Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

She burned that motherfucker down, and I am so here for it. Thank you, Caroline Kennedy.

Just because you believe it, that does not make it true.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

We do not need to pander to people who do not like what we stand for.

There are a lot more evil idiots than evil geniuses.

The lights are all blinking red.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Jesus watching the most hateful people claiming to be his followers

Hey hey, RFK, how many kids did you kill today?

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Hi god, it’s us. Thanks a heap, you’re having a great week and it’s only Thursday!

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

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Reader Interactions

62Comments

  1. 1.

    Comrade Stuck

    Bravo Tim. Excellent selections. Air on the G string is great, though it reminds me of Seven, a great movie, but highly creepy. And Locomotive Breath from the Aqualung lp is one of the bestest albums evah. And Martin Barre is probably the most underrated Guitarists in the history of Rock & Roll.

  3. 3.

    lucslawyer

    1) String Quartet in A Minor, Opus 132 – Beethoven
    2) Missa Solemnis – Beethoven
    3) Paint It, Black – The Rolling Stones

  4. 4.

    Comrade Stuck

    I’m a Led Zepphile. Now that the XM LED channel is back on, I can’t seem to turn it to maybe listen to something else. As I type, Baby I’m Gonna Leave You is playing. I’ve heard it a 100 times and it still gives me goosebumps

  5. 5.

    Jon Karak

    Tim: Locomotive Breath?

    Queen kicks the tight pants off all of them

    Phish jams are everlasting

    Daft Punk throws a concert that will blow your rosey tinted mind

  7. 7.

    Brick Oven Bill

    My college roommate got upgraded for some reason and ended up sitting by Phil Collins on an airplane. He tried to strike up a conversation and Collins was an uptight twit. So I conclude that all this ‘how can you just walk away, walk away and see me cry’ crap was engineered to increase revenues by selling albums to females. I hate false pretenses. Therefore:

    Ted Nugent: Wang, Dang, Sweet Puntang

    Coldplay’s last release is the best music put out since Warren Zevon’s The Wind. I find it hard to believe that Lost is being played in shopping malls. It is surreal to me.

  11. 11.

    Quaker in a Basement

    Those clips are all good. But they’re all taken from the height of the composers’ careers–when they were producing surefire successes and not taking any chances.

    How about the music they wrote from the heart and not for their audience? These pieces might come before the composer achieved popular acclaim. Or they might come after the composer had nothing left to prove.

    Here’s a Mozart that slays me every time: Ave Verum Corpus:

  12. 12.

    Thursday

    Warren Zevon Hit Somebody
    Because it’s damn funny.

    Great Big Sea Ordinary Day
    Because it’s a party with 10,000 of your best friends.

    Nickelback Animal
    Because it feels exactly right during your Tomcat Phase: yer loud, yer stink, and yer horny!

    I’ll change my mind in ten minutes, but those will do for now.

  14. 14.

    Quaker in a Basement

    And at the same time Wolfgang was praying to Jesus, he had this running through his head.

    (Wait thru the recitation at the start of the clip. Worth it.)

  15. 15.

    Lizzy L

    Handel’s Messiah — the whole thing.
    Robert Johnson, "Hellhound on my Trail"
    Jimmy Hendrix’s version of "All Along The Watchtower"

  16. 16.

    Calouste

    King Crimson – 3 i 2 (from ProjeKcts 1 – Live at the Jazz Cafe)
    Pink Floyd – Dogs
    Jimi Hendrix – All Along the Watchtower

  18. 18.

    Jeremy H

    Beethoven’s Hammerklavier Sonata, as played by the incomparable Emil Gilels:

    youtube.com/watch?v=I97cyTRjbRU

    The link above is the third movement of the sonata, and it contains some of the most achingly beautiful moments ever composed. In particular from 3:00 onwards.

  19. 19.

    bhagamu

    Arioso – Bach.

    One of my favorites, because I play the cello and played this as a solo a while ago, though not as pristine-ly as this guy. I do hope you get a chance to see this, because I’m posting pretty late.

  20. 20.

    Comrade Baron Elmo

    The following are, to this Boy Reporter, life-changing pieces of music that have never and will never lose their power to dazzle, delight and astonish.

    Blind Willie Johnson – Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

    Bob & Earl – The Harlem Shuffle

    The Small Faces – My Mind’s Eye

    Dionne Warwick – Walk On By

    Brian Eno – St. Elmo’s Fire

    John Coltrane – My Favorite Things

    Charlie Rich – Feel Like Goin’ Home

    Robert Johnson – Preachin’ Blues

    The Stooges – TV Eye

    Otis Redding – Try a Little Tenderness

    Captain Beefheart – Dirty Blue Gene

    Five Blind Boys of Mississippi – Jesus Gave Me Water

    Cozy Cole – Topsy, Part 2

    The Who – Armenia City in the Sky

    Better stop there, before I get, er, carried away.

  22. 22.

    gocart mozart

    Positively 4th Street ; The greatest I hate you song ever
    It Ain’t Me Babe: The greatest I don’t love you song ever
    All Along The Watchtower: Greatest Rock Song Ever
    (Jimmi’s version with best guitar lead ever)

  23. 23.

    Ollie

    I just saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra in San Jose rock the sh*t out of Tchaikovsky, Handel, Beethoven, Liszt, etc. They even threw in some Zeppelin and Jimmi. It’s amazing how classical and metal can mesh so well. The lasers and flames didn’t hurt, neither. ;->

  24. 24.

    Ollie

    Oh, and they do a couple of variations of Pachelbel’s Canon, which is in and of itself one of the prettiest pieces of music ever written, IMHO.

  26. 26.

    Tim F.

    How can you pick just three?

    I’m not. Many threads ago I proposed that Bach’s Cello Suite #1, prelude is the greatest music on earth. Now I am running through counterproposals from the commentariat, along with other entries from me such as Paint it Black.

  29. 29.

    MR. Bill

    The "Aria" from Bachianias Brasilieros #5 by Villa-Lobos. (if you can find the composer conducting with de LosAngles singing, so much the better…)

    The Marianne Faithfull version of Kurt Weill’s "Seven Deadly Sins"…

    Glenn Gould’s "Goldberg Variations".

    Prokofiev’s "Lieutenant Kieje" (spelling?)

    My rock/blues division here is likely to be ideosyncratic:
    Tom Petty "Here comes my Girl"
    Beatles "Revolver" album
    and incomplete.

  30. 30.

    boonagain

    Rolling Stones: Gimme Shelter
    John Cale: Hallelujah
    Velvet Underground: Rock and Roll
    Brian Wilson:Smile

  31. 31.

    Dennis - SGMM

    Moon Martin: "Cadillac Walk"
    Dean Martin: "Sway"
    Butthole Surfers: "Pepper"
    Hamilton Camp: "Here’s to You"
    Peggy Lee: "Fever"
    Oregon: "Aurora"
    Tabla Beat Science: "Satellite (Show Me The Worth Of The World)"

  32. 32.

    Some Guy

    Many fantastic nominations. I don’t have a single one, but two of my faves are Erik Satie’s Gymnopodie. Here is the link. It is just no. 1, but it give you the flavor. Most serene music I have ever heard.

    Another is Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Here is Autumn. This piece can still bring me to tears.

  33. 33.

    rob!

    i’m surprised; i really thought there would’ve been a post here by Antajuart or whatever being knee-jerk contrary by now.

    (maybe the GOP doesn’t authorize expenditures for comments on music-only threads?)

  34. 34.

    rob!

    Bob Dylan: "Tangled Up In Blue"

    REM: "Nightswimming"

    Bruce Springsteen: "Valentine’s Day"

    Jenny Lewis: "The Big Guns"

    Miles Davis: "Freddie Freeloader"

  36. 36.

    Punchy

    This is good comedy. The money shot:

    Arguing with people who think Obama is a secret Muslim communist and the Earth is only 6000 years old is pointless. It’s like debating a small child or more accurately, a male labrador retriever. No matter what you say, he’ll continue to hump your leg, knowing with certainty that if he just humps long enough, your shoes will bear puppies. All you get out of it is a sticky leg.

    Multiple guffaws, bitches.

  38. 38.

    cleek

    Nickelback Animal

    as comedian Brian Posehn once said: "I do think certain kinds of music can make you violent. Like, when I listen to Nickelback, it makes me want to kill Nickelback.”

  39. 39.

    comrade thalarctos

    The Clash-"London Calling"
    Miles Davis-"So What"
    Olivier Messiaen–Quatuor pour la fin du temps

  40. 40.

    BethanyAnne

    I ended up loving "Dub Side of the Moon" – Dark Side redone by reggae artists. It’s flat out amazing. But Delerium is still my favorite. I typed their name into Pandora, and got a station that I can (and do) listen to constantly. Delerium’s mix of Silence is probably their best known work, but I’m partial to Incantation, or Flowers Become Screens. The YouTube of Flowers really doesn’t do it justice, tho.

  44. 44.

    bartkid

    >The lasers and flames didn’t hurt, neither.

    If not, you’re not doing it right.

    No one’s convinced me.

    My vote is still for Drive Like Jehu’s "Caress".

  45. 45.

    Ash Can

    Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin

    Bach’s Third Brandenburg Concerto

    Eduard Tubin’s fourth symphony ("Ilirica")

    Henryk Gorecki’s third symphony ("Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" — if it doesn’t at least make your jaw drop you’d better check your pulse)

    And I do seem to recall one Van Cliburn playing the sweet holy hell out of Rachmaninoff’s third piano concerto.

  46. 46.

    Ollie

    Okay, it was late last night. Now I get it… How about these?

    Leonard Cohen – Hallelujah
    (I know, boonagain picked it first, but I think the definitive version is the Jeff Buckley one, although I’ll settle for the Rufus Wainwright one, especially the one he does with his sister Martha)

    Radiohead – Sulk

    Neil Young – After the Goldrush

    Genesis – Supper’s Ready

  48. 48.

    boonagain

    After reading this, I’m adding
    REM: Automatic for the People
    the Clash: London Calling
    Neil Young: After the Gold Rush
    Van Morrison: Moondance

    (kd lang does a not too shabby version of Hallelujah as well)

  51. 51.

    Ollie

    This is fun!!

    Blind Faith – Can’t Find My Way Home

    Beta Band – Dry The Rain

    David Bowie – The Man Who Sold The World (although Kurt Cobain’s acoustic version is pretty darn good)

    Cole Porter – Night and Day (the version from the movie DeLovely is DeLightful).

  53. 53.

    Brabantio

    John, in case you didn’t know, there’s an orchestral version of Tull’s music in an album called "a Classic Case". The first song is "Locomotive Breath", which is fantastic. The entire album is, really. I happen to love "Too Old to Rock and Roll, Too Young to Die" myself, any version.
    Along the same lines, "Orchestral Maneuvers" is a must for Pink Floyd fans. The last three songs are particularly brilliant, and "When the Tigers Broke Free" is one of the most emotionally powerful songs I’ve ever heard.
    Totally unrelated to all of that, "Evaporated" by Ben Folds is another favorite, especially because of the hidden track that comes along with it.

  57. 57.

    ed_finnerty

    following on the example of two classical one freelnce

    1. bradenburg suite 2 or 3
    2. new world symphony
    3. solo monk (whole album)

  60. 60.

    Svensker

    @MR. Bill:

    The "Aria" from Bachianias Brasilieros #5 by Villa-Lobos. (if you can find the composer conducting with de LosAngles singing, so much the better…)

    Don’t think the de Los Angeles is available on YouTube, but I’m a huge fan of Bidu Sayao’s version — so effortless, yet achingly warm. Hers is on UT here.

  61. 61.

    Bill Pilgrom

    Laughing at "Tull".

    As if anyone under 50 has the slightest idea who this ancient gimmicy rock band even was.

    Yeah, man. "Tull".

  62. 62.

    dobrojutro

    Laughing at Tull. As if anyone under 50 has the slightest idea who this ancient gimmicy rock band even was. Yeah, man. Tull.

    No less an authority than teh grammys tell me they were the world’s best metal band in 1989.

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