24 posts tagged “mp3eme”
I was pulling my hair out all week trying to think of an awesome Christmas song that wasn't one of your standard kinda ones, but then $6 posted some Paul Kelly and it all became clear (and she also beat this post with a comment on the track I subsequently uploaded last night!). His song, How To Make Gravy, is a letter from a guy in jail to his family at Christmas, and it's long been one of my wife's and my favourites. The man is a song writing genius -- who else could write a Christmas song like this?
Hello Dan, it's Joe here, I hope you're keeping well
It's the 21st of December, and now they're ringing the last bells
If I get good behaviour, I'll be out of here by July
Won't you kiss my kids on Christmas Day, please don't let 'em cry for me
mp3eme: Post a song or songs from your library that refer to: MONSTERS, WITCHES, SPELLS, CURSES, GHOSTS, HAUNTINGS, MASQUERADES, SACRIFICES, CANDY, BONFIRES, OR ANYTHING THAT SCARES YOU.
Surely one of the scariest songs of all time came from the band who intentionally went out to create the musical equivalent of the horror movie (from Wikipedia):
The group found its signature sound almost by accident. When the group was rehearsing in a studio, which was situated opposite a cinema showing a horror movie, Osbourne recalls that Tony Iommi remarked to the rest of the band how it was strange that people willingly paid to see a movie intended to scare them. The band began to purposely write dark, ominous songs in an attempt to be music's answer to horror films, and in rebellion against the prevalent happy pop music of the 1960s.
Geezer Butler wrote the song 'Black Sabbath' after he was given an occult book in Latin and Butler had a vision of a black hooded figure standing at the foot of his bed...
The song in question, 'Black Sabbath', was the title of a horror movie, and it is the darkest, gloomiest, scariest song I've ever heard. The thunder/rain effects and the brooding slow guitar riff just give me tingles every time, even after all these years. I've always thought the album cover complemented this song perfectly.
They kept this dark image for their first 6 amazing albums, but then seemed to purposely move away from it for the final 2 Ozzy albums, both of which sold very poorly and were patchy to say the least. When Dio joined as frontman the evil imagery returned (they even released a live album called 'Live Evil'), sales picked up again for this period and the albums were actually fantastic again.
Anyway, turn the lights out and freak yourselves out. The first song off the first album by the band that started an entirely new genre of music. Don't let preconceptions of today's messed up Ozzy colour your enjoyment of a really fantastic and important song. \m/
mp3eme: Post a track from your collection that references any type of occupation, work/working
Hey, come on, I know it's wrong
But I don't care
I don't wanna work nowhere
Enemy number one
The social contract is broken
The Fauves. Brilliant commentators on Australian society. Adept at holding up a mirror to the underclass whilst still revealing whatever charms are to be found there. Critics of fame and the unnecessarily famous.
Also, complete dole bludgers.
Oh, come on, I wanna say
Thanks for sending your taxes my way
Keep the money rollin' in
Give what you can
Fuck you, that is my plan
This song ('I'll Work When I'm Dead' from 2006's 'Nervous Flashlights') is part clever commentary, part autobiography. They've been going for around 15 years now and have experienced low-level success, but unlike most bands, they've decided to keep going even though they'll never make enough money from the band to make ends meet. So they get the dole. Coxy (singer on this track) has lived (or possibly still lives) with his mum. They don't live the rock 'n roll lifestyle by any stretch of the imagination.
Thanks man for the helping hand
So I can play in a nowhere rock band
They're artists, though, so is it their fault that it's rarely possible to make a living from artistic expression in our society? I'll gladly send my taxes their way if it means they'll keep truckin' for a while longer. Money well spent. I wonder if it's possible to direct your taxes to certain individual dole bludgers rather than servicing the whole?
In this song they manage to lambast the layover of 1970s Aussie chauvinistic attitudes in mainstream society, contrasting it with their more timeless outlook on life:
Every housewife wants to make her husband proud
Every dickhead with a driveway is hosing it down
For me, I'm just sitting around
And at least they’re aware of their place in the cycle of things and where their meals come from:
And the welfare budget can rise
I'll be wiping sleep from my eyes
While you worry about the GDP
I'll be having my first coffee
Perhaps their lifestyle is the way, although I’m sure there are some hard times. In an ideal world people who bring joy or enlightenment to other people would earn more dough than fucking lawyers. But then, would the Fauves actually do anything different if they had shitloads of cash?
I got unfinished business in bed
Fuck you I'll work when I'm dead
UPDATE
The very next day the Axeman bizarrely sent me a link to the video for this very song without having read this post and without knowing I posted it. Worth a watch, especially for the tshirt on Ted, the main guy in the clip and bass player in the band.
Related posts:
mp3eme: post a track from your library that references love...sex...and/or rock and roll
We've hit icky territory here. Not many could argue about Kiss being the ultimate sex, drugs and rock and roll band. With a bass player that claims to have slept with over 3000 women, a guitarist that has never been sober since the mid 70s and some of the most arse kicking rock tunes ever encountered, what's to argue? Well, the fact that they aren't really a band but a massive business machine where everything you know about them is carefully crafted for your consumption. That's what.
Song titles like 'Love 'Em, Leave 'Em', 'Calling Dr. Love' and 'Love Gun' leave no doubt as to the subtlety or sophistication of their work. The make up gimmick got them famous (they were instantly shit when they removed it in the early 80s) and their stage shows were an experience rather than a gig. But without all that carefully choreographed image stuff there was still something fantastic about those 70s albums. The songs were powerful and raw and they felt organic, at least up to 'Destroyer' (1975). On 'Rock and Roll Over' (1976) and 'Love Gun' (1977) they really played the raunchy sex card more forcefully and the music felt a little less like a garage band and a little more slick, but they were still great albums. I knew they totally lost it in the 80s but I still felt their 70s work was worthy of me ranking them among my favourite bands.
I no longer feel that way.
About 5 years ago I heard that Gene Simmons was doing a spoken word tour called 'Speaking In Tongues'. A couple of mates and I though it would be great to go and hear some rock and roll tales from one of our favourite artists. Surely one of the most notorious bands of all time would have some fantastic tales of debauchery? Perhaps we'd hear some inside stories about the making of those great albums.
Wrong and wrong. What we were 'treated' to was a motivational speech on how to make shitloads of money from a man who, it turns out, views being in Kiss as nothing more than a business venture. From the very start, to him at least, they've been a carefully executed and presented "brand" designed to swindle as much money out of fans as is humanly possible.
We heard nothing of Kiss unless it was connected to how much money he's made out of them, or how much money Ace and Peter were demanding for one of their many "farewell" tours. We heard that men should never marry in case they get divorced and have to give up half their money. We heard that women should marry so that they can get half of their hubby's money. We heard that we should never take public holidays off because the more we work the more money we'll make. And we heard some half-cocked plan to use all that wasted Australian outback space for some kind of agricultural venture (it was fucking bizarre).
We heard from a capitalistic cock-smoker with absolutely no artistic credibility whatsoever. And what I heard signaled the end of my love affair with Kiss.
Here's some product that probably reached all planned sales projections and was appropriately targeted at the teenage mid-to-lower-class market.
It's about jacking Paul Stanley off if you missed that.
mp3eme: post a song from a band/artist's final album before retiring/disbanding
Barrett was sacked from the Floyd in 1968 after becoming too unpredictable and went on to record just two solo albums. After the release of the second of these ('Barrett' in 1970) he could no longer function as a recording artist and completely withdrew from society. The insanity he had in check that had fuelled his songwriting genius overcame him, helped along in no small part by near-constant LSD ingestion.
Barrett's solo albums are a fantastic account of a man's descent into madness. They're unpolished, fragile and strange, yet compelling and beautiful. The remastered version of 'Barrett' released a few years ago offers an even greater insight into his final recording session, with studio chatter, acoustic demo versions and alternate takes. Never approaching the majesty of the Floyd's near-perfect debut (for which he was principal songwriter), 'Barrett' is nonetheless just as important because his genius was so great and his recorded output so low. An essential listen for any Pink Floyd fan, but Barrett should be required listening for any brit pop fan -- this man is the yin to The Beatles yang and his influence is consciously and unconsciously felt to this day.
I've chosen a song from 'Barrett' that captures the childlike innocence of many of Barrett's songs. 'Wined and Dined' is one of several acoustic numbers from the album, more tuneful than most and the wistful lyrics on it are simpler and less bizarre. It speaks of a love affair from the previous summer, now over, where the girl had been "kind" to Syd.
In his fragile mental state perhaps "kind" was all Syd needed. The naivety of it and the love lost theme are uncanny metaphors for the direction Syd's life would take within a couple of years - he'd have dropped out of the entire scene and gone to spend the rest of his days living with his mother.
mp3eme: post a track from your library that uses/references the harmonica
But it's OK because I remembered a cool little Aussie trio called The Waifs that I first heard on the Wave Aid DVD. They play blues/roots/acoustic tunes and write great lyrics - and they use the harmonica to great effect.
I don't know heaps about them but they hail from Western Australia and share the same indie label with John Butler (I believe they helped him set it up). All three of them sing, and I'm guessing that means they all write the songs too.
They remind me of lazy summer days and road trips. Here's a snapshot of some of their lyrics which shows a cool attitude to life and gives an insight to their laid back attitude:
I'm a country girl in a city whirlpool
Pullin' over man, I'm gonna let you through
I'm living in the left hand lane of my city
Slow down so I can walk this highway with you
Slow down, let me walk it with you
Here's 'Fisherman's Daughter' from their 'Up All Night' album. Hope it gives you a few minutes peace in your busy "city whirlpools".
I've written about my experience with The Cult's music for another mp3eme. In that post there's no mention of anything pre-1989. This is because I never had anything that came out before 'Sonic Temple' - quite an oversight as it turns out.
'Electric' is the first of their albums that moved from the 'gothic' sound of songs like 'She Sells Sanctuary' into 'hard rock' territory, something that earned them a fair bit of critical derision as the years went on. Earned them a fair bit more money too, so I guess that helped ease the pain for a while.
This first foray into stadium rock is a beautiful, energetic, cliched yet vital statement. Because it was the first Cult album to go this direction it didn't need to worry about the cries of "formulaic" that later albums contended with. It's just what it is - big, heavy Accadacca-style riffs with one of the finest vocalist's in rock tearing himself a new one over the top. It doesn't let up from start to finish. There are no ballads or overt sexist lyrics (a lot of native American spiritual/shamanistic imagery as usual from Astbury) so it doesn't stray into 'cock rock' or 'hair metal'. They also manage a pretty reasonable cover of 'Born To Be Wild', a choice I found to be a bit obvious at first, but have decided fits in perfectly with the album's pure, raw, honest direction.
The artwork is interesting too - it's done by Storm Thorgerson, the man responsible for all the great Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, early Peter Gabriel covers etc etc. However, he felt a bit dirty about this one because the brief was simple -- make it look like Grateful Dead's Aoxomoxoa. They didn't want any of his concepts or amazing photography - they just wanted cool lettering. Why they came to him I don't know, but it was easy money for him compared to the elaborate staged photos he normally concocts. The lettering is wicked though.
That I missed this album first time around is a shame, as I would really have loved it in those teenage years. But enjoying it as a new discovery now and realising it's an undiscovered piece of my favourite style of music from the earliest days of this musical journey I've taken is a nice tribute to days long gone.
The choice of song is made easy by this week's theme - 'Electric Ocean' from 'Electric'. Electrifying.
mp3eme: post a track from your library that references food
For some reason this week's theme brought two comedy songs to mind immediately, which is cool, because I tend to get a bit serious and analytical in my posts most times.
First we have a clever 60s British music-your-mum-could-like interpretation from Spinal Tap. I reckon this is based heavily on the Stones' 'Lady Jane':
Cups and cakes
Cups and cakes
Please make sure that nothing breaks
The china's so dear and the treacle so clear
And I'm glad that you are here
Then we have music your mum could never like:
I check my dipstick, you need lubrication honey,
My kielbasa sausage has just got to perform
mp3eme: Post a cover song from your personal library
I won't rabbit on about Robert Plant today, because I've already done that for a different mp3eme. So I'll just say that this is an insane cover of 'Hey Joe' and I doubt it will ever be done better. Taken from his 2002 covers album 'Dreamland'.
mp3eme: Post a cover song from your personal library
I've struggled slightly with this week's mp3eme, only because I'm not a massive fan of most cover versions. I really only love covers when they're reinterpretations of songs. When an artist does a version that's faithful to the original, I find 9 times out of 10 the original is better. It serves to give us an insight into the artist's influences, and is probably heaps of fun to record, but is only really of passing interest to me.
But reinterpretations are a different story altogether. I am always really impressed when an artist can take the basics of a song but rearrange it into their own style. It almost becomes their song. There's a point to doing it beyond just a bit of a laugh. It becomes their own artistic statement, and is a homage to the original artist.
So with my overly specific requirements laid on the table, this week I give you some reinterpretations. Firstly, from the Neil & Tim Finn tribute album, here are some fantastic versions of a couple of Crowded House gems. The album is called 'She Will Have Her Way' and is full of female Australian and New Zealand artists doing songs from Split Enz, Crowded House, or other solo/joint albums by the amazing Finn brothers (makes 'em sound like circus trapeze artists...).
There are a few great reinterpretations to choose from on here, but these two do really stand out for their vastly different arrangements. And both these versions got me into the artist's own work too, so that's gotta say something about how cool they are.
Here's Sarah Blasko and New Buffalo doing New Zealand's favourite sons proud.
Related post: Home alone ... with the kids
