Unto Ashes: Don‘t Fear the Reaper
[purchase]
It may be hard to believe, but there was a time when I was not a part of Star Maker Machine. Advice week happened two weeks before my first post, so I never had the chance to share this one.
I had heard of Goth music. The goths were the ones with the dark make-up rings around their eyes, who hung out in poorly lit clubs. They shopped at Hot Topic, wore mostly black, and were obsessively morbid. I always assumed that the music was loud and dirgy, a sort of very slow metal with glam touches. But, one holiday season, my wife found herself in Hot Topic with my niece’s Christmas list. The music playing intrigued her enough to bring home a CD of music from the Projekt label, and this version of Don’t Fear the Reaper was on it. I discovered that there is a softer side to goth music, and that I like it. Here, Reaper is reimagined as a folk ballad, with beautiful vocal harmonies on top of a solo acoustic guitar. Some other instruments come in late in the song, but that’s mostly it. Elsewhere, Unto Ashes brings medieval and Renaissance classical influences into their music, and it’s a fascinating mix.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Leftovers (Advice): Don’t Fear the Reaper
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Advice: Outfit
Drive-By Truckers: Outfit
[purchase]
One of the best advice songs ever is Outfit by The Drive-By Truckers. I'll default to the songs author, Jason Isbell, to tell you the meaning:
Jason: "This one focuses on the advice I got growing up, mostly from my father. We recorded the song just before Father's Day and I gave Dad a copy as a present. I'm really fond of Cooley's psycho solo and Patterson's guitar harmonies toward the end."
This song was one of the standout tracks on their 2003 New West Records debut, Decoration Day and personally, I don't think any advise theme is complete without this one in it.
Submitted by Autopsy IV
Advice: Be Yourself
Graham Nash: Be Yourself
[purchase]
From Nash's first solo album Songs For Beginners. The song was co-written by Terry Reid. The advice is in the chorus which sounds a little cheesy listening to some thirty years later but cheesy in a good way. The album is pretty mellow and introspective but also very good in my opinion. I believe Nash's manager heard the songs he was working on at the time and asked him if he was trying to put people to sleep which Nash took offense to. One of the tracks is actually called Sleep Song. He would later ad a few more uptempo tracks most notably the song Chicago which helped put the album in the top 20 on the charts at the time.
Reader submission from John
Advice: Read Between The Lines and Come From The Heart
If I was going to leave behind a mixed tape of advice songs for my kids, these would be the first two songs. Both are chock full of great advice:
Steve Goodman: Between The Lines [purchase]
The day you’re born they sign a piece of paper
That will certify the date of your birth
And the day you die they sign another
Just to prove you’ve gone back to the Earth
Between those two pieces of paper
There is the truth that is so hard to find
The story of your life is written
But you must read in between the lines
When you're young you think it don’t matter
If you leap before you look
But those old folks are wiser and sadder
From the chances that they took
Now when your chance comes along you must take it
Just be careful and take your time
And the chances are good you will make
If you can read in between the lines…
When someone tells you they “love you”
And “no one has ever loved you more”
It is wise to stop and consider
How many times they might have said that before
Because when love leaves you crying
Then you will surely lose your mind
And you might have known love was lying
If you could read in between the lines
Guy Clark: Come From The Heart [purchase]
When I was a young man my daddy told me
A lesson he learned, it was a long time ago
If you want to have someone to hold onto
You're gonna have to learn to let go
You got to sing like you don't need the money
Love like you'll never get hurt
You got to dance like nobody's watchin'
It's gotta come from the heart if you want it to work
Now here is the one thing that I keep forgetting
When everything is falling apart
In life as in love, what I need to remember
There's such a thing as trying too hard
Advice: Stop Your Sobbing!!!
The Kinks: Stop Your Sobbing [purchase]
The Pretenders: Stop Your Sobbing [purchase]
If there’s on thing you gotta do, to make me still want you ...
gotta stop sobbing now.
What a great pop tune! I love The Kinks. The Pretenders’ version is pretty cool too.
And it is very solid advice.
Friday, June 13, 2008
Advice: Scorn Not His Simplicity
Sinead O'Connor: Scorn Not His Simplicity
[purchase]
Universal Mother is the last Sinead O'Connor record that I liked at all, and I didn't even like it all that much. It is a bit of a spotty album containing, on the one hand, a couple of the best songs she has ever written (e.g., John I Love You) and on the other some real throw-away tracks (e.g., Fire In Babylon, Red Football).
Advice: You Can Get It If You Really Want
Desmond Dekker: You Can Get It If You Really Want
[purchase]
Continuing from yesterday's Specials advice, here's a little pep talk from Desmond Dekker, one of the true classic reggae artists.
Advice: When You Got A Good Friend
Robert Johnson: When You Got A Good Friend
[purchase]
A King gives advice that everyone should heed:
"When you got a good friend have them stay right by your side..."
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Advice: Kingston Advice
The Clash: Kingston Advice
[purchase]
I know I already posted a track from Sandinista, but c'mon, it's a triple album for goodness sake. This is a pretty depressing track. The best advice that The Clash have to offer, given the state of the world, is "don't beg for your life".
In these days you can get no rice
No razor blades but you can get knife
In these days see the people run
They have no food but the boy have gun
In these days they don't throw the stone
Nor use the voice they use the gun alone
In these days to be an oddity
Be hunted down like a scarcity
In these days don't beg for life
Wanna take Kingston advice?
Oh please don't beg for your life
Advice: Don't Look Back
The Temptations: Don't Look Back
[purchase]
"And don't look back — something might be gaining on you."
- Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige
Advice: Choose Life
PF Project feat. Ewan McGregor: Choose Life
[purchase]
"Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose a three-piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself.
Choose your future.
Choose life."
Update: By some strange twist of fate, I am unable to get the song to work, so just lyrics it is after all! If anyone has a copy of the song that they would be prepared to share, and that we might have more luck with, please let me know...thanks!
Update 2: We're back on, thanks to some help from fellow SMM contributer Matt...cheers m'dear!
.
Advice: Before You Accuse Me
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Before You Accuse Me
[purchase]
I read an article once about the early years of CCR, but I can't find it anymore. It was sort of a sad story, as I remember it, because the original band was fronted by John Fogerty's older brother Tom. Tom was the one who originally wanted to be a rock star. He was the one who practiced day and night learning the guitar. He wrote the music. He managed the band. He had the dream. I don't remember the details, but at some point John started writing songs and occasionally singing. Things came much more naturally and easily to John. His vastly superior talent slowly but surely overshadowed that of his brother, causing a rift between the two and resulting in Tom taking a (distant) background position in the band. Of course, Tom left CCR in 1971 effectively destroying the band.
Maybe I'm too sentimental, but I really feel sorry for old Tom.
I wish I could find my source material for this story. I hope I didn't misrepresent any of it. If so, feel free to correct me.
The featured track gives very good advice: Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself. This track was ripped from vinyl to MP3, so the quality may be less than perfect. I should probably replace all of my old CCR records with CD's, but I have never really had a need to.
Advice: The 'setting feminism back 100s of years' edition!
Annie Lennox: Keep Young and Beautiful
[purchase]
Tammy Wynette: Stand By Your Man
[purchase]
The Exciters: Tell Him
[purchase]
The one below is less guilty, but still worth including in any advice songs list!
Betty Everett: It's In His Kiss
[purchase]
Advice: House of the Rising Sun
The Animals: House of the Rising Sun [purchase]
And here are a few versions from the gals:
The Be Good Tanyas: House of the Rising Sun [purchase]
Tracy Chapman: House of the Rising Sun [purchase]
Nina Simone: House of the Rising Sun [purchase]
Variously a song about a life gone to ruin through gambling or prostitution, this is one that has been covered by all and sundry.
"There is a house in New Orleans
They call the Rising Sun
And it's been the ruin of many a poor boy
And God I know I'm one...
Oh mother tell your children
Not to do what I have done
Spend your lives in sin and misery
In the House of the Rising Sun."
Advice: Don't Mess With Bill
The Marvelettes: Don't Mess With Bill
[purchase]
It's fine to not mess with Bill, but especially don't mess with Motown bass player James Jamerson's unreal bass line. If you're not careful, it'll crawl into your head and cause an earworm.
Advice: A Message to You Rudy
Update: Fellow contributor Divinyl has hooked us up with the original 1967 version of this song, by Dandy Livingston. [purchase]
The Specials: A Message to You Rudy
[purchase] Stop your messing around
Better think of your future
Time you straighten right out
Creating problems in town
Dandy Livingston: Rudy, A Message to You
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Advice: Respect Yourself / Keep Your Eyes On The Prize
The Staple Singers: Respect Yourself
[purchase]
This advice song, written by James Ingram and Mark Rice over at Stax records in the chaotic aftermath of the civil rights movement, was intended to serve as a message of empowerment for the black community. As a sign of its success and its relevance, it peaked at number 12 on the Billboard Top 100 when it was first released by the Staple Singers in 1971.
This would be even more impressive, were it not for the fact that, sixteen years later, long after most folks would like to believe that the days of white singers stealing the songs of the black community for even bigger mass appeal and profit were long gone, Bruce Willis managed to get the same damn song to number five on the same damn chart.
I may be a cover blogger at home, but even I know how to follow good advice, folks; I've heard Bruce Willis sing, and let me tell you, even with June Pointer on backup vocals, he's no Pops Staples. Instead, you'll have to be satisfied with the original, plus this bonus advice song, a gut-wrenching blues take on a traditional civil rights anthem from Mavis Staples' absolutely stunning We'll Never Turn Back, released just last year -- that's sixteen years again after Bruce Willis mangled her family band's earlier work -- and therefore doubly poignant in this context.
Mavis Staples: Keep Your Eyes On The Prize [purchase]
You tell 'em, Mavis.
Advice: Love The One You're With
Stephen Stills: Love The One You're With
[purchase]
I've been waiting for this one to show up all week, but I've waited long enough. Love The One You're With is the first song on Stephen Stills's first brilliant album. The liner notes on this album read like a dream team of 60's musicians and performers. Ringo Starr, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Cass Elliot, Booker T. Jones, David Crosby, Graham Nash, and John Sabastian all make cameo appearances here. In fact, this is the only album in the world where both Hendrix and Claption make an appearance.
If this album has a flaw it is that it stretches so far and is so ambitious that it loses a bit of its cohesiveness, but you tend to forgive this tendency simply because each song, taken on its own, is so good. Love The One You're With is actually one of the weaker tracks, in my opinion. It's catchy, and kind of fun, but Do For The Others, Old Times Good Times, Go Back Home, and others overshadow it easily.
By the way, "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with" is actually terrible advice. I know it's very un-60's of me to say this, and it would probably make for a lousy song, but if you can't be with the one you love, wait a while until (s)he comes back! You'll save yourself a lot of heartache (and if you're married, you might save on lawyer's bills too).
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Advice: The Cross
Prince: The Cross
[purchase]
I don't know Prince's music all that well. I don't even own Purple Rain. But I love the Sign O' The Times album. It's an amazing double-album mix of funk, rock, folk, and other styles of music. The performances are passionate, and the production is sparse (for the most part). From Wikipedia:
In 1989, Time Out Magazine ranked it as the greatest album of all time. It was 16th in the New Musical Express list All Time Top 100 Albums and 3rd in Hot Press Magazine's list The 100 Best Albums of All Time. Rolling Stone ranked it number #93 on their list of greatest albums of all time. The album placed 8th on Nieuwe Revu's Top 100 Albums of All Time. Time Magazine placed Sign O' The Times as the greatest album of '80s, and 29th greatest album of all time.
So, apparently I'm not alone. The featured track is an overt song of lament for an evil world, praise for the coming Lord, and ultimately admonition to us to find Jesus. Prince's advice to us: "Don't die without knowing The Cross".
If you decide to give this track a spin, be sure to listen to the whole thing because the second half is really where it gets good. The Doors-esq lead electric guitar and the intense, almost frenzied, vocals really push it over the edge.
