Discography Year Two - Week 51

We're finishing out the penultimate week in the second year of our Discography music series.  I suspect this will probably be it for the Discography discussion and it's been a great two year run.  Last weekend I was just telling Jack how blessed I feel to have captured so much of GB on the blog, and sometimes I go back and reread his posts. This has been so much fun, and I can't thank all of you enough for participating.   I hope we have a great send-off next week.

Dave Wallace

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

For someone who essentially is an art-rocker and a cult artist, it's hard to remember how big a hit So was for Peter Gabriel.  He had a handful of hits off of it, none bigger than lead single, Sledgehammer.  With a groundbreaking video to accompany it, the song was pretty much everywhere.  And with good reason, it's an awesome slice of faux soul music.

Dave Kelley

So I had originally planned to choose an Aretha Franklin song this week in honor of her passing.  I was going to select her cover of "The Weight" featuring amazing work from Duane Allman and The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section.  However, I went down in the YouTube rabbit hole listening to some of Duane's other session work and found.....

"Loan Me a Dime" by Box Scaggs

This was recorded in 1969 and is just jaw dropping fucking amazing IMHO.  Great vocals, blistering guitar work from Duane, and the most excellent Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section which included Patterson Hood's dad on bass.  Give this one a full listen.

Cindy Morgan

I have a crazy lady FB friend who lives in Connecticut and routinely gets in the faces of people wearing MAGA hats or with Trump stickers on their cars. After this week's Cohen/Manafort announcements she parked her car outside the house of a Trump signed property in her hometown and played Queen/Bowie "Under Pressure." I applaud her devotion the resistance. But it always strikes me as odd that people choose this song to try to capture that feeling of "we have to get it done, we're under pressure" and especially when it's used in sporting venues. The lyrics of the song are so NOT that, but I think we forget that this is really a song about the people that have been left on the margins of society: the homeless, the needy, the down-trodden and how we as a society need to to better. Maybe that's what crazy resistance lady wanted to convey--that this really is our last chance to love and do better. . .but I think I'm giving her too much credit. Plus: we need to be reminded of those artists we have lost. Plus plus: there is a new Queen movie coming out. Group trip?

"Can't we give ourselves one more chance
Why can't we give love that one more chance
Why can't we give love give love give love give love
Give love give love give love give love give love
'Cause love's such an old fashioned word
And love dares you to care for
The people on the (People on streets) edge of the night
And loves (People on streets) dares you to change our way of
Caring about ourselves
This is our last dance
This is our last dance
This is ourselves
Under pressure
Under pressure
Pressure"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoDh_gHDvkk

Phil Seiler

Regular contributor Alice Neiley posted a fun little meme to our blog host's wall on the book of face about rock and roll crayon colors. The original meme is pretty standard stuff (Yellow  = Yellow Submarine, Purple = Purple Haze, etc... (And why were brown, black, and purple each used twice?)) Anyway, it prompted me to mine my music library for my version which was certainly different (I also added some colors.). Alice did the same and in checking out her great selections, I fell down some rabbit holes of YouTube. She used "Pale Sun" for pale which I assumed is the beautiful Cowboy Junkies song but pale sun lead to all kinds of other results including a shoe gaze band i did not know of the same name and my selection this week:

Matthew and the Atlas

Pale Sun Rose

I don't know what struck me about this song when I first heard it but it connected to me on some, primordial level. In fact, I am amazed at how much I want to hear it again and again despite not loving his voice very much. Anyway, just a song of longing and the sea for a summer morn as the earth spins toward autumn.

Gary Scudder

Daughter, Youth

Here's another band that I discovered simply because of my odd fascination with the British series Skins.  Daughter is a British indie band, which was initially just Elena Tonra.  Eventually she was joined by guitarist Ignor Haefeli from Switzerland and drummer Remi Aguilella from France to form a true band.  It's sort of an EU wet dream, which hopefully won't be Brexited out of existence.  I think Youth is my favorite song of theirs, and it has popped up several times in movies and TV series (which, knowing my generally contrarian nature, should make me dislike it).  Anyway, it seemed like an appropriate song to kick off another school year.