Category: music

MUSIC AND MOVIES QUESTIONS

I’d appreciate your input in any or all:

1. What one to three CDs should I put on my Christmas wish list, and why?

2. Why are some people so fussy about folks applauding in movie theaters? People can laugh, cry, shriek; why not clap? After all, it’s their $10 and $6 bucket of popcorn, and as long as they’re not talking unnecessarily, I don’t care.

The theory is that the film actors can’t hear the applause; true enough. But neither can the performers hear when you cheer (or curse) your favorite baseball/football/basketball/soccer team whilst seated in front of your television set. Seems like snobbery to me.

3. Have you ever sung karaoke? If so, what are your favorite tunes to sing? If not, what would you sing?
I’ve never done it – though I have sung, with a live band, Disco Inferno (I’d deny it except there are too many witnesses). Probably Take Me To the River. Or maybe this song from the 1968 movie The Night They Raided Minsky’s that apparently was also performed on The Muppet Show:
I have a secret recipe.
Concocted with much skill.
And once you’ve tried our special dish-
You’ll never get your fill.
Take ten terrific girls, but only nine costumes,
And you’re cooking up something grand.
Mix in some amber lights, and elegant scenery-
And stir in a fine jazz band.
Then add some funny men, and pepper with laughter.
It’s tart and tasty I know.
Then serve it piping hot, and what have you got?
A burlesque show.

Or maybe not.

ROG

ROG

You Ask Me; I Ask You

It’s time once again for Ask Roger Anything, this time with a twist. You get to ask me whatever, i.e., anything you want, and I have to answer. But I also am offering to pose questions to you to post on YOUR blog.

Here’s one I got actually a month ago:

Thought of you as the only person with whom I could have a discussion about this — it seems that more and more musicians are “selling out” and allowing their recognizable tunes to be attached to some product or other. In this week alone, I’ve heard REM selling something I don’t remember, which doesn’t seem to fit with everything I’ve read about Michael Stipe. But it really came home to me last evening when I heard the Corrs’ “At Your Side” (from “In Blue,” which admittedly is a little on the poppy side and not nearly as Irish as I would like) hawking the AARP!!!!

Just had to bring this to your attention, if it hasn’t been already.
What’s your opinion?

I replied: The evil facts are that it’s increasingly difficult to be in the traditional marketplace. Thus, Moby sells most of the songs on his Play album, Macca is sold by a coffee company, JT is sold by a greeting card company, your man Bruuuuce was out there hawking some of his last albums on the Today show. [The Rising in 2002, and Magic this coming Friday.]
The thing specifically about the Corrs is that I don’t know exactly how much control they have over their product. If they did “sell out”, it’d be a good group to sell out to, since it’s those 45-64 year olds who are still actually buying CDs in good numbers.

I found this article in Metroland that also responds to the point:
There’s no such thing as selling out, says Duff McKagan of rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. “It gets harder and harder and harder for a rock group to make a living.”
…McKagan points out, “Nobody is selling records like they used to. Even [Velvet Revolver’s 2004 debut] Contraband sold only 3 million albums. [In the early ’90s Guns [‘N’ Roses] and [Stone Temple Pilots] and Nirvana and Pearl Jam [were selling 8, 9, 10 million. Three million would have been only OK…
the newfound attitude towards “selling out”, particularly among rock acts, is the product of this music-industry sea change. He cites licensing opportunities like commercials, movies and ringtones as alternative methods to make money off of tunes…”Since Iggy Pop did it, it’s all OK, cause he’s the dude,” says Kagan. “God bless him, cause he hadn’t made any money….

Now, here’s the contract: if you give me questions, I promise to answer them within a fortnight, and to let you know that I did. If I give YOU questions, you promise to answer them in a fortnight, and to let me know that you did.

So, ASK me, OK?
***
Snakes on a plane.
***
Fred Hembeck linked to this story, which really got to me.

ROG

ROG

The ABCs of Music


Tom the Dog made this abecedarian list; actually, he’s made at least three recently, and I haven’t done one since Thanksgiving 2005, I don’t believe.

So, these are songs I like. I think they’re a bit goofy, not necessarily in a Weird Al or Dr. Demento sort of way (though one of the artists does appear on a Demento album I own). Some are actually good songs, though a couple are terrible.

ABBA- Waterloo. Yeah, I know, they rule, a top 10 group for Mr. Hembeck. But they’re still a guilty pleasure for me.
Bee Gees-Jive Talkin’. Released before Saturday Night Fever, but included on the soundtrack, I find myself walkin’ down the street like Tony Manero when I hear it, which really hurts.
Costello, Elvis-Chewing Gum. Elvis’ birthday was last month and I was listening to Spike, my favorite EC album (and apparently no one else’s). I said to one of my co-workers, “Get that chewing gum out of your ears!” She said, “Why DID you say that to me?” It was this song featuring the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.
Doors-Touch Me. I’m not a big Jim Morrison fan; I went out with a woman (briefly) who was. Yet, I’m always waiting around for the “stronger than dirt” line.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer-Nut Rocker. At the end of the excess that was ELP doing Pictures at an Exhibition, the coda on the album was a variation on the Nutcracker Suite; a version is shown here. The song was originally done in 1962 by B. Bumble and the Stingers .
Focus-Hocus Pocus. This is a dopey, yodel-driven song by some Dutch band that was an unlikely hit. I bought the album. Check out a live version here.
Gore, Lesley- Judy’s Turn to Cry. Lesley sang, “It’s my party, and I’ll cry if I want to.” This is the vengeful follow-up. HA, Judy!
Herman’s Hermits-Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter. When I joined the Capitol Records Club when I was 12, I needed to buy 12 albums. Since the Beatles had only a half dozen albums out at the time, one of my selections was The Best of Herman’s Hermits. I used to do a fairly good Peter Noone impression.
Ives, Burl-Funny Way of Laughin’. I don’t know why, but I’ve always been fond of those songs in which the protagonist pretends not to be crying, or doesn’t want to be seen crying (the Temptations’ I Wish it Would Rain comes to mind.)
Jackson Five-Maybe Tomorrow. An overwrought power ballad. I once requested this on a radio station and the DJ took it off before its peak overwroughtness.
Kinks-Skin and Bone. A swing tune about the dangers of dieting. From possibly my favorite Kinks album, Muswell Hillbillies.
Tom Lehrer-the Vatican Rag. This is the artist on a Demento album, the 1950s novelty song Poisoning Pigeons in the Park. But this song is from the great mid-1960s album That Was The Year That Was, which I own on CD. Bizarrely, someone posted on You Tube someone playing the LP on his record player, placing the tonearm on the first track for Part 1, continuing Side 1 and onto Side 2 on Part 2, more of Side 2 on Parts 3 and 4, and finishing up with the theologically incorrect Vatican Rag.
Marcels-Blue Moon. A big doowop hit in 1961.
Napoleon XIV: !Aaah-aH yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er’yehT. The backwards B-side version of the annoying They’re Coming to Take Me Away Ha-Haaa!, is also an unlisted final track on the CD Second Coming.
Ohio Express-Yummy Yummy Yummy. Is there a lyric so vapid as “Yummy, yummy, yummy, yummy, I’ve got love in my tummy”? Maybe their hit Chewy, Chewy, which has been used on TV commercials. I often confuse this group with the 1910 Fruitgum Company, their bandmates on Buddha, who had hits such as Simon Says; 1, 2, 3, Red Light; and Special Delivery.
Presley, Elvis-Hey Jude. A truly awful, out-of-tune version on a mixed CD that someone gave me. Listening to a train wreck.
Queen-Somebody to Love. It’s that dramatic, harmonic beginning that I love.
Rascals-More. Talk about overwrought. From the Groovin’ album.
Sinatra-The Lady Is a Tramp. Sometimes, Sinatra is cool (That’s Life), and then there are times when Sinatra thinks he’s cool; this is the latter.
Thomas, Rufus-Do the Funky Chicken. After doing at least four Dog songs, he moved on from canines to poultry. People will jump fences to do the Funky Chicken.
Utopia-Everything Is Going Wrong. Todd Rundgren’s group did this great Beatles parody, Deface the Music; this is the last track, designed in the Strawberry Fields/I Am the Walrus mode.
Van Halen-Happy Trails. The last song on the only Van Halen album I’ve ever owned, this Dale Evans classic is performed goofily.
Who-Boris the Spider. I just like to say “Boris the spider” in the scariest voice I could muster.
XTC-Your Dictionary. This is not a goofy song, this is a nasty song I first heard on a mixed CD.
Young, Neil-Mr. Soul. Neil must have really liked this song. He first recorded it with Buffalo Springfield. Then a live version is the springboard for Springfield’s Broken Arrow. The version I have in mind is the vocoder version on the much-maligned Reactor, which I love.
Zappa, Frank-Cosmic Debris. There are lots of Zappa songs that might have qualified, but this one has the great lyric, “Is that a real poncho or is that a Sears poncho?”
***
Teen death songs will never die.

ROG

ROG

The Theological Implications of Doris Day QUESTION


My racquetball buddies and I were in the locker room, and someone said, innocently, “Que sera, sera.” Somehow, this led to some great theological/philosophical debate. One person suggested that the line of “whatever will be, will be” was a position of those Christians who believe that “everything is fixed, and you can’t change it”, while another opined that it was antithetical to the Christian tradition, because God is an active God. The fatalism of Nietzsche was invoked in the conversation, as were the impersonal gods of the ancient Greeks.

So, a simple question, and a more complex one. Please respond to either, or both:

1. What other purely popular songs suggest theological or philosophical meanings to you, and in what way?
Example: “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” by Bobby McFerrin may evoke the “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin” of Matthew 6:28.
Example: “The Word” by the Beatles. John 1:1, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Lennon/McCartney, “Now I’ve got it, the word is good.” The song also notes “That the word is just the way”; John 14:6, Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” Note also, John 1:1 and the first verse in the song start, “in the beginning.”

2. To what theology/philosophy do you think Que Sera, Sera belong? Does it belong to yours?
***
Anyone else, when they hear his name, sing “Dave Petraeus, Dave Petraus” to the tune of “Doctor Zaius” from the Simpsons? I thought not.
“The general came to shed some light
On why we needed to keep the fight.”
Of course, you can color the couplet to your personal political preferences.

ROG

ROG

Eight things

It was undoubtedly Lefty who semi-tagged me to write eight (more) things about myself.

1. I have gone out with two different women who had lost children in car accidents, before I met them. I think – check that, I’m certain – that I didn’t understand their deep-seated devastation at the time.

2. I recently finished listening to a disc that someone compiled of the 500 best songs. Of the 500, I downloaded 128. Of the 128, the vast majority I already own on vinyl – six by Chuck Berry, four by Little Richard, three each by Queen and Buddy Holly; I also grabbed Buddy Holly by Weezer, which I had never owned before.

3. I worked as a bank teller for less than a month in 1978. My first day solo, I was off by five cents, and I was required to spend an hour looking for it; not worth it.

4. I’ve received Hess trucks for Christmas the last seven years. I actually play with them on those rare occasions when neither my wife or daughter are home.

5. The sound of a power lawn mower, vacuum cleaner, or washing machine could put me to sleep, given the opportunity.

6. I’ve shaken Nelson Rockefeller’s hand twice.

7. I used to be in a volleyball league. I served well.

8. I never took the SATs.
***
What Is Art?

ROG

ROG
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