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Court Links: A Few Links Before a Big Posting Day Tomorrow

23 Dec

Today I will not have much time to post, but tomorrow I will. So, I have decided to just profile a few links today and focus on a large posting day tomorrow which will include a poll response and a new poll. Now on to the links. Boy do I have a funny but kind of disturbing one for you.

Ozzy Osbourne, the original Prince of Darkness, apparently does not like Christmas. Well, maybe I should go as far as saying he hates the merry time of the year. Back in 2003 he spent Christmas unconscious due to an accident. That was also the same year a duet with his daughter caught him a rare Christmas #1. Ozzy said while at a book signing,

‘I had a Christmas number one. The only thing is that I was in hospital. When I did that thing with Kelly, I then nearly killed myself in a quad-bike accident.

‘I was in a coma for a while so I missed Christmas, thank God. If I want to miss Christmas, I’ll get on my quad bike and break my neck again.’

Awesome Video
To add to the awesomely new awesome video section here is a video of Roger Waters playing “Mother.” No big deal or anything.

SWOD (Song of the Day/Word of the Day) #1:

22 Dec

      

        Next week the anticipated return of the top lyricists list will come to fruition and I am sure everyone will bounce up in jubilation. But, for now I thought we would try something a little different for the song of the day section. Since we are all about creativity at the Music Court I thought we could combine two of my favorite things into one intelligible post. These two things are music and words.

      As an English major words are my friends. Each one has its own personality and sound. Often people look over language and simply, well, speak it, but I believe that analyzing words and their corresponding meanings, synonyms and antonyms is stimulating. This is one reason why I am an English major as opposed to a mathematician. Numbers are way to plain for me.

     SWOD, the new section, will take a Word of the Day from one of the various dictionary sites and I will match the word with a song or artist who demonstrates the word to perfection. Today’s word of the day is

Veracity (Noun): A devotion to truth

    Example:   Bob Dylan portrays lyrical veracity in his song “Only a Pawn in Their Game” which appeared on his third studio album The Times They Are a-Changin.’ In this particular song Dylan’s nasally croon sings a true story of the assassination of African-American Civil Right’s Activist Medgar Evers who was assassinated outside of his home by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the Ku Klux Klan, on June 23, 1964. Unfortunately, veracity was not stressed by all-white juries who deadlocked twice on Beckwith’s guilt. In 1994, 30 years after the initial trials, the case was brought back up on new evidence and on February 5, 1994 Beckwith was convicted of murder.

“Only a Pawn in Their Game”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fffHzrtHhZM (Great version at a 1963 Civil Right’s Rally)

  

 

Court Links: Rage Against the Machine and CD Release

21 Dec

Good morning readers. As always, the Monday blues are met with exciting links to lift your spirits. So, let us get to it.

I officially love the U.K. Because of a Facebook campaign by many good-humored people Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” beat out The X-Factor (their American Idol) winner’s single “The Climb” to become the U.K.’s Christmas #1 single. When I first read this I went into a fit of laughter. The band who ends their hit single by repeating in an anger crescendo “F*ck you I won’t do what you tell me” beat out a song that is a Miley Cyrus cover. Take that Simon Cowell who had previously won four consecutive single battles. Rage also donated all of the royalties from the “Killing in the Name” downloading spree that helped them win to a charity shelter. This is much better than Simon Cowell bathing in the royalties (Just kidding). Simon Cowell actually took the loss with a grain of salt and congratulated the two organizers of the Facebook campaign that won Rage the competition. Even Paul McCartney said that the Rage campaign was “funny” and “prove(d) a point” proving the well-known point that Paul McCartney is awesome. I think the last paragraph of the article on Rolling Stone really sums it up.

““The people in the U.K. are tired of being spoon-fed one schmaltzy ballad after another and they want to back their own charts, and we are honored that they have chosen our song to be the rebel anthem to try to topple The X Factor label,” Morello (Tom Morello is the lead guitarist for the group) told the BBC5 moments before Rage performed “Killing in the Name” live over the airwaves. Rage’s performance was cut short after frontman Zack de la Rocha sang “F*ck you, I won’t do what you tell me” four times over the air.”

Check out the rest of the article: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/12/21/rage-against-the-machine-win-u-k-christmas-single-battle/#more-21707

CD Release Tuesday, December 22

Mudvayne by Mudvayne

– The fifth studio album by the alternative metal quartet has taken a more retro approach and has focused more on intelligent lyric writing and cover art. Cover art is always considered a thing of the past but it is certainly awesome to see a band putting energy into creative art. Check out the album: http://www.amazon.com/Mudvayne/dp/B002VDZIHO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1261411128&sr=8-1

Music Court Twitter

20 Dec

You can now follow the Music Court on twitter (despite the consternation of my fellow writers). http://twitter.com/musiccourt Hope to see you on there and I promise I will still never use the word tweet or tweeting (Now poo-tee-weet is another story)

A Pick-Me Up Song: “Beautiful World” by Colin Hay

20 Dec

The Jets lost. Another season with an optimistic start has pretty much gone down the perennial tubes likes many seasons before.I’d like to say that this is a fluke but lacking late-season performances have plagued this franchise for so many lost years and I do not even know the half of it. While I stare in the face of another long winter waiting time until the optimism of spring brings back Spring Training and baseball, I certainly need a bit of a pick-me up to get me smiling again. Yes, I understand that me being down because of a sports team is incredibly superficial and rather dumb but, even in my knowledge that sports are simply a form of entertainment and the world is always experiencing crisis beyond the meaningless stranglehold of sports, I cannot shake the inevitable feeling of annoyance that my wonderful Jets and Mets always seem to bring me. So, let us turn to music and I will reveal to you all my perfect pick-me up song.

I could not resist

“Beautiful World” by Colin Hay (who was the lead vocalist of Men at Work in the 80’s) appeared on Company of Strangers, Hay’s 7th solo album which was released in 2002. The song’s lyrics are just uplifting and truthful. In perhaps one of my favorite verses in any song, Hay sings:

“And still this emptiness persists
Perhaps this is as good as it gets
When you’ve given up the drink and those nasty cigarettes
Now I leave the party early at least with no regrets
I watch the sun as it comes up I watch it as it sets
Yeah this is as good as it gets.”

In it, I just feel like he sums it up quite pleasantly and ingrained in this lyric and song is a message of accepted optimism. Perhaps, no matter what, this is as good as it gets. Do not have any regrets and live life with a smile. Accept the bad and try to make it good. My, my, my it’s a beautiful world (Just look at it that way).

Check out the song and don’t worry, be happy (Bobby McFerrin ain’t bad either):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yS8g6UuPCnQ&feature=PlayList&p=A6F88D16B0CC2DEA&index=0&playnext=1

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