Ray Manzarek with the dune buggy: top ten continued, finished
"But you got his number."
"Yeah. I said I knew a guy that looked like him."
I cocked my head & waited for the payoff.
"Well, I said I wanted to compare voices."
Man, I laughed. So did the guy next to me in line.
5. Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, "Big Red Balloon" - Remember that nearly every time you see Jess Simpson's contract-clad azz on the TV, Lee Hazlewood's making bank. I still think it's benevolent design that allowed the Swedish cowboy to play personal architect to Frank Sinatra's kid, you know? This track is a driving, poignant delight. Lee and Nancy as loveless old couple; he wants to leave in that balloon, she knows he won't. And she's wrong. Every other line has its ultimate word (usually gerunds) sung by a passel of keening fellows. Fitted to one of those classic "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" string arrangements (along with the decline in pop backing vocals, the misuse of strings in chart music is greatly lamentable), and we have a bottomless drop into empathy.
4. Elvis Presley, "Blue Moon (Alternate Take 1)" - Ohhhhh, ladies, this is it. That falsetto-in-the-graveyard! Ghostly right there. Elvis, bass guitar, and a couple of coconuts. Plus you can hear someone shifting in his seat. One of the more beautiful works of man. To be played on me next Stycast.
3. Tony Yayo with G-Unit, "I Know You Don't Love Me" - And we all know Yayo's a clown, but really: "My bitches train like robots". Question mark? I had this list going of all songs that reference other artists. I still have it on my hard drive somewhere - hip-hop alone was killing me, but the German in me demands order and fascist thoroughness. Anyway, 50's chorus is a classic, surely to fill up a Word file if I didn't already have honest work these days. "I know you don't love me, I know you don't love me/You scream and holler when Slim Thug's in town." At least we know Slim doesn't have a ghostwriter - his stuff's garbage. Yayo, pay Rhymefest better.
2. Cat Power, "Dreams" - I was surprised how many porn sites my predecessor had accrued on the mail room computer. His Google Search history reveals that at one point, he ran a search for "NOT gay porn". Was he being funny?
1. Nirvana, "On a Plain" - I'll be terribly honest with you. I hope it all hits with the Nevermind piece. Don't know what that'll look like. The Waterloo Records guys at the party (about half the attendees work at the record store, the video store, or the Ice House [not related]) didn't know what Stylus was, but they knew that honoring Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is an awesome idea. I hope they're right. Joe doesn't like Steely Dan, but Bobby does, and Bobby's Bonnie Across the Ocean is the Beatles' butcher cover, which was bought underneath his nose by a customer for 80 bucks. Guys, when I bring beer to a party, I'm happy to drink it all, but I never plan on it. Let's work together next time. And Metropolis is a wonderful movie to play in the background.
And I can't stop playing this track; it's the best thing on the album.
"Yeah. I said I knew a guy that looked like him."
I cocked my head & waited for the payoff.
"Well, I said I wanted to compare voices."
Man, I laughed. So did the guy next to me in line.
5. Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra, "Big Red Balloon" - Remember that nearly every time you see Jess Simpson's contract-clad azz on the TV, Lee Hazlewood's making bank. I still think it's benevolent design that allowed the Swedish cowboy to play personal architect to Frank Sinatra's kid, you know? This track is a driving, poignant delight. Lee and Nancy as loveless old couple; he wants to leave in that balloon, she knows he won't. And she's wrong. Every other line has its ultimate word (usually gerunds) sung by a passel of keening fellows. Fitted to one of those classic "I'm Your Captain/Closer to Home" string arrangements (along with the decline in pop backing vocals, the misuse of strings in chart music is greatly lamentable), and we have a bottomless drop into empathy.
4. Elvis Presley, "Blue Moon (Alternate Take 1)" - Ohhhhh, ladies, this is it. That falsetto-in-the-graveyard! Ghostly right there. Elvis, bass guitar, and a couple of coconuts. Plus you can hear someone shifting in his seat. One of the more beautiful works of man. To be played on me next Stycast.
3. Tony Yayo with G-Unit, "I Know You Don't Love Me" - And we all know Yayo's a clown, but really: "My bitches train like robots". Question mark? I had this list going of all songs that reference other artists. I still have it on my hard drive somewhere - hip-hop alone was killing me, but the German in me demands order and fascist thoroughness. Anyway, 50's chorus is a classic, surely to fill up a Word file if I didn't already have honest work these days. "I know you don't love me, I know you don't love me/You scream and holler when Slim Thug's in town." At least we know Slim doesn't have a ghostwriter - his stuff's garbage. Yayo, pay Rhymefest better.
2. Cat Power, "Dreams" - I was surprised how many porn sites my predecessor had accrued on the mail room computer. His Google Search history reveals that at one point, he ran a search for "NOT gay porn". Was he being funny?
1. Nirvana, "On a Plain" - I'll be terribly honest with you. I hope it all hits with the Nevermind piece. Don't know what that'll look like. The Waterloo Records guys at the party (about half the attendees work at the record store, the video store, or the Ice House [not related]) didn't know what Stylus was, but they knew that honoring Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is an awesome idea. I hope they're right. Joe doesn't like Steely Dan, but Bobby does, and Bobby's Bonnie Across the Ocean is the Beatles' butcher cover, which was bought underneath his nose by a customer for 80 bucks. Guys, when I bring beer to a party, I'm happy to drink it all, but I never plan on it. Let's work together next time. And Metropolis is a wonderful movie to play in the background.
And I can't stop playing this track; it's the best thing on the album.
posted by Brad | 8:17 PM
5 Comments:
I pulled out "Blue Moon" for a Stypod a while back; it's amazing & glad to see someone else gets the willies/erections whilst listening. Spiritual erections, I mean. Obv.
Obv.
The version you had on the Stypod, Mike, was hellaciously corrupted when I downloaded it. But in an awesome way. Relevant to something you wrote in the entry, I have it in iTunes as the "Shivering White Boy Mix". It is creepy as all hell. Every time he sings the track does all sorts of weird squeaks and blips.
Oh man, my bad. MY BAD! I'm sure Shoup's commentary will blow my weird psychosexual neuroses about the song out of the proverbial water.
No, it's GREAT! In fact, you should both hear it:
http://s43.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=0RSQTO2H9NF183AVMI2ZDCLDAX
Seriously, check it out.
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