I’m gonna tell my daddy.
Happy Holidays: The Jackson 5, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”
I’m gonna tell my daddy.
Happy Holidays: The Pretenders, “2000 Miles”
Is very far through the snow.
Night Music: Beyonce, “XO”
This is a little more complicated than what I meant for Night Music to be, but so be it. Night Music was supposed to be music I was listening to in a bourbon mood, before the lights went out. What resonates, personal story and musical tune, in the dark.
Tonight I slide into Beyonce. She dropped a lot of tunes and video on the public this week. That seems to be good marketing, but really the test is does the product hold up.
Tonight I heard a song as I watched a video that was pretty good. My Remnants friends will complain, but they shouldn’t. The world is a big place, and this is a decent tune.
But it reminded me of a song I didn’t think of yesterday when I pledged my 2013 troth to Kanye. And that is Ellie Goulding’s Burn.
I’m not saying Beyonce was influenced by Ellie, but both songs have similar structures. And Ellie’s song burns Kanye and Beyonce both. And while it’s close, every time I hear Ellie Goulding’s Burn I tear up, because it hits the marks. Beautiful marks.
Beyonce’s excellent, in this case, Ellie is bigger. And bigger than Kanye. My fave tune of the year:
Night Music: Kanye West, “Black Skinhead”
I posted this tune some months ago because it’s so catchy, and radical, and then there are the words.
Kanye doesn’t always make sense and isn’t always right, but he always says what he means. And in that context, this is another song where the impressionistic lyrics are brutally honest and heartfelt. Which is sometimes scary and, to my mind, admirable (even if not always defensible).
Best of all, the track is powerful and uncompromising. This is my Best cut of 2013.
Lame, But It’s A Post At Least
Nice to see the Queens 2013 album in all the top 2013 top album lists, because it really deserved it. Maybe one day I’ll write the review I’ve planned to write since the summer. Saw in the Rolling Stone it finished just above stinky Lorde. Good that.
Night Music: Metameric, “The Shiver”
My friend Dorothy shared this with me a few months ago. It comes from an EP put out by a band her son is in. I listened to it a lot at the time, and then didn’t, but I was reminded of it today when making my way through the Pitchfork top songs of 2013 list. I didn’t play all 100, but in my samplings I kept thinking about The Shiver. This isn’t my genre, particularly, but I like this song (and the rest of them on the EP) more than what I was hearing on the Pitchfork list.
Obviously this is my problem. The world has moved on. On the other hand, so have I. We’re both happier that way.
Propulsive rhythm, dynamic changes, singing that declares, and a melody. Maybe not so stylish, but I hear a solid elemental hard rock band pushing things forward. Good luck, Metameric.
Happy Holidays: The Day The Sex Pistols Saved Christmas
A heartwarming story I read about at Dangerous Minds. Read and see it here. 
Plus video of the festivities and a catchy little ditty called a Punk Rock Christmas.
Happy Holidays: Dropkick Murphys, “The Season’s Upon Us”
I have to admit that for the most part Christmas music does very little for me.
A lot of that is probably rooted in my Semitic upbringing.
Not that Little Saint Nick, or especially Father Christmas (which Peter gave a nod too earlier) are not great tunes. Hell, even though I am not even close to being an Adam Sandler fan, I do love his Hanukah song.
However, the other day the ever unpredictable KTKE played a pretty cool tune by the Dropkick Murphys that I liked a lot.
Meaning this is likely to be my only contribution to this genre (but you never know).
Night Music: Dirty Projectors, “Stillness is the Move”
Dirty Projectors is a band led by a guitarist/composer named David Longstreth. Ezra Koenig, the lead singer from Vampire Weekend, has played saxophone for the Dirty Projectors.
Longstreth’s band was known for it’s artiness, but in 2009 it released an album called Bitte Orca, which used African-style guitar lines and the harmonized vocals of three young women to create a pretty wonderful and warm art-pop sound. This album was in heavy rotation at my house, and listening again I’m struck by how different the Dirty Projectors used somewhat similar sounds as Vampire Weekend, to strikingly (to my ear) more interesting and agreeable effect.
RIP: Peter O’Toole (1932-2013)
Diane just advised me that the wonderful British actor, Peter O’Toole has passed away.
I get this is a rock’n’roll site–or at least largely a music site–but often music and film are inexorably linked.
Although, I must admit, not so much in O’Toole’s case.
It is more of a case that his face is as iconic as the roles he played.
Among those films of his I love:
Lawrence of Arabia (1962): O’Toole’s mesmerizing film debut (also Omar Sharif’s) was in arguably one of the greatest cinematic achievements ever. I think the first half of this film is as fine a piece of film making–as in script, photography, acting, and music–as has ever been assembled.
The Lion in Winter (1968): Incomparable historical piece with O’Toole as Henry II to Katherine Hepburn’s Elanor of Aquitaine, with a witty and intelligent a script that allow the brilliance of the actors to shine (this time Anthony Hopkins made his film debut).
The Ruling Class (1972): As dark as dark and funny can get, O’Toole plays the mad 14th Earl of Gurney. O’Toole thinks he is Jesus (he has a big wooden cross on which he roosts from time-to-time) although he likes to be referred to as either “Bert” or “JC,” though his given name is Jack. The catch is his relatives want to seize the assets that are Bert’s, but in order to do that, he has to be declared insane and a threat. So, they marry him off to his uncle’s mistress so they can have a child/heir, and thus simplify the insanity process. Of course nothing goes according to plot, but ultimately Jack is forced to jettison his loving and happy-go-lucky Jesus alter ego, and assumes that of another Jack, as in The Ripper.
The Stunt Man (1980): O’Toole as an autocratic film director who pushes a walk on stunt man (Steve Railsback), who is on the run from the law, into going further and further on a limb with the stunts. O’Toole is great at this–roles on the verge of losing it–and this film is no exception. Also filmed around the lovely Hotel Del Coronado, in San Diego, where Some Like it Hot was also largely set.
My Favorite Year (1982): A lovely sentimental comedy about TV in the 50’s, ostensibly based upon Mel Brooks’ early days writing for Sid Caesar and his Show of Shows. O’Toole plays Allan Swann, an Errol Flynn-like swashbuckling star of the 30’s who can still give women wobbly knees. He accepts a role on a TV show in order to earn some extra moolah and even himself out with the IRS. This movie, directed by comedian Richard Benjamin, is as sweet as they come.
Amazingly, O’Toole was nominated for the Oscar for all five of the above (I did not realize that when I picked them as my faves as I was thinking about it) and had a total of eight nominations (also Becket, Goodbye Mr. Chips, and Venus), but never actually won for those films. Rather, he did get a lifetime achievement award from the Academy in 2003.