And the year is halfway over already, which hardly seems possible. Slowly, ever so slowly, we seem - and by we I mean mainly the citizens who don't live in Trumpsylvania - to be turning the corner on the pandemic. This month Governor Scott (who I've trolled so brutally on Twitter in the past that some of his followers dog-piled on me), but who has done a fantastic job on the COVID front) lifted all the pandemic restrictions. So life, at least here in the #NotQuiteSuchAYankeeHellhole, is returning to normal.
This month we're returning to our more free wheelin', unstructured days and it is a themeless month. If you're a fan of themes because I have three of them for future use. I know what you're thinking: there's only six months left in the year, and I don't know if I can handle a theme month every other month. Don't worry, one or two of themes will appear early next year. Yeah, someone had to say it: we're not stopping after one year, so just get used to the idea.
Bob Craigmile
John Fullbright - Jericho.
My Facebook pals know I've been on
a John Fullbright kick lately. I saw him once at the legendary Eddie's
Attic here in Atlanta and he's just an unbelievable singer/songwriter from
Okalahoma.
He looks like your 7th-grade
math teacher but his lyrics are those of a true poet.
Finding not your childlike
charms
If these thoughts I hold be true
I'll lay down my traveling shoes
And let the vines grow over me
Let the earth swallow my dreams
He is a bit of a renaissance
musician, playing keys and guitar with soulful ease. His
Oklahoma accent lingers and he sounds a bit like James McMurtry or Steve Earle
in certain moments. His singing is actually better than either of those
guys. He can really cut loose on songs like this.
It makes sense I suppose that a
guy from the desert hometown of Woody Guthrie (no pressure there!) would be
namechecking a battle in an ancient desert that maybe didn't happen; certainly
not the way the biblical narrative describes it. His battle is with a broken
heart.
Or is it? He refers to someone
else but it's not clear if this is love or longing or frustration at his
attempt to discover who he is.
Look inside yourself to see
Where these walls appear to be
Let your soul step out to breathe
Swallow whole your dignity
So give this and his other stuff a listen.
Dave Kelley
Frank Turner, The Gathering
Nothing will prevent me from making this great new Frank
Turner song my May blog selection (narration, voiced by Morgan Freeman: “Dave was actually prevented from doing things many times. In this case he didn’t know that May was a theme month.”). Apparently he recruited Jason Isbell
to play the guitar solo.
Pedro Carmolli
To all the followers of this
discography. I should tell you that I have been invited to contribute
because of my incessant nagging Senior Scudder with random music trivia.
Therefore, my July submission will be an accumulation of those questions for
the rest of you to solve or ignore. So here they are:
1) What rocker is credited with
popularizing stage diving? Hint: His name sounds like a bad soda
2) During the Monkees 1967 tour
what legendary rock star opening act was booed off the stage?
3) What band chose a name that
most closely reflected their financial condition?
4) What pistol named rock star
had a hit with Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo?
5) What prolific rock star was
once backed by the Caledonia Soul Orchestra?
6) What huge rock star played
Eddie in the Rocky Horror Picture Show?
7) Rick Nielsen is best known
as the lead guitarist from which US band and what is most significant about the
guitar he plays?
8) What fictional Midwestern
affiliate was found at 1530 on the AM dial?
9) This band holds the record
for most #2 hit songs without having a number one. What is the band, how many
songs hit #2 and what were they? I know this is a tough question so here are
some hints: San Francisco Band although they sound like they are from somewhere
else, the number of hits is the cube root of 125, and Green River is one of the
songs. All of these songs were released around 1970. They had a total of 9
top 10 hits and still never got to #1.
10) Siblings Joni, Kim,
Debbie, and Kathy formed a band which had a huge hit with the song We Are
Family. What was the name of the band and which sports team adopted that
song as their team song?
11) Sensing her child’s gift
for song, this mother of a country music star scraped some money together to
get her child voice lessons. Supposedly, after 3 lessons, the teacher told the
child to stop taking lessons and never deviate from his/her natural voice. Who
was this country singer?
12) Who are the members of the
2 best selling rock and roll duos of all time? Hint: It’s not Sonny and Cher
13) Roberta Flack had a huge
hit with “Killing Me Softly With His Song.” But the song was written by Lori
Lieberman with this musician in mind. Who? Hint: this musician himself wrote an
incredibly popular ode about 3 other musicians.
14) What band is named after
an English agricultural pioneer?
15) What is the top selling(by
album sales) Canadian Band of all time? Looking for a band not a solo artist.
16) This deceased musician/actor
popular in the 70’s and 80’s was, confusingly, born in Arizona under the name
Henry John Deutschendorf but you know him better as who?
17) What musician, before his
untimely death, sang about the “steadily depressin’, low down mind messin’
working at the carwash blues?”
18) What is the top grossing
band or individual from the following countries:
a) England
b) Ireland
c) Scotland (also Australia)
d) Wales hint: think Bond Movies
e) Iceland
f) Sweden
g) Canada
h) USA
I) Norway hint: Take on Me
j) The Netherlands Hint: Radar love
19) Match the one hit wonder song
with the artist:
A) Brandy
Mungo Jerry
B) Dancing in the Moonlight
Billy Paul
C) 96 Tears
Paper Lace
D) Me and Mrs Jones
Looking Glass
E) Play That Funky Music
King Harvest
F) The Boys are Back in Town
? and the Mysterians
G) What I like About You
Wild Cherry
H) In The Summertime
The Romantics
I) The Night Chicago Died
Brewer and Shipley
J) One Toke Over the Line
Thin Lizzy
20) And now for my last and
favorite question. Gordon Lightfoot had a string of hits in the 1970's.
One of them was "Sundown" about a tempestuous relationship he had
with a woman. One of the lines in the song is " I could picture
every move that a man could make, getting lost in her loving is your first
mistake." Clearly a warning to everyone else who may have had a
relationship with this woman after he did. The question is: What famous
actor/musician didn't follow Gordon Lightfoot's advice and paid for it with his
life? "Sundown" went to prison for his murder.
I have sent the answers to Scudder
to release as he sees fit.
Enjoy or despise,
PKC
Lynette Vought
Sam Phillips
How about a
little waltz?
This month, like most of you, I’ve been
emerging from my house, seeing friends and family for the first time in a
while. I don’t know if it is the same for you, but to me, the world is not as I
left it. Highways and towns I’ve traveled through nearly my whole life don’t
look the same. It’s as if I went into isolation in one place and came out
through a slightly different door, to a world with a different moon.
That’s the feeling that I get from the
lyrics of Sam Phillips’ Reflected Light. It tells of finding strength
during difficult times, emerging from it changed and entering a changed world.
The struggles described in the song result in a rebirth of hope and resolve.
Reflected Light was written in 2004,
which doesn’t seem so long ago, unless you are a teenager. I missed it when it
first came out and was unaware of it until just recently. At first it seemed
like just a pretty melody with the normal conventions. But then, as it settled,
the unusual turns it takes made the melody stick. It has become an anthem in
the background of my reunions, as a theme of hope and gratitude for this new
season.
Alice Neiley
I'm here to report that, though an hour later than I said I
would be, my entry is present and accounted for! I heard so much amazing music
this week that it was nearly impossible to choose (Chrissie Hynde, the leader
of The Pretenders, singing a cover album of Bob Dylan songs, for instance), but
I kept coming back to a tune that has kept my energy intact even when I've been
completely out of gas this year, which has been often. Fuck I'm Lonely by Lauv&Anne Marie. This is in part a
shout out to Kathy Seiler, not because of the subject matter but because of the
funky beat, the clapping, the hint of R&B soul under a pop-ish gloss. The
pop-ish gloss is what may be less appealing to some of you, as we are
all...well...snobs (and I include myself in the snobbery), but sometimes a
little bubble-gum is absolutely necessary, and when it's fueled be a real beat,
and the lead up to the chorus is as good as this one -- I don't know I don't know how / I'm gonna make it... -- and it's SYNCOPATED and everything! Then, of course, there's
the wordplay of it's just me myself and why / did you go. Very satisfying for my word nerd self. Overall, though, aside
from the peppy beat and catchy melody, it's the contrast of the title that
makes the tune extra excellent "Fuck I'm Lonely" -- like the music is
trying its damndest to pull us out of something inevitable and
repetitive...much like this past year or so...and I have to say, it's done an
excellent job for me all of the 100+ times I've played it.
Jack Schultz
I’ve been a James McMurtry fan
for about 20 years, but lately I’ve come to appreciate him more than
ever. He’s an act that I desperately want to see live for the first
time. My contribution this week is Canola Fields, from his new album The
Horses and the Hounds. Many of his songs come from a dark place, so when
McMurtry entertains a mildly happy notion, it can make you feel jubilant
compared to his baseline shadows. Canola Fields resonates for a man of a
certain age. We may have a lot of miles, we get dented and dinged along
the way, but we are still capable of happiness, especially with love that has
simmered over two meandering lifetimes. Amongst the typical
darkness emerge these hopeful, amorous lines:
“In a way back corner of a
cross-town bus
We were hiding out under my hat
Cashing in on a thirty-year
crush
You can't be young and do that
You can't be young and do that”
Gary Scudder
Japanese Breakfast, Boyish
As is well documented, I have the most limited, uncreative taste in music imaginable. Fortunately, I have much more musically astute friends and they have, over the decades, introduced me to many new artists. Kevin is one of those intrepid souls, certainly, and thus this month's selection is his fault, although unintentionally. We were on our way back from the Philadelphia Trip of Excellence, and KA tuned in the University of Pennsylvania station. Remember when radio stations (well, at least some radio stations) weren't tools of Corporate America and you could hear almost anything? Yeah, I don't remember that either, but there were the occasional little corners of the Radio Universe, usually college stations, that provided a wonderfully eclectic fare; I don't know if I would include the Franklin College radio station in that mix, but it does speak well of them that I was kicked off the air for crimes against the FCC and polite society. Anyway, we tune in the station and the first song is Neil Young's Tonight's the Night and then Joan Osborne's Ladder. Considering that I like that Osborne song - and, well, as all Right-Thinking Individuals know, Young's Tonight's the Night is the Greatest Rock Album of All-Time, I began to think that the fix was in. The next song was from a band that I didn't know (again, the advantages of college radio): Japanese Breakfast. The band is headed up by Michelle Zauner, who, besides being a singer/songwriter, is also an author. Many of you no doubt already know her from her book Crying in H Mart: A Memoir (which I just found out is being made into a movie, with Zauner providing the soundtrack). The song I want to talk about this month is Boyish, which is on their album Soft Sounds from Another Planet. According to Zauner the song is about "jealousy and sexual incompetence," although it feels even darker than that (although even at that level it would qualify as the Champlain College school song). It features ones of the great angst-ridden lines in recent music history (which would be a great theme in its own right):
I can't get you off my mind.
I can't get you off in general.
Seriously, why someone hasn't used that hook before is mystifying. The final lines ramp up the self-doubt:
I can't get you off my mind
You can't get yours off the hostess
Watched her lips reserving tables
As my ugly mouth kept running
Love me
Love me
Anybody who teaches at Champlain would immediately point out: "Oh my God, that's every Champlain College student at every party," except, well, it's almost every teenager ever (I may just be speaking for myself here because I can remember what a lady's man Jack Schultz was in high school). I also like their The Body Is a Blade. Oh, and it doesn't help that I can clearly imagine Japanese Breakfast playing at the Roadhouse (aka the Bang Bang Bar) in Twin Peaks.
No comments:
Post a Comment