1000 SONGS - DAY 275 SONG #306

DAY 275: A Song by the Man who Invented the Power Chord

Link Wray (1929-2005) is credited to have invented the 'Power Chord' as soon as 1958 and therefore looked at as a predecessor of Punk and Heavy Rock. Rolling Stone Magazine lists him among the 100 most influential guitarists of all time. His groundbreaking recording in that vein was the instrumental 'Rumble' from the year mentioned above, his use of the 'BIGSBY' on his early recordings is thought to be seminal. Here is a piece of music from his 1971 self-titled grass-roots-blues-album, without any use of the vibrato, a really fine tune from that time, called Black River Swamp:

1000 SONGS - DAY 274 SONG # 305

A song written by Bryan Ferry and Andy MacKay

Love is the drug might be one of the most widely known Roxy Music songs, from Siren, the last of their brilliant albums, before their musical decline began with Avalon. The song was co-writtten by Ferry and Andy MacKay, the guy who also was responsible for the experimental stuff you find on the b-sides of the early Roxy-singles. His 1974 solo-debut 'In Search of Eddie Riff' includes a version of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries'. During a break in his musical career, MacKay did a three years bachelor course in divinity at King's College, London. He also co-wrote some other Roxy Music hits. Love is the drug was covered by Grace Jones (to be found on Warm Leatherette, and Island Life). There is a 12" with remixes of this version, a rousing piece of a Disco-Dance-Floor prodcution from the eighties. Be that as it may, here is a 1920ies Jazz style version of the tune, done by The Byan Ferry Orchestra:

1000 SONGS - DAY 273 SONG # 304

Day 273 - The unbeatable french crooner

Pacal Danel is a person I do not know too much about; all I know, is that he has been the singer of the ultimate tear jerker (Schnulze), with, maybe, the exception of Christian Anders' recordings. It is a french song, it has been in my mind for forty years or so, and, to my knowledge, there is no recording of it in German. Tbe video (which seems to rather original, or so to say) shows, that they had some sense of irony back then, with all the painters painting the singer's 'blanc manteau'... Here is the song, there are the lyrics:

Il n'ira pas beaucoup plus loin
La nuit viendra bientôt
Il voit là-bas dans le lointain
Les neiges du Kilimandjaro

Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir
Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir, dormir, dormir

Dans son délire il lui revient
La fille qu'il aimait
Ils s'en allaient main dans la main
Il la revoit quand elle riait

Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir
Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir, dormir, dormir

Voilà sans doute à quoi il pense
Il va mourir bientôt
Elles n'ont jamais été si blanches
Les neiges du Kilimandjaro

Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir
Elles te feront un blanc manteau
Où tu pourras dormir, dormir, dormir, bientôt

1000 SONGS - DAY 272 SONG # 303

DAY 272 - A song dedicated to Karl Baier

My dear colleague Karl is almost certainly the greatest authority on Western Esotericism at our institute ouside of my office. With and without the exception of the latter, he is also almost certainly the person with the best scholarly expertise in that field of study in at least the German-speaking world (Kocku von Stuckrad and Wouter Hannegraaff actually being located in the Netherlands). Be that as it may, definitely nobody in the whole wide world is better acquainted with the topic referred to on the following track from "Spleen and Ideal", the second album by the Australian band Dead Can Dance, Mesmerism:

1000 SONGS - DAY 271 SONG # 302

DAY 302: 4 ways of kicking Edgar Allen Poe

1. The classical way of kicking Edgar Allen Poe is done by the one who invented it: Write some really strange lyrics, engage a man to write a string arrangement, add some noises unheard of so far in a piece of popular music, do something between singing and the not yet invented art of rapping to a simple 4/4 rhythm sounding like 2/4, but do it all on the basis of the blues scheme. Lennon:

2. Take away all the strange things, just stick to the chords and the lyrics, return to the blues in it, and record a lengthy number of british latte 60s avantgarde heavy blues. Spooky Tooth did it on "The Last Puff":

3. Stay in the line of Spooky Tooth, but make a straight stadium-rock version of the british tradition out of chords and lyrics. Oasis did it. This is the version on which I would like to be the drumme ("des foat schu urndlich", wie der Wiener sagt):

4. Return to the weirdness in it. The Flaming Lips did it. My favourite cover version. I admire John Lennon for having caused so many singers to remember the lyrics of that song. As you might expect. my favourite lines are: "elementary penguin  singing hare krishna, man you should have seen them kicking Edgar Allen Poe". The Gallaghers are not really to the point with that, anyway (Liam comes in to soon with mentioning EAP, kind of  ejaculatio praecox).

1000 SONGS - DAY 270 SONG # 301

Day 270: A one hit wonder from my childhood & a great cover version by the Butthole Surfers

When poor me  was a child and teenager, the world was full of one hit wonders; one among them is "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum:

It has been covered by Doctor & the Medics. No need to feature this rather lackadaisical version here... But when it comes to cover versions of songs from my childhood, we have to feature the Butthole Surfers and their GREAT version of Donavan's Hurdy Gurdy Man:

1000 SONGS - DAY 269 SONG # 300

Day 269: Some Songs from one of my Favourite Albums

I have already been writing about Tuxedo Moon, one of my fav bands, and especially about Mr. Blaine L. Reininger, one of the core members of this groundbreaking group, on this here blog. No need to introduce them any more to the few chosen ones that regularly read my enterings here. Half Mute from 1980 has been their first full album, after releasing two EPs, No Tears and Scream with a View. Back in 1980, this could and would have been considered Avant-Garde. It is hard to choose any one track from that album. In order of appearance on the original album, I start with "Nazca" (first track side one), followed by "59 to 1", "Loneliness", "Volo Vivace" and "Seven Years" to close this entry like the album closes with "KM / Seeding the Clouds". A strange kind of dark beauty.

1000 SONGS - DAY 268 SONG # 299

Day 268: A Song about Love & Hate & Understanding

The Cure are a well-known band, so I do not have to say too much about them. They are regarded as somewhat like "The Godfathers of Gothic". I never will forget the picture of Bélvarosi Híd in Szeged, Hungary, filled with gals'n'guys in dark clothes, with their backcombed hair, doc martens and so on, who all were walking to a festival starring The Cure - as if they had all come out of their coffins... Robert Smith is the only constant member of the group that did not only undergo changes in line-up, but in musical style as well. Their 1987 (vinyl: double) album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me is normally regarded as one of the more "pop-style" recordings they have done. I own it and the song on it that struck me when I first heard it and that is still the one I remember from that album is about human relationships, about the impossibility of understanding each other. In a way, it leaves the question open which one of the two main characters has interpreted the situation  in the right way - it ends, in a Nietzschean sense, with stating the impossibility of understanding, and, therefore, love. The concept of love behind that is an idealistic, Platonic one, and there are other theories of love, like the Christian idea of agape, varying ideas of compassion and the like. The song also refers to differences between the way that people are - the boy (at least; thinks to) share/s his feelings with  the poor ragged people staring at his girlfriend. In a way, these poor people are compassionate, as they take his point of view (in his point of view), they see the beauty he so adores, they share his passion. Therefore, he is filled with shame because of the difference between human beings he and his gilrfriend establish by "the way they are". On the other hand, in an aristocratic gesture, SHE just feels embarrassed by the way they look at her, denying them to be the same human beings as she is with the same feelings and passions as she might experience. So he understands that not only understanding but also compassion "is a dream". Great lyrics (although Robert Smith could have done better in ways of not repeating the same words...), with Spanish translation, and a beautiful song, too.

You want to know why I hate you?
Well I'll try and explain...
You remember that day in Paris
When we wandered through the rain
And promised to each other
That we'd always think the same
And dreamed that dream
To be two souls as one
And stopped just as the sun set
And waited for the night
Outside a glittering building
Of glittering glass and burning light...

And in the road before us
Stood a weary greyish man
Who held a child upon his back
A small boy by the hand
The three of them were dressed in rags
And thinner than the air
And all six eyes stared fixedly on you

The father's eyes said "Beautiful!
How beautiful you are!"
The boy's eyes said
"How beautiful!
She shimmers like a star!"
The childs eyes uttered nothing
But a mute and utter joy
And filled my heart with shame for us
At the way we are

I turned to look at you
To read my thoughts upon your face
And gazed so deep into your eyes
So beautiful and strange
Until you spoke
And showed me understanding is a dream
"I hate these people staring
Make them go away from me!"

The fathers eyes said "Beautiful!
How beautiful you are!"
The boys eyes said
"How beautiful! She glitters like a star!"
The child's eyes uttered nothing
but a quiet and utter joy
And stilled my heart with sadness
For the way we are

And this is why I hate you
And how I understand
That no-one ever knows or loves another

Or loves another

1000 SONGS - DAY 267 SONG # 298

Day 267: A Working Man's Song

Sixteen Tons is a song written by Merle Travis, but it has been made famous by the version recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford. It is a classic working man's song and it has been covered by many artists, among them Johnny Cash (the second version featured here). A fine blues take has been done by Big Bill Broonzy. Aesthetically, I find the rendering of American singer Anna Domino to be the most attractive - it was produced by Blaine L. Reininger of Tuxedo Moon fame. Frank Tovey, who called himself Fad Gadget in the 80ies and changed to his real name to do more folk-oriented music in the 90ies included a version of Sixteen Tons on his 1989 album Tyranny and the Hired Hand, consisting of working class songs.

Some people say a man is made outta mud
A poor man's made outta muscle and blood
Muscle and blood and skin and bones
A mind that's a-weak and a back that's strong

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin' when the sun didn't shine
I picked up my shovel and I walked to the mine
I loaded sixteen tons of number nine coal
And the straw boss said "Well, a-bless my soul"

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

I was born one mornin', it was drizzlin' rain
Fightin' and trouble are my middle name
I was raised in the canebrake by an ol' mama lion
Cain't no-a high-toned woman make me walk the line

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

If you see me comin', better step aside
A lotta men didn't, a lotta men died
One fist of iron, the other of steel
If the right one don't a-get you
Then the left one will

You load sixteen tons, what do you get
Another day older and deeper in debt
Saint Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store






Anna Domino - Sixteen Tons

Virus Inside | Myspace Video

1000 SONGS - DAY 266 SONG # 297

Day 266: Some More Zydeco Songs

We had a Zydeco version of "Knocking on Heavens Door" as the last track on this here blog. This was the milk for the beginners. Now we go on with the real stuff (way down yonder in good ol' Louisiana). Proudly introducing Clifton Chenier, the one and only king of Zydeco, with a fine version of his seminal "I'm coming home", featuring such a lot of rhythmic finesse on the washboard as you had ever wished of a Zydeco combo. And then, we have another one of those ol' boys, the one who wrote the song and, consequently, did the first recording of it, in 1984: Don't Mess with  my Toot Toot, by the one an only Rockin' Sidney. An then, we have Rockin Sidney's "You Ain't Nothing but Fine" in the true version. Have a good time, good ol fellas! Lots of "one and only" & "good ol'" in this post, I apologise.