Music and what not ...


Whatever happened I apologize
So dry your tears and baby walk outside
It’s the 4th of July

On the stairs I smoke a cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shooting fireworks below
Hey baby! It’s the 4th of July.
We forgot all about the 4th of July
 
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I only like one (maybe two) Drake songs. Hold On We’re Goin Home being one of them. I listened to one minute previews of the first 5 or 6 tracks on Drake’s new release on iTunes and let’s just say it’s definiteky not for me.

BUT

But my son told me that Michael Jackson sings on one of the new Drake songs. My son asked, “Dad, how did he do that, Michael Jackson died”.

I explained that Michael Jackson likely had many recorded vocal tracks that never made the final cut of an album and Drake purchased the rights to one of them that he liked and saw potential in.

You know what, “Don’t Matter To Me” won’t go down as the the greatest song ever but I like it. Quite a bit. It’s melancholy and a bit surreal. The Michael Jackson vocal part is the bridge and the chorus.

Pitchfork reviews it better than I can.


https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/dont-matter-to-me-ft-michael-jackson/
 
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The world's best Chicago cover band is from Russia. Actually I might drop the qualifier and say the world's best cover band. When they started this project they couldn't even get sheet music and recreated the music and arrangements by ear. They have released 2 cover albums under the title "Chicagovich." Fantastic musicians and they rock. I mean, you're not going to download them on your phone and listen all day, or make them our favorite band, but a visit through their videos is a lot of fun.



 
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I only like one (maybe two) Drake songs. Hold On We’re Goin Home being one of them. I listened to one minute previews of the first 5 or 6 tracks on Drake’s new release on iTunes and let’s just say it’s definiteky not for me.

BUT

But my son told me that Michael Jackson sings on one of the new Drake songs. My son asked, “Dad, how did he do that, Michael Jackson died”.

I explained that Michael Jackson likely had many recorded vocal tracks that never made the final cut of an album and Drake purchased the rights to one of them that he liked and saw potential in.

You know what, “Don’t Matter To Me” won’t go down as the the greatest song ever but I like it. Quite a bit. It’s melancholy and a bit surreal. The Michael Jackson vocal part is the bridge and the chorus.

Pitchfork reviews it better than I can.


https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/dont-matter-to-me-ft-michael-jackson/
It's my favorite on the album and now it's removed from his tour set list due to the allegations against Mike.
 
Today I learned Bryan Adams and Ryan Adams are different people. I've been listening to the 1989 Taylor Swift cover album thinking it was the old Canadian guy.
 
The world's best Chicago cover band is from Russia. Actually I might drop the qualifier and say the world's best cover band. When they started this project they couldn't even get sheet music and recreated the music and arrangements by ear. They have released 2 cover albums under the title "Chicagovich." Fantastic musicians and they rock. I mean, you're not going to download them on your phone and listen all day, or make them our favorite band, but a visit through their videos is a lot of fun.



I contend there are only two objectively great Chicago songs. 25 or 6 to 4 and Saturday in the Park. And I’m not at all sure they aren’t the same song at different tempo/syncopation with different lyrics.

Most of their other stuff, I find a bit boring.

Nonetheless, I rate them well ahead of the Eagles. F*** the Eagles.
 
Today I learned Bryan Adams and Ryan Adams are different people. I've been listening to the 1989 Taylor Swift cover album thinking it was the old Canadian guy.
You are joking. This one isn’t funny. I was at the infamous throw out that guy concert.
 

Whatever happened I apologize
So dry your tears and baby walk outside
It’s the 4th of July

On the stairs I smoke a cigarette alone
Mexican kids are shooting fireworks below
Hey baby! It’s the 4th of July.
We forgot all about the 4th of July
I didn’t even know anyone ever covered this one. Give me the original though.

Been a long time REK Jr. Fan. Too damn long, really. You should get into his stuff. I think you’d really dig it.
ETA: he and Lyle Lovett were college roommates. See the second song here.


They also recorded the front porch song together, at least live, a couple of years ago. You can probably find it if inclined. I cut my indie rock teeth on Texas swing and country and the blues. Will always hold the Texas boys and the Mississippi bluesmen in the utmost regard.

ETA2: taking a risk that you know shitall about bluegrass, but if you do, you’ll appreciate (or scorn) the genius of this one.

 
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You are joking. This one isn’t funny. I was at the infamous throw out that guy concert.
But I'm not though.
Bryan was a third-tier level rock star with one hit album that had a few songs on heavy MTV rotation. Ryan apparently came along, and though -- as I've discovered in the last 24 hours -- he has had a much bigger career, in my consciousness he never escaped Bryan's shadow. He came along after I stopped paying close attention to music. New things catch my attention here and there but the vast world of it is just not my culture. I never heard of the concert incident with the drunk guy yelling for Ryan to play Summer of '69, which is pretty funny. A few months ago I heard of the 1989 cover album and honestly thought it was the older dude. The very concept was both bizarre and intriguing: - has been talent from the same era and sort of genre as Springsteen and Mellencamp but levels below both, covers an entire album by a reigning pop queen 30 years his junior. So I downloaded and listened and here's the thing: Ryan and Bryan are not really similar artists but they're close enough that nothing in the album disabused me of this notion. And young Ryan apparently has enough world-weariness in his life to capably resemble a career musician in his late-50s whose glory was brief, long ago, and none too bright in his recordings of those songs. It all made sense. Until I read something where someone joked that Adams made the album hoping that Swift would sleep with him. I thought, "ew," and further thought that though celebrities can live in a world of self-delusion, there's no way Bryan could have ever thought Taylor Swift would sleep with him. And about that, I was maybe right, and eventually I realized it was literally another guy.
 
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I didn’t even know anyone ever covered this one. Give me the original though.

Been a long time REK Jr. Fan. Too damn long, really. You should get into his stuff. I think you’d really dig it.
ETA: he and Lyle Lovett were college roommates. See the second song here.


They also recorded the front porch song together, at least live, a couple of years ago. You can probably find it if inclined. I cut my indie rock teeth on Texas swing and country and the blues. Will always hold the Texas boys and the Mississippi bluesmen in the utmost regard.

ETA2: taking a risk that you know shitall about bluegrass, but if you do, you’ll appreciate (or scorn) the genius of this one.


Dave Alvin wrote 4th of July, and the first recording was by X on "See How We Are" in 1987. Alvin had just left the Blasters and replaced Billy Zoom as X's guitarist.
And here's a great interview with Alvin about it:
https://www.songfacts.com/blog/playingmysong/dave-alvin-4th-of-july

The mid-80's LA axis of X, Los Lobos and the Blasters was Million Dollar Quartet level shit that never broke out really big because radio wouldn't play alternative stuff until the 90's, as Alvin mentions in that article. But you had these 3 bands all mixing punk, rock, blues and both Mexican and American roots music in very different combinations and it was all amazing.

But I enjoyed the REK version and will check out his other stuff. Bluegrass is a bit outside my lane but I'll give that a shot too.
_______
Combining posts here just to say I agree a little Chicago goes a long way. They were fucking brilliant at what they did but they basically did one thing and it all runs together pretty fast.
 
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But I'm not though.
Bryan was a third-tier level rock star with one hit album that had a few songs on heavy MTV rotation. Ryan apparently came along, and though -- as I've discovered in the last 24 hours -- he has had a much bigger career, in my consciousness he never escaped Bryan's shadow. He came along after I stopped paying close attention to music. New things catch my attention here and there but the vast world of it is just not my culture. I never heard of the concert incident with the drunk guy yelling for Ryan to play Summer of '69, which is pretty funny. A few months ago I heard of the 1989 cover album and honestly thought it was the older dude. The very concept was both bizarre and intriguing: - has been talent from the same era and sort of genre as Springsteen and Mellencamp but levels below both, covers an entire album by a reigning pop queen 30 years his junior. So I downloaded and listened and here's the thing: Ryan and Bryan are not really similar artists but they're close enough that nothing in the album disabused me of this notion. And young Ryan apparently has enough world-weariness in his life to capably resemble a career musician in his late-50s whose glory was brief, long ago, and none too bright in his recordings of those songs. It all made sense. Until I read something where someone joked that Adams made the album hoping that Swift would sleep with him. I thought, "ew," and further thought that though celebrities can live in a world of self-delusion, there's no way Bryan could have ever thought Taylor Swift would sleep with him. And about that, I was maybe right, and eventually I realized it was literally another guy.
I don’t get any of this, but I think it’s brilliant.

I was a massive Ryan Adams fan, going back to Whiskeytown. It was peak alt country, in the sense that it was when no one knew the term alt country. Halcyon days of Uncle Tupelo, begetting Son Volt and Wilco, Old 97s, Blue Mountain, Jayhawks, and any number of guys that really grew up on punk in an area where roots music was prevalent, and they combined those sensibilities in a way that intentionally or unintentionally mimicked Gram Parsons or just what they saw while watching The Last Waltz and getting stoned. The list goes on.

Ryan, in his younger days, was a brilliant songwriter, and far closer to Springsteen than Bryan ever dreamed. And you put The Boss alongside the coug? I’m dying over here. Anyway, still, absolutely brilliant prose.

Btw, still count these among the greatest stories anyone has ever told in 2-3 minutes. Shocking that guys were like 18-19 and writing songs that were so mature in narrative and in their treatment of the human condition.

Damn, I really miss Uncle Tupelo. How do you come up with this shit as a teenager? The only answer I have is one is born with a broken heart, just like the songs say.
 
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Naw I was sacrificing some clarity for concision. Ranking definitely goes

Springsteen

Mellencamp




B Adams
Your spacing is off. Flip it and I agree.

ETA: and I bet you didn’t listen to a single one of those songs.

Eta2: the more I think on it, the more I’m not altogether sold that Coug is a level above Bryan Adams, unless we just give coug credit for not being Canadian. And that’s possibly valid. I just need to think more.

It’s just that really, when it comes down to it, Bryan Adams music is more listenable to this day than the Coug. Coug music is actually kind of shit, save what - 2 songs maybe?

Bryan was at least good enough that someone asked him to do a song with Rod Stewart and Sting (who is a massive asshole, but still wrote some good songs). I don’t think Coug would have ever been asked to do similar.

Waking up the Neighbours was such a massive, massive album when I was a kid. Everyone owned it and knew every song. It was a little (only a little) less formulaic than a Coug album.

Shit. I’ve just realized I can’t carry on this conversation without coming clean that I think John Cougar Mellencamp is one of the worst “famous” musicians I’ve ever encountered. I really don’t like him. Rate him below both the Eagles and Steve Miller Band.

Eta3: being below those bands is really bad for me. I know some people consider them classic rock bands. I try to avoid those people. ;)
 
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ive listened to this at least 10 times today so i figured id share it. Oldie but goodie, probably my favorite artist:

Honkey Chateau is one of the best albums ever.

Masterpiece. It’s cliche, but Honkey Cat is a jam.

Two favs from Sir Elton for me (neither on aforementioned album):
Levon and


ETA: one more. And I ain’t telling you nothing you don’t know, but Songs From The West Coast is probably the most underrated Elton album. And to bring it full circle, it was inspired by Ryan Adams second album (Gold).

For the eta
 
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Your spacing is off. Flip it and I agree.

ETA: and I bet you didn’t listen to a single one of those songs.

Eta2: the more I think on it, the more I’m not altogether sold that Coug is a level above Bryan Adams, unless we just give coug credit for not being Canadian. And that’s possibly valid. I just need to think more.

It’s just that really, when it comes down to it, Bryan Adams music is more listenable to this day than the Coug. Coug music is actually kind of shit, save what - 2 songs maybe?

Bryan was at least good enough that someone asked him to do a song with Rod Stewart and Sting (who is a massive asshole, but still wrote some good songs). I don’t think Coug would have ever been asked to do similar.

Waking up the Neighbours was such a massive, massive album when I was a kid. Everyone owned it and knew every song. It was a little (only a little) less formulaic than a Coug album.

Shit. I’ve just realized I can’t carry on this conversation without coming clean that I think John Cougar Mellencamp is one of the worst “famous” musicians I’ve ever encountered. I really don’t like him. Rate him below both the Eagles and Steve Miller Band.

Eta3: being below those bands is really bad for me. I know some people consider them classic rock bands. I try to avoid those people. ;)
Well no I haven't listened to those other 2 songs because I spent yesterday listening to Ryan Adams and Whiskeytown, and REK is just going to have to wait his turn.

I truly don't care enough about either Mellencamp or B Adams to argue their relative merits. I don't even care that much for Springsteen but I give him his due for embodying and arguably perfecting the genre/character. But back when they both were in their prime I gave Cougar credit for going full Mellencamp as soon as he had the juice to do so, and I bought one album (Lonesome Jubilee). I haven't thought about either very much since and until I first heard of the 1989 cover album and mistakenly thought Bryan Adams did it I would have been hard pressed to play Dead or Canadian even though I knew he was Canadian (and yes that gets demerits). And Mellencamp has collaborated (some live some studio) with Carlene Carter, John Fogarty, Me'Shell Ndegeocello, Keith Urban, Bob Dylan, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, Billy Joel and Willie Nelson. But really, Bryan Adams is Canadian.

I never much cared for the Eagles or their spinoffs, and I don't think anyone ever took SMB seriously. Who even knows what a SMB "Deep track" would be? He/they were a mid-level singles machine that occupied a weird space and remained relevant based on ironic detachment.
 
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Your spacing is off. Flip it and I agree.

ETA: and I bet you didn’t listen to a single one of those songs.

Eta2: the more I think on it, the more I’m not altogether sold that Coug is a level above Bryan Adams, unless we just give coug credit for not being Canadian. And that’s possibly valid. I just need to think more.

It’s just that really, when it comes down to it, Bryan Adams music is more listenable to this day than the Coug. Coug music is actually kind of shit, save what - 2 songs maybe?

Bryan was at least good enough that someone asked him to do a song with Rod Stewart and Sting (who is a massive asshole, but still wrote some good songs). I don’t think Coug would have ever been asked to do similar.

Waking up the Neighbours was such a massive, massive album when I was a kid. Everyone owned it and knew every song. It was a little (only a little) less formulaic than a Coug album.

Shit. I’ve just realized I can’t carry on this conversation without coming clean that I think John Cougar Mellencamp is one of the worst “famous” musicians I’ve ever encountered. I really don’t like him. Rate him below both the Eagles and Steve Miller Band.

Eta3: being below those bands is really bad for me. I know some people consider them classic rock bands. I try to avoid those people. ;)

John Camp Cougarmellon deserves to be above Brian Adams for no other reason than many of his songs were about something more than summer hookups and teen romance. Certainly, his lyrics can’t handle the weightier stuff even a fraction as well as someone like Bruce, but I still think it deserves him some points. JCC certainly wasn’t a cross between bubblegum pop and musak in the way of Brian Adams.