I started doing this as a way to pass the time in hospital. The deal is that I open Itunes, press random and have to write a quick review of the first song that comes up. No skipping songs, no cheating and providing the most factual detail re: release dates, trivia etc. If its a live song, the link will be to that particular version as much as possible. Some songs just can't be found on youTube etc and I don't know what to do with them yet.
It goes song name, Artist, Album, Year, link to song.
Heres what I mean:
Black and Blue
Rancid
Let's Go
1993 (Live at Nottingham 2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZ8vYeWeqo
I couldn't find the Nottingham one so I used the one for Summer Sonic 2001 festival.
Legendary founding member of Rancid Matt Freeman runs the show on this number; singing and even getting a little bass solo in there which is pretty amazing cause this is only a 2:03 song! (Album version 1:59) But Rancid is always for a good time, not a long time. Although they have been around for a long while – 26 years in fact.
Not a stand-out track from their catalogue, and the audio quality isn't perfect but it's listenable. A good pub song perhaps.
10AM Automatic (The live EP version)
Black Keys
2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CukK3eYt0
Made available for free as part of a 4 track EP available on their MySpace page
First heard this on the dvd that came with a Punk-o-rama (#10) cd I had bought. living in Rockvegas when I hadn't dropped out of Uni yet. in 2005 So this brings back a lot of memories. Good times and a good party background. This is a good beer drinking song, or was, I should say.
Nice video clip too.
#Ghost featuring Ian Astbury
Slash
2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPG-_kol4F8
Ian who? A rather nondescript rock song. If this was a record pitch, and I was a record exec, I would have thrown it in the trash after the first 30 seconds. Solo that starts at 2:20 and ends at 2:51 is nice. It's not breaking any new ground though. But hey, its Slash.. Nothing much else to say really. I'm going for a smoke. Notable lyric: Kill the ghost
That hides in your soul
Rock 'n' Roll
Friday 11th June 2010
Freeze Up
Operation Ivy
Energy
1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuTQeu0w9Aw
From seminal skapunk band Operation Ivy
'The course of human progress staggers like a drunk
Its steps are quick and heavy and its mind is slow and blunt'
There's other lyrics that I'd like to quote, pretty much all of them, but check em out on the YouTube link anyway.
Times Ain't Like They Used To Be
Clarence 'Tom' Ashley & Gwen Foster
GreenBack Dollar
2001 (Recorded 8th September 1933, seems to have been unreleased before this)
No Youtube
This is just what it says on the package; Hillbilly blues from 1933! Carolina Tarheels with the hard-drinkin' Gwen Foster on harmonica and guitar and Tom Ashley on banjo and vocals. Ashley's distinctive style preserved the heritage of traditional American music, steadfastly holding onto the styles of the 1910s, shunning the jazz and big-band fashion of the time.
Everyone however can relate to the convict yearning to be travelling back on that train home.
Curiously it is not revealed what our protagonist was in the 'ball and chain for'.
Rudy, A Message to you
Dandy Livingstone (As Dandy and his group)
Ska Beat
1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWWUQNSV2E
Made into a hit The Specials when they covered it in 1979, this ska/reggae classic is one of my favourite songs. Who can resist the upbeat tempo and sweet horns? And speaking of horns, it's sublime to hear the trumpet player and then the trombonist (Rico Rodriguez, who also did the trombone for The Special's version 12 years later) trade solos from 1:21 to 1:56.
The melody and simple lyrics are timeless.
Saturday 12th June, 2010
So What
Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
1959
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC8nqT6Rrk&feature=related
No, not one of the many songs with the same name (Metallica's cover of Anti-Nowhere League's charmer, Pink, The Minstry, the Clash or the Cure! Phew!). This is a jazz standard, apparently one of the best known examples of modal jazz, according to Wikipedia. Whatever it is, it's long, clocking in at 9:25. I use it for mostly BGM. Part of birth of the cool period of jazz, after a group of artists got fed up with the 'virtuoso instrumentalism' of the period. This was done many years after he got clean from heroin.
It goes song name, Artist, Album, Year, link to song.
Heres what I mean:
Black and Blue
Rancid
Let's Go
1993 (Live at Nottingham 2003)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkZ8vYeWeqo
I couldn't find the Nottingham one so I used the one for Summer Sonic 2001 festival.
Legendary founding member of Rancid Matt Freeman runs the show on this number; singing and even getting a little bass solo in there which is pretty amazing cause this is only a 2:03 song! (Album version 1:59) But Rancid is always for a good time, not a long time. Although they have been around for a long while – 26 years in fact.
Not a stand-out track from their catalogue, and the audio quality isn't perfect but it's listenable. A good pub song perhaps.
10AM Automatic (The live EP version)
Black Keys
2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-CukK3eYt0
Made available for free as part of a 4 track EP available on their MySpace page
First heard this on the dvd that came with a Punk-o-rama (#10) cd I had bought. living in Rockvegas when I hadn't dropped out of Uni yet. in 2005 So this brings back a lot of memories. Good times and a good party background. This is a good beer drinking song, or was, I should say.
Nice video clip too.
#Ghost featuring Ian Astbury
Slash
2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPG-_kol4F8
Ian who? A rather nondescript rock song. If this was a record pitch, and I was a record exec, I would have thrown it in the trash after the first 30 seconds. Solo that starts at 2:20 and ends at 2:51 is nice. It's not breaking any new ground though. But hey, its Slash.. Nothing much else to say really. I'm going for a smoke. Notable lyric: Kill the ghost
That hides in your soul
Rock 'n' Roll
Friday 11th June 2010
Freeze Up
Operation Ivy
Energy
1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuTQeu0w9Aw
From seminal skapunk band Operation Ivy
'The course of human progress staggers like a drunk
Its steps are quick and heavy and its mind is slow and blunt'
There's other lyrics that I'd like to quote, pretty much all of them, but check em out on the YouTube link anyway.
Times Ain't Like They Used To Be
Clarence 'Tom' Ashley & Gwen Foster
GreenBack Dollar
2001 (Recorded 8th September 1933, seems to have been unreleased before this)
No Youtube
This is just what it says on the package; Hillbilly blues from 1933! Carolina Tarheels with the hard-drinkin' Gwen Foster on harmonica and guitar and Tom Ashley on banjo and vocals. Ashley's distinctive style preserved the heritage of traditional American music, steadfastly holding onto the styles of the 1910s, shunning the jazz and big-band fashion of the time.
Everyone however can relate to the convict yearning to be travelling back on that train home.
Curiously it is not revealed what our protagonist was in the 'ball and chain for'.
Rudy, A Message to you
Dandy Livingstone (As Dandy and his group)
Ska Beat
1967
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZWWUQNSV2E
Made into a hit The Specials when they covered it in 1979, this ska/reggae classic is one of my favourite songs. Who can resist the upbeat tempo and sweet horns? And speaking of horns, it's sublime to hear the trumpet player and then the trombonist (Rico Rodriguez, who also did the trombone for The Special's version 12 years later) trade solos from 1:21 to 1:56.
The melody and simple lyrics are timeless.
Saturday 12th June, 2010
So What
Miles Davis
Kind of Blue
1959
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEC8nqT6Rrk&feature=related
No, not one of the many songs with the same name (Metallica's cover of Anti-Nowhere League's charmer, Pink, The Minstry, the Clash or the Cure! Phew!). This is a jazz standard, apparently one of the best known examples of modal jazz, according to Wikipedia. Whatever it is, it's long, clocking in at 9:25. I use it for mostly BGM. Part of birth of the cool period of jazz, after a group of artists got fed up with the 'virtuoso instrumentalism' of the period. This was done many years after he got clean from heroin.
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