Ah, Sadi, been looking forward to this, thanks as always.

I would agree, I quite like "Young Americans", one of the few pre-80's Bowie tunes that weren't kinda weird.

Re. R.E.M., I must confess, the ONLY song of theirs I've ever liked was "Everybody Hurts", I'm just not crazy about their lead singer's vocals, and they don't use synths enough for my ears, but that's just me and my UK 80's upbringing.

Re. E.L.O., I've sort of been more interested in this band since a one hit wonder dance group (Lovefreekz) in the UK revamped their 1979 hit "Shine A Little Love" and turned it into an incredible dance tune last year.

Also, vis a vis songs about relationships, your E.L.O. tune reminded me of an excellent song by Leo Sayer (who just had another of his old 70's hits remixed and danced up which made #1 in the UK last month) called "Orchard Road" from 1983 (this one a top 20 UK hit), basically a song about him on the phone with his estranged wife, telling her about his new job he's starting up, then finishing the song with a reconciliation between the two...I'll have to look up the lyrics, it really melts your heart, apparently based on his own personal experience with his own wife...for some reason, the last hit of his career at the time.

I loved the Cyndi Lauper tune too, but it's kinda been played to death for me. But I like most of the stuff I've heard of hers, got her "true Colors" album and her 'best of' cleverly titled "Twelve Deadly Cyns" lol.

Yeah, the Foreigner tune was great too.

Finally, Kate Bush, yes, I do love the music for this song, though the lyrics are a little blasphemous and presumptuous for my tastes, but as you know, lyrics take a back seat to the music for me!! Her new album, "Aerial" which came out last year (her first for 12 years) is a double album, with "King Of The Mountain" the first UK hit from it. Definitely a unique talent that I think most people either love or hate.

Sadi--have you or has anyone, heard the new Kate Bush, first album in 12 years? I have all her old stuff, but I'm curious about this new one.

And it's Dean and Weaniemania, all over again!

Hey Steve -- Leo Sayer - god that brings back memories for me... didn't he do "When i Need You" and then Gilbert O Sullivan did "Claire" - i remember all of these bad/good seventies ballads that were really the hit at the the time... gosh, you brought back memories.

Kate Bush blasphemous? Really? I never saw it that way, but i suppose it's all a relative thing... i'm quite religious so i'm surprised but you must be even more so than i or we're hearing the same thing differently, i think...

explain?

I'd be curious.

ELO are just great in my view... you don't like Telephone Line? That surprises me... i would think you would like that.

Sorry i spelled Cindi as Cindy, i was sure it was Cindy and should have checked apologies right now to all for that error i was sure it was just Cindy but ah...

For some reason, your posts did not come through on my email; pardon the delay in response...

Hey Gordon - actually , i haven't heard much from Kate Bush but i'm sure you could take a listen on Amazon.com and see; maybe i'll stop by and see what i can find....

Dean and the weanies or weenies, not sure how to spell, but am determined to find that one song "Fuck You" (Ed: name of song, apologies) - but i've been looking for it for ages and it's very hard to find... Any ideas... ????

Do you know this song? Or am i the only person in the world? i'm starting to feel like it.

oh, Steve Everybody Hurts by REM is a great song, but Losing My Religion is even better i think as is Strange Currencies. They're not hard or harsh in any way, but have more umph to them in some way... Have you read, on another note but related, a book called A Haiku Year published by Soft Skull Press? It's by Michael Stipe of REM and i forget who else but i'm sure it's available either through the publisher (whom i used to know when i was running my press) and prob. even easier through Amazon....

What's that REM sound about "i count your eyelashes, secretly...' "i call your answering machine just to hear your voice..." ... Those are some lyrics - do you know this song? I don't know the name of it and i used to... but can't think of it now.

?

Thoughts?

Hey, Sadi,
Funny, I tried posting the lyrics for Orchard Road by Leo Sayer, but when I hit 'Preview' it was blank except for '144 banned word'...there are no swear words in it that I can see, maybe it was too long to post??? Strange, anyway...beautiful song, but not one of his US hits alas.

Well, I guess it sounded to me like Kate Bush was saying she could do a better job than God or something, just sounded like hubris to me, but maybe she was saying something else.

I'm not actually familiar with that E.L.O. tune but I kinda liked some of their other stuff, so I will check that one out.

I've only got about 4 REM tunes, Sadi, don't think I know that song you refer to.

And no, don't think I've ever read a book by a singer/musician, not into biographies much.

Yes, leo Sayer did do "When I Need You", Sadi. Don't remember "Claire" but I only have a best of of his, so maybe he did.

The reporter/editor in me points out this:
It's Kurt Cobain, not Curt Kobain.

------------
I want to know what love is but if it means i have to suffer anything as painful as this song,well, i'll take lust instead, thank you very much.

I love Cyndi Lauper, just saw her at Coda in NYC on Monday, she still looks great too!

Have you enjoyed her most recent albums Sherri?? heard very little of her recently.

ahhhhh Sadi! ANYTHING by REM is great, in my book...one of my favorite bands of all time! great pick!

and i LOVE LOVE LOVE Cyndi Lauper...."She's So Unusual" was one of the first albums (yes folks, on vinyl!) that i ever owned...along with Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA".

and of course....Foreigner...i already told you on one of your other posts, that i've been listening to that one...GREAT song!

TOTALLY inspired by you, Sadi, i wrote a short piece about the music i've been listening to (you know what they say about imitation being the greatest form of flattery!....i think i mentioned before that my husband and i are compiling a bunch of 80's music for an upcoming road trip. i just posted it about 10 minutes ago, so it should be up sometime tomorrow i would imagine.

anyway...great list, as always.

i seem to be having a lot of trouble today spelling artists names correctly, so let me first apologize for that - it's actually more a function of a kind of dyslexia than anyting, so apologies all around on that front. I really do know who i'm writing about... i swear... just like i know how to spell...i just type too fast...

more tomorrow... ; )

glad you're liking this list but break out and try some new stuff... i think once you got into it you might like Dylan etc etc. and nobody ever mentions Nirvana - what is up with that? Am i alone in my absolutely love of Kurt Cobain's immense talent....?

Well, will post more tomorrow... i'm really glad you're liking this list... the next list we'll see what it brings... i'm hoping you all will try some of the more unknown territory... tho i may take a real trip back in time; we'll see..

s

Some great ones this time, Sadi.

* The Dylan version you cite is indeed the best; he's clearly having a blast singing it.

* "Young Americans" is a masterful collage of images that makes a lot less sense than it seems to. What in the fuck is that song about? It starts with a poor young couple in love then it just fractures into images of Nixon and domestic abuse and John Lennon and whatever wandered into Bowie's head -- which is not a bad way to write a song.

* "Time After Time" is an 80s radio staple I never tire of listening to. It came on yesterday when I was in a car full of people and it knocked me out again. She's So Unusual was Lauper's masterpiece; it had everything, all sides of her, and it sounds today as fresh as ever.

* "I wanna know what love is, I want you to blow meeeee...." -- at least that's what I sing when that dreck pops up on the radio. Foreigner. Bleh.

* I love the Kate Bush song, too, although I'm relatively new to it.

Agree with you Chantal - anything by REM is pretty much great - maybe you know the song i'm referring to in the comment a few comments prior in comment #5. I have the lyrics, but don't know the name of the song... any ideas? You might know it.

damn. King Missile? for some reason i was not expecting that at ALL!

very cool sadi.

my favorite pairs of King Missile tunes both come from The Way To Salvation:

"The Story of Willy" - about the last day of the world and

"The Boy Who Ate Lasagna And Could Jump Over A Church", which is sort of about the title...and sort of not.

Have not heard the Dean and the Weenies, but I will keep you posted if I come across something.

I most remember Leo Sayer for "Long Tall Glasses" the unlikely title for that "Yes I can dance, Of course I can dance" song.

A guilty pleasure for me is Gilbert O' Sullivan's quirky but still dark ode to suicide, "Alone Again, Naturally."

Mixed feelings about REM, mostly liked the early albums where Stipe was really indecipherable--but I must say that they gave one of my most memorable concerts I've ever been to for their show-must-go-on spirit in performing during a non-stop, heavy downpour. They could've cancelled but they didn't and they more than earned the crowd's appreciation.

Anybody remember the great pre-ELO group Jeff Lynne was in--the Move?

Sadi....the REM song is called "At My Most Beautiful".....GREAT song....

At my most beautiful
I count your eyelashes, secretly,
With every one, whisper I love you,
I let you sleep...
I know you're closed eye watching me,
Listening....
I thought I saw a smile.

Michael Stipe is an amazing songwriter...love him! *sighhh*

Well, Sadi, you are good at reading between the lines lol...Nirvana and the whole grunge movement made me abandon the top 40 music scene for a few years in the 90's, it reminded me so much of punk from the 70's which I hated and heavy metal that I had a very limited tolerance for. Sorry...

Yes, I have "Like A Virgin" and "Born In The USA" in my collection too, Chantal, but only on cassette. I don't think I would buy the Madonna album on CD now, maybe just a 'best of Madonna' one day.

No, Gordon, don't remember The Move at all, what did they sound like?? I have that Sayer song too, Gordon.

Steve.....don't bother with getting "Like a Virgin"...just get the "Immaculate Collection". one of my favorite cds by far! It's a great compilation of her hits thru the 80's.

Steve--the Move were a fairly important British band of the late 60s and early 70s who were largely unknown in the US. When they disbanded in 1972 the main creative forces, Jeff Lynn (more pop)and Roy Wood (darker songs), along with Bev Bevan formed ELO. Went through stages--Who-like rock, artsy, progressive, but an indicator of what they sounded like comes with the two Move songs that ELO recorded: "California Man" (Cheap Trick did a cover)and "Do Ya" ("do ya do ya want my love"). When Roy Wood left (after the first or second ELO album?) Jeff Lynne took it to a more pop-oriented orchestrated sound.

Damn, I sound like a walking talking encyclopedia--but I actually don't have extensive knowledge due to the fact that I only had a few of the Move's albums and they weren't that well known in America (they never toured here, etc.)

Oh, and I forgot to mention one of their best songs, "Brontosaurus" a slow-sludge booming-bass song of total 70s-style heaviosity (I might be wrong but ELO might have also revived this, too):

Well her sister used to hate it,
So I never thought she'd make it.
But she threw you all
Supposing in a spangle wrapper.

She will let you stroke her head,
But if you move away your dead.
She just break you up
Before you realize it's happened.

Chorus:
But she can really do the brontosaurus
And she can scream the heeby jeeby for us.
Until you know what she?s really got
'cos she can do it loud
Well, she can do it, do it, do it!

Now her daddy's getting old
And he seemed to lose control
When the brontosaurus
Stormed into the house to trap her.

Well her sister used to hate it
So I never thought she'd make it.
Until she shook you up
Exactly like a firecracker

Chorus:
Really do the brontosaurus
And she can scream the hee-by jee-by for us.
Well you know she can really rock
So do it, do it now.

I really disliked ELO, still do, but here's another "are they related?" link - Jeff Lynne was in the Travelling Wilburys with Dylan, Orbison, Tom Petty,and George Harrison. I really like Dylan and Roy Orbison so the TW's were listenable despite my being prejudiced by the fact that Jeff Lynne was in the line up. Dylan's Tweeter and the Monkey Man was the standout track of the TW's album for me.

I also can't stand Foreigner, but Cyndi Lauper's a great girl. She co-presented Top of the Pops here in the UK a couple of weeks ago and was pleasantly disoriented and dizzy. The various 12 inch remixes of Time after Time and Girls are classic slabs of 80s pop music.

I like Running up that Hill and especially like the beautiful "Don't give up" that she did with Peter Gabriel. I have the latest double album, someone sent it to me a while back but I've only listened to it once and obviously wasn't in the mood to chill enough to absorb it since I can't remember anything about it. I'll try to listen again...so much music, so little time.

Kurt's a star and his mum was right when she said "he's gone to the Stupid Club in the sky" (or words close to that).

I gave a link a while back on one of these lists to a soundtrack album (Mondo NY) available on Amazon with Dean and the Weenies track on. Did that come to nothing?

I like Young Americans too, it marked yet another incarnation of Bowie, another image transformation, a move to white boy soul type production with the help of Luther Vandross. If Madonna resembles anyone in her penchant for periodic reinventions of herself it's Bowie.

I haven't much got into a lot of REM though I thoroughly enjoyed Stipe's contribution to the One Giant Leap album.

Re Gilbert O' Sullivan I read in just the last week or so a thesis ( a newspaper article, not an academic one) that "Claire" has paedo undertones. I haven't been interested enough to look up the track to check out the theory though.

Thanks for the list Sadi, eclectic as ever.

Is ok, Said. I sumtimes hav troubl spillin 2.


I like Bate Kush too.

:)

Mike heya - ! nice to see you -- pretty much agree with all that you say... not surprised about Cindi Lauper being a top hit in the UK or a mix at dance clubs (being from the UK myself, this does not surprise very much). I like v. much your description of her as "pleasantly dizzy" was it? however you worded it was great...just perfect for he and surely for the moment...

As for Gilbert O'Sullivan the song "Claire" in this day and age, could have the undertones you suggest or the article suggested(pedophile etc etc) though i think if you put in context of the time, it is less so. Like anything, if one takes it out of context well then... we screw it all up.

I remember thinking the same about Lewis Carroll's photographs when there were big exhibits and thinking that it was just wrong that people were not accusing him of being a pedophile when it was so many years later and htere is NO evidence of such thing (trust me on this; i'm working on a biography of Carroll...)

Young Americans indeed is white soul - great term for it too isnt' it... but yes... a super song, maybe not his best, but his best for me right now as we open up to Spring....

Cheers -- (kiss the british ground for me.... if you're near Tottenham or Finsbury Park, send my love...) xo

Mark S. - King Missile - i aim to please.. but more, i have such eclectic taste (sorry about above compliment, must have forgotten my forward slash there... whoops)...

I love King Missile, especially "Jesus Was Way Cool" which is one of the funniest songs i've ever heard in my life and had me rolling on the floor in tears practically... "Sensitive Artist" is just so full of whining sarcasm that i want to call the wahhhmmmmbullannnccee for this guy b/c he's such a freakin' pain in the neck and such a little delicate flower... but that, bien sur, is the point.


Oddly, i don't know the two songs you mention - now i'm on the hunt to find them... and to preview this comment ... :) nice to see you around!!!

Sadi, was at the North Middlesex hospital a couple of weekends ago, on the Edmonton/Tottenham border. Then went and had breakfast at the Finsbury Park end of Green Lanes where one of the best record shops in Europe is if you are after Arab/Turkish/Greek/Balkan music.

Okay, no code at all.. no matter that i preview my comments and they look fine, they are coming out in bold for some reason, so that's enough of that...

Rodney - yeah i know what you mean about the Bowie song. It does take some odd twists and turns to be sure.... and the Dylan song -- yup, that's the best version, if you can find it - a lot of times it must get really dull singing hte same thing night after night, but in this case, and in that whole tour actually (64 Philharmonic bootleg which should be available). How could you NOT have fun singing that song... just knowing what i know about him and the subject matter all seem to jibe perfectly ...

as to the rest - i think we pretty much agree on all... (i'm trying to answer everyone's comments here... just woke up...still having coffee and blearly eyed.) -- any other fave Dylan songs that you like live? i like him live better than studio....

s.

oh, Mike *sigh*: i get so homesick. We go to Paris every year mostly b/c we're thinking of moving back to Europe and to the UK as often as possible... I envy you. I miss my family (mostly in Scotland - Paisley and Glasgow)... Great Indian food around Finsbury, or used to be. I went to the Ambler Road School (grammar for mixed and infants) is it still about do you know?

okay - Editor - anything we can do about the comments or is this just me? They're all coming out bold, even without my boding, so i can't i figure that out unless it's something else i'm doing.... weird... is it just the use of the forward slash? This is weird.

Chantal --- thank you for the name of "At My Most Beautiful" is that right? or is it "At Your Most Beautiful?" Either way, i'll find it...

thanks a million....

Mike - about Kurt Cobain: i agree with his mother.... 'nuff said about that, but she's absolutely right...

Scott - thanks for they dylexia support! i once went into a Starbucks and asked for a "Thai Chi" instead of a 'Chai Tea" - i seen to reverse words and letters a lot - usually teh first letter or word of each word... ie., then Kurt Cobain becomes Curt Kobain, etc etc which obviously is inocorrect (and i know it because i'm a huge Nirvana fan and have his journals etc etc etc - it's just a function of, or part of, this stupid temporal lobe epilepsy. since i had a bunch of seizures last April i've been doing this a lot -- they're called "spoonerisms" where you reverse the two first letters, so i would say "lirst fetters" etc etc -- hope this explains..

hoping even more this comment does NOT come out in bold - i feel like i'm shouting when i'm barely awake....

s.



[You left out the / on the closing tag, Sadi, but as you see, it's all fixed now. Comments Editor]

Gordon -- just one off "Alone Again, Naturally" is a guilty pleasure of mine as well, as is Harry Nillson's "If Living is Without You" and "Seasons in the Sun" -- remember those? Anybody remember those or am i alone in this... come on... you MUST remember those songs... classic Stadium Self Pity... too good to pass up when one is feeling so so so so sorry for oneself...

Just checking out Cyndi Lauper online, apparently, her more recent album was all jazz standards (a la Rod Stewart), and her album from last year had guests like Sarah MacLachlan, Shaggy, Jeff Beck and Ani DiFranco on it, all covering Cyndi's old hits, including 4 of the singles from her first album. The jazz album is called "At Last" (2003) and the duets album is called "The Body Acoustic" (2005).

Sadi.....yes, the song is "At My Most Beautiful". it's on the album "UP", from 1997 or 98.

"Seasons In The Sun" was a Stadium Self Pity song??? Wow, I'll have to listen more closely to the lyrics next time!! It thought it was an ok song, but very 70's, which is not my fave decade of music to be honest.

Steve.....she was on the Today Show last year singing a couple of the songs from her latest album...she sounded amazing.

Shoot, Chantal, i should have known that...i knew or know that album (or thought i did) durr.. thanks for the info!! am searching for it now but having download issues... blah blah...

Steve the lyrics - (if i KNEW how to build in a link i'd send you them...) do you know the code by any chance? if so, just paste it in here and i'll build in the link to the lyrics, plus, would be good to have the code... ya know...

but yes, check out the lyrics. i ididn't want to post them all here... ; ) --s

No more searching for The List of the Moment... it will be under Feature Columns under music and at http://blogcritics.org/features.php - so that will make life easier for those of you who follow along and hopefully draw in more like you/us who are are into music of all variety... --- s.

Alas, Sadi, no, I don't know the code, I have some lyrics I wanted to post to you too, actually. Hmmm, a dilemma...(hello my friendly neighborhood blogcritic editor...can you help us???).

Yeah, Sadi, I found that List page too, forgot to mention that, that's cool.

hopefully we'll get the code; i remember last time there was a comment about it, so it would help a lot to resolve this issue or ANYBODY who knows the code to insert a link, feel free to paste it in here so that we have it... or i can try it my way and see it works (no promises) but worth a shot perhaps?

Yeah, glad it is a regular feature now... it makes it far easier to find etc etc ... so worth a shot. We'll see how we do... :)

try this:

WORDS IN LINK

...hope it works for u

crap, it didn't work...i tried to give you the code, but it just created the link!

[If people are using Firefox, they can see how it is done by selecting "View Source" under the View menu. I assume other browsers have a similar capability. Comments Editor]

Try this Chantal - type in the code like whatever whatever comes next and hten "URL HERE" with the rest of the code put but an extra space where there should NOT be one.... then just tell me which space to take out... that way i'll get the code... sound good?

worth a shot...


ta.

s

Try spelling the numbers....I do hope the code is all numbers...is it???

because of the way mt does things, it's tough to post 'raw' html without it being actually rendered.

but...there's an easy way. i've put a link below that links back to this post. in the browser, just right-click and select "View Source"...this'll show you the html for the entire page. just search in that text for "CLICK HERE" and you'll see how the link is formed.


CLICK HERE for a link to this post.

an experiment - tried your way Mark S - but it wouldn't let me view source for some reason even when i right clicked... if this is wrong and shows up, let me know what i'm doing wrong... ta..

trying

Yes!!!!!!!!! I got it
If you know math you'll know this -
the 'less than symbol' followed by a forward slash, followed by 'a', followed by the 'greater than' symbol. Hope you can all follow!

thought that was it, but it only worked once...hmmm...lol...oh wait, I did type link, I forgot, oh well.

Never been into computer jargon since I tried to implement a 'hangman' game back in the 80's for 2 hours and still couldn't get it work lol.

love math, but i didn't use a forward symbol, i used the following forumulation, if this comes out for anyone and might help

a href="http://blogcritics.org/mt/mt-comments.php?mode=red&u=http://URL HERE" name of url here/a

anyway, we've gone totally OT, lol... ; 0

[Sorry, I had to remove the arrow brackets because the page was treating the link as active. I've left the rest of the code visible so as to show how it should be written. Comments Editor]

Sadi -- I like a lot of Dylan's live stuff, but some of it is hard to get used to. My favorite of all concert memories is seeing him on the Rolling Thunder Revue Tour in the spring of 1976. This was "Desire"-era Dylan. I love live cuts from around that time, of which there are two official ones.

One, "Hard Rain," which I purchased in college, is the soundtrack of an NBC concert filmed at Red Rocks in Colorado on the last leg of the tour. Not a great record by any means, but I seem to remember it had a good version of "Shelter From the Storm" on it. Unfortunately the record broke in my freshman year and I've never replaced it.

I think I should. I think I will.

Anyway. Undoubtedly, a better document of that tour is Live 1975, particularly the versions of "One More Cup of Coffee" and "Romance in Durango," among others.

You got it Sadi!!

Sorry, no comprendi here.

Rodney, Hi - Rolling Thunder Revue was a great tour actually... albeit weird. I just saw Renaldo et Clara about that tour - have you seen it? Five or so hours of really weird stuff, possibly incredibly boring and stupid - i watched for research purposes but that's it... otherwise, it's pretty weird and dull and frankly, sophmoric, if you ask me... but hey, he needed to do his thing... so bully for him. that 's cool

A Hard Rain's a Gonna Fall is a great song - the song i list at the top here is also a great song if you don't know it "If you gotta go, go now (or else you gotta stay all night)."

My personal favorite album is Bringing It All Back Home, but i'm also partial to Blonde on Blonde - but the trouble with that is that it seems too over produced to me and loses someof the rough magic of what makes Dylan so great in the first place - the way he sounds LIVE.... or sounded.

I still see him live and he's still pretty fucking great... truly... but he's Dylan. He'll never be huge like Mariah Carey, that's never going to be his thing, but he'll be and will remain a bigger cultural icon. I doubt he will sell as many records -- as say, Michael Jackson, but when it comes dowen to who really has made a difference, if music can do such a thing (and i believe it can) then i believe it is Dylan who comes out on top every time, regardles of the rest -- which is hardly to say that he doesn't sell or is unpopular, just that he lacks that now "poppy" popular appeal....

give him a listen a few times... try Talkin World War III Blues or Fourth Time Around which are both great songs (esp, the latter) or One More Weekend... god, i could go on and on....

cheers ---

[Sorry, Chantal, that html wasn't working. Well, it was but that was the problem, lol. Comments Editor]

Sadi -- Is "Renaldo and Clara" available on a home video format? I've never seen it, but your comments are similar to others I've heard.

As for the rest of your comments, I'm a little confused -- please recall that I'm a huge Dylan fan. Please note that I was the one who said I loved the live 1964 version of "If You Gotta Go," so OF COURSE I know it. In your next to last paragraph I'm not sure if you're addressing me or someone who asked you who Bob Dylan is -- because I know all those songs up and down.

It's purely academic which of Dylan's three greatest 1960s albums -- Bringing it All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited, and Blonde on Blonde -- is the greatest of all. Each is monumental. I've long said Blonde; but I think if someone asked me the one Dylan record to get I'd say "Highway 61." Pure gold -- beginning to end, never been equalled.

Your talk of live Bob Dylan reminds me of the time when Pearl Jam released a CD for every stop of their tour one year to try to prevent bootlegs from being sold! Must have been a couple of dozen of them anyway.

weirdly, the first Dylan record i ever owned was Live at Buddokan, which many Dylan fans seem to hate.

By the way, do I need a URL of my own to make this work for me?? I notice I don't have one under my name.

I just wish I liked Dylan's voice, Sadi, it would make it so much easier lol. The poor guy just sounds kinda sloshed to me.

Hey Rodney- i think i was addressing someone else (and probably got confused or something b/c i do know you so ....)

Funny about Highway 61 Revisited. I ALMOST put that down as number 1, but then didn't. My husband is writing a book about that right not for Contortiuum Press... so i'll let you know when it's out (on Amazon.com) - i'm sure you'll want to check it out ... Obviously, major, uh, Dylanologists around this house and those that hover near. I think between us we own every single book, every album, at least once, every bookleg, every every available picture, and have said as much as possible whenever possible.... it's sort of sickening and must make us incredibly dull, except for someone like you....

Renaldo and Clara I saw a real rare recording of it that a friend had taped off of some public televison station years ago... you haven't seen it then? As a Dylan person, you prob. want to, but don't be expecting Pennebaker or anything of note ... Dylan directed this one himself and plays the role of Renaldo (who else) The best part, it features Joan Baez AND Sara basically clawing over Renaldo (our boy) ... the whole thing is rather entertainng and takes place during the Rolling Thunder Revue phase as i recall, but it's been a while.. he has on his face paint anyway.... all that white...

cheers, s.

Thanks for your help, Chantal. Alas, it wont post for me for some reason.

Hey Steve - no you don't need a URL of your own to make this work... i wish i had your email...i'd jsut send you the code, damn damn.... maybe one of the editors can send it to you (and tell us why all comments are bold today, lol).

Your point about Dylan's voice is well-taken. The thing is, he's always changing it from album to album, you're never getting the same Dylan... you're getting someone different, an entirely different persona (sort of like Madonna reinvents herself, Dylan has a real talent for doing so, only even better, i think, yet with a core of consistency)... His voice ... well, if it's the Dylan of the 60s you're thinking of, which no doubt it is, then that would be several factors.

1. he often was sloshed or whatever.
2. he had influences that in the beginning anyway, sounded a lot like he wanted to sound, like Woody Guthrie who he intentionally emulated, but Dylan could parrot pretty much anyone...and that's a gift, yet nobody could parrot back Dylan... go figure...

Personally, i love his voice and that drawl... that New Yorkey/MidWestern/Half-put-on whatever it is just works for me. But that's me.

s

Will do that later Sadi, gotta go out for a while.

Re. Dylan, ah, I see, well both my parents ummmm...liked the booze too much... shall we say...so there's nothing I hate more than hearing a person who's sloshed. Just my background I guess.

understandable Steve ...

The voice is make-or-break. You love or hate it. I love it.

rodney - exactly. love it....

sadi, i hope you realized i was just being silly for you at post and was not intending to be mean or rude.
Sorry to hear about dour yslexia issues

hey Scott - God no .. not offended at all.. thought it all rather funny, really, hell, you gotta have a sense of humor about this shit... no worries about it... i actually find it really funny myself. i mean, who goes into starbucks and asks for "thai chi" - how absurd...

how funny.

np

don't sweat it... of course i knew you were kidding ; )

Speaking of Cyndi Lauper, anyone remember that movie she did the theme song for ("The Goonies"), it was on TV the other week, not one of my fave movies, even then, but seems it was popular with my generation.

By the way, the 80's group's name (re. Sia) was Men At Work, Sadi.

Hey Steve, RE: Sia, what was the relation again - niece? i can't remember... but it was interesting... Men at Work... did they sing "Who Can It Be Now?" or am i thinking of someone else... (back to editing now) -- never seen "goonies" - odd that i should have missed it... but then... maybe not so...

do let me know about above...

as ever :) s.

Hmm, Sadi, I was just trying to remember what was happening with me the year that Foreigner tune was in the charts...finally remembered, that was the year I was first asked out on a date...that was a thrill...for the short time it lasted anyway lol.

when foreigner hit the charts, i was getting my heart broken and fixed at the same time -- does that make sense... at once broken and then palmed with holy rose oil, if that makes sense too... but all good...

first dates - a thrill - but usually end disastrously...

MUST get to editing (back later )

Yeah, Sadi, re. "Goonies", I think it was bigger in the US than the UK. Starred Sean Astin (Samwise in "Lord Of The Rings"), Corey Feldman ("Lost Boys"), James Brolin's son Josh, and the kid who was Indiana Jones' sidekick in "The Temple Of Doom" (forget name but not a household one), as well as Martha Plimpton, who I think was River Phoenix's girlfriend for a while. Basically a story about kids and pirates, more of a boy's movie methinks (there there was a brief romance or two in between the action sequences).

Yeah, well, alas I had to turn down the date offer...boy that was hard. In my top 3 'hardest things to do in my life' list.
Good to hear your heart was fixed after it was broken!!

Absolutely essential live Dylan for me is "The Bootleg Series, Vol. 4: The 'Royal Albert Hall' Concert" (actually Manchester), where he goes electric for the first time for a British audience (first half is acoustic) who are getting increasingly restless, some booing, one guy yelling "Judas!) which prompts Dylan to respond "I don't believe you" as he gets more provoking and ferocious in his electric performance with a real angry and blistering version of "Rolling Stone." Here's a listing of the "electric" songs:

I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Baby, Let Me Follow You Down
Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues
Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat
One Too Many Mornings
Ballad of a Thin Man
Like a Rolling Stone

Hey Gordon- I have it.... we have everything here... even the "Judas" comment and the "play real fuckin' loud" heard faintly in the background with so many who dispute whether or not it's Dylan, though i'm not so sure...

Why do you like Highway 61 Revisited over Bringing it All Back Home - songlist...? sound....? just curious. i'm torn between the two albums myself - and love Highway Highway 61 revisisted *the song and the rest of the album but am very very partial to many of the songs on Bringing It All Back Home ...

tough call.

Blonde on Blonde is too soft sounding and polished, which is weird, i admit, b/c same producer but it was recorded in where - Nashville? i think - but it had that more mellow sound than the other two which are more lean and New York sounding - a cab screaming down Madison at 4 a.m.... i prefer the rougher Dylan in this way, which is why i prefer him live....

cheers -- s.

Steve - thanks for your earlier comment --- (heart comment)

i'm off for the night now...

g'night all...

more later / or tomorrow/

s.

Nite Sadi, yw.

Yes, by the way, Sadi, Sia was a niece of someone in Men At Work, they did do "Who Can It Be Now?" as well as "Down Under", "Overkill", "It's A Mistake"...

Good to hear

About your Dylan "Bringing: vs. "Highway" question: Frankly, before I give you a definitive answer, I'm going to dig out that "Bringin it All Back Home" for a listen again (I don't have it on CD and I'm currently going through my LP collection in conjunction with my new BC "Vinyl Tap" series--so far, Buzzcocks and Plimsouls). All great songs, but my tentative answer might lie in the quality of voice: in "Highway 61" and especially "Blonde on Blonde" he's developing that "voice of sand and glue" as Bowie put it--that I don't hear in his earlier recording. (This quirk of mine isn't exclusive to Dylan--e.g., I'm a big Kinks fan and my favorite LPs are the "Arthur"-era ones where Ray Davies has a rather loose and boozy quality.)

oh, and sat through all 27 hours or whatever of "Renaldo and Clara." The theater was about half full at the start; at the end there was only me and my friend. It became an endurance test of some kind, or maybe we were on drugs and digging the best musical-comedy since "Singin' in the Rain"--I don't recall... Make 'em laugh, make 'em laugh...

Hey Gordon - you're doing what i just did last ngiht; i listened to Highway 61 R. and then Bringing It All Back Home right after the other... the trouble is this... Dylan tends to work in threes, as a good friend pointed out, and that means that there are usually three great albums of a similar "Dylan" (if you get my meaning - the Dylan of who he is at that moment) and then one of those three is at apex of that triangle - the best of best. In this case, there is Blonde on Blonde, Highway 61 R. and Bringing It All Back Home...

Blonde on Blonde is too Nashville skyline produced for me, though that said, it's still a great fucking album, but it lacks as you say, that "boozy" quality that i love so much about Dylan's voice... that sort of Dylan-esque drawl that he had going on at the time of Brining It All Back Home... You can't beat a song like "Highway 61 Revisited' - It's a great song... but you put that up against Subterranean Homesick Blues and It's Alright Ma... and "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and you're kind stuck...

both albums have so much to recommend. Frankly, i personally do not think they sound so much different each from the other in terms of their sound (though my husband would strenously disagree w/ this) but i think they both have that New York edge and slightly rougher and leaner quality that i love so much about Dylan - it's almost a home-coming for him when he did those two (back to a more spare, less produced period, even IF same producer in some cases)...

Gates of Eden?
She Belongs to Me? etc etc etc.. you know the playlists of both, so i won't bother w/ that.. but i've listed so many here...

in short, we're agreeing, i think... it's a tought call; more, why do we have to choose? Can't both be equally good in this case, b/c ultimately, i think they are.... at least, in my view, i'd make a hybrid burn of the two (which i've done) and it's the perfect album... that said, both are pretty perfect from my view...

cheers - s

Gordon - you must like the Replacements also, then yes? Just a guess (one of my favorite bands ... been listening to Hootenannay a lot lately... i like their early stuff a lot and the later stuff is good too. Westerberg on his own has done v. well, albeit totally different, but i like his stuff a lot...

Steve - hey, thanks for the information about Men at Work - that was one album my brother bought for me for the holidays one year and so i'll never forget it. It had a yellow cover as i recall, with some checkerboard pattern on it - or am thinkign of someting else? i think that's right though... Do you remember Men Without Hats? The Safety Dance??? That'll take you back... if you know it...nonsensical but funny as hell, esp. the video. -- s. (back to editing)...

Hi, Sadi,
I believe the Men At Work album you're referring to was "Business As Usual".
Yes, I remember the "Safety Dance" tune, and the video. Lots of fun. I have the album from which that comes ("Rhythm Of Youth" - 1982) and the follow-up "Pop Goes The World" (1988) which is also fun too.

Business As Usual is right - that's the one i was thinking of. I remember really liking it a lot at the time. Funny ou remember the Saftey Dance as well - i thought i was the only person in the world who remembered this song!! I'm glad to know i'm not alone! == cheers, and hope you're morning is going well (day is going well...whichever time zone you are in...) : ) s.

Thanks, Sadi, well, Men Without Hats are Canadian so they've had more of a profile here than elsewhere I think in the past.
I just have an "Essential Men At Work" album.
It's 11:10am here.

So, Sadi, let us know when the next list will be up, you've had 90+ comments on this one, more than any other of your lists, I think!

Hi Steve -- the next list will be up sometime tomorrow -- i didn't even realize how late in the week it was, it's been such a busy week for me!!! But yes, tomorrow will be the next list... so whenever i get it in and the Editor can get it done that will be great.. i'll post here to let you know or now that it's a regular feature, you can likely just check List of the Moment under the home page here on BC.....

Thanks - i didn't realize we had so many commments this time! wow! That's great to know...

Cheers - and see you tomorrow sometime!

Sadi

ahhh "Safety Dance"!! love that one...im gonna have to get that one for my compilation. if i remember correctly, that was the first 45 single i ever bought....5th grade maybe. :)

Sadi, how can Blonde lack the "boozy" quality to Dylan's voice when it kicks off with "Rainy Day Women" -- the most drunk-ass song he ever recorded outside of "Apple Suckling Tree"?

Anyway, I never see anything "Nashville Skyline" about it -- I think of those records as just being wildly different. For me, Blonde is Dylan at his most abstract, starting with the title. (Question no one ever asks: What does it MEAN?) In songs like "Visions of Johanna," "Stuck Inside of Mobile," and "Sad Eyed Lady," he pushed his lyrical/poetic abilities as far as they could go.

I'd agree with you, but "she blinded me with science"

Sadi--yep, love the Replacement and Westerberg solo. I think I might have told you about "seeing" them live--"seeing" might be too strong a word since Westerberg was doing "Yummy yummy, yummy I Got Love In My Tummy" and other songs drunk and flat on his back on the stage.

The Replacements were a great band, and I love Westerberg solo too. (Something I wrote about his latest -- just scroll down a little.)

The Replacements also set an MTV standard with 'Bastards of Young," the cheapest, most minimal, low-tech video in history.

Cool, Sadi, will do.

Rodney - hey, you got me on Rainy Day Women... and i love, as you know, the rest of the songs you list too, esp. Visions of Johanna, which is among the best he's ever written in my view... but i still thing it's produced more than the other two. It's softer somehow. Perhaps that's just a perceptual difference in how we're hearing it. The others sound different to me - they DO sound leaner and meaner, but again, it's all about perception...

I do see your point - but i do think the fact of where Blonde on Blonde was recorded did make a difference in how it compares with the other two...

now, i really have to go and make the next list or i'm totally TOAST...

; )

(after all of this, i still think we're ultimately agreeing, just out of curiousity what do you think of John Wesley Harding? Christ, i love New Morning as well - essentially, it's almost impossible for me to choose... but that said, i stand by the first two i said;

Bringing it all back home and Highway 61... it used to be Blonde on Blonde so there you go...

heard different stories about where the title (Blonde on Blonde) came from... so it's interesting... any ideas from your side? i have a few but am curious if you have any...

now i MUST get to Part 2.

Cheers - as ever - s.

The Replacements Rock. I saw them live twice and both times they were great, if unpredictable and drunk.

the replacements were almost always drunk when i saw them, Scott, the best part was when they tried to do covers of other people's songs or even their own and forgot the words...

then they sorta sobered up a bit (Pleased To Meet Me) but i still like Hootenanny.... esp. the song Love Lines... which is basically a ramble, though i think one of my faves of theirs is "Within Your Reach."

Be well = now i really MUST go... list to do....


s.

Hey, Sadi, how many concerts have you been to in your life, would you say???

Within your reach and skyway- yeah,they could do some great ballads.
But color me impressed and some of their rocking
stuff was better,imho.

Hey there, Sadi, are you on schedule re. the next list?? Looking forward to it.

hey Steve, it's been submitting and is peneding, so whenever the editor gets to it, it should be up... i imagine that will be sometime today... hopefully in the not too distant future... i had some glitches with em-tee, so i'm hoping that won't hold things up and didn't screw anything up.... speak to you on next list hopefully... it should be there soon enough i should think.. a few hours at most... ; ) ~ s.

Cool, thanks Sadi.

np, see you there.... ; )

great Replacements song that'll depress the hell out of ya: "Here Comes a Regular":

Everybody wants to be someone's here
Someone's gonna show up, never fear
'cause here comes a regular
Call out your name
Here comes a regular
Am I the only one who feels ashamed?

Kneeling alongside old Sad Eyes
He says opportunity knocks once then the door slams shut
All I know is I'm sick of everything that my money can buy
The fool who wastes his life, God rest his guts

yeah Gordon, but that's one of my favorites... where is list number 10 part 2???? not up yet??? hmmmmm.... should be up soon, i hope... certainly by tonight... look for it...

cheers... i know all the words to here comes a regular ... used to be a guy who sang it locally at a bar in Cambridge around here who was pretty good at Replacements songs... did a better job than sometimes they did, lol...

if you see next list, ping me when it's up...

cheers, gordon -- s.

Speaking of depressing songs, are you familiar with "Sugar Mice" by Marillion, Sadi??? I'll fill you in later, if you haven't...heartbreaking tune.

Hey Steve... i've actually never heard of it... and you would think today of all days (being in the mood i'm in (miserable and melancholy) i would know ALL of them.... alas... thank god moods pass...

you'll have to fill me in...,

is next list up ... lemme check...

; )

Aww, sorry to hear that Sadi, maybe I should be trying to cheer you up rather then sharing lyrics to depressing songs huh??? lol. If there's anything I can do to cheer you up, let me know.

thanks Steve... i'm sure it's just one of those stupid things... just name the silliest song you can think of from the eighties; that would make me laugh; i was thinking Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy - Remember That One?? But i'm sure you know others that are better... i bet you'll like the next list... i wonder where it is? i hope nothing went wrong with it... maybe i should try posting it again? hmmnmm....

"Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" by Monty Python (actually a UK hit in 1991, oh well)
"I Was a Doledad's Toyboy" by the Style Council (1988)
"Babooshka" by Kate Bush (1980)
"Deeply Dippy" and "I'm Too Sexy" by Right Said Fred (1991)
"Chatanooga Choo Choo" by Glenn Miller (1941)
"Doop" by Doop (1994)
"Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Polka Dot Bikini" by Bombalurina (1990)
"Meet The Flintstones" by BC-52's

Sorry they're not hilarious, on the phone right now lol.

i love number one and it DID and IS making me laugh... and i can't thank you enough for that... List number 2 is up... so see you over there... hop on over... !~!! (i'm off for the night, but i'll be back tomorrow ... g'night for now... :) thanks so much, Steve... you're an angel... s.

cool sadi, night

Here Comes a regular is a great one - i'd listen to that when drunk

the connections are endless:

1. i, too, love kate bush
2. i, too, was in cyndi's "gjwhf" video
3. i was in dean and the weenies.

I have Dean and the Weanies "Fuck You" on the "This is Offensive" album.

"Fuck the telephone company
Fuck national security
Fuck the prime interest rate
Fuck the secretary of state
Fuck Union Carbide
Fuck third world genocide
Fuck thermonuclear war
Fuck Mary Tyler Moore

"Go tell it the judge
cuz I don't care
you'd look cooler if you wore a Frigidaire.
Get lost, eat shit, drop dead, go screw.
We're in big trouble, baby,
and the trouble is Youuuuuuu!
Fuu-uu-uu-uu-uu--uck youuuuuuuuu!"

Absolutely awesome.

Whose hat other Weenie? This is Luther...

The "Mondo New York" soundtrack is long out of print, but I picked up a used CD on ebay. Dean & the Weenies' "Fuck You" is the last song on the rekkid.

Wow, Mike and all - thank you about Dean and the Weanies - i'll get that album asap --- i've been searching for that song for ages and been unable to find it again.... damn, baby... you just made my month! seriously... that's probably sad, but hey, that song is a great effing song... so thanks, or as we say ta ev

cheers,

s.

Yo Mike, you legend!

Oops... I see this blog is about 2 years old... maybe you'll see this?

Anyway, this is the ONLY place I could google to find out who sings the song "Fuck you"! I remembered it from local radio station in early 90s, it was very popular there, so I searched the web with lyrics I remembered "fuck the telephone company" "fuck national security". This is THE ONLY page where those lyrics were found. And then... reading through all the posts to find where exactly it is.

In the end - big disappointment: cannot find that mp3 anywhere to download. In fact none from Dean and the weaines (I tried "weeines" too). So if anybody has that CD would you be so kind and send me the song in mp3? I just broke up with my so-called girlfriend and I remembered that song, I don't know why. I would really like to listen to it, on maximum volume! I found it on youtube but they are some live performances with poor sound quality.

If you can, please upload it somewhere and post the link here [Personal contact info deleted].

Thanks