Discography - Week 32

And by the time this post is published by the blogspot nano-overlords Mike Kelly, Kelly Thomas and I will be running around in Lisbon on our last day of the student trip.  Unless the students drive me insane, a very real possibility, I'm sure I'll be having a great time.  If you ever get the chance to visit Portugal definitely do so because (as Dave Kelley will happily agree) it's an amazing place.

I also want to point out that Kathy Seiler went completely rogue this week, and provided a foreshadowing of on upcoming theme week, but she has received a papal dispensation for her crimes. That said, this actually works as the per introduction to our next Theme Week, which will be next time up in Week 33: Favorite Holiday Songs.  This was a decision reached as part of high level meetings with the excellent Dave Wallace.

Gary Beatrice

Graham Parker, Don’t Get Excited

I've mentioned this before but I love songs that sound like they are about to spin out of control. This guitar driven song goes beyond that. "Don't Get Excited" sounds like a train whose breaks gave out and which is about to go careening off the tracks.  But it's not just the Rumour who barely seems able to control themselves. Graham Parker, while ordering us not to get excited, loses all self control with the "Don't get excited!" he screams right before the instrumental break.    This is a brilliant finale to their fantastic album Squeezing Out Sparks.

Dave Wallace

Willie Nile, Give Me Tomorrow

Willie Nile has had one of the greats second acts in the history of rock music.  He put out a few very good albums in the '80s and 90s, but label and legal difficulties kept him from making more.  As he neared 60 in the mid-2000s, Nile began releasing a series of terrific albums, starting with Streets of New York, that contain a slew of fantastic songs. This is one of my favorites of Nile's, and another song that's helping me process the aftermath of our recent election.  (Gary -Unfortunately, I couldn't find the original studio version online, so I've linked to a live version, which is OK.  I've also attached the audio file for the track, if there's a way to use that instead.)

I've seen poison in the waters, 

Heard the crying of the sea, 

I have heard your sons and daughters 

Say, "What's to become of me,"

I've seen hunger in the garden, 

I've seen empty eyes full of pain, 

Oh, but I have seen things change.

Give me tomorrow, now now now

Right now, right now

I've seen solid walls of fire,

I've seen smiles as cold as stone,

I've seen hatred and desire,

I've seen lonely hearts, all alone

I have heard the threat of thunder

I have felt the cold, cold rain

Oh, but I have seen things change.

Kathy Seiler

So now that Thanksgiving is officially done, I can comment on Christmas songs, some of my favorite music. This is ironic since I don't consider myself Christian anymore. I love the music anyway. 

John Gorka's version of the Christmas carol "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" is one of my absolute favorite renditions of this song. The version you hear is a shortening of a Longfellow poem, which Longfellow apparently wrote on a Christmas Day at a particularly dark time in his life.I forgive Longfellow his mentioning only of men in the poem, as I choose to believe he uses "men" to refer to all of humankind.

It's Gorka's deep and plaintive voice, with only the acoustic guitar for accompaniment, that really captures the essence of the song for me. 

The words of the song echo much of what I think many Americans are still feeling after this recent election:

"And in despair I bowed my head;
'There is no peace on earth,' I said;

For hate is strong,

And mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

But then we are offered hope in the next verse, which ends the poem:

"Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

The Wrong shall fail,

The Right prevail,

With peace on earth, good-will to men."

The bells pealing "more loud and deep" brings to mind the image of protests, commentaries and impassioned speeches of the past, present, and most assuredly, the future. I hope we all continue to raise our voices, in whatever way we can. 

Phillip Seiler

I have nothing to say about the next few songs. (Dessau, Public Enemy, Clipping) I will let the music and lyrics speak for themselves. Protest is good.

Dessau, Beijing 

Public Enemy, Make Love Fuck War, 

Clipping, Knees on the Ground 

Dave Kelley

"Tower of Song" Written by Leonard Cohen.  Performed by Rhett Miller

I am a fool to do a song written by Leonard Cohen for several reasons.  First of all, how in the fuck do you try to follow Dave Mills brilliant post from several weeks ago?  It's sort of like trying to outdo Lebron James at basketball or Rudy Giuliani at being a shameless prick.  To steal a line from Woody Allen, I would call Rudy a sadistic, bestial necrophile, but that would be beating a dead horse.  Secondly, although I am picking a Cohen tune I am going with a cover version instead of the original.

Rhett Miller is the lead singer and primary songwriter for the great band out of Texas The Old 97's.  The band has made a ton of fantastic music  for a couple of decades now and are one of the most reliably awesome live bands going.  This live acoustic version is from a few years ago, and Miller posted it to Youtube the day that Cohen died.  I find the performance to be outstanding, and for me, an improvement on the original.

"The Tower of Song" strikes me as thematically similar to what we non-musicians are trying to do with this blog.

Dave Mills

Father John Misty, Bored in the USA

I've been planning to share this one at some point during this project, and this week's as good as any, I suppose, as we're all collectively wondering about the prospects for this fragile experiment in democracy we call the USA. The 2015 album "I Love You, Honeybear," by Father John Misty (real name Josh Tillman) is "an album by turns passionate and disillusioned, tender and angry, so cynical it's repulsive and so openhearted it hurts" (from Pitchfork's review). The whole album is definitely worth a listen, if you're up for repulsive, hurtful cynicism and openheartedness, that is. The title of the track I've chosen very obviously refers to Springsteen's classic, but whereas The Boss belted out a working class anthem of anger in response to Vietnam, etc., Father John wallows in a middle class haze of passive ennui. Outrage is impossible here. There's a recognition of all that is wrong with "the American dream," but little active effort to do something about it. There's only the plaintive cry to be saved by "white Jesus" or "president Jesus." The section in which a canned sitcom laughtrack fires up in response to his list of middle class woes is particularly cutting. Is this the new "anthem" of the American electorate? It's certainly less arena-friendly than Bruce's track. But of course, a lot of people who heard "Born in the USA" back in 1984 completely missed the message, so much so that Reagan actually referenced the song and tried to use it in his reelection campaign. So perhaps the movement from "born" to "bored" in the USA has been a long time coming. So where can we go from here? (Programming note: I will eventually stop referencing the election in my contributions, I hope. But since we submitted these last two weeks of songs early, I'm writing this only about a week out from the election, so the wounds are still fresh.)

MIranda Tavares

Man, I'm tapped. Not much left to say at this point. But this one jumps out...

Geto Boys, Damn it feels good to be a gangsta

So, Nate and I included this on our masturbatorily ginormous songs-in-a-movie post. But I'm including it again...

Because it got unnecessarily lost in a post of 40 songs;

Because the meaning is so much more than beating up that motherfucking, cocksucking printer;

Because it has a good beat and you can dance to it;

Because it's nice to feel in control;

Because some of these lyrics are, or should be, gospel ("A real gangsta-ass nigga never runs his fucking mouth/Cause real gangsta-ass niggas don't start fights");

Because some of these lyrics are true, but shouldn't be("Real gangsta-ass niggas don't talk much/All ya hear is the black from the gun blast")

Because that last verse, holy shit, it's either prophetic or we've made no progress ("Other leaders better not upset me/Or I'll send a million troops to die at war")

Because...when the shit jumps off what the fuck you gonna do. 

Nate Bell

After so much darkness from my bitter little corner,  I decided this week to go with one of the most rocking songs of all times.  It's a Stevie Wonder cover.  About Reincarnation.  And God.  What could possibly be better?

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Higher ground w/lyrics on description

Higher Ground is, in my opinion, the Chili Peppers at the height of their mastery, with a perfectly balanced blend of funk, techno, and soul.  And even if you don't like them, one has to agree, Flea has very nearly the Best Bass in the Business.  (apologies to Les Claypool of Primus).

This is a song I remember fondly thrashing myself silly to in the 90s, at crowded hot room parties, with a plethora of hot (and uninterested) females.

But for today, beyond the incredibly groovy music, the lyrics are actually pretty inspiring:

I'm so darn glad He let me try it again,
'Cause my last time on earth I lived a whole world of sin.
I'm so glad that I know more than I knew then.
Gonna keep on tryin' till I reach the highest ground.

Teachers,
Keep on teachin'
Preachers,
Keep on preachin',
World, keep on turnin',
'Cause it won't be too long.
Oh, no
Lovers,
Keep on lovin'
While believers
Keep on believin'.
Sleepers,
Just stop sleepin'
'Cause it won't be too long.
Oh, no!

It acknowledges that we all fuck up, we're all flawed, but maybe, just maybe, we can keep trying to be better people, with a little more insight and knowledge.  Perhaps in the next life.  But the path, and the striving to become better is the point, the willingness and desire to do better, to be better. 

Noted musicologists and plenipotentiaries, keep on tryin' till you reach your own higher ground.

Gary Scudder

Charlie Parker, I Can't Get Started

I guess I could relate this to the general doldrums that I've been feeling lately - and how they're keeping me from getting started (much as Nate opined, much more eloquently, a couple weeks ago).  However, truthfully, this song just makes me happy, and that's definitely been in short supply lately, so I'll take my victories where I can find them.  Charlie Parker was amazing.