SONGSTORY

Albert King stood 6 foot 4 feet tall and weighed at least 260 pounds. He was born Albert Nelson in 1923 on a Mississippi cotton plantation and would later change his surname to King, forming an informal triumvirate of “Blues Kings” with B.B. and Freddie. As a child King sang gospel in church and made his first guitar out of a discarded cigar box.

Also known as “The Velvet Bulldozer” Albert King was one of the most influential blues guitarists of all time whose distinctive style was emulated by both Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. King’s genius on the guitar is made even more impressive by the fact that he played his guitar backwards–that is to say that he played a right handed guitar left handed. Many left handed guitarist are known to do this, however they usually will switch the strings around so the low E remains at the top. King kept his guitar stringed for a right handed player. Here’s allmusic.com’s take on how that affected his sound.

Allmusic.com:

Albert King plays guitar left-handed, without re-stringing the guitar from the right-handed setup; this “upside-down” playing accounts for his difference in tone, since he pulls down on the same strings that most players push up on when bending the blues notes. King’s massive tone and totally unique way of squeezing bends out of a guitar string has had a major impact. Many young white guitarists — especially rock & rollers — have been influenced by King’s playing, and many players who emulate his style may never have heard of Albert King, let alone heard his music. His style is immediately distinguishable from all other blues guitarists, and he’s one of the most important blues guitarists to ever pick up the electric guitar.

Oh, Pretty Woman is a song off of King’s Born Under A Bad Sign. Most of the songs were initially recorded and released as singles but then compiled by Stax in 1967 into what has been described as one of the greatest electric blues albums ever made. The backup band behind King is Booker T. & The MGs - little wonder the result is a soulful southern funk sound that provides a perfect canvas for King’s single string leads.

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How a Electonica artist transforms himself into a bona-fide soul singer is one of the many things I don’t understand. But there is one thing that I know…Jamie Lidell has done it. Rope of Sand is off Lidell’s latest release Jim and is admittedly not really a soul sounding song at all, however it does show how many types of moods Lidell is capable of creating and exists as a haunting and hypnotic finale to an album that is primarily soulful and upbeat.

Jamie Lidell will be performing at the Opera House on June 5th. Tickets are currently on sale and quite affordable at $17.50. Word on the street is that he is touring with a live band that includes a horn section. Watch OUT!!!

I dedicate this posting to SNAX! SNAX! SNAX!

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Green Grass - Tom Waits By Harlyn Weijs

There are many reasons to put a song on repeat.

I am a repeat Queen and I am dating the repeat King and so a lot of songs get played over and over again.

There is no better way to torture oneself than to listen to a Tom Waits song on repeat.

Though I would be damn careful to limit your exposure to his stuff. I consider myself seasoned in the art of the melancholic music session. I have a very high tolerance but maaaaaaann some people don’t know when to quit!

Tom Waits is the Barry White of Folk Soul. Vocal chords like bass strings delivering to us in his smoky gruff, the penetrating weight of his words.

And so tonight before sleep, I invite you to put this song on repeat and in your dreams pat off the dust from that horse by the saloon, swing your arms around his neck and let him take you on a long, slow, gloomy ride into morning…

“Come closer don’t be shy

Stand beneath the rainy sky

The moon is over the rise

Think of me as a train goes by…”

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The Ramones have been called one of the greatest bands of ALL TIME. In fact, Spin Magazine put them at number two on their all-time list behind only The Beatles.

Judy Is a Punk is a song off The Ramones 1976 self-titled debut album.

Now lets do some trivia!

Two of The Ramones albums were co-produced by Tony Bongiovi who is the second cousin of what American rock star?

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I’m not sure who this song is by. All I know is that its produced by 9th Wonder and one of the emcees really sucks. He sounds awkward the whole time and busts out lines like “You best fear, cause we don’t have nothing to lose, so just like security you better ‘move move move”. What the??

Theres nothing deep about this track at all. Its bubblegum rap, but it makes me bounce and gets stuck in my head.

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Changing Opinion - Music: Philip Glass / Lyrics: Paul Simon / Vocals: Bernard Fowler Songs From Liquid Days [1986] By Adam Collier

Back when I was in high school when it got warm out, I would stay up all night writing things in chalk on my street. Sometimes I drew pictures, like from Calvin and Hobbes but mostly it was words. When cars drove too fast over the chalk, it would smear or rise like steam, but if they were going slow, the chalk would crush into the blacktop. One of the first things I copied down were the lyrics to this song. I only found out later its words were by Paul Simon; it was originally the minimalist music by Philip Glass that drew me to this song. Minimalism stresses small changes over big ones, and Simon’s lyrics, well, they build to a fairly profound thought…

Maybe it’s the hum Of changing opinion Or a foreign language In prayer Maybe it’s the mantra Of the walls and wiring Deep breathing In soft air

…but gets there gradually. (I like that). The marriage of polyrhythms–the sequence of changes of note emphasis in the chords we hear on the piano and flute–and Simon’s subtle lyrics, is a good one. I’m in no position to critique the singing. What I can tell you though, is that playing the piano that quickly, making slow variations is technically challenging. When I wrote this out on the street I had also hoped that this girl I had a crush on, who lived just a few houses down the street, would see it and we would have something to talk about. But when I asked her about the lyrics on the street, she said she hadn’t noticed them.

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Dear Bilal,

I hope this letter finds you well. I have an urgent matter I need to discuss with you. I am fully aware that you’re a neo-soul artist who followed in D’Angelo’s vootshteps (props to Young Frankenstein right?) but you don’t have to make us wait a lifetime between albums too, do you? Listen Bilal, you are a virtuoso, nobody disputes that, at least no one who counts and you’ve got a fantastic unreleased album circulating around the internet. This unreleased album is even further proof that that you are a completely unique and beautiful weirdo, kind of like me, except you sing for a living. I understand that you probably have some sort of distribution issues or label issues or maybe you’re a perfectionist, and I know you’re pissed that your album leaked, but lemons to lemonade, right? The longer the album sits on the shelf after getting leaked the less likely that it will ever get released at all, and that would be a big time shame. Take advantage of the buzz created by the leak. Release the album any way you can, generate more buzz and then bask in the glory of all the major distribution offers that come down the metaphorical pipe. In this age of unconventional music distribution and promotion there’s always a way to get a finished product to the masses. I’m no marketing expert, but neither are you-you’re and artist-so focus on that and let the music speak for itself.

Let me conclude with Make Me Over a song from your leaked album.

Sincerely,

The Sentiments of Many

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When an album I dislike gets positive reviews I’ll often question my initial assessment of it. Instead of assuming that the critics are lacking in taste, I’m inclined to consider that I wasn’t in the right headspace, or perhaps failed to appreciate something in the music when I first listened to it. My concern is that I missed something beautiful that the critics spotted and if beauty is to be found in a song I want in on it. Really a music review is nothing more than one persons judgement of how much beauty is to be found in an album. Lyrics, vocals, instrumentation, innovation, whatever, if there is something beautiful there the reviewer is charged with the task of spotting it. Therefore a positive review cannot be wrong and that’s why music reviews (in fact reviews of all art) are such a strange exercise. If the music resonates with someone then they’ve seen the beauty in it, and that cannot be discounted by anyone. So where does taste fit into this? If some dude buys the Kevin Federline album and thinks it was the best rap album of 2006 are they wrong? No. There’s nothing wrong with their assessment, there’s something wrong with the question. The fact of the matter is that art of any kind is entirely subjective, so it is impossible to say there is one album that is objectively superior to any others. A critic can explain an album’s contextual value, but they cannot say it isn’t beautiful.

Allmusic.com, which is a website I actually hold in very high regard, say that the reggae album “Mellow Dubmarine: Tribute to the Beatles” is a worthless piece of garbage–”misguided” and “laughable” are the terms they actually use. Perhaps they were snoozing when this cover by John Holt was on. I love the idea that I found the beauty where others did not. Kanye spotted it too.

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Hazy Jane I - Nick Drake By Tony Bitzionis

Again with the Nick Drake. What can I say? I love the Drake!

In my previous post, the one where Dave made me out to be a pirate for whatever reason[1], we raised an interesting discussion about Drake’s ability to write stirring, soft, simple, ‘dreamy soundscapes’. It’s true; the man had the rare ability to write songs whose sounds surround you, like some kind of surrounding sound thing surrounding you, not unlike the sound of dinosaurs in the forest, coming for you and you know it. I should point out that my only resolution this year is to mention dinosaurs a lot more.

Onward! Hazy Jane I is a gorgeous song that I hold close to my heart [There is a Hazy Jane II, much different and maybe better (in my opinion) than this one, but I’ll be posting that one later].

Everybody knows the feeling of having a song you love made even more special when you associate it with a certain person, event, or place. I first really noticed this song a couple of summers ago when I was in Greece. My cousin, friends, and myself would take a bus every morning from my dad’s village to the beach; about an hour each way. I was listening to this song one day, my mates asleep in the back, and me staring out the bus window, stunned as usual by the rolling hills and mountains. The music fit in perfectly with the early morning sunlight cutting its way through the clouds and into the eyes of the old wrinkled farmers already putting in their fifth or sixth hour of work that day. Then I noticed the lyrics:

“Do you feel like a remnant Of Something that’s past? Do you find things are moving Just a little too fast?”

Now I know this is a song about a girl or maybe drugs, but I just appreciated the way it all fit into that particular moment, which I can’t help but think of every time I hear this song.

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In 1999 Pharoahe Monch released his solo debut album, Internal Affairs, on the now defunct Rawkus record label. The album peaked at #41 on the Billboard Top 200 and #6 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop Charts–quite impressive considering that Monch’s previous album while a member of Organized Konfusion peaked at 141 on the Top 200. Internal Affairs was at once both a commercial and critical success, producing club hits such as Simon Says and The Light while at the same time solidifying Monch’s reputation as one of hip hop’s most talented emcees.

Hidden at the end of Internal Affairs is what I consider to be one of the albums forgotten gems, a brilliant collaboration with fellow ‘conscious rappers’ Common and Talib Kwali entitled The Truth. Monch is an absolute technical wizard on Internal Affairs, constantly exhibiting his enormous skill and dexterity–and out of the dust of Monch’s lyrical whirlwind rises The Truth. A harp slowly fades in, and the string-laced production rises effortlessly only to float by in an instant. A track that is in its message unlike any I have ever heard, The Truth is not only about the beauty of truth, but also the difficulty we all have facing it.

Despite Monch’s brilliant work on Internal Affairs it is Common, an emcee know for his insight and thoughtful lyricism who is the highlight of The Truth, delivering what I believe to be one of the most profound verses of his career:

See it everywhere, gotta recognize it Let the truth be told from young souls that become old From days spent in the jungle, where must one go To find it, time is real, we can’t rewind it Out of everybody I met, who told the truth? Time did We find kids speakin cuz it’s naturally in us But the false prophets by tellin us we born sinners Venders of hate, got me battlin my own mind state At a divine rate, I ain’t in this just to rhyme great See the truth in the thighs of a stripper, the eyes of my nigga If it’s only one, then why should it differ So constantly I seek it Wonderin why I gotta drink a six pack to speak it Took a picture of the truth and tried to develop it Had proof, it was only recognized by the intelligent Took the negative and positive, cuz niggas got to live Said I got to get more than I’m given Cuz truth’ll never be heard in religion After searchin the world, on the inside what was hidden It was the truth

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