Tuesday, January 5, 2010

I've got to admit, it's getting better

"You love your lovin'... but not like you love your freedom." Joni Mitchell speaks pearls.
Help Me - K. D. Lang covering Joni's song from Court and Spark.

Helpless - Neil Young (Live)

Getting Better - the Beatles, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

בתוך הצינורות - Algier. Wait for the guitar solo...

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

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.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

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.

Monday, November 30, 2009

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.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

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

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

=)

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

Saturday, November 7, 2009

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.