Work today was tough, because of that bitterly cold wind. I was worn out and thought I'd never get warm again, but a really hot bath helped. Now on my second pipe of Bayou Night and I have not had much appetite to read blogs tonight because everything seems to be bad news. Except for that airplane crash-landing in the Hudson River. That was awesome.
I caught the new documentary from the History Channel about the Valkyrie plot. A very well-done documentary, in my opinion, including the prelude to the movement as well as the fallout and aftermath, and how it is still important to Germany today. Look for it if you have the History Channel. It's a good one.
I went puttering around the internet for various bits of meaningless information and ended up reading about a rock group called Mr. Big. I kept wondering: why have I never heard of them before? Their song "Shine" is used as the closing theme for Hellsing (the old series). It's one of those songs that I have only heard because it was used as an anime theme, and I have always liked it. I ventured over to Amazon and downloaded the mp3 for 99 cents for the full version. Good song, worth a dollar for sure.
I'm going to have to study the credits for information on some of the other songs that I like. Some of them are in Japanese, but the music still gets me. Such as the opening themes for Full Metal Alchemist and the first Bleach series. Ghost in the Shell has some great music, too, which has actually been released on CD. I might have to buy one or two of those. And of course there's the music for Cowboy Bebop.
I've been proofing some old tapes that I had converted to mp3 before I call them good. So far, so good. The listening list today has been:
Peter, Paul & Mary: Ten Years Together
Wall of Voodoo: Happy Planet
Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat
Blue Oyster Cult: The Revolution by Night
The Jennifer Warnes album is an odd one to find in my collection (perhaps?), but it's a collection of Leonard Cohen songs sung by Warnes. Cohen is, in my opinion, a really great song writer. But then, again in my opinion, he's one of those song writers who should have stuck to writing and completely avoided performing. I also have a "best of" album of his, but it's devilishly hard to listen to and still remain conscious. Kris Kristofferson is another good song writer who I would put into this category. I bought the Peter, Paul & Mary album many many years ago so I'd have "Puff the Magic Dragon." That was my favorite song when I was about 4 or 5 years old. I had a 45 rpm single of it back then, but it didn't survive the years. When I started this blog, I even considered using the nom de plume of Jackie Paper.
The BOC album has my favorite song of theirs: "Shooting Shark." BOC is also responsible for recording one of my most hated songs: "Godzilla."
I bought that Wall of Voodoo album because I really liked their previous album: Seven Days in Sammystown. That is one of my favorite albums, regardless of group or genre. Happy Planet isn't quite so good, probably because it's too "happy" and not dark enough. Sammystown is very dark, and has a really cool version of the old country song "Dark as the Dungeon," which was written by Merle Travis and was a hit for Johnny Cash.
I'm Pilot and Jesus
And I wept when Lennon died
Yet I envied his assailant
When I visited the shrine
I cried for all those Beatle Fans
So old so quick they grow
I follow the example to destroy
What I love most
And I remain on the far side of crazy
I remain the mortal enemy of man
No hundred dollar cure will save me
Can't stay a boy in no man's land
I once hid my lust for stardom
Like a filthy magazine
I stroked the shaft on my guitar
And watched you on the screen
I've become now what I wanted
To be all along
A psychopathic poet
The Devil's bastard son
And I remain on the far side of crazy
I remain the mortal enemy of man
No hundred dollar cure will save me
Can't stay a boy in no man's land
I shot an actor for an actress
But he lived to make a joke
Shot two other men who could have been
The bodies of my folks
I stagger toward the future
I stumble day to day
Plot revenge inside of darkness
I am withering in pain
And I remain on the far side of crazy
I remain the mortal enemy of man
No hundred dollar cure will save me
Can't stay a boy in no man's land
"Far Side of Crazy"
Wall of Voodoo
Really cool lyrics...They remind me of the song "Snapshot" by Peter Gabriel, a first person song concerning Lee Harvey Oswald "shooting into the light" to get fame. "If you don't get given, you learn to take...And I will take you!"...I will check out Wall of Voodoo, I never really investigated them before, probably because of the name, I hate to admit it but I have used band names as a winnowing tool, if I don't like the name much I won't bother...That was before society crumbled and music went to hell..Now even the fourth and fifth string bands of the pre-90s seem like W.A.-frickin-Mozart compared to todays crap.. God I hate to sound like an old man, but there it is!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of "Cowboy Bebop", I heard over at AICN that Keanu Reeves has signed on to play Spike Spiegel on the live action movie they're making of it. Kind of ambiguous tidings, eh?
ReplyDeleteThe Chieftains have also got an awesome cover of "Dark As A Dungeon".
Well, I will have to see that live-action version just because, but I expect it to be ruinous. Also, Spike just won't be Spike with a different voice.
ReplyDeleteI'm familiar with the song "Snapshot." I have several Peter Gabriel albums myself, you know. There are two version of Wall of Voodoo: the first version was with Stan Ridgeway as lead singer, the second with Andy Prieboy. Ridgeway is the one who gave us "Mexican Radio." I think that was their only radio hit. Sammystown is from the Prieboy era.
I might also have mentioned before, but forgot, that back during the Ridgeway era, Wall of Voodoo also did a cover of "Ring of Fire," the Johnny Cash song, that was pretty cool. It's the only cover of that song I've ever heard. I don't know which album it's on, though.
ReplyDeleteJune Carter Cash sings "Ring of Fire"on her album "Press On", it is rich with her trademark autoharp and, at the risk of blasphemy, is superior to Johnny's version.(This coming from someone who was a Johnny Cash fan while still in the womb!) She co-wrote the song way back when with Merle Kilgore, and her voice, while something of an acquired taste (my wife can't stand it) has so much emotion in it that I was able to truly get the full impact of the passion that the song presents for the first time. The album is on the whole excellent with contributions from The Man in Black, Norman Blake on guitar, Some Marty Stewart help, Rodney Crowell, and Rosie Carter among others.
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