Monthly Archives: December 2013

The 11 Best Songs By the Beatles

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Earlier today I compared Kanye West to the Beatles, and named his best 11 songs. Good stuff.

Here’s my fast take on the top 11 Beatles songs. Just like Kanye, the Beatles have way more than 11 good songs. So both lists skew to my preferences at this moment. I tried to write notes, but it seemed silly. Great song. Favorite. etc etc. Make your own faves known in the comments.

I Want Hold Your Hand, Meet the Beatles

Eight Days a Week, Beatles for Sale

In My Life, Rubber Soul Continue reading →

The 11 Best of Kanye West

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I somewhat facetiously said elsewhere that Kanye West is to the recent years in music as the Beatles were to the 60s. That my friends elsewhere hadn’t heard West’s music, at least not knowingly, demonstrates the fallacy. This modern world is more segmented than the more expansive world of the Beatles. But that’s okay. The following is a very quick pass at 11 songs that make a nice demo of Kanye’s talents, plus two bonus tracks, avoiding as much as possible his self-centered petulance (which is a part of his thing, too).

Chronologically.

We Don’t Care, The College Dropout: I heard this, the sour distortion, the thumping bass, and wildly ironic rapping, and my eyes opened wide.

Spaceship, The College Dropout: Work, resentment, anger, ambition, wrapped up in a universal metaphor and slow oozing soul setting.

Jesus Walks, The College Dropout: This was the third single from his first album (the first two singles were Through the Wire and Slow Jamz). It is huge, giant, plaintive, beseeching.

Golddigger, Late Registration: The giant hit has a massive beat and a relentless Ray Charles hook (sung by Jamie Foxx). Continue reading →

Song of the Week – Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone

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Christmas music is like Obamacare. Either you like it or you don’t – and no one is going to persuade you to change your mind about it. I happen to like holiday tunes. They even bring a smile to my face when one comes up on “shuffle” in July. But in deference to those of you that are on the other side, I offer a compromise.

Today’s SotW is “Little Girl Blue,” one of Nina Simone’s signature songs. It is an American songbook standard, written by Richard Rodgers and with lyrics by Lorenz Hart in 1935 for the Broadway musical Jumbo. So what does this show tune about time passing have to do with Christmas?

In the hands of Simone, a classically trained pianist, it is transformed into a quodlibet – a song that uses a combination of melodies from different tunes. In this instance, Simone uses the Christmas carol “Good King Wenceslas” as the intro to the Rogers & Hart song.

This reminds me of the way Joni Mitchell used “Jingle Bells” to connect her breakup song “The River” to the wintry feel of the holiday season.

The SotW is a wonderful version of “Little Girl Blue,” beautifully played and skillfully sung by Simone. Whether you like holiday music or not, this recording will warm your holiday.

Enjoy… until next week.

The Number One Albums of 1968

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gatefold-cheapthrillsJanuary and February: Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles

March: Blooming Hits, Paul Mauriat and His Orchestra

April, May, June and the first three weeks July: The Graduate soundtrack and Bookends, both by Simon and Garfunkle, interweaved

Last week of July, first week of August: Best of the Brass, Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

The rest of August: Wheels of Fire, Cream

The first three weeks of September, and the first week of October: Waiting for the Sun, The Doors

Last week of September: Time/Peace, The Rascals

Second week of October through the Second week of November, plus the last week of November through the middle of December: Cheap Thrills, Big Brother and the Holding Company

Middle two weeks of November: Electric Ladyland, Jimi Hendrix Experience

Third week of December: Wichita Lineman, Glen Campbell

Last week of December: The Beatles (White Album), The Beatles

Holy crap.

Further Musings On Why Yesterday Was Better Than Today

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I do most of my exercising at the Nazareth, PA YMCA where they’ll play either the Sirius Top 40 station or the Sirius 80’s on 8 station, neither of which would be anywhere near my choice. (I’m too lazy and it’s too much hassle to do the earbuds thing, although I probably could bench press twice as much to “Ass Cobra” than Katy Perry. At least I’d like to think I could.)

Anyway, they had been playing the Top 40 station for a long time and, as I’ve mentioned a thousand times before, I can’t find one song these days that I like. This past week they switched to the 80’s, and you have to understand, I pretty much hate 80’s pop. Hair metal is a disgrace to metal and new wavey stuff sucks for the most part too. I spent the early 80’s into hardcore and the late 80’s into the stoner revival, so I stayed away from radio as much as possible.

But I certainly find the bad 80’s stuff to be a lot more tolerable than the godawful current stuff. I remembered “Ah Leah” by Donnie Iris as actually pretty good and even Huey Lewis and Culture Club at least dragged the depths of tolerability.

I think the problem is, there’s very little semblance of Rock to what’s going on today. These two questions occurred to me: 1) What is Rock about that Ellie Goulding song that Peter adores? 2) What isn’t Rock about the Electric Eel Shock song I followed up with?

Simply put, what used to be radio pop rock and what used to be radio hard rock can now only be found on country radio. Donnie Iris and Huey Lewis and probably even the Beatles would be forced to add a steel guitar and moronic lyrics if they wanted to be heard on the radio these days. (Not sure what Culture Club would do.)

Recently, me and a bunch of my old player friends have been semi-reforming the country pop cover band we were successful with about 10 years ago. Because my family left and I have time again, because we’re too old to be a rock band (plenty of old farts out there trying to compete with 25-year-olds and failing – despite the fact that the oldsters can play circles around the newbies), because it’s easy money and because a little bit of rock attitude goes a long way in a country band.

In the 10 years since I’ve played out, pop country has become a lot harder and more riffy. The lyrics are more same-y and moronic than ever, unfortunately, but, I’m not particularly a lyrics guy anyway. You can always just ignore ’em.

Let me leave you with an example of a song we’re playing (it’s not particularly brand new either). It’s moronic, it sure ain’t Hellacopters or Turbonegro, but it beats the hell out of Ellie Goulding, for my money anyway. It’s as close to hard rock as you’ll find on regular radio these days, unfortunately: