Saturday , January 9, 2010
Heavy Rotation: Madonna, Twilight Singers, Ringo Starr, Dr. Hook, Paul McCartney, The Zombies
Madonna, "Angel"
One of the biggest mysteries of 2009 for me was why Madonna put "Dress You Up" on her Celebration greatest hits double-CD set. Yes, "Dress You Up" is a perfectly fun song, but everyone knows that it's really "Angel" that is the greatest unheralded Madonnski track ever. It manages the feat of being joyous and bouncy, but it's got a strange bit of ethereal melancholy in it that I can't quite pinpoint. Maybe it's because Madonna knows that love is a devil sometimes, and the song is really just unanswered wish fulfillment for a dude that's innocent and uncomplicated. "Angel" is really a minor yet brilliant piece of pop candy, and if 2010 is all "NO JUSTICE NO PEACE," then the least I can do is start an unofficial campaign to give the song the recognition it deserves within the Madonna canon. First stop: Heavy Rotation, and here it is. (Kat)
The Twilight Singers (feat. Mark Lanegan), "Live With Me"
On my way home on New Year's, I put my headphones on and hit random on my music player. (I call it my "music player" because it is not an "iPod.") This is what came up, and it's the first song I listened to in 2010. What a hella dramatic-yet-sexy way to begin a new decade! What does this mean? It is not a bad thing at all to have Mark Lanegan's voice purring in your ear in the first hours of the new year, but what deep, dark portent does this hold for me? (Kat)
Ringo Starr, "I'm the Greatest"
Last Saturday morning I was a in real shit mood, all skulky from my annual post-new-year's depression and wishing I could just sleep the whole damn decade away. But Sunday morning: that was somethin' else. I woke up and the radio played "I'm the Greatest," which has the lyric "Now I'm only 32/ And all I wanna do, is boogaloo!" This is lucky, because I'm 32. So I went and bought a Cuban roll, and then I walked home and listened to "I'm the Greatest" and did a special dance, called "The Cuban Roll." Then I imagined I was Little Orphan Annie and pretend-sang "Yesterday was plain awful!", to which Daddy Ringo Warbucks pretend-replied "You can say that again!" Then I ate my Cuban roll. Then I went to the beach.
It should be noted that I discovered "I'm the Greatest" via my sweet angel Breakfast With The Beatles (aka the other "greatest show on earth," after Ringo). Dear Breakfast With The Beatles, I love you so and would beg you to have me on as a guest if I weren't terrified of being on the radio. Next to post-paper-route pancake pigouts and church, you are the best thing that could ever happen to Sunday morning. (Liz)
Dr. Hook, "The Cover of the Rolling Stone"
If you could be 1,000 percent your actual self, unencumbered by time, space, nature, and other similarly cumbersome forces, who would you be? This is a question I asked the sky some morning last week, after purchasing a seafoam-green shortsleeve polyester mini-dress with flowers on the collar, and the answer arrived real quick-like: I'd be Jason Lee's character in Almost Famous, of course! I'd be a dude in his prime in 1973, a petulant longhair who whine-shouts every sentence and gets lots of action from teenage girls with names like Polexia Aphrodisia. I'd say things like "I find the one guy who isn't getting off, and I make him get off!", and I'd mean every last word. So this is the song for my actual self, and my favorite line's the one about the "freaky old lady name-a Cocaine Katie who embroidrees on my jeans." I wish I could pronounce "embroider" as "embroidree" and always have everyone know exactly what I mean. (Liz)
Paul McCartney, "Cosmically Conscious"
I was sitting at my kitchen table with two Geminis. One of them was Fuckscrap Junior, and the other was Jackadory. Fuckscrap Junior asked me if I thought John Lennon and Paul McCartney would have been professional musicians if the Beatles hadn't happened, and I said "No," because I don't think they would have. I think Paul McCartney would have been the CEO of a lightbulb company, and John Lennon would have been an alcoholic bum. Knowing exactly how to push my buttons, Fuckscrap Junior* got all uppity and started accusing me of "being mean to Paul McCartney"; next thing I knew, Jackadory began defending him, cuz that's just the mean "ganging up on me" kind of shit Geminis tend to pull when you put two of them in a room together. My two jerk best friends kept badgering me about my alleged "Paul McCartney hate" until I was driven to a point where I screamed, "I LOVE PAUL McCARTNEY MORE THAN ANYBODY IN THIS ROOM!" and I meant it twice.
"That's one for your tombstone!" offered Jackadory, because Jackadory is "Early Beatles Clever." I will bear this in mind, Jackadory. But my larger point here is that I love Paul McCartney more than anybody in this room, which is why I know that "Cosmically Conscious" is a Paul McCartney song that exists. It's from 1993, but it sounds like it's from 1968, which makes sense, because Paul McCartney wrote it in 1968, when he was in Rishikesh. It's the Paul McCartney song I relate to most. I agree that you've got to be Cosmically Conscious, because cosmic consciousness is an awesome asset that prevents you from hating your best friends for being jerks to you about your own Paul McCartney opinions. It's not their fault. They're only Geminis. (Laura Jane)
*Just to hammer the "Fuckscrap Junior Knowing How To Push My Buttons" point home- later that night, I played him "Apeman" by the Kinks, and he said it sounded like the Barenaked Ladies.
The Zombies, "This Will Be Our Year"
Personally, I'm kinda over "the new year." It's been 2010- which I pronounce as "two thousand and ten"- for a week now, and I have fully transitioned into "acceptance." But if you're still in a headspace where you get your jollies from thinking, "Wow! 2010! I resolve to do great things! It's the future! Decades! January! Beginnings! Does love have a take-age to make-age ratio of 1:1? " you may as well turn your hokey up to eleven and listen to "This Will Be Our Year" by the Zombies as you contemplate. It's the ultimate "thinking about what years mean" jam, and- all snideness aside- it's really beautiful. (Laura Jane)
Tags: 1973, 2010, Almost Famous, cosmic consciousness, Daddy Warbucks, dancing, Geminis, Jason Lee, Madonna, omens, Paul McCartney, Polexia Aphrodisia, Ringo Starr, The Cuban Roll, The Zombies, Twilight Singers, your actual self
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Posted by Kat in Heavy Rotation |
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those albums covers look really good together.
By Liz
on January 7, 2010 1:21 PM
hahahaha
its the future!
swell the music! pull back, fade to black!
you guys are great, may all your pigeons choke on bath beads, the bastards
By tarz on January 7, 2010 2:11 PM
THank you, Tarz.
If I could be 1000% my actual self, I would be the newsie who I am tagged as in my Facebook photo right now, mixed with the newsie in my Facebook photo who my friend Jack is tagged as
By Laura
on January 7, 2010 7:14 PM
Back in the day I put "Angel" on a lot of mix tapes. Truly an overlooked masterpiece. I like "Over and Over" a lot too, actually.
By John on January 7, 2010 11:36 PM
"Over and Over"! oh my god, i have to go listen to that now!!!! nostalgia!!!
xo k.
By Kat
on January 8, 2010 11:22 AM
Such a joy, joy!
By lovely linda on January 9, 2010 11:57 AM