I became familiar with this band from Max’s articles at Powerpop. I really like listening to this song and it should have been a big hit. It’s just a great pop-rock tune.
I am in wonderment at the part of the song between 0:45 – 1:15 and they repeat it at 2:04.
To me the vocals are strangely similar to Paul McCartney.
Max wrote a stellar article on this one, so I’ll turn it over to him:
Glen Hansard is no stranger to this blog. I saw him (The Frames) open for Bob Dylan in Melbourne August the 17th, 2007 (see set list) and on the February 24, 2008 Hansard and Markéta Irglová won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Falling Slowly which you can read about here. Today’s song Lay Me Down is by Irish band The Frames based in Dublin. Founded in 1990 by Glen Hansard, the band has been influential in the Dublin rock music scene. The group has released six studio albums.
Explain the way I’m thinking now
I, I will return to you
What I have taken long before
I, I will return again
When it gets dark and day is done
And lay me down
In the hollowed ground
Down by your side I will stay
So lay me down
The name The Frames arose from Hansard’s habit of fixing bicycles of his friends. The large number of bicycle frames lying around his house led neighbours to dub it the “house with the frames”. In a 2001 interview, Hansard said, “I worked in a bicycle shop for a little while, but the name came from … my back garden was so full of frames, my house became known as The Frames house, much to my mother’s distaste, she hated it‘.
Glen Hansard tells the darkly humorous story of Lay Me Down in the video below:
It turns out it’s actually cheaper to buy a grave…if you have a body and you are ready to go, it’s much cheaper. If you don’t have a body, it costs a lot more, because you’ve got to kind of book it….So I asked her to be buried beside me and she freaked out to be honest.
Reference:
1. The Frames – Wikipedia
I found the following Audio manipulated video (political satire) while watching the latest Joe Rogan and Russell Brand podcast. Rogan warns how AI editing could convert narratives where the public might be unable to discern what is real from unreal. Rogan used an example of US President Biden at 40:00, but I couldn’t find his video. I did however find this one below.
Joe Rogan said:
I think they are also operating with very crude tools that will soon change with AI. I think AI will completely shift the narrative.. then you are going to be dealing with disinformation on a vast scale. Impossible to decipher.
Video description:
Joe Biden AI VOICE using ElevenLabs to make a funny State of the Union speech address. Joe Biden is called liar by Marjorie Taylor Greene but its changed to make it seem like she wants to go on a date with Joe Biden.
This is the second song to appear here from the underrated Warren Zevon. I doubt I have heard another song like Lawyers, Guns and Money. I hold it in such high regard, and I never grow tired of listening to it. It is a tongue-in-cheek tale of a young American man’s adventures in Cold War-era Latin America. Some of the lines are indelible like Send lawyers, guns, and money, The sh/t has hit the fan. It is the closing track on his 1978 album Excitable Boy. Bob Dylan’s son Jakob Dylan (The Wallflowers) did a version of this song on the Dave Letterman show.
[Intro]
(One, two, three, four)
[Verse 1]
I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians too?
[Verse 2]
I was gambling in Havana
I took a little risk
Send lawyers, guns, and money
Dad, get me out of this
Ha!
I always mistook the line ‘Dad, get me out of this’ for ‘They’ll, get me out of this‘.
Excitable Boy includes the single Werewolves of London, which reached No. 21 and remained in the American Top 40 for six weeks. The album brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career. It was considered macabrely humorous by some critics. More music will come from Warren Zevon.
Reference:
1. Lawyers, Guns and Money – Wikipedia
2. Excitable Boy – Wikipedia
The Traveling Wilburys were perhaps the most accomplished supergroup that ever formed. Their five members were all future Rock and Roll Hall of Famers: Tom Petty, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. I have posted many of their songs here where you can find a lot more information about their formation and accomplishments.
It is written in Songfacts: Last Night was one of the first tracks they came up with, putting it together by throwing out ideas and making sure not to overthink it. This is obvious in the lyrics, where they rhyme like pre-schoolers.
Despite its simplicity there is a certain charm and arresting quality to it.
She was there at the bar
She heard my guitar
She was long and tall
She was the queen of them all
Last night
Thinking about last night
Last night
Thinking about last night
She was dark and discreet
She was light on her feet
We went up to her room
And she lowered the boom
Last night
Thinking about last night
Last night
Thinking about last night
Songfacts also states: Session man Jim Keltner played drums on the album and came up with opening clangs, which sound like he’s banging on kitchen items with a drumsticks. That’s because he was. They recorded at the home studio belonging to Dave Stewart of Eurythmics. The studio itself was very small, so they did a lot of recording in his kitchen, where Keltner improvised.…Tom Petty sang the verses on this one, with Roy Orbison taking the chorus. According to Petty, when the Wilburys wrote a song, they would each try singing lead and George Harrison would decide who sounded best.
Last Night peaked at No 5 on the US charts.
Reference:
1. Songfacts – Last Night
The video at the bottom of this post specifically from 27:20 reminded me of this snippet video I posted back in November ’21. It was when my daughter Katherine received a mandatory vaccine which she knew full-well as did I; was totally unnecessary for children let alone healthy adults.
I wrote: Case in point: This morning Jesus and his 6 year old sister Katherine Rose (seen above) just got vaccinated so they can enter a cinema, eat in a restaurant, even go to school…. they haven’t even studied presential in a school for 2 years because of the regime.
My daughter knew that. Katherine finished crying ‘Pobrecita yo‘ which means ‘Poor Me‘.
There aren’t words to describe how bad these people are.
Here is the video – Out of Creative Control: Bret Speaks with Matt Orfalea on the DarkHorse Podcast. Below that is an amusing but disturbing video made by Matt Orfalea of Children of the COVID.
Today’s feature track Got the Life is a far departure from the music of Christina Perri, but what the heck, here goes. I like it because of the music and not for what is depicted in their official video. It has a mixture of styles between alternative metal, heavy metal, and rap–metal. To me it has a Prodigy vibe which honed me in. At 1:15 in the video below, the music with the man dancing dressed in a white shirt really did it for me. It’s good stuff..
Got the Life is by the American band Korn and released on their third studio album, Follow the Leader. The band decided they would release the song as a promotional single after each member found that there was something special about the song. I’ll give them that..there is something there, but it’s not pretty.
Hate something sometime someway
Something kick on the front floor
Mine? Something inside
I’ll never ever follow
So give me something that is for real
I’ll never ever follow
Get your boogie on
Get your boogie on
Hate something someway, each day,
Feeling ripped off again
Why? This shit inside
Now everyone will follow
So give me nothing just feel
And now this shit will follow
According to wikipedia below, Got The Life…. had “phenomenal success”, and its music video was requested more than any other video on MTV’s TRL, making it the first officially “retired” music video. Got the Life did not receive much attention in the music press; however, the song was rewarded a gold certification in Australia by ARIA.
For trivia buffs: Got the Life originally contained an audio sample at the very beginning – a piece of dialogue spoken by actor Dom DeLuise in the 1974 film Blazing Saddles. Warner Brothers would not allow its usage, however, so it was removed prior to the song’s release.
Reference:
1. Got the Life – Wikipedia
I have been watching Louis CK’s latest special at Madison Square Garden. The subscription to the show was a good investment of my money and we’ll just leave it at that.
The following video: Like a lot of Louis’ material can feel uncomfortable to many and is off the beaten track. At first, I thought it was an actual ‘real’ interaction, but it was part of his TV series.
Anyhow’s I hope you kind of like it, but I didn’t say that.
In November last year, I wrote in the article Independance Day, ‘I didn’t really understand it back then but listening to it now (Independence Day); Springsteen is alluding to his father’s life. It reminds me of what he sings about in Factory from the record Darkness on the Edge of Town‘. Some of what I consider Springsteen’s most underrated tracks feature on that record. I always enjoyed hearing his low melancholic voice which is present on Factory, Something in the Night and Racing in the Street – my three favourite songs from the record.
[Verse 1]
Early in the morning factory whistle blows
Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes
Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light
It’s the working, the working, just the working life
[Verse 2]
Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain
I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain
Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life
The working, the working, just the working life
Springsteen said in 2010 about the Darkness record:
The record was of its time. We had the late -’70s recession, punk music had just come out, times were tough for a lot of the people I knew. And so, I veered away from great bar band music or great singles music and veered towards music that I felt would speak of people’s life experiences.
Darkness on the Edge of Town was a big departure from his previous theatrical and up-vibe Born to Run record and today’s track Factory seems to epitomize Springsteen’s remarks about the record’s solemn and personal nature specifically regarding the father-son relationship. When writing the album’s songs, Springsteen was influenced by numerous outside sources, particularly works that focused on themes of individuals confronted by outside forces that resonated with the singer-songwriter; these included the John Steinbeck novels The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and East of Eden (1952) and country artists such as Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie.
Factory provides commentary on the repetitive aspects of the working life, depicting a factory-worker father, whose life is consumed by his job, but works to provide for his family. A partial tribute to Springsteen’s father, Springsteen said the song asks the question: “How do we honor the life that our brothers or sisters and parents lived?” Musically, Factory is a rock and country-influenced ballad.
Reference:
1. Darkness on the Edge of Town – Wikipedia
When I first heard the Zen like xylophone in the introduction, I didn’t know what to think apart from that it was cool. Then Perri unleashes into what she does best and finds an addictive melodic pattern and her voice is second to none. As the song progresses, the percussion and drum rhythm advances to something, ‘higher, higher‘ and its pretty f/&king amazing.
What I like about her music (above all) is just when I think I have worked it out, I actually haven’t. It gets better each listen, and the ear adapts. The polyphonic finale is one for the ages.
[Verse 1]
I dream about you, but I’ve never even seen your face
I’m thinkin’ constantly about the way I feel to have you near
I wanna hold you in the darkness, never let you slip away
I wanna feel the beating rhythm of your heart inside of me
[Chorus]
You’re like a fever in my body and my mind
And I’ll burn until I have you by my side
No one knows and nobody can see
You’re like a fever in me
Burning, burning, burning in me
[Verse 2]
In this delirium, I swear I hear you whisperin’ to me
It’s like you’re sending me a secret message from another time
That you would wait however long it’s gonna take me to decide
But I can’t sleep and I can’t breathe until I meet you in real life
To quote Tim H about his experience with the music of Perri:
I wish that I had found your music sooner! I’m a metal music guitarist so I don’t really explore much else…but I can’t stop listening to your music! Omg- it grips me deep into my soul and it’s a presence I never want to let go! Your music is angelic and the most moving I’ve ever heard!
Reference:
1. Distance (Christina Perri Song) – Wikipedia
Observation Blogger 