Songs »21st Century Schizoid Man

king crimson 21st century schizoid manCat's foot iron claw
Neuro-surgeons scream for more
At paranoia's poison door
Twenty first century schizoid man

Blood rack barbed wire
Politicians' funeral pyre
Innocents raped with napalm fire
Twenty first century schizoid man

Death seed blind man's greed
Poets' starving children bleed
Nothing he's got he really needs
Twenty first century schizoid man

Intense lyrics (by Peter Sinfield) in an intensely sweet song written (sung by a heavily distorted Greg Lake). The first track of seminal prog rock masterwork, In the Court of the Crimson King, the song was initially aimed at disgraced former vice president Spiro Agnew. But really, doesn't it work just as well today?

Rampant over-consumerism? Check.
A terrible, unending war? Check.
Untrustworthy politicians? Oh, Eliot, how could you? You were my hunk!

Honestly, when are things going to get better?

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Posted on March 17, 2008

Songs »Fat Bottom Girls

fat bottom girls queenAs a fat bottom girl myself, I can particularly appreciate this Brian May penned Queen rocker. Fat Bottom Girls is my favorite song from them that doesn't come from the Night at the Opera album. It's been parodied in Spinal Tap, in the song Big Bottom, but the poking fun almost seems unnecessary from a band so full of tongue in cheek good humor.

How fun you say? Well, to promote the single and it's a-side co single “Bicycle Race” in England they hosted an all nude women's bike race – images from which can be seen in this video and the cover of the single. The red panties were added for us clean living Americans.

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Posted on March 10, 2008

Songs »Somebody’s Knockin’

terri gibbs somebody's knockinSomebody's Knockin', the 1981 country crossover hit from Terri Gibbs sounds like a slightly naughty tale of a good girl's fall for a very wicked man in tight blue jeans:

Somebody's knockin', should I let 'em in?
Lord, it's the devil, would you look at him
I've heard about him, but I never dreamed
He'd had blue eyes and blue jeans

He must have tapped my telephone line,
he must have known I'm spendin my time alone
He says we'll have one heavenly night,
my fevers burnin, so he ought to bright a home

Gibbs herself looks the part in her giant glasses; the ideal feathered-haired innocent that might get flushed when a man comes up to talk to her.

Even as I write this I am finding her more and more fascinating, she looks like the women I find in old yearbooks who have nicknames like ” —-“. To answer your question: yes, she was born blind and, I must say, wears some remarkably awesome shades.

And would you look at the follow-up album? The images are not only retro rocking but 'I'm a Lady' is as incredible a title for an album as there ever was and undoubtedly the one I would use if I ever suddenly develop musical talents and record a record. I wonder if it's a jab at anyone who made fun of her looking androgynous, a look she delivers with aplomb on her greatest hits album.

This was the biggest hit she ever recorded, and though she had a few more successes as a popular singer, eventually she went back to Gospel music.

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Posted on March 3, 2008

Songs »Abracadabra

abracadabra steve miller bandWhen I was becoming a teenager, Steve Miller Band's The Joker was the song to know… What can I say, it was Colorado. All?the older, drinking kids knew it by heart and would sing it in my junior high hallways with knowing, leering glances and nods as if all the lyrics were full of hidden perverted subtext meant to scare the nerdy seventh graders, aka “sevies” like myself.

So of course I became a Steve Miller Band fan in name. Meaning I pretty much only knew the Joker song and jumped at the chance to see them in concert when my friend Bill called to ask me. I had been to concerts with my parents, but this was like being a grown up, if you ignored the fact that Bill's dad would be there too.

It was a weird time, awkward and even more so as I had just gotten over a debilitating horrible crush on Bill the previous year, and he was now in the midst of a similar crush on me. Still, I brought my friend Gina and we were all set on having a good time. I had even listened to my sister's Joker album as prep.

The concert was at Red Rocks, the weather was lovely, and I mostly just remember thinking (probably correctly) everyone around me was older, drunk, and on drugs. I could even SMELL drugs which to me smelled like apple flavored gum. It was exhilarating and scary, but it all disappeared when Steve Miller played Abracadabra.

I didn't know this awesome song was by the same guy!! It wasn't on the Joker nor did it even sound like the same band – but I knew the song, like really, really knew it, I had listened to is all the time as a kid and had fond memories of the magical video.

Even later when we learned that someone had thrown up in Bill's jean jacket, that may or may not have had a beloved Batman patch on it, we still went home feeling awesome. We had partied, as in stood around and uncomfortably nodded our heads to music we were supposed to love, and made it home safely with Abracadabra jamming in our brains.

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Posted on February 25, 2008

Songs »Someday Soon

someday soon judy collinsJudy Collins reminds me of long haired pre- teenage girls in the late sixties and early seventies, gazing out of ranch house windows, pining for hunks in Tiger Beat, and writing real letters sent in the mail to lost friends at summer camp.

It's comforting to think of all the over fifty women I see now: friend's moms, outlet mall managers, mean and uptight women who scoff at Jim's long hair: sitting listening to Someday Soon on their radios and record players wishing they too had a twenty one year old who rides the rodeo to defy their fathers with.

Originally recorded and written by Ian Tyson, this song was also covered very pleasantly by the great Kingston Trio before Collins and her long golden locks and enchanting soprano voice got involved.

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Posted on February 18, 2008

Songs »Native New Yorker

odyssey native new yorker I used to work with this awesome lady named Lisa. She grew up in East New York, drag racing and getting into trouble as a youth gone wild. She used to fascinate us with tales of chicken-sacrificing neighbors, but she was just as fascinated with the fact that I grew up in Colorado.

I suppose that the grass is always greener… She was a Native New Yorker through and through, but all she wanted was to have grown up somewhere else. She used to say, “Colorado, wow! Colorado. I wish I was from somewhere like Colorado, I just wish I could tell people, yeah I'm from Colorado, or Idaho, or whatever”.

This song always reminds me of her.

You grew up ridin' the subways, running with people/
Up in Harlem, down on Broadway/
You're no tramp, but you're no lady, talkin' that street talk/
You're the heart and soul of New York City”

The band, Odyssey, must have known tons of tough, street-wise girls like the ones sung about in this song. Dual lead singers (and sisters) Lillian and Louise Lopez were born in the Virgin Islands, but they were grew up in New York and were based here when they started making such marvellous disco music.

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Posted on February 11, 2008

Songs »Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do)

arthur's theme best that you can doPeter Allen, who shares my actual birthday, has been a source of joyous campy affection in our family for years with his pelvic thrusting showmanship and his spandex and glitter flair. His life story, which tragically ended in an early death through complications with AIDS, was made into the Hugh Jackman-fronted Broadway hit, the Boy from Oz.

In his time he was known as an expert song writer and this little number he co-penned with Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Christopher Cross was his most enduring hit known for it's odd line “if you get caught between the moon and New York City“. A line that I still can remember being baffled by as I kid. I was in a hotel with my sister, it may have even been in New York, and the song was playing on the radio. The images it conjured were puzzling and numerous, but not once did I associate this song with a petite drunken rich man with a penchant for working class women.

Still, this was the song chosen for the film Arthur and they all rocketed to mega stardom on a road paved with egos, awards, limousines, and possibly cocaine.

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Posted on February 4, 2008

Songs »Whispering Pines

richard manuel the band whispering pinesI'm a lyrics girl, I grab on to the lamentations of people like Leonard Cohen and Bruce Springsteen and swoon and sigh over their grief. With Whispering Pines, however, I have barely even touched on what Richard Manuel is singing about, his voice itself is so full of sadness and beauty. Tragically, that sadness may have gone deeper than his voice as he committed suicide in 1985 at age 40.

Manuel wrote the song on an old piano with one key out of tune and took inspiration from nature for the melody. It was fellow Band member Robbie Robertson who helped Manuel with the lyrics when he was having difficulty writing them.

He said in an 1985 interview, “It's especially hard for me to pick lyrics to songs, lyrical songs, because I can't just get on a na, na, na, na song, you know. I have to have some kind of lyrical content … I've got a lot of songs, but no lyric”. And, now that I've read the lyrics, I can say they are lovely enough to match his beautiful voice.

You can listen to it if you click on the 'hear' button in the header.

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Posted on January 28, 2008

Songs »I Don’t Like the Drugs (But the Drugs Like Me)

i don't like the drugs but the drugs like me marilyn mansonMarilyn Manson, I just wasn't young enough to have enough unchanneled gothic angst by the time he became famous–and I that's?nothing to lament–but then there's this song. A song which, if you still like raising your fists against conformity and the system in a crusty-goth kind of way, is a call to arms. But more likely you're like me and find its attempt to shock adorable and just like it because, well… it's fun and sounds good.

This song comes from Manson's Mechanical Animals album–a strange mixture of glam rock and concept album (there is some silly story about a transsexual Alien named Omega) obsessed with the number 15, which sounds as stupid as what ever Jim Carrey does during his continued bid to be taken as a serious actor in the recent movie 23.?

I don't mean to sounds so harsh. I mean, I really genuinely like this song, and in general I have found Manson to be intelligent in the few interviews I've seen. I guess I can't help but recall hanging out in some kid named TJ's basement as he tried to get me super into Marilyn Manson–”They all have names of hot women and serial killers!”–and I just wasn't buying it then and that was over ten years ago, so I'm far too old to buy it now.

But still, I love me this song.

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Posted on January 21, 2008

Songs »The Mos Eisley Cantina Song

mos eisley cantina songYou may never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than the Mos Eisley Cantina, but their local band, Figrin Da'n and the Modal Nodes, are most excellent. This is the scene from the original film that struck me the most as a kid for its colorful mix of crazy characters and this recognizable game showy tune.

Although it's popularly as The Mos Eisley Cantina song, hard core fans, I have learned, refer to this song by its proper title: “Mad About Me“.

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Posted on January 14, 2008