MORE SENSELESS ACTS OF BLOGGERY

Yes, well, okay.



Unlike “Sad Eyes”, I pretty much got what the song was about, although I found it odd that the narrator and his “old lady” had been together all that time and didn’t even know each other that well.

Then again, I found the term “old lady” odd too. I knew what it meant. I just thought it was strange to call yr girlfriend/lover/wife that.

Hippies, eh?

Anyway, apart from the lyrics (which were written at the last minute, according to Holmes), the song does have a kind of timelessness to it – at least if you go by how many times it’s been used ironically in film soundtracks.

Like a worn out recording,

This is dF

This will be me in 20 years.



[Via Neat Stuff]

Oh, who am I kidding? This is me now.

My generation,

This is dF

Dear Bobby Kennedy:



[Via Matt Fraction]

We gotta go,

This is dF

With bonus Vivian Stanshall and slightly NSFW footage!



Have yrself a good time,

This is dF

Lesley Gore is gone.

Which I thought I’d mention because Gore is usually lumped in the category of early-60s one-hit wonders, primarily because most people remember just one song (“It’s My Party”), which is usually the one that gets included in oldies compilations.

But in reality she had a number of hits in the 60s, thanks in no small part to her work with Quincy Jones.

Personally, this is one of my favorites:



There’s also “Hello Young Lover”, which you can watch her sing to Hugh Hefner here:



Gore’s songs have been covered by a lot of people. A lot of people point to Amy Winehouse’s version of “It’s My Party”. I’m more partial to Joan Jett’s take on “You Don’t Own Me”.



Respect. 

You’d cry too if it happened to you,

This is dF

You would think that the first great release of 2015 might be the new Sleater-Kinney album.

And it might well be. But I don’t have a copy of it yet.

I do however have the debut album from John Carpenter.

Yes, that John Carpenter.

Technically it’s not a debut album, since Carpenter has been releasing music for years via the soundtracks he composed for most of his films. But this is the first time he’s recorded music just for its own sake. According to Uncut, most of it was improvised along with his son Cody and Dan Davies (son of Dave, who worked with Carpenter on a couple of soundtracks) after staying up all night playing video games, until he realized they had about an hour’s worth of music done.

What you make of it will depend on three factors: (1) whether you like John Carpenter films, (2) whether you like the soundtrack music of John Carpenter films (besides Halloween), and (3) if yr enjoyment of soundtrack music depends on having seen the film it accompanies.

If you can't tick at least one of those boxes, then this probably isn’t for you.

For fans, the good news is that for the most part the music sounds exactly the way you’d expect a Carpenter album to sound – pulsing beats, 80s synths, and sinister overtones. It really does sound like a collection of themes for movies Carpenter hasn’t made yet – hence the title, John Carpenter’s Lost Themes (see what he did there?).

Listen to this. This could be straight off the Christine soundtrack.



I have to say, I dig it. But then I’m a fan of both Carpenter’s films and soundtracks. It’s not all great, and much of the greatness is fueled by nostalgia, but I’m 49, so I think I’m entitled.

If it helps, the album also comes with some remixes, although the only really interesting ones are the ones involving Zola Jesus (extra spooky) and JG Thirlwell (if John Carpenter scored The Venture Brothers …).

Turn out the lights,

This is dF

I’ve been neglecting this series, I know – not because I’m out of 45s (we still have quite a ways to go in that regard), but because it was a pretty busy Q4 for me.

Also, we’ve got to that point where I have to bring up Michael McDonald.

The Doobie Brothers were, of course, bothering the charts and radio playlists when I was in my 45 phase. I didn’t appreciate it at the time, but the Doobies had a pretty wide range of styles – the hard rock of “China Grove”, the countrified “Black Water”, the Motown homage “Take Me In Your Arms (Rock Me a Little While)", the Latino-influenced “Long Train Running”. Etc.

Then somehow Michael McDonald somehow emerged as the lead songwriter and they essentially invented Adult Contemporary. So it goes.

Anyway, I had this on 45.



And listening to it now, I wonder why. For one thing, I could barely understand a word McDonald was singing. I suppose some part of my brain identified with the topic – guy carries torch for girl who barely remembers him, and he’s too punch-drunk with love to notice this until after he’s made a complete fool of himself.

It’s a decent song, but compared to the earlier DB catalogue, it’s kind of boring.

If it helps, I also had this one, though I didn’t get a copy of it until I got out of the Army.



Keep on looking to the east,

This is dF

I’m sure this must have seemed like a good idea at the time.



[Via Pirate Treasure]

Details here if you need ‘em.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I’ve never seen it. I’d like to, but it has yet to be released on DVD. I’m hoping one day it will be.

Bite it,

This is dF

We’re only a few days into 2015, and we’ve already seen what will undoubtedly the most controversial news story of the year that will polarize America for at least another ten years.

I’m talking, of course, about that new Kanye West single that features a guest vocal from Paul McCartney, whom most Kanye fans apparently have never heard of.

Which may be genuine, or it may (mostly) be the usual internet snark. Some music fans are highly unamused and indeed despondent that American pop culture has decayed to the point that these kids today know nothing of the Beatles and what is the world coming to?

Which reminds me of a joke Billy Crystal once told back in the 80s, in which he realized how old he was getting when his daughter asked him, “Dad, is it true that Paul McCartney was in another band before Wings?”

Anyway.

Over on The Quietus, Ned Raggett has a lot to say about fake outrage and music snobbery vis a vis Kanye and Macca. I don’t know that the outrage is all that fake – I know a lot of music fans who get genuinely irritated at things like this. “Dude, how can you NOT know who the Beatles were?”

The answer is simple: the same way that most people my age had no idea who Glenn Miller was, or Bobby Darin, or Frankie Laine, or Peggy Lee, or Billie Holliday, or Neil Diamond, etc, when we were kids.

First of all, not everyone has an encyclopedic knowledge of pop culture. Second, the knowledge you have at a given time is based on whatever yr current interests are. The Kanye/Macca thing is just a contemporary illustration of how "old" music doesn't matter to young people focused on what's out there now.

Most of my generation were no different as kids, depending on what our parents may have had in their record collections (assuming they had a collection at all, and you’d be surprised how many didn’t). I didn’t really know who the Beatles were until I was maybe 12, even though I’d heard some of their songs. But I had no reference point in terms of their importance until at least the late 70s. I knew Macca via Wings before I started checking out his Beatles material. 

Here’s something else to consider regarding record collections: a lot of the people who are Kanye fans? Their parents’ record collections (which will be on CD, not vinyl) probably don’t go back much further than the early-80s. Yr more likely to find Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Duran Duran and Nirvana than anything by a Beatle (with the possible exception of George Harrison’s Cloud Nine album, or maybe the Traveling Wilburys).

Granted, the main difference between my generation and the current one is the sheer size and ubiquity of the media bubble, especially regarding entertainment news. Between cable TV and the interwub, people know more about Mrs Kanye’s ass than they do about how the US govt works. With that level of saturation, it’s admittedly hard to believe that the Beatles or even solo Paul never registered on these people’s radar before now.

Which is why I suspect many of the “Who the hell is Paul McCartney?” tweeters were probably kidding.

Even if they weren’t, though, I don’t think it matters. If Kanye fans didn’t know who Macca is, they know now. And maybe some of them will be encouraged to investigate his back catalog. That’s a good thing.

Also, it’s worth remembering that it’s all a matter of subjective taste. There’s no technical requirement for anyone to revere or even like The Beatles, much less know who they were. So overall, I’m not all that bothered.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have never heard a Kanye West song in my life. I have heard of him, of course. But I can’t name a single song by the guy.

Who are you,

This is dF

Oh yes, we make music lists. Especially at the end of the year.

It’s tradition, you see.

And here at Team Frog International, part of that tradition is opening with some miscellaneous awards that are basically an excuse to mention other albums I bought/acquired/downloaded this year.

Although actually, I only bought/acquired/downloaded 21 new releases this year, so actually there’s not much more to add on that criteria. But there’s always streaming – and cheap jokes – so I do have enough to fill out a blog entry (which is of course the whole point of doing this).

So here we go:

THE 21ST BEST ALBUM OF 2014

U2, Songs Of Innocence (Island)
By default, obviously. Everyone knows about that Apple marketing stunt. The actual album is a major improvement over No Line On The Horizon, but it takes until the fourth or fifth track for the album to really kick into gear. There’s some worthy songs here, but as U2 albums go, it’s pretty hit-and-miss. There’s also the elephant in the room, which is this: if Apple hadn’t put this in my iTunes for free, would I have bought a copy? The answer is: probably not.

BEST SINGLE

David Bowie, “Sue (Or In A Season Of Crime)”
After all the hoopla over Bowie’s surprise return in 2013 with “Where Are We Now?”, I’d have thought that any new music from The Dame would have warranted more attention than this song got. Released along with the Nothing Has Changed compilation, it’s a jazzy noir ballad recorded with the Maria Schneider Orchestra, and it’s pretty cool (if you like jazzy noir ballads, that is). Maybe it’s because I’m outside of the US media hype bubble, but it didn’t seem to generate that much excitement. All I can say is that if it’s a sign of things to come with his next LP, I’m looking forward to it.



CUTEST DEATH METAL ALBUM

Babymetal, Babymetal (Toy’s Factory)
It’s a prefab J-Pop teenybop dance trio singing death metal songs about chocolate and fox spirits. That beats the crap out of anything that popped up in the Billboard charts or on American Idol. You know this.



BEST PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE ALBUM

Pink Floyd, The Endless River (Columbia)
Okay, this is kind of a joke category. But Floyd’s final album – which is based on outtakes recorded by Rick Wright during the Division Bell sessions – is in essence a tribute to Wright, who died in 2006, making clear just how essential he was to the Floyd “sound”. More than that though, the album’s four “sides” do frequently remind you of earlier classic Floyd albums, musically. That’s also the album’s main weakness – it reminds you that Floyd’s best work, and their days of innovation that made their classic stuff so great, are long behind them. That said, it's a pleasure to listen to them play. As a nostalgia trip, it’s actually a nice album.

BEST SYD BARRETT TRIBUTE ALBUM

Richard MF Hall, "1974 Syd Barrett Sessions (finished)"
You can read the full backstory here. The short version is this: EMI talked Syd Barrett into going back into the studio in 1974, hoping to get another album out of him. What they got was a few days worth of recording and some barely started tracks before Syd left the music business for good. Richard Hall thoughtfully fleshed them out a little with some added layers of his own. The objective wasn’t to make a “completed” Syd Barrett album but to demonstrate the recordings weren’t the noodlings of a madman but the basis for what could have been a great Barrett album if he’d had the capacity to finish it. In which case, mission accomplished. If nothing else, it’s a fascinating music experiment.



BEST PRINCE ALBUM FEATURING PRINCE

Prince and 3rd Eye Girl, Plectrum Electrum (Warner Bros)
Prince blessed us with two albums in 2014. Neither of them was especially awesome, but this was the better of the two, thanks to backing band 3rd Eye Girl, who are quite good, even if they essentially serve as a Prince gimmick so he can showcase his long-forgotten guitar skills (which are, incidentally, considerable). It’s okay for what it is – if you like yr recycled rock riffs chunky and funky, then this is pretty good. Essential? Well, no.

BEST LENNY KRAVITZ TRIBUTE ALBUM

Prince and 3rd Eye Girl, Plectrum Electrum (Warner Bros)
See above.

BEST COMPILATION I WOULD GET IF I COULD AFFORD THE SHIPPING COSTS

Various Artists, Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, and Country 1966–1985 (Light In The Attic)
Leave it to Light In The Attic to release an anthology of obscure songs by North American Aboriginal artists recorded over a 19-year period, collected by Vancouver-based record archaeologist and curator Kevin “Sipreano” Howes. From the press materials: “You’ll hear Arctic garage rock from the Nunavik region of northern Quebec, melancholy Yup’ik folk from Alaska, and hushed country blues from the Wagmatcook First Nation reserve in Nova Scotia. You’ll hear echoes of Neil Young, Velvet Underground, Leonard Cohen, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Johnny Cash, and more among the songs, but injected with Native consciousness, storytelling, poetry, history, and ceremony.” Namedropping aside, it’s a fascinating untold chapter in 20th Century music, and a lot of these tracks deserve a wider audience.

BEST REVISITED CLASSIC ALBUM

Kate Bush, The Dreaming (EMI)
I made this category up because (1) I didn’t buy any reissues in 2014 and (2) I spent a lot of time listening to this. Kate Bush is one of those artists I listened to a lot in the 80s, but lost track of as I moved on to other kinds of music (and ended up selling a lot of my old cassettes for needed cash). Inspired by all the ink over her comeback show in the UK, I saw this in a used CD shop and decided it was time to revisit her music. I’m glad I did. It’s amazing this album was considered a commercial failure at the time because it was too eccentric for the pop charts even by Bush’s own standards. To me it sounds fresh, original, inventive and brave. It may be over 30 years old, but it’s one of the best albums I’ve heard all year.

BEST COVER ART

In the category of Albums I Bought:



And in the category of Albums I Didn’t Buy:



Tomorrow: the Big List!

The suspense is killing you,

This is dF