Joni, Joni

A Case of You - from her album "Blue". Listening to this song induces the feeling of Being In Love even if you aren't...

Since YouTube is now silencing copyrighted audio, here's a link to some other streaming site. The original by Joni Mitchell is first on the list. Suggestions for a better site (that works in Israel) are welcome.

I've arrived in the 60's, think I'll stay a while

"Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo. So little time, so much to know..."
Nowhere Man scene from Yellow Submarine.

Both Sides Now - Joni Mitchell, from her 1969 album "Clouds". She recorded it again in 2000, in her now-smoky voice, totally different. The studio recording isn't available on YouTube - this is the best live version I could find from before her voice changed.

Cry Me a River

Another old jazz standard - written for Ella Fitzgerald but recorded first by Julie London. Once again, there are many excellent versions by big names, from Barbara Streisand to Susan Boyle. Here is an extensive list of covering artists from Wikipedia (although some of them are actually covering the Justin Timberlake song).
I'm posting the ones that pleased or caught my ear for some reason.

Patricia Elena Vlieg, saucy and lively.

My favorite jazz version: Diana Krall with her unsweet voice.

Someone had to do a "naive" version, so here is Swedish singer Lisa Ekdahl.

But there's nobody like Bjork - as always, exquisitely casual and precise, childlike and emotional and slightly mad.

Also works as hard rock - Joe Cocker on Mad Dogs and Englishmen, 1970

And Caetano Veloso always makes my toes tingle...

I'm not in the mood for Ella Fitzgerald, but I'm putting these up for another day maybe:

Ella Fitzgerald & Joe Pass (1975)

Dinah Washington (who saucily acknowledges the existence of Spokane before starting)

And the original, Julie London.

Piping up for November

Voçê Não Entende Nada / Cotidiano - Caetano Veloso and Chico Buarque charm and disarm on TV.

Oh! Darling by the Beatles - love the rhythmic squacks of protest from George Harrison's instrument interjected between Paul's cries.

And this sentimental little thing:
Nothing Even Matters - Lauryn Hill and D'Angelo

=)

This song makes me smile: Boys of Summer - Don Henley

Staring into space daydreaming kind of music

Apple Tree - Erykah Badu (from her first album, Baduizm)
Erykah Badu is Something Else. That inimitable dreamy delivery, vague enunciation, irresistibly groovy instrumental backing. Something conceived in a creative haze... there's no way that kind of music could have been thought up, in a clear mind.

Life in a Northern Town - Dream Academy.

Last October songs

Wednesday's: Nobody's Fault But Mine - Robert Plant and Jimmy Page in their 1994 live album "No Quarter (Unledded)".
This is an old blues standard, first recorded by Blind Willie Nelson in 1927 or so. In 1976 Led Zeppelin tore it up and put it back together as metal. Then in 1994 Page and Plant backed off and gave it another chance, and that is the version above.

Thursday the weather shifted, and Leonard Cohen poked a first tender song through, like all those green things that pop out of the earth after the first rain:
Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye

Later on rainy Thursday I heard this on the radio:
From Hank to Hendrix - Neil Young (unplugged)

Two new songs and another look at an old one.

Rent by the Pet Shop Boys - odd that I've never heard it before. It's also covered by Liza Minnelli and is supposedly a drag queen staple.

Not Dark Yet - Bob Dylan (thanks Iza)

And
Playing on and on and on in my head, I can't stop it.

Caetano Veloso, Mora Na Filosofia (Monsueto / Arnaldo Passos)

Don't bother with other covers. Right now I think this is the most perfect music.


Eu vou lhe dar a decisão
Botei na balança, e você não pesou
Botei na peneira, e você não passou.
Mora na filosofia
Pra quê rimar amor e dor.

Se seu corpo ficasse marcado
Por lábios ou mãos carinhosas,
Eu saberia, ora vai mulher
A quantos você pertencia.
Não vou me preocupar em ver,
Seu caso não é de ver pra crer
Tá na cara!

My best translation of the first three lines (with every possible disclaimer - it's just a small improvement on the Google translation).

"I'll give you the decision.
I weighed it in balance, and you carried no weight.
I put it through the sieve, and you did not pass."

Heard It Through the Grapevine

My conclusion from this search is that nobody can touch Marvin Gaye's performance. No other cover comes close to his intensity, his urgency, no one else's "...and I'm just about to lose my mind" is so thrilling. Supposedly Gaye's hard-driving producer brought out that urgent tone by pushing him to record the song on a scale higher than his comfortable vocal range.

If you are only interested in the ultimate version, read no farther than this:
I Heard It Through the Grapevine - Marvin Gaye (1967)



Nevertheless, some of the other versions out there have redeeming qualities. Here are my picks - the historic, the original, and Amy Winehouse:

--------

The historic - best known versions:

Gladys Knight & the Pips - ther first version to be released as a single, before Marvin Gaye's.

Credence Clearwater Revival

Claymation commercial for California raisins

Michael Jackson also wanted to be a raisin...

--------

My favorites - the artists interpreting in their own character:

Elton John live

Fantasia Barrino on American Idol

--------

Some well-made versions and sung with lots of feeling, just not original:

Fairport Convention

Funk Brothers & Ben Harper

Michael McDonald

--------

And Amy Winehouse... well, she just can't be ignored.

Amy Winehouse and Paul Weller on the Jools Holland show

--------

For those who read this far, here is Marvin Gaye jamming in Japan.

Small Discoveries from Monday

The Roots feat. Erykah Badu doing Billie Jean

J. Viewz interpreting another Michael Jackson song: Smooth Criminal ("Annie are you OK?")

Layla live with Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page.
The "Derek and the Dominoes" version - the fast one - is actually the original. I knew the slower, intimate, "unplugged" version first, so hearing it sped and noised up was a bit of a shock. But I think this version is just as touching.

In the Dragon's Lair

Yesterday morning in the Apple store I became enraptured with a set of large and luxurious (and way out of my league, money-wise) noise-cancelling Bose headphones. Padded like an executive chair for the ears. Music coming in so clear you can almost smell it.



I contemplated selling my soul to the Devil for a set, but the Devil happened to be away on business at that moment. So he missed his chance.

Anyway, I don't hate New York City so much anymore. Here's proof:

Black Magic Woman - Santana

Sexual Healing - Marvin Gaye

50 Ways to Leave Your Lover - Paul Simon

Say What You Want - Texas

End of Summer

I had the most wonderful summer...

It ended abruptly as I left the sun and the beach across the Atlantic, and friends began to scatter all over the country and the world.

So here is some
Disgust from the airplane,
People Ain't No Good - Nick Cave

Wistfulness from Washington DC,
Angie - the Rolling Stones

Loathing from NYC
Happiness is a Warm Gun - the Beatles

But this marvelous bass line
You Don't Know Me - Caetano Veloso
And maybe winter won't be so bad.

Guitars On My Mind

Led Zeppelin - Dazed and Confused live at the Royal Albert Hall, 1970
"Been dazed and confused for so long, it's not true
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you
Lots of people talkin', few of them know
Soul of a woman was created below"

If you can get past that, some B. B. King live

Also, the opening sequence of the TV series "True Blood" is outstanding. Watch in high definition. The song is "Bad Things" by Jace Everett.

Songs Before Flying

Two more and I'm off to Amsterdam:

15 Dakot from Meno'im Shketim (Quiet Motors) by Asaf Amdurski

Inta Omri - Mica Shitrit's take on the song made famous by Umm Kulthoum.

August Ups & Downs

In chronological order:

Will There Be Enough Water - The Dead Weather
The Dead Weather is Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Discount, Dean Fertita of Queens of the Stone Age and Jack Lawrence of The Raconteurs and The Greenhornes.

Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard / Polythene Pam / She Came In Through The Bathroom Window. From "Abbey Road" by the disintegrating Beatles. Shuttling between dreamy--groovy--obnoxious.

Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana) woke me up wide one night.

Ani Eshtagea - Chava Alberstein with Matti Caspi (traditional Spanish tune)

High and Dry by Radiohead.

Being Boring - Pet Shop Boys. Love zebras.

You Got Me - the Roots feat. the queenly Erykah Badu

Girl From the North Country - Bob Dylan

I Cut Like a Buffalo - the Dead Weather again

Twist in My Sobriety

A haunting doom-toned song with a compelling melody that seems to lend itself to any genre, but especially to darker ones. I found it incarnated as country, pop ballad, cabaret, house, death metal, and even that Korean kid on acoustic guitar. Here are a few cover versions I picked out.

German Gothic rock band Dreadful Shadows. Worth a listen for Sven Friedrich's deeper than Hades voice.

Taiwanese singer Chyi Yu, proving the song works even with a sweet voice and little expression.

Club mix by Les Adams feat. Alexis.

Mash-up by DJ Not I - Wu Tang Clan & Eminem vs. the original.

And the original by Tanita Tikaram, from her debut album Ancient Heart, released when she was 19.

Mostly Words

Something I wrote in an email recently and thought I'd share. It's nothing new, just putting in my own words a philosophy I deeply believe in .

"...
Humans evolved with a certain lifestyle and rhythm of life: living in close-knit social groups, sleeping/waking with the sun, alternating intense exercise with rest and lots of leisurely play, socializing, exploration. We're still pretty much the same organism... any time we start departing from the way nature made us, things start to go awry. Just because something is "normal" for these times, doesn't mean it's the right or healthy way. A "normal" health-conscious person spends the day under even artificial lights until he switches them off abruptly and expects to fall asleep. Stuffs food down his gullet at regular intervals. Exercises in movement patterns made for domesticated rodents and machines. Is chronically stressed - rarely peaking, never relaxed and worry-free. Pushes the round pin of relationships into the square hole of cost-benefit analyses. No wonder our bodies and minds become deranged.

Not saying we should all give up the advantages of modern technology and go live in a cave, or that we should forgo science as a tool for optimizing our health and quality of life. But I definitely think 200,000 years of homo sapiens should give us some guideline as to what things we can not leave out of our lives."

* * *

Slow Like Honey - Fiona Apple

Capoeira & Beyond

I'd like to share the latest from Ido Portal, with whom I trained since 2001.

"Floreio is a movement modality that involves high end development of joint mobility, strength, endurance, control, balance,
quality of movement, flexibility and dominance of one's body all blended into a flowing, beautiful art."

Here is one of Ido's demos of Floreio flow. He also has excellent taste in music =)

Some creative applications from my "classmates". I'm so proud of them *sniff*

Visit Ido's blog for more.

Week's Soundtrack

Just the moods from the last few days:

None Of Us Are Free - Solomon Burke (courtesy of House again)

You Can Leave Your Hat On - by Randy Newman, performed by Joe Cocker.

Bizarre Love Triangle - originally New Order. This version is attributed to Jewel but I think it's by Australian band Frente! - the idea for the remake is theirs anyway.

Umami

Zera e Reza - Caetano Veloso

Jabberwocky (by the Rev. Charles L. Dodgson, famed as Lewis Carroll) - three expressions:

Muppet Show Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky as a Celtic ballad by Donovan

Progressive rock Jabberwocky by Ambrosia

And -

You Can't Always Get What You Want - the Rolling Stones

זיעה קרה מיונה וולך

יונתן / יונה וולך

אני רץ על הגשר
והילדים אחרי
יונתן
יונתן הם קוראים
קצת דם
רק קצת דם לקנוח הדבש
אני מסכים לחור של נעץ
אבל הילדים רוצים
והם ילדים
ואני יונתן
הם כורתים את ראשי בענף
גלדיולה ואוספים את ראשי
בשני ענפי גלדיולה ואורזים
את ראשי בניר מרשרש
יונתן
יונתן הם אומרים
באמת תסלח לנו
לא תארנו לעצמנו שאתה כזה.

ביצוע מעורר חלחלה באלבום "בציר טוב" של אילן וירצברג ושמעון גלבץ

Some Post-Beatles Beatles

Ringo Starr - It Don't Come Easy

John Lennon - Watching the Wheels

I Met the Walrus - an award-winning short animation film. Soundtrack is an interview of Lennon by a 14 year old fan who snuck into his hotel room in Toronto. Turns out they were saying "like" in every other sentence even back in 1969.

Guilty Pleasures / Sleepless Again

Teardrop by Massive Attack

I love "House, M.D.". I know it's not "good", I just love the sleuthing that goes on in clinic.

I love it when I get a whiff of connection between seemingly unrelated things. Usually the "connection" is my delusion at best. But one of these days one of those perceptions will happen to be a stroke of genius.

I could never be a doctor. I definitely could never get through med school. For one thing, I don't absorb; information just slides off me like water off a glass dome. I know the "thing", just not its label. I'd probably be a more useful member of society if I had a good memory. But maybe it's just my brain playing tricks on me: it'll only make room for things I really care about.

So, I'll trade intuition for rigor. Dreaming up random associations for having a grounded sense of reality. Grasping the whole for remembering the details.

It's just the way I am. And why I should only date left handed men =)

Flamboyant Male Singers With 5-Octave Voices!

(No, not Michael Jackson. I started putting this post together before he took off for the Great Gig in the Sky. I never really "connected" to his music, but he was a musical giant and I hope he's remembered for that and not for his painfully obvious kookiness.)

Grace Kelley by Mika (current delight of my soul).

Adam Lambert - at the Upright Cabaret:
What's Up (4 Non Blondes cover). See if you spot a Stevie Wonderish warble.
Crazy (Gnarles Barkley)

And finally: the one, the only... the divinely inspired, the incredibly diverse, the fantastically gifted Freddie Mercury.
A couple of Queen links for the completely clueless:
Bohemian Rhapsody
Fat Bottomed Girls - always makes me smile.
Here is his Un-Biography if you're in for a laugh.

Chelsea Hotel No. 2

Leonard Cohen: minimalist melody, understated delivery. That's why his music cuts straight to the heart and why I don't like most cover versions. As often happens also with Bob Dylan, artists try to improve on his performance with a sweeter voice, more variation, more expressiveness and feeling. In most (but not all) cases it rubs off the magic and you're left with just a simple, pretty little mournful song (bordering on kitsch) with eccentric lyrics. See Lloyd Cole and Rufus Wainwright for examples with this song. Less is more.

The ones I liked did not try to add anything for the sake of more. They just delivered it differently.

Chelsea Hotel No.2

Matthew Luke Sandoval: to my taste he overshoots the mark with the sensitivity and feeling and... preciousness in his singing and the choice of piano instead of guitar, but you have to respect how beautifully he does so.

Emilyn Brodsky and Anthony Da Costa. OK, they are trying to add something, but it works, enough to be enjoyed in a live performance anyway.

A girl named Celia McKee in a pink room covering Hop Along Queen Ansleis - well, you'll love it or hate it, it is certainly original. (Please do not look at the band she is covering, it's awful.)

And the original - Leonard Cohen, in concert. He goes on a bit in his self-absorbed, impressionist way about what it was like in his head at the time he wrote the song. But with a speaking voice like that, please never stop.

It's a Leonard Cohen kind of day

To be more precise, a singing Leonard Cohen songs under my breath with a guitar kind of day. Kind of like gently rocking in your seat to soothe yourself.

Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen

Wild World - Cat Stevens

Soundtrack of June 15

Fiona Apple: she has a bluesy voice, dark prominent bass lines, and a crisp way of saying exactly what she means.

"Won't do no good to sing no love song.
No song could simulate the presence of a man."
Carrion from her album Tidal.

On a long bus ride from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem I fell asleep next to a man with nice forearms. In the gym a man who looks like my father helped me unload the bar. Don't know why that's on my mind.

Wild Horses

Wild Horses - Bar Belfer and Yuval Mendelson, from the movie "Somebody to Run With".

Word has it this song has been covered by many many singers (Sheryl Crow, the Cranberries, Mazzy Star, Elvis Costello, Jewel and many more), but I couldn't find the version I had in mind. It had an electric guitar, a female lead singer and a man singing backing vocals on the refrain. The one above is the closest I could find. Any suggestions?

...

I think they may have finally dragged me away.

Getting by

2 O'Clock - Kaki King (from her album "Dreaming of Revenge", where her purposely naive voice and eerie melodies sometimes remind me of Björk.)

"2 O'Clock, you're still sleeping
When you wake up you'll be in such pain.
And I wait with the plate piled high with my love
That you won't eat from."

How can you not love the person who wrote these words?

Another from her: covering I Think That She Knows (LoveStoned), originally by Justin Timberlake.

* * *

Mad World - Gary Jules (originally Tears for Fears)
All my love girl, you're the Tigger to my Pooh =)

Since "with a little help from my friends" was on my mind and I know Sgt. Pepper by heart, the next song is Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

* * *

Finally the surreal Pink Elephants on Parade from Disney's Dumbo *wink*, not with the original music from the film but a cover by the wildly eccentric jazz artist Sun Ra. Here are some of the original sketches for the scene.

Tuesday, June 09

Shadowboxer - Fiona Apple
I should listen to other songs by her, but I just can't get past this one. Looping it. Yishai, thanks for suggesting it and for priming me by asking the right question. It's a mystery how sometimes you don't recognize how good a song is until you've listened to it several times, and happened to be in the right mood. (I resist the compulsive urge to philosophize about the nature of art and the relativity of quality and/or the weakness of human perception! Swat those pesky thoughts with a fly swatter! Or drown them in another repeat of the song.)

"Once my lover, now my friend
What a cruel thing to pretend
What a cunning way to condescend
Once my lover, and now my friend

Oh, you creep up like the clouds
And you set my soul at ease
Then you let your love abound
And you bring me to my knees

Oh, it's evil babe
The way you let your grace enrapture me
When well you know I'd be insane
To ever let that dirty game recapture me

You made me a shadowboxer, baby
I wanna be ready for what you do
I been swinging around 'cause
I don't know when you're gonna make your move

Oh, your gaze is dangerous
And you fill your space so sweet
If I let you get too close
You'll set your spell on me

So darlin' I just wanna say
Just in case I don't come through
I was onto every play
I just wanted you

Oh it's so evil, my love
The way you've no reverence to my concern
So I'll be sure to stay wary of you, love
To save the pain of once my flame and twice my burn

So I'm a shadowboxer, baby
I wanna be ready for what you do
I been swinging around at nothin
I don't know when you're gonna make your move

Yeah I'm a shadowboxer baby,
I wanna be ready for what you do
And I been swinging around me 'cause
I don't know when you're gonna make your move."

Three Rock Stars

With domineering guitars and throbbing charisma. (Or one of the two, at least.)

Happiness is a Warm Gun - John Lennon
I wonder how the late Beatles music would far were it released as it is in 2009 for the first time.

Smells Like Teen Spirit - Kurt Cobain

The Cairo Speech - Barack Obama
* I'm not kidding. I know less than nothing about politics and I'm hardly interested but this man is phenomenal.

One more for today:
Ad Ha'oneg Haba - Machshefot (the Witches)

Guitar Goddess & More

Kaki King at TED - jaw-dropping.

If you're up for something mellower, here's Ani DiFranco's 32 Flavors.

A terrific TED talk:
Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
I know y'all never click on the links, but at least listen to this one over breakfast or something.

Friday, May 22

Behind Blue Eyes - Limp Bizkit (originally by The Who)

Highlights from Yom Hastudent in Jerusalem

Geva Alon covering David Bowie's Modern Love
Yeal Deckelbaum - 100% Light
Geva Alon - Memories
Yehudit Ravitz - Be'ahavateinu (lyrics by Yehuda Amichai)
Macy Gray - Still

The high point of the night for me was Yael D doing "Piece of My Heart", but I've gone on enough about that song in previous posts...

On the bus home the next day I listened to a TED talk:
Ken Robinson - Do Schools Kill Creativity?

TED talks can be downloaded as audio (mp3) or video (mp4). Recommended for bus rides and cardio (if you're into all that).

Caetano's howl - Rock'n'Raul

Rock'n'Raul - Caetano Veloso, from "Noites do Norte"
(Raul is the late Brazilian artist Raul Seixas, who "made his music in an American style". Read more of Caetano's comments on his own album here.)

Quando eu passei por aqui
A minha luta foi exibir
Uma vontade fela-da-puta
De ser americano

(E hoje olha os mano)

De ficar só no Arkansas
Esbórnia na Califórnia
Dias ruins em New Orleans
O grande mago em Chicago

Ter um rancho de éter no Texas
Uma plantation de maconha no Wyoming
Nada de axé, Dodô e Curuzu
A verdadeira Bahia é o Rio Grande do Sul

Rock'n'me
Rock'n'you
Rock'n'roll
Rock'n'Raul

Hoje qualquer zé-mané
Qualquer caetano
Pode dizer
Que na Bahia
Meu Krig-Ha Bandolo
É puro ouro de tolo

(E o lobo bolo)

Mas minha alegria
Minha ironia
É bem maior do que essa porcaria

Ter um rancho de éter no Texas
Uma plantation de maconha no Wyoming
Nada de axé, Dodô e Curuzu
A verdadeira Bahia é o Rio Grande do Sul

Rock'n'me
Rock'n'you
Rock'n'roll
Rock'n'Raul

** Daily dose of trash:
Shut Up - Black Eyed Peas

In Unknown Territory

I admit I'm clueless about rap music, but these are making me curious.

Mos Def: (Thanks Tom for recommending)
Bright as the Stars with Talib Kweli (remix)
Lifetime

You Got Me - The Roots feat. Erykah Badu

Mad Hatter

Sxip Shirey makes grand, dramatic music with minimal instruments, especially featuring the sound of his own breath.
For those of you who like words, take a look at the front page of his website. His music provokes some rich descriptions.
As for me, he made me think of the Mad Hatter, though he doesn't wear a hat.

Breath, music, passion - Sxip Shirey & Rachelle Garniez (on TED)

First Week of May

Me and Bobby McGee - Janis Joplin
Derelict - Beck

(...And Bobby McGee... Lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy, lordy / Hey hey hey Bobby McGee...yeah)

Day's Songs

I Like Birds - The Eels
Both videos are worth watching:
Animation video by Vladimir Posokhin
Some physical fireworks by the ancient Ido Portal

My Beloved Monster - The Eels

Streets of London - Ralph McTell
Used to make me want to cry when I was a kid...

The Hyper-Male Voice

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot - Paul Robeson

And unrelated, Remember - Jimi Hendrix

Male Voices

I'm a sucker for a good male voice... Here are a few that make me melt in parts.

Jeff Buckley:
Mojo Pin (thanks to Assaf again)
Can't bring up Jeff Buckley and leave out Hallelujah (by Leonard Cohen)

Day is Done - Nick Drake

Robert Plant (the lead singer for Led Zeppelin):
Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Black Dog

Maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe

Maybe - Janis Joplin & The Kozmic Blues Band

Monkeys Can Fly

My Old Man - Joni Mitchell

A different version of Sonho Meu (Luiz Felipe Gama on piano, Ana Luiza singing)

Kozmic Blues

Kozmic Blues - Janis Joplin
This song hurts.

Emotions

Normally this song is too fruity for me to stomach. But even I get soft in the kishkes occasionally.
Lo Dibarnu Od - performed by Netanela; music: Matti Caspi, lyrics: Ehud Manor

If I were setting up a playlist for the upcoming Memorial Day, I would follow with this:
Ze Pit'om Nafal Aleyha - Arik Einstein (music by Shem Tov Levi)


To my concerned friends, I'll be back to my judgmental self by morning.

Geurilla Musical

A seemingly spontaneous musical arises among unsuspecting fast food eaters:
Food Court Musical by ImprovEverywhere

If you're into this sort of thing, I also recommend the "musical" episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Chava Alberstein, Rachel Shapira, Hannah Guz Benyamini

Chava Alberstein's a capella performance of "Kemo Tsemch Bar" gives me goosebumps. Since I couldn't find it on YouTube to post, I decided to make and upload a video myself. For the visual I used paintings by my late great-grandmother, Hannah Guz Benyamini.

Here it is:
Kemo Tsemach Bar
Lyrics: Rachel Shapira
Music: Nachum Heiman

I posted lyrics with the video for the Hebrew speakers.
Comments are welcome.

April 10 09

Tsur Menti - Yemeinite song performed by Ofra Haza

A producer would be a fun thing to be

My Love - Justin Timberlake
It's really the producer Timbaland who took an OK line and turned out a track as fun as a circus act. I liked this one since we danced to it at the end of a Gaga workshop.

Some people make the raw material, and some are good at recognizing what it could be.

Since I'm apparently on a pop kick, and since this is my blog, here's Beyoncé's Halo.

Products of an all-nighter

Studying chemistry for tomorrow's exam.

Wallowing...
Fathers and Sons, Evyatar Banay

Floating
Fade Into You by Mazzy Star
(Not that I'm particularly grounded under full daylight)

April 1 2009

Underneath Your Clothes, Shakira
No idea why, I just woke up with it.

Summer of 2005 soundtrack

For the summer, nothing too highbrow - Grupo Revelação:
Coração Radiante
Grades do Coração

Another one, a bit more classy:
Força Estranha - Gal Costa
And here is Caetano Veloso performing his own song live.

Some late Beatles

The Long and Winding Road from Let It Be - Naked (that is, minus the lush Phil Spector orchestration *shudder*)

You Never Give Me Your Money
"But Oh, that magic feeling,
Nowhere to go"

And some candy

For a gay man, Freddy Mercury sure knows where it's at.
Queen's Fat Bottomed Girls

This one was definitely written about me ;)

Music of the Spheres

The Sweetest Thing by U2

It amazes me how some artists can be totally insufferable in every song they write, and then suddenly release something that is touched by a god. I recently deleted the full discography of Kate Bush which I downloaded just for "Wuthering Heights"; Duran Duran just for "Ordinary World" and "Come Undone".

I think John Lennon called it "the music of the spheres". It's like they need to write all these songs just to practice their skills until something from outside of them can use them to bring a new gem to life. Old romantic view, I know, but I don't have a better explanation right now.

More Hebrew Oldies

Itzhak Klepter - Zlil Mechuvan ("Tuned Tone")

Meir Ariel again:
Mode Ani
I Can't Take My Eyes Off You (Lo Yachol...)

Poets

Shir Ke'ev (Pain Song) - Meir Ariel:
"I can not surround a woman, 365 degrees."

Some of the more melodious Leonard Cohen songs:
Dance Me to the End of Love
True Love Leaves No Traces - cover by Australian band Famous Dead People

Miscellaneous, Friday Night

A bit of Peter and the Wolf - Prokofiev, not my favorite version, but with an award-winning animation video. Just a reminder.

I Could Have Lied - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Beginning Bossa Nova

Chega de Saudade - Joao Gilberto and his young daughter Bebel.
The naive singing, the most bewitching language, the slightly awkward girl - she is totally captivating.
One of the first Bossa Nova songs (sadly, better known today in its lush elevator music version).

Another Bob Dylan Cover

Hebrew version of Mama, You've Been On My Mind by Shlomi Shaban.

The Selfish Gene

Two songs by the Israeli indie group The Selfish Gene (1991-2001):

Charming

Radio Time

(Thanks to Assaf)

Both songs sound like something you've already heard, and liked. Just like a mixture of some of the well known alternative rock bands with a very appealing lead voice.

They have the best name though =)

I Shall Be Released

Bob Dylan. YouTube has covers of this song by every big name artist you can think of - Bono, Wyclef Jean, Jack Johnson, Jerry Garcia, Joan Baez, Sting, Norah Jones, Chrissie Hynde, Neil Young, Jeff Buckley, even Elvis and the Beatles. I'm only posting those that stood out (Bono was terrible).

Chrissie Hynde (of the Pretenders) in Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary concert, my favorite.

Jerry Garcia in a mellower version.

The Beatles - from the Let It Be sessions, George Harrison singing faintly through a tropical jungle of electric guitar sound.

Awash in music

California - in 1970, Joni Mitchell defines "a voice like bells". Listen with earphones to get the true purity of the sound.

Kingdom by the Sea - Rona Kenan and Yael Deckelbaum (who is soon to release her first solo album).

Harvest of Feb 16

Wuthering Heights - Kate Bush
This was her first single, released when she was 19. I liked the words Wikipedia used to describe her songs: eclectic music, idiosyncratic lyrics.

Delicate - Damien Rice (live at the BBC)

Electronic Wandering

Angel - Massive Attack

Thoughts - Evyatar Banay
I couldn't find it streaming anywhere. It's from the album "Trip Song" ("Shir Tiyul"). Evyatar Banay came off as part weird part indifferent to me at first. I had to listen to each of his first two albums several times over to get how unique he is. I don't think this album was taken seriously when it came out, but I love it better than all his more earthy stuff.

Scatterheart - Bjork

It's Janis Joplin... It's Led Zeppelin... No, it's Asaf Avidan!

Her Lies - Asaf Avidan & the Mojos

Lyrics:

I said, "baby, I love you, now what can I do,
I'll probably love you till the day I die."
She said, "well, pretty honey, if that's true then give me both them pretty eyes."

I said, "baby, you can have them - you can have my eyes."
See I was thinking if she took them I won't see her lies.
But my baby, I can taste her lies.

Bizarre

Gopher Mambo - Yma Sumac

First time I saw it in Ohad Naharin's "Anaphase" for the Bat Sheva Dance Company when I was twelve - performed (lip-synced) by an apparition by the name of Ebony Williams: half Indian and half African, standing on stilts, made up like a drag queen, in a thong framing a marvelous muscular behind. The second time, in the Cirque du Soleil's Quedam (on DVD). You can find the CDC act on YouTube, but it pales in comparison to the Naharin act, at least as I experienced it.

Yma Sumac (who recently passed away) was a Peruvian diva whose voice spanned 5 octaves. I've been searching for this song for years! Finally contacted somebody from Bat Sheva dance company who happily gave me the above info.

Credits!

Thanks to my duck friend for sending me Shuv Hi Kan ("She's Here Again") - Yoni Rechter/Ali Mohar (lyrics)
By the end of the day I got half my classmates singing it to themselves.

Many "Pieces of My Heart"

I've been obsessed with the Janis Joplin song for days now. Tuesday night I looked for to cover versions on YouTube. Found a few really good ones, lots of ho hum ones, and a good deal of presumptuous or downright blasphemous stuff.
A Britney Spears wannabe trying to do the virgin/whore voice while flicking her hair and pouting at the camera.
An 11-year old rocking it out on TV with absolutely no libido.
A heavy metal band whining and stretching out the tempo and succeeding in turning it into just another annoying heavy metal song.
A country version, well performed and well meant by a talented girl, but much like comparing a daisy to a rose.
A speeded-up version ("caffein") that was just silly but why DO that to a song of this caliber?
The original version by Erma Franklin (Aretha's sister), sort of anticlimactic.
Countless American Idol (or some such show) versions, all equally professional and boring.
I found both the most annoying and some of the best versions were by those who tried to imitate Janis Joplin down to the last throaty interjection. Annoying if they just weren't good enough singers, good if they felt at home truly throwing the reins to the wind. Pink did a pretty good job.

Found a satisfying genre crossover to R&B, from Jamaica - Shaggy feat. Marsha.

And I found some that I loved:

Beverly Knight - She manages to give it the "sweet longing" flavor of R&B/Soul singers without stubbing the edge.

Melissa Etheridge - Really the same style as Janis Joplin, but she is the rare one that manages to make it her own.

I wanna be...

Piece of my Heart - Janis Joplin

And how could I forget,
Layla - Eric Clapton
I know I posted it twice before but the old link is broken and it's one of the most touching love songs I know.

Brains be damned, I just want to listen to music

It's been hard to take off the earphones to listen to Organic Chem.

It's a Long Way - Caetano Veloso, marry me.

Like a Wheel - Matti Caspi (low quality sound here though)

Violin Phase - Steve Reich. The music oscillates between fascinating and intolerable. Watching the dance makes it more tolerable.

Berekeke - from the soundtrack of "Woman on Top"

Road Trippin' - Red Hot Chili Peppers. Daydreaming hard.

Pretty Straightforward.

I Can't Be With You - The Cranberries

I remember the album came out when I was in grade 7 and had a massive crush on Paul McCartney.