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Pop Rock Nation

Author: Jenny

  • Smoke gets in your eyes…

    Smoke gets in your eyes…

    The fall weather mixed with the smoke from chimneys and fires has me thinking…

    Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. The weather here in Germany was beautiful, except for all the smoke in the air. I’m not sure what’s been going on. I did see some smoke from the trees in the forest near our home. I see my neighbor’s chimney is going already, making the air sort of misty as the smoke mixes with the fog. I’m suddenly reminded of a classic song…


    The Platters sing the classic hit, “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”…

    Lately, I’m finding myself more and more nostalgic for classic hits. “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” is one of those very elegant songs from yesterday. It makes me realize I must be getting old. “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” is one of those timeless songs that still sounds great years later.


    “Smoke From A Distant Fire” by the Sanford Townsend Band was a hit in 1977, when I was a kid.

    It’s interesting to hear Helen Reddy talk about how great this band is and that Kenny Loggins endorsed them. Though I remember their 70s era hit, “Smoke From A Distant Fire”, very well. I’m not sure I remember anything else they did. So much for the prediction that they would end up being huge stars. Their follow up efforts were not as successful, though their one hit truly was a hit. It’s a song about a woman with another man on her man… an old flame, as it were.

    But just because I like music from the past, that doesn’t mean I don’t listen to newer music. Last year, Kacey Musgrave had a hit in the song, “Blowin’ Smoke”.


    Everybody likes a song about blowin’ smoke, right?

    Kacey Musgraves is, of course, singing about people who are full of shit. Her song refers to the expression, “Blowing smoke up one’s ass”… As a woman of a certain age, I can relate to that. I’ve seen it, done it, and experienced it myself many times. Though Musgraves is supposedly a country artist, I think her song has broad appeal. There’s a lot expressed in three minutes of music and it’s relatable to a lot of people, right? I may need to familiarize myself more with her music. In fact, I will confess that I just downloaded her debut album, Same Trailer Different Park.

    And then there are songs about smoking weed. I could probably devote a whole blog post to that subject, but for now, I’ll just highlight an old song by Brewer & Shipley…


    “One Toke Over The Line” is a notorious song about lighting up…

    But… as awesome as their version is, Lawrence Welk’s version is even better.


    I just love how these singers get introduced… and Welk later says it’s a “modern spiritual”.

    I can’t watch this video enough times. It never gets old.

    I would have posted this yesterday, but I was busy enjoying Veteran’s Day with my husband, who is himself a veteran. Hope everyone enjoyed Veteran’s Day too!

  • Another day, another Van Morrison album…

    Another day, another Van Morrison album…

    I’ve been on another musician kick. This week, it’s Van Morrison.

    I’m not sure what got into me the other day. I was listening to a Van Morrison album and one thing led to another. Next thing I knew, I was ordering two more of his albums from Amazon.com. This is no easy feat, since Van Morrison has been pretty prolific over the years and some of his best albums are not available as MP3s. I made a concerted effort not to bring CDs to Germany with me, but sure enough, I ordered a few of Van Morrison’s. A couple of them arrived this week and I’ve spent a couple of evenings this week listening to them. Then I found myself making a Van Morrison playlist. I wondered how, growing up in the 70s and 80s, I only knew him for songs like “Moondance” and “Brown Eyed Girl”.


    Van Morrison singing “Moondance” live back in 1996.


    Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl”.

    I mean, the man has been making music for decades and putting out albums by the dozen. But my interests in his music have come in slow waves. The first one was back in the 90s, when I bought several CDs. I think it was because I heard his song, “Tupelo Honey” on a made for TV movie and thought it was lovely and moving. I bought the album it came from, along with a few others.


    “Tupelo Honey” is such a beautiful love song…

    As I listened to the albums I bought, I was introduced to some more of his pretty ballads, as well as some of the more upbeat numbers like “Wild Night”. At the time, John Mellencamp and Me’Shell Mdegeocello had a duet cover out and I had also heard a funky version on the soundtrack to Thelma & Louise. Neither of these covers held up to Van Morrison’s version.


    Yes, it sounds retro, but in a very cool way.

    In the mid 90s, when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia, an Irish friend sent me a mix tape. He included a couple of Van Morrison songs on it, including this one…


    Such a pretty and peaceful song… It always takes me to a peaceful place, “In The Garden” of my mind, which is always fertile with ideas and ripe with inspiration.

    I got over my Van Morrison obsession for awhile, then was reintroduced to it when I was planning my wedding in 2002. I wanted to incorporate hymns in the service and found Van Morrison’s version of “Be Thou My Vision” on his album, Hymns To The Silence.


    Van Morrison’s “Be Thou My Vision”.

    I really got into the rest of the album, which had some very interesting songs on it. I particularly liked the ones that featured organ, since I have an uncle who plays a Hammond like nobody’s business.

    Then for my 33rd birthday in 2005, my husband, Bill, surprised me with a copy of Magic Time, which I ended up loving. In fact, as awesome as many of Van Morrison’s albums truly are, Magic Time is probably one of my all time favorites. I love it as much for the music as I do the memories it inspires.


    I love Van Morrison’s version of “Stranded”… so romantic and inspiring.

    Time went on and I started finding myself introduced to Van Morrison’s older and more obscure albums, as well as the ones that are considered classics but aren’t as easy to find nowadays.


    Van Morrison sings “Beautiful Vision” on German TV in 1984.

    This week, I’ve been getting to know his 1972 album, Saint Dominic’s Preview, and his 1997 album, The Healing Game. I mentioned on Facebook that I had picked up these albums and a friend of mine– I’ve never met her offline, but have known her for years online– expressed admiration and appreciation. We are the same age and have some similar tastes in music. She has more Van Morrison albums than I do, though at 28 and counting, I am catching up to her fast.


    Van Morrison sings “The Healing Game” live in 1999.

    Van Morrison is not above doing the occasional children’s song, either. I love what he did with “Bein’ Green”.


    Van Morrison’s 1973 take on “Bein’ Green”, from his album Hard Nose The Highway. How can you not smile listening to this?

    I should be getting more Van Morrison soon… and the obsession will continue apace. Happy Friday, everyone. Hope your weekend is full of high quality music from someone like Van Morrison.

  • YouTube talents…

    YouTube talents…

    November is upon us and I feel the need to focus on YouTube talents today…

    One of my favorite ways to kill time is to troll YouTube for cool videos. Sometimes, I like to see if I can find old songs I thought I had long forgotten. Sometimes I get curious about a certain user’s videos and start looking though their catalog. That’s how I found my old friend, Weird Wilbur, whom I have written about several times on Pop Rock Nation. Wilbur’s songs are funny and profane and probably offend people as much as they make some folks laugh.


    “Fuck You Texas” is probably Weird Wilbur’s biggest “hit”.

    But I have also found some other talented folks on YouTube who aren’t as inflammatory as Wilbur can be. One such user is my friend George, who goes by the name “shargram” on YouTube. I first encountered George when I was looking for a video of the song, “Mary Skeffington”. I knew it as an Olivia Newton-John number, but it was also a Gerry Rafferty song. And George covered it himself and posted the video on YouTube.


    I commented on George’s video and he answered back. Now he watches my videos.

    From George’s page, I ran into a few other YouTube talents. Here’s a video by my YouTube friend, Dave, whose YouTube handle is “A297MAN104”. Dave writes and performs a lot of his own songs.


    “To A Better Place” is a song by Dave, but is sung by Steve Jackson in this video.

    Sometimes I run into YouTube talents after they leave me a comment on my own page. Here’s a video by Jonas Sköld, a guy who plays a mean guitar and sings.


    Here Jonas sings his version of “The Lucky One”, a song originally made famous by Alison Krauss and Union Station.

    I found Frets Nirvana on one of George’s videos and was impressed by his guitar playing. He’s quite the YouTube talent!


    Here’s an original composition called “Jack Rabbit”, dedicated to a recently deceased rabbit named Jack.

    I found Ken Turetzky on a Red Peters compilation album that I reviewed on Epinions.com. He sought me out and sent me more music. We have since become friends and I do enjoy his YouTube videos…


    Here’s Ken performing his ever popular hit, “My Fat Ass Itches”. There are days when I really relate to this song too well.

    Here’s a video by my friend, Tim, whom I originally met on a message board for exMormons. He and his wife, Lisa, happen to be talented animators and Tim also plays a mean electric guitar.


    A Halloween cartoon.


    Here you can see Tim jam with his electric guitar as he sings his praises to G.I. Joe…

    I myself have made some videos. I like to find songs that aren’t particularly well known and put my own spin on them. Unfortunately, I have to use pre-recorded versions of music because I don’t have any talented guitar or piano players as friends who live close to me. I often wish I had stuck with the piano lessons my mom arranged for me when I was a small child. I also don’t do well on camera, so my videos are all photos from my travels.


    Yours truly singing “Angel From Montgomery”, one of my more successful covers.

    I mostly make YouTube videos for fun and because I like to experiment with music. It’s not something I do for money, nor do I have any delusions that I’ll ever be famous. It’s just a creative outlet, much like writing. I probably shouldn’t share my videos, but every once in awhile, they lead to meeting someone cool and talented on YouTube. Of course I like it for the more established artists, too. But every once in awhile, I like to give a shoutout to people who are just hiding in YouTube’s depths, waiting to be discovered.