Friday, November 5, 2010: James - Laid

When we were young, we danced like this, and sang about getting laid.

Welcome to the weekend.

Here's to those going out and dancing like this again. Or even for the first time.

Enjoy.

Thursday, November 4, 2010: Son House - Death Letter Blues

No band. No fancy sets. No thousand dollar pieces of equipment. No hype. No cross-platform utilization of social media to create a heightened expectation, marketed for a contemporary, progressive youth audience for the sake of profit disguised as pop culture.

Just a guy and a guitar. And three chords. And life laid bare.

God, I love the blues.

Enjoy.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010: The National - Terrible Love (Alternate Version)

The morning after.

I'm writing this some distance from election night (in America), so I can't tell you who the winners and losers are, who's gloating, who's licking their wounds and who's flat knocked out

My advice. Turn on Fox, CNN, C-Span or your news channel of choice, turn down the volume and turn up this wonderful song by Brooklyn, NY based band The National as the soundtrack for your day.

You'll feel a whole lot better. About everything.

Enjoy.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010: Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth

November 2nd. Election Day in America.

No TWOfer today, no need to turn this day into a gimmick.

For weeks I've turned this election day song over and over again in my head, so many choices.

But I just kept coming back to this, in my opinion one of the most powerful songs written in the 20th century.

And as relevant today as it was when it was written.

For whatever country you are in, for these are strange, powerful times we live in now

And paranoia is striking deeper than ever.

Let's take this day to stop, children, what's that sound? Everyone look what's going down.

And, just maybe, if you can, go into the voting booth and do something about it.

Because, truth is, if you don't vote, you abdicate your right to complain.

For what it's worth.

Monday, November 1, 2010: Van Morrison - St. Dominic's Preview

The day after Halloween is, of course, the reason why Halloween exists at all.

November 1st is All Saint's Day.

A historic Christian holiday that commemorates all saints, known and unknown, throughout the history of The Church. It is a national holiday in many historically Catholic countries. In the Roman Catholic Church tomorrow, November 2nd, is All Souls' Day, commemorating the departed faithful who have not yet been purified and reached heaven.

And, yes, I was actually thinking about making Never Ever by All Saints the CSOTD for today.

For even contemplating that horrible transgression, I'll beg forgiveness, say the requisite number of Hail Mary's and Our Fathers, and make penance with a historically cool number from the historically cool Van Morrison.

Keep on keeping on, y'all

Sunday, October 31, 2010: Michael Jackson - Thriller

Halloween. All Hallow's Eve. The time where all your nightmares come to call.

I have a lot of different thoughts about Halloween, many of them related to my own personal faith and religious beliefs.

But on Halloween, for me, there is one dominate thought that supersedes any other:

If I hear Monster Mash one more frickin' time, I'm going to strangle someone.

There are many ways to go when blogging about songs for Halloween.

This is Halloween from The Nightmare Before Christmas is the straight-out-of-the-gate winner for the obvious choice.  It's an extraordinary, bewitching song, a tour-de-force as a work of art, but unfortunately is a bit lazy for a Halloween blog.

A more historical approach might favour I Put A Spell On You by Screaming Jay Hawkins.  A great choice, but I just couldn't bring myself to look past it's novelty value to fully grant it CSOTD status.

The knowingly hip might chose something along the lines of Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon, which always brings a smile to my face ("and his hair was PERfect").  However, on a personal note, WOL provides the soundtrack to one of my absolute favourite scenes in any movie, and I'm pretty sure I want to save this until I do another Movie Week.

Then there is the full on creep-your-audience-out mode, where something like Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield would fit the bill nicely.  But Mike Oldfield is such a renown musician, and the original Tubular Bells is such an achievement, that it just feels wrong to keep perpetuating the notion that a couple of minutes from a horror movie soundtrack will be this guy's only legacy.

This could go on all night, of course.

As you can see, my Halloween choice was finally narrowed down to Thriller by Michael Jackson.

The best choice, actually.

It combines everything; horror, drama, comedy, music and dance, about some of the funkiest grooves ever laid down, movie quality special effects, a truly disturbing Vincent Price voice over which will haunt your dreams for days and, of course, the late, great Michael Jackson.

The classic MJ.  Probably Beat It is a shade more iconic that this, but only by a hairs-breadth.

It's all there, the inhumanly flexible dance moves, the high pitched yelps, the pre-disfiguration nose.

Will there ever be a performer as multi-talented, as momentous, as memorable, beguiling and as frustrating as Michael Jackson?

I guess we'll need see if we all survive this night before we muse on that.................

Have a great day, and a goulish evening.

See you on the other side

Saturday, October 30, 2010: The Specials - Ghost Town

I usually don't blog on a Sunday, but since tomorrow is such a special day, then I think I just might make a rare exception.

Let's set the stage today, however, with some top notch creepy, atmospheric mood music, with eerily frightful background vocals, some of the coolest horns ever, and a song which could have been written yesterday.

Do you remember the good old days before the ghost town?

It's Saturday. It's Halloween Weekend. It's The Specials.

Enjoy