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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Sting

  • Let the holidays begin!

    Let the holidays begin!

    Thanksgiving is over! Let the holidays begin!

    Okay, I know… Thanksgiving is part of “the holidays”, but as I was stressing like a madwoman over Thanksgiving, I feel like I can relax a little now. I’m not one to get as wrapped up in Christmas music as some people do, but I will admit to having some favorite albums for this time of year. Last Christmas, I made a huge holiday music mix that had songs by everybody from Sting and James Taylor to Kathleen Battle and Eden’s Bridge. My mix has bluegrass, classical, rock, pop, soul, and everything in between. What can I say? I have very eclectic tastes.


    Bruce Springsteen’s “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” was recorded in 1975, but was pretty popular in the 80s…

    Having come of age in the 80s, a lot of my favorite music comes from that era. Christmas music is no exception. Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band famously covered “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” in December 1975 and then released it as a B side to his 80s era hit, “My Hometown”. It’s now a holiday staple! But as much as I like The Boss, I find my tastes lean more toward the traditional. Must be a feature of getting old.

    In 1987, Sting made a haunting cover of “Gabriel’s Message” for the 1987 compilation, A Very Special Christmas.


    Love this contemplative Christmas song…

    Years later, Sting refurbished “Gabriel’s Message” for his 2010 album, If On A Winter’s Night.


    Updated with strings and horns, this version is also haunting in a different way.

    Last year, I discovered the wonderful holiday offering Joy- An Irish Christmas by Keith and Krystyn Getty. If you like a little Celtic flavor to your holiday music, I recommend it highly! There’s an exciting mix of exciting fast paced music countered by peaceful beautiful songs.


    “Jesus, Joy of the Highest Heaven” sung here by Krystyn Getty.


    A live version of their “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.

    And there are also a number of soulful classics available. “Do You Hear What I Hear” by Gladys Knight and the Pips immediately comes to mind… So does the Jackson 5’s Christmas album, which comes complete with Christmas greetings from the brothers. Given that they were Jehovah’s Witnesses at the time they made the album, that must have been an awkward recording session.


    “Give Love On Christmas Day” by the Jackson 5.

    Or there’s blue-eyed soul by Hall & Oates…


    I must admit, I like this song for the video…

    And “Please Come Home For Christmas” by The Eagles…


    Pat Benatar also does a fine version of this bluesy Christmas staple, but I am partial to Don Henley’s soulful vocals.

    Here’s Pat singing “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”.


    Talk about a classic. This was done in 1988, when I was still a lass.

    My all time favorite Christmas album, though, has to be James Taylor’s A Christmas Album, which he made in 2004 for Hallmark. The album was produced by Dave Grusin, who wrote all the wonderful arrangements of the music. James later re-released the album with two more songs. I didn’t buy the re-released version because I already had all the songs on it.


    “Go Tell It On The Mountain” is one of my favorite JT Christmas songs!

    I’m sure as the month wears on, there will be more posts about Christmas songs… but for now, I think we’ve gotten things off to a festive start! Hope your December has gotten off famously!

  • Happy Halloween!

    Happy Halloween!

    It seems obvious that I’d be wishing you all a happy Halloween today, right?

    Well, I’m sitting here in Germany, where Halloween is starting to catch on but isn’t quite the big day that it is in the United States. The truth is, I almost forgot about it. The funny thing is, last time we lived here, we did actually get some trick or treaters and we were not prepared for them. I kind of doubt we’ll have any tonight, but my husband will bring home some candy just in case.

    Anyway, in the spirit of Halloween, I thought I’d write about some of my favorite spooky songs. This post was actually inspired by a Facebook post by Don Felder, the former guitarist for The Eagles. He asked people for their favorite Halloween songs. Most folks came up with obvious stuff like “Monster Mash” by Bobby “Boris Pickett”…


    And of course, this song was custom made for October 31…

    I tell you what, though. When I think of Halloween, I think of a less obvious song by Alison Krauss and Robert Plant. The song is called “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us”. It’s not really a Halloween song, but I think of it as one because it has such a creepy vibe to it.


    This song was written by Sam Phillips about Sister Rosetta Tharpe, a gospel singer in the 30s and 40s. I’m not sure why this song is so spooky sounding, but it is… and since I bought Raising Sand in October 2007, it reminds me of Halloween.

    Speaking of spooky, the song “Spooky” ranks high up there as a good Halloween number.


    Dusty Springfield sings “Spooky” here. I like her version.

    But since I was around in the late 70s, I am more familiar with the sexy, sultry, southern rendition by Atlanta Rhythm Section.


    Listening to this makes me want to experiment a bit with this song myself.

    I actually think “Spooky” is about someone with a character disorder, but it works for Halloween anyway. Then there’s the ever popular Eagles hit, “Witchy Woman”. Again, it works for Halloween, but it’s probably a song about a woman with a character disorder.


    Cackle!

    Janet Jackson’s “Black Cat” may not be about Halloween per se, but it kind of fits the theme.


    Don’t let one cross your path!

    Probably one of the best Halloween songs I’ve ever heard is “Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)” by Concrete Blonde.


    Here’s a great live version of “Bloodletting” with Johnette Napolitano’s raging vocals.

    Sting has done a few Halloween worthy songs in his career, too. In fact, he seems to have a knack for writing songs that have kind of an eerie vibe to them.


    Sister Moon comes to mind…


    And so does the very creepy song, “Moon Over Bourbon Street”… Here’s a very cool acoustic version!

    And, of course, no Halloween song list is complete without this huge hit from the early 80s…


    Hope you have a “thrilling” night tonight…

    It occurs to me as I look at this list that I’m stuck in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Feel free to leave me suggestions for newer Halloween songs. I hope everyone has a great Halloween and a fabulous weekend. Don’t let the ghosts get you!

  • The Tuesday Night Awesome: Arcadia “The Promise” (1986)

    More side project than supergroup, Arcadia was the band formed by the members of Duran Duran that didn’t run off with Robert Palmer and the Chic rhythm section to briefly become The Power Station. It’s Duran Duran enough, though – enough to warrant inclusion in EMI’s ongoing series of 2-CD/DVD deluxe edition reissues of the Fab 5’s heyday catalogue. Rightly so. Though it only yielded one bona-fide hit in the form of the glammed out synth-funk single “Election Day”, Arcadia’s only album So Red the Rose is a surprisingly enduring collection of slightly over-ambitious pop. The core group of singer Simon LeBon, keyboardist Nick Rhodes, and drummer Roger Taylor were joined on the record by a flock of session players, along with numerous high profile guest stars, most famously Grace Jones doing that psycho monologue in “Election Day”. On the epic (and epically underappreciated) ballad “The Promise”, the trio is joined by none other than jazz-great Herbie Hancock on keyboards and (wh-wh-what?) Sting doing back-up vocals on the chorus. In 1986, the video was striking (in 2010 strikingly cheesy) – a black-and-white interplay of forebodingly grainy stock footage and the band performing on what looks like a regurgitation of the set of their previous video “Is There Something I Should Know?” Yeah, I suppose it jumps the shark a bit when Simon whips out those pan-pipes, but the song stands up, regardless.