![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dec. 13th, 2005
You Looked In My Iris
Dec. 13th, 2005 10:52 pmOkay, I've been tagged by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
iamo for the following meme:
List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.
Since my musical tastes are all over the place and time, and because of my habits of listening to my entire music collection once in random order rather than volitionally picking out particular songs to listen to because I like them, this can be tricky. However, for certain values of "right now"(the last year or so), and picking from the songs I've chosen to put on my "favourite songs" tapes(which number in the dozens), I might be able to get some kind of approximation(note that this is not my "seven all-time favourite songs"):
1. Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend: You're Out of The Computer I heard this one purely by chance on CJSR a few years ago, and managed to get a copy from My Robot Friend's website, which is good because it's otherwise only on an obscure CD compilation. Bingo Gazingo's got this sort of sixty-year-old guy voice, and he rants about his ex-girlfriend and how he's going to use his hacking skills to get even with her. The musical backing is mostly based on typing sounds, and it just makes me laugh every time I listen to it. Best hacking song since Weird Al's "It's All About The Pentiums".
2. Garbage: Cherry Lips(Go Baby Go) From the Garbage-thon I had a few months ago before the concert, this one, from "Beautifulgarbage", emerged as my favourite. Not as heavy as some Garbage songs are, kind of sweet, but I confess what sold me on it was the little slightly heliumized "Go baby, go go!" in the background.
3. The Beatles: I Feel Fine I first heard this song on the "1" CD, which I played a lot for the kids when they were into "Yellow Submarine". Now, as a general rule, I don't like pre-"Rubber Soul" Beatles, but this one grew on me. The opening guitar sounds like something from "Revolver", actually. The lyrics are still pretty unsophisticated, but I like the melody.
4. Blondie: Rapture My brother had this album, "Autoamerican", which is still my favourite Blondie album(I'm not as big a fan of their earlier stuff), when I was a kid. So I've known this song for a long time, but I sort of rediscovered it a year or two back. I can still do the whole "Man From Mars" rap in the middle, though I'm a little weak on some of the sung lyrics, because of Debbie Harry's diaphanous soprano. (And I'm still convinced she should be saying "Françla;ais se parle" instead of "Françla;ois se parle". As in, "French is spoken" as opposed to "Françla;ois talks to himself".)
5. Alanis Morissette: Would Not Come "Jagged Little Pill" was a great album, with lots of catchy, accessible tracks like "Head Over Feet", "You Learn", and "You Oughta Know", among others. "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" is a little harder to get into, but once I did I discovered this song, which is sort of her version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Her lyrics are in their usual highly parallel style--the verse consists of "if I were...then...", and the chorus of "I'd...and still it would not come", but it works out into a very powerful meditation on how fame and wealth are not guaranteed to bring you happiness, peace of mind, and personal fulfillment. The music is very swirly and Indian-sounding, providing a great sonic texture.
6. A Little Night Music: The Miller's Son This is from the Stephen Sondheim musical. I first heard songs from this musical on the "Side By Side By Sondheim" revue album many years ago--the classic "Send In The Clowns", of course, as well as "You Must Meet My Wife". It took me years to get around to listening to the rest of the soundtrack(and I didn't get to see a production of until a few years ago). The cast recording I have features Glynis Johns, who, in point of fact, can't sing, which may explain why "Send In The Clowns" has been sung by so many other people. (Though she did a great job reading Russell Hoban's "A Baby Sister For Frances", still one of my favourite children's books, but I digress.) Many of the songs(all of which are in waltz time, btw)are sung by the "chorus", two couples who sing and dance but aren't actally involved in the plot except as musical commentators. This one is sung by a fairly minor character, the saucy maid, but it's a tour de force. The lyrics are about how she will settle down eventually, but in the meanwhile, "a girl has to celebrate everything passing by". It's also barely recognizable as a waltz, what with tempo changes and odd rhythms, so it's by turns sedate, jittering, and sweeping. Also, it's sung in the alto range, so I can sing along with it fairly well, which is quite important to me.
7. Bruce Cockburn: Pacing The Cage This song from his album "The Charity of Night", one of his increasingly-infrequent latter-day albums, struck me instantly when I heard it. It's fairly acoustic, pretty much just Bruce and his guitar, and melancholy. He ruminates on age, passing time, others' expectations, and the general unease of the times with some of the best imagery I've ever heard. E.G. "I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strip's worn thin" "Today's eyes scan bleached-out lands for the coming of the outbound stage". And the central image, of the trapped beast pacing back and forth restlessly, compulsively, in its cage, is a very powerful one. Even Jimmy Buffett does a good version of this song, but the original is still the best.
I should mention that the best new song I heard in the past week was Jontahan Coulton's "Kenesaw Mountain Landis", a tongue-in-cheek story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. My favourite part is the last verse, which describes how he went on to ask the musical question "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", but all the critics got him confused with Elvis Costello... Well, funny to me, anyway.
David Wilcox(the folk singer)'s "Last Chance Waltz" hits me anew every time I listen to it, too, a song about trying to deal with unresolved, unrequited and unexpressed feelings for a high school rush, at the ten-year reunion.
I'm supposed to tag seven others, so I will, because I'm feeling like it.
boutell
gsv
dr_strych9
thegreymouser
senji
dankna
ecarrotsushi
If your name isn't on that list, and you feel like doing the meme...then go for it! Because you have to celebrate what passes by.
iamo for the following meme:List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now. Post these instructions in your LJ along with your seven songs. Then tag seven other people to see what they're listening to.
Since my musical tastes are all over the place and time, and because of my habits of listening to my entire music collection once in random order rather than volitionally picking out particular songs to listen to because I like them, this can be tricky. However, for certain values of "right now"(the last year or so), and picking from the songs I've chosen to put on my "favourite songs" tapes(which number in the dozens), I might be able to get some kind of approximation(note that this is not my "seven all-time favourite songs"):
1. Bingo Gazingo & My Robot Friend: You're Out of The Computer I heard this one purely by chance on CJSR a few years ago, and managed to get a copy from My Robot Friend's website, which is good because it's otherwise only on an obscure CD compilation. Bingo Gazingo's got this sort of sixty-year-old guy voice, and he rants about his ex-girlfriend and how he's going to use his hacking skills to get even with her. The musical backing is mostly based on typing sounds, and it just makes me laugh every time I listen to it. Best hacking song since Weird Al's "It's All About The Pentiums".
2. Garbage: Cherry Lips(Go Baby Go) From the Garbage-thon I had a few months ago before the concert, this one, from "Beautifulgarbage", emerged as my favourite. Not as heavy as some Garbage songs are, kind of sweet, but I confess what sold me on it was the little slightly heliumized "Go baby, go go!" in the background.
3. The Beatles: I Feel Fine I first heard this song on the "1" CD, which I played a lot for the kids when they were into "Yellow Submarine". Now, as a general rule, I don't like pre-"Rubber Soul" Beatles, but this one grew on me. The opening guitar sounds like something from "Revolver", actually. The lyrics are still pretty unsophisticated, but I like the melody.
4. Blondie: Rapture My brother had this album, "Autoamerican", which is still my favourite Blondie album(I'm not as big a fan of their earlier stuff), when I was a kid. So I've known this song for a long time, but I sort of rediscovered it a year or two back. I can still do the whole "Man From Mars" rap in the middle, though I'm a little weak on some of the sung lyrics, because of Debbie Harry's diaphanous soprano. (And I'm still convinced she should be saying "Françla;ais se parle" instead of "Françla;ois se parle". As in, "French is spoken" as opposed to "Françla;ois talks to himself".)
5. Alanis Morissette: Would Not Come "Jagged Little Pill" was a great album, with lots of catchy, accessible tracks like "Head Over Feet", "You Learn", and "You Oughta Know", among others. "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" is a little harder to get into, but once I did I discovered this song, which is sort of her version of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For". Her lyrics are in their usual highly parallel style--the verse consists of "if I were...then...", and the chorus of "I'd...and still it would not come", but it works out into a very powerful meditation on how fame and wealth are not guaranteed to bring you happiness, peace of mind, and personal fulfillment. The music is very swirly and Indian-sounding, providing a great sonic texture.
6. A Little Night Music: The Miller's Son This is from the Stephen Sondheim musical. I first heard songs from this musical on the "Side By Side By Sondheim" revue album many years ago--the classic "Send In The Clowns", of course, as well as "You Must Meet My Wife". It took me years to get around to listening to the rest of the soundtrack(and I didn't get to see a production of until a few years ago). The cast recording I have features Glynis Johns, who, in point of fact, can't sing, which may explain why "Send In The Clowns" has been sung by so many other people. (Though she did a great job reading Russell Hoban's "A Baby Sister For Frances", still one of my favourite children's books, but I digress.) Many of the songs(all of which are in waltz time, btw)are sung by the "chorus", two couples who sing and dance but aren't actally involved in the plot except as musical commentators. This one is sung by a fairly minor character, the saucy maid, but it's a tour de force. The lyrics are about how she will settle down eventually, but in the meanwhile, "a girl has to celebrate everything passing by". It's also barely recognizable as a waltz, what with tempo changes and odd rhythms, so it's by turns sedate, jittering, and sweeping. Also, it's sung in the alto range, so I can sing along with it fairly well, which is quite important to me.
7. Bruce Cockburn: Pacing The Cage This song from his album "The Charity of Night", one of his increasingly-infrequent latter-day albums, struck me instantly when I heard it. It's fairly acoustic, pretty much just Bruce and his guitar, and melancholy. He ruminates on age, passing time, others' expectations, and the general unease of the times with some of the best imagery I've ever heard. E.G. "I've proven who I am so many times, the magnetic strip's worn thin" "Today's eyes scan bleached-out lands for the coming of the outbound stage". And the central image, of the trapped beast pacing back and forth restlessly, compulsively, in its cage, is a very powerful one. Even Jimmy Buffett does a good version of this song, but the original is still the best.
I should mention that the best new song I heard in the past week was Jontahan Coulton's "Kenesaw Mountain Landis", a tongue-in-cheek story of Shoeless Joe Jackson. My favourite part is the last verse, which describes how he went on to ask the musical question "Is She Really Going Out With Him?", but all the critics got him confused with Elvis Costello... Well, funny to me, anyway.
David Wilcox(the folk singer)'s "Last Chance Waltz" hits me anew every time I listen to it, too, a song about trying to deal with unresolved, unrequited and unexpressed feelings for a high school rush, at the ten-year reunion.
I'm supposed to tag seven others, so I will, because I'm feeling like it.
boutellgsvdr_strych9thegreymousersenjidanknaecarrotsushiIf your name isn't on that list, and you feel like doing the meme...then go for it! Because you have to celebrate what passes by.
