John Lennon’s a Jealous Guy

8 Apr

John Lennon would have been 70 years old this October if we lived in the world he depicted in his beautiful hit, “Imagine.” Yet, 30 years ago, as Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono returned to the Dakota, the New York apartment building where they lived, Lennon was shot multiple times in the back by Mark David Chapman and killed. His voice and mind may have been silenced that night, but his message of peace and love lives on today.

As Lennon’s October birthday approaches, the city of Liverpool, England, has announced a festival in his honor. Liverpool thankfully understands how important the former Beatles’ musician is. The festival will be a two-month celebration. It will begin on Oct. 9, Lennon’s birthday, at the Cavern Club. The Cavern Club is where the young foursome were first discovered by manager Brian Epstein. The events taking place during the festival are still being ironed out, but it will feature poetry, art, film and a tribute concert titled “Lennon Remembered.” The festival will end on Dec. 9, the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death.

This is fantastic news. I feel that it is remarkably important to remember John Lennon. Yes, he was certainly cocky and sarcastic, but, he extended a fatidic message of peace that remains just as important today as it did 30 years ago. I am sure Liverpool will put on a great display devoted to the late Lennon that will make super fans, like myself, proud. Give peace a chance and Imagine.

Article: http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2010/04/liverpool-prepares-for-two-month-john-lennon-festival.html

In other John Lennon related news, American Idol had its Lennon-McCartney songbook night on Tuesday and the result was an expected uninspiring string of covers. Yet, Casey James, a 27-year-old contestant from Fort Worth, Texas, stood out with a performance of Lennon’s solo piece, “Jealous Guy.” James’ voice is tender and he certainly gives it his all. I kind of enjoy his bare performance of the Lennon classic. What do you all think?

Article: http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2010/04/07/songs-from-lennonmccartney-catalog-return-to-american-idol/

Lyric of the Day #77: Top 100 Lyricists #70 – Beck

7 Apr

“In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey
butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie
with the plastic eyeballs, spray-paint the vegetables
dog food stalls with the beefcake pantyhose”

– Beck: “Loser” off of Mellow Gold (1994)

Beck being Beck

Please, do not spend a lot of time attempting to decipher the lyrics above. “Loser,” multi-instrumentalist Beck Hansen’s most popular hit, is a string of somewhat unintelligible poetry that provides no apparent pattern or lyrical rhythm. It is the definition of complete musical entropy. Beck’s perplexing lyric is a wave of wonderful randomness and that is what makes it awesome. Yes, you heard it hear first. Sometimes there is just no meaning.

Now, do not get the idea that all of Beck’s lyrics are an odd mixture of random words and phrases picked out of a grand hat. “Loser” is just an example of an experimental lyric. The regurgitated words come together and form a hugger-mugger. A jumbled mass of images set to an acoustic slide and callisthenics in a graveyard. It is Beck, the idiosyncratic music master, at his very finest.

Beck was born in Los Angeles, California to musician David Campbell and former Andy Warhol “Star” and visual artist, Bibbe Hansen. After his parents separated, he chose to stay in Los Angeles with his mother where he was introduced to a burgeoning hip-hop scene and with his mother’s art crowd. His influences were beyond diverse and he caught much of his parent’s talents.

Beck dropped out of high school (like so many musicians) in the mid-1980’s and took a tour of Europe, honing his musical skill through busking. He eventually found his way into the anti-folk movement of New York City in the late-1980’s and was further inspired. After returning to Los Angeles, he started taking several dead-end jobs before finally recording. His first official single was released in 1993 on Flipside Records.”MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack” remains one of my favorite Beck songs. It combines hilarious social criticism with true frustration. It is real and I always respected that about Beck.

“mtv makes me wanna smoke crack
fall out of the window and I’m never comin back
mtv makes me wanna get high
can’t get a ride no matter how I try
and everything’s perfect
and everything’s bright
and everyone’s perky
and everyone’s uptight
I love those videos
I watch ’em all day”

– Beck: “MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack”

Beck opens the song with these lyrics. He depicts the fraudulence of MTV. “Everyone’s perfect,” delineates Beck’s annoyance at the sitcom-like nature of the artificial music videos of the time. It has further expanded into the deceiving programming that currently makes the MTV network the true trash of television. Beck anticipated its arrival.

“Loser”

“MTV Makes Me Want to Smoke Crack”

SWOD (Song of the day/Word of the day) #14: Land of Nod

6 Apr

Today’s Word:

Garfield has drifted off into the land of Nod

Land of Nod (Noun): A mythical land of sleep

Musical Example:

A bit of an odd combined word for the SWOD today. This pun on a biblical place-name quite literally is a mythical land of sleep. So, next time you are drifting off to bed, you may be entering the land of Nod. I think I am going to start using this term frequently to annoy my roommate. Sleep is a popular topic among artists. Ben Folds has a song entitled “Narcolepsy” which appeared on his album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The lyrics that cue the sleep fairy are the first two lines:

“I should warn you
I go to sleep”

And, so do we all Ben Folds. I believe the song may be about a guy who is tired of life but the narcoleptic base works quite well for our purposes. I just exited the land of Nod just a little while ago, but, I’ll be back there soon. Enjoy the day folks and…LETS GO METS!

Meet the Mets

5 Apr

What is that smell in the air? That sweet scent of leather gloves, fresh cut grass and steamed hot dogs. That optimistic smell of new uniforms, new players and a new season. Opening day is here for the New York Mets and I cannot be happier. At 1:10 p.m. the Mets season will kick off and despite all the negativity surrounding the team, I am happy and positive this morning. Opening day presents the only time during the baseball season where every team is on an equal playing ground. Each team has zero wins and zero losses. (Forget about the Red Sox and Yankees who played last night, briefly) Every team is beginning as fresh as the unsullied uniforms and packed infield dirt.

The best way to compare opening day to music is by imagining a simple guitar riff. Go ahead, imagine it. It’s chord progression is probably not so original. It is like 100 different chord progressions that you have heard before. But, it has potential. Soon it will be transformed into a dulcet song with a variety of other instruments and sounds. A vocal track may be placed on top of it. Soon enough that chord progression will be in the background. It will always be there, the original sound that inspired the rest of the song. That is what opening day is to me. It is that which inspires the rest of the complicated season. It is the opening hope and optimistic beginning.

I have been a New York Mets fan my entire life and opening day has always provided me with a wide smile. I remember my father taking me out of school early to drive to Shea stadium and watch the New York Mets open the season. The team may not be great this year. In three weeks I may be saying how much they are a waste of my time. But, at least for this one afternoon, I can sit back on my couch and tell my dad that I believe. Because, just like all other baseball fans out there, opening day gives us a chance to be optimistic. Opening day is why baseball is America’s pastime.

Here is a great article from Bleacher Report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/373383-new-york-mets-opening-day-optimism

And for a little music how about some “Meet the Mets”

Enjoy opening day!

Stuck in My Head: “Haven’t Met You Yet” by Michael Buble

3 Apr

I apologize for not posting yesterday. I just have come down with some sort of sickness (probably a head cold) and I have been busy with work in anticipation of my illustrious return to Binghamton on Monday. But, I’m back…and I do not usually post in Saturday. First, I hope everyone has a lovely Saturday. I will most likely be very lazy today in an attempt to shake this cold.

That means I have an opportunity to listen to some music. There is one particular song that is stuck in my head and I am having trouble shaking it. “Haven’t Met You Yet,” the first single off Canadian Michael Buble’s fourth album Crazy Love, is an effervescent song paired with Buble’s great voice. He co-wrote the song for his fiancée, Luisana Lopilato. How sweet. She also appears on the video below.

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