Wednesday, August 31, 2011

wannabe







Girl Power took the world by storm out of Maidenhead with a little zigazig-ha. Heart Management put out an ad for girls ("Are you street smart, extrovert, ambitious, and able to sing and dance?") and received hundreds of replies. The five finalists Victoria Adams (Posh), Melanie Brown (Scary), Melanie Chisholm (Sporty), Geri Halliwell (Ginger), and Michelle Stephenson, moved in together and formed Touch. Emma Bunton (Baby) replaced Stephenson and they changed their name to Spice. At an industry showcase performance, they met producer Richard Stannard who got them together with his partner Matt Rowe. 'Wannabe' came out during their first writing session, with the group contributing parts they already had in a furious blast of creative energy that took thirty minutes. Mel C says, "You know when you're in a gang and you're having a laugh and you make up silly words? Well we were having a giggle and we made up this silly word, zigazig-ha. And we were in the studio and it all came together in this song." They recorded the song in less than an hour; but Posh missed the session and contributed backup vocals later. The group left Heart Management over artistic differences and signed with Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment and accepted a deal with Virgin Records as the Spice Girls. They rejected numerous attempts to remix the song until Fuller gave it to Spike Stent. 'Wannabe' was their first single, topping the charts in thirty-one countries, selling over six million copies worldwide, and becoming the best-selling single by a female group.









http://www.thespicegirls.com/













Ha ha ha ha ha
Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah

If you want my future, forget my past
If you wanna get with me, better make it fast
Now don't go wasting my precious time
Get your act together we could be just fine

I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah
If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
(Gotta get with my friends)
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

Oh, what do you think about that
Now you know how I feel
Say, you can handle my love, are you for real
(Are you for real)
I won't be hasty, I'll give you a try
If you really bug me then I'll say goodbye

Yo I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want
I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha) I wanna, (ha)
I wanna really, really, really wanna zigazig ah

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
(Gotta get with my friends)
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
(You've got to give)
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

So, here's a story from A to Z
You wanna get with me, you gotta listen carefully
We got Em in the place who likes it in your face
You got G like MC who likes it on a
Easy V doesn't come for free, she's a real lady
And as for me, ha you'll see

Slam your body down and wind it all around
Slam your body down and wind it all around

If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends
(Gotta get with my friends)
Make it last forever, friendship never ends
If you wanna be my lover, you have got to give
(You've got to give)
Taking is too easy, but that's the way it is

If you wanna be my lover
You gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta
Slam, slam, slam, slam (make it last forever)

Slam your body down and wind it all around
Slam your body down and wind it all around
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha
Slam your body down and wind it all around
Slam your body down and zigazig ah

If you wanna be my lover




Tuesday, August 30, 2011

surf's up








The Beach Boys got serious with this somber and soulful socially conscious concept album with diverse tracks that reflected the vexations within the band. Torn between commercial and artistic impulses, they brought in Jack Rieley to negotiate the rival factions. The squeaky-clean Mike Love, Al Jardine, and Bruce Johnston were more inclined toward making a hit record while the Wilson brothers were more interested in experimentation in the studio (and their heads). It was Rieley who suggested the theme of environmental awareness and who insisted on using the song for which the album would eventually be named. He also elected Carl Wilson as band leader. Dennis Wilson had two songs that were not included on the album due to disagreements between the brothers. Everyone else in the band would make compositional contributions to the album: Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston, Mike Love, Brian Wilson, Carl Wilson, and even Jack Reiely. 'Surf's Up' reached number twenty nine in the US and number fifteen in the UK.

The title track is the centerpiece for the album and was originally written by Brian Wilson with Van Dyke Parks for the 'Smile' sessions. Brian was apprehensive about the project and didn't want to participate; so Carl took over Brian's original recordings and added new instrumentation and vocals with Al Jardine.
"The glass was raised, the fired rose
The fullness of the wine, the dim last toasting
While at port adieu or die
A choke of grief heart hardened I
Beyond belief a broken man too tough to cry"





''Til I Die' was composed solely by Brian Wilson: "Lately, I'd been depressed and preoccupied with death...Looking out toward the ocean, my mind, as it did almost every hour of every day, worked to explain the inconsistencies that dominated my life; the pain, torment, and confusion and the beautiful music I was able to make. Was there an answer? Did I have no control? Had I ever? Feeling shipwrecked on an existential island, I lost myself in the balance of darkness that stretched beyond the breaking waves to the other side of the earth. The ocean was so incredibly vast, the universe was so large, and suddenly I saw myself in proportion to that, a little pebble of sand, a jellyfish floating on top of the water; traveling with the current I felt dwarfed, temporary. The next day I began writing "'Til I Die", perhaps the most personal song I ever wrote for The Beach Boys...In doing so, I wanted to re-create the swell of emotions that I'd felt at the beach the previous night." Carl and Mike sing on the song as well as Brian.
"I'm a cork on the ocean
Floating over the raging sea
How deep is the ocean?
How deep is the ocean?
I lost my way"




'Feel Flows' was written by Carl Wilson with Jack Rieley and sung by Carl Wilson
"Whether wholly heartened life fades away
Whether wondrous will stands tall at my side
Whether whiteness whisks soft shadows away
Feel goes (White puff glisteny shadowy flow)
Feel flows (Black puff glisteny shadowy flow)"





Carl Wilson with Jack Rieley also composed 'Long Promised Road' and, again, Carl Wilson did the vocal. The single (with ''Til I Die' as the flipside) peaked at number eighty nine on the Billboard Hot 100.
"But I hit hard at the battle that's confronting me, yeah
Knock down all the roaddblocks a-stumbling me
Throw off all the shackles that are binding me down"





'Surf's Up'
full album:


Don't Go Near The Water 00:02
Long Promised Road 2:43
Take A Load Off Your Feet 6:16
Disney Girls (1957) 8:47
Student Demonstration Time 12:58

Feel Flows 16:57
Lookin' At Tommorrow (A Welfare Song) 21:46
A Day In The Life Of A Tree 23:45
Till' I Die 26:54
Surf's Up 29:31





Side one
1. "Don't Go Near the Water"   (Mike Love/Al Jardine) Lead vocals:  Mike Love/Al Jardine/Brian Wilson 2:39
2. "Long Promised Road"   (Carl Wilson/Jack Rieley) lead vocal:  Carl Wilson 3:30
3. "Take a Load Off Your Feet"   (Jardine/Brian Wilson/Gary Winfrey)   lead vocals:  Brian Wilson/Jardine 2:29
4. "Disney Girls (1957)"   (Bruce Johnston) lead vocal: Bruce Johnston 4:07
5. "Student Demonstration Time"   (Jerry Leiber/Mike Stoller/Mike Love) lead vocal:  Love 3:58
Side two
1. "Feel Flows"   (C. Wilson/Rieley)  lead vocal:  C. Wilson 4:44
2. "Lookin' at Tomorrow (A Welfare Song)"   (Jardine/Winfrey) lead vocal:  Jardine 1:55
3. "A Day in the Life of a Tree"   (B. Wilson/Rieley) lead vocals:  Jack Rieley/Van Dyke Parks/Jardine 3:07
4. "'Til I Die"   (B. Wilson) lead vocals:  C. Wilson/B. Wilson/Love 2:41

5. "Surf's Up"   (B. Wilson/Van Dyke Parks) lead vocals:  C. Wilson/B. Wilson/Jardine 4:12




Monday, August 29, 2011

modern times









Jack Frost hit his stride with the mystic mythmaking of this timeless swing blues masterpiece. 'Modern Times' borrows faithfully and generously from such divergent sources as Muddy Waters and Memphis Minnie, Roman poet Ovid and American Civil War poet Henry Timrod, Chuck Berry and Bing Crosby, Charlie Chaplin and Robert Johnson, the Museum of Modern Art and the Bible; and delivers an album that ranks with any in his catalogue. Recorded with his touring band in three weeks at Clinton Studios in Manhattan, the sound goes from loose and hot to sweet and slow, with every lick feeling like it belongs there and Zimmerman waxing lyrical like the prophet Jeremiah. Dylan plays guitar harmonica and piano, with Stu Kimball and Denny Freeman on guitar; multi instrumentalist Donnie Herron on steel guitar, violin, viola, and mandolin; Tony Garnier on bass and cello; and George Receli on drums and percussion. On the subject of his appropriation of old songs, Dylan explains: "Well, you have to understand that I'm not a melodist... My songs are either based on old Protestant hymns or Carter Family songs or variations of the blues form. What happens is, I'll take a song I know and simply start playing it in my head. That's the way I meditate. A lot of people will look at a crack on the wall and meditate, or count sheep or angels or money or something, and it's a proven fact that it'll help them relax. I don't meditate on any of that stuff. I meditate on a song. I'll be playing Bob Nolan's "Tumbling Tumbleweeds," for instance, in my head constantly – while I'm driving a car or talking to a person or sitting around or whatever. People will think they are talking to me and I'm talking back, but I'm not. I'm listening to a song in my head. At a certain point, some words will change and I'll start writing a song." 'Modern Times' became Dylan's first number one album in the US since 'Desire' and was his first to debut at the top of the album chart. It was also number one in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland; and sold more than four million copies worldwide in the first two months.
'Thunder On The Mountain' throws down the sign of the times with a rollocking jump blues inspired by Memphis Minnie and Chuck Berry.
"Feel like my soul is beginning to expand
Look into my heart and you will sort of understand
You brought me here, now you're trying to run me away
The writing on the wall, come read it, come see what it say "






The sweet meditations of 'Spirit On The Water' describes a love torn apart and evokes Bruce Channel's 'Hey Baby'.
"You think I'm over the hill
You think I'm past my prime
Let me see what you got
We can have a whoppin' good time "





'Rollin and Tumblin' borrows from the blues of Hambone Willie Newbern and Muddy Waters and adds a little somethin' new.
"I'm flat out spent, this woman she been drivin' me to tears
This woman so crazy, I swear I ain't gonna touch another one for years "






'Rollin and Tumblin' borrows from the blues of Hambone Willie Newbern and Muddy Waters and adds a little somethin' new.


"I'm flat out spent, this woman she been drivin' me to tears
This woman so crazy, I swear I ain't gonna touch another one for years "







The reflective 'When The Deal Goes Down' uses the melody of Bing Crosby's 'Where the Blue of the Night (Meets the Gold of the Day)'.
"Well, I picked up a rose and it poked through my clothes
I followed the winding stream
I heard the deafening noise, I felt transient joys
I know they're not what they seem
In this earthly domain, full of disappointment and pain
You'll never see me frown
I owe my heart to you, and that's sayin' it true
And I'll be with you when the deal goes down "





'Levee's Gonna Break' is an adaptation of the song by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie.
"If it keep on rainin', the levee gonna break
Everybody saying this is a day only the Lord could make"









'Modern Times'

full album:




All songs written and composed by Bob Dylan. 

1. "Thunder on the Mountain"   5:55
2. "Spirit on the Water"   7:41
3. "Rollin' and Tumblin'"   6:02
4. "When the Deal Goes Down"   5:04
5. "Someday Baby"   4:56
6. "Workingman's Blues #2"   6:07
7. "Beyond the Horizon"   5:36
8. "Nettie Moore"   6:53
9. "The Levee's Gonna Break"   5:43
10. "Ain't Talkin'"   8:48







Sunday, August 28, 2011

tattoo you







The Glimmer Twins dug into the vaults and came up with this solid album of rockers and ballads. The Rolling Stones were set to go on a worldwide tour in 1981; but they needed an album to support and didn't have enough time to record. Mick and Keith were not getting along or writing new material; so producer Chris Kimsey (who had been the band's engineer for ten years) helped them put together these tracks left over from sessions from their last five albums with two new songs. Mick says, "It wasn't all outtakes; some of it was old songs... I had to write lyrics and melodies. A lot of them didn't have anything, which is why they weren't used at the time - because they weren't complete. They were just bits, or they were from early takes". 'Tattoo You' became their eighth consecutive (and last) number one album on the American charts.
'Start Me Up' started out as a reggae rock song during the sessions for 'Black and Blue' and revisited during 'Some Girls' and 'Emotional Rescue' where it took on the more familiar rock sound. It became the leadoff single for 'Tattoo You' and was a number one hit in Australia and on the US Mainstream Rock chart. It went to number two on the pop charts and was a top ten hit around the world; their last in their native England. Mick says, "It was one of those things we cut a lot of times; one of those cuts that you can play forever and ever in the studio. Twenty minutes go by and you're still locked into those two chords... Sometimes you become conscious of the fact that, 'Oh, it's 'Brown Sugar' again,' so you begin to explore other rhythmic possibilities. It's basically trial and error. As I said, that one was pretty locked into a reggae rhythm for quite a few weeks. We were cutting it for 'Emotional Rescue' , but it was nowhere near coming through, and we put it aside and almost forgot about it."

"You make a grown man cry"









'Waiting On A Friend' was a leftover from the 'Goats Head Soup' sessions in Jamaica and retains Mick Taylor's guitar track. It features jazz great Sonny Rollins on saxophone. The single went to number eight on the Mainstream Rock chart and thirteen on the pop chart. Michael Lindsay-Hogg directed this video, which includes a cameo from Peter Tosh sitting on a stoop with Mick at 96-98 St. Mark's Place in Manhattan (the same building on the cover of Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti').

"Don't need a whore
I don't need no booze
Don't need a virgin priest
But I need someone I can cry to
I need someone to protect
Making love and breaking hearts
It is a game for youth"






The overtly political doo-wop rocker 'Hang Fire' was written during the 'Some Girls' sessions in Paris. It went to number two on the Mainstream Rock chart and number twenty on the pop chart; but was not released as a single in England.
"We've got nothing to eat
We got nowhere to work
Nothing to drink
We just lost our shirts
I'm on the dole
We ain't for hire
Say 'What the hell?!'"









'Tattoo You' 
full album:


All songs composed by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards,
 except "Black Limousine" and "No Use in Crying" co-written by Ronnie Wood

Start Me Up 00:00
Hang Fire 03:33
Slave 05:56
Little T & A 10:51
Black Limousine 14:14
Neighbours 17:50
Worried About You 21:25
Tops 26:44
Heaven 30:31
No Use In Crying 34:58
Waiting On A Friend 38:25











Friday, August 26, 2011

peggy suicide










The Drude came lumbering out of the psychedelic wasteland with this sprawling kaleidoscopic pop masterpiece. Inspired by John Sinclair's book 'Guitar Army: Rock and Revolution with The MC5 and the White Panther Party', Julian Cope adopted a more political perspective and a one-take approach in the studio. He also spent a lot of time touring ancient monuments around England. 'Peggy Suicide' is his metaphor for Mother Earth on the verge of destruction. In the midst of recording the album he played his first live show in two years in Brixton for an Anti-Poll Tax benefit and took place in demonstrations dressed as Mr. Sqwubbsy. He produced the album with Donald Ross Skinner who also plays bass, guitar, and organ. Frequent collaborators Rooster Cosby and Ron Fair took part as well as a slew of studio musicians.
Cope describes his new creative process as a "gnostic odyssey":        "Everything in my trip is a holistic thing. Some of it's very left-field and some of it is right in the center. I believe that we formerly had collective magic that we used in a community way. I think that the collective magic in 3000 B.C. in Britain made large stone circles. The stones were so big no one can even imagine it now as magic--because it was a communal effort. But at the same time, we are in the middle of a very high technological magic which we don't even accept. If archaeologists, using the kind of ideas they use now in 5000 years discover car culture, they really won't believe that we could have driven at 80 miles per hour on the motorway with very few collisions. If you think about that in a rationalist way, it doesn't really make sense. But we think that it can't be magic because we can do it. That's what I term the whole Fordism, the car culture. So we still have that collective magic, but we've applied it to technological pursuits and we fall victim to thinking in a technological way so we can't get back to our magical selves. So that's my job, to let people know about it."
'Beautiful Love' was the first single. It peaked at number thirty two on the UK charts.
"You seem lonely oh Avalon
I feel evidence very strong
Beautiful love now beautiful love where have you gone"




The funky groove of 'East Easy Rider' went to number fifty one on the British charts.
"Well, it's a bruising shattering ride
But I cannot deny myself this luxury"




The double entendre single for 'Head' peaked at number fifty seven in the UK.
"I can feel my head exploding now
an uncovered head exploding now."




'Safesurfer' is a meditation on A.I.D.S. that features Michael "Moon-Eye" Watts trading guitar licks with Julian.
"You don't have to be afraid love
'Cause I'm a safesurfer, darlin'"




'Hanging Out And Hung Up On The Line' features Mike Joyce on drums. Cope describes it as “a psychic driving song.”
"this is not a dainty world to set before the swine,
Guess it looks like I'm hanging out and hung up on the line."





'Soldier Blue' samples Lenny Bruce and the Poll Tax riots to criticize the police. Julian wanted to release it as a single.
"'Cause I know what you did
And I'm proud to admit it
I was out in the street
I was strangely committed"




'Double Vegetation' addresses religious fundamentalism.
"Why did you and me both stand in line?
He said "I want you"
Each day we get closer to the big bad fire"




'Pristine' describes the effect we have had on the planet.
“How much can you take?
Trusting in me was your major mistake”








'Peggy Suicide'
full album:




All songs written and composed by Julian Cope. 

00:01 Pristeen
04:41 Double Vegetation
08:33 East Easy Rider
12:33 Promised Land
16:12 Hanging Out & Hung Up On The Line
20:58 Safesurfer
29:05 If You Loved Me At All
34:06 Drive, She Said 
38:42 Soldier Blue
43:31 You...
45:20 Not Raving But Drowning
49:37 Head
51:58 Leperskin
57:10 Beautiful Love
01:00:23 Western Front 192 CE
01:02:25 Hung Up & Hanging Out To Dry
01:07:12 The American Lite
01:11:16 Las Vegas Basement