Okay, I'll hold my hand up. I didn't quite make it 52 consecutive weeks of music. In my defense, I had a major illness, and it was quite difficult to get back in the habit of writing. I'm planning to resume posts, but probably not weekly.
On a side note, here's a very partial list of what I've been listening to a lot lately:
There are some albums that transcend time and space. Bat Out of Hell is one of those albums.
The album came out in 1977, the year after I was born. It is a heavy rock opera filled with love, sex, and heartache. The lyrics and the anthemic crescendos of the instruments bring the listener into the songwriter's world. You will experience spoken word poetry, and powerful guitar riffs, and Meat Loaf singing at all levels of his amazing range.
My favorite song is by far "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." It's all about teens and sex. In the cloistered world of my churchy upbringing, this was essentially audio erotica. Imagine hearing this at 12 or 13 and not being turned on. Of course, by the time I was hearing it, the album was some 10 or 12 years old, and the world had changed. Sex had become taboo, and this song celebrated it, to the point of flaunting.
This was one of the first CDs that I bought, and then at 16, the long awaited sequel came out, featuring "I Would Do Anything for Love (but I Won't Do That.)" Suddenly, everyone was into Meat Loaf all over again, but in the finicky world of 1990s radio, the long song was chopped up to fit into time slots and made into some horrible anemic version of its former self.
I think that's why I started going back to CDs only for my music. The radio was manipulative and sanitized, but the albums on CD in the dozens of plastic jewel cases strewn all over my back seat were uncut and vivid.
Of course, Bat Out of Hell is not without its detractors. Jim Steinman actually wrote the songs, and is barely ever given credit. Of course, he still gets the last laugh as he earns a good many royalties off Meat Loaf, and the anthems he wrote for other artists: "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" by Air Supply, "Total Eclipse of the Heart," by Bonnie Tyler, and "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," by Celine Dion, just to name a few.
If you've never heard Bat Out of Hell, I urge you to go out and get it.
Macy Gray is someone I see as a very misunderstood and under-appreciated talent. I picked up a used copy of The Id on a lark at the record store a few years ago, a couple years after it was already out. I heard "Sexual Revolution" in a movie and this CD had it on it, so I bought it.
As fortune would have it, The Id turned out to be one of my all time favorite CDs. It's chock full of emotion, flirtation, betrayal, frivolity, and fantastic rhythm and blues.
You... tell me that you love me If it's true, why am I running from ya and Who are these bitches on my answering machine? --from the song "Boo"
Absolutely fantastic.
I would characterize this album as a kind of R&B / Pop Fusion kind of sound. It's absolutely one of the most entertaining collections of songs that are out there. You should definitely pick it up.
This has been a very long couple of weeks, so suffice it to say I am behind on the music project.
Since I have been in a foul mood, I decided to go back to the basics of my music. That is, the Indigo Girls. Swamp Ophelia was the first encounter I had with the Indigo Girls. A friend in college had this on cassette and I freaked out. It was so much more than the crappy pop music of autumn 1995, and much more compelling to me than anything I had ever heard before. It was right when I was coming out, so this album got me through lots.
My favorite track on this album is "Language or the Kiss." It was definitely my life, or rather, the quandary I was faced with at the time.
There was a table set for six and five were there. I stood outside and kept my eyes upon that empty chair.
I was in a family of six and I feared most that my coming out would alienate me from my family, like in the song.
Over the years, the Indigo Girls poetry spoke to me in many other ways. I moved out on my own, then moved back home with my parents. Then finally at 24, I bought my own home and finally branched out for good, no longer the stunted sapling trapped in an suburban soil, but a thriving young tree. Forgive the purple prose, but it always makes me misty talking about the Indigo Girls.
The rest of the Swamp Ophelia is full of amazing songs about love, triumph, loss, mourning, and the strength of love and friendships. I am at a loss for words to describe it better. But I hope I've piqued your curiosity enough to check it out for yourself.
To give you some more inspiration, check out the "Power of Two" video from the Indigo Girls VEVO channel on YouTube. It's a great song.
There's a bit of an advisory note on this week's post. I normally like to focus on one of an artist's albums, but this is a sticky wicket, as they say.
Nina Simone burst into my consciousness through the movie Point of No Return starring Bridgette Fonda. The desperate tones of the lead character are accompanied by equally desperate and poignant Nina Simone songs. As much as anything else, I always got the feeling that this movie wanted you to go out and by a Nina Simone record. So I did.
I found a compilation CD, so I bought it (the cover image of the disc I have appears above). This compilation was an actual CD, but when I put it into my iTunes years ago, it came up as the album "Bad Habits." I usually trust Gracenote or CDDB or whatever gives iTunes its data, but something was definitely off about this
I learned later on that Nina Simone had an incredibly difficult life. Born in the US, she was a gifted musician, forced into subserviance and denied educational opportunities because of her skin color. Just before the breakthroughs of the 1960s Civil Rights movement, Nina packed off for Europe and lived much of her life as an outspoken Expatriate. Really, if anyone blames her, they should have their heads examined.
Because of the legal battles over her albums, there are many issues and reissues. Still, I wanted to talk about her music as soon as possible, because it's still Black History Month, and I've sort of largely ignored any black artists so far, much to my detriment.
I view Nina as more of an aggressive protest singer. She was popular in the US during her lifetime (died in 2003), but she shunned the music business and chose to use her music to spread the message instead of becoming a superstar she was so obviously born to be.
Her romantic tunes are almost overshadowed by her brash and plaintive songs like "Mississippi Goddamn," but the tenderness in "Love Me or Leave Me," and "My Baby Just Cares for Me" give a glimpse of just how amazingly powerful and deep she really was. She could have become rich and powerful and popular, but she took the high road and changed the world.
Another note: The song "Young Gifted and Black" does not appear on my album, but it's too good not to talk about, so I am including it blow, along with a couple other songs that make me love her all the more.
Unlike previous artists, I came to T. Rex later in life. In fact, I was completely unfamiliar with them until just a few years ago when I saw the movies The Tripand Billy Elliot. Both featured T. Rex anthems from Electric Warrior.
"Bang a Gong (Get It On)" and "Cosmic Dancer" were the songs in the respective films. The more I learned about T. Rex, the more I was fascinated. I bought the album on iTunes only years later after seeing Breakfast on Pluto, which again prominently featured "Cosmic Dancer."
The album has other standouts like "Planet Queen," "Mambo Sun" and more. To me, Electric Warrior is one of my favorite albums to listen to. But I only was a fan of the music, and never got that much into the band or Marc Bolan
I only recently became aware of another album, The Slider just this weekend when I strolled into my local record store. (Yes, they do still exist, antiquarian though they may be.) The record store had a display of new vinyl. Apparently, 15 years ago when I started collecting records in earnest after high school, I didn't know I was starting a trend. Today new and reissued albums are coming out on vinyl and come with a free MP3 download link on the Internet. Technology is wonderful.
While the Slider is good, Electric Warrior is still tops in its ethereal feel and aural magnetism. Still, as I continue with this project, you may get a review of the Slider later on. Both are really good.
Sadly, Marc Bolan died shortly before his 30th birthday in a car crash (possibly the biggest disincentive to buy a Mini ever). Of course, with the tragic early death, he's often compared to Jim Morrison of the Doors. I adored the Doors, and still do, but the musical sounds are light years apart. The Doors are more spoken word poetry, while T. Rex is still much more commercial. But the glam/punk mix packs a wallop to the Doors primal energy.
The lesson I've learned from T. Rex and Electric Warrior is that there is a cornucopia of music that you may never have heard of. I recently caught flak on facebook for stating my dislike of Arcade Fire. But while I stand by that opinion, and I still haven't heard any of their songs I particularly care for, I am reminded by experience with T. Rex is that you shouldn't ever stop listening to music. That's kind of the point of this whole blog project. Keep your ears and mind open to new experiences and possibilities and you may discover some fantastic music you never knew existed.
The 1960s had a Canadian chanteuse who captivated a generation. Her name was Joni Mitchell. The 1990s had her successor, Alanis Morissette. Alanis had a meteoric rise with Jagged Little Pill. I had loved Jagged Little Pill because it helped me deal with a lot of emotional shit, being that it came out the year I graduated high school. The sophomore effort, Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie came out in 1998 after a couple of years of rebuilding and was a commercial and critical flop.
After a long musical drought, Alanis returned in 2002 with Under Rug Swept. The melodies on Under Rug Sweptseemed a bit derivative of Jagged Little Pill, but the lyrics seemed just as edgy and catchy. I loved the whole album immediately. I was again working through some major things, like just buying a house, what to do about school, and trying to find a boyfriend. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go through all the pain of a relationship, but then I heard "Flinch."
"Flinch" made me a lot more appreciative of my previous experiences. "Soon I'll grow up and I won't even flinch at your name..." To me, truer words had never been spoken. I was so short-sighted about love and emotion. I needed to hear those words to realize that there's plenty of time to get the hell over someone.
The rest of Under Rug Swept was rhapsodic. I started to like myself a lot more. Today I still love listening to these songs, probably as much as the Jagged Little Pill megahits.
Alanis probably did more for distressed young gay men than any therapist. I really adore her to this day. I've been sort of lukewarm on her other albums, but to me, the Jagged Little Pill ripped me up, but Under Rug Swept healed me.
