I was kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream...again.
Artist: The Bangles
Year: 1986
Rating: Luke Hot
Last in my head on: 2/17/09
Noteworthy: Today is not a Monday.
As Tears Go By
This isn't exactly a "cover." Though written by Jagger/Richards/Oldham, Marianne Faithfull recorded it first, and The Stones released their version the next year. I love this song - a wistful dirge of sorts for watching life pass one by. Watch for the giant teardrop!
And here's the Stones' version, which I like just a touch more than Faithfull's.
It's such a trip to see Marianne Faithfull in her earlier incarnation as a squeaky clean chanteuse. If you're not familiar with Faithfull's later work, her drug-addled life wore her into a raspier (and, fancy this, more compelling, singer) as in the hilarious bitch-slap Why'd Ya Do It? from 1979. Sample: "Why'd ya do it," she said, "when you know it makes me sore,"/"'Cause she had cobwebs up her fanny and I believe in giving to the poor."
Artist: Marianne Faithfull/The Rolling Stones
Year: 1964/1965
Rating: Luke Hot/Hot!
Note: Why'd Ya Do It? written by Heathcote Williams.
Two-Headed Boy, Pt. 1
One of the most memorable and most evocative songs from NMH. See the fan discussion on song meanings here. I also blogged about this song's reprise in an earlier entry.
Artist: Neutral Milk Hotel
Year: 1998
Rating: Hot!
The Hustle
Do it!
My favorite memory of this song is when my friend Julie taught us all how to do the Hustle at a very stoned party in Santa Cruz like, gulp, *eighteen* years ago, in the early '90s when '70s retro was boss.
Artist: Van McCoy
Year: 1975
Rating: Hot!
Lay Lady Lay
A cool thing happened today. I woke with this song in my head, and didn't give it too much attention, 'cause it's never been one of my favorite Dylan tunes. I've always thought that the invitation "lay across my big brass bed" was sort of crass and bumptious. But then when I took my bike in for a tune-up today, the song was playing loud and clear on the bike shop's sound system. I thought it a sign to pay closer attention, and I realized that the sentiment is sort of close to the bone at the moment.
Why wait any longer for the world to begin
You can have your cake and eat it too
Why wait any longer for the one you love
When he's standing in front of you
While the word "love" is a bit too potent yet for the situation I'm reflecting on, this "seize the day" message nevertheless hits the spot. You really can have your cake and eat it too, you know?
Artist: Bob Dylan
Year: 1969
Rating: Warm
Everyday I Write the Book
This is one of the songs that's inordinately in my head, but hasn't appeared in the wee morning hours in the last few months, and therefore has been disqualified from entry into the blog, til now.
It's one of my favorite songs of all time, from one of my favorite artists, and it often materializes in my mind after I've been whistling a composition of my own making, a melody that is a near-daily companion to me, that Amber has heard me whistle dozens, scores, of times, that no one else is quite privy to. Maybe at some point I'll be able to record it and get my resident musicologist, Jon Schwartz, to put it into musical notation for you, but for now, this tune remains enigmatic. Anyway, it ends up rolling right into the melody of Everyday I Write the Book. This Costello tune is a welcome comrade in my daily goings-about-life.
The other association I have with this song is that my sister Jodi and I have a long-standing in-joke/intention/fantasy of writing a book about all the idiosyncratic family history and ephemera, and this song is sort of an ode in my mind to that perennially-delayed project. Shout out to Johd! Every day, we write the book.Artist: Elvis Costello
Year: 1983
Rating: Hot!
Who's Crying Now?
This is the case of a great rock ballad with lush Steve Perry vocals, memorable Jonathan Cain keyboard lines, and one of the most stellar guitar solos in the '80s rock canon by Neal Schon. And while the emotion conveyed by the music and vocals is palpable, the lyrics are just ridiculous:
So many stormy nights, so many wrongs or rights
Neither could change their headstrong ways
And in a lover's rage, they tore another page
The fightin' is worth the love they save
Can there be a bigger cliché about bad relationships than stormy weather? And where is the missing metaphor from which the "page" is torn? You shouldn't tear pages when it's storming out, anyway, they'll get all soggy. As in so many pop songs, the words seem to have emerged from the diary scrawl of an eighth grader. Nevertheless, the lyrics are the only complaint I have about this classic '80s brood.
Artist: Journey
Year: 1981
Rating: Warmly warm
Haven't Got Time for the Pain
Oh, Carly, and your straight-to-aspirin-commercial lyrics. I'm so vain, I probably think I'm better than this song.
Artist: Carly Simon
Year: 1974
Rating: Lukewarm at best.
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