I can haz music meme
Drat that wiffly_shwoo for infecting me with a music meme thingy (and drat spawnofweevil for infecting her).
Wiffles gave me the letter P, and I cursed her long and hard, for I could think of no tracks that begin with the letter P. Then when I got thinking about it ALL my favourite tracks begin with the letter P, and I had great trouble reducing my list to five.
1. Peter Kagan and the Wind (Tommy Makem/Liam Clancy) -- Makem & Clancy in concert
I have a soft spot for "spoken word" pieces at the best of times, and I've always loved tracks that are all about the storytelling. On Peter Kagan and the wind, you get thirteen minutes of superb storytelling as Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy lead you into a world where fishermen marry "seal wives" (i.e selkies, but with some provisos) and the wind talks. A genuinely magical piece of theatre.
This comes in at the number one slot on the "tracks beginning with P" list, just because of the fond memories associated with it: I used to listen to this on my parent's record player when I was very small -- I would make my dad drop the needle close to the start of the track (those olden days before you could just flick to the right spot on the CD) and then I would curl up in a little nest under the table with my eyes closed and let myself get carried away with the story. It was always a rainy day outside in those memories, and I sometimes used to pretend that the rain beating against the window was the sea and that I was out on Kagan's dory. One of the first stories I ever wrote was a rip of this track. Even now, I will occasionally re-read stories I've written and see traces of Kagan and the Wind lurking beneath the narrative.
Sadly this track is pretty hard to find, because it was only ever released on the Makem&Clancy in concert LP. It was a double album and when it got digitized for CD, the track got cut for length (it's almost 13 minutes long). My copy is a digital copy of my Dad's LP and the sound quality is very poor. I dream of the day when I can get my hands on a digitally remastered version of the track, but for a variety of reasons that seems unlikely to ever happen.
2. Perfect Day (with Antony) -- The Raven (Lou Reed) ltd ed 2cd version
I'm also a sucker for concept albums, and I like Edgar Allan Poe and I like Lou Reed. That being said, "The Raven" can be a little trying at times. It's definitely one of those albums I have to be in the right sort of mood for and it's not an album I can stick on as background noise when I'm working. There's some great spoken word pieces, there's some dire spoken word pieces, there's some tracks that are so bad it's almost embarrassing to listen to them, and there's one or two tracks that grab my ears every single time and leave me listening in awe till the sound goes away. Antony's cover of Perfect Day is one of those tracks (the other three are "The Bed" (another odd re-interpretation of a classic Lou Reed track), "Imp of the perverse" and The Cask (dramatic re-workings of two of Poe's stories)).
Antony can sound oddly otherworldy at times and he sounds positively ethereal on this track. In this radical re-interpretation Perfect Day is no longer a triumphant love song, but a somber epitaph to lost love, remembered perfect days and the good times one clings to when everything else is gone. Almost every Lou Reed/Velvet Underground fan I know considers this version a butchered perversity, but it appeals to my inner emo kid.
3. Passenger (Deftones feat. Maynard James Keenan) -- White Pony (Deftones)
I've never quite been able to work out if this song is about two guys having sex in a car, or if it's all about a drug trip, or if it's actually even meant to be about anything at all. To be honest, I've long given up on trying to decipher the meaning behind a good half of Maynard James Keenan's lyrics. As always, the imagery is amazing and I'm prepared to leave it at that. Leaving the lyrical content aside for a moment, this tune is luuuusssh. One of those songs that carries itself up to heaven and takes you along for the ride. I'm not going to say anything more, purely on the grounds that just about everyone I know owns a copy of White Pony, so y'all know what I'm on about anyway.
4. Perfect Crime No.2 (The Decemberists) -- The Crane Wife (The Decemberists)
I'm cheating a little bit on this one because The Decemberists are one of my favourite bands and I wanted a Decemberist's track on here. Which isn't to suggest that Perfect Crime isn't a great track -- there's the usual quirky put-it-together-to-make-a-story lyrics, and a funky bassline which probably won't have you off your seat and dancing, but certainly will have you vigorously swaying in time -- it's just that I prefer the long narrative pieces like the mariner's revenge, the infanta, and the bandit queen. Am I allowed to have a whole album beginning with P? If so I want Picaresque.
5. Professor Dragon (Lonely Karen and the Drifters) -- Grass is Singing (Lonely Drifter Karen)
Okay. Hands in the air. I admit it, Lonely Drifter Karen are my current favourite band, and I'm going to be rabbiting on about them for a while yet. So it kinda went without saying that if there was a track that began with a P on their album I was going to stick it on the list. Thankfully, Professor Dragon is a track I really really dig, it was the song that kept me watching Lonely Drifter Karen rather than buggering off to watch Tori Amos at Dranouter, so it's on this list because I really like it and not just because I wanted a LKD track on the list.
Lonely Drifter Karen are a quirky little band with a mellow sound and a lot of heart. There's traces of cabaret, traces of old musicals. Most of all there are catchy little numbers that sound like songs you knew a long-time ago but somehow forgot when you grew up, and a lead singer who sounds like a cross between Joni Mitchell and Marlene Deitrech. Professor Dragon is a whimsical little song about an inventor who falls in love with a circus clown and builds a flying machine which runs on smoke and soap bubbles. Utterly charming ear candy for your inner child.
Now then, as I understand this meme, if you haven't done this one already you ask for a letter of the alphabet and then you recommend five songs beginning with that letter in your LJ. Flaming easy, innit.
Also
I'm Mrs Dumbledore
So anyway.... as you can tell I have more deadlines and I'm procrastinating. I'm off to do mathematics (unwillingly).
Wiffles gave me the letter P, and I cursed her long and hard, for I could think of no tracks that begin with the letter P. Then when I got thinking about it ALL my favourite tracks begin with the letter P, and I had great trouble reducing my list to five.
1. Peter Kagan and the Wind (Tommy Makem/Liam Clancy) -- Makem & Clancy in concert
I have a soft spot for "spoken word" pieces at the best of times, and I've always loved tracks that are all about the storytelling. On Peter Kagan and the wind, you get thirteen minutes of superb storytelling as Tommy Makem and Liam Clancy lead you into a world where fishermen marry "seal wives" (i.e selkies, but with some provisos) and the wind talks. A genuinely magical piece of theatre.
This comes in at the number one slot on the "tracks beginning with P" list, just because of the fond memories associated with it: I used to listen to this on my parent's record player when I was very small -- I would make my dad drop the needle close to the start of the track (those olden days before you could just flick to the right spot on the CD) and then I would curl up in a little nest under the table with my eyes closed and let myself get carried away with the story. It was always a rainy day outside in those memories, and I sometimes used to pretend that the rain beating against the window was the sea and that I was out on Kagan's dory. One of the first stories I ever wrote was a rip of this track. Even now, I will occasionally re-read stories I've written and see traces of Kagan and the Wind lurking beneath the narrative.
Sadly this track is pretty hard to find, because it was only ever released on the Makem&Clancy in concert LP. It was a double album and when it got digitized for CD, the track got cut for length (it's almost 13 minutes long). My copy is a digital copy of my Dad's LP and the sound quality is very poor. I dream of the day when I can get my hands on a digitally remastered version of the track, but for a variety of reasons that seems unlikely to ever happen.
2. Perfect Day (with Antony) -- The Raven (Lou Reed) ltd ed 2cd version
I'm also a sucker for concept albums, and I like Edgar Allan Poe and I like Lou Reed. That being said, "The Raven" can be a little trying at times. It's definitely one of those albums I have to be in the right sort of mood for and it's not an album I can stick on as background noise when I'm working. There's some great spoken word pieces, there's some dire spoken word pieces, there's some tracks that are so bad it's almost embarrassing to listen to them, and there's one or two tracks that grab my ears every single time and leave me listening in awe till the sound goes away. Antony's cover of Perfect Day is one of those tracks (the other three are "The Bed" (another odd re-interpretation of a classic Lou Reed track), "Imp of the perverse" and The Cask (dramatic re-workings of two of Poe's stories)).
Antony can sound oddly otherworldy at times and he sounds positively ethereal on this track. In this radical re-interpretation Perfect Day is no longer a triumphant love song, but a somber epitaph to lost love, remembered perfect days and the good times one clings to when everything else is gone. Almost every Lou Reed/Velvet Underground fan I know considers this version a butchered perversity, but it appeals to my inner emo kid.
3. Passenger (Deftones feat. Maynard James Keenan) -- White Pony (Deftones)
I've never quite been able to work out if this song is about two guys having sex in a car, or if it's all about a drug trip, or if it's actually even meant to be about anything at all. To be honest, I've long given up on trying to decipher the meaning behind a good half of Maynard James Keenan's lyrics. As always, the imagery is amazing and I'm prepared to leave it at that. Leaving the lyrical content aside for a moment, this tune is luuuusssh. One of those songs that carries itself up to heaven and takes you along for the ride. I'm not going to say anything more, purely on the grounds that just about everyone I know owns a copy of White Pony, so y'all know what I'm on about anyway.
4. Perfect Crime No.2 (The Decemberists) -- The Crane Wife (The Decemberists)
I'm cheating a little bit on this one because The Decemberists are one of my favourite bands and I wanted a Decemberist's track on here. Which isn't to suggest that Perfect Crime isn't a great track -- there's the usual quirky put-it-together-to-make-a-story lyrics, and a funky bassline which probably won't have you off your seat and dancing, but certainly will have you vigorously swaying in time -- it's just that I prefer the long narrative pieces like the mariner's revenge, the infanta, and the bandit queen. Am I allowed to have a whole album beginning with P? If so I want Picaresque.
5. Professor Dragon (Lonely Karen and the Drifters) -- Grass is Singing (Lonely Drifter Karen)
Okay. Hands in the air. I admit it, Lonely Drifter Karen are my current favourite band, and I'm going to be rabbiting on about them for a while yet. So it kinda went without saying that if there was a track that began with a P on their album I was going to stick it on the list. Thankfully, Professor Dragon is a track I really really dig, it was the song that kept me watching Lonely Drifter Karen rather than buggering off to watch Tori Amos at Dranouter, so it's on this list because I really like it and not just because I wanted a LKD track on the list.
Lonely Drifter Karen are a quirky little band with a mellow sound and a lot of heart. There's traces of cabaret, traces of old musicals. Most of all there are catchy little numbers that sound like songs you knew a long-time ago but somehow forgot when you grew up, and a lead singer who sounds like a cross between Joni Mitchell and Marlene Deitrech. Professor Dragon is a whimsical little song about an inventor who falls in love with a circus clown and builds a flying machine which runs on smoke and soap bubbles. Utterly charming ear candy for your inner child.
Now then, as I understand this meme, if you haven't done this one already you ask for a letter of the alphabet and then you recommend five songs beginning with that letter in your LJ. Flaming easy, innit.
Also
I'm Mrs Dumbledore
So anyway.... as you can tell I have more deadlines and I'm procrastinating. I'm off to do mathematics (unwillingly).