The Blue Men

As an old drummer, a fan of techno, performance art and hard rock, I loved this. Hope you do too.

Obscure Songs chaser

Well, I guess I should be writing about serious things like parenthood, behaviour modification or male role modelling. But it’s a holiday weekend and I just don’t feel like it.

Besides, I promised to one day follow up on an earlier post, where we had a great conversation about my favourite obscure songs. There was even some controversy over what constituted obscure, with Zeppelin purists shaking their heads over my inclusion of a Zeppelin song on my list.

I asked readers for their own lists and most I’d never heard of.

So here’s a chaser to my list. From all those who submitted, a music video of MY choice to sample their tastes and broaden our own musical horizons. Thanks again to all who joined in!

1. From Jonathan P.,   Fitzcaraldo – The Frames …

And an encore from Jonathan’s list (turn your volume down or up, according to your inclination)…

2. From Bunk Strutts, Black Crow 16 Shells – Tom Waits …

And a Bunk encore:

3. From Leah Mac, You’re 39 You’re Beautiful and You’re Mine by Paul Kelly

As a encore from Leah, it was recommended us fellas watch this clip and see what we, er, notice about it. If you can live with the music for more than 20 seconds that is…

5. And lastly one from my list, Down Among the Dead Men, Flash and the Pan:

 

Folks, if you want to add your own list of favourite “obscure” songs (and obscure is in the eye of the beholder), feel free to leave a comment and I will do a followup post to this.

Wednesday’s What’s Yours : “The Essential” list

Ever picked up a “best of” album, looked at the back cover and said, “What?! That’s so NOT best of!!”?

The past few years, I keep getting nostalgic for 80s music – must be getting old, I guess -and I’ll be wandering through a store, see a CD with title like “Essential 80s” and grab it up excitedly, only to be perplexed and disappointed with the compilers’ choices.

Usually you get a mix of Men Without Hats (puh-leez!), Culture Club (yes, George, I do want to hurt you),  Kim Wilde (I think I just vomited into my mouth), Peter Blakeley (he’s on one I saw yesterday – remember Crying in the Chapel? Tell me THAT belongs on a compilation), Scritti Politi (I said “who?” too), Mel & Kim … and even Kajagoogoo (try saying that 3 times fast!).

Essential 80s?! I think not!

When I think of 80s music, I think of songs that were not just novelties but had depth, intelligence and … well … they reached inside your gut and twisted it either with their dark edge or their sense of joy.

So here’s MY CD, were I the compiler. These are all bands that lasted many many albums and whose music has remained popular with millions. These are all songs that I can literally listen to over and over without losing interest. These were the soundtrack of my youth … oh … sorry, a cliche slipped out …

My Essential 80s Songs

1. Head Over Heels – Tears For Fears
2. Our House – Madness
3. Love Song – Simple Minds (how can one little bass riff give so much joy?)
4. Thunderstruck – ACDC (how can one little guitar riff give so much joy??)
5. Don’t Dream It’s Over – Crowded House
6. Why Can’t This Be Love - Van Halen
7. Spirits in the Material World – The Police
8. Just Keep Walking – INXS
9. I Wanna Know What Love Is – Foreigner
10. Beautiful World – Devo
11. Where the Streets Have No Name – U2
12. Shout – Tears For Fears

So here’s an open “meme” or challenge. Let us know what your Essential List would be. It could be cars, 70s glam rock bands, or species of lizards – whatever! (Or it could just be 80s Songs, like this one). Then post a comment here to let me know you’ve got it on your blog. In a week or two, I’ll post all the links to all those who played.

And now for your listening pleasure, here’s two of the songs from my list above…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEdZrV0j6zM[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80OauT0OZgI[/youtube]

Wednesday’s What’s Yours: Theme Songs

I’ve decided to mix up the Wednesdays a little and change the format today. Rather than What’s Worse, let’s be positive and ask a different kind of question…

April Groves recently asked a great question: What’s Your Theme Song?

So I’m re-asking it.

I’ve decided mine is John Mayer’s “Bigger than My Body Now“.

What’s Yours?

War of the Worlds

Woah!

Ninja (my wife) & I had the pleasure of going to the live version of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds last Saturday night.

And it was the greatest live event I’ve ever been to, partly because of it’s nostalgic nature. Wayne’s original soundtrack came out in the era of my life that also spawned the first Star Wars movie.

Wayne’s music, Richard Burton’s flawless narration and of course HG Wells’ brilliant original story: and now live – at a volume that drove it through my stomach wall! Very very cool!

Anyway, just thought I’d gloat… Heh heh

If Even the Professionals Get it Wrong, Then It Must Be Ok for the Rest of Us…

If you love the music of (newly re-formed) The Police as much as I do, you may be interested in this post by drummer Stewart Copeland in which he fesses up to how poorly executed their first gig was.

I dunno, folks. I received some sort of perverse reassurance from this; I guess I think “If they can screw up so royally, and still keep going, it’s ok for the rest of us.”