Soundtrack to Life #11

Bruce! Born to Run. But not the album version.

Soundtrack to Life #10

My Mom loved Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side - especially the part "and the colored girls go doot do doot do doot..." - until she really heard the lyrics for the first time.  After that she never mentioned it, but I think she still liked the song.  

Mom also liked Elvis Presley and a lot of cowboy singers from the 50's, her era.   She graduated Cathedral High School in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1956 then married my Dad two years later in an Italian wedding straight out of The Godfather.  (Minus the scene with Sonny and Lucy, I imagine.)  Even though my Grandparents weren't wealthy.  Even though she married someone from far away and not Italian.  Or Irish.  Or even Catholic until he converted.  Which was required to marry Mom.  No, they were very working class.  People did that in those days - big weddings.  

Mom got down to the business of being a wife and a mom and didn't really have a lot of time for music.  She brought the box of singles with her to Oregon.  We giggled at them in the 70's when they became uncool.  She got annoyed with us and put them away again.  They're probably worth a small fortune now.  Wherever they are.

We had odd albums in the house - Dominique by The Singing Nun; the soundtracks to The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins (which launched me into full on Julie Andrews fandom), the original cast recording of Hair, of all things, which came about when I asked for "Hair" from my other Grandma for a birthday present, meaning The Cowsills' hit version which I'd heard on a 45 while visiting my Mom's mom and her little brothers, my Uncles.   Grandma, not being used to buying singles, picked up the album.   Looking back on that, I'm really surprised Mom let me listen to it.   She didn't know that I looked up the word "sodomy" - the title to perhaps the most questionable song.  I looked up everything else quoted in the song as well.  And filed it away for later.

When the Uncles got old enough to road trip by themselves they came out and brought The Beatles, Cream, Santana and Iron Butterfly out with them - on 8 track tapes - and added to the musical soup that we'd brewed up on our own.  Mom liked Neil Diamond by then.  And Cat Stevens (though I was the one who owned the albums) and The Irish Rovers.  The Uncles stayed and added Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Pink Floyd and Seals and Crofts.

My brother and I were old enough to be adding our own collections to the mix - all of the popular 70's artists - and Mom had met and married a guy who brought along George Carlin albums so we learned the seven words you cannot say on television.  They were played openly at our house.

So it came as a small surprise when Mom stuck her head into John's door in protest at Frank Zappa's Catholic Girls, from Joe's Garage, streaming from his teenage bedroom.  Perhaps those lyrics were just a bit too much?  My brother, to his credit, did turn it down.

Happy Mother's Day, Mom!  I miss you.  We turned out okay in spite of everything and I know you're proud of us.  I hope the music never stops where you are now and they play all of your favorites.

Soundtrack to Life #9

The Shins.  I love this song.  Their sound alternates between jangly pop-py cheerful things with high (male) harmonies alternating with beautiful minor key guitar lines tied to quirky poetic lyrics.  My kind of band!  

They're playing tonight at the Crystal Ballroom (2nd night in a row) and I'm too broke to go. 

Tried the Craigslist thing.   Here's my ad from this morning:

"It's late, true, and tonight's the last show and to top it all off I'm completely broke! But I so want to go! Is there anyone out there who would like the company of an engaging, short but cute, blonde Shins fan who could lie to you and say she's 39 (and you'd never know) but believes in honesty and will be glad to reciprocate with coffee, a show or ?? later, when the money's looking better, if the chemistry is right."

And I have to say I've gotten some interesting replies.  (This was posted to "Strictly Platonic", mind you...)

But the show is sold out and only one of the responders actually has tickets in hand. And he's got me completely intimidated coz he puts out such an aura of "I'm too hot for the likes of you" that he just might have to take the "lame co-worker" he referred to in his post advertising his availability.  Unless he manages to find someone bolder than I am.  He might. 

That's okay.  I'm home now and staying put for the night.  

Soundtrack to Life #8

Gawd.  This is what was happening in Vancouver BC while I was leading a fairly sheltered 16 year old life in Eugene Oregon.

The Bowie song I've really had in my head today is Star from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars  ("... just watch me now") but there isn't a decent vid of that to be found anywhere on teh internets right now.  

That and the best video of Jean Genie has the embedding "disabled by request".  This one is an interesting bit of history for sure.

Odd aside #1  Soundtrack to Life Post #8 = legs on a spider.

Odd aside #2  Lynne Rosetto Kasper's Splendid Table on APR just played the riff from R.E.M.'s Bang and Blame!  And now they're playing out that segment with Hollow Man.  Nice!  

I should go see if the episode is online and see what it was all about...

Ah!  It is!

Soundtrack to Life #6

How appropriate! 6 = number of legs on an ant.

This is the only Adam Ant song I really got hooked on. Miz Harmony on the other hand fell hard for Mr. Ant - I think she kissed him - but only Harmony (and the Ant) know for sure...




Still stuck in the 80's. Must be the tv I've been watching lately. BBC America Ashes to Ashes Hmmm...link is to the UK site. New Series coming! Woot! That means we'll see it in about a year and a half over here.

DCI Gene Hunt is quite delectable! Maybe more so coz he reminds me of someone...

Soundtrack to Life #4

Went looking for the Robyn Hitchcock, Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe vid - found it - but this one was even more fun! The Lowe Beats! One of Scott McCaughey's myriad side projects - featuring Jimmy Sangster and John Ramberg. I can't remember why I missed the Portland show.   This was from Seattle (Ballard, really) the Tractor Tavern.

I love the sound of breaking glass.

Really.  

Soundtrack to Life #3

Genesis?  

By accident. Yes. I stopped into Starbux for a coffee while picking up catfood out at Target and wandered into the attached Barnes and Noble looking to see if Audrey Niffenegger's new book is out yet (isn't) and they were playing this. Took me a few bars of the intro to remember what the hell it was.

Ah. The 80's

Maybe this is more like Splotchy's "What Tune Can't I Get Outta My Head" sidebar.

Soundtrack to Life #2 So What?

I meant to write something about the 50th anniversary of the recording session that became Miles Davis' legendary album Kind of Blue on the actual date - March 2 - but it was also the 50th anniversary of the birth of an old friend who I've lost track of but who was on my mind. Found him up on Facebook - which led to entirely new diversions. Ah well...

This is the album that even non-jazz fans are most likely to own. I never had it on vinyl, wore out a cassette and now have it on cd and on my iPod. 

This is my favorite track.

Soundtrack to Life #1

Got Spottiswoode & His Enemies' cd That's What I Like for my birthday a while back.  Been enjoying it immensely - very cinematic toned songs that have insinuated themselves completely into my mind.  Like I'm walking through my own film noir in my dreams.

This version from a house concert and the sound's not great, but you get the idea...