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Pop Rock Nation

Tag: Tom Jones

  • Mashups, medleys, and songs that just sound alike…

    Last month, I posted about horrible cover songs here on Pop Rock Nation. That post generated some great comments, especially on Facebook, when a poster introduced me to the truly horrible abomination that is Tom Jones’ cover of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire”. I used to think Olivia Newton-John’s cover was the worst, but I think Tom Jones gives her a run for her money. However, despite the atrocity of the musical stylings of Tom Jones doing a classic Johnny Cash song, I have to admit that cover inspired something in me. You see, as I listened to it…

    Tom Jones “Ring of Fire”

    I suddenly realized that it reminded me of another song…

    Lynyrd Skynyrd “Swamp Music”

    Tom Jones and Lynyrd Skynyrd are pretty different musically speaking, but the similar arrangements of these two songs are pretty uncanny. Okay, so they aren’t totally the same, but especially at the beginning, they mesh pretty well. And then it occurred to me that both songs sort of reminded me of a third song…

    George Thorogood & The Destroyers “You Talk Too Much”


    George Thorogood’s brand of bluesy rock is a far cry from Tom Jones’ sexbomb style or Lynyrd Skynyrd’s southern rock. But he seemed to channel them with his song, “You Talk Too Much”.

    Several days later, I got a sudden urge to listen to an old song by country singer, George Strait.

    “The Fireman” George Strait

    And as I was listening to George Strait singing about puttin’ out fires, I was reminded of a song by Van Morrison…

    Van Morrison “When That Evening Sun Goes Down”


    It’s done in the same key and a similar tempo, and again, could probably mashup pretty well with George Strait’s 80s era number.

    I’m always intrigued when someone takes a couple of songs and strings them together into a medley or, even better, turns them into a delightful mashup blend. Back in 1983, when Michael Jackson’s Thriller was all the rage, some brilliant soul decided to mashup his hit song “Billie Jean” with the Steely Dan hit, “Do It Again”. This is what we got from that blend.

    Club House “Do It Again/Billie Jean”

    A few years later, Depeche Mode did it with their cover of “Route 66” and their own song, “Behind The Wheel”.

    The first time I heard this mix, I was a disc jockey at WLCX radio station at Longwood College. And, much to my shame, I have to admit this was probably my first real taste of Depeche Mode. Sure, I had heard their music, but this was the first song I had ever really listened to by them that made me want to listen to more of their music. It turned out this particular mix was a rare find. At the radio station, we only had it on a 45 record, which someone else grabbed before I could score it during a big inventory purge. Thank God for YouTube.

    I love music by Carole King and James Taylor and they’ve worked together a lot.  Back in 2010, they had their magical “Live At The Troubadour” tour.  In that concert, they seamlessly blended their versions of “Up On The Roof”, a song King wrote with her ex-husband, Gerry Goffin back in the early 60s.

    Carole King and James Taylor “Up On The Roof”

    I like both versions, but actually prefer what James did with it compared to Carole’s rendition. Still, it’s awful cool that they were able to string them together so perfectly. On the other hand, I like Carole King’s version of her song, “You’ve Got A Friend”, better than James’ take. I’m surprised they didn’t try to mash them up, too.

    Lots of people are getting into the act. The Wax Audio Channel on YouTube has quite an interesting mashup of “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees and “Another Brick In The Wall” by Pink Floyd, as well as quite a few other blends of excellent songs. Are you ready for a mashup of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana and “The Final Countdown” by Europe? How about “Careless Whisper” by Wham! and “Rebel Yell” by Billy Idol?

    WaxAudio “Stayin’ Alive In The Wall”

     

    “The Final Teen Spirit”

    “Careless Rebel”

     

    Now I’m excited. I might have to hang out on YouTube all day and see what other craziness I can dig up.

  • American Idol Season 10 – And The Winner Is …

    Like I said yesterday in my American Idol recap on Popblerd!, this season is a bit anticlimactic. It’s reminiscent of the Jordin Sparks/Blake Lewis clash. Neither contestant was super interesting or had a great story and they were simply nice kids. That’s how I feel about this year’s finale.

    Based on last night, Lauren clearly out-performed Scotty, but really, it’s not about what happened last night. What’s more important is how much of a fanbase each was able to create throughout the season. I’ve pegged Lauren as this season’s winner from day one based on how I think they can market her. She’s much more in the Kelly Clarkson/Carrie Underwood zone than anyone else they’ve had in the past several years. But Scotty has those girly girls voting for him in droves. And that could prove to be the difference.

    I received this tweet from elliehempleman which made me excited for the show.

    @roheblius you finally got to see @JLo shake her money maker. Worth the wait?

    (She’s on the East Coast so she was able to see the show before I was.)

    Wait, I just saw Aunt Becky (lesser known as Dixon’s and Annie’s mom) in the audience! That woman never ages.

    We’re going to do this a little differently tonight. Here come the bullet points!

    – The top 13 is singing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Are they trying to tell us something?
    – If Pia dressed like this during the season, she would’ve never lost.
    – Haley is wearing some of the hottest hot pants I’ve ever seen.
    – Hey, Karen Rodriguez, thanks for reminding me what you look like.
    – James Durbin is performing with Judas Priest. He’s wearing a captain’s hat and a sleeveless vest, looking like he wants to bring back The Village People.
    – Jacob Lusk and Kurt Franklin are performing together. Gladys Knight just came on stage to sing with them, but without the Pimps. Oprah Winfrey is shaking her head for not thinking of this trio for her final week of shows.
    – Casey and Jack Black are on stage together and they both have new movies coming out this weekend. For Black’s it’s Kung Fu Panda 2 and for Casey, The Hangover 2.
    – The girls of American Idol performed a flurry of Beyonce’s hits and it really made you appreciate Beyonce as both a singer and a performer. Haley has a little funk in her though. Pia, not so much.
    – Beyonce came out and just killed everything. They’ve had some fantastic performers on this show before, but she leaves most in the dust. And who doesn’t enjoy that Beyonce shake? I’ll take two.
    – They rolled out the corpse of Tony Bennett to sing with Haley. Who am I kidding? This dude has more life than I do.
    – In the “5 Years Late” department, Lil’ Jon came out on the stage. And in the “15 Years Late” department, TLC came out. But damn, Chili is still fine. The moral of the story is and always will be, “Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls, y’all.”
    – Tim McGraw came out to sing with Scotty, but really, he just should’ve started bench pressing him. Scotty’s a little light in the ass to be on stage with McGraw.
    – So this is what happens when your wife is the star of the show. Marc Anthony is out singing and I’ll be fine with this if J. Lo comes out and dances for him. If not, it’s a waste of my five minutes.
    – If Marc wasn’t a Grammy winning singer and was just some dude from the hood, wouldn’t he look like someone who kidnaps children?
    – J. Lo is out with him and she is shaking what her momma gave her. I think Beyonce threw down the gauntlet and J. Lo answered the challenge.
    – Sheila E. was banging on some drums too. It’s always great to see Sheila.
    – While the Idol dudes were out performing, my son says, “How does Scotty do it? Did he hypnotize the judges. I just don’t think he’s very good.”
    – Tom Jones came out to sing It’s Not Unusual. If Carlton comes out dancing, I will declare this show the greatest of all time.
    – It didn’t happen, though Jacob tried his hardest to channel his inner Carlton.
    – Hey, it’s Lady Gaga. At least this time, she’s actually on stage, rather than from her own concert like a couple of weeks ago.
    – Lauren started to sing some Carrie (you know, that song about Tony Romo) and you just knew Carrie was coming out to sing with her. Someone needs to feed Carrie a couple sammiches. She still has that terrible case of noassatall.
    – Beyonce is out again singing her new single 1 Plus 1. Let’s just say that this is a smidgen better than Beyonce’s current single about the girls who are running the world. Ok, maybe 100 times better.
    – Finally, we get some Steven Tyler live. Sing it Stevie!

    It’s now time. Who wins season 10 of American Idol?

    And the winner is … Scotty McCreery!

    Well, 10 years of American Idol are in the books. And I’m tired. See you next year.

    Photo of Carrie Underwood is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license

  • New Music Files 11/24/08: Special Monday Edition

    I hope the music industry doesn’t use this week as a model going forward.

    Not only are there albums coming out this Tuesday, like normal, but there’s also a handful of albums coming out today (Monday), and one album that came out yesterday (Sunday)! All of this left me at a loss for when I was going to publish my column this week. Y’all can’t be doin’ that, record industry.

    Anyway, lots of big names this week. Here’s the line-up.

    Guns ‘n Roses Chinese Democracy: You’ve waited fourteen years. You thought it would never see the light of day in your lifetime. Hell, most of us never thought it would see the light of day in ANYONE’s lifetime. However, Axl Rose and his merry band of scabs have finally released Chinese Democracy. One of you guys will have to tell me whether it’s worth the wait. Unless I hear absolutely mind-blowing things, I’ll stick to my copy of Appetite for Destruction…although I must admit that I am intrigued. BTW, this album is only being released at Best Buy stores, bestbuy.com and iTunes.

    (more…)