continued from the last post
5) Born In The USA
This one's a cliche at this point but like always with this song you need to listen to the words. As explosive as the drums, they pull no punches and deliver right up to your face what you deserve. "The first kick I took was when I hit the ground. You end up like a dog that's been beat too much till you spend half your life just covering up". It tells a story about those left cold. "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary out by the gas fires of the refinery, I'm 10 years burning down the road, no where to run, ain't got nowhere to go". The synthesizers sound dated but the message will not be as long as we still fought in Vietnam and Ronald Reagan had the presidency.
6) The Promised Land
My favorite Springsteen hook ever and my favorite song with a harmonica too. Bruce dances on the grave of every asshole down in Utah in a town full of loser's across the Waynesboro County line. (On a side note there is no Waynesboro County in Utah. There are assholes though).
continued next post
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Quotes 4/30
"And few evade full measure of their fate; Always they smile out eerily what they seem"- Hart Crane
"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then"- Bob Seger
"Wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then"- Bob Seger
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
New MP3- Nodding Off
Here's the sixth song from the album I'm recording to put online. It's called "Nodding Off" and the album is called the "The Humans Home". You can click the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom. Hope everyone is good,
Zak
Nodding Off
Nodding Off
Place the doubt on me. I found that all that breaks breaks free.
Read it in the writing on the wall. Seven maids a' knocking. At the window they were knocking. I fixed it, they won't knock here anymore.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
Wasted ground thrown seed. They've grown and all have flowered at their own speed.
See the god I locked behind the door. All day he'd be talking. Let this warn the talking. Lead us not to hate what is the cure.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And where do you go when the night gets you cold honey. You better run to a world that feels like home. There's nothing more than truth.
I've seen the snake come feed. I've counted all it takes is all I need.
See the ship upon the ocean floor. What the waves were knocking the sea is gently rocking. A candle for a king among the poor.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
Zak
Nodding Off
Nodding Off
Place the doubt on me. I found that all that breaks breaks free.
Read it in the writing on the wall. Seven maids a' knocking. At the window they were knocking. I fixed it, they won't knock here anymore.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
Wasted ground thrown seed. They've grown and all have flowered at their own speed.
See the god I locked behind the door. All day he'd be talking. Let this warn the talking. Lead us not to hate what is the cure.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And where do you go when the night gets you cold honey. You better run to a world that feels like home. There's nothing more than truth.
I've seen the snake come feed. I've counted all it takes is all I need.
See the ship upon the ocean floor. What the waves were knocking the sea is gently rocking. A candle for a king among the poor.
What the time is good for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
And all that I have stood for is nodding off alone in dreams of you.
Songs You Should Hear 4/29
Santana- Samba Pa Ti
This is the best Santana song I know and one of the greatest instrumentals ever. This isn't the original version though, apparently this is Carlos and the boys playing inside a painting. It was the only place available to practice probably.
This is the best Santana song I know and one of the greatest instrumentals ever. This isn't the original version though, apparently this is Carlos and the boys playing inside a painting. It was the only place available to practice probably.
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 2)
continued from last post
3) The Promise
If Bruce had never made it. A song that was never released in it's original version, it's one of his greatest ever; in another world Jon Landau writes "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's dying down on the highway tonight". Mick Jagger became an acountant, Elvis Presley drives a truck, and Jim Morison sits behind a desk with kids at home and an ageing wife. They're all around you, so close they're see through, and "everyday it just gets harder to live the dream you're believeing in"; until you disapear completely to everyone but Bruce, who in a flash in the late 70's called "The Promise" saw them all for just a moment before they vanished once more in the night.
4) Incident On 57th Street
Bruce's first two albums don't really sound like him. He hadn't found a consistent voice yet and he wouldn't find one until his fourth album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town", in 1978. But that's not to say his first two aren't great, just because something doesn't last for long doesn't make it worse than the parts that do. His second album in particular is like no other album I've ever heard. Those beautiful opening piano notes set a scene one step from Born To Run, where you're still too young to question if you're not that young anymore or if there's magic in the night. A shot of the youth that ends too quickly, right before you go to fight and stand or fall defeated in the badlands where you'll spend the rest of your life.
continued next post
3) The Promise
If Bruce had never made it. A song that was never released in it's original version, it's one of his greatest ever; in another world Jon Landau writes "I have seen the future of rock and roll and it's dying down on the highway tonight". Mick Jagger became an acountant, Elvis Presley drives a truck, and Jim Morison sits behind a desk with kids at home and an ageing wife. They're all around you, so close they're see through, and "everyday it just gets harder to live the dream you're believeing in"; until you disapear completely to everyone but Bruce, who in a flash in the late 70's called "The Promise" saw them all for just a moment before they vanished once more in the night.
4) Incident On 57th Street
Bruce's first two albums don't really sound like him. He hadn't found a consistent voice yet and he wouldn't find one until his fourth album, "Darkness on the Edge of Town", in 1978. But that's not to say his first two aren't great, just because something doesn't last for long doesn't make it worse than the parts that do. His second album in particular is like no other album I've ever heard. Those beautiful opening piano notes set a scene one step from Born To Run, where you're still too young to question if you're not that young anymore or if there's magic in the night. A shot of the youth that ends too quickly, right before you go to fight and stand or fall defeated in the badlands where you'll spend the rest of your life.
continued next post
Quotes 4/29
"Those men who cuddle whores for love
Are sated by their darlings' charms,
But I have only tired arms
From having hugged the clouds above"- Baudelaire
"Each night before you go to bed my baby whisper a little prayer for me my baby"- The Shirelles (Song by Ralph Bass and Lowman Pauling)
Are sated by their darlings' charms,
But I have only tired arms
From having hugged the clouds above"- Baudelaire
"Each night before you go to bed my baby whisper a little prayer for me my baby"- The Shirelles (Song by Ralph Bass and Lowman Pauling)
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/28
Roy Orbison- She's A Mystery To Me
U2 wrote this for Roy Orbison and he recorded it on the last album he finished before he died in 1988. It's a good song and with it Roy proves that he's the best at doing what U2's always trying to do. If you take out the word "girl" and put in the word "god" in the chorus you'll get a picture of what they're usually up to. But Bono doesn't always have the scope...it's no wonder Roy felt so alone, he was the only one in the whole universe who could sing the way that he could do. The dark night of the soul and the voice from somewhere else; from beyond the stars in a blue, blue heaven, I hope you found her Roy, in another world she would have been looking for you.
U2 wrote this for Roy Orbison and he recorded it on the last album he finished before he died in 1988. It's a good song and with it Roy proves that he's the best at doing what U2's always trying to do. If you take out the word "girl" and put in the word "god" in the chorus you'll get a picture of what they're usually up to. But Bono doesn't always have the scope...it's no wonder Roy felt so alone, he was the only one in the whole universe who could sing the way that he could do. The dark night of the soul and the voice from somewhere else; from beyond the stars in a blue, blue heaven, I hope you found her Roy, in another world she would have been looking for you.
The 10 Greatest Springsteen Songs (Part 1)
1) Thunder Road
I fell in love to this song. It was back in highschool, lost and alone, I met the most beautiful girl I've ever found and Bruce had already found her first. Everyone leaves you but this one; they'll all lie to you but her. Cry if you want to, play it loud if you want to, hold her close if you want to; down from here it's almost tragic; everything else that once was great from now on compared to this will never be as great as it was and will come up looking a little bit worse. If you're going to give your life than give your life to something special; here's making the greatest record ever and keeping the magic on this Earth.
2) Devils And Dust
Some people will think this is a bad choice for number two on a list of Bruce's best songs. But if they do then they must know something that I don't. "Devils and Dust" is the best song about terrorism, civil liberties, being a soldier and being a human that's ever been written as far as I can find. It's almost the exact same melody from one of his other songs ("Blood Brothers") but that means nothing. "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love". When this song first came out I played it in my car for weeks, and I just heard it for the first time in a while and got chills at "we're a long long way from home Bobby, home's a long, long way from us" just like I did in 2005 when it was released. Bruce was 55 when it came out; this is no country for old men but here's how old men stay alive as all the young become deceased.
continued next post
I fell in love to this song. It was back in highschool, lost and alone, I met the most beautiful girl I've ever found and Bruce had already found her first. Everyone leaves you but this one; they'll all lie to you but her. Cry if you want to, play it loud if you want to, hold her close if you want to; down from here it's almost tragic; everything else that once was great from now on compared to this will never be as great as it was and will come up looking a little bit worse. If you're going to give your life than give your life to something special; here's making the greatest record ever and keeping the magic on this Earth.
2) Devils And Dust
Some people will think this is a bad choice for number two on a list of Bruce's best songs. But if they do then they must know something that I don't. "Devils and Dust" is the best song about terrorism, civil liberties, being a soldier and being a human that's ever been written as far as I can find. It's almost the exact same melody from one of his other songs ("Blood Brothers") but that means nothing. "What if what you do to survive kills the things you love". When this song first came out I played it in my car for weeks, and I just heard it for the first time in a while and got chills at "we're a long long way from home Bobby, home's a long, long way from us" just like I did in 2005 when it was released. Bruce was 55 when it came out; this is no country for old men but here's how old men stay alive as all the young become deceased.
continued next post
Quotes 4/28
Ashokan Farewell
"I saw askant the armies;
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc’d with missiles, I saw them,
And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)
And the staffs all splinter’d and broken.
I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest—they suffer’d not;
The living remain’d and suffer’d—the mother suffer’d,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer’d,
And the armies that remain’d suffer’d.
Passing the visions, passing the night;
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands;
Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song of my soul,
(Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,
Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven,
As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,)
Passing, I leave thee, lilac with heart-shaped leaves;
I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring,
I cease from my song for thee;
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,
O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night.
Yet each I keep, and all, retrievements out of the night;
The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird,
And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my soul,
With the lustrous and drooping star, with the countenance full of woe,
With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor;
With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep—for the dead I loved so well;
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands...and this for his dear sake;
Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim" - Walt Whitman
"I saw askant the armies;
And I saw, as in noiseless dreams, hundreds of battle-flags;
Borne through the smoke of the battles, and pierc’d with missiles, I saw them,
And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody;
And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs, (and all in silence,)
And the staffs all splinter’d and broken.
I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them,
And the white skeletons of young men—I saw them;
I saw the debris and debris of all the dead soldiers of the war;
But I saw they were not as was thought;
They themselves were fully at rest—they suffer’d not;
The living remain’d and suffer’d—the mother suffer’d,
And the wife and the child, and the musing comrade suffer’d,
And the armies that remain’d suffer’d.
Passing the visions, passing the night;
Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrades’ hands;
Passing the song of the hermit bird, and the tallying song of my soul,
(Victorious song, death’s outlet song, yet varying, ever-altering song,
As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding the night,
Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again bursting with joy,
Covering the earth, and filling the spread of the heaven,
As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses,)
Passing, I leave thee, lilac with heart-shaped leaves;
I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring,
I cease from my song for thee;
From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with thee,
O comrade lustrous, with silver face in the night.
Yet each I keep, and all, retrievements out of the night;
The song, the wondrous chant of the gray-brown bird,
And the tallying chant, the echo arous’d in my soul,
With the lustrous and drooping star, with the countenance full of woe,
With the lilac tall, and its blossoms of mastering odor;
With the holders holding my hand, nearing the call of the bird,
Comrades mine, and I in the midst, and their memory ever I keep—for the dead I loved so well;
For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands...and this for his dear sake;
Lilac and star and bird, twined with the chant of my soul,
There in the fragrant pines, and the cedars dusk and dim" - Walt Whitman
Monday, April 27, 2009
New Mp3- From A Burning Wreck
Here's the fifth song from the album I'm recording to put online. It's called "From A Burning Wreck" and the album is called the "The Humans Home". You can click the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom.
Zak
From A Burning Wreck
From A Burning Wreck
You can drive all night I'll still be waiting here by the side of the road.
You can kick and scream all you want but sometimes you just won't get back home.
My dreams bleeding baby. What killed me first had saved me.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Tried to stand but I got caught. Twisted steel, broken glass, is ever all that your owed.
You can kick but baby I'll haunt, like a flash in the wind or a ghost in the road.
Don't read the cards baby. No need, the lights are fading.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Broken bones and no way home. I'd kiss you now but baby I'm too far gone. But you can kiss the chrome.
You can drive all night I'll still be waiting here by the side of the road.
You can beg but baby I'll fight. To the cars going by just a bump in the road.
I dreamed my way here baby. It's your dreams that drive you crazy.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Zak
From A Burning Wreck
From A Burning Wreck
You can drive all night I'll still be waiting here by the side of the road.
You can kick and scream all you want but sometimes you just won't get back home.
My dreams bleeding baby. What killed me first had saved me.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Tried to stand but I got caught. Twisted steel, broken glass, is ever all that your owed.
You can kick but baby I'll haunt, like a flash in the wind or a ghost in the road.
Don't read the cards baby. No need, the lights are fading.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Broken bones and no way home. I'd kiss you now but baby I'm too far gone. But you can kiss the chrome.
You can drive all night I'll still be waiting here by the side of the road.
You can beg but baby I'll fight. To the cars going by just a bump in the road.
I dreamed my way here baby. It's your dreams that drive you crazy.
Love and kisses from a burning wreck.
Songs You Should Hear 4/27
Jimi Hendrix- Like a Rolling Stone
Forget everything else he ever did, just for this he's great. Maybe I don't get a lot of the lyrics because they weren't written for me; they were written for Hendrix, the one guy who got Dylan better than anyone else ever did.
Forget everything else he ever did, just for this he's great. Maybe I don't get a lot of the lyrics because they weren't written for me; they were written for Hendrix, the one guy who got Dylan better than anyone else ever did.
The 10 Greatest Neil Young Songs (Part 5)
continued from last post
9) Don't Be Denied
Off of the great lost LP, Time Fades Away. It might be Neil Young's best album, released in 1973 it was never transferred from record to cd. It's live recordings of what were at the time all new songs and of what to this day are the best rock songs he'd ever write. Don't Be Denied is the greatest song off it and, fittingly. it's his autobiography. He came down from Winnipeg to be a star; and don't be denied either if you've got distorted guitars and a voice like a high pitched whine. Either the place for you is on stage like a God, or strung up high in Ontario to warn the other kids in the cars passing by.
10) On The Beach
"The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away". Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen were the mid 70's coin's two sides. Magic in the night and visions of Phil Spector brought to stereo on E street, lighted from an Asbury circuit, and down the shore everything's allright. And in California an honest hippie, burned out, looks up and at a full moon from the burned out basement where he lies. Where the vision ends and ends darkly. "The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away". Bruce was driving out of Jersey to a west coast warm and bright, and Neil was waiting on the beach for him, turning 30 in the night.
Epilogue) It's My Time
Don't doubt the man's capacity to surprise. Neil Young was signed to Motown records in 1966. In 1966 Neil Young was signed to MOTOWN RECORDS. Those were heady, heady days man. Neil Young was signed to Motown records in 1966 in a band with Rick James. The Rick James who sang Super Freak, Dave Chapelle's Rick James, the Rick James we know and like. Also in the band was Jackie Robinson on drums and Mort Sahl on bass. (No, those two weren't in it. But maybe they sat in sometimes). The band was called The Mynah Byrds and they had a 7 year deal that went to pieces when Rick was arrested for going AWOL from the army. Their album wasn't released and what was to be their first single never saw the light of day until 2006 in a Motown box set. Here Rick sings lead on a song him and Neil wrote. And after all these years their message still hasn't changed; "to every kid who wants to start a rock band, make your line up fucking strange."
9) Don't Be Denied
Off of the great lost LP, Time Fades Away. It might be Neil Young's best album, released in 1973 it was never transferred from record to cd. It's live recordings of what were at the time all new songs and of what to this day are the best rock songs he'd ever write. Don't Be Denied is the greatest song off it and, fittingly. it's his autobiography. He came down from Winnipeg to be a star; and don't be denied either if you've got distorted guitars and a voice like a high pitched whine. Either the place for you is on stage like a God, or strung up high in Ontario to warn the other kids in the cars passing by.
10) On The Beach
"The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away". Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen were the mid 70's coin's two sides. Magic in the night and visions of Phil Spector brought to stereo on E street, lighted from an Asbury circuit, and down the shore everything's allright. And in California an honest hippie, burned out, looks up and at a full moon from the burned out basement where he lies. Where the vision ends and ends darkly. "The world is turning, I hope it don't turn away". Bruce was driving out of Jersey to a west coast warm and bright, and Neil was waiting on the beach for him, turning 30 in the night.
Epilogue) It's My Time
Don't doubt the man's capacity to surprise. Neil Young was signed to Motown records in 1966. In 1966 Neil Young was signed to MOTOWN RECORDS. Those were heady, heady days man. Neil Young was signed to Motown records in 1966 in a band with Rick James. The Rick James who sang Super Freak, Dave Chapelle's Rick James, the Rick James we know and like. Also in the band was Jackie Robinson on drums and Mort Sahl on bass. (No, those two weren't in it. But maybe they sat in sometimes). The band was called The Mynah Byrds and they had a 7 year deal that went to pieces when Rick was arrested for going AWOL from the army. Their album wasn't released and what was to be their first single never saw the light of day until 2006 in a Motown box set. Here Rick sings lead on a song him and Neil wrote. And after all these years their message still hasn't changed; "to every kid who wants to start a rock band, make your line up fucking strange."
Quotes 4/27
"Time is that by virtue of which everything becomes nothingness in our hands and loses all real value"- Schopenhauer
"You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips"- The Righteous Brothers (Song written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)
"You never close your eyes anymore when I kiss your lips"- The Righteous Brothers (Song written by Phil Spector, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil)
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/26
Past, Present, and Future- The Shangri-Las
It's rare to hear a song this ominous. The Shangri-Las had something happen to them; the girls who started out young and tough ended up as haunting as ghosts.
It's rare to hear a song this ominous. The Shangri-Las had something happen to them; the girls who started out young and tough ended up as haunting as ghosts.
10 Greatest Neil Young Songs (Part 4)
continued from last post
7) Ohio
Nixon's coming. And saying his name's like a hearse caught on fire in the year of 1970 when the kids at Kent State die. What were their names, what were their names did you have a friend on the good Rueben James. Just so it's clear, rock and roll's not on your side Dick; you've called forth their fury and now your name is in their files.
8) Helpless
A beautiful, haunting, song and a beautiful, haunting, doubt. What does helpless mean? What's the song about? Helpless isn't a word for Neil Young, it's a microcosm of the world; look at it from one side and it's the love you can't escape, the love you'll never leave or live without. Look at it from further down the line and "chains are locked and tied across the door", and in the blue Canadian sky there's something dark that's flying south. It's that tug that makes it strange and gives it it's strength; he takes his route from the faith that stays the same to a blue, blue endless doubt.
continued next post
7) Ohio
Nixon's coming. And saying his name's like a hearse caught on fire in the year of 1970 when the kids at Kent State die. What were their names, what were their names did you have a friend on the good Rueben James. Just so it's clear, rock and roll's not on your side Dick; you've called forth their fury and now your name is in their files.
8) Helpless
A beautiful, haunting, song and a beautiful, haunting, doubt. What does helpless mean? What's the song about? Helpless isn't a word for Neil Young, it's a microcosm of the world; look at it from one side and it's the love you can't escape, the love you'll never leave or live without. Look at it from further down the line and "chains are locked and tied across the door", and in the blue Canadian sky there's something dark that's flying south. It's that tug that makes it strange and gives it it's strength; he takes his route from the faith that stays the same to a blue, blue endless doubt.
continued next post
Quotes 4/26
"My spirit's bark is driven,
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are."- Shelley
"And I call your name, and I can't sleep at night"- Tom Waits
Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng
Whose sails were never to the tempest given;
The massy earth and sphered skies are riven!
I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar;
Whilst, burning through the inmost veil of Heaven,
The soul of Adonais, like a star,
Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are."- Shelley
"And I call your name, and I can't sleep at night"- Tom Waits
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/25
Al Green- I Want To Hold Your Hand
If there's a better Beatles cover I've never heard it.
If there's a better Beatles cover I've never heard it.
Quotes 4/25
"So let this be a story apropos of the falling sleet"- Dostoyevsky
"I have had my fun if I don't get well no more"- Duane Allman (Song by St. Louis Jimmy Oden)
"I have had my fun if I don't get well no more"- Duane Allman (Song by St. Louis Jimmy Oden)
Friday, April 24, 2009
The 10 Greatest Neil Yong Songs (Part 3)
continued from the last post
5) Rockin' In The Free World
Like Springsteen's "Born in the USA" there's more going on here than at first glance it seems. It's ironic but it's also not. It's a territory that keeps you on your feet. Get drunk in the chorus and feel bad in the verses; there's nowhere Neil loves being more than that space in between. The kinder, gentler, machine gun hand when he wants to fucking pack arenas.
6) Mellow My Mind
From one of Neil's best albums and one of the greatest albums ever, "Tonight's The Night". The original versions not on youtube but find it and listen to it if you can. He can't hit the notes, his friends are dead, it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and all he's got left is the song. "I've been down the road and I've come back. Lonesome whistle on the railroad track. Ain't got nothing on those feelings that I had." It's all bullshit but this.
continued next post
5) Rockin' In The Free World
Like Springsteen's "Born in the USA" there's more going on here than at first glance it seems. It's ironic but it's also not. It's a territory that keeps you on your feet. Get drunk in the chorus and feel bad in the verses; there's nowhere Neil loves being more than that space in between. The kinder, gentler, machine gun hand when he wants to fucking pack arenas.
6) Mellow My Mind
From one of Neil's best albums and one of the greatest albums ever, "Tonight's The Night". The original versions not on youtube but find it and listen to it if you can. He can't hit the notes, his friends are dead, it's 3 o'clock in the morning, and all he's got left is the song. "I've been down the road and I've come back. Lonesome whistle on the railroad track. Ain't got nothing on those feelings that I had." It's all bullshit but this.
continued next post
New Mp3- The Humans Home
Here's the fourth song from the album I'm recording to put online. It's called "The Humans Home" and the album is called the "The Humans Home" too. You can click the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom.
Zak
The Humans Home
The Humans Home
You can make it what you want it. Be the face that looks upon it.
And now I know the job to do. To come alone and leave for two.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
You can rake it, you can haunt it. Like a lake that floats a sonnet.
And all to go a bone for you. We come alone and leave it too.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
In the end where all the water goes is a sea that beats upon us, bending pearls from off our bones.
See the gate and writ upon it. Here they're laid to rest undaunted.
To all the stars that saw and knew, my thoughts, and know we saw you too.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
Zak
The Humans Home
The Humans Home
You can make it what you want it. Be the face that looks upon it.
And now I know the job to do. To come alone and leave for two.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
You can rake it, you can haunt it. Like a lake that floats a sonnet.
And all to go a bone for you. We come alone and leave it too.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
In the end where all the water goes is a sea that beats upon us, bending pearls from off our bones.
See the gate and writ upon it. Here they're laid to rest undaunted.
To all the stars that saw and knew, my thoughts, and know we saw you too.
And now I know, lost and found, the humans home.
And now I see, there flamed a spark was tossed alone and strained the dark and crossed us home.
Songs You Should Hear 4/24
Bobby Blue Bland- Little Boy Blue
From about 1:48 until the end of the song is one of the most powerful moments ever captured on record. A forgotten master screaming out his throat and spelling out his name so there's no doubt who he is.
From about 1:48 until the end of the song is one of the most powerful moments ever captured on record. A forgotten master screaming out his throat and spelling out his name so there's no doubt who he is.
Quotes 4/24
"For as I grew to manhood I was inflamed with desire for a surfeit of hell's pleasure"- St.Augustine
"You could spare a kiss or two and still have plenty left"- Elvis
"You could spare a kiss or two and still have plenty left"- Elvis
Thursday, April 23, 2009
10 Greatest Neil Young Songs (Part 2)
continued from last post
3)Down By The River
I heard this song when I was just a kid and I remember being shocked when the chorus came. It's a big moment, everything's flipped upside down, the whole world's not what you think it was. Like cold water in the sunshine, you expect it's just another day and there's bodies in the woods. It wakes you up, he draws you in. A hippie starts with a guitar and ends up burning Vietnam; a stranger turns and he's Neil Young.
4) After The Gold Rush
When Rolling Stone reviewed After The Gold Rush they said it was horrible. I disagree with almost everything they wrote about it but it's a great album review and really well written. Here's a link to it). My favorite part is where the writer, Langdon Winner, talks about the title track. He writes,
"...on this album [Neil Young's] intonation often sounds like pre-adolescent whining. The song 'After The Gold Rush,' for instance, reminds one of nothing so much as Mrs. Miller moaning and wheezing her way through "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch." Apparently no one bothered to tell Neil Young that he was singing a half octave above his highest acceptable range."
I love reading bad reviews of things now generally held as sacred. They remind you that nothing ever is and that nothing should ever be. I once saw a Rolling Stone article where Jon Landau, before he became Bruce Springsteen's manager, wrote a scathing review of the The Godfather. Telling it like it is. Things that are great should stand on their own; like the first two Godfather's and After The Gold Rush did. Is Neil singing in too high a key? I don't know, but I can hear what Winner was reacting to. The song puts you on edge, it's not relaxing, it's cold, it's bare, it's a pale white horse in a freezing mountain stream. Beautiful and deformed; like it shouldn't be there but it is. It sticks out like a sore thumb or like a diamond; (depending on your point of view) and I've got mine and Langdon's got his.
continued next post
3)Down By The River
I heard this song when I was just a kid and I remember being shocked when the chorus came. It's a big moment, everything's flipped upside down, the whole world's not what you think it was. Like cold water in the sunshine, you expect it's just another day and there's bodies in the woods. It wakes you up, he draws you in. A hippie starts with a guitar and ends up burning Vietnam; a stranger turns and he's Neil Young.
4) After The Gold Rush
When Rolling Stone reviewed After The Gold Rush they said it was horrible. I disagree with almost everything they wrote about it but it's a great album review and really well written. Here's a link to it). My favorite part is where the writer, Langdon Winner, talks about the title track. He writes,
"...on this album [Neil Young's] intonation often sounds like pre-adolescent whining. The song 'After The Gold Rush,' for instance, reminds one of nothing so much as Mrs. Miller moaning and wheezing her way through "I'm A Lonely Little Petunia In An Onion Patch." Apparently no one bothered to tell Neil Young that he was singing a half octave above his highest acceptable range."
I love reading bad reviews of things now generally held as sacred. They remind you that nothing ever is and that nothing should ever be. I once saw a Rolling Stone article where Jon Landau, before he became Bruce Springsteen's manager, wrote a scathing review of the The Godfather. Telling it like it is. Things that are great should stand on their own; like the first two Godfather's and After The Gold Rush did. Is Neil singing in too high a key? I don't know, but I can hear what Winner was reacting to. The song puts you on edge, it's not relaxing, it's cold, it's bare, it's a pale white horse in a freezing mountain stream. Beautiful and deformed; like it shouldn't be there but it is. It sticks out like a sore thumb or like a diamond; (depending on your point of view) and I've got mine and Langdon's got his.
continued next post
New Mp3- The Beautiful and the Damned
Here's the third song from the album I'm putting online. The song is called "The Beautiful and the Damned", the album's called "The Humans Home". You can click the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom. Hope everyones good,
Zak
The Beautiful and the Damned
The Beautiful and the Damned
Lay your flowers by the stone. They keep it hot down where we're going.
Time goes by I'm your rise. Left with our good looks and time time time.
Saved was never set in stone. Pray for every bloom that's blown.
Time goes by I'm your eyes. Left with our good looks and time time time.
Lay your body on the stone. Here's a ghost once made 'em moan.
Time goes by I'm your rise left with our good looks and time time time.
Zak
The Beautiful and the Damned
The Beautiful and the Damned
Lay your flowers by the stone. They keep it hot down where we're going.
Time goes by I'm your rise. Left with our good looks and time time time.
Saved was never set in stone. Pray for every bloom that's blown.
Time goes by I'm your eyes. Left with our good looks and time time time.
Lay your body on the stone. Here's a ghost once made 'em moan.
Time goes by I'm your rise left with our good looks and time time time.
Songs You Should Hear 4/23
Metallica- Sabbra Cadabra
If Metallica could write songs this good they'd be the greatest rock band ever. But it's a Black Sabbath song, originally done by Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward; the band that had the greatest riffs, and more of them than anyone. Here's 'we salute you'; crushing skulls hard and fast on the walls they loved.
If Metallica could write songs this good they'd be the greatest rock band ever. But it's a Black Sabbath song, originally done by Ozzy, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward; the band that had the greatest riffs, and more of them than anyone. Here's 'we salute you'; crushing skulls hard and fast on the walls they loved.
Quotes 4/23
This living hand, now warm and capable
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed - see here it is -
I hold it towards you.
- Keats
"Johnny died one night, died in his bed. Bottle of whiskey, sleeping tablets by his head. Johnny's life passed him by like a warm summer day. If you listen to the wind you can still hear him play"- Bad Company
Of earnest grasping, would, if it were cold
And in the icy silence of the tomb,
So haunt thy days and chill thy dreaming nights
That thou wouldst wish thine own heart dry of blood
So in my veins red life might stream again,
And thou be conscience-calmed - see here it is -
I hold it towards you.
- Keats
"Johnny died one night, died in his bed. Bottle of whiskey, sleeping tablets by his head. Johnny's life passed him by like a warm summer day. If you listen to the wind you can still hear him play"- Bad Company
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
10 Greatest Neil Young Songs (Part 1)
1) Harvest
A guy named Jimmy McDonough wrote a biography of Neil Young called "Shakey" that I read a couple years ago. It's a great book, and the thing I remember most from it is what he says about Neil's song "Harvest", the title song from his best selling album "Harvest". The song is pretty and I always liked it, but I'd never really thought about what it was about.
Some of the lyrics are,
"Did I see you down in a young girls town
With your mother
in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs
With her screamin in the rain.
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?"
Neil Young was married to an actress named Carrie Snodgress who had grown up with a mentally ill mother. As a child Carrie would frequently be awakened by her mother trying to kill herself. And so the chorus and the verses of a pretty song have a dark, dark core. "Did she wake you up to tell you that it was only a change of plan?". What a way to put it; soft chords and someone's screaming in the rain.
2) I've Been Waiting For You
The one great song off his first, and not very good, album. I couldn't find the original on youtube so here's a live version of it. This isn't close to the original, but here's how he sounded singing it in 2001, for everyone who's ever wondered what that sounded like. I put a David Bowie cover of it up here too because that's how I first heard the song. It's not great but it's closer to what the original version's like. Find it if you can and listen to it, it's a weird record, with a chorus that jumps out and looks you in the eyes. Neil's intense when he's coming at you; and here's the first time there was nowhere to run to baby, the first time there was nowhere to hide.
A guy named Jimmy McDonough wrote a biography of Neil Young called "Shakey" that I read a couple years ago. It's a great book, and the thing I remember most from it is what he says about Neil's song "Harvest", the title song from his best selling album "Harvest". The song is pretty and I always liked it, but I'd never really thought about what it was about.
Some of the lyrics are,
"Did I see you down in a young girls town
With your mother
in so much pain?
I was almost there at the top of the stairs
With her screamin in the rain.
Did she wake you up to tell you that
It was only a change of plan?"
Neil Young was married to an actress named Carrie Snodgress who had grown up with a mentally ill mother. As a child Carrie would frequently be awakened by her mother trying to kill herself. And so the chorus and the verses of a pretty song have a dark, dark core. "Did she wake you up to tell you that it was only a change of plan?". What a way to put it; soft chords and someone's screaming in the rain.
2) I've Been Waiting For You
The one great song off his first, and not very good, album. I couldn't find the original on youtube so here's a live version of it. This isn't close to the original, but here's how he sounded singing it in 2001, for everyone who's ever wondered what that sounded like. I put a David Bowie cover of it up here too because that's how I first heard the song. It's not great but it's closer to what the original version's like. Find it if you can and listen to it, it's a weird record, with a chorus that jumps out and looks you in the eyes. Neil's intense when he's coming at you; and here's the first time there was nowhere to run to baby, the first time there was nowhere to hide.
Songs You Should Hear 4/22
Clarence Carter- Makin' Love At The Dark End Of The Street
The best 5 minute record with no singing until the 4th minute that's ever been recorded. If this doesn't get her in the mood then the year's not 1969. From back when men were men, and a soul brother could lay it on you; the myth, the legend, Clarence Carter.
The best 5 minute record with no singing until the 4th minute that's ever been recorded. If this doesn't get her in the mood then the year's not 1969. From back when men were men, and a soul brother could lay it on you; the myth, the legend, Clarence Carter.
Quotes 4/22
"If it is your destiny to think, give to it divine honours and sacrifice to it the best you have and what you love the most"- Nietzsche
"You made me love you, now your man has come"- Robert Johnson
"You made me love you, now your man has come"- Robert Johnson
Neil Young
The essence of Neil Young is jarring. Sometimes it's like cold water thrown into your face, sometimes it's like you stepped in shit, and sometimes it's an off key note that says, 'there are no such thing as rock stars, how long can you look me in the face'. In the middle of a chorus, in the middle of a verse, in the middle of a note, sometimes he'll look up from a song, and there's no rockstars left alive and the song's no longer safe. He's not the Eagles, he's not Bob Dylan, or Joni Mitchell, or Bruce Springsteen, or whatever other singer or group they sometimes class him with. Bruce is one of my heroes but he never drops the poker face. What makes Neil different is that he's sometimes grinded the whole thing to a screeching halt that's then rolled over into a ditch, exploded, and burst into flames. And it's in those screeches and on that halt that Neil stands out unconquerably great. Barely a God, but barely will cut it. After the gold rush it comes down like a hurricane. "Being human isn't pretty", as he digs into his tracks, and turns his amp on in the rain. Sparks are flying from his wires, Cortez is dancing across the sea. "Fuckin' Up" and Eddie Vedder. Laurel canyon's filled with water, mud's up past David Brigg's knees. Lightning flashes in the sky, the rain is knocking down the trees. The mud slides down the canyon walls, the Earth is spurting fire. He tightens up a guitar string, "Pretend to be something you're not. You'll see how quick time fades away". "Down by the River" and the Earth has brought the river, so he started walking down there, his amp in one hand and the other around his baby.
Next post I'll start writing "the 10 greatest Neil Young songs".
Next post I'll start writing "the 10 greatest Neil Young songs".
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
New Mp3- College Bound
Here's the second song from "The Humans Home", the album I'm recording to put online. The song is called "College Bound", it still needs a little work, but in the meantime here's a better mixed version of the first song I put up yesterday called "Toothache". You can right click on the titles to download them and the lyrics are at the bottom.
Zak
College Bound
College Bound
I'll try and make this good. But it's summed up best in the words that follow. Goodbye. No, it's allright.
Here where Jesus stood. Man, he took all he could swallow. Goodbye. No, it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
Doctor it's no good. God makes money, God makes problems. Goodbye, no it's allright.
Here's why dreams are good. God makes money, God makes problems. Goodbye, no it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
I could try but it's more than truth that the parts you loved come back the hard way.
The end is understood. The choice is just to spit or swallow. Goodbye, no it's allright.
Carve it in the wood. "I loved you all but still felt hollow". Goodbye, no it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
Toothache
Toothache
The lost red star that calls to you. Unresting far from all he knew.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
The rest of all dissolved in clues. My friend the fall is a golden noose.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
And high up above see what's shining on you. It's a heaven I've hung with letters and all that's said leads back to you.
To waste it all on all that's flew. I lost my God and prayed to you.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
Zak
College Bound
College Bound
I'll try and make this good. But it's summed up best in the words that follow. Goodbye. No, it's allright.
Here where Jesus stood. Man, he took all he could swallow. Goodbye. No, it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
Doctor it's no good. God makes money, God makes problems. Goodbye, no it's allright.
Here's why dreams are good. God makes money, God makes problems. Goodbye, no it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
I could try but it's more than truth that the parts you loved come back the hard way.
The end is understood. The choice is just to spit or swallow. Goodbye, no it's allright.
Carve it in the wood. "I loved you all but still felt hollow". Goodbye, no it's allright.
But I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. I'm here now. And I've got your answer in me.
Build your house down the road where they keep the solid ground. Goodbye folks. It's all allright. Call it college bound.
Toothache
Toothache
The lost red star that calls to you. Unresting far from all he knew.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
The rest of all dissolved in clues. My friend the fall is a golden noose.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
And high up above see what's shining on you. It's a heaven I've hung with letters and all that's said leads back to you.
To waste it all on all that's flew. I lost my God and prayed to you.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
Quotes 4/21
"I don't know when we'll meet again or what'll happen in the future, but Desolation, Desolation, I owe so much to Desolation"- Jack Kerouac
"Don't make no difference what nobody says, ain't no body like to be alone"- Bruce
"Don't make no difference what nobody says, ain't no body like to be alone"- Bruce
New Mp3- Toothache
Here's the first song from another album I'm going to put online. The song is called "Toothache", and right now I'm calling the album "The Humans Home". This is another rough one, I'm gonna remix this when I get a chance, but in the meantime you can click the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom. Hope everyones doing good,
Zak
Toothache
Toothache
The lost red star that calls to you. Unresting far from all he knew.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
The rest of all dissolved in clues. My friend the fall is a golden noose.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
And high up above see what's shining on you. It's a heaven I've hung with letters and all that's said leads back to you.
To waste it all on all that's flew. I lost my God and prayed to you.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
Zak
Toothache
Toothache
The lost red star that calls to you. Unresting far from all he knew.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
The rest of all dissolved in clues. My friend the fall is a golden noose.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
And high up above see what's shining on you. It's a heaven I've hung with letters and all that's said leads back to you.
To waste it all on all that's flew. I lost my God and prayed to you.
Feel it like a toothache bleeding. Feel it like a toothache bleeding. What a star. But what a needing. Feel it like a toothache bleeding.
Songs You Should Hear 4/20
The Rolling Stones- Before They Make Me Run
Keith sings this one, sometimes I think he should have sung them all. One of the greatest choruses ever, probably their last great song.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Quotes 4/20
"'I'm more beautiful than anybody else,' she said brokenly, 'why can't I be happy?'"- Fitzgerald
"You never had a chance did you baby. So good looking, so insecure. And now you say you can't remember when the lines you drew began to blur"- Tom Petty
"You never had a chance did you baby. So good looking, so insecure. And now you say you can't remember when the lines you drew began to blur"- Tom Petty
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/19
Tom Waits- "Fish & Bird"
This is my favorite Tom Waits song. It's sad, it's about a bird that falls in love with a whale. The message is relationships never work.
This is my favorite Tom Waits song. It's sad, it's about a bird that falls in love with a whale. The message is relationships never work.
Nik Cohn, Lester Bangs, Otis Redding
One of the greatest books that I've ever read was called "Rock from the Beginning" or "Awopbopaloobop Awopbamboom" depending on the edition. It was published in 1970 and written by a guy named Nik Cohn who was only 22 at the time. It's a book to found whole philosophical movements on, but more often it's referred to as the founding book of rock criticism. He's the greatest rock writer I've ever read, matched only by Lester Bangs, another genius writer from around the same time and who was played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman in the movie Almost Famous. Lester Bangs deserves his own post but in the meantime here's my favorite part from that movie.
Lester Bangs died of a drug overdose in 1982 after a bad drug interaction from apparently trying to treat a cold with Valium and Darvon. Like Nik Cohn he was a full heartedly passionate and eloquent writer who's prose could drift to poetry and who's poetry sounded like rock and roll. Nik's book is a history of rock and roll/pop music up through 1970 along with his opinions and sharp criticisms of famous groups and singers from the 1950's and 60's. My favorite chapter in the book is called "Spectorsound" and it's about Phil Spector. I haven't been able to find my copy of the book for a couple years now or I would quote it directly, but Cohn at one point says something like, "when I listen to Phil Spector records I imagine him as a Greek God on Olympus hurling lightning bolts". I gotta buy another copy and get the right quote). His image of Spector is a 20th century version of Richard Wagner, the German classical composer who is known for a bombastic, total sound coming at you in full force. (I say 'that's what he's known for' and not 'that's what he sounds like' because I haven't listened to Richard Wagner. I only like rock and roll. That's right motherfucker, I only like rock and roll).
When I first read Nik's book I disagreed with some of what he said, and I still disagree with a lot of it. But it's written so passionately that even if you don't agree with him it's like a breath of fresh air in a vacuum. He takes on people who are never criticised, pulls no punches, and rips them apart. If someone or something has no room for criticism then it's either dead or dying. If the great ones aren't criticised then you're wishing upon them the same fate as Bob Dylan in "Tombstone Blues":
Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after
This from Bob in 1965, before he was taken to that same hill, brought up higher and chained up tighter then anyone's ever been before. If I could find my copy of the book I'd quote out of it but off of my head I remember he heavily critisises the Beatles, Dylan and Stax records, the company that recorded, among other greats, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. And who criticises Stax Records? To this day his book stands as the only negative critisicm of them that I've ever read. And it's not just to be controversial, his criticism is well thought out and jarring. ( Anyway, I remember Cohn's critisim of Stax was along the lines of, 'Stax records promotes and buys into a racist image of black singers as being unduly emotional, begging and pleading caricatures; not multi-faceted and complex human beings'. Meaning that there's a whiff of minstrelsy in Otis Redding and other black singers begging and pleading in song after song. That's a hell of an interesting argument even though I'm a big fan of Otis Redding. But maybe he's right and giving the people what they wanted could be a dangerous and unhealthy proposition in the 1960's. It's always a dangerous proposition for your soul but maybe especially so if you're a 6'1 black man from the deep south who could write his own songs and was bursting with creativity. Maybe it was stifling and maybe he shouldn't have been pleading and begging in so many songs. On the other hand maybe that was the kind of music that moved him. I don't know enough about him but Nik brought up an extremely interesting way of looking at something. However, on Otis, and throughout the book, Nik, even when he has a point, has the tendency to paint with a broad brush. For example, though a lot of Otis's song's did involve him begging him in some sense, his biggest single, released after his death in a plane crash in 1968, was Sitting on the Dock of The Bay and it's one of the most, if not the most, subtly complex 4 week long number one singles of all time. It's got an amazing bridge that comes out of nowhere like a sudden vista on that bay, smooth as glass with sunlight covering it and spread upon the waves. And Otis, as he gets up to go, smiles and it's clear the man's got secret thoughts and depths he'll only partly say. "Looks like nothings gonna change, everything still remains the same. I can't do what ten people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same". Buddy Holly and you big man, the Wright brothers have a lot to answer for.
(They didn't have any videos of Otis singing Dock of the Bay on youtube so here's him singing Try a Little Tenderness and a version of Dock of the Bay by someone I never heard of named Guy Sebastian playing it with the original guitarist on the record and the co-writer of the song Steve Cropper. This isn't close to the real record, but Steve Cropper is one of my favorite guitar players ever and played on all the Stax records and wrote or co-wrote a million great songs.)
Lester Bangs died of a drug overdose in 1982 after a bad drug interaction from apparently trying to treat a cold with Valium and Darvon. Like Nik Cohn he was a full heartedly passionate and eloquent writer who's prose could drift to poetry and who's poetry sounded like rock and roll. Nik's book is a history of rock and roll/pop music up through 1970 along with his opinions and sharp criticisms of famous groups and singers from the 1950's and 60's. My favorite chapter in the book is called "Spectorsound" and it's about Phil Spector. I haven't been able to find my copy of the book for a couple years now or I would quote it directly, but Cohn at one point says something like, "when I listen to Phil Spector records I imagine him as a Greek God on Olympus hurling lightning bolts". I gotta buy another copy and get the right quote). His image of Spector is a 20th century version of Richard Wagner, the German classical composer who is known for a bombastic, total sound coming at you in full force. (I say 'that's what he's known for' and not 'that's what he sounds like' because I haven't listened to Richard Wagner. I only like rock and roll. That's right motherfucker, I only like rock and roll).
When I first read Nik's book I disagreed with some of what he said, and I still disagree with a lot of it. But it's written so passionately that even if you don't agree with him it's like a breath of fresh air in a vacuum. He takes on people who are never criticised, pulls no punches, and rips them apart. If someone or something has no room for criticism then it's either dead or dying. If the great ones aren't criticised then you're wishing upon them the same fate as Bob Dylan in "Tombstone Blues":
Now I wish I could give Brother Bill his great thrill
I would set him in chains at the top of the hill
Then send out for some pillars and Cecil B. DeMille
He could die happily ever after
This from Bob in 1965, before he was taken to that same hill, brought up higher and chained up tighter then anyone's ever been before. If I could find my copy of the book I'd quote out of it but off of my head I remember he heavily critisises the Beatles, Dylan and Stax records, the company that recorded, among other greats, Otis Redding and Sam & Dave. And who criticises Stax Records? To this day his book stands as the only negative critisicm of them that I've ever read. And it's not just to be controversial, his criticism is well thought out and jarring. ( Anyway, I remember Cohn's critisim of Stax was along the lines of, 'Stax records promotes and buys into a racist image of black singers as being unduly emotional, begging and pleading caricatures; not multi-faceted and complex human beings'. Meaning that there's a whiff of minstrelsy in Otis Redding and other black singers begging and pleading in song after song. That's a hell of an interesting argument even though I'm a big fan of Otis Redding. But maybe he's right and giving the people what they wanted could be a dangerous and unhealthy proposition in the 1960's. It's always a dangerous proposition for your soul but maybe especially so if you're a 6'1 black man from the deep south who could write his own songs and was bursting with creativity. Maybe it was stifling and maybe he shouldn't have been pleading and begging in so many songs. On the other hand maybe that was the kind of music that moved him. I don't know enough about him but Nik brought up an extremely interesting way of looking at something. However, on Otis, and throughout the book, Nik, even when he has a point, has the tendency to paint with a broad brush. For example, though a lot of Otis's song's did involve him begging him in some sense, his biggest single, released after his death in a plane crash in 1968, was Sitting on the Dock of The Bay and it's one of the most, if not the most, subtly complex 4 week long number one singles of all time. It's got an amazing bridge that comes out of nowhere like a sudden vista on that bay, smooth as glass with sunlight covering it and spread upon the waves. And Otis, as he gets up to go, smiles and it's clear the man's got secret thoughts and depths he'll only partly say. "Looks like nothings gonna change, everything still remains the same. I can't do what ten people tell me to do, so I guess I'll remain the same". Buddy Holly and you big man, the Wright brothers have a lot to answer for.
(They didn't have any videos of Otis singing Dock of the Bay on youtube so here's him singing Try a Little Tenderness and a version of Dock of the Bay by someone I never heard of named Guy Sebastian playing it with the original guitarist on the record and the co-writer of the song Steve Cropper. This isn't close to the real record, but Steve Cropper is one of my favorite guitar players ever and played on all the Stax records and wrote or co-wrote a million great songs.)
Quotes 4/19
"Here is laid the body of Jonathan Swift...
Where savage indignation can no longer
Pierce his breast"- Jonathan Swift's Epitaph
"We got sixteen men on a dead man's chest
And I shot those suckers and I'll shoot the rest"- The Beastie Boys
Where savage indignation can no longer
Pierce his breast"- Jonathan Swift's Epitaph
"We got sixteen men on a dead man's chest
And I shot those suckers and I'll shoot the rest"- The Beastie Boys
Saturday, April 18, 2009
10 Greatest Phil Spector Songs Epilogue (The Beatles)
Phil had two major phases of his career, the first was his girl group records in the early to mid sixties, and the second was his work with the Beatles, and then two ex- Beatles, at the end of the sixties and into the '70's. Before they broke up he produced their Let It Be album in 1970 which is generally thought of as one of their worst albums. I like it a lot though, it's a Beatle's record that sounds very different from the others. It also doesn't sound like a Phil Spector, Wall Of Sound record. He lays back on most of the songs and it actually ends up being one of their rawest albums. The notable exceptions are Paul's "Let It Be" and "The Long and Winding Road". Paul supposedly hated Phil's production and felt like his arrangements were drowning out the songs. The arrangement on "The Long and Winding Road" is a little bit sappy but it ends up adding strength to what ultimately is just a sappy song. He didn't write the thing Paul, he just reacted to it; sometimes a song needs some goddamn strings. Paul re-released "Let It Be" as "Let It Be- Naked" a couple years ago and took off Spector's production and laid the tracks pretty bear. I like it, it sounds cool, but it's not as good as the original.
Next he produced George Harrison's first solo album, "All Things Must Pass", which was a big hit. "My Sweet Lord" was the number one single off it that George would later get sued for due to it's sounding too similar to The Chiffon's "He's So Fine". The record is a little over rated but it still has some good songs. Here are a couple,
Between 1970 and 1975 Phil produced four John Lennon solo records and two of them were genius. First was John's first album after the Beatles, "Plastic Ono Band". It's one of the great records and Phil lays way back on it, letting Lennon scream for his mother not to go when she'd been dead since he was 9. The best suffering is done alone and Phil knows it well. He's so subtle on this record that you hardly know he's there. the most part, Though he's known for his mountainous sound, here Phil leaves the wall of sound at home, it's not always about having a good time.
Then he produced John's next album, "Imagine". It's a great record with more of a Phil Spector type sound. The tracks are fuller than on "Plastic Ono Band", with more orchestration and bigger arrangements. The title track is the classic song, and "How Do You Sleep At Night" is a venemous attack on Paul McCartney. The price for bad art is death, or the equivalent vicious curse of a genius. John could be a vicious snake in the grass like all honest souls at some point are. The world is too cruel not to hate it sometimes. Phil brought forth the two sides of John's coin, the gentle and the brutal, the empathy and the napalm; and it came natural to Phil because that's what he was. A snake in the grass who made beautiful songs. John struck a deep chord with Phil, and a testament to that fact is that the last song that he produced, in 2007 and on trial for murder, was entitled "Crying For John Lennon". It's by a singer named "Hargo" and the song's not good, but there's still something there because Phil's there. It could have been different; wasted promise; something beautiful dying. It's a common thread, it's in all of his songs, the most beautiful ones and the mediocre ones too. Phil, you could have been a star. You could have been huge.
Next he produced George Harrison's first solo album, "All Things Must Pass", which was a big hit. "My Sweet Lord" was the number one single off it that George would later get sued for due to it's sounding too similar to The Chiffon's "He's So Fine". The record is a little over rated but it still has some good songs. Here are a couple,
Between 1970 and 1975 Phil produced four John Lennon solo records and two of them were genius. First was John's first album after the Beatles, "Plastic Ono Band". It's one of the great records and Phil lays way back on it, letting Lennon scream for his mother not to go when she'd been dead since he was 9. The best suffering is done alone and Phil knows it well. He's so subtle on this record that you hardly know he's there. the most part, Though he's known for his mountainous sound, here Phil leaves the wall of sound at home, it's not always about having a good time.
Then he produced John's next album, "Imagine". It's a great record with more of a Phil Spector type sound. The tracks are fuller than on "Plastic Ono Band", with more orchestration and bigger arrangements. The title track is the classic song, and "How Do You Sleep At Night" is a venemous attack on Paul McCartney. The price for bad art is death, or the equivalent vicious curse of a genius. John could be a vicious snake in the grass like all honest souls at some point are. The world is too cruel not to hate it sometimes. Phil brought forth the two sides of John's coin, the gentle and the brutal, the empathy and the napalm; and it came natural to Phil because that's what he was. A snake in the grass who made beautiful songs. John struck a deep chord with Phil, and a testament to that fact is that the last song that he produced, in 2007 and on trial for murder, was entitled "Crying For John Lennon". It's by a singer named "Hargo" and the song's not good, but there's still something there because Phil's there. It could have been different; wasted promise; something beautiful dying. It's a common thread, it's in all of his songs, the most beautiful ones and the mediocre ones too. Phil, you could have been a star. You could have been huge.
New Mp3- Love Complete
Here's the tenth and last song from the album I'm putting online. The name of the song is Love Complete, the name of the album is See Your Home. You can click on the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom.
Zak
Love Complete
Love Complete
Standing by the ship as it passed. Roses hung from the rafters and were tied to the mast. And God bless the ones who could make the trip last.
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home.
Buried in the heart of the grass in memory of all that you love that won't last. And long as roses still bloom I'll lay roses on that.
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home. And soft as snow the lips that meet. Lay down my love complete.
Written in the curve of the path by Earth in a sky where a billion lights flash is "of all stars just one I'll turn to the last"
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home. And what you lose and what you keep. Lay down my love complete. May the eyes you're closing see their home.
Zak
Love Complete
Love Complete
Standing by the ship as it passed. Roses hung from the rafters and were tied to the mast. And God bless the ones who could make the trip last.
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home.
Buried in the heart of the grass in memory of all that you love that won't last. And long as roses still bloom I'll lay roses on that.
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home. And soft as snow the lips that meet. Lay down my love complete.
Written in the curve of the path by Earth in a sky where a billion lights flash is "of all stars just one I'll turn to the last"
Lay down my love complete. May the eyes your closing see their home. And what you lose and what you keep. Lay down my love complete. May the eyes you're closing see their home.
Quotes 4/18
"The evil that machinery is doing is not merely in the consequences of its work, but in the fact that it makes men themselves machines also. Whereas we wish them to be artists, that is to say men"- Oscar Wilde
"My hearts in the basement, my weekends at an all time low"- David Bowie
"My hearts in the basement, my weekends at an all time low"- David Bowie
Friday, April 17, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/17
Airborne Toxic Event- Missy
This came out in 2007 but I just heard it for the first time recently and it's the best thing I've heard in a while. I put a line from it as a quote the other day because I liked it so much. "Well I'd follow you even if it was wrong". Of all the songs about girls going to Los Angeles, this is right up there with the best of them. I'd put it only below Warren Zevon's "The French Inhaler", and I'd put a youtube link to that song too if I could find it. But right now I can't, so listen to this for now. Hope everyone's good,
Zak
This came out in 2007 but I just heard it for the first time recently and it's the best thing I've heard in a while. I put a line from it as a quote the other day because I liked it so much. "Well I'd follow you even if it was wrong". Of all the songs about girls going to Los Angeles, this is right up there with the best of them. I'd put it only below Warren Zevon's "The French Inhaler", and I'd put a youtube link to that song too if I could find it. But right now I can't, so listen to this for now. Hope everyone's good,
Zak
New Mp3- The Choice
Here's the ninth song from the album I'm putting online. The name of the song is The Choice, the name of the album is See Your Home. This one is a little more rough than usual because a piece of equipment I've been recording with hasn't been working right, hopefully I'll be able to fix it tomorrow and then I'll remix this and put a better version up. In the meantime though you can click on the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom. All the best,
Zak
The Choice
The Choice
Young girl wonder what you put inside you. Closing off all your heart and your mind. Driving out to the ocean this morning. Shallow shoals or the peak of high tide.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
One life, what has he got he will show you. Search it long and still ye shall not find. How does a life turn out when it's just longing for a shelter to pass out all of your time.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
And what will he save you from. I'm here, come what comes. The blood from my heart may run, but it still beats like a drum honey.
Allright, ground all the meat up to serve it. Dress up according to taste and to time. Then when you settle down to look back over your life stifle the stench and the sigh.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
Zak
The Choice
The Choice
Young girl wonder what you put inside you. Closing off all your heart and your mind. Driving out to the ocean this morning. Shallow shoals or the peak of high tide.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
One life, what has he got he will show you. Search it long and still ye shall not find. How does a life turn out when it's just longing for a shelter to pass out all of your time.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
And what will he save you from. I'm here, come what comes. The blood from my heart may run, but it still beats like a drum honey.
Allright, ground all the meat up to serve it. Dress up according to taste and to time. Then when you settle down to look back over your life stifle the stench and the sigh.
It's the choice. Something or nothing. It's a thin line. It's the choice. God are you kidding. This is life or long lines.
10 Greatest Phil Spector Songs (Part 5)
continued from the last post
10) Da Doo Ron Ron- The Crystals
Nothing artificial and the rush is electric. Casey Jones drives the train, speeding down the railroad tracks, before the Dead, before cocaine, and plays this song to stay awake. High on life but not a square, the Crystals rush he comes to take, and Spector whispers in his ear, "keep your hands off of the breaks". "I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still". Like a punch in the jaw if it's with a kiss that it's chased. Awopbopaloobop as the engines run, and A Doo Ron Ron as sparks fly in his face. From the pages of his prayer book, the one prayer he keeps reciting, "May your days be filled with thunder, may these sparks fly in your face". That's translated from the ancient text, where, between some nonsense Latin, they who wrote it laced it strong with some pure and un-cut words they placed; "Domine Deus, vitam aeternam, awopbopaloobop de hac caritate vivere, et mori statuo sic da doo ron ron est".
10) Da Doo Ron Ron- The Crystals
Nothing artificial and the rush is electric. Casey Jones drives the train, speeding down the railroad tracks, before the Dead, before cocaine, and plays this song to stay awake. High on life but not a square, the Crystals rush he comes to take, and Spector whispers in his ear, "keep your hands off of the breaks". "I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still". Like a punch in the jaw if it's with a kiss that it's chased. Awopbopaloobop as the engines run, and A Doo Ron Ron as sparks fly in his face. From the pages of his prayer book, the one prayer he keeps reciting, "May your days be filled with thunder, may these sparks fly in your face". That's translated from the ancient text, where, between some nonsense Latin, they who wrote it laced it strong with some pure and un-cut words they placed; "Domine Deus, vitam aeternam, awopbopaloobop de hac caritate vivere, et mori statuo sic da doo ron ron est".
Quotes 4/17
"Ignore the fortunate exceptions"- Juvenal
"Well my baby's number one
But I'm gonna dance with three or four"- Eddie Cochran
"Well my baby's number one
But I'm gonna dance with three or four"- Eddie Cochran
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Songs You Should Hear 4/16
Little Richard- I Don't Know What You Got
That's Jimi Hendrix on guitar before he got famous in the 60's, and that's Little Richard singing; faded from the charts and in the process of decline. But though he's faded here he hasn't really declined a hell of a lot. Actually, he might have even gotten better. This is him singing at his best, like a man who's not quite right.
That's Jimi Hendrix on guitar before he got famous in the 60's, and that's Little Richard singing; faded from the charts and in the process of decline. But though he's faded here he hasn't really declined a hell of a lot. Actually, he might have even gotten better. This is him singing at his best, like a man who's not quite right.
10 Greatest Phil Spector Songs (Part 4)
Continued from last post
9) River Deep, Mountain High- Ike & Tina Turner
Here's how high the wall of sound could be built before tumbling. It's the song that Phil Spector considers to be his masterpiece, which says more about Phil Spector than it does about "River Deep, Mountain High". It was released in 1966 and was a failure in the U.S. and a failure that Phil took deeply to heart and rocked his world. The song that he had such high hopes for was rejected by the American public, only reaching number 88 on the billboard charts, and soon afterwards Phil shut down his record label and his long decline was begun. (It did go to #3 in Britain though). It's a monstrous and violent song, throttling the listener and scorching the Earth. It's a 5 foot 4 Phil Spector and the vicious Godlike vision that endued his little body. And it's revenge upon the planet; Tina you know not what you do. Behind the dark shades there was genius; and a violence and venom there too. Mis-estimated, unnoticed, an ego was wounded; and relentless and cruel is the heart that's had something to prove. The venom of genius; it runs deep when it's unseen or mis-estimated. And when it rears up it holds love like it's just a rag doll in its big giant hands that it's ripping in two.
continued next post
9) River Deep, Mountain High- Ike & Tina Turner
Here's how high the wall of sound could be built before tumbling. It's the song that Phil Spector considers to be his masterpiece, which says more about Phil Spector than it does about "River Deep, Mountain High". It was released in 1966 and was a failure in the U.S. and a failure that Phil took deeply to heart and rocked his world. The song that he had such high hopes for was rejected by the American public, only reaching number 88 on the billboard charts, and soon afterwards Phil shut down his record label and his long decline was begun. (It did go to #3 in Britain though). It's a monstrous and violent song, throttling the listener and scorching the Earth. It's a 5 foot 4 Phil Spector and the vicious Godlike vision that endued his little body. And it's revenge upon the planet; Tina you know not what you do. Behind the dark shades there was genius; and a violence and venom there too. Mis-estimated, unnoticed, an ego was wounded; and relentless and cruel is the heart that's had something to prove. The venom of genius; it runs deep when it's unseen or mis-estimated. And when it rears up it holds love like it's just a rag doll in its big giant hands that it's ripping in two.
continued next post
New Mp3- Faith But Waiting
Here's the eighth song from the album I'm putting online. The name of the song is Faith But Waiting, the name of the album is See Your Home. You can click on the title to download it and the lyrics are at the bottom.
Zak
Faith But Waiting
Faith But Waiting
There's no change you can't undo. Faith like a fever is burning all over that nothing will change. I'm waiting.
Full of faith I'm waiting for you. What is faith but waiting.
If the rest is life and long and true what is faith but waiting.
Nothing is ever lost if you keep it from dying. Don't let it die. Don't let it die I'm waiting.
Full of faith I'm waiting for you. What is faith but waiting.
And the rest is life, and long and true. What is faith but waiting.
Baby the stars are more then proof, that this sad world of ours is not too sad for me and you.
You can make every dream in your heart come true, if you wait hard enough then the things that you love come back to you. I'm waiting.
Full of waiting I'm waiting for you. Full of faith I'm waiting. And the rest is life, and long and true. What is faith but waiting.
Zak
Faith But Waiting
Faith But Waiting
There's no change you can't undo. Faith like a fever is burning all over that nothing will change. I'm waiting.
Full of faith I'm waiting for you. What is faith but waiting.
If the rest is life and long and true what is faith but waiting.
Nothing is ever lost if you keep it from dying. Don't let it die. Don't let it die I'm waiting.
Full of faith I'm waiting for you. What is faith but waiting.
And the rest is life, and long and true. What is faith but waiting.
Baby the stars are more then proof, that this sad world of ours is not too sad for me and you.
You can make every dream in your heart come true, if you wait hard enough then the things that you love come back to you. I'm waiting.
Full of waiting I'm waiting for you. Full of faith I'm waiting. And the rest is life, and long and true. What is faith but waiting.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
