1000 SONGS - DAY 216 Song #247

Day 216: Some songs by one of the best musicians ever

Nina Simone certainly has been a person equipped with musicianship of a very special kind. She has aspired (and certainly had the talent) to become a concert-pianist in the classical style, but due to the colour of her skin could not pursue this career. So she became a master in the jazz and soul genres, bringing in, aside to her magnificent voice and phrasing, tremendous technique on the piano. There is the story about her, that, as a young girl, when she was giving her first public concert, her parents were asked to leave the seats in the first row to have some people of white skin placed there. She refused to start to play until her parents were relocated in the first row. She is said to have stuck to that attitude during all of her life. There have been three songs in her versions on the 1000 Songs Challenge up to today. Here are five more pieces of music rendered in her incredibly musical style. The first one, a hit by the Animals and later on a disco-hit by Santa Esmeralda, has originally (in 1964) been recorded (although not written) by her. The second one is her version of "Feeling Good" from her 1965 album "I put a spell on you": the third one is "Wild is the Wind" (from her album of the same title), later recorded by David Bowie on his album "Station to Station". Mr. Jones is said to be an admirer of Miss Waymon's vocal style. Then, we have a cover-version of The Ballad of Hollis Brown, written by Rob Zimmerman, and finally, a stunning rendering of a gospel, Sinnerman, as used in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair:

1000 SONGS - DAY 215 SONG # 246

Day 215: A Song featured in  my favourite Coen Brothers' movie

In this here blog, there has already been a post about "I just dropped in to see what condition my condition was in", a song featured (among other songs I do like) in the soundtrack of "The Big Lebowsky". The film about the dude, great as it may be, is not my favourite  Coen Brothers' movie, a fate it shares with "O Brother Where Art Thou", great as it may be - so do not expect "Man of Constant Sorrow" here. My favourite Coen Brothers' movie is the first I came to know, by accident, on the TV. I turned on the TV and there it was and I immediately realised: this is a great movie. Miller's Crossing tells a tale I could easily find myself, my life, my situation in. It is loosely based on some topics to be found in the novels written by Dashiell Hammett,  and no movie ever has recreated the atmosphere of The Glass Key (or the atmosphere of Hammett's novels - needless to say that the 1941 cinema version  of the "Maltese Falcon" by John Huston is also among my favourite movies) like this masterpiece by the Coen Brothers. Maybe it is the one among their movies that sticks closest to traditional narrative genre filmmaking. The shoot-out (not really one, since one side is an individual only) in which Leo O'Bannon takes over against the gunmen who have set his house on fire, features the wonderful version of Danny Boy done by Frank Patterson. The song is held to be an Irish traditional and it is an important anthem for Irish people, mostly for those living abroad. Nevertheless, the lyrics (of which several versions exist) have originally been written by an Englishman, even though they are set to an Irish tune, Londonderry Air. But doubts  have even been raised about the Irish origin of the tune (for that discussion, click here). Be that as it may, the song has been covered by many singers, too much to name. You will find 3 versions here: the full version by Frank Patterson (that was used in the movie) and a touching a cappella rendering done by Sinead O'Connor (although  generally I do not like Joan Baez that much, her version of that song is agreeable, but Sinead's is better). Last, not least, JC himself is featured. If you do not shed a tear at least when listening to Sinead's version, you're no good!

1000 SONGS - DAY 214 SONG #245

Day 214: Laisse tomber les filles: Another Tribute to Serge Gainsbourg

Because it is the time of this year's European Song Contest, I came to think about Serge Gainsbourg, who won it back in 1965 with a song he wrote and that was performed by France Gall, Poupée de cire, poupée de son. As I have already posted that song in the 1000 Songs framework, I have to bring in  another one of Serge's compositions originally recorded by France Gall. Here it is: Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Un jour c'est toi qu'on laissera

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Un jour c'est toi qui pleureras

Oui j'ai pleuré mais ce jour-là

Non je ne pleurerai pas

Non je ne pleurerai pas

Je dirai c'est bien fait pour toi

Je dirai ça t'apprendra

Je dirai ça t'apprendra

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Ça te jouera un mauvais tour

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Tu le paieras un de ces jours

On ne joue pas impunément

Avec un cœur innocent

Avec un cœur innocent

Tu verras ce que je ressens

Avant qu'il ne soit longtemps

Avant qu'il ne soit longtemps

La chance abandonne

Celui qui ne sait

Que laisser les cœurs blessés

Tu n'auras personne

Pour te consoler

Tu ne l'auras pas volé

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Un jour c'est toi qu'on laissera

Laisse tomber les filles

Laisse tomber les filles

Un jour c'est toi qui pleureras

Non pour te plaindre il n'y aura

Personne d'autre que toi

Personne d'autre que toi

Alors tu te rappelleras

Tout ce que je te dis là

Tout ce que je te dis là

My favourite rendering of the song is done by the Belgian Band "The Honeymoon Killers" (Les tueurs de la lune de miel), not to be confused with the NY band of the same (english) name:

The song has been featured as sung by April March in the Quentin Tarrantino movie Death Proof; April March has recorded a French and an English version, the latter called "Chick Habit". Here it is:

When searching for all of this stuff I found the following vid based on the French Version by April March and I found it very nice:

1000 SONGS - DAY 213 SONG #244

Day 213: An often covered song, cool as it might be

This is indeed a cool song, a chilling jazz tune, a standard. Written by Eric Maschwitz and Jack Strachey in the 1930ies, it must have been recorded nearly a thousand times or so since 1936. By famous singers as well as by talented combos, to say the least. I came to know it somewhere in the beginning of the second inning of my teenage years through the version done by Bryan Ferry on his first solo album that was also named after the song. Billie Holiday recorded it at least twice, once in 1936, and then in 1952; here is the earlier version Billie did of These Foolish Things:

Here ixs one of Ella Fitzgerals's rendering of the tune. What great way of phrasing:

Maybe you would not expect that the Godfather of Funk himself has recorded that very song, but it is true, there is a version by James Brown, rather to be filed under "Soulful Music", this one video being an hommage to lovely Terri Hatcher:

Among the instrumental versions, the one by the GREAT Thelonius Monk is my favourite:

But there are also more traditional renderings of it, like those done by the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Here is one among them, compare Paul Desmond's phrasing to that of Ella...

Last, not least, the Bryan Ferry version that started it all for me:

1000 SONGS - DAY 212 SONG #243

Day 212: 3 Songs from one of my favourite Dub Albums

Dub Syndicate of On-U-Sound fame have already been featured here and I have already named them among my all time favourite bands.There is a nice album consisting mainly of cover versions (if I am right) on which (one of the set-ups of) Dub Syndicate back Dr. Pablo, a "white" guy from England playing the melodica. One should not confuse him with Augustus Pablo, a Dub musician from Jamaica, who has introduced the melodica to Reggae music. Dr Pablo named himself after Augustus. Here are three tracks from "North of the River Thames", very meditative music - it does not require to smoke some herb to enjoy it, but maybe the mood can be described as herbal relaxation.... Because of the herb I start with a piece of music that is mostly known for the Herb Alpert version of it, "A Taste of Honey". I go on with Dr Pablo's  rendering of the theme of a sci-fi television show, Dr Who. Last, not least, a song written by Michael Carr, made famous by The Shadows and lately covered by Muse, amongst others: Man of Mistery. I end with Herb Alpert and The Shadows, in case you do not recognize the tunes.

1000 SONGS - DAY 211 SONG # 242

Day 211: An excellent cover of a song from my childhood taking you into the heart of darkness

When I was something between a child and a guy in need of a puberty rite, there was a radio show in good old Austria every saturday that pretended to be somewhat like an alternative TOP TEN. I always listened to it and recorded some of the stuff on my father's tape machine (this was a time before the invention of the cassette recorder had come to our knowledge in the Austrian province). One of the songs featured in this weekly radio magazine was the somewhat psychedelic version of a song about a guy ruining his life - the one song having become famous for the version done by the Animals some years before. Here is Frijid Pink and the House of the Rising Sun:

1000 SONGS - DAY 210 SONG # 241

Day 210: Two of my favourite grunge songs

Whatever Grunge might have been - simply Seattle, mainly Nirvana or invented by the Meat Puppets, among the bands normally filed under "Grunge", Soundgarden is my favourite one, and among the albums in that alleged style it's Vs. - and this is not a Soundgarden record, and my favourite track on it is "Dissident". I have to mention that I also do appreciate Mudhoney, and not only for naming the band after a Russ Meyer film. So here it is, Dissident, with Dave Abbruzzese on drums, before Eddie Vedder thought him to be not fitting to the indie-image of Pearl Jam or whatever:

Although I did and do like "Black Hole Sun" a lo/t/ad, I sometimes think that "Fell on Black Days" is the even better tune from Soundgarden's Superunknown (I own a copy of it in kind of transparent vinyl - it was always hard to find the start of the tracks on one of them discs...)

Nevertheless, here is Black Hole Sun, the bonus track of today: