Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video. Show all posts

Thursday, January 10, 2019

Monday, January 7, 2019

Lost In Your Eyes

[embed]https://youtu.be/NcbvaRzBzbE[/embed]

This has the feel of a Van Morrison song.  It's become a favorite.

Full lyrics HERE.

Monday, December 24, 2018

Nessun Dorma

[embed]https://youtu.be/xs-p1oEvuGg[/embed]

The look on his face-- a combination of triumph and relief when he knows he nailed it-- is priceless.

Thursday, December 6, 2018

Knopfler on Guitars

[embed]https://youtu.be/OG__SwkV3wg[/embed]

I don't play myself, but it was fascinating to hear him talk about it.  He obviously loves the instrument.

Wednesday, December 5, 2018

Hobbit

[embed]https://youtu.be/V1AnDKSBqwE[/embed]

Hobbit was a regional favorite at the end of the 70s, back in the days when radio stations were locally owned and disc jockeys could play what they wanted.

As you can probably guess, most of their songs were Lord of the Rings themed.

Their (derelict) website is HERE.

Sunday, December 2, 2018

BBVD

[embed]https://youtu.be/8qI93SMwwnE[/embed]

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy in on the web HERE.

Right now their tour doesn't take them anywhere near me- but I've got my eyes on them.

Monday, November 26, 2018

All The Way

[embed]https://youtu.be/5avqUu6E17k[/embed]

Fats Domino's Christmas Gumbo has become one of my favorite holiday albums.  They're all traditional songs in his own inimitable style- and you can feel his smile while you're listening.  :D

Saturday, November 24, 2018

Busted

[embed]https://youtu.be/q8w1d01Y2vY[/embed]

Jump ahead to 3:33 in Michael Jackson's Smooth Criminal video, and you'll see him leaning at impossible angles, using an exclusive system he claimed to have invented-- and patented!-- himself.

But in this excerpt from Bob Hope’s autobiography Have Tux, Will Tavel, Hope describes using the exact same system in 1936:

In the same show, Jimmy (Durante) and I had a scene in which we leaned out over the orchestra pit at an impossible angle without falling. This gimmick is especially effective for drunk acts. You wear a cleat in your heel with a slot in it. There's a screw in the stage, you slip the slot over the head over the screw, and after that you can lean at any angle you like.


I suppose he just considered it a marketing ploy, but I wish he had just admitted he resurrected a forgotten vaudeville trick.  That's pretty cool, too.

Saturday, November 17, 2018

Sail On

[embed]https://youtu.be/zg-ivWxy5KE[/embed]

It was plain to see that a small town boy like me
Just-a wasn't your cup of tea
It was wishful thinkin'…


A lot of their songs have a small-town feel to them, not really surprising since they formed in a small town in Alabama.

Full lyrics HERE.

Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Marie-Marie La-voodoo-veau

[embed]https://youtu.be/YIKCIwy6WUk[/embed]

When I was nine-years-old I thought this was the greatest song ever written.  I  had never heard a baseline like that before.  I loved it and played it over and over and over, until one day the 45 mysteriously disappeared.

Full lyrics HERE.

Saturday, November 10, 2018

I watch it all roll by...

[embed]https://youtu.be/j0wCPXpRoWQ[/embed]

Standing on the moon
With nothing left to do
A lovely view of heaven
But I'd rather be with you…

Full lyrics HERE.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

It Takes Two

[embed]https://youtu.be/7fWpfP9dwWo[/embed]

I've never actually seen a couple dance the tango, except in movies.  In the movies it's always an overdressed couple in an expensive nightclub, and the dance scene is seldom about the dance.

This setting gives it a whole different feeling.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

But I'm never alone…

[embed]https://youtu.be/3AUkUfH29yA[/embed]

Full lyrics HERE.

It's easy to forget how expressive Alice Cooper could be on the slow songs.  The makeup and goofy anthems like School's Out came to define him, and he is so much more than that.  I'm sure the song above is largely autobiographical, whether or not he realized it at the time.

If you like concept albums, be sure to look up The Last Temptation. It's all about sin, fall, and redemption-- not exactly themes he is known for-- and I'd rank it high on my list of favorite albums. You have to listen to it in its entirety at least the first time; out of order, the songs lose their context. But this is one I'd recommend everyone listen to at least once.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Sunday, October 7, 2018

Fading

 

[embed]https://youtu.be/sCLbiIMU_zM[/embed]

I remember missing the bell at recess when I was a small boy.  While I was engrossed watching bugs in a field, the rest of the class had lined up in rows and marched in unison back to their desks.  I looked up and found myself all alone.

It's a peculiar kind of loneliness when you realize everyone has left, and no one noticed you weren't with them.

The older I get, the more familiar that feeling becomes.

Full lyrics HERE.

Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Running Scared

[embed]http://https://youtu.be/WBAqXtaPZgQ[/embed]

This is a weird little song.  It's very short, has a military feel to it, and there's no chorus; it's sort of an operatic vignette.  The range is so extreme that it's almost never been covered, although Jeff Lynne did give it his best (link).

It's a neat little thing.

Monday, September 17, 2018

Draggin' the Line

[embed]https://youtu.be/uNJFSev8SJ8[/embed]

I like this REM cover of the 1971 hit by Tommy James.  It's fairly true to the original, but also clearly an REM song.

Full lyrics HERE.