Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

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

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Museums are not America’s attic for its racist shit.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls 2 years from now.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

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

Republicans: The threats are dire, but my tickets are non-refundable!

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

You are here: Home / Medium Cool / Medium Cool – All Things Music!

Medium Cool – All Things Music!

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Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

How about a wide-open music thread for Medium Cool tonight?

Have at it!

Reader Interactions

162Comments

  3. 3.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    I sing in a choir and we just had our spring concert yesterday afternoon. So I’ve had a very musical week of rehearsals and performance.

    Featured pieces were two Requiems (Fauré and a Norwegian composer named Arnesen). Though no mention was made of politics in the program notes, I wondered if our choir director programmed this concert as a response to the November elections. Each half ended with a song of hope.

  4. 4.

    Trivia Man

    I like my CD collection. I listen while i work and the full album experience is very satisfying.

    I am surprised by how much big band and classical i have. I need more of the classic jazz 1950-1970 ish) and a few of the classic 60’s-70’s rock (more Floyd, Sabbath, Stones, a few missing Beatles for example)

  6. 6.

    Gloria DryGarden

    I went out to hear my local very professional Acapella choir, St Martin’s chamber choir. They did a collaboration with Denver brass last night, and performed in a church with great acoustics, with some double choir pieces ( i am such a fan), and pieces performed from different places in the church, so surround sound. I almost didn’t go, I was so tired.

    They played Corelli, and Bruckner, and some modern slightly dissonant pieces that were actually haunting and interesting. I cried, I stood up in the back to lean in. Samuel Barber adagio for strings, but done w choir and brass, was so sublime. And Elgar’s piece Nimrod variations, lux eterna, was wonderful. I was surprised by how much I loved it all.

    You can find St Martins choir on YouTube. They always explain the music ahead, do you know what to listen for. For example, a few pieces in 5/4 time, which they made seem natural. We played something in 5/4 in high school band, and it was a difficult time signature.

    I’m still in the after glow of the concert, sparkles floating through my heart.

  9. 9.

    JetsamPool

    I just finished listening to my entire digital music collection, alphabetically.  I do this every few years, and it takes a few months.  I just realized I misplaced my copy of Les Introuvables du Chant Verdien.  They’re probably backed up somewhere, or I can re-digitize the original CDs.

  12. 12.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: oh, you sang Fauré. Which pièce ?

    I only know the pavanne for a dead princess.  So beautiful, I’d listen to more Fauré because of it.

    (my keyboard thinks I’m writing in French now, over one accent.)

  13. 13.

    Suzanne

    So, since I run a lot, I have a couple of running playlists to suit my various moods. Uptempo, strong beat, etc. I have noticed that it is getting ungainly, so I am breaking it into categories:

    1) Songs About Butts
    2) Big Gay Dance Party
    3) Fuck the Patriarchy, the Man, and You
    4) Angry
    5) Sometimes Cheese is Brie

    I’m struggling with these categories, though, y’all. Some songs don’t neatly fit.

  14. 14.

    zhena gogolia

    Latest Isto, cover of Willie Nelson’s Three Days. I never heard this song, but it’s quite appropriate for our present reality.

  17. 17.

    Matt McIrvin

    A couple weeks ago the band in which my wife plays French horn, the Middlesex Concert Band, had its 50th anniversary concert with some past conductors of the band coming back to conduct a piece. Great fun, great music! I don’t have a recording of that, but some videos of earlier concerts can be seen linked from here: mcbconcertband.org/

    (I’m pretty sure our own, sorely missed efgoldman introduced them on one or two occasions at the Faneuil Hall Festival of Bands. I think that’s off this year because of venue availability, unfortunately.)

  18. 18.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gloria DryGarden: oh, you sang Fauré. Which pièce ?

    The Requiem. Absolutely beautiful piece (or pieces: Requiems always contain multiple movements). I’ve sung it several times with different choirs, and also a couple times played some selections as accompanist. If you’ve never heard it, you should.

    I understand Fauré kept fiddling with it so there are different versions. I believe we did a later version, whichever one includes a baritone solo called Libera Me.

    The other major work we did was also a Requiem, composed in 2014 by a Norwegian composer called Kim André Arnesen. Our director finds the most interesting things to perform, and a fair amount of new work. I don’t know how she does her research, but I think she spends most of the months in between seasons listening to stuff.

  19. 19.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: Stuff in 5/4 played by the brass ensemble, “cinematic” music, full of suggested imagery. Andrew wolfe, b 1977. Out of a dream. Quest for the Golden blade of truth & Hunt for the beàst beyond the wall.

    I want to look up the pieces you sang, on YouTube. Is your choir posting there, or will I listen to someone else sing your stuff?

    (Unnecessary Accent courtesy of auto predict)

  20. 20.

    Chris

    The Devil Went Down To Georgia is a strong contender for the greatest American song of all time.

    In any remotely sane culture, certainly any remotely sane Christian culture, Johnny would lose the bet, and the song would be a parable about not risking something as precious as your soul on something as foolish as a game of chance. But this is America, so instead Johnny plays the devil at his own game, and wins. And the moral of the story is, effectively, “there’s no one you can’t beat. Play to win!”

  21. 21.

    Chris

    Having said that, the Charlie Daniels Band is not the greatest band of all time. That’s Queen. It’s not the second greatest band of all time either. That’s the Scorpions.

  24. 24.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: I always love it when pop or rock music uses weird time signatures, because it happens so infrequently. Pink Floyd’s “Money” and Devo’s “Jocko Homo” both shift between a 7-beat signature (7/4 or 7/8 depending on who you ask) and 4/4.

  27. 27.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris: Mono Puff’s “The Devil Went Down To Newport” reimagines it as a surfing contest, with the Devil brought low by his inability to hang ten with cloven hooves.

  28. 28.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @zhena gogolia: oh, my goof. Ravel. But a sweet lyrical piece of music to bring to mind, and play in my head, none-the-less.

    Thank you For straightening out my facts.

  29. 29.

    frosty

    My buddy I play open mics with keeps coming up with new tunes that he can play and sing, so my job is to come up with a lead and accompaniment. His latest is Gin and Juice, a Snoop Dogg song with a twist: covered by The Gourds with a banjo (which he can play) instead of a guitar. Bluegrass meets hip-hop! Give it a listen.

    Gin and Juice by The Gourds

    I think my accompaniment will be on harmonica, basically playing the bass line. It’s just two chords; I should get it figured out in a day or two. If that doesn’t work, I’ll work something up on a resonator.

  30. 30.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Gloria DryGarden:

    Shambolic drummer here (no jazz drummer like UncleEbeneezer that’s for sure).

    5/4 is actually very easy to do.  Another reasonably well known rock song from the 70s, Tull’s “Living in the Past” is in 5/4.

    I had to learn Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’, parts of which are in 7/4.  Figured it out by listening to a 1974 bootleg performance of it where Nick Mason plays an incredibly simplified beat.

    Another 7/4 song where the drummer makes it very hard sounding is the “Sound of Muzak” by the English prog band ‘Porcupine Tree’.  The only way I figured it out was mimicing this guy:

    youtube.com/watch?v=q_u2kaPnsaY

    The original:

    youtube.com/watch?v=r9HQ2VPsgz0

    Like ‘Money’, it goes back and forth from 7/4 to 44.

  31. 31.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gloria DryGarden: No YouTubes that I know of. They record the concerts and make them available to choir members, but have never released a CD or YouTube that I know of. I think it has something to do with their agreement with the union musicians.

    But I just checked the website and they actually do have some audio clips. That’s fairly new, I don’t remember seeing that before.

    Incidentally, I’m in the back row, fifth from right, in this photo.

  32. 32.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @Percysowner: sometimes I love Pentatonix. And other times, they add some weird harmonies, just to be interesting, but I don’t like it.

  33. 33.

    Rachel Bakes

    Went to a Post Modern Jukebox concert back in December. Wonderfully fun evening full of reimaginings of pop songs into versions out of the 1920s -1970s mostly. With tap dancing at times! My “problem” though is that I don’t know so many of the original songs that I can’t compare them with the reimaginings. Sometimes I hear one on the radio and the lightbulb goes on.

  36. 36.

    pajaro

    Music is amazing.  My father died last year, at the age of 100.  He made his money in business, but played the violin for most of his life.  He was good enough to make a second career of it. At the end, he really didn’t quite know who I was, but he was still able to listen to music.  He was given a baton at the long term care facility, and he would occasionally conduct music on an I Pad that he had.  One of the last times I saw him, he had Beethoven’s 9th Symphony on.  I picked up the baton at the beginning of the Second movement and started air conducting.  He smiled, and then, many seconds in, when the violin was supposed to enter, he held up his hands and came in, on time, playing air violin at the violin entrance.   It was magic.  His love for and understanding of music lasted longer than any other part of his memory.  Music is amazing.

  38. 38.

    AndyG

    We did this little piece by Ravel with a local youth choir over 40 years ago when I must have been 14 or 15. It made an incredible impression on me; I don’t think I had ever heard anything quite so beautiful in my young life. This morning I was listening to a new album of rare piano pieces by Ravel and this lovely piano transcription jumped out at me and carried me back to singing it as a teenager. I hope it brings back lovely memories for you too.youtu.be/8-yCvsyn1MQ?si=Eiy4onz_rwGM3sMR

  40. 40.

    Gloria DryGarden

    @pajaro: moved to tears.

     

    Dad played music for my mom during her years of going down. It was quite beautiful to observe. She did seem to relate and engage with music more than most anything else.

  41. 41.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    @Matt McIrvin:

    The late, great Kevin Gilbert did a song when he was with ‘Giraffe’, “Air Dance”:

    youtube.com/watch?v=GK4oj2hdUEA

    Go to around 3:20 and listen to the big interlude.  I still can’t figure out the time signature.

    Other oddities is where a song will have *one* measure of an offbeat time signature.  Like this:

    youtube.com/watch?v=XCXL1ytil-w

    In each half of the song, there’s *one* measure that’s 3/4.  That was fun to remember when performing it live.

  42. 42.

    Chris

    Possibly controversial one (both these bands’ heyday was long before my time):

    The Beatles are DS9. The Rolling Stones are TNG.

    Among Trekkies, many believe that while DS9 and TNG are both good shows, DS9 is more consistently good, while TNG has higher highs, but lower lows.

    That’s me with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Stones have one or two dozen songs that I love well beyond anything the Beatles ever did, but once you get past them, the rest of it mostly sounds like elevator music to me. The Beatles aren’t as good, but they’re consistent; I can put on anything they made and be assured that it’ll be an hour of nothing but pleasant background music at the very worst.

  43. 43.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    @Gloria DryGarden: The songs of hope I was referring to were two spirituals. The first half ended with a setting of Ain’t-a That Good News, and the second with Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel. The concert also included a choral arrangement of Sarah McLaughlin’s Angel.

    However, both requiems do in fact include what you might call songs of hope. They aren’t about mourning and sadness. The Fauré’s gorgeous last movement is called In Paradisum (In Paradise) and the Arnesen ends with a setting of a poem called We Remember Them about how we are kept alive by being remembered.

  52. 52.

    Captain C

    @Chris: Recently I listened to a podcast on the possibility that Winds of Change was written and promoted bu the CIA to help take down the USSR. When they asked Klaus Meine about it he cracked up laughing.

  54. 54.

    kalakal

    Here’s a snippet of a piece of music that, depending on your movie consumption, you may find either relaxing or scary

    Tubular Bells

    The shifting time signatures are part of why it can sound scary

  55. 55.

    HopefullyNotcassandra

    @Chris: I love that song

    mainly for that reason

    We dare to dare the devil.   Whoever wherever has taken that bet?

  57. 57.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Chris: ah, but DS9’s “Far Beyond The Stars” is the highest high of Star Trek.

    I unreasonably love the stuff people deride as indulgent filler on the Beatles’ White Album: Lennon’s audience-hostile blues and noise experiments and McCartney’s music-hall-grandpa japes. I am also a huge fan of They Might Be Giants, who I suspect listened to that on repeat about a billion times in their youth.

  60. 60.

    Just look at that parking lot

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage: That’s my favorite version too. It’s only one I listen for several years.

    In 1973 Brubeck released an album titled Two Generations of Brubeck  with his three sons. It’s mostly all electric renditions of some of his classics , with some new material. The albums not bad, but  they did a tour in 73-74 and that was killer. One of the best concerts I’ve seen of any genre.

  61. 61.

    Martin

    @Suzanne: I prefer their cover of Maggies Farm, particularly the shift from passive-aggressive folk to openly aggressive metal.

  64. 64.

    Sheila in nc

    Our community chorus is working on a contemporary multi-part work called Shadow and Light. It deals with Alzheimer disease and includes perspectives of patients, families, and caregivers. It runs the gamut from frightening, bittersweet, brutal, hopeful. Very powerful piece and not musically easy, but beautifully written. As it happens, my 93 year old mom who lives independently is just starting to tread this path. I hope I can hold it together for the performance. Many of our singers elected to stand down for this semester because the subject matter was just too personally painful. Concert is in mid May.

  66. 66.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Captain C: Reminds me of the Onion story “CIA Admits Role in 1985 Coup to Oust David Lee Roth”.

    (the joke is basically all there in the title, as with many Onion stories)

  69. 69.

    mvr

    @Suzanne: Jason Isbell is great! “Vampires” kind of hits home. youtube.com/watch?v=ivYkyC8J29M I need to go get his most recent solo album which I think just came out this week. And I want to figure out whether I will be in town when he next plays near me. He’s awfully good live as well. (You probably know all this.)

  70. 70.

    Chris

    Finally, a line that I’ve always found very unfair: “military justice is to justice as military music is to music.” Military music is just fine! It’s halfway between classical music and movie soundtrack music.

    A truly unfortunate corollary to this: “the bad guys have the best music” isn’t just true in movies. Literally anything ever sung by the Red Army Choir sounds frickin great. So does all that Prussian marching music the Nazis liked so much. So is Rule Britannia and The British Grenadiers and some of those other iconic Redcoat songs. That is, in fact, yet another data point showing that the Confederates were the bad guys in the Civil War: Dixieland, I’m sorry to say, is way catchier than the Battle Hymn of the Republic.

  72. 72.

    SpaceUnit

    Kurt Wallinger of World Party passed away last year.  What an awesome talent.  What an awesome band.

    Is It Like Today?

    Ship of Fools

    Put The Message in The Box

     

    ETA:  Actually I think Kurt was the band.  Pretty sure he recorded all the parts when making albums in the studio then hired some guys to tour with him.  Didn’t know how to make a bad song.  RIP

  73. 73.

    Martin

    @WaterGirl: Picking Scorpions as the 2nd greatest band reminds me of Trumps affectations for things that are common and popular in a window of time that was influential to them (Trump’s Village People affectation, seemingly with complete ignorance for why Village People are deserving for being remembered) which also suggests a lack of interest in exploring outside of that space. (Charlie Daniels, Queen, and Scorpions are all contemporaneous artists.) And while there are people who think Scorpions are underrated, I don’t think you’d find anyone who would consider them the 2nd best unless you were working from a relatively narrow list.

    It wasn’t meant as a serious dig to Chris who is clearly having a bit of fun here, more of a fun poke by me in return.

  77. 77.

    Suzanne

    @mvr: I saw Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit live last year. He was fantastic. Definitely make the effort to go.

  78. 78.

    mvr

    @kalakal: Speaking of “All Along The Watchtower”, Bob Dylan opened his latest leg of his Rough and Rowdy Ways tour in an old theater in Tulsa with that song.  Jenny and I were lucky enough to go due to our Dylan Museum membership (despite the 400 mile drive each way) and it was well worth it.  One of the best of his shows that I’ve seen.  He was in fine voice and able to hit notes he was aiming for.  Even resolved several phrases to relatively high notes, and his timing (always a strength) was excellent.  You could hear the words to most of what he sang and the whole thing had an energy that was higher than usual.

    My favorite performance was probably “Desolation Row”, but the whole thing was excellent.

  82. 82.

    mvr

    @Suzanne: Yes. It depends on whether I will be in town when he is nearby, though I may drive somewhere else to see him. I’ve seem him twice in the last few years and it was excellent both times.

  83. 83.

    Chris

    @Captain C:

    I suspect it really kills a lot of people at CIA that a bunch of rock stars and blue jeans manufacturers did more to bring down the Soviet Bloc than all their clever schemes put together.

  85. 85.

    mvr

    @SpaceUnit: ​
     
    Yes at least for the first album Wallinger recorder just about everything. He had a way of making a melody sound like you knew it from a long time ago the first time you heard it. His dying did seem like it came too early.

  87. 87.

    SpaceUnit

    @SpaceUnit:

    Karl Wallinger.  Not Kurt.  Yeesh.

    ETA:  I was thinking about Kurt and Sam from the Bodeans and gave myself a brain bubble.

  89. 89.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @kalakal: You left out the consensus pick for the greatest cover of all time: Aretha Franklin’s version of “Respect” which was originally written and recorded by Otis Redding.

  90. 90.

    SpaceUnit

    @mvr:

    Yeah, he was special.  And of course he was with The Waterboys for a time as well.

     

    I need to dig my CD’s out of the storage box in the garage.

  93. 93.

    Captain C

    @WaterGirl: Me too. Doc McGhee was also the label head for one of my favorite band”s (God Street Wine) first major label (a Geffen subsidiary IIRC).

  94. 94.

    Citizen Dave

    Saluting this good jazzman: “Upon his death in 1977, Paul Desmond left the rights to royalties for performances and compositions, including “Take Five”, to the American Red Cross, which has since received combined royalties of approximately $100,000 per year.”

     

    Today on part of a long drive I listened to the recent commercial release (not a boot) of John Coltrane, Live in Seattle.  A rare live performance of A Love Supreme, over an hour of Trane wailing.  Included are drum, piano and bass solos.  All Fantastic.

  97. 97.

    funlady75

    I love movie soundtracks music.

    The Mission

    Out of Africa

    The Killing Fields

    And last but not least any song by Streisand…especially “A house is not a home”

  98. 98.

    Suzanne

    Apparently the fight between Derek Guy (menswear guy on social media) and that MAGA asshole in front of Uniqlo is actually happening and I am in hysterics.

  99. 99.

    Just look at that parking lot

    The Movers were a South African instrumental band started in the 60’s. They cross over hits on white radio in when it was still under apartheid rule. Some liken them to Booker T & the MG’s. This song, Bump Jive, will definitely get in you head.

    youtu.be/rwTNGoVs82A?si=9xYoej70leJ4thVs

  100. 100.

    rekoob

    Paul Desmond famously quipped about Dave Brubeck’s proclivity for odd time signatures, “I’ve played 5/4, 11/4, and What For?”.

  102. 102.

    p.a.

    Saw a local performance of Beehive: the 60’s Musical last night and the 60’s girl pop* brought back lots of childhood/young adult memories.  (Born ’59 so many of the songs were classic if not oldies by the time I was aware.)

    *pop in the broadest sense, the way even am radio was at the time, no narrowcasting; soul, pop, rock, blues in a wonderful mish mash.

  104. 104.

    dm

    @Percysowner: Yes, that version of Sounds of Silence is great.

    Music adjacent: the podcast “A history of Rock and Roll in 500 songs” just got to The Beach Boys’ “Never learn not to love”.

    The pod-caster is obsessive — he spends several episodes (almost four hours in total) detailing the history and influences of the song (which is #177 on his list of 500).

    His coverage of the Grateful Dead’s “Dark Star” is a must for…. fans of Kurt Vonnegut!

  107. 107.

    surfk9

    From Lennon’s working class hero

    Keep you doped with religion, and sex, and T.V.
    And you think you’re so clever and classless and free
    But you’re still fucking peasants as far as I can see

  108. 108.

    Trivia Man

    @JetsamPool: I listened to all m CDs last year, random order. Some forgotten gems! Now i found another box i never unpacked. So… about 300 maybe?

  111. 111.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @SpaceUnit:

    Goddamn I loved that band.  Too bad they hate each others guts these days.

    Same here. Back in the day, I dragged all my friends to see them every time they came to Northeast Ohio. They were regulars in rotation. Now I feel sad when I listen to them.

  114. 114.

    laura

    My entire life has been a dissertation on music and my dad was my first teacher. I can’t play an instrument. I can’t carry a tune in a bucket. I can audience so hard.

    Spouse and I next see Hermanos Gutierrez and I am stoked! Behold!

    youtu.be/wTqCthvtL8k?

  117. 117.

    Melancholy Jaques

    @SpaceUnit:

    You’re wrong about the name, but right about the man. Karl Wallinger was the band, though other people are credited on the albums.

    World Party is one of those off to the side bands I like but often forget about. Always a pleasure to meet another fan.

  118. 118.

    bluefoot

    Funny, I was thinking about music earlier – I was trying to think about the difference between liking music and caring about music. Didn’t get far in my musings.

    I love all kinds of music. I think one of the hardest things is to keep one’s ears open when it comes to music you know well. One of the things I loved about “Get Back” was listening to the Beatles as if they were new and finding new things in the music, despite first hearing the album when it came out. It’s why I’ve developed a liking for covers, hearing what others bring to music.

    I’m not a musician and I wonder what they hear in music that I don’t.

  120. 120.

    mvr

    @Another Scott: Got to see Mose Allison do that song at Charlotte’s Web, a club in Rockford Illinois, back in the 70s when I was in High School or a year or so later.

  121. 121.

    billcinsd

    Some relatively contemporary Indie Pop

    From Pity Me in County Durham Martha — Sleeping Beauty

    youtube.com/watch?v=rVcgfGKizDM

    From Scotland The Spook School — Speak when you’re spoken too

    youtube.com/watch?v=hxnGUUgNlhc

    From London Colour Me Wednesday — Shut

    youtube.com/watch?v=Lkni5QYgcvE

    From LA (and not Indie, IIRC) The Regrettes — Seashore

    youtube.com/watch?v=Iiqf2R462lo

    Spoonboy (with Martha) — Linus and Me

    youtube.com/watch?v=8p1bbHcqqBA

  123. 123.

    SpaceUnit

    @Melancholy Jaques:

    Yeah, I corrected myself back at #86.  I was musing about Sam and Kurt from the Bodeans and somehow confused myself.

    Karl and World Party were criminally underrated.  Bodeans too.  And you have very good taste in music!

  126. 126.

    prostratedragon

    “Preciso Me Encontrar”

    Lyrics:

    Let me go
    I must wander
    I’ll go around searching
    Laugh so I won’t cry
    Let me go
    I must wander
    I’ll go around searching
    Laugh so I won’t cry

    I want to see the sunrise
    See the waters of the rivers flow
    Hear the birds singing
    I want to be born
    I want to live
    [etc]

  133. 133.

    Just look at that parking lot

    If there’s any fans of Memphis soul listening to this broadcast, you’llenjoy Otis Clay’s 1983 release Soul Man: Live in Japan. The whole album kicks ass, especially the last track. It’s a two song medley of Al Green’s Love and Happiness/ Sam & Dave’s Soul Man. Otis could scream with the best of them.

  134. 134.

    Steve in the ATL

    @JetsamPool: haven’t read the thread, but I trust that someone has pointed out the irony of not being able to find something called Les Introuvables?

  137. 137.

    schrodingers_cat

    Bloody Hell

    From Rangoon released 8 years ago. Before Kangana Ranaut turned full bhakt.

    Kangana’s character in this movie is modeled after fearless Nadia, who dominated Indian movies in the silent film era. She was famous for riding stunts and the riding crop was her prop. The movie was mess, it couldn’t decide whether to be an ode to silent films, WWII, Indian independence or a love story.  But the score is pretty awesome.

  138. 138.

    Matt McIrvin

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Until Johnny Cash covered Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt,” which was argued occasionally to hold the new record for making a cover your song forever.

    Some others: Talking Heads turning Al Green’s “Take Me To The River” into a lazy bass-driven lament, They Might Be Giants excavating the Four Lads’ “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”, Devo revealing that the Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, with those spiky frustrated lyrics, was yearning to be a Devo song all along.

  139. 139.

    frosty

    @Suzanne: Back (way back) when I ran Cross-Country in high school I had one and only one song running through my head (and only my head because there was no portable music except AM radio):

    No Salt On Her Tail (Mamas and Papas)

    I can’t tell you why it was that one except the beat probably matched the speed my feet hit the ground.​

    ETA  This probably falls into Songs About Butts in your playlists LOL​​

  140. 140.

    pieceofpeace

    @Percysowner:   Love these renditions, and am a longtime listener of the original singers.  These are new to me, thanks, they’re on my radar now.

  141. 141.

    drdavechemist

    @Matt McIrvin:

    I’m accumulating a Spotify playlist with nothing but unusual and/or changing meters, and I’m always listening for something new

    A couple of my latest discoveries:

    • a version of Body and Soul by Esperanza Spalding that wa rewritten in 5/4 AND translated into Spanish. I believe she both sings and plays upright bass on the recording-so cool!
    • a cover of Open Your Eyes, You Can Fly by New York Voices that’s in 7/4. (And I just learned that Chick Corea was the composer of the tune-I only knew the Cassandra Wilson recording.)

    I think Spotify is catching on to my obsession, since these both came up just in the last week or so.

  143. 143.

    frosty

    @bluefoot: ​ I’m not a musician and I wonder what they hear in music that I don’t.

    For me, as an amateur musician, I hear all the mistakes I make! Open Mic audiences all tell me it sounded great, though.

  146. 146.

    comrade scotts agenda of rage

    As an ultra-marathoner who does *not* listen to anything while running/training (in that regard, I’m old school), I’m often asked “What do you think about while running all those distances?”

    When I was working, often it was thinking thru problems I needed to solve at work.

    When I was working and not thinking about problems I needed to solve at work but other issues I was dealing with, it was how to respond/plot out responses, etc., to people/parties that needed push back (often to crap posted here).  That happens now, post-work on a variety of levels, here, City, stakeholder groups in the City, etc.

    When I was working, and now, I’d typically get an ear worm stuck in my head, not a song I liked but usually something I didn’t like.  I can run for a week and such a song never leaves during the run.  It repeats over-and-over again.

    It’s still better than listening to something, be it music, a podcast, etc.  That takes me out of the run.

  148. 148.

    kalakal

    @comrade scotts agenda of rage:

    Many years ago when I used to do cross country running I used to listen to songs in my head ( this predates walkmen, ipods, phones )

    I didn’t have many lps but the ones I did I knew every note

    Couldn’t zone out too much as this was in the Yorkshire Dales and not looking at where you going would lead to broken leg time.

  151. 151.

    Dmkingto

    @kalakal: I have the original album (actually, I think it’s my brother’s – don’t tell him). It was finally rereleased on CD in 2004. Ayiko Bia is in my regular playlist. I have to admit i don’t know much of their stuff after the first album.

  154. 154.

    Matt McIrvin

    @The Lodger: One I’d forgotten about is, of all things, the Beatles’ “All You Need Is Love”, whose time signature meanders all over the place and is sometimes 7/4.

  155. 155.

    NobodySpecial

    Late to the party and completely off topic, since I doubt much of the commentariat is into indie hip-hop, but I’m simultaneously glad that Aesop Rock is releasing a new album (The single, “Checkers”, just dropped) and worried that someone who’s been releasing content at a faster and faster rate might be a sign that they figure there’s not much time left to release content.

  156. 156.

    Dmkingto

    And some other musicians I love who are still touring. I’d encourage everyone to see them if you get the chance.

    Chris Smither. I’ve been lucky enough to see him several times in CA, and once in Wisconsin at Cafe Carpe. It’s a small cafe in Fort Atkinson, with a tiny back room for shows. Normally it’s general admission, but they reserved a seat for me and my friend since I was coming from California! (I was going to a trade show in Madison and went out a day early to catch the show.)

    Love You Like A Man (Bonnie Raitt’s cover is far better known, she also covered his song I Feel The Same): youtube.com/watch?v=59ygF8qLehQ

    Sam Baker. He’s got an incredible life story. At age 32 (in 1986) he was almost killed in a Sendero Luminoso bombing of a train to Machu Picchu – which left him almost deaf due to severe tinnitus. He released his first album in 2004. He’s an incredible songwriter, including a few related to the bombing (Steel, Broken Fingers, and I think another I’m forgetting). Some of my favorites of his are Waves, Truale, Odessa, Juarez, Cotton, and Sweetly Undone among many others. He also did a great cover of the Peter Case song Still Playin’. Most of his stuff is pretty heavy, so here’s a funny one. It’s called Ditch: youtube.com/watch?v=ZPwciWE-Vik

    Mary Gauthier. Another great songwriter, who also writes some pretty heavy stuff reflecting a tough early life. Started writing seriously in her 30s after getting sober (and opening/running a Cajun restaurant in Boston). I’ve only managed to see her once, at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Despite the weight of the material, it was a fun (and great) show. Here are a couple of her songs:

    Mercy Now: youtube.com/watch?v=vL6JoP0KCoo

    I Drink: youtube.com/watch?v=uoG18Z0AKqE

  160. 160.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Matt McIrvin: Those are all great. Still think The Queen of Soul beats them. It’s certainly the most famous and best selling of all of them. Sales aren’t the only important measure but they’re a measure. Especially like the Cash and Devo covers but they’re all great.

  161. 161.

    Matt McIrvin

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Another amazing one Aretha Franklin did right at the end of her life was Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep.” I heard a DJ remark that it sounded like the professor covering her student

    …Oh yeah, and speaking of Talking Heads, any discussion of great covers has to include Angelique Kidjo’s cover of the entire album Remain In Light.

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