| The The – Uncertain Smile Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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I have to agree with your 1st. comment--"Soul Mining" is a helluva album & so is that song, "Uncertain Smile", which totally grooves! Back in 1982, I was exposed to the more synth-oriented 12" mix first, which I fell in love with. Image my surprise when a yr. later (in '83) I bought "Soul Mining" & heard the piano-based version instead; however, after a few listens, I really caught on to it (as well as the rest of the album--another favorite of mine is "Perfect"). A week or two ago, as I was going through some old mixtapes of mine, I found that older 12" version--how weird was that?!? I guess I must have taped it off the radio along with a few other tracks & forgot to jot down the song title on the tape cover. Mind you, this was way back in '85 so now I am happily bouncing away to something approx. 29 yrs. old!!! "Oh what a perfect day...to think about my silly world..." From "Perfect" by The The (Matt Johnson)--definitely appropo in this particular situation! |
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| Gang of Four – Armalite Rifle Lyrics | 10 years ago |
| I have this track on an old vinyl EP of theirs, along with "It's Her Factory" & "Outside (The Trains Don't Come on Time)". Being a long-time Gang of 4 fan, I know their lyrics can get pretty gritty and sardonic oftentimes, but to this day I still have trouble listening to this song without feeling physically nauseous. Just me. | |
| Depeche Mode – In Your Memory Lyrics | 10 years ago |
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"You can run, but you can't hide...!" (And that's all he wrote!) JMHO |
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| Will Smith – Parents Just Don't Understand Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Weeelll... OK, here's the situation--the parents left him the car keys when they went on vacation! Already one can see where this scenerio would go, whether in a rather memorable bit of hip-hop humor back in the day when basically rap was going gansta-style or as nasty as 2 Live Crew (por exemplo) could get away with, or...as the ol' saying goes, "Doesn't art imitate life--or does life itself inspire art?" Never could remember which way it went anyway, although I do believe in the notion that "Truth is often stranger than fiction". Let's face it, the song is just damn funny as hell and once Will Smith became himself and not just a Fresh Prince, turned out to be a damn fine actor and all-around excellent person later on, even in his own private life married to Jada Pinkett-Smith, who is one fine actor, attractive and witty as hell, and even fronts a metal band (Wicked Wisdom) that one yr. played at Ozzfest. Peace, we outta here--the Pharmageek and Missy, the jazz lovin' black cat The NW Penthouse Near You, Port. OR--cold chillin' & kickin' it laid back to Blues Night on our local jazz station, KHMD. |
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| Run-DMC – My Adidas Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Pharmageek's PS-- The first and only time I had to have a pair of "MY ADIDAS" occured the summer before I started middle school: not only had the luckier kids back in 6th. grade started wearing them beforehand (just the basic leather and mesh fabric tennis shoe model with the blue stripes), but my own mother was one of the buyers at the Navy Exchange for the sub base we live at in Rota, Spain, where my dad was stationed at back in the mid-to-late '70s. PLUS she was the main buyer for the shoe department! Needless to say, thanks to her particular job description and employee discount, by the end of summer just in time for the 1st. day of Jr. High School, I too was sporting my own pair of "MY ADIDAS". Then those Adidas (as well as Dad and family) a few months later, got to walk from Spanish onto American soil where Dad got stationed in New London, CT. But alas, all the kids at my new school were all into sporting the old-school Nike swoosh--curses!! LOL |
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| Run-DMC – My Adidas Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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Continuing onward about our resident "Street Roots" vendor, Dan, who, every time I see him in yet another brand new pair of old-school style Adidas, makes me have to rap a few lines of "My Adidas" in tribute (and of course--duhh, ENVY...LOL) to this almost ungodly obssession for his athletic footwear of choice: when outside the store selling the paper, Dan uses this one-liner everyone (customers and FM employees alike) just love to hate, yet we still let him live (LOL)--"HELP THE HOMELESS??" he implores to any and every person coming in or out of the store. No one is spared his special brand of desperate plea (even moi, who's his neighbor, for G-d'ssake! Urrrgghhh...) because we all realize he does it in order to sell his batch of papers in the least amount of time possible. Then he has extra jingle in his pocket to go buy a few beers or some wine over at Trader Joe's, trucking along in yet another new pair of, yep, "HIS ADIDAS". |
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| Run-DMC – My Adidas Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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This is a "shout-out" to a neighbor of mine in our apt. bldg. who truly embodies the heart & soul of "MY ADIDAS": for sure Dan owns & maintains the largest & finest collection of old-school style Adidas rivaling Imelda Marco's 40+ pair of designer pumps back in the day--in LEATHER, none the less!! So to supplement his monthly disability benefits due to having a treatable yet persistant case of schizophrenia, he is the main man in our hood who sells the "Street Roots" newspaper. (Portland's local news source written, published, and sold for & by those who are either homeless and/or low-income; the sellers buy the papers at cost, then keep 75 cents of every issue they sell at the retail price of $1 each.) That lets Dan set his own hours (depending on how many papers he has left to sell before the next issue comes out every other week), have his own turf outside the nearby Fred Meyer, and over the time since he first moved in our bldg., has amassed a "fan base" of gals willing to keep him in refills from the in-store Starbucks. (Lucky! :P) |
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| Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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OH NO!!! NOT ME AGAIN?!? Well, I WAS getting to the answer for why I harp on and on about stuff NOT pertaining to the song, "Fat Bottomed Girls". Well, let's see if I can do this in just 2 short, sharp statements. Meanwhile may the Internet gods have mercy on my soul... 1) Several times a yr. Portland's most intrepid & inspired of bike riders love to hold impromptu Naked Bike Rides around midnight; the circuit just happens to run past my apt. bldg. as the the street below me only runs one way back toward downtown. Not only can you not miss watching the spectacle itself, the riders play music, yell, and toot horns. So whether the riders are male, female, fat-bottomed, or rail-thin--it's all in fun, all good, and all naked! 2) My younger sister fronts The Fat-Bottomed Girls, an "all-female tribute to '80 butt rock & hair bands". When in town you can usually catch them playing at Dante's, a venue which is a trip in it's own right (nudge nudge wink wink, etc.) |
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| Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls Lyrics | 14 years ago |
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As if I didn't bore the hell out of you already with that long-winded memoir from back in the olden days when I could've bought this album on 8-TRACK (I kid you not! LOL), the Pharmageek returns to the present day where she lives in Portland, OR with her jazz lovin' black cat, Missy. We cohabit a small apt. (affectionately called The NW Penthouse Near You) a stone's throw away from Powell's World of Books in what was primarily a blue-collar, industrial part of the downtown area before yuppification descended on us at least 10 yrs. ago. (Thank God for our rent-controlled apt. bldg, knock on wood...) Basically the cat tends to live better than I do, and so does my music, movie, video, and book collection. The music itself spans over three-quarters of my natural life, in mostly any gendre (a little punk/post-punk heavy for poor Missy's taste), and for sure in every format (except 8-track, LOL! Gotta have some limits.) from good ol' vinyl to audiocassettes to those venerable CDs, whether burned, ripped, or simply pre-recorded... |
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| Queen – Fat Bottomed Girls Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| I remember buying this album (Jazz)back in middle school not just for its musical integrity--beside "Fat Bottomed Girls", other song standouts IMHO included "Bicycle Race", "Fun It", & "Mustapha"...gee, I could've just bought the cassette version, right? ;-D But of course, only on vinyl could I get the REAL "added attraction" which was that color poster of the naked "Bicycle Racer Grrls". I looked at this poster 1st. thing when I got the album home and marveled at the sheer guts it must have taken just average everyday looking women to bare all for what--the "Tour de Farce" I wryly thought. Too bad my mom didn't feel the same way when she found it in my room the next day: she instantly proclaimed it utter smut and made me take the album back to the store. And of course, like all fine music shops (LOL), they wouldn't refund my money, just give me store credit. So I simply cut my losses and traded my vinyl copy for the cassette version! ;P (Even my mom DID have to admit--there was some fine music on that album, LOL.) I ended up selling it a year or so later at a rummage sale once punk music music took over my world anyway. C'est la vie! | |
| The Cramps – Bikini Girls With Machine Guns Lyrics | 14 years ago |
| Reminds me of back when my male "degenerate" (LOL) cousins started surfing the Web, looking for any "Babes With Guns" sites--ain't technology great, hehehe?!? | |
| The Alan Parsons Project – The Cask Of Amontillado Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| One of my high school English teachers (none other than Wally Lamb, who in the late '90s had 2 books he wrote make Oprah's Book Club...!), in order to get our class's attention to what was still the "modern-day" appeal of Edgar Allan Poe's tales of suspense and terror, has us examine the lyrics to this particular song by a band most of us knew from their one major hit song, "Eye in the Sky". Whether we as a class as a whole were supposed to think that was cool or something I can't say I recall, but I imagine an actual ROCK BAND of moderate fame who seemed to enjoy the tale enough to write and record their own song about it, IMO, both piqued my own interest in both Poe's and the APP's bodies of work. So I guess at least "Mr. Lamb" managed to get through to one of us enough to pay attention in class that day! LOL | |
| The Alan Parsons Project – The Cask Of Amontillado Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| One of my high school English teachers (none other than Wally Lamb, who in the late '90s had 2 books he wrote make Oprah's Book Club...!), in order to get our class's attention to what was still the "modern-day" appeal of Edgar Allan Poe's tales of suspense and terror, has us examine the lyrics to this particular song by a band most of us knew from their one major hit song, "Eye in the Sky". Whether we as a class as a whole were supposed to think that was cool or something I can't say I recall, but I imagine an actual ROCK BAND of moderate fame who seemed to enjoy the tale enough to write and record their own song about it, IMO, both piqued my own interest in both Poe's and the APP's bodies of work. So I guess at least "Mr. Lamb" managed to get through to one of us enough to pay attention in class that day! LOL | |
| The Decemberists – Everything I Try to Do, Nothing Seems to Turn Out Right Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I just finished reading a fairly lengthly interview Colin Meloy gave awhile back for a Seattle weekly paper; Meloy had mentioned this particular song as being one of the few he had ever written that was autobiographical in nature. Starting out with the bad movie date then moving onto an unfulfilling sexual encounter, the male character in the song doesn't seem surprised when the woman casually waves farewell as she rides off to supposedly go visit her folks. All along he has had this persistant gut feeling that their short liason would not have led to anything serious even under the best of circumstances, but this insight still doesn't make their final parting any less painful for him. Ultimately, this is a well-written and all-too-real account of this man's guilt and fustration whereas he and the woman he had the brief fling with couldn't make this evolve into something more romantically meaningful. I can definitely relate to this song as oftentimes just the process of dating, much less attempting to establish an intimate bond with another person, does involve a lot of rejection and hurt feelings. Falling in love is no easy task! | |
| Hoodoo Gurus – Dig It Up Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Ahh...nothing like a little necrophilia in the afternoon...LOL | |
| The Decemberists – The Bandit Queen Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I just finished re-watching that video post on YouTube for the "Bandit Queen" primarily for the opening dialogue & the gal who does the tap dancing. Actually I was envisioning a scene in my head of Colin having stepped into an Irish pub willing to literally sing for his supper and/or at least a decent pint of ale. "The Bandit Queen" itself sounds like a terrific Irish drinking tune or barroom ditty worthy enough for a wandering minstel looking to cop a free drink to perform--I myself had been enjoying a glass of Shiraz while I was watching this clip. ;-) | |
| The Beatles – I Don't Want to Spoil the Party Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Roseanne Cash does a really good cover of this song. | |
| George Jones – Hell Stays Open (All Night Long) Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| "Heaven doesn't want me and Hell's afraid I'll take over." | |
| George Jones – A Good Year For The Roses Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| Thanks for adding the tabs with these lyrics! BTW, Elvis Costello does a killer cover of this song--and he writes a lot of great country tunes himself. | |
| George Jones – Along Came Jones Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| I first heard this song (I swear to God) when I was 3 yrs. old. My mother was a big Buck Owens fan and constantly played his music around the house. I recall in particular Buck Owens and the Buckaroos doing a live cover version of this song--given the dramatic story-telling aspect in its lyricism, I can now understand how memorable this song was to an impressionable toddler mind! LOL | |
| George Jones – Heartaches By The Number Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This is a great song, which has also been brilliantly covered by Dwight Yoakum and my favorite band, CAKE. | |
| Graham Parker – Platinum Blonde Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Hey GrtOne41, thanks for taking the time and effort to fully flesh out the lyrical storyline you developed for this particular song. BTW, I've been a huge fan of Graham Parker for umpteen yrs. ever since "Howling Wolf" first came out in the late '70s. Anyway, "Platinum Blonde" to me sure sounds like the aggro musical counterpart to "Temporary Beauty" off one of G.P.'s older LPs, Another Grey Area...just my humble opinion, of course. p.s.--actually my most favorite G.P. album has to be "Squeezing Out Sparks" when he was backed by his old band, the Rumour. :)) |
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| George Jones – Multiply The Heartaches Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| One of my favorite bands, CAKE, have covered this song--incidentally, CAKE just released an album of all their favorite cover songs called "B-Sides and Rarities". The eclectic, fun-lovin' guys CAKE are, they even put diffently scented scratch-n-sniff stickers on the front cover--how cool is that!! | |
| The Bangles – Walk Like An Egyptian Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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First off, I wanna give a shoutout to kmk_natasha for naming Liam Sternberg as the songwriter--back in 1979, he was writing songs that launched then-16-yr.-old Rachel Sweet's singing career in the UK on British indie label Stiff Records (still have her debut LP, "Fool Around" which is remarkebly brilliant-Elvis Costello even wrote a track on that album just for her called "Stranger in the House"). Secondly, speaking of cover versions of "Egyptian", back when I lived near Boston in the mid to late '80s, we had a wickedly funny local act called the Swinging Euriudites that used to parody a lot of Top 40 radio hits--this song was way more popular in Boston when it became the spoof, "Walk With an Erection" (LOL). Other songs of the day subjected to this treatment included 10,000 Maniacs' "Like the Weather" that all the sudden became known as "I'm Into Leather", and one of Bon Jovi's biggest hits got turned around from "Livin' On a Prayer" into "Livin' On My Hair"!! Ah, those were the days back in the heyday of the '80s Boston indie scene... :)) |
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| The Bangles – If She Knew What She Wants Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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As far back as I can recall, this song was either a Marshall Crenshaw cover or Crenshaw wrote this song just for the Bangles. Now I've truly dated myself-eeekkk!!!! |
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| The Psychedelic Furs – Heaven Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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"Heaven" is a truly beautiful love song that Has a Good Beat and is Easy to Dance to. Happy to have helped! Peace Out from the NW Penthouse Near You in Beautiful Portland, OR |
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| The Decemberists – Odalisque Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| According to an interview with Colin Meloy I had recently read, the songs "Odalisque" and "Red Right Ankle" were written for and about his girlfriend/illustrator Carson Ellis. The two had gotten into a huge arguement resulting in Carson driving off to Vancouver, BC to visit friends for the weekend. Meanwhile, Colin had decided that he "needed to write some songs" as atonement for his own bad behavior...we should all be so lucky to get that kind of "apology" in our own love lives. Carson's one fortunate gal! ;-) | |
| The Decemberists – Red Right Ankle Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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This song is definitely written for and about his girlfriend/illustrator Carson Ellis: according to an interview I recently read, Colin and Carson had gotten into a huge arguement resulting in Carson driving off to visit friends in Vancouver, BC for the weekend. Meanwhile, Colin was thinking to himself, "Well, I better start writing some songs" as a form of atonement for his own bad behavior--thus the catalyst for not only "Red Right Ankle" but also the song "Odalisque". ps--we all should be so lucky to have such caring and talented partners in our lives...Carson's one fortunate gal, IMO! ;-) |
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| Tarkio – Neapolitan Bridesmaid Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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I agree with Lydirose: the Camus quote simply applies to the lyrical angst and apathy that Colin seems to reiterate throughout this song. But did anybody else beside me catch several Biblical references pertaining to the Book of Joshua in the first two verses? (Joshua, a prophet of God in the Old Testament ; "when the walls come tumbling down"; "so I was adrift on the sea of longing awaiting the trumpets to raise...") |
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| Kristin Hersh – A Cleaner Light Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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From the album, "Sky Motel": an autobiographical account of Kristin Hersh's recovery from bipolar disorder, which alternately plagued Hersh yet seemed to gift her with her signature manic vocal delivery and oftentimes painfully honest lyricism while as singer/songwriter of Throwing Muses, and of course, most of her solo material. According to mag./radio interviews and blog entries on the ThrowingMusic.com site, Hersh has for the most part been successful in her mental health recovery having had psychotherapy and Lithium treatment during the mid to late '90s, but occasionally has posted in her recent blog entries as still having difficulty with anxiety symptoms just going out walking in her (and incidentally, my own) neighborhood in Northwest Portland, OR unless accompanied by her husband & manager, Billy O'Connell. And the meaning of this song to me personally? I too am in recovery and treatment for my own life-long struggle coping with Attention Deficit Disorder, plus chronic bouts of Major Depression, Generalized Anxiety, & Social Phobia. Oh, and I was still living in the Boston area about the time Kristin Hersh and her step-sister Tanya Donnelly formed the band Throwing Muses back in the mid-'80s . |
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| Kristin Hersh – I Never Will Marry Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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Excellent rendition of a popular Irish lullaby from "Murder, Misery, and then Goodnight": Hersh's solo collection of traditional folk songs and lullabies she had heard as a toddler when Hersh and her family lived in Appalachia at the time. Note: these are pretty dark, maudin tunes that would make "Rockaby Baby" seem tame by comparison... ps--Colin Meloy of the Decemberists also did a killer cover of "Never Will Marry" with his old band from Montana, Tarkio. Highly recommended! |
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| Tarkio – Never Will Marry Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| This song's a cover of a traditional Irish lullaby. For a female prospective of "I Never Will Marry", check out Kristin Hersh's fine rendition on one of her solo albums, "Murder, Misery, then Goodnight"--incidentally, a collection of truly maudlin folk songs and lullabies Hersh had heard sung to her as a toddler growing up in Appalachia that would make "Rockaby Baby" seem tame in comparison! 8-) | |
| The Guess Who – 6 A.M. or Nearer Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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From the LP "Canned Wheat", containing the hit singles "No Time", "Laughing", & "Undun". "6 A.M. or Nearer" (track 5), written by Randy Bachman, clocks in at 5:06 min. and starts off with a sprightly piano solo segueing into the song proper. For a "deep cut" or filler song, or for whatever reason this song ended up on "Canned Wheat", it's hands-down the best track on the album, IMO. BTW, the storyline seems to involve being up before the dawn due to some serious ruminating over why, having spent time and effort making several attempts to find a little serenity in one's lackluster existence, those "surefire" exercises in life-affirmation still left one's spirit lacking. It's a great song although it's really moody, overtly reflective, and doesn't have a happy ending. Listen to it at your own risk should you hear it in the dark just before dawn. |
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| The Guess Who – 6 A.M. or Nearer Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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From the LP "Canned Wheat", containing the hit singles "No Time", "Laughing", & "Undun". "6 A.M. or Nearer" (track 5), written by Randy Bachman, clocks in at 5:06 min. and starts off with a sprightly piano solo segueing into the song proper. For a "deep cut" or filler song, or for whatever reason this song ended up on "Canned Wheat", it's hands-down the best track on the album, IMO. BTW, the storyline seems to involve being up before the dawn due to some serious ruminating over why, having spent time and effort making several attempts to find a little serenity in one's lackluster existence, those "surefire" exercises in life-affirmation still left one's spirit lacking. It's a great song although it's really moody, overtly reflective, and doesn't have a happy ending. Listen to it at your own risk should you hear it in the dark just before dawn. |
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| The Decemberists – Shiny Lyrics | 16 years ago |
| As the old adage goes: The eyes really are the windows to one's soul, especially in conveying desire and attraction for another person. Almost every man I've had an intimate connection with has had that shiny-eyed gaze, even when having just met for the first time, that can speak volumes to me often without saying a word. Apparently I seem to give off the same signals myself as I have had several men who've told me how "that special look " in my "beautiful brown eyes" was one of the main reasons they wanted to get to know me better. So essentially the song is about how his girl, even as she kept trying to deny her love for him by resorting to open flirtations with some seedy looking characters, couldn't convince him otherwise since the shiny look in her eyes was telling him quite the opposite. What an intuitively romantic song this was!! | |
| Skinny Puppy – Dig It Lyrics | 16 years ago |
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You're both on the right track--NIN and Skinny Puppy were 2 of Canada's finest industrial bands back in the mid-to-late '80s signed to Vancouver BC's indie label, Nettwerk Productions--another labelmate being Canuck cult industrial veterans, Severed Heads. So you can definitely see the connection between these 3 acts as far as feeding off each other's sound, at least on NIN's earlier material in the late '80s. Skinny Puppy tends to rock harder, are more lyrically political and macabre-sounding in their music; the band were very much political activists as well as fervent vegans, anti-vivisectionists who were also highly active in the animal-rights org. PETA. I first heard of Skinny Puppy back in 1986 from seeing the video for "Dig It" on MuchMusic which got me following other Canadian indie acts also signed to Nettwerk. Before then, I never guessed Canada for being a hotbed for indie and alternative talent...or even having a video music channel that far excelled MTV in the variety of music videos played around the clock, i.e., REM, the Replacements, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, & Kate Bush. Amazing what you can learn by clocking hrs. upon hrs. in satellite TV viewing back in the days when we couldn't get cable out in the boonies of New Hampshire, just two channels when we used the master antenna! Eeek, the horrors!! LOL |
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| Mary Chapin Carpenter – I Feel Lucky Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I beg to differ, ladies--back when you both were still toddlers around 1986 or so, Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett were the best and most talented of a small but rapidly growing group of new country artists (including Mary Chapin Carpenter, BTW!) who drew upon old school c&w music as a main influence. However the new school of country music also injected anything from '60s folk, traditional bluegrass, and even '80s style alternative rock, thus bringing a fresh new sound to a stale & pretty burnt out c&w scene that had been repelling old school country fans my folks' age or older since the late '70s. These "new country" artists (a few others being Randy Travis and even kd lang) brought back listeners to country radio and video stations and even brought in many new listeners who weren't even into country music at the time--my younger sister and I were among the newly converted: sister Denise used to favor top-40 pop music while yours truly was a diehard indie/punk/alternative devotee since its early days in the late '70s. All it took was a few videos of Dwight Yoakam she happened to run across while channel-surfing to not only start listening to country music but also have a mad crush on a singer who wore cowboy boots, tight denim Wranglers, and a ten-gallon Stetson hat--enough for a 16 yr old kid in High School to fantasize about running off to Bakersfield, CA and marrying Dwight Yoakam if he'd have her, LOL. Meanwhile I started liking Dwight Yoakam's music through my star-struck sister's obsession with him; soon after, I picked up on other "new country" artists like MC Carpenter, Lyle Lovett, and Lucinda Williams who were crossover artists getting airplay on college radio, some rock as well as alternative music stations, and even started to get their videos shown on VH1, MuchMusic, and once in a while, good ol' MTV. When I moved from the Boston area to Portland, OR back in 1990, other than the nearby Seattle grunge scene, Portland was a really dry area for anything I used to listen to back East. However country music was and still is very popular in this area so I gave in and threw myself into not only listening to the newer country music but also learned to enjoy my folks and grandparents old school country favorites like George Jones, Johnny Cash, and Patsy Cline. My musical tastes nowadays run anywhere from Cake, the Decemberists, Throwing Muses, the Ramones, Gang of 4, as well as the late Buck Owens, the Dixie Chicks, and Merle Haggard. Sometimes I even listen to jazz and blues, but it's mainly because my cat likes it for background noise or if I'm away from the house for awhile, LOL. BTW, I definitely wouldn't kick Dwight Yoakam nor Lyle Lovett out of my bed (grin)... |
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| Throwing Muses – Honeychain Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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It's one of Tanya Donnelly's songs, off "The Real Ramona". (Another fine TM album, BTW!) I was listening to that particular track a few minutes ago since I was playing the CD, so not having played it in quite a while, I played the song again to get a good listen. Even though her half-sister, Kristin Hersh, writes and sings the lion's share of TM's material, it's always nice to hear a Tanya song for a little change of pace. Tanya writes more "pop" sounding, melodically haunting tunes and sings so sweetly innocent to lyrics that are (using Amongthetrees's words) pretty bizarre like warped children's fairy tales or disturbing fantasy stories (imagine if Anne Rice had written those Harry Potter books!). Ironically, "Honeychain" sounds a lot like a Belly song, since Tanya left TM right after they finished recording "The Real Ramona" to play on the Breeders' 1st album, "Pod" before starting her own band, Belly. BTW, that 1st. album they did, "Star", is one terrific album. Even though "Feed the Tree" is my favorite Belly tune, I'd have to say the rest of that album, much like the Beatles' "Abbey Road", has great songs straight through--not a bad song in the bunch. |
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| Throwing Muses – Red Shoes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Not too long after the album this particular song was on was released (The Real Ramona, back in '91), I had read an interview Kristin Hersh did for some music 'zine. Apparently the inspiration for writing "The Red Shoes" came about while Kris was in treatment at the time for a long-standing problem with bipolar disorder: her psychiatrist had recommended as a theraputic "homework assignment" that she sit in front of a full-length mirror once a day and simply look at herself. Kris remembered responding to his recommendation by asking him, "Will I see ghosts?" (LOL) So from this amusing recollection Kris told the magazine interviewer, I can see how the lyrics (her irritation at having to buy these shoes is so strong that it almost borders on being tortured) could be a metaphor re: Kris's glibly humorous skepticism toward her doctor's proposed "mirror therapy" exercise. Ever since reading Kris's very funny story explaining her inspiration for writing "The Red Shoes", every so often when faced with a situation or dillema I need to deal with, however inane it may be, I too will find myself using that same silly question, "Will I see ghosts?", to lighten up my mood and try not to take whatever mundane crap life throws me too seriously. (Many thanks to the cleverly funny and seriously talented songwriter/singer/Muse Kristin Hersh for making great music as well as that snappy comeback I use when life throws me a curveball once in a while!!) |
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| Throwing Muses – Red Shoes Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Not too long after the album this particular song was on was released (The Real Ramona, back in '91), I had read an interview Kristin Hersh did for some music 'zine. Apparently the inspiration for writing "The Red Shoes" came about while Kris was in treatment at the time for a long-standing problem with bipolar disorder: her psychiatrist had recommended as a theraputic "homework assignment" that she sit in front of a full-length mirror once a day and simply look at herself. Kris remembered responding to his recommendation by asking him, "Will I see ghosts?" (LOL) So from this amusing recollection Kris told the magazine interviewer, I can see how the lyrics (her irritation at having to buy these shoes is so strong that it almost borders on being tortured) could be a metaphor re: Kris's glibly humorous skepticism toward her doctor's proposed "mirror therapy" exercise. Ever since reading Kris's very funny story explaining her inspiration for writing "The Red Shoes", every so often when faced with a situation or dillema I need to deal with, however inane it may be, I too will find myself using that same silly question, "Will I see ghosts?", to lighten up my mood and try not to take whatever mundane crap life throws me too seriously. (Many thanks to the cleverly funny and seriously talented songwriter/singer/Muse Kristin Hersh for making great music as well as that snappy comeback I use when life throws me a curveball once in a while!!) |
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| Ian Dury And The Blockheads – Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| As much as I liked "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" to have bought the 12" single version, "Reasons to be Cheerful, pt. 3" on the other side was really the one I end up playing most often. I love how the chorus cheerlfully counts of f (ideally) in 3s those crazy, irreverent, and sometimes unappealing references to popular culture, classical literature and even some reference to forms of torture in verses where Dury recites them all in a deadpan hip-hip litany that makes the whole mess deliciously infective in it s grooves and is wicked funny yet clever to boot. Like New Wave and Album Rock standard, "Sex and Drugs and Rock-n-Roll", pairing statements about popular culture with deep thought s hidden in nonsense rhymes then wrapped up in catchy dance tunes seems to be an Ian Dury and the Blockheads' trademark that nobody is worring about since they do it really really well. | |
| Ian Dury And The Blockheads – Wake Up And Make Love With Me Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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You betcha, missme! Nice to know the man behind our New Wave anthems, "Sex and Drugs and Rock-n-Roll" and "Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick" that even the hard rockin' mallrat crowd revered these as their own could also have a pleadingly sensual way of coaxing his woman awake for a little good-morning lovin'. Too bad I don't have their1st. album, New Boots and Panties! that have all these great songs. For such a brilliantly humorous songwriter and frontman, tragedy and hardship also followed Ian Dury around throughout his time on earth, when he died a few yrs ago. Frail and seemingly immune deficient all his life, he also had polo as a young child which crippled and twisted up his legs and one arm into uselessness. Amazing given all his health and mobility problems, Dury still made a very successful career in the UK and US indie music scene. He and his band, the Blockheads --all fine musicians with quite a few who were in other good bands at the time--were a top act for popular UK indie label, Stiff Records. |
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| The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – Death Cab for Cutie Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I wonder if Chis Walla, Ben Gibbard, or both of them (being the two who first started the band) decided from the title of this song by Bonzo Dog Band that it would be the name of their band? Either way, it was facinating to k now that song was featured in the show "Do Not Adjust Your Set" that was show which, when John Cleese & others were added, became "Monty Python's Flying Circus", my fave Britcom since 8th grade and the basis for enjoying that series enough to forever sit though endless pledge drives all night to watch "Faulty Towers" marathons and the ledgendary movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail-- watching Monty Python's Flying Circus alone was the catalyst to remember memorable sketches and movies scenes to do them at will to either the delight or annoyance of the people who knew me to love me or lose me based on when I felt acting out lines during times I felt warranted them got the advice of my British Mum doc: Kim, you are a very funny lady, but watch out! Cause one day someone might kill you." As much as that happened like she said that it taught me when it would not I learned to do it when needed and it would not incite murder among those not able to get or didn't want to hear it all the time, as easy for me to slip into a Pythonism much like one liners from Married...With Children or fave SNL sketches. But I think at least Ben and Jason heard that song while watching "Do Not Adjust..." since having seen their documentary, Drive Well, Sleep Carefully, they both admitted their love of BBC comedy, The Office, to admit they both enjoy acting out scenes from that show. | |
| Arctic Monkeys – I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| I was listening to an old song from a band called the Cockney Rejects, fronted by a 15-yr.-old boy and his mates who used to follow seminal punk band Sham 69 up and down the UK with other kids , and that's when I went, "Aha! Arctic Monkey sound a lot like Sham 69 did on that song, I Bet You Look Good On the Dance Floor!" I was kinda thinking in tiny increments why every time I heard this song it thrashed so hard, was tongue in cheek satirical in its lyrics. but yep, this made me want to find a dance floor to get on! Truly a dance song for every body. ;-) | |
| Brian Eno – Baby's On Fire Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Having been turned onto Eno back in the day when "Baby's On Fire" was the track UConn station WHUS pushed when I caught the tail end of their Prog show before my Fri. night Punk/New Wave show I spent the whole 4-5 hrs. it was on just listening and taping stuff off of. That Eno song was so good enough for me to keep vowing for almost 1 1/2 hrs. I needed "Here Come the Warm Jets" in my collection. Once I did though, not only did I actually sit down, listen to that song several times to understand the double entredre of those lyrics, but noted that not only was "Baby's On Fire" the only song I ever listened to on that album, also noted he wrote lyrics on the other tracks I just played for Background Music simply for the way they phonetically enhanced was he could do best: make the most coolest elevator Muzak! :)) No wonder when Bill Gates needed somebody to develop those (IMO) annoyingly coy opening, closing, and other sounds for Windows 95 and so on, not to mention many of the MIDI tunes the WebTV and WebTV Plus boxes played for "surfin' music" while online via your phone line to your TV while ideally you could type an email or check out auctions on Ebay in one window of your TV sceen and still watch your show. Many on those, including one particular MIDI pop track called "Royal" I totally adored when it came on during my LBB's MIDI rotation, were largely composed by Eno who Gates himself might have listened to himself as a teenager tinkering around with his techogeek stuff. What a talented and versatile musician to be commission by Microsoft to annoy the Hell out of me still every time I restart Windows XP Pro, and if the sound's up too loud, I even curse those f*cking sounds Eno came up with that make my nerves wanna snap!! He is too good!! :P |
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| Jars of Clay – Flood Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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I bought the CD single of "Flood" when I noticed there was a special display up at the register of the music shop I got it from--the special promotional price of just $1.99 was an added incentive, barring the fact I saw this video once or twice on Trinity Broadcasting's Sat. night video show lineup and liked the tune in itself. Growing up, I was raised in the Baptist faith, and at 8 or 9, became born again through the love of Christ who so loved us all enough to have been crucified on the cross and died so we maybe washed clean of our sins and have eternal life in Heaven. At least that what was constantly advocated from Sunday School into the weekly sermons our church's pastor gave, with the Bible as our literal guidebook to understanding God's plan for us. Meanwhile, in my secular musical tastes, I was getting rather bored with what constituted FM radio we middle-schoolers listened to around '77-'78: either "album rock", i.e., heavy metal, aging '60s giants like the Stones, Led Zep, and the Who, and prog-rock crossovers like Jethro Tull, who I actually liked in their earlier years! Or Top 40 hits--even having been an ABBA fan rivaling some of my more "outed" gay male friends as 20-somethings later on, unless you knew the good local AM stations in the area, the FM stuff was all about Sheena Easton and Olivia Newton-John with a few bands like the Cars, the Knack, Chic, and P-Funk to liven it up to be remotely standable. One lazy summer afternoon, a simple twist of my stereo's dial to the left end of the FM band landed on the college station out of UConn that just happened to be playing a punk/new wave show at the time. Of course we kids heared of the Sex Pistols and how so gross they were to puke and spit on their audiences to actually be banned to play in several states, LOL. Plus Blondie, played up by Top 4o DJs as "that New Wave band from NYC that played CBGBs along with punk rockers, The Ramones", had a break-out disco type hit, "Heart of Glass" I liked enough to get the album, "Parallel Lines" much like when the Cars ("a great new band right here from Boston") got my attention to buy their first album. That actually scored points with this "popular" gal in my homeroom to tell me, "Hey, you have good taste in music!" which looking back I could've answered back with a "woohoo, glad you bothered to notice, yawn..." LOL So what's the connection between why as an 8th. grader, I set down the foundation for a long-time punk/alt. music bent I still manage to follow even as a (gasp!) 40-something and this particular tune by, frankly, a band that largely I thought wasn't all that as the best of the burgening Christian alt./hip-hop scene. What, later on when I had time to read the production & engineering credits on the back of this CD, clued me in all the sudden was Adrian Belew had produced that track, "Flood". Belew was the creative genius of classic '70s prog-rock legend, King Crimson, a band our local Portland, OR indie treasure, the Decemberists, collectivelly enjoyed enough to inspire the current sound of their latest album and 1st major label release, "The Crane Wife". Oddly enough, Colin Meloy, the frontman and songwriter for the Decemberists got the idea of this 3-part title song from his old day job shelving children's books at Powell's, Portland's other claim to fame as the "world's largest independent bookstore on the planet". One of the books he found of interest was a Japanese folk tale, "The Crane Wife", about a man who nursed a crane back into this beautiful woman whom he married, but was told by his new bride to never try to peek into the room she wove this wonderful cloth that instantly brought them much prosperity to their household. But of course, curiousity overtook him enough to risk peeking into the room his wife had told him not to see her weaving in. Due to his driving need to just take a second to glance at her working her loom through the crack in the door, he soon realized he had caused his "crane bride" to become sickened and die. Not exactly one of those folk tales where the couple lived happily ever after! Also, Belew, after leaving King Crimson, became a well-known producer of some of the '80s best alternative acts; I believe XTC had worked with him on one album (can't remember which) and IMHO, Andy Partridge who was frontman and songwriting genious behind XTC to make them legends in their own right to inspire such '90s bands like Barenaked Ladies to be known as "Canada's answer to XTC". Quite the honor, eh? (hehe..) As far as the secular alt scene to give an otherwise lackluster "Christian alt." band such as Jars of Clay actual airplay on college and comm. alt stations much less more than a second listen to warrent their label to market "Flood" as a $1.99 impulse -buy CD single aimed for the stores that specialize in independent artists--at least as a definite "keeper" in my own music collection just for the excellent job Adrian Belew did producing "Flood", a song I still enjoy a lot. God indeed had given his musical servants, Jars of Clay, a blessing by pairing Belew on such a beautifully crafted, and Biblically meanful song the band wrote as witnesses to the power and the glory of God. Amen! |
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| 2 Live Crew – Me So Horny Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Back around '90, the cable service (at least in the Portland, OR area) had a PPV channel for music videos that charged $2.95 a play off the revolving list ran during "dead air" times. This was a perfect medium for not just "too oddball for 120 Min." bands like the Cocteau Twins and Ministry, but videos never intended for MTV or in the case of Garth Brooks' "The Thunder Rolls", too dark and violent for even CMT back then. So naturally, it also became the channel to see explicit, unedited fare like Madonna's lesbian sex romp in "Justify My Love"...and yep, those videos 2 Live Crew had that were "As Nasty As They Wanna Be". At least MTV allowed "Me So Horny" to run on late-nights, but those dancers wore panties instead of those thongs!! LOL As disgustingly creepy towards women (calling chicks "pussy" is NOT something any woman, myself including, wants to hear ANY guy say within earshot, EVER) 2 Live Crew rhymed about in their music, that one verse the Afro-Asian pudgy guy, Fresh Ice Kid, does that somehow clues him to the fact his gal just plays him for sex ("You tell your parents that we're goin' out/Never to the movies, just straight to my house") kinda makes me feel sorry for him. Having grown up as a military brat who went to an on-base grade school the 3 years my dad was stationed in Rota, Spain, I saw boys like him (Navy dad with an Asian mom dad had met off-base, and of course, fell in love and married--oftentimes Black servicemen who married local Asian women) get picked on or beat up a lot, particularly if they looked like Fresh Ice Kid! Hard to believe some 25+ years later, nobody even blinks an eye anymore at couples in interracial relationships...must've been due a lot to all those talk shows on daytime TV in the '90s. (Go Ricki! LOL) |
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| Pixies – Subbacultcha Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| According to a feature story, "Rebirth of the Pixies", in Spin (Sept. 2004), Frank Black a/k/a Charles Thompson was seeing a gal named Jean Walsh who, though playing word games, and her love for "hard b0iled '40s movie dialogue", inspired him to write these songs about her--"Subbacultcha" a good example. I was glad to know what was behind that twisty l'il wordplay anyway--I was on an email list around the late '90s for info on upcoming shows, new albums, etc. by players who emerged from that vital late '80s Boston indie scene: Frank Black and the Catholics, the Breeders (Kim & Kelly Deal), former members of Throwing Muses (Tanya Donnelly, Kristin Hersh), et. al. and the list was called "Subbacultcha", which I thought was the best name for what these artists were up to at the time doing other projects. Then like all interesting lists, it died out in short measure, LOL. | |
| Pixies – Isla de Encanta Lyrics | 17 years ago |
| Gotta give it up for Frank Black--he certainly speaks uncannily fluent Spanish for a guy who took a Spanish class while at UMass that sponsored his trip to Puerto Rico--a 6-m0nth sojourn, tops... All this from yours truly, who as a Navy Brat, lived in Spain for 3 yrs. when my dad was stationed at the sub base in Rota (a town in the province of Cadiz, in the southern region of Andalucia an hour away from the Rock of Gibraltar (sp?) ) then took 3 yrs. of High School Spanish. Ay ay ay!! | |
| Death Cab for Cutie – Tiny Vessels Lyrics | 17 years ago |
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Has anybody ever seen the DVD, "Drive Well, Sleep Carefully", which was a documentary based on DCFC's 2004 tour around the time "Transatlanticism" came out? Ben Gibbard himself puts his foot in his mouth bigtime 2 songs before the live footage of "Tiny Vessels" itself--backstage before the band does "Title & Registration", Ben talks about feeling so guilty about some brief physical fling he had with a gal (was it really the back-up vocalist on the Postal Service album? He doesn't say.) that for him to get past this "vile" incident and move on he felt the need to remember her as "beautiful" since, in actuality, SHE REALLY WASN'T!! Whoa, Ben!! (tsk, tsk...) Then two songs later before the live footage of "Tiny Vessels" there's some soundcheck footage with an audio overdub of Jason, the bass player & co-founder of DCFC, telling Ben, "If we record this song, you will come off as the biggest asshole..." Meanwhile Ben is banging a drumset while peevishly defending his right as writer of this song that he can say whatever he pleases and to hell with other people's opinions...another "Whoa!" moment: disavantage--Ben Gibbard. All I could think by this time watching all this drama playing out by the band themselves over this damn song, and documented forever on a DVD to boot, was "Man, if the gal in question ever saw this thing, OMG, I shudder to think..." BTW, watching the live performance of "Tiny Vessels", I noted the way after the song ended, how Ben simply thows down his guitar and storms off stage all while removing his earplugs as if to say, "There, that's over with!" Like some kind of emotional catharsis. |
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