Archive for Music - page 6

You probably need a palate cleanser after that smorgsbord, right?  Here something a little more mainstream, the Doobie Brothers featuring ‘Blue Eyed Soul Man” Michael McDonald.  Before he became known as “White Lighting” after , you know, his hair turned white.  Enjoy:

Thanks for reading…err…watching.  Wait… no.  Listening!  Thanks for listening!

How do you like that? Smorgasbord of Meaning.  Great name for a band.  Anyhoo, due to the constraints of time this week you get to imagine your own commentary to these three Donald Fagen / Steely Dan tunes.  (As you may or may not know, remember or care, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen and their creation Steely Dan form a major part of my musical…uh…persona).

First: it means whatever you want it to mean.

Next: It feels soooo good.

Finally: Thanks for calling.

Next post:  Palate cleanser.  Bye!

When I was doing the last post and said that the world goes round and round it reminded me of this song.  It’s an awesome song – actually a love song – by a band with an even more awesome name: Ratt.  There’s definitely a slim chance you’ve heard this before, since it charted at #14 in 1984.  Unless you are what we call a “Young Person”, which is someone under the age of 40.  So here – have a Ratt attack:

With Love we’ll find a way, just give it time.

I got the idea for this Music Friday post when I was dazzling (yes, dazzling! *eyeroll*) some people with my vast music knowledge by remembering the name of the artists that recorded this song in 1969.  That is, it was recorded in 1969 not that I remembered it in 1969.  Anyhoo…the song charted at #1 in the US and the UK in 1969.  It was their only song to break the top 100 in either country, so I suppose you could call them a one hit wonder.  The artist’s name that I remembered?  Zager and Evans.  And the song in question  is In The Year 2525.  1969 was not neccessarily the happiest of times – there was an unpopular war ongoing in Viet Nam, Environmentalism was becoming a thing and among the youth and the popular culture there was a feeling that Mankind was a scourge on the earth and was in a self-destructive spiral.  So it was an attitude of cynicism and despair that spawned this upbeat little ditty:

Is this world just a big treadmill?  I does go round and round.  God: (as if teaching us our multiplication tables) You will keep doing this until you get it right!

“He’ll either say ‘I’m pleased where man has been’ or tear it down and start again”

Yet… there seems to be little ray of hope at the end.  Then after it’s finished, it starts all over again.  Maybe it was  just a dream.   A nightmare?  We made it what it was.  And we can decide what it will be.

A few weeks ago I did a Happy Birthday post featuring Paul McCartney, and have been listening to Beatles tunes since.  So I figured why not do a couple songs from the other half of the dynamic duo?  Not Batman and Robin – Lennon and McCartney.  That is, John Lennon.  Lennon’s solo work is not as ubiquitous as McCartney’s, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t  just as good.  In my mind, McCartney was much more prolific and his music had more of a pop quality, while Lennon’s seemed more deliberative, introspective and artlike.  No judgement, just an observation.  Anyhoo… I picked a couple of my favorites here:

First up: “Whatever Gets You Through The Night” (with Elton John):

Whatever gets you to the light indeed.  Next I give you “Watching the Wheels”

Finally, “Nobody Told Me”:

Most peculiar, Mama.  Which may sum up the whole story, sad ending and all.  Final fun fact:  Lennon’s middle name is Winston, after the other famous British Winston – Churchill.  RIP and THANKS!

Here is your feel good story of the day: Entire ISIS Bomb Making Class Blown up by Instructor’s Mistake.  Apparently the Bomb-Teacher had a class of 21 students who suddenly found themselves burning in hell when their instruction took a wrong turn.

Instructor: “So you see our bomb is complete.  To detonate simply turn this swi…BOOM!

Students: “……..”

That’s some Instant Karma right there.

Hat Tip: Ace of Spades HQ

Cross Posted at Men Out of Work Blog

From 1955, “The Great Pretender” by The Platters.  According to wikipedia this song was the namesake for The Pretenders.  Now you know.

In keeping with today’s pretend theme, I will pretend that you would like to know about and hear a few songs from The Pretenders.  The group was formed in London during the late 1970s, though Chrissie Hynde was from Akron, Ohio.  The band has gone through several personnel changes but Hynde has been the constant.  They enjoyed a fair amount of success through the 70s and 80s, into the 90s.  They are still together as of 2012.

The first song in our lineup still receives a ton of airplay on classic rock stations today.  It’s from the very beginning of the 1980s, January 1980 to be exact.  Title:  “Brass in Pocket”

Gonna use my my my ‘magination alright.  OK, next song was their biggest hit in the US, staying at #5 on the charts for three weeks in 1982: “Back on the Chain Gang”

Alrighty then.  The next song is the “B” side to the previous song.  Most people probably couldn’t tell you the title, they just know it as “The Rush Limbaugh Song”.  The actual title is “My City Was Gone”:

I’ll forego the usual three song format so I can add a fourth, their final song to chart in the US.  This song reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990.  The ballad: “I’ll Stand By You”

I’ll will stand by you.  Indeed.  Hope you enjoyed The Pretenders.  Have a great Friday!

Today a man said something:  Obama says ‘After 9-11 we tortured some folks’

Welcome to another edition of Music Friday.  I’m your host, Kasey Kasem.  Jumping of on a tangent from last Music Friday, today we will foray into the New Wave Movement of  the late 1970s and early 1980s.  New Wave Music was an evolution of Punk Rock, tweaked ever so slightly to give it some mainstream appeal and therefore chance of commercial viability.  If you are about my age and have ever listened to a radio, you have probably heard these songs, which I chose to highlight the fact that New Wave did what it set out to do, which was reach an audience.

First up, English group The Fixx.  This song, “One Thing Leads To Another”, is their most successful recording, having reached #4 on the US Billboard Top 100 in 1983:

Loved it.  OK, next here is a band from Scotland called Big Country.  This song, “In a Big Country” was popular at the same time as the previous song, as it reached #17 on the US Billboard Top 100 the same year. Give a listen:

Sounds Scottish, no?  Apparently those are not bagpipes you hear, but heavily engineered electric guitar.  Interesting.  Moving on to our final stop, we have the English group Tears For Fears.  They had many commercial successes, this song being one of them.  “Head Over Heels” reached #3 on the US Billboard Top 100 in 1985:

There you have just a little taste of the late 70s and early 80s.  Have a favorite that I overlooked?  Leave it in the comments.  I take requests!