12 posts tagged “pop”
Chick Corea interview on the Return to Forever reunion tour.
Of all the bands who could have recorded and had a hit with the
title song of the musical "Hair", the Cowsills bucked their family
image and went for broke. However, it works. The tongue-in-cheek
lyrics, as sung by the kissing cousins of Beaver and his mom June,
probably did more to make rebellion acceptable to a generation of
pre-adolescents than any other song or TV show before its time.
Too bad the video quality here is so bad, but in a way, it works.
Two elements are at work here. The lyrics and the passion in the melody, of course, but for me, the most interesting part of this song was that piano!
Slightly out of tune with that honky-tonk tone, but played as though all the bar's patrons had left while a breeze through an open window blows out the stench of tobacco smoke and overflowing urinals. This was also the first song I ever picked out on a piano, and mastering that slightly out-of-time harmony was a bear, let me tell you.
"My eyes are not blue, but mine won't leave you." Wow, what a line! So much imagery in those ten short words. The dead blue eyes of a cold, buried wife, the firey-eyed rage that only love can conjure, a bit of contempt for the previous woman for causing such pain in her husband, and finally the continuing love of the living. This is the summit of songwriting, and indeed, this was the only successful song for Jessi Colter.
"In The Year 2525" was the other song that got heavy play on that record player in fifth grade. I guess my little hometown was too poor to afford more than two records among 20 students.
That this song sparks the imagination goes without saying, especially for an eleven year old who devoured L. Frank Baum's Oz books. However, where many heard this song as pessimistic, I found it oddly optimistic and more than a little anti-religion. Reading through the lyrics now, I am not exactly sure why I felt that way, but I am proud that I went against the grain.
Today, l leave you with this bit of lyric:
But through the eternal night
The twinkling of starlight
So very far away
Maybe it's only yesterday
I, however, recognized the opportunity and joined the girls around the record player. As it happened, these were the village girls, as opposed to the extension girls or better known as the middle-class clique. Well, what served for middle-class in Appalachian communities anyway. The point being that from then on, I could always get a date from among the village girls.
Note the lyrics:
Not the most PC in the world, eh? Heheh!Stop the game, you've got too much to lose.
If you stop me again, that's when we might end.
so don't refuse.
The disappointment on her face once she heard the opening screech breaks my heart to this day. I know the pain of having your favorite band go in a direction that you can't stand, much like losing a longtime girl- or boyfriend.
On the other hand, I loved "Crazy Horses". That hard no-nonsense drumbeat and the wailing guitars with that sneering synth screech totally connected with the direction my tastes in music were headed.
Interestingly, listen to the horn section, a close variation of that horn riff will appear a few years later in Alice Cooper's song "Welcome To My Nightmare". Alice also pays direct homage to the Osmonds later on that LP in the song, "Department Of Youth", with the lyric:
The YouTube video linked above is lip-synched, though done very well.We're the department of youth.
We've got the power.
And who gave it to you?
Donny Osmond!
What?!
At first, I passed this novelty record off as fluff, fairly cheeky for a 13-year-old who embraced "Sugar Sugar" as prime musicianship, eh? However, that attitude changed when I overheard my mother and her sister giggling together over the lyrics while pretending faux indignation. So, I gave it another listen and the flashbulb went off in my head, although comprehending the "all around the world" euphemism took another few years.
It almost seems like you're avoiding me.
I'm okay alone, but you got something I need.
Well, I got a brand new pair of roller skates;
You got a brand new key.
and later:
I ride my bike, I roller skate, don't drive no car.
Don't go too fast, but I go pretty far.
For somebody who don't drive,
I been all around the world.
Some people say, I done all right for a girl.
