Lyric of the Weak: Parliament, “Flash Light”

11 Dec 2015 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: , ,

light

Flashlight

By George Clinton

Now, I lay me down to sleep
Ooh, I just can’t find a beat
Flash light (ohh, I will never dance!)
Flash light
Flash light
Flash light

Ha da da dee da hada hada da da

Oh, it’s no use!

Flash light
Red light
Neon light
Ooh, stop light

Now I lay me down to sleep
I guess I’ll go count the sheep
Oh, but I will never dance

(Oh, don’t make me do it)
(Dance, sucker! Ooh ha ha!)
(Oww! Get him!)

Most of all he needs the funk (shine it)
Help him find the funk (ha, funk it!)
Most of all he needs the funk
Help him find the funk (get him)
Most of all he needs the funk (I know we can get him)
Help him find the funk (ho!)
Most of all he needs the funk (ha, don’t!)
Help him find the funk (I know you will! Dance, sucker!)
Most of all he needs the funk (Shine the spotlight on him!)
Help him find the funk (Oh funk me!)

Ha da da dee da hada hada da da (Dance, Nose! You know you on my funk street???)
Oh, funk me!
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da (Get on down, Nose! I like it! Dance, then!)

Flash light
Flash light (oh ho ho!)
Spot light ( spot light)
Neon light (neon light)
Street light (street light)

Oh ho, ha ha!

Everybody’s got a little light under the sun

Shinin’ on the funk
Shinin’ on the funk

Most of all he need the funk (Ha da da dee da hada hada da da)
Help him find the funk
Most of all he need the funk
Help him find the funk
Most of all he need the funk
Help him find the funk
Most of all he need the funk
Help him find the funk

Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Oh
Flash light (flash light, flash light)
Flash light (flash light, flash light)
Flash light (oh, flash light)
Flash light (oh, flash light)
Spot light (spot light)
Neon light (ooooh, neon light)
Flash light (ooh, flash light ho!)
Stop light (stop light)

Now I lay me down to sleep
I guess I’ll go count the sheep
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da (oh)
Shake your funk (Ha da da dee da hada hada da da)
Shake your funk (Ha da da dee da hada hada da da)
Shake your rump (Ha da da dee da hada hada da da) (ho!)
I think I found the funk

Flash light (flash light)
Day light (day light)
Spot light (spot light)
Red light (ohhh, hooo, red light!)

Everybody’s got a little light under the sun

Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da
Ha da da dee da hada hada da da

Everybody’s got a little light under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun
Under the sun

Van Halen 1976 Demo

11 Dec 2015 2 Comments

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

From Wikipedia: “According to a January 4, 1977, L.A. Times article entitled HOMEGROWN PUNK by Robert Hilburn,[12] Rodney Bingenheimer saw Van Halen at the Gazzarri club in the summer of 1976, so he took Gene Simmons of Kiss to see Van Halen. Gene Simmons then produced a Van Halen demo tape with recording beginning at the Village Recorder studios in Los Angeles and finished with overdubs at the Electric Lady Studios in New York.[8] Simmons wanted to change the band’s name to “Daddy Longlegs”, but the band stuck with Van Halen. Simmons then opted out of further involvement after he took the demo to Kiss management and was told that “they had no chance of making it” and that they wouldn’t take them.”

van halen

What the Hell Is Synesthesia and Why Does Every Musician Seem to Have It?

09 Dec 2015 1 Comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

syn

(via Pitchfork)

By Ryan Dombal

For Duke Ellington, a D note looked like dark blue burlap while a G was light blue satin. When Pharrell Williams listened to Earth, Wind & Fire as a kid, he saw burgundy or baby blue. For Kanye West, pianos are blue, snares are white, and basslines are dark brown and purple. Orange is a big one for Frank Ocean.

All of these artists—along with Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Mary J. Blige, Blood Orange‘s Dev Hynes, and more—have synesthesia, a condition in which a person’s senses are joined. They hear a certain timbre or musical note and see a color, or smell a perfume and hear a sound, or see a word and taste a flavor. According to Carol Steen, the co-founder of the American Synesthesia Association, there are more than 60 permutations of synesthesia, and recent studies have suggested around 4% of us have it in some form. But while it may seem like tons of musicians are trying to associate themselves with synesthesia nowadays—Steen says she’s heard rumors about Beyoncé having it, though “she hasn’t been vetted yet so I don’t know for sure”—the condition wasn’t always seen as an express route to creative genius. (Philosopher John Locke was writing about combined senses as early as the 17th century, though the term “synesthesia” wasn’t coined until the mid-1800s.) Until about 20 years ago, many synesthetes were uncomfortable sharing their curious gifts with the rest of the world…

Read more: http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/229-what-the-hell-is-synesthesia-and-why-does-every-musician-seem-to-have-it/

Norman C. Pickering, Who Refined the Record Player, Dies at 99

30 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: , ,

norman

(via the New York Times)

by Bruce Weber

…In 1945, Mr. Pickering, who enjoyed listening to records and was frustrated by the sound quality of recordings, developed an improved pickup — that is, the mechanism that includes the phonograph needle, or stylus, and translates the information in the groove of a record into an electrical signal that can be reproduced as sound.

Previous pickups were heavier and more unwieldy; styluses were made of steel, they needed to be replaced frequently, and the weight of the mechanism wore out records after a limited number of plays.

The so-called Pickering pickup (and later, its even more compact iteration, the Pickering cartridge) was introduced just as the favored material for records was shifting from shellac to vinyl, which had a lower playback noise level.

Originally designed for use in broadcast and recording studios, it was a fraction of the size of earlier models, and it replaced the steel of the stylus with a significantly lighter and harder material — sapphire or diamond — which lasted much longer and traced a more feathery path along the record. Because of it, records lasted longer and original sounds were reproduced with less distortion…

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/29/business/norman-c-pickering-refined-the-record-player-dies-at-99.html?_r=0

10 Artists Who Hated Their Biggest Hit

18 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

hit

(via Mental Floss)

by Eric van Rheenen

Sinead O’Connor announced earlier this year that she’ll no longer sing “Nothing Compares 2 U” because she doesn’t emotionally identify with the song. O’Connor was hardly the first artist to grow tired of a signature hit.

Read more: http://cms.mentalfloss.com/article/51906/10-artists-who-hated-their-biggest-hit

Soul and Inspiration: The Surprising Stories Behind 15 Classic Songs

13 Nov 2015 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts

(via purple clover)

by John Birmingham

“Mother and Child Reunion,” Paul Simon

simonThe song came to him in the early ’70s. Paul Simon explains: “I was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.”

“I Am the Walrus,” the Beatles

beatles

In 1967, John Lennon received a letter from a student at a high school near Liverpool whose professor had assigned his class to analyze Beatles lyrics. That prompted Lennon to write a song that defied analysis—filling it with lines like “crabalocker fishwife, pornographic priestess” and “elementary penguin singing Hare Krishna,” all summed up by the famous refrain: “goo goo goo joob.”

Read more: “Mother and Child Reunion,” Paul Simon | Stories Behind Classic Songs | Purple Clover (littlethings.com)

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