What's the theme? Friday Nite Lite? Or is it Happy Tunes?

Or songs that improve your mood?  When do we want to do this?  Can we make it a Friday?  Our Thursdays are booked, or even a Wednesday?  Pat and I will host. How about Wednesday November 13th or Friday the 15th? I ask a lot of questions.

RIP Lou

Carol and I saw him at the Paramount or maybe the Moore. He was good. It was the Magic & Loss tour, I think. Smaller than I would have thought. I was surprised how many of his songs I knew. I was surprised by his walk. Kind of up in his toes, a little stiff. I always pictured him strutting.

I had New Sensations on cassette. A friend of mine insisted Down At The Arcade was a sign that Lou Reed was a horrible song writer. The more he said that, the more I could not get the song out of my head. I haven't heard it in maybe 20 years but I could sing you the chorus, no problem.

My room mate had VU. Foggy Notion played all the time. I was surprised when Greg chose it as a defining song. I honestly didn't know anyone else had listened to it more than once or twice.

I had the banana album on cassette, too. I liked the mix of sweet and pretty with drone and noisy. Don't know that I ever realized how dark the lyrics were. every once in a while I will sing for no particular reason, "I could sleep for a thousand years."

When MCA died, even though I knew he had cancer, I was reminded that people my age die. I hate that reminder.

With Lou I guess I never really thought of him as having an age. I knew he was old, though I didn't know he was sick. I guess it just never occurred to me that he would die. He was around for as long as I could remember.

So many bands I like would not be the way they are were it not for the Velvet Underground.

He was good in Far Away, So Close, too.

Because he sang, "But she never lost her head/ Even when she was giving head," Bon Jovi felt he could sing, "I walk these streets. a loaded 6-string on my back/ I play for keeps 'cause I might not make it back." That was a not good thing. I realize head and back each have two meanings, but you shouldn't rhyme them with themselves.

I'll miss him. 

Kids today...

So in my Cognitive Psychology class today, we replicated an experiment where we sang a line of a song and then checked to see how close our pitch was (the results of the original study are that a surprising number of people, even non-musicians, have close to "perfect" pitch).  To prep, I asked them to write down their favorite songs and hand them in last Friday.  I made this playlist on Spotify, so that I could easily play the songs in class.  This is, literally, what the kids are listening to!

In honor of our birthday girl Gina Turner

Yacht Rock Quiz time - Match the song with the Artist and no cheating. Song 1 Chevy Van 2 Key Largo 3 Lonely Boy 4 Magic 5 On and On 6 Peg 7 Sailing 8 Show and Tell 9 Steal Away 10 What a Fool Believes 11 What You Won't Do For Love 12 Baby Come Back 13 Africa Artist a) Al Wilson b) Andrew Gold c) Bertie Higgins d) Bobby Caldwell e) Christopher Cross f) Doobie Brothers g) Pilot h) Player i) Robbie Dupree j) Sammy Johns k) Steely Dan l) Stephen Bishop m) Toto

Smells Like H.O.F.

Could be a GREAT class for the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame this year!

When will MC go on a field trip to the ACTUAL Hall?!

http://music.msn.com/music/article.aspx?news=834581#scpshrjmd

Shuffle time!

Yeah, yeah.  Haven't posted for quite awhile so I will start a iPod/Pandora/Spotify/whateverthehell shuffle thread.

The Books -- All You Need is a Wall
CHVRCHES -- The Mother We Share
Viva Voce -- They Never Really Wake Up
Dr. Dog -- We All Belong
Old 97's -- Just Like California
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah -- Over And Over Again (Lost and Found)

Oh, and by the way I forgot to say my question/answer song choice:

Q:  Frank Zappa -- Why Does It Hurt When I Pee?
A:  Kings of Leon -- Sex On Fire

I'll show myself out.

Question/Answer Songs

The "10 at 10:00" theme tickled me on WXPN this morning. It was Question and Answer songs.  Here's the list:

1. Steve Winwood - Why Can't We Live Together?
2. Elliott Smith - Because

3. Van Morrison - Why Must I Always Explain
4.  The Undisputed Truth - Smiling Faces Sometimes

7. Brian Seymour - What's Wrong With Me
6. XTC - Senses Working Overtime

(My favorite)
7.Men At Work - Who Can It Be Now?
8. David Bowie - Scary Monsters

9. [HE WHO MUST NOT BE NAMED] - Why Should I Cry For You
10.  4 Way Street - Several Thousand  (This one I didn't really get)

Can you think of any good ones?  This was mine:

Diana Ross - Do You Know Where You're Going To?
Black Joe Lewis - Come to My Party

Under The Influence

Politi: Marvin Gaye Pat: His parent's record collection Marcy: Swinging Doors show on KEXP Jim: Literature Greg: Southern rock Debbie: Austin City Limit festival

51 Entries #2

#50 – Do You Know What I Mean by Lee Michaels

Favorite karaoke songs:

1. Do You Know What I Mean
2. Never Been To Spain
3. Folsom Prison Blues
4. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
5. Loser

Songs I would like to karaoke but haven’t for whatever reason (unavailability or the below guidelines):

1. Most anything by The Hold Steady but especially Your Little Hoodrat Friend or Cattle and the Creeping Things.
2. Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd
3. Beyond Belief by Elvis Costello
4. Mama Told Me Not To Come (there is something about Three Dog Night and karaoke for me)
5. R.E.M. (wrong range but I would probably still try Don't Go Back to Rockville).
6. Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan
7. Debra by Beck (mainly just to do the line “I said 'Lady, step into my Hyundai'”).

My Karaoke Guidelines:

1. Know the song. Not just the chorus. Know the whole damn song.
2. The shorter the better but four minutes is about the limit.
3. Repetition is not your friend.
4. Keep it in your range. This eliminates about 99% of recorded music for me.
5. Obscurity is not your friend either.

It’s weird that I like karaoke. It is still going to be a rarity for me to get up in front of a bunch of strangers but with friends at Rock Box or something like that I have a blast. The first time I ever did it was sometime in the late 80’s at the Ram in U Village. Kim, Gene and I were roaring drunk and there was a smallish crowd in the bar and everyone absolutely sucked. Kim and I decided we would go up and do I Shot The Sheriff, and as we were heading up to where the mike was he mentioned “Oh, uh, by the way I don’t know anything but the chorus so you’ll have to do the singing.” Fucker. Later I was flirting with some girl and she offered to be my backup singer if I went back up there so had my first solo with Takin’ Care of Business. Shut up, it’s a fun song.

Anyway, even though Do You Know What I Mean flirts with breaking guidelines 3 and 5 it tops my karaoke list. It’s a song that people tend to at least recognize and the repetition gets broken up at least a little bit, plus you have the little “hoo” in the middle of it that makes it if you can hit it right. I’m also happy with it as an entry here because when I told Marcy that it was going to be next she said “That’s one of your top fifty songs?!” I thought about that and realized that this was a song I loved as a kid when it came out, have always been happy to hear, enjoy singing it 40 years later and that’s enough reason for me.  

Music Club field trip

Jason Isbell is playing a show at Neumo's on Sept. 10th. Yes, it's on a lame ass Tuesday but it's also only $17 and his newest album is AMAZING and I'm DYING to hear the songs live. Cone on, I'll get the tix. You say "oh yeah".

I'll cover you

I DID IT!!!!! I have a cover circle!