I've been a music addict for as long as I can remember. I'm always on the lookout for new music, and I recently discovered a blog that archives all free itunes downloads. It's been awesome...I'm downloading a free bunch of songs every week and not forgetting about it before they expire thanks to my feed reader. Yay for free music!
Also, my friend Pete and his band "The Dusty's" rock. Go download their EP. You won't be sorry.
October 17, 2009 at 03:54 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
I've recently acquired a new iPod classic that I won't be able to fill by the time it breaks... It inspired me to completely organize my music collection both in hard copy and electronically. Been ripping my entire cd collection to iTunes over the past few weeks.
One of my friends makes these awesome "Best of" cd's every year and I recently rediscovered this Nina Simone gem from his Best of 2006 album. I love love love this song.
Ain't Got No/I Got Life - Nina Simone
Ain't got no home, ain't got no shoes
Ain't got no money, ain't got no class
Ain't got no skirts, ain't got no sweater
Ain't got no perfume, ain't got no beer
Ain't got no man
Ain't got no mother, ain't got no culture
Ain't got no friends, ain't got no schooling
Ain't got no love, ain't got no name
Ain't got no ticket, ain't got no token
Ain't got no God
Then what have I got?
Why am I alive anyway?
Yeah, what have I got?
Nobody can take away
I got my hair, I got my head
I got my brains, I got my ears
I got my eyes, I got my nose
I got my mouth, I got my smile
I got my tongue, I got my chin
I got my neck, I got my boobs
I got my heart, I got my soul
I got my back, I got my sex
I got my arms, I got my hands
I got my fingers, Got my legs
I got my feet, I got my toes
I got my liver, Got my blood
I've got life , I've got my freedom
I've got life
And I'm gonna keep it
I've got life
And nobody's gonna take it away
I've got life
September 27, 2009 at 04:53 AM in Music, Poems | Permalink | Comments (0)
squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
and I'm beyond your peripheral vision
so you might want to turn your head
cause someday you're going to get hungry
and eat most of the words you just said
both my parents taught me about good will
and I have done well by their names
just the kindness I've lavished on strangers
is more than I can explain
still there's many who've turned out their porch lights
just so I would think they were not home
and hid in the dark of their windows
til I'd passed and left them alone
and god help you if you are an ugly girl
course too pretty is also your doom
cause everyone harbors a secret hatred
for the prettiest girl in the room
and god help you if you are a pheonix
and you dare to rise up from the ash
a thousand eyes will smolder with jealousy
while you are just flying back
I'm not trying to give my life meaning
by demeaning you
and I would like to state for the record
I did everything that I could do
I'm not saying that I'm a saint
I just don't want to live that way
no, I will never be a saint
but I will always say
squint your eyes and look closer
I'm not between you and your ambition
I am a poster girl with no poster
I am thirty-two flavors and then some
And I'm beyond your peripheral vision
So you might want to turn your head
Cause someday you might find you're starving
and eating all of the words you said
July 21, 2009 at 07:51 PM in All About Me, Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty
in the moonlight
overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne,
she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Maybe I've been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
There was a time you'd let me know
What's real and going on below
But now you never show it to me do you?
Remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Maybe there's a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It's a cold and it's a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah
January 20, 2009 at 11:17 AM in Music, Poems | Permalink | Comments (1)
I've been very delinquent in posting recently. Believe it or not there are just some things that even I do not feel like sharing. ;) I've also been busy with school until recently...I have a few ideas for posts, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, please pardon the repost (though how many of you were reading this back in 2005 anyways?). I put in Brian Wilson's Smile album this morning on my way to school and realized (again) how much I like a few songs on that album). Please refer to my review from 2005 (have I really been blogging that long?!?) Also, must give a shout out to John...there's some killer cello on "good vibrations" that made me think - "hey I wonder if John has listened to this album?" Have you???
We used to fly out to my grandparents' house in Washington and then use their minivan to take THE GREAT AMERICAN VACATION a la National Lampoon. Found memories of that time include attempting to drive the minivan through the Chandelier Tree (we barely squeaked through, but don't ask my dad about what happened in the gift shop), driving from northern Washington to Southern California in 2 days, and eating at what must have been every Denny's on the west coast.
I first heard the Beach Boys in my grandparents' minivan on one of these summer vacations when I was about 13. My grandparents' had a Beach Boys "Greatest Hits" cd and it was (to my 13 year old ears) the best thing to listen to when compared to the other cd's in their car (I definitely remember some Glenn Miller, Boxcar Willie and a compilation of classic country called "Wagon Wheels"). We used to listen (and sing along) to the Beach Boys cd on repeat until my parents had enough and insisted on something else. Listening to those songs still reminds me of those roadtrips.
I am not a Beach Boys FAN, though I like their music well enough. I'm a Beatles person. I liked the Beach Boys harmonies and arrangements, but the lyrics lost me. I picked up "Pet Sounds" in college and thought it was ok, but not one of the best albums of all time. For some reason "Pet Sounds" didn't speak to me like many Beatles albums did. I bought "Smile" after it caught my eye when I was Christmas shopping. The fact that I waited to listen to it until recently belies my lack of Beach Boys enthusiasm and also that I was really a little afraid after hearing some more recent Brian Wilson efforts. Ouch. I didn't even know about "Smile"'s dark history until reading the liner notes.
At any rate, from this perspective, I think "Smile" is an eminently listenable album. And it is an ALBUM, better when listening to it all at once. In addition to awesome harmonies and arrangements, it has the same kind of Americana feel that early Beach Boys songs have, just more mature. With lyrics like: "Ribbon of concrete, just see what you've done/Done to the church of the American Indian" these lyrics are certainly deeper than "Well I saved my pennies and I saved my dimes/For I knew there would be a time/When I would buy a brand new 409". "Smile" has it's fair share of low points ("Vega-tables" comes to mind, along with a re-do of "Good Vibrations" that doesn't match the excitement of the original version, and the instrumental "Mrs. O'Leary's Cow" which hurts my ears), it's still good music. "Wonderful", "Our Prayer", "Heroes and Villians", and "Roll Plymouth Rock" are some of my favorites. It's pretty obvious that the backing vocals are not the original Beach Boys, and that Brian Wilson has lost some of his voice (hey the dude is in his 60's and sang the songs in the original key which is pretty amazing in and of itself), but it's still good music. And in case you are afraid, it is WAY better than any of Wilson's other solo stuff.
Last 5 songs played on my iPod:
Good Vibrations - The Beach Boys
Because - The Beatles
La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf
Wonderful - Brian Wilson
Surfing on a Rocket - Air
November 24, 2008 at 10:58 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
If you know anyone who has gone through addiction treatment, they might have an anchor. When trying to give something up, having something (for women frequently a piece of jewelry) that you can touch or look at to remind you to stay on the straight and narrow can help calm you down when you get into a tizzy. For me, my anchor has always been music, and a few songs in particular. I know when things are getting rough, I can always listen to one of these songs and it will help me feel better, or if nothing else, take my mind off whatever is bothering me. Been listening to this song all morning while working... although the lyrics have not been particularly relevant to any situation in my life, I love the key and chord progressions and it's a song about making a positive life change when you feel like you can't.
Someone Saved my Life Tonight
When I think of those East End lights, muggy nights
The curtains drawn in the little room downstairs
Prima Donna lord you really should have been there
Sitting like a princess perched in her electric chair
And it's one more beer and I don't hear you anymore
We've all gone crazy lately
My friends out there rolling round the basement floor
And someone saved my life tonight sugar bear
You almost had your hooks in me didn't you dear
You nearly had me roped and tied
Altar-bound, hypnotized
Sweet freedom whispered in my ear
You're a butterfly
And butterflies are free to fly
Fly away, high away, bye bye
I never realised the passing hours of evening showers
A slip noose hanging in my darkest dreams
I'm strangled by your haunted social scene
Just a pawn out-played by a dominating queen
It's four o'clock in the morning
Damn it listen to me good
I'm sleeping with myself tonight
Saved in time, thank God my music's still alive
And I would have walked head on into the deep end of the river
Clinging to your stocks and bonds
Paying your H.P. demands forever
They're coming in the morning with a truck to take me home
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight, someone saved my life tonight
Someone saved my life tonight
So save your strength and run the field you play alone
October 16, 2008 at 01:42 PM in Music, Poems | Permalink | Comments (1)
May 31, 2008 at 06:23 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Time was in high school that I turned my nose up at country. I was part of the nerd crowd and also part of the way too cool for school musical theatre crowd. None of those people would listen to country. Country was reserved for the farm kids who weren't trying to fit in with the coolsters. Country was not cool.
But I expanded my musical horizons when I got to college and discovered that classic country was actually really good music. It was a lot like the folk that I listened to in high school. I still remember the one Christmas I came home from college and my uncle had bought me a Johnny Cash album I had on my wishlist. As I opened it excitedly and immediately threw it in the cd player, my mom looked at me somewhat confusedly and said: "I didn't even know you liked Johnny Cash."
I've been listening to a lot of country music all week. Not the achey-breaky-heart-my-wife-left-me-my-truck-broke- I-shipped-my-last-dollar-on-a-poker-game-oh-what- am-i-gonna-dooooooooooooooooooooooooooo crap (though hey - maybe I could write one of those songs about my life recently). No, I'm talking about
the good stuff: Bill Monroe, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Patsy Cline, the Statler Brothers, with some Hem, Wood Brothers, and Neko Case (not exactly country, but close enough on the songs I'm talking about) thrown in for good measure.
That's some good stuff. It's no mistake that a large portion of my poker playlist on my iPod is country music.
Mea culpa, country music. Sorry I snubbed you when I was younger and didn't know any better.
May 20, 2008 at 03:42 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Way back in the 90's I went to a They Might Be Giants show at the 9:30 club with some friends (there's some real good stories that came out of that night, but that's another story for another blog post). I was tagging along; completely unfamiliar with the band. But my friend who told me that I would like them was right - their music cracked me up.
People who know me probably know that my ringtone on my phone has been TMBG's "Birdhouse in Your Soul" forever. It's one of my favorite songs by them - a song about a freaking night light. It is perhaps second only to "James K. Polk."
Anyways, I have not listened to TMBG in quite awhile. They're not on my ipod for some reason and I can't find my cd. However, I just went ahead and downloaded them onto my ipod and now I'm happily rocking out to "Birdhouse in Your Soul" whenever I want to, not just when someone calls me or texts me.
December 04, 2007 at 06:08 PM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
"Then one fine morning she puts on a New York station,
You know she don't believe what she heard at all.
She started shakin' to that fine, fine music,
You know her life was saved by rock and roll."
-Rock and Roll, The Velvet Underground
I love rediscovering old musical favorites. Back in college I went through a big Velvet Underground phase. For some strange reason I just haven't listened to them in quite awhile. I was reading Tao of Poker tonight and Pauly reminded me about their music by making a "Femme Fatale" reference. Now I'm sitting here working on school stuff and jamming out to the VU. This stuff is so good; how did I not let it grace my ears for so long? Go pull out your VU, or go out and buy it and give it a listen.
September 21, 2007 at 12:03 AM in Music | Permalink | Comments (0)
Recent Comments