February 2008
46 posts
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“i love songs about horses, railroads, land, judgment day, family, hard times,...”
– johnny cash
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Watch#46: george w. bush - liberian folk dance (2008)
our president must have seen this morning’s post on a tribe called quest, becasue he did some serious dancing this afternoon alongside president ellen johnson-sirleaf of liberia. please note that he doesn’t get off the red-carpeted raised platform while shaking his groove thing. just because bush is getting down doesn’t mean he...
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Watch#44: beastie boys - hold it now, hit it now (1986)
if you ever ask a friend about any band or writer or artist and they say, “well, hmm, i like their early work,” you should probably end the friendship. nostalgic music snobbery is the worst—a hipster version of reactionary republican values.
and yet i don’t much care for the beastie boys’ 21st-century middle-aged...
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“you mentioned kant and I was shocked. you know, where I come from, none of the...”
– sparks, hasta manana monsieur
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Watch#43: sparks - this town ain’t big enough for the both of us (1974)
this has nothing to do with the clash, and it definitely has nothing to do with junior murvin, but on the other hand it’s tuesday (70s day) and no one ever died from listening to too much sparks, the glammy L.A. band founded by mustachoied ron and russell mael.
the lyrics, if you were wondering, are as follows: zoo is...
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Watch#42: junior murvin - police and thieves (1976)
is this the best falsetto in any reggae song ever? the most ironic use of a militjary outfit in a british television performance? better than the clash cover? either way, the girls in their picnic dresses seem to get down.
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Watch#38: nick cave & the bad seeds - into my arms (1997)
nick cave, if you don’t know him, is both the most romantic (hello, into my arms) and least romantic (hello, no pussy blues) artist of all time.
and this is his most romantic opening verse: “i don’t believe in an interventionist god/ but I know, darling, that you do/ but if i did i would kneel down and ask him/ not to...
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Watch#37: the cure - close to me (1985)
happy valentine’s day! nothing says romance like the cure, especially when robert smith is in heavy eyeliner and thick lipstick, playing a comb, trapped in a cupboard that’s falling off a cliff into the ocean, then drowns.
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Watch#30: the who - a quick one while he’s away (1968)
you know what? i’m not crazy about the who. my classic rock station growing up, played that teenage wasteland song way too often, and it really got on my nerves.
still, this song from the rolling stones’ rock and roll circus is a thing of beauty. the who played so much better than the stones during the stones’ own concert...
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Watch#29: the dirty mac - yer blues (1968)
while the rolling stones were filming a bad tv concert movie called rock and roll circus, john lennon decided to call himself winston legthigh, and he started a one-day band with eric clapton on guitar, keith richards on bass, and jimi hendrix bandmate mitch mitchell on drums. (yoko ono was there too, stage left in a black sack).
“john, i want to talk...
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Watch#26: de la soul (produced by prince paul) - me, myself and i (1988)
“…hello, prince paul’s the name, you know, the dj for stetsasonic and the producer of this particular group. and now, off of that and onto the soul… de la, that is!
if you take three glasses of water and put food coloring in them, you have many different colors, but it’s still the same old water....
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Watch#24: tom tom club - genius of love (1981)
maybe this original version and its puppydog/girls-in-prison cartoon music video is better than the later live one? hard to say.
on the bright side, this has the verse: “i’m in heaven/ with the maven of funk mutation/ clinton’s musicians such as bootsy collins/ raise expectations to a new intention,” which was probably left out of...
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“neil turns into a salmon while masturbating in front of the fireplace”
– robert christgau (reviewing neil young’s american stars ‘n’ bars)
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Watch#20: chuck berry - the things that i used to do (1965)
i found an even better introductory speech. it’s godly but it’s sad: “i shall do for you at the moment a little taste of what we call blues. and when i say blues i say it with two lips: bl-u-es. and this is a music that has a feeling, a feeling of hardships, and things that one goes through when he doesn’t have any...
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Watch#19: chuck berry - roll over beethoven (1965)
the constitution of this website dictates that monday have a 60s video, tuesday have 70s, up until the 00s on friday. recently i’ve been straying from that scheme, and for that i’m sorry.
it’s back—although, technically, roll over beethoven was released in 1956. still, this mid-60s chuck berry performance on french television...
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Watch#17: beach boys - sloop john b (1966)
i wanted to find a song co-written by brian wilson and van dyke parks (joanna newsom’s producer), but this isn’t one one of them. instead, it’s from pet sounds, the single prettiest rock & roll album ever made.
watch the beach boys as they engage in beatles-like shenanigans: they push each other into the pool repeatedly and then wrestle...
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