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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: The Beatles

  • The Sunday Seven: Talkin’ Loud & Saying Nothing

    Hey Mikey. Sorry I deleted your comment. Oops!! (he mentioned “I Can’t Drive 55” by Sammy Hagar as one of the other courtroom videos from the mid-Eighties. See, man? I’m giving you your props.)

    It’s been…hmmm…about two weeks since I last bought a CD, which is fairly major stuff for me. I went record shopping in Cambridge yesterday, though, although I was tempted to break my streak and buy Eddie Murphy’s “So Happy” on CD (which would actually give me the entire Eddie Murphy non-comedy collection on compact disc…yes, I’m lame), I ended up picking up a few records, including Talking Heads’ “Fear of Music” (which only cost $1 and I already own on CD, but the dualdisc won’t burn onto my computer), LaBelle’s “Chameleon”, Spandau Ballet’s “Greatest Hits” (because I misplaced the CD), and this little gem.

    I’ve seen pictures of Mike Sembello performing “Maniac” on TV, and he looks like this burly, heavy-set dude. So why the hell did he decide to come out with what might be the gayest album cover in history? Beats me.

    Anyway, the current tally on the iPod is currently over 17K. Let’s get right down to bidness.

    Track One: “Say You Want it All” by Amel Larrieux

    Those of you not familiar with the name may remember Amel Larrieux as the voice behind the R&B duo Groove Theory, who had a Top 10 hit in 1995 with “Tell Me”. I’m surprised it wasn’t a bigger national hit because they played the shit out of it in New York City. Anyhow, she only made that one album with GT partner Bryce Wilson before going solo. To date, she’s released three pretty good albums of new material in addition to one collection of standards that I really haven’t devoted a lot of time to. This song is pretty standard midtempo neo-soul, with the addition of a peppy horn section, and it comes from her second solo album “Bravebird”. If you cross Sade with Erykah Badu, you’d have a pretty good idea of what Amel sounds like. Good stuff.

    Track 2: “Talkin’ Loud and Sayin’ Nothing” by James Brown

    Can’t go wrong with The Godfather, who was also the master of catchprases. “Say it Loud-I’m Black & I’m Proud”, “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”, that line “I don’t know karate, but I know ka-razy!!” from “The Payback”. We miss you JB. Hmmm…I wonder if we can find that Eddie Murphy “singers” skit on YouTube. Well, I’ll be…

    Track Three: “Better Days” by JOE

    R&B singer Joe Thomas, who until recently used only his first name professionally, has actually been in the news recently. Apparently, he’s been accusing his former labelmate R. Kelly of sabotaging his career by calling radio stations and telling him not to play Joe’s songs for fear that Joe would take some shine away from him. While I wouldn’t put that past Kells, didn’t he give Joe two of his “Loveland” leftovers for one of his albums? Wouldn’t that almost be self-sabotage, then? Regardless, Joe, despite being somewhat inconsistent, overall is a much better listen than Kelly, capable of writing songs that are nuanced and melodic. This is the title track from his somber 2001 album, which took some inspiration from the 9/11 tragedies. It’s a pleasant midtempo song with an uplifting message, and it also starts with a quote from The Five Stairsteps’ “Ooh Child”, adding to the song’s optimistic feel.

    Track 4: “Territorial Pissings” by Nirvana

    And now for a COMPLETE change of pace, let’s go with one of the most frenetic offerings from “Nevermind”. Two things come to mind when playing this song. One is, did Nirvana really kick-start the whole alterna-rock changing of the guard, or did R.E.M. do it six months earlier with “Out of Time”? Second, this song opens with a sarcastically sung snatch (ooh! alliteration) of The Youngbloods’ “Get Together”, making it the second straight song (ooh! alliteration) played that references another song in it.


    Track 5: “Selena” by Wyclef Jean feat. Melissa Jimenez

    True story: Wyclef Jean’s “Carnival 2: Memoirs of an Immigrant” is actually good (much better than you’d expect from ‘Clef after a trio of solo records that went from OK to terrible to OMIGOD this sucks!). Unfortunately, this belated tribute to the Tejano superstar is…oh, about 13 years too late and is one of the weaker songs on the album. I think I’ll be unchecking this. Actually, there’s a pretty neat breakdown in the middle of the song that elevates it to average status. I won’t be unchecking it, but it’s still one of the weaker tracks. Still, check the album out. You might be surprised. Who else can get Paul Simon on a rap record?

    Track 6: “Tell Me What You See” by The Beatles

    This is definitely one of the more incidental songs on the “Help!” soundtrack, although even incidental Beatles songs are pretty good. Some interesting organ playing on this (shades of “Louie Louie”!) and some pretty harmonies too.

    Track 7: “Sulky Guy” by Elvis Costello

    The man who was originally Declan MacManus ranks as my favorite Elvis (hell, if I had that name, I’d change it too), and while I can’t place what album this song may have originally come from (I burned it from a compilation), it sounds late Eighties/early Nineties, right in line with songs like “Handle With Care” by Traveling Wilburys (only slightly messier and garage-y) or “My Brave Face” by Paul McCartney (a song that Costello co-wrote). My two questions of the evening to close this edition of the Sunday Seven out.

    1) How in the name of Jeebus did Elvis Costello snag Diana Krall? That’s almost as bad as Janet Jackson and Jermaine Dupri!

    2) If Lenny Kravitz and Elvis Costello did a duet, would you be able to tell who was singing what??

    …and that’s all folks! Till next week!!

  • Yahoo! Presents The Top 20 Albums of All Time…For Real!

    Yahoo!’s music coverage generally leaves a lot to be desired. Their writers are unnaturally obnoxious (even for music crit-types), and they are in the unfortunate position one of my least favorite music writers as one of their main contributors (and because I have a job to protect, I won’t mention his name in public. Besides, he’s not worth it). However, this list of the Top 20 albums of all time was pretty interesting, and I kind of like the method by which this list was created.

    Of course, everyone and their mother can make a list and call it “The Top 20 Albums of All Time” (hey, anyone been reading my list of the 105 Greatest Singles of the Eighties??), but the list compiled by Robert of the Radish (dude, you couldn’t think of a better name) is certainly one of the most scientific lists of this kind.

    Robert took personal opinion out of the equation completely, instead basing his list on several factors: critical acclaim, actual sales figures, Grammy award love (probably the weakest part of his argument, considering that there have been several bands universally acknowledged as the best at what they do that have never won a Grammy…Led Zeppelin and The Who among them, although it doesn’t look like that affected Led Zep too much), and the most interesting component to my eyes, staying power as judged by the average price and availability of used copies of the CD. I found this interesting mainly because I frequent more than my share of used record stores. I’ve shopped for used music in at least five states, and I can say with some authority that there are certain popular titles that you will see in abundance in just about every used record store in America (he mentions Hootie & The Blowfish’s “Cracked Rear View”. I’ll see him and raise him one Matchbox 20’s “Yourself or Someone Like You”, thank you very much), and some that you never see anywhere (ever seen a Beatles studio non-compilation album in a used record store for less than 8 or 9 bucks, if at all? Don’t think so).

    (more…)

  • Something’s David Cook-in’ on The Billboard Singles Chart


    In years past, immediately after an “American Idol” season was over, there would be a commercial single release of the original songs that the final two contestants performed. Typically, these rocketed to the top of the charts. Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken (besting actual winner Ruben Studdard), Fantasia, Carrie Underwood and Taylor Hicks all scored chart-toppers with their initial releases. The first sign that there had to be some kind of retooling came last year when Jordin Sparks’ initial release, “This is My Now”, broke the string.

    So, what the “Idol” folks have done in conjunction with iTunes is make all the performaces from each show available digitally, but the sales were not reported to Soundscan until the week of the show finale, which results in one amazing fact for eventual “Idol” winner David Cook, and one other sort of stinging reality.

    Cook has 11 songs enter the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart this week, setting a modern-day record for most songs on this chart at one time. The previous record was 8, set by Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus about a year and a half ago. I quote this as being a modern-day record because The Beatles actually placed 14 songs on the singles chart back in ’64.

    At any rate, this becomes a semi-dubious distinction because none of Cook’s songs make it all the way to the top-where Lil’ Wayne holds for a second consecutive week with “Lollipop”. “The Time of My Life” slides in at #3 this week. Impressive? Yes, but not a number one, and considering the massive slide that “event” singles generally have in their second week, expect Cook’s number of charted singles to halve on next week’s chart.

    By contrast, David Archuleta was only able to place three songs on this week’s Hot 100-led by his rendition of John Lennon’s “Imagine” at #36.