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What are you listening to?

Started by The Brain, March 10, 2009, 12:32:23 PM

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Savonarola

The Satintones - Angel (1961)

So with the fiasco of "Tomorrow and Always" Berry was forced to withdraw the single.  Rather than simply leave a blank spot for the single number, he reached back into the vaults and created a new single for the Satintones.  It has the same B side ("A Love that Can Never Be") as "Tomorrow and Always."  This is the sort of single that makes you wonder what else Motown has in it's vaults; it's amazing.  Not only is it the Satintones best (not a real high bar) but it's one of the best doo-wop songs ever made.  This was the end of the doo-wop era so once again this didn't chart and the Satintones are largely a forgotten act in the mighty Motown empire.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Syt

Listened to Aeryon's Timeline compilation at work over the past few days. I love analogue synthesizers. :wub:
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops.
—Stephen Jay Gould

Proud owner of 42 Zoupa Points.

Liep

Bloc Party - The Love Within

Such a bad song. There are short moments of pure Bloc Party goodness, but only because Okereke's vocals reminds me of their earlier work.
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk

Josephus

Fish-Sunsets on Empire (album)
Civis Romanus Sum<br /><br />"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world." Jack Layton 1950-2011

Savonarola

David Bowie - The Man Who Sold The World (Album)

The best album Deep Purple never made.   ;)

David Bowie's foray into heavy metal has it's moments, most notably "The Supermen" and the title track.  Other points he's trying a little too hard to be Ozzy (especially "She Shook Me Cold.")  The big improvements here are Mick Ronson on guitar and that the songs have taken on a theatrical quality.  The latter works especially well given the albums repeated theme of madness.

The lyrics are hit or miss but, as "After All" demonstrates, Bowie can make utterly meaningless lyrics work (Oh, by jingo.)
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

Marvin Gay - (I'm Afraid) The Masquerade is Over

No that's not a typo; in fact he was born "Marvin Gay," and released his first solo single under that name.  This is not at all what I expected from Marvin's first single; at the time he wanted to be a crooner who sang standards.  Berry Gordy wanted him to sing R&B.  While we know who won the argument in the end, at the time Marvin did manage to get a few lounge songs off.  He's still an amazing singer, and who knows, maybe he could have been Motown's answer to Johnny Mathis.

The song references "Pagliacci," (yes, it should be Pagliaccio, or Pierrot).  It's hard not to think of Smokey Robinson in the listening booth thinking "Sad clowns, now there's an idea that has legs..."

The B Side Witchcraft sounds like The Glenn Miller Orchestra somehow got Marvin Gaye to sing for them.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

garbon

Sara Bareilles - Gonna Get Over You
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Liep

Blood Orange - Sandra's Smile

Smoooth.
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk

Savonarola

David Bowie - Hunky Dory

Again a scattershot of influences like Space Oddity.  This time they range from Bob Dylan to the music hall  :bowler: to the Velvet Underground; but this time it all works together.  In part that's thanks to Rick Wakeman's keyboard work on most of the songs, but to a larger extent it's Bowie himself who can now bring all of his songs to life as unmistakably David Bowie songs.

I learned that Bowie wrote "Andy Warhol" for the buxom Dana Gillespie, though her album wouldn't be released until two years after "Hunky Dory."  Her version is intense, like Bowie's it has Mick Ronson on guitar.

"The Bewlay Brothers" is one that I find amusing.  David Bowie was convinced that Americans loved cryptic lyrics (probably due to Dylan) so he set out to write the most cryptic lyrics possible.  I think he was rather successful in that endeavor.


In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

Savonarola

Marvin Gaye - Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide

Five days after "(I'm Afraid) the Masquerade is Over" Marvin Gaye (this time spelled as we know it) released this down tempo doo-wop number.  Gaye had been a late member of The Moonglows (probably best remembered for Sincerely, though that would have been long before Marvin Gaye was in the group), so this came easily to him.  He doesn't sound like he's all that interested in singing the song; this was the R&B number Berry Gordy had wanted him to do; Marvin wanted to sing standards.  To modern ears it really doesn't sound all that different from a lounge standard; but at the time they were completely different and aimed at very different audiences.

The B side Never Let You Go (Sha Lu Bop) is an... er... homage to Little Richard.  It's not bad, but Marvin really needed to give it more energy to work.  The Funk Brothers at least sound like they're having fun, with the pounding piano solos.
In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace—and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock

garbon

#6160
Janet Jackson - Broken Hearts Heal
Liz Phair - Perfect World
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Eddie Teach

To sleep, perchance to dream. But in that sleep of death, what dreams may come?

Liep

Quote from: Liep on November 04, 2015, 05:02:29 PM
Bloc Party - The Love Within

Such a bad song. There are short moments of pure Bloc Party goodness, but only because Okereke's vocals reminds me of their earlier work.

I don't like it, but I've become quite addicted to the break at the 2 minute mark. One of the happier Bloc Party songs I've heard, from that point.
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk

garbon

Stevie Wonder - Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
"I've never been quite sure what the point of a eunuch is, if truth be told. It seems to me they're only men with the useful bits cut off."
I drank because I wanted to drown my sorrows, but now the damned things have learned to swim.

Liep

There's a new Jeff Buckley album coming next year! :w00t:

Will it suck as badly as the new Kurt Cobain album, didn't they die at around the same time? :unsure:
"Af alle latterlige Ting forekommer det mig at være det allerlatterligste at have travlt" - Kierkegaard

"JamenajmenømahrmDÆ!DÆ! Æhvnårvaæhvadlelæh! Hvor er det crazy, det her, mand!" - Uffe Elbæk