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Prince through the Looking Glass
Sat, 10 Jul 2010 11:41:57 +0000
I bought a copy of the Daily Mirror today. I don’t normally read it (except when I’m in the Chinese takeaway waiting for my order), but I bought it today in order to get hold of the new album by Prince.
I do think that Prince is a bit of a plonker in many respects, not least his rather bizarre attitude to the Internet, but I also think that distributing his music this way is genuinely innovative and worth taking seriously. What it does, of course, is cut out the big record companies who whine incessantly about piracy while lining their own pockets at the expense of both artists and consumers. Prince is almost certainly earning more from this deal than he would by going through the usual channels, and we can buy the album for the cost of a daily newspaper. That’s good news for him, good news for us (and, I presume, good news for the Mirror, who stand to benefit from the publicity and extra sales). And what’s even better news is that it makes the antediluvian attitudes of the record labels look even more unsustainable.
I’m not convinced that releasing music via newspapers will ever be the most common form of distribution, and it’s clearly not going to work for everyone. But it will work for some, just as Radiohead’s equally innovative “pay what you think it’s worth” digital release of In Rainbows worked for them. There are artists out there who are prepared to think outside the box when it comes to making a living from their art without screwing over the consumer, and the more successful they are the more obvious it becomes that the record companies are getting it wrong. For a business sector which relies on creativity for its product, the music industry is more often notable for an extremely unimaginative and narrow-minded approach to marketing and financing. Experiments like this one by Prince are, therefore, to be applauded – even if, as I do, you think that the Mirror is a naff newspaper.
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30 Days of Music: 30 ? My favourite song this time last year
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:09:06 +0000
So, it’s the end of 30 days of music. I’m not entirely sure what to make of “my favourite song this time last year”, since if you mean “all-time favourite” then it was still the same as my choice for day 1. So I presume I’m supposed to pick the song that was my then-current favourite a year ago, if that makes sense.
So, what was I listening to this time last year? Being back in an office where we listen to music communally, on the radio, rather than sitting is silence or with headphones on, meant that this time last year I was hearing plenty of new stuff. Some I liked, some I didn’t, and some I really loved. This song fell into the final category.
I could leave it there and just play the song, but as it happens I’d never seen the video to it until I looked it up for the sake of this article. And, oh gosh, what a load of pretentious nonsense! OK, so the song itself is a bit pretentious as far as the words are concerned – I presume the main lyrical question is supposed to be rhetorical, but I still have no idea what it means. But the video takes pretentious guff to an entirely new level – it’s almost as if it’s a deliberate parody of the kind of “meaningful” videos that were popular in the
80s. Then again, maybe that really is the intention. Who knows? And what is Brandon Flowers wearing on his shoulders? Are we human, or are we dancer?
Incidentally, for a wonderfully subversive version of this song, Robbie Williams’ Live Lounge cover is worth a look!
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30 Days of Music: 29 ? A song from my childhood
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 07:32:39 +0000
For all that music means to me now, I don’t have much memory of it from my childhood. Partly, that’s because we weren’t a particularly musical family – we had an ancient gramophone with some old 78s (I kid you not!), but they didn’t get a lot of needle time and for most of my childhood music was just something that happened in the background – the radio playing in shops, or on the school bus, and once a week Top of the Pops on TV, but only the occasional song piqued my interest. It wasn’t until my teens, when I got a radio of my own and discovered Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline, that I realised there was plenty of stuff out there that I actually liked listening to. Effectively, my musical knowledge began in 1978, which for me was rather late.
Having said that, I do have one very vivid musical memory from my early childhood. In fact, it’s the earliest memory that I can put a precise date on. My mum used to listen to the radio in the kitchen while she did the housework and, though I don’t remember much of it, this song somehow managed to implant itself in my memory. Actually, my memory is playing tricks with me a bit, since I was convinced before starting to write this article that I heard it announced on air by Jimmy Young – he seemed to be ubiquitous on the radio when I was a child. But, in fact, that’s not possible, at least not if my other memory is correct, and I’m more certain of that side of it.
What I actually remember hearing is the announcer (not the DJ – this would have been pre-Radio 1) telling us that he was going to play the new record by The Beatles. And this is the song he played:
Footnote: This is a story that I’ve told several times, since “what’s your earliest memory?” is a fairly common question and hence I’ve had plenty of opportunities to give the answer. And when I do, people younger than me always seem to respond with “oooh, you remember The Beatles!” as if being old enough to hear their music while they were still making it is some kind of badge of musical honour. But the truth is, I barely remember any of it. In fact, other than this song, the only other Beatles track that I can definitely recall from my childhood is Octopus’s Garden, which is hardly one to be proud of remembering. I certainly had no idea, at the time, that they were the biggest band in the world. And, if I’m perfectly honest, I don’t really think I missed all that much.
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30 Days of Music: 28 ? A song that makes me feel guilty
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 19:56:37 +0000
I don’t think there are any songs which make me feel guilty, at least in the sense of being associated with something I’ve done wrong and feel ashamed of. But this song always reminds me that I don’t do as much as I should to make this world a better place.
Ralph McTell – Streets of London
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I blame John Terry
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 16:23:44 +0000
So, England are out of the World Cup. Never mind the dodgy linesman’s decision which wrongly ruled out Frank Lampard’s goal. The fact is, the team just weren’t good enough anyway. So, what went wrong?
I blame John Terry. No, really. Hear me out.
England breezed through qualification. They didn’t become a bad team, and Fabio Capello didn’t become a bad manager, overnight. So what changed?
What changed was Terry sticking his dick where it didn’t belong. That cost him his authority in the team, and cost him the captaincy. Then Rio Ferdinand got injured, and the armband ended up with Steven Gerrard.
But Gerrard isn’t an England captain. He can’t lift a team when it’s down, and he needs someone else on the field to tell him to play for the team instead of himself. He needs a captain to lift him out of himself when he’s playing badly. With the armband, he drags everyone down to his level when he’s not playing well.
And he didn’t play well. Maybe the weight of the captaincy itself contributed to that. But, whatever the reason, the team also played badly as a result. And that’s why they’re on the way home.
A good captain could have made a difference. But the best captain in the team had thrown it away through his own stupid behaviour, and the second-best captain got injured through no fault of his own. Ferdinand’s injury wouldn’t have mattered in that respect if Terry had kept his libido under control. But it did matter, and the team paid the price. I only hope that Terry realises that he did to England’s chances in the World Cup exactly what he did to Vanessa Perroncel.
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30 Days of Music: 27 ? A song I wish I could play
Sun, 27 Jun 2010 09:02:13 +0000
After yesterday’s songs that I can play on the keyboards, it doesn’t take much observation to guess that today’s song is going to feature an instrument that I can’t play. Or, at least, can’t play very well. I can manage about three and a half chords on the guitar, which, while it may be more than adequate for the truth, isn’t enough for most of the guitar-based music that I like listening to.
In particular, I’d love to be able to play this song. I’d love to be able to sing this song. Although it’s a classic stadium-rock anthem with some great guitar chops, the lyrics carry a darker side about love lost, ambition failed and nostalgia for a time that’s better seen through the eyes of hindsight than it probably was when it happened. While it doesn’t have the same heartbreaking intensity as the song I chose for day 4, there’s still a bittersweet taste here which means this isn’t an undiluted celebration song. And it’s all the better for it.
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30 Days of Music: 26 ? A song I can play on an instrument
Sat, 26 Jun 2010 08:01:47 +0000
Speaking as a musician, there are obviously plenty of songs which could fit this category. In fact, it would be harder to find a song which doesn’t fit this category, in one sense.
But there’s a difference between playing a song and playing on a song, if you get what I mean. I’m a keyboard player, and, contrary to what a fair number of non-musicians think, that’s not the same as either a pianist or an organist. Other than when I’m at home on my own, I rarely play solo – 99% of my “performance” music is as a member of a band. In a band, I can play pretty much any song, because all I have to do is provide the keyboard part – which, for the stuff I generally play, just means the bog-standard chords, phrases, pads and stabs. Occasionally I find myself called on to provide more of a piano-style lead, but that’s not really my scene (although if I get the chance to indulge in a bit of Hammond-organ style improvisation, I’ll take it!).
What that means, though, is that although in a band I can play almost any song, as a solo musician there aren’t all that many songs I can play in a way that would be instantly recognisable as the song in question! It doesn’t help that I find it quite difficult to play and sing at the same time – I can manage backing vocals when necessary, at least on songs I know well, but you won’t find me giving an impromptu performance on a pub piano, for example.
However, there are a few songs that I’d say I can play. Mostly, they’re the songs that inspired me to take up keyboards in the first place, rather than any other instrument. I’ve mentioned before in this series that I was very much into 80s electronica and synth-pop, so as soon as I could afford it I bought myself an analogue synth and taught myself to play it. This was one of the first songs I managed to pick apart:
Depeche Mode – Just Can’t Get Enough
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30 Days of Music: 25 ? A song that makes me laugh
Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:39:59 +0000
I’m not quite sure what to make of this one. I don’t generally laugh at songs, unless they’re deliberately intended to be comedy songs (and, in those cases, they’re often not very good). But I can’t think of any other songs that make me laugh. But, then again, there are comedy songs and comedy songs. This isn’t a comedy song as such, but I have to confess that I laughed out loud when I first heard this cover version on Jools Holland’s Hootenanny…
The really funny thing about this is that now, when I hear the Nirvana version, I can’t help thinking of this.
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30 Days of Music: 24 ? A song that I want to have played at my funeral
Thu, 24 Jun 2010 06:04:13 +0000
Unlike yesterday’s topic, this is definitely still in the future – and hopefully quite a long way in the future, too! But I’m sticking with the same kind of theme as yesterday. Short of something deliberately ironic, such as My Way, I don’t really want to inflict my choice of music on my friends and family, so I’m deliberately not going to leave any instructions for what I want at my funeral – it’s up to them how they remember me. But I won’t complain if they choose this one…
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30 Days of Music: 23 ? A song I want to have played at my wedding
Wed, 23 Jun 2010 18:37:38 +0000
We’re a bit late for this one, since I’m already married and have no plans to have any more weddings. So, rather than try to come up with anything clever, here’s the song that Emma and I had at our wedding as we signed the register:
Direct link: Breathe
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30 Days of Music: 22 ? A song that I listen to when I?m sad
Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:30:50 +0000
Happy songs are all alike, every sad song is sad in its own way. So Leo Tolstoy might have written if he’d been into music instead of literature. As with anger, a couple of days ago, there are different reasons why I’m sad, and different types of sadness seem to demand different types of music. Sometimes, sadness can require catharsis, at others, it requires sympathy, and at yet others it needs washing away. There’s a whole genre of nobody-loves-me songs which have their raison d’etre in the need to cry your heart out, Bridget Jones style, and take solace in the fact that you’re not the first to be lonely or suffer a broken relationship. We all have an inbuilt urge, it seems, to hear some sounds that recognise the pain we feel.
So there are far too many candidates for today’s topic for it to be an obvious or simple choice. But sometimes, sadness isn’t just about me and what I need, it’s about what those I love need. This song exemplifies that, to me. This is Coldplay, with Fix You.
We’re at Dailymotion again for the video (Youtube seems to get suckier by the minute). And, in this case, the DM version seems to be better quality as well, so here’s the link: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1g0tu_fix-you-coldplay_music
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30 Days of Music: 21 ? A song that I listen to when I?m happy
Mon, 21 Jun 2010 20:54:41 +0000
This song is a staple on my “driving songs” iPhone playlist, which primarily comprises upbeat, happy songs that sound good on the way home from work – particularly on a summer Friday afternoon when the sun is shining and the weekend has just started. So, for the purposes of this list, it’s a pity that today is a Monday. But then again, I don’t care if Monday’s blue…
The embedded video is from Dailymotion, because of YouTube’s embedding restrictions. But, for those who prefer to see it at YouTube (or don’t get the embedded version anyway), the direct link is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wa2nLEhUcZ0
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30 Days of Music: 20 ? A song that I listen to when I?m angry
Sun, 20 Jun 2010 07:08:03 +0000
This ought to be divided into subcategories. There are lots of different reasons why I get angry, and different songs fit different types of anger. There’s the anger when I’m angry with myself, usually for doing something stupid, there’s the anger with other people for doing something stupid (I’m reminded of this song at this point), and there’s the anger at injustice and oppression. On the latter note, this song has always been one of the most evocative, and recent media stories make it even more relevant. Sunday Bloody Sunday.
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbNuIqiVPbU
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30 Days of Music: 19 ? A song from my favourite album
Sat, 19 Jun 2010 08:01:04 +0000
Picking a favourite album is almost as hard as picking a favourite song. I’m not entirely sure if this really is my favourite album, but it’s certainly up there near the top. But the reason I’ve picked this is because it gives me an excuse to include a song that nearly, nearly got chosen as my all-time favourite song back in day one, could equally have been a song which makes me happy, is very much a spirit of place song and probably fits several other categories as well.
It comes from one of those rare albums which doesn’t seem to have any weak songs on it, and showcases Mike Scott’s extraordinary lyric-writing ability – this is the only song I’ve ever hear where the bridge consists of nothing more than a bullet point list set to music, and does so utterly brilliantly (Facebook users will see this as one of my favourite quotes if you check my profile). From the album This is the Sea, this is The Waterboys with The Whole of the Moon:
Direct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4NoZtmxf6o
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30 Days of Music: 18 ? A song that I wish I heard on the radio
Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:05:16 +0000
This is a bit trickier than yesterday, since on the whole I don’t tend to worry about songs that aren’t on the radio that I think ought to be. That’s partly because the radio I listen to out of choice (Absolute Radio) plays the songs I like anyway, and I don’t think I’m really in a position to complain about the Radio 1 playlist that we get at work since I’m not part of their target demographic.
That said, I think this should have got airplay when it was in the charts :-)
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30 Days of Music: 17 ? A song I hear often on the radio
Thu, 17 Jun 2010 19:02:33 +0000
I hear plenty of songs often on the radio, since we usually have it on at work and I tend to listen at home at the weekend as well. But this song seems to have been particularly ubiquitous recently since it’s been on the playlists of both Radio 1 (listen at work) and Absolute Radio (my weekend listening of choice). So it makes a change from the past few days to be able to make a nice, simple and easy choice for the day’s topic. It helps that I like this one, as well. This is Scouting For Girls, with This Ain’t a Love Song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=886AQqcM8Tk
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30 Days of Music: 16 ? A song I used to love but now hate
Wed, 16 Jun 2010 19:35:56 +0000
There really isn’t anything which fits this category. Apart from the fact that, as I’ve already said, I don’t “hate” any music – I just don’t listen to it if I don’t like it – my tastes haven’t changed so much over the years that I now even particularly dislike something that I used to love.
Some songs, though, drop out of favour not because my tastes have changed, but because the song itself becomes tainted by negative associations. And that’s the case with this one.
It would be stretching it to call this a song that I used to love, because even then it wasn’t a favourite. But it was a tolerable enough pop song from a singer that I quite like, so I was happy enough to hear it. Until, through a purely coincidental set of circumstances, it became associated with an episode in my life that I still cringe to think about. I still can’t hear this song without having flashbacks.
This is Amy Grant, with her sole UK chart hit Baby Baby. I’ve used the TOTP performance as, yet again, the official video has embedding disabled so they lose out on the benefit of having it shared. Feel free to enjoy this, I’ll wait outside until it’s finished…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYH83KeuRYE
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30 Days of Music: 15 ? A song that describes me
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:00:26 +0000
Well, now, there are lots of options for this, at least if I go just by the title. This Charming Man, maybe, or possibly anything by Captain Sensible. Or, more prosaically (but far more accurately), just plain Human.
Having said that, this is probably the hardest to pick so far. I really don’t tend to associate songs with myself, and finding one that genuinely describes me – as opposed to merely having a title which suits me – is almost impossible.
To try to solve the problem of what song to pick, I asked Emma what song she thought described me. Her answer was that I should make a mixtape of various clips of my favourite songs and use that, which is a great idea but – apart from being too much effort – it’s probably not in keeping with the spirit of the series.
So, after much thought, I’ve gone with this classic from the late 90s. Not because the song describes me as such, but because I can hear myself in the voice of the narrator. I’ve come to the conclusion that as I get older I’m turning into the kind of grumpy old man who’s never short of advice for the younger generation. But, in the end, advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTJ7AzBIJoI
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30 Days of Music: 14 ? A song no-one would expect me to love
Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:58:40 +0000
This is a bit too much like yesterday’s topic, really, and suffers from a similar flaw. Those who know me well won’t be all that surprised at any of my musical choices, while for those that don’t know me, they don’t have any expectations to be confounded.
So, is anyone going to be surprised by this choice or not? I don’t know, you tell me. Given that I’m not normally into power-pop girl singers, and I’m a bit old for the usual Radio 1 demographic (I blame my co-workers for the fact that I’ve even heard this), I suppose it is a bit of an unpredictable choice. But what the heck – I like this.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX07z6ho_F4
(That’s another unofficial link, because the official version can’t be embedded. Does that suck, or what?)
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30 Days of Music: 13 ? A song that is a guilty pleasure
Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:30:32 +0000
I don’t really believe in guilty pleasures. But this is a song that I tend not to own up to liking, at least in polite company. However, it is a very good one. I’m not a huge fan of rap (in many cases, it’s fair to say that “rap” is spelled with a silent “C”), but at its best it can be very inventive. This song showcases some of the best and worst about rap – it combines clever wordplay, a compelling story and utterly obscene lyrics. This is, obviously, the censored “radio edit”, but even so it’s not something that you’d want your granny to hear. Guilty pleasure? More like a Guilty Conscience…
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbw_BxDwdjk
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