Xander ,'Sleeper'
There's a lady plays her fav'rite records/On the jukebox ev'ry day/All day long she plays the same old songs/And she believes the things that they say/She sings along with all the saddest songs/And she believes the stories are real/She lets the music dictate the way that she feels.
Though listening to his earlier tracks like "Ol '55" or even "Heart of Saturday Night" I'm struck by how well he can sing in a fairly conventional voice. Not great, but without the deep phlegmy gargle some dislike.
I suspect the booze and especially the cigaretts helped with this change in style.
Do you have the "Early Songs" collections (that I think TW objected to)? I think one of your categories (not sure exactly which) REQUIRES "(I Guess I'm) Up Shit Creek Again" to be inlcuded.
"(I Guess I'm) Up Shit Creek Again"
Awesome song!
Anyone want to place bets that the entire sequence of calls was a prank from one woman?
Probably. On the bright side, I got to hear both "Little Arrows" and "Sugar, Sugar."
I suspect the booze and especially the cigaretts helped with this change in style.
True. But he quit smoking when he married Kathleen Brennan and cut his drinking back to red wine at that same time (around Swordfishtrombones). Which you can really hear on Frank's Wild Years where he sings a number of songs in his upper register. (He has a great quote about how much he loves falsetto: "I just wet my pants when Prince sings falsetto.")
Do you have the "Early Songs" collections
I don't, but I'll probably be getting all the early catalog this year.
(that I think TW objected to)?
Part of his acrimonious breakup with his old manager Herb Cohen where he lost the rights to a number of his songs.
For Corwood, Roller Maidens From Outer Space.
For anybody interested in vintage comedy albums, incidentally, George Carlin's Laugh.com has licensed a bunch of them.
Oooh, Previously unreleased Phil Hartman comedy record
Who's got a favorite podcast to share?
The Great Leap Forward. It's mostly American and British guitar pop. The bands featured in the podcast are listed so you'll know what's in store.
Roller Maidens From Outer Space
Bizarre!
(Also, I didn't get a CD player until they stopped making LPs for most domestic releases.)
My brother!
I first heard Tom Waits in 1982, I think. Live. Didn't know who the hell he was. He was playing at a benefit. My friend and I both thought he was the worst performer there because of his voice. I don't think I found out who Tom Waits was until 1986 or so in college. But what someone played me was the early stuff and I still didn't like it. It was when I heard SwordFishTrombones and Rain Dogs that I became a convert. His Weill-like circus-y stuff was what led me to listen long enough to get past his instrument and listen to how he was using it.
For anybody interested in vintage comedy albums, incidentally, George Carlin's Laugh.com has licensed a bunch of them.
Damn! No Albert Brooks "Comedy, plus One". My library had this when I was a kid (along with some of the Python, Firesign Theater and Cosby records) and I thought it was hysterical then, but I know it's considered somehow groundbreaking now. The fact that I got Brooks humor as a kid really suprises me, but it's so long since I heard it I don't trust my memories.
The fact that I got Brooks humor as a kid really suprises me, but it's so long since I heard it I don't trust my memories.
I thought Robin Williams' "Reality, Wow, What a Concept," was hilarious when I was a kid. I found out upon listening to it later as an adult that I was laughing because other people was laughing, and he spoke funny, and that I'd only actually understood about three jokes on the album.
That didn't stop me from repeating a lot of the jokes. I wonder how many of my techers or other adults I horrified with my borrowed drug-and-sex humor.