submissions
| Skip James – Hard Time killing Floor Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Skip James one of the Legends of Delta Blues this is a different song but has the same title as a later electric blues "Killing Floor", the structure is 8 bars, the verses just tell it like it is : a life of hardship and despair, true to the hard times of the 1930's Depression when it was recorded. His singing is haunting and bleak, a dark classic of the blues. |
submissions
| John Cale – Charlemagne Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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I have never known what this song is about exactly, but the words are evocative, there is a storyline in there. Cale takes literary ideas from classical European history and mixes them with American images. The court of King Charlemagne of France in a song set in America pilgrim fathers in a new world. What it means exactly doesn't matter to me, the tunes are strong, that is the beauty of his music some arcane poetry set to lovely melodies from piano and steel guitar. |
submissions
| Rush – La Villa Strangiato Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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@[blackbird93:24527] the beginning is based on a tritone, a dissonant interval two notes C-F#, not a scale. The Spanish sounding part you mention is the guitar solo based on a Phyrigian similar to a harmonic minor scale hence the more "exotic" sound. |
submissions
| John Cale – Thoughtless Kind Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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John Cale is a Welsh bard and this is his finest ballad.
A lovely, lyrical song, simple but strong statement on fidelity. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Bellerin' Plain Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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No single meaning, pretty abstract but rich in imagery like a lot of Beefheart Describes some kind of train journey. I noticed the phrase "Parapliers and willows dipped" is title of a painting, so this is a word painting. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Ice Cream for Crow Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Crap song, music uninteresting, just a throwaway lyric, rant about crows in desert, its Beefheart by the numbers. The ICFC album was a bit patchy for me, there are better poems if anyone wants to post like "Cardboard Cut Out Sundown" |
submissions
| Nina Simone – My Baby Just Cares For Me Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Not one of Nina Simone's best, but due to use in commercials became a popular, even with people who don't know her name. The piano solo is quite cute, its jazz for pop fans. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – Shore Leave Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Starts with percussion and low-fi noise on this track, how many people recognised this as a 12 bar blues ?
just listened again after the spoken word bit he sings "Hey Im so far away from home ...." it becomes a simple I/IV/V blues appropriate to a sailor who misses his home and wife. |
submissions
| Tom Waits – I'll Take New York Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Almost a grotesque parody of a Broadway musical like the Sinatra hit "New York New York". The way Waits pushes his voice on this one is over the top both extreme and comic. To me TW is using all the cliches of stardom, fame, vulgar excesses of showbiz
Frank the main character of the album, dreams of being an entertainer but success makes him go crazy . |
submissions
| Tom Waits – More Than Rain Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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A cool jazz ballad about being penniless, after all the money has gone there is no life left. Love the line about "no dead presidents left to fold" describes going bankrupt, waking up to a grey day and financial woes the American dream gone, sad times indeed. |
submissions
| Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band – Best Batch Yet Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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Beefheart giving praise to the best version of the Magic Band who are the "best batch yet" or about magic itself how illusions are made by stage magicians, either real or imagined like the finest pearls that are really cardboard balls. The lines about "done with dilgence from the inside ....." It could refer to the creative process itself, like making art or a poem. |
submissions
| Skip James – Im so Glad Lyrics
| 6 years ago
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One of the legends of Delta Blues, its hard to believe people still think Eric Clapton wrote this song ! Skip James was a master guitarist and this some of his best playing. Written in 1930's a time of economic depression and hardship for blacks in the Southern USA, he keeps chanting the refrain I'm So Glad seems ironic, his life was anything but easy. The only way to cope with having the blues is to play, sing and blow the blues away. A classic of this style. |
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