The bittersweet “Low Light” is both captivating and melancholy. Art Block’s vocals are downright heartbreaking here, perfectly conveying the intense pain and heartache of a relationship or friendship that’s falling apart, but not wanting to come to terms with it just yet: “A friendship ooh has crumbled. Ooh we’ve stumbled, as we break into dust. A fear I don’t wanna see. A light I don’t want feel. A low light I don’t wanna see. A change I don’t wanna make tonight.”
I learnt about Art Block and their White Horses EP at Jeff’s blog Eclectic Music Lover. I really enjoyed today’s featured track Low Light which Jeff described above. He has already reviewed Art Block at least three times, so I point you to his excellent blog dedicated to mostly current music. He’s definitely in the know and has personal connections with many of the artists presented there.
Art Block is an alternative folk singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in East London, England. A prolific artist, he’s been making beautiful music for a number of years, and has released an impressive number of singles, EPs and remixes since early 2015, beginning with his debut L.A.-inspired single “Los Feliz”.
This is blue’s music! It’s been over six months since I posted a Tom Waits song and it feels like now, is the time to get ‘lowdown‘. This song was released as the second song of a three-disc edition in 2006 (image above) in which the first disc this song appears is ‘blues and rock-based‘. The second and third contain other genres and styles. Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards was listed as one of the highest-scoring albums of the year in Metacritic and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
She’s a crooked Sheriff in a real straight town She opened the door shake shake the lights go down Clover honey and the Jimson Weed Red leather skirt way up above her knees Oh yeah, my baby’s lowdown
She’s a gone lost dirt road There ain’t no way back I been told Well she’s a story they all tell She’s a rebel, she’s a yell Oh yeah, my baby’s lowdown
Just as an aside: A couple of weeks ago, my kids and I were watching the Western anthology film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs written and directed by the Coen brothers. In one vignette called All Gold Canyon, Tom Waits appears as an astute and hearty gold digger determined to find a grand fortune of gold in a lovely valley which is irrepressibly captured on screen. Tom is a gifted actor, and I reminded the kids of Tom’s music which they hear on occasion.
Waits has described the Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards collection as:
A lot of songs that fell behind the stove while making dinner, about 60 tunes that we collected. Some are from films, some from compilations. Some is stuff that didn’t fit on a record, things I recorded in the garage with kids. Oddball things, orphaned tunes
I really like the lyrics in today’s featured track Lowdown and also how it sounds. I’m amazed there isn’t any article I could find about it. Lowdown reminds me of the vibe of Bob Dylan’s New Pony from his Street Legal record (1978). I think Dylan himself would have been proud to have written these lyrics by Tom. It feels a privilege to present this track to you. Thank you for reading.
Just like the last song I posted on Dylan – Long and Wasted Years, today’s featured track Love Minus Zero/No Limit has no musical chorus or bridge. Dylan recites 8 four-line verses about what the singer thinks is his perfect woman and how she brings a needed zen-like calm to his chaotic world. Effectively this is a poem in the form of a song, and one of Dylan’s best of the period, and that’s saying a lot considering the quantity of outstanding music he was unveiling to the world. Love Minus Zero/No Limit is read “Love Minus Zero over No Limit, so it’s intended to be read as a fraction.
[Verse 1] My love she speaks like silence Without ideals or violence She doesn’t have to say she’s faithful Yet she’s true, like ice, like fire
[Verse 2] People carry roses And make promises by the hours My love she laughs like the flowers Valentines can’t buy her
[Verse 3] In the dime stores and bus stations People talk of situations Read books, repeat quotations Draw conclusions on the wall
[Verse 4] Some speak of the future My love she speaks softly She knows there’s no success like failure And that failure’s no success at all
A lot of the following information is from various parts of the Wikipedia reference below which intrigued me:
Love Minus Zero/No Limit is a song on his fifth studio album Bringing It All Back Home, released in 1965. The song uses surreal imagery, which some authors and critics have suggested recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and the biblical Book of Daniel. Critics have also remarked that the style of the lyrics is reminiscent of William Blake’s poem “The Sick Rose“. The initial title of the song was “Dime Store“, in a reference to an included lyric; it was also briefly referred to as “(Tune Z) Dimestore” on the recording sheet.
Clinton Heylin suggested that the lyrics reflect the Zen-like detachment of the singer’s lover through a series of opposites, for example, that she “speaks like silence” and is both “like ice” and “like fire“. Another famous line from the song that captures this dichotomy is, “She knows there’s no success like failure, and that failure’s no success at all.” In a 2005 reader’s poll for Mojo magazine, “Love Minus Zero/No Limit” was listed as the #20 all-time greatest Bob Dylan song, and a similar poll of artists ranked the song #32.
I only heard this ‘The Smiths‘ song by chance a few months ago. I didn’t know what to think, which is the same way I have thought about nearly all their music after first listen. Then I realise I have to dive into it again to grasp it. For me, that’s what great music does for me. I listen to it, but I have to hear it again to inculcate its significance. After hearing ‘maybe’ 90% of songs I get a sudden realisation of ‘yeh I get it‘, but with The Smiths I need to hear their music again and often it resonates more the second time and there-on. This is the seventh song presented here so far from The Smiths, not including Morrissey’s solo works.
[Chorus 1] I won’t share you, no I won’t share you With the drive And ambition The zeal I feel This is my time
[Verse 1] The note I wrote As she read, she said “Has the Perrier gone Straight to my head Or is life sick and cruel, instead?” “Yes!” No – no – no – no – no – no
It’s like right now, I’m hearing this song again and I pondered initially over whether I should post about it. Then there there is some magical line or melody which just wins me over, like just what happened as I’m writing this. I don’t know what’s good about it, but I like it somehow. I feel compelled to experience that sound and unique moment in subsequent listens. ‘I Won’t Share You‘ is the final song on the final The Smiths LP.
On the Genius Lyrics site it states: “I Won’t Share You” Morrissey let’s his inner egoist show, shamelessly breaking up with his lover whom he sees as burden. The “lover” can be interpreted as Smiths’ guitarist Johnny Marr. But this is highly unlikely as ‘Johnny and Angie’ have been an item since they were 14. And Angie got along very well with Morrissey. Also, it was Johnny Marr who decided to leave the band.
It amazes me that most people keep on discussing who the song is about but pay no attention to something far more striking: he is not saying that he won’t share the person with someone. He says:
“I won’t share you with the drive and ambition. The zeal I feel. This is my time. I won’t share you with the drive and the dreams inside”
In April this year I wrote a post about the movie Local Hero (1983) and I recalled how I watched Amy Macdonald’s rendition of Flower of Scotland with my kids. Scotland had just beaten Spain in the Euro qualifiers so we were ‘happy chappys‘. My family ancestry partly originates from Scotland, so I have always had a penchant for anything Scottish. I remember in my young adulthood enthralled watching Billy Connolly’s World Tour of Scotland over and over again.
I was in a cafe / restaurant here in Bogota maybe a year or so ago and I heard a song come on the speakers, which just blew me away. I scrolled down some of the chorus so I could look it up later. The song is This is The Life by Amy Macdonald which I will review when we get down into the ‘T’s of the alphabet of songs in this Music Library Project. God knows when that might be, since I’m still onto the ‘L’s and sometimes I backtrack adding new songs to the list such as today’s featured track.
O Flower of Scotland When will we see your like again? That fought and died for Your wee bit Hill and Glen And stood against him Proud Edward’s Army And sent him homeward tae think again
The Hills are bare now And Autumn leaves lie thick and still O’er land that is lost now Which those so dearly held That stood against him Proud Edward’s Army And sent him homeward tae think again
I was captivated watching this performance, but it didn’t occur to me initially that it was Amy Macdonald the Scottish singer – songwriter whose song I had recently heard in that cafe. When I woke up and realised it was her, well that raised my appreciation of this even more. There is so much to like about this video. Apart from her stupendously powerful delivery, there are five ‘quirky’ things in it that I always like revisiting. This will take me some time to unpack, so excuse my long windedness.
OK here goes: To set the scene.. it’s ‘Hampden Park’, Glasgow and I remember Billy Connolly doing a bit on how fervent and audacious the football fans are in Scotland and also how bitterly cold and windy it can get.
1. Now watch, how with each exhalation from Amy turns into a cloud of mist due to how frickin’ cold it is.
2. The elation on the kids’ faces when the camera scans over them especially the girl in the penultimate position. Her beaming smile is gorgeous.
3. Ok, it is my understanding there is this thing with their national anthem, and it is / was common. When it is sung ‘And stood against him‘. The crowd bellows, ‘Against Who?’ and then ‘Proud Edward’s Army‘. This is when many chant ‘Basterds‘. I have watched many recent anthems of Flower of Scotland and the TV coverage or audio never captures this in their footage or it may be that people can’t / won’t say that anymore.
4. If you watch the actual paying fans, they are so windswept in the occasion and at 1:00 they show some delegate, politician or official in suit and tie singing it like, ‘Shit do I have to do this again‘?
5. Amy Macdonald concludes her magnificent performance yelling ‘Come on Scotland‘! But her walk-off grin and humility in her persona (very Scottish.. mind you) is the stuff you don’t see often from popular commercial artists.
Flower of Scotland is an unofficial national anthem of Scotland. The song was composed in the mid-1960s by Roy Williamson of the folk group the Corries. You could compare it to Australia’s unofficial anthem, ‘I am Australian‘ which I wrote about in August last year. In July 2006, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted an online poll (publicised by Reporting Scotland) in which voters could choose a national anthem from one of five candidates. 10,000 people took part in the poll, in which “Flower of Scotland” came out the winner with 41% of the votes.
I first got a taste of this song hearing the twins Alex and Jo from Serbia sing it here. I wrote about them when they did a magnificent version of Christina Perri’s Born in Time. This song was originally recorded by Iron & Wine for their 2007 The Shepherd’s Dog album. It finds Iron & Wine’s Sam Beam singing of being trapped by an empty relationship. This was a key track used in the 2008 film Twilight, part of the Twilight Saga. I haven’t seen Twilight, but it’s known for its nostalgia, and it does have an impressive soundtrack.
Uncut magazine asked Sam Beam how the song came to be used in the movie. He replied:
“The story that I heard is that the album (The Shepherd’s Dog) had just come out and Kristen Stewart was listening to it on her headphones when the filmmakers were blocking the prom scene. As the song Flightless Bird, American Mouth was working in her head, she suggested they use it to block the scene. So they did, intending on switching it later to something that other people might really want to hear. But you know how it is, you hear it too many times and it sticks – so that’s what happened.”
[Verse 1] I was a quick wet boy Diving too deep for coins All of your street light eyes Wide on my plastic toys Then when the cops closed the fair I cut my long baby hair Stole me a dog-eared map And called for you everywhere
[Chorus] Have I found you? Flightless bird Jealous, weeping Or lost you? American mouth Big pill looming
Some of the lyrics may not make a lot of sense to me, but the soul and the emotion is there, and the melody is excellent. This is a beautiful song. It can mean anything for anybody.
“Sam” Ervin Beam (born July 26, 1974), better known by his stage name Iron & Wine, is an American singer-songwriter. Beam, his wife Kim, and their five daughters live in Durham, North Carolina. He was raised in the Bible belt as a Christian, but is now an agnostic: “That was a confusing time for me, but I don’t miss being misled. I’m not an atheist. There’s an undeniable unseen world that some people call God and think they know more about than other people. I try not to get hung up on the names.”
Ben Stiller is playing a stunt double for Tom Cruise and he’s called Tom Crooze, but he is so dedicated to Tom that he changes his mannerisms and name to reflect Tom’s. This isn’t so much an impressive impersonation as it is a goofball, but humorous take on how an obsessive stunt – double might try to adopt Tom’s ‘look’ and behaviour. That last clip of them laughing gets me. ‘I don’t think we’ve ever finished each other’s sentences.’
2 intergalactic legends! I think this is one of the most accurate impersonations I have heard. It’s just a short clip, but it sure did make me chuckle. I forgot that Mark is a voice actor at the highest level. I like how Harrison Ford begrudgingly admits that Mark Hamill does a good impression. ‘Yeh, that’s me‘.
I posted this one just because of the hilarious Donald Trump impersonation at the beginning which is so spot on. There is another one of Dr Phil which I liked at 10:00. I never thought I would commend Jimmy Fallon, but he does do a neat impression of Russell Brand just after Dr Phil.
Does this song title not make you get all excited? I know it did me. And there’s nothing more excitable than an excitable boy. If you would have asked me how I felt when my brother and I were playing Atari 2600 (River Raid) in our teens, I would have said, ‘I feel like an excitable boy‘! The idea for this song came from a conversation Warren Zevon had with Roy Marinell. Roy commented that Zevon got a little too excited when he played lead guitar. Zevon replied, “Well I’m just an excitable boy.”
Lawyers, Guns and Money from Excitable Boy has already showcased here. Today’s song and Werewolves of London (which will also feature here) are considered macabrely humorous by some critics. You would have to throw Lawyers in there as well, wouldn’t you? The lyrics of Excitable Boy are indeed disturbing but illuminating at the same time. The album ‘Excitable Boy‘ brought Zevon to commercial attention and remains the best-selling album of his career. It was his third studio album and was released in 1978, by Asylum Records. The record reached No. 21 and remained in the American Top 40 for six weeks.
[Verse 1] Well, he went down to dinner in his Sunday best “Excitable boy,” they all said And he rubbed the pot roast all over his chest “Excitable boy,” they all said Well, he’s just an excitable boy
[Verse 2] He took in the 4 A.M. show at the Clark “Excitable boy,” they all said And he bit the usherette’s leg in the dark “Excitable boy,” they all said Well, he’s just an excitable boy
[Verse 3] He took little Suzie to the Junior Prom (Ooh, ah-ooh) “Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy) And he raped her and killed her, then he took her home (Ooh, ah-ooh) “Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy) Well, he’s just an excitable boy
[Verse 4] After ten long years, they let him out of the home “Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy) And he dug up her grave and built a cage with her bones “Excitable boy,” they all said (Ooh-ooh, excitable boy) Well, he’s just an excitable boy
Max from PowerPop recommended this song to me and I really like it. The thing about Zevon which I admire is he just tells it how it is without sugarcoating or caring how he may be perceived. It’s just simplicity in meaning and presentation. I’m in no way well-versed about his music, but he always seemed very transparent and open musically at least from what I have heard. Also, there seems great variation in his music. His songs seem so distinct from the other. The music (not the words!) in Excitable Boy sounds like something I might expect to hear on an early 1980’s Springsteen record.
Zevon had early music industry successes as a session musician, jingle composer, songwriter, touring musician, musical coordinator, and bandleader. In 1975, Zevon toured regularly with the Everly Brothers as keyboard player, band leader, and musical coordinator. Also, in this same year he returned to Los Angeles, where he roomed with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham (Fleetwood Mac). Despite all of that, Zevon struggled to break through in his solo career until his music was performed by Linda Ronstadt in 1976. There he collaborated with Jackson Browne, who produced and promoted Zevon’s self-titled major-label debut in 1976.
One of the best bridges that I have heard in all of modern music is in this song – Don’t Give Up. And it’s short and may not provide you with all the music goodies, but it sure did me when I was a youngen’. I think the album ‘So‘ is the first cassette tape I can ever remember procuring. The song Sledgehammer was a big hit and its video clip received great honours for its stop motion animation in the MTV Golden era. Now back to Don’t Give Up at 2:55 in the video below where Gabriel transforms the song in this bridge:
Got to walk out of here, I can’t take any more Gonna stand on that bridge, keep my eyes down below Whatever may come and whatever may go That river’s flowing, that river’s flowing
There is only one other song with a bridge as captivating to my ears and that is Bruce Springsteen’s Countin’ on a Miracle at 1:47 in this video of his concert in Barcelona.
[Bridge] Sleeping beauty awakes from her dream With her lover’s kiss on her lips Your kiss was taken from me Now all I have is this Your kiss, your kiss, your touch, your touch Your heart, your heart, your strength, your strength Your hope, your hope, your faith, your faith Your face, your face, your love, your love Your dream, your dream, your life, your life
Mind you, I’m just thinking off the top of my head and I imagine there are loads better ‘bridges’, but it’s just these two which come to mind now.
Don’t Give Up is a song written by English musician Peter Gabriel and recorded as a duet with Kate Bush for Gabriel’s fifth solo studio album So (1986). The single version was released as the second single from the album in the UK in 1986 and as the fifth single in the US in 1987. ‘So‘ is Gabriel’s best-selling album, having been certified fivefold platinum by the (RIAA).
The song was inspired by the Depression-era photographs of Dorothea Lange, showing poverty-stricken Americans in Dust Bowl conditions. Gabriel saw Lange’s images in a 1973 book titled In This Proud Land. He felt that a song based on this was wholly appropriate to difficult economic conditions in England under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. But let’s put this thing into perspective here and I relay this extract from my article January 4 this year:
In 1980 where 4 people in 10 lived on less than 2 dollars a day (adjusted for inflation), now it is 1 in 10. This is the greatest alleviation of poverty in human history.
In a survey of college educated adults in the UK about extreme poverty only 12 percent of participants thought extreme poverty had been alleviated in this time period.
Gabriel originally wrote the song from a reference point of American roots music and he approached country singer Dolly Parton to sing it with him. However, Parton turned it down, so his friend Kate Bush took her place. Dolly Parton seems a popular go – to choice and British sing-songwriter David Gray in my article Kathleen also chose her and wrote a letter with a demo of his song. Parton turned down the offer as she was busy.
If there is anything to take away from this, it is this: Jimmy Buffett had his Hush Puppies on. Now I assumed that line was a keeper. But the single version replaced the line, “I’ve got my Hush Puppies on” with “I’ve got my hiking shoes on.” Dang! Buffett wrote the song to his wife while he was on tour. At a live performance in 1974, Buffett mentioned that he had written the song heading out to California the previous year.
Come Monday is a song first released on his 1974 album Living & Dying in ¾ Time. It was one of Buffett’s more popular songs that he has played at almost all of his concerts, typically changing the line “I just can’t wait to see you again” to “It’s so nice to be in…(location of show)…again“. Trying to appease the audiences. Why would you want to do that?
[Intro] Houston Texas, Yeah I remember back to Liberty Hall, the late show
[Verse 1] Headin’ up to San Francisco For the Labor Day weekend show I got my Hush Puppies on I guess I never was meant for Glitter rock and roll
[Pre-Chorus 1] Honey I didn’t know That I’d be missin’ you so
[Chorus] Come Monday it’ll be all right Come Monday I’ll be holding you tight I spent four lonely days in a brown L.A. haze And I just want you back by my side
Come Monday was Buffett’s first Top 40 hit single, reaching No. 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 as well as No. 3 Easy Listening and No. 58 Country. I like this song and I got it most likely from one of you good folk. I could have imagined Don Williams singing this, and he got close singing Come Early Morning. I like what one listener said about listening to Come Monday: ‘I’m listening to this song on Tuesday‘.
I’m listening to this song on a Friday morn and I hope the authorities don’t come a knockin’. Speaking of appeasing audiences, this article will be released on a Saturday so all of you reading this are in deep guano.
“It’s so nice to be in…(location of where you are reading)…again“
Observation Blogger 