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Honestly, I believe that.  I feel a lot like our generation is caught in a spell of being told by every adult, who witnessed the Beatles first hand, that they are the greatest musical group to ever live.  Undoubtedley they have catchy melody, great songs, and 4-part harmony to die for.  They also released a lot of material, and stayed together a lot longer than most bands.  Without the terrible demise of John Lennon, and the poinyant positioning of Imagine, would we speak of them in such reverence?

Golden Slumbers Melody from the Abbey Road, forms the first part of a climactic medley with the song Carry that Weight.  The lyrics themselves, at least for the main choral section are taken from a poem by Thomas Dekker (1570-1632).

Golden slumbers kiss your eyes,
Smiles awake you when you rise.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby;
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.

Care is heavy, therefore sleep you;
You are care, and care must keep you.
Sleep, pretty wantons, do not cry,
And I will sing a lullaby;
Rock them, rock them, lullaby.

Reportedly McCartney found this poem at a young age in sheet music form, but as he was unable to read music at the time, he wrote his own score.  Many years later the full score with orchestral backing was released on Abbey Road.  A song which really was years in the making.

dl

March 15th, 2009
Categories: Music . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Made famous by the Ipod adverts, and for a few months making the world count…. it’s Feist.  I loved the song from the moment I heard it, we all know I’m a sucker for an acoustic guitar, and here’s a lovely one. Feist (named from the lead singer Leslie Feist) comes from Canada, and is often mistakenly identified as a band.  In fact the records we now consider familiar are in fact solo releases.

Leslie has been involved in music for more than 25 years, playing in bands from the tender age of 15 years old back at high school, and constantly appearing in choirs and artistic productions throughout her childhood.  Notably aged 12, Leslie appeared as one of one thousand dancers at the Calgary Olympics… later citing this experience as the inspiration for the wonderful video I feature today.

In 1995, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from vocal-cord damage. She moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1996. That year she was asked by Noah Mintz of hHead to play bass in his solo project Noah’s Arkweld. She played the bass guitar in Noah’s Arkweld for a year despite never having played bass before. In 1998, she became the rhythm guitarist for the band By Divine Right and toured with them throughout 1998, 1999, and 2000.

In 1999, Feist moved in with a friend of a friend, Merrill Nisker, who then began to perform as an electro-punk musician Peaches; Feist worked the back of the stage at Peaches’ shows, using a sock puppet and calling herself “Bitch Lap Lap.” The two also toured together in England from 2000-2001, staying with Justine Frischmann of Elastica and M.I.A. Feist appeared as a guest vocalist on The Teaches of Peaches. Feist appears in Peaches’ video for the song Lovertits, suggestively rubbing and licking a bike. Later, Feist covered this song with Gonzales on her album “Open Season.” She met Gonzales while touring with Peaches, and a long-term collaboration formed.

1-2-3-4 shot Feist to a new level in popular chart culture, particularly in the UK where it reached number 8 in the charts.  But here’s the bit i really love… On 20 October 2008, she told the Canadian press that, following the success of her last album, The Reminder, she felt she needed to step away from the pressures of the music industry to consider her next career move and

“rest for a minute“

Some people don’t want ten million pounds, to stand on stage in front of 85,000 fans, to snort coke three times a day, or to be snapped by the Pap everywhere they go.  They just want to play.

dl

March 6th, 2009
Categories: Music . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

Who remembers the Hothouse Flowers?  Not many people would be my guess.  But if you were to play this song to them, they’d be singing along like crazy.   The flowers hail from Ireland, and have influence throughout folk, rock, blues and gospel.  Their first album, which was actually a Bono sponsored outing, was propelled to International fame across Europe in the most unusual way… Eurovision (duh duh durrr).  How many people make it out of that alive?

“Don’t Go”, the song featured here, was played in between entries, and during the voting of Eurovision 1988.  The public saw sense, realised they were watching complete rubbish, but the breaks were complete quality.  This propelled “Don’t Go” to number 11 in the UK chart.  The highest they position they would ever achieve.  Following this success, and in the ten years that followed the band would drift apart, releasing records sporadically and collaborating on recordings only rarely.  Whilst they achieved huge success in the Irish charts during several comeback albums and best of releases–the band would never have the world singing like they did for “Don’t Go”.

Turn it up, it’s brilliant.
dl

March 6th, 2009
Categories: Music . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments

1980 - Some Mistakes Take a While to Fix

On March 4th 1980 a chap called Robert Mugabe was elected to power in Zimbabwe, a decision we still live with (although only in part) to this day.  Later, the US severed relations with Iran, and begun imposing economic sanctions on the nation. The Iranian embassy siege takes place in London, and the SAS are propelled to worldwide notoriety. Pro-democracy demonstrations take place in South Korea, with clashes between demonstrators and government military forces leading to the loss of 2,000 lives.

Some mistakes…

Musically, Call Me by Blondie pipped the mammoth Pink Floyds Another Brick in the Wall to the top selling record of the year.  Michael Jackson had released his 5th album (Off the Wall), and began to dominate the charts with 3 of the top 100 coming from that album.

Here’s the songs I nearly picked;

» Billy Joel - It’s Still Rock and Roll to me

» Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love

» Michael Jackson - She’s Out of My Life

And the award for crappest cover of the year goes to Mickey Gilley.  Shame on you.

For a number of reasons my song for 1980 is Cars, by Gary Numan.  It’s waaay ahead of it’s time, and in my opinion was a brave release given the other bands of the time.  Numan himself actually stated it was a genuine attempt at chart success, “This was the first time I had written a song with the intention of ‘maybe it could be a hit single’; I was writing this before “Are ‘Friends’ Electric?” happened“. Many people still revere the song as a classic, of real edge and stand out difference. I am one of these people.

Enjoy, dl

February 14th, 2009
Categories: Music . Author: Dave . Comments: No Comments