earl Keen version of this song, nor the Dixie Chicks cut. I don't need to. Jill Sobule's voice is just perfect for this song, and I wouldn't want to hear it any other way. Her interpretation is complex: vulnerable and fragile, while simultaneously straightforward and steadfastly accepting. There's something in that affection, in celebrating and embracing people as they are, that chokes me up every time. No other song is guaranteed to make me cry like this one. Feliz Navidad.

"Dhoom Pichuck" by Euphoria

2004-12-18T09:53:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: Dhoom Pichuck
ARTIST: Euphoria
ALBUM: Dhoom
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1998
WORDS: official website [pdf]
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

Euphoria invented an entire genre of Indian pop music that came to be known as "Hind-rock". They are the rock gods of India, and are totally unheard of in the states. The band is headed up by Palash Sen, who is known as "Dr. Polly". Dr. Polly is a practicing physician and surgeon, in addition to his role as lead writer and singer for Euphoria. And he's dreamy. We may as well just call him Buckaroo.

I saw these guys perform at a corporate party for one of the big BPO companies in India in January 2004 - one of the execs is Dr. Polly's cousin. There were 6000 employees at the party, the huge majority of them kids in their early twenties who were over the moon to see Euphoria. I was in the VIP area, which meant that I got to sit on a nice overstuffed couch in the front row to enjoy the show while the screaming masses stood ass-to-belly behind a security rope twenty feet behind me.

The band played for four hours straight without a break. In addition to playing all of their own popular songs, they did dozens and dozens of Western songs. They did ACDC and Pink Floyd and U2 and everything in between. And they did it all incredibly well, shifting style effortlessly from one tune to the next. I've never seen such a versatile group. Every time they played one of their own songs, though, the crowd went crazy with cheers, dancing with just a tiny bit more enthusiasm and singing along.

Dr. Polly talked a lot to the audience, speaking the blend of English and Hindi that's earned its own name - Hinglish - and that really messes with your brain if you're overtired and only speak on of the languages. At one point he looked at me and asked if I understood any of what he was saying. All I could do was shrug happily. I was bouncing along, cheering and clapping and dancing and having a great time even though I had no idea what he was talking about, and it made him laugh out loud. Definitely one of my favorite Indian experiences.

Unfortunately, the company that's released their music has gone through some trouble and it's next to impossible to find any of their CDs anywhere, even in India. I saw one cassette once that I regret passing up now. You may have some luck on LimeWire or another file sharing system if you stick with it. Over time, I've managed to amass ten songs, but only with dedication and patience. This is the absolute best of the lot, and it was their breakout hit as well. My second-favorite is "Maeri", which is also worth any time spent digging for it.

"Saudade" by Love and Rockets

2004-12-11T09:14:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Saudade"
ARTIST: Love and Rockets
ALBUM: Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1985
WORDS: none
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

I have been trying for 15 years - I shit you not - to remember the names of two songs on a mix tape that my friend Mike made for me in the mid 80s. Yes, this is the same mix that gave us "Faded Flowers", referenced on another SotW entry. Mike had all the obscure vinyl no one had ever heard of, and this mix was a masterpiece. I lost track of it somewhere along the way, and would give good money for a time machine to go back and make an extra copy for safekeeping.

Anyway, my effort to remember these two songs has been hampered by the fact that I couldn't remember their titles, couldn't remember the artists, and they are both entirely instrumental. So, um, yeah. Try it sometime.

Today it came to me like a bolt of lightening that one of the songs was by Love & Rockets. So I googled "love rockets instrumental" and lo and behold, there it is: the song is "Saudade". It's on "Seventh Dream of Teenage Heaven", which was their debut album. This explains why I couldn't remember them - Love and Rockets went on to much commercial success later, but they were still relatively unknown in 1985 and therefore appropriate Mikefodder.

Once I got that far, I could picture the tape case in my head, and could read the other band's name in my mind's eye: The Art of Noise. Of course, they have a billion different versions of all their songs, and finding the one in question was a bitch. I was about to give up - I like this song less than the other anyway - when I found it at last on some dude's web page: "Moments in Love" (the version from "(Who's Afraid Of?) The Art of Noise!"). LimeWire was lousy with MP3s of it, so I suggest digging there for copies if you're interested.

Honestly, I had resigned myself to never unearthing this particular piece of my history, and tolerating these unidentified songs in my head for the rest of my life. Instead, I can now die happy.

"The Beast in Me" by Nick Lowe

2004-12-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "The Beast in Me"
ARTIST: Nick Lowe
ALBUM: The Impossible Bird
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1994
WORDS: lyricsdownload.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

Anyone who knows the recent career of Nick Lowe can tell I've screwed up the images and links above. It's intentional. The song I want to highlight here is "The Beast in Me", which is a better fit with the album "The Convincer" than "The Impossible Bird" on which it was released. Plus, I just love that cover. Does he look like a classic crooner, or what?

Nick Lowe was a prolific behind-the-scenes guy for 20 years, producing tons of seminal punk and pop bands. He had a pretty sad solo career, though, getting a reputation as a One-Hit Wonder with his song "Cruel to be Kind" in 1979. In truth, he's released twelve albums, but none of them has shined like his most recent trilogy: "The Impossible Bird" (1994), "Dig My Mood" (1998), and "The Convincer" (2001). The latter is the best of the lot, and if this was Album of the Week I'd be highlighting it for sure.

But this is Song of the Week, and for that I turn to the quiet croon "The Beast In Me". This song brought Nick Lowe to my attention - as it did for many others, I'm sure - by playing over the closing credits of the first episode of HBO's The Sopranos. Yes, it captured Tony Soprano well. But it also spoke to me.

I don't have a raging temper. I don't fly off the handle. I don't perpetrate violence. But I'm a jerk with a frequency that disturbs me. I don't want to be. I'll be humming along doing my own thing, and then cut the legs out from under someone who dares speak to me. Even the someones that I love. I don't know where it comes from, but it's a Jekyll/Hyde thing that doesn't feel like it's within my control. Apologies don't help, excuses don't help, and for that reason this is really neither. I suppose it's simply an acknowledgement that there's work to be done, and a plea for patience.

"Who Made Who" by AC/DC

2004-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Who Made Who"
ARTIST: AC/DC
ALBUM: Who Made Who
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1986
WORDS: lyricsdownload.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

This one's another funny choice for me. I've never owned an AC/DC album. Sure, like most people my age, I could probably name a dozen AC/DC songs without even trying. But I've never been a fan, or even a listener. That was my big brother's job.

My relationship with R. is the most complicated of my life, and merits and entire book if not its own series of essays. The short version of the story is that we were polar opposites in nearly every facet of our lives, and we hated each other.

There was one time when we were teenagers that we took a road trip together to visit the extended family. Our parents were born and raised in the same small Wisconsin town, so both sides of our extended family were in one place. I can't remember why we were visiting; I want to say it was a funeral, but that's probably just because it's the only thing we ever go back for anymore. Maybe it was the wedding or graduation of one cousin or another. The point is that we were stuck together in the car for about six hours with no one else to break the silence.

Our tastes in music couldn't have been more different, but I was feeling uncharacteristically generous and accommodating, so he was taking control of the stereo. And AC/DC was his band of choice. We made it through a few songs before "Who Made Who" came on and I burst out laughing.

I launched into an extended diatribe about his horrible taste in music, and the key to my argument was the fact that the words were completely unintelligible. We debated for a while, and it could have gotten ugly, but we went back to the source material and it saved us. I challenged him to replay the song and translate line-by-line what the singer was saying.

We rewound the cassette, and his face slowly broke into a smile as he listened. It started small, then grew and spread until it took over his whole face, and he began to laugh. It wasn't long before we were both out of control with laughter. Howling, hysterical, tears-running-down-your-face, stomache ache-inducing laughter. I can't think of another time in the whole of our teen years when I saw such an unguarded reaction, and I'm sure he'd say the same.

Aside from the occasional word and the repetition of the title, neither of us could make out a goddamned thing. It was a certain couplet that really did us in. Through the miracle of the internet, I can tell you now that the words were "If you made them and they made you / Who picked up the bill, and who made who?", but that day it sounded to us like no language known to man.

R. didn't abandon his love for AC/DC and we went on to share many years of silence and resentment. But that day, that moment, stands out to me as the one perfect instance of absolute fun, joy, and pleasure we took in one another's company for many years.

"Nemesis" by Shriekback

2004-11-20T19:16:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Nemesis"
ARTIST: Shriekback
ALBUM: Oil & Gold
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1985
WORDS: lyricsdownload.com
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

"Nemesis" gets SotW honors for a couple of reasons. Its big claim to fame is that the band manages to use the word "parthenogenesis" in the chorus of a pop song. You should get extra points for that. For anyone who went through high school biology in a fog, parthenogenesis (literally "virgin birth") is a high falutin' name for asexual reproduction. Now, doesn't that just make you want to take to the dance floor? I thought so.

The words are incredibly dark and twisted and epic, but the music just begs you to dance. The combination is totally infectious for people of a certain disposition, and in 1985, I was of that disposition. It's funny, then, that I didn't really notice the song until just last year.

Most of this disc is gloomy atmospheric stuff, which I was also heavily into in 1985. I owned this on vinyl back in the day, after my friend Mike put "Faded Flowers" (a future SotW, to be sure) on a mix tape for me back when mix tapes were the center of my universe. "Nemesis" made no impression on me, except that I hated the jarring juxtaposition of it following "Faded Flowers". I bought the CD last year to get "Faded Flowers", which I usually just played in isolation on repeat. I was a little slow with the repeat button one day, and "Nemesis" came on. I'd just heard a disturbing story on NPR Science Friday about some sharks that reproduced through parthenogenesis out of the blue, and the word leapt out at me from the chorus. The song stuck in my head for days, and still comes back pretty regularly.

This song badly wants to be a Buffyverse vid. No, really. I'm pretty sure the song wants to be a Fanged Four vid, though it could be a simple Slayers vs Evil vid too. I completely suck at artistic interpretation, so it's totally possible that this actually IS a song about vampires. Vamps are crowd favorites among the goth set, to be sure, and parthenogenesis is as good a term as any for how vampires re-produce. So making it all about vampires could have been what Shriekback was getting at all along or could just be my Buffyverse obsession taking over my life. You make the call. Either way, it's rich territory, my friends.

"Verdi Cries" by 10,000 Maniacs

2004-11-13T22:24:00.000-08:00

SONG TITLE: "Verdi Cries"
ARTIST: 10,000 Maniacs
ALBUM: In My Tribe
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1987
WORDS: alwaysontherun.net
DOWNLOAD: right-click here

First, I need to point out that 10,000 Maniacs absolutely suck. The fact that they produced this song through some freaky accident of fate in no way mitigates their general suckitude or means that you should pursue any other songs by them. Though if you find any others this good, let me know.

This song popped into my head as I was swimming in the pool last month at my hotel in India, and it wouldn't leave. There's no other song I know of that captures the particular brand of peace and loneliness to be found in traveling. If you stay in one place long enough, you get a sense of the other people who are sharing your roof. Even if you never speak, you learn their faces, their routines, the silent rhythms of their days.

You may not even be aware of them in the moment, but as the distance increases they stand out more and more. As I paddled around the pool on a sweltering day tens of thousands of miles and two continents from home, I had a strange sense of future nostalgia - the knowledge that I'd be looking back on that moment fondly for the rest of my life.