Have you heard about what Beck is up to these day? It’s super cool. He calls it Record Club: “is an informal meeting of various musicians to record an album in a day“. He brings together a wide variety of artists to record a classic album in its entirety, all in one day. Beck is the coolest. For real.
I love the creativity involved in this project. And the musicians involved! The collaborations are pretty neat. Beck even put together little videos for each of the tracks. Check out a sampling of my favourite offerings from the 3 albums worth of material Beck has released through Record Club.
Beck brought together Devendra Banhart, Ben, Andrew and Will from MGMT, Andrew from Wolfmother and Binki from Little Joy, among others to cover every song from the 1967 album The Songs of Leonard Cohen.
I have long been fascinated by songs that use the phrase “alright”, as in “everything’s gonna be alright”. The common, comforting phrase appears in music over and over again.
Little five year old Jenny, oppressed by her materialistic parents with two TVs and two Cadillacs, with absolutely nothing happening at all, until Jenny turns on that New York radio station and hears that fine fine Rock and Roll music, then It was alright.
Joe Cocker’s comforting vocals, with the piano and female backup vocalists adding to the effect, reassures himself, and the listener, that when someone messes with your heart, it’s more important that ever to be alright.
Boy you sure took me for a ride
And even now I sit and wonder why
That when I think of you I stop myself fron crying
I just can’t waist my time
I must keep tryin
Feeling alright
Today is Blog Action Day! Bloggers all over the world, including myself, are focusing their efforts on the important topic of poverty, to change the conversation for one day.
Living in Vancouver, BC I see a great deal of poverty in my day to day life. Living next to one of the many bridges in the city, I often have to tip toe under the bridge on my way to work, careful not to wake the varied homeless individuals who have been able to find a dry place to sleep for the night. I’ve habitualized the emotionless head shake in response to the many panhandlers that pepper the downtown streets just like everyone else. Though, my heart does ache every time I see the look of desperation and hopelessness in the eyes of an old man on the streets who’s options have clearly dwindled down to very few.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently calculated the living wage in Vancouver to be $16.74 an hour. This living wage is the hourly wage a two income family of four needs to make ends meet. There is consideration for savings or debt repayment in their calculation of this figure. It takes nearly $17 per hour to cover the basics in this city, yet the minimum wage in BC remains at $8 an hour, where it has been since 2001. Reading these figures it’s really not surprising that there are so many people living on the streets.
Lets, at least for one moment, turn our attention from the well dressed sad and happy Wall Streeters who are fretting over billions of dollars, and consider the millions of people who are fretting over hundreds of dollars. Here are 3 great tracks that tackle the issue of poverty each in very different ways.
A heart wrenching telling of one woman’s struggle to make ends meet while working a dead end job and dealing with inescapable problems. Chapman won a Grammy in 1988 for this now classic track that highlights the generational nature of poverty. Impoverished children are born to impoverished parents; a very difficult cycle to break, except in the imagination, where one can drive away in a fast car to escape the weight of poverty.
This uplifting take on poverty sheds light on the individuals behind the faces of the homeless on the streets. Speech, the leader of Arrested Development, tells about getting to know a particular homeless man who offers him wisdom and makes him think differently about ‘civilized society’. Arrested Development’s unique style of hip hop is both fun and playful, despite the fact that they are constantly tackling serious issues. Where are Arrested Development now? Still working their butts off making music and touring the world! Find out more and send them some love over at mySpace!
I had to include the video for Mr. Wendal, because it’s so colourful!
One of The Velvet Underground’s greatest songs that showcases Nico’s unique vocals. All Tomorrow’s Parties asks the question of:
What costume shall the poor girl wear To all tomorrow’s parties A hand-me-down dress from who knows where To all tomorrow’s parties
Highlighting the pressure to keep up with ones peers, wanting to have the great outfit to show off on Saturday nights, while not having the means to purchase such extravagances. The never attainable goal of keeping up with the Jones’ underlines this song. The blind greed that entices people to constantly want more perpetuates and increases the gap between the rich and the poor, creating more want for the rich, and more need for the poor.
My iTunes library has gotten terribly large, and unruly, with too many duplicates, and poorly tagged tracks! An Anonymous commenter alerted me to a mispost of I’m Waiting for the Man. I intended to post the original by The Velvet Underground, but I uploaded a live cover version by David Bowie, which is still a good track, but I’ve got to make this right!
It would be difficult to write about The Velvet Underground without acknowledging their deep roots in drug culture. With one of their best known tracks, Heroin, taking the listener through a turbulent high with the band members. The band has often insisted they, by no means, glorified the use of heroin. To me, it would be difficult to dispute this after listening to their songs, which often allude to desperation, nihilism, and loneliness within the context of drug addiction.
The Velvet Underground were well before their time, laying the ground work for “alternative” music with their unique use of the electric viola, hypnotic rhythms from both guitar and percussion and unapologetic attitude. I’ve posted their classic track I’m Waiting for the Manfor your listening pleasure, a song about the painful wait every addict experiences when waiting for the guy with the stuff. It comes from the 1967 album The Velvet Underground & Nico, that is full of classic tunes from this ground breaking group. You may remember Nico from the depiction of her in the 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors. She was the lovely lady who gave Jim Morrison some special attention in the elevator after Andy Warhol’s party.
For those of us that weren’t around through the 60s and 70s it’s difficult to believe that The Rolling Stones deserve the huge acclaim, fame, and credibility that they have. Sure Start Me Up is a pretty good song, but there’s got to be more, doesn’t there? Yes! The Stones released a wealth of stunning material through their early career, including a handful of classic tracks that will likely never be forgotten. Gimme Shelter is one of these tracks. Released during the Vietnam War, the song embodies both the fear and the rebellious nature of the time. A classic track representing both the tremendous talents of The Rolling Stones, and the turbulent times they were in.
While I’m of the opinion that it’s long past the time that The Stones should be moving on to being producers, where they can share their wealth of experience with the young up and comers from behind the scenes, I’ll admit that their back catalog is well worth sifting through. If you are looking to find some old gems, I suggest checking out December’s Children, Let it Bleed, and Sticky Fingers.
Ziggy Stardust comes from Bowie’s 1972 masterpiece The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, a concept album about the alien rock star Ziggy Stardust, who has come to earth to share his message of peace and love with the Earthlings who quickly worshiped him. The story turns tragic when Ziggy falls to the rock star life style of drugs and excess. A must listen that comes to us from the beginnings of the glam rock era.
