Friday, March 29, 2013

Your Guilty Pleasure: You told me to take this chance and learn the ways of love

High tenor gets me every damn time. El wrote this for Marvin Gaye, who left the Gordy label stable and, I guess, became unavailable to sing it. El clearly implies his love for Gaye in this track; he deploys that falsetto elsewhere, later.  I'd like to know if there is a deeper story behind El's hopeful early 80s composition, which doesn't have the artificial sheen of Smooth Jazz's 90s catapult.

Of course, my story with this song involves a pool out in the country in the languid sunset heat of August in Kentucky. I think I floated on a raft at some big barbeque party or other, as if in a womb of summer-at-home. 

As the sun has its place up in the sky...


Thursday, March 28, 2013

Anything is possible.

ALL-TIME FAVORITE.


Tears for Fears Sowing the Seeds of Love by Celtiemama


High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man
And the lovetrain rides from coast to coast
D.j.s the man we love the most
Could you be, could you be squeaky clean
And smash any hope of democracry ?
As the headline says you're free to choose
There's egg on your face and mud on your shoes
One of these days they're gonna call it the blues

And anything is possible when you're sowing the seeds of love
Anything is possible - sowing the seeds of love

I spy tears in thier eyes
They look to the skies for some kind of divine intervention
Food goes to waste !
So nice to eat, so nice to taste
Politician grannie with your high ideals
Have you no idea how the majority feels ?
So without love and a promise land
Were fools to the rules of a goverment plan
Kick out the style ! bring back the jam !

Anything...
Sowing the seeds
The birds and the bees
My girlfriend and me in love

Feel the pain
Talk about it
If you're a worried man - then shout about it
Open hearts - feel about it
Open minds - think about it
Everyone - read about it
Everyone - scream about it !
Everyone
Everyone - read about it, read about it
Read in the books in the crannies and the nooks there are books to read
Chorus !

(mr. england sowing the seeds of love)

Time to eat all your words
Swallow your pride
Open your eyes

High time we made a stand and shook up the views of the common man
And the lovetrain rides from coast to coast
Every minute of every hour - I love a sunflower
And I believe in lovepower, love power, lovepower !!!

Sowing the seeds
An end to need
And the politics of greed
With love

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

[Freedom Flight]

...for a wintry first spring sunset of the year, during which I can hear gulls crying about the cold as they circle over the lake...


Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Friday, March 15, 2013

Today's Shuffle: And lessons of the day on a blackboard night

Two-Day Shuffleganza! It took me two weeks to get back in the groove.

Oh, last week, I had such a beautiful list going, ready to transcribe--and then I clicked one too many clicks on the 'pod, and it vanished.

That was the start, I think, of getting in my way here and there over the last week. Wires crossed, assumptions made, poor transit decisions, words best left unspoken, fears cresting, so on.

I've had enough of that. Thus I post my list, because done is good enough, as my wise friend Robin looked into my eyes and told me when I spilled that I had a whole thesis ahead of me to write, and remember these words by the brilliant and who-gives-a fuck Bill Murray:
"Living life, the game of life, you can make it a lot more interesting if you make it a game for yourself. It's not a rehearsal. It's not practice. It's real. This life is real. This is the real thing, and if you can stay light and stay loose and stay relaxed, then you can play at the very highest level, in baseball or as a human being. …"
And that, friends, makes Shuffle what it is: the algorithm-powered ability to read into what you are hearing.

No--not read into. To believe.

Because, some days, when the train gets stuck in the tunnel and you're mired in the past-drenched much of your conditioned responses, you need some faith in a bigger thing--from a little, handheld thing.



The Police, Voices Inside My Head Zenyatta Mondatta
Beck, High Five (Rock The Catskills) Odelay
Rufus Wainwright, Rebel Prince Poses
Paul Westerberg, These Are The Days Eventually
Beastie Boys, Triple Trouble To The 5 Boroughs
Steely Dan, Your Gold Teeth II Katy Lied
The Smiths, There Is A Light That Never Goes Out The Queen Is Dead
The Rolling Stones, Can't You Hear Me Knocking Sticky Fingers
Beck, Lost Cause Sea Change
Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Big Boys Armed Forces
David Bowie, All the Madmen The Man Who Sold The World
Pixies, La La Love You Doolittle
Beck, New Round The Information
Seal, Dreaming In Metaphor Seal
Jamiroquai, Journey To Arnahemland The Return Of The Space Cowboy
Crowded House, Dr. Livingstone Afterglow
AC/DC, Hells Bells Back In Black
Chicane, Already There Far From The Maddening Crowd
Public Enemy, Welcome To The Terrordome Fear Of A Black Planet
Jamiroquai, Didgital Vibrations Traveling Without Moving
Beastie Boys, Bodhisattva Vow Ill Communication
Electric Light Orchestra, Wild West Hero All Over The World
Kaskade, All You Love Mysterious
Gary Numan, Random Demo Outtake The Pleasure Principle
Billy Joel, All You Wanna Do Is Dance Turnstiles
LCD Soundsystem, Tribulations LCD Soundsystem
Andre 3000, Hey Ya! The Love Below
Finn Brothers, Part of Me, Part of You Everyone Is Here
Public Enemy, Power To The People  Fear Of A Black Planet
The Kinks, Animal Farm The Village Green Preservation Society
Trip Shakespeare, Bachelorette Lulu
Joan As Police Woman, Human Condition The Deep Field
Crowded House, Fame Is Woodface
Madonna, Sorry Confessions On A Dancefloor

So I’ll leave the ways of making me be what I really don’t want to be


Saturday, March 09, 2013

May I crawl behind your eyes?

If I could go back someplace I never was, but was in proximity to, within a facsimile of, this would be on the list.

(Because, you know, there'd have to be a list.)


Monday, March 04, 2013

Bambi, it's better with a man oh, yeah

GODDAMN. 

That's probably more guitar right there than I got in September, but, hell baby, beggars cannot be choosers.