Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
20 Nov 2020 Leave a comment
in Video of the Week Tags: dean ford, marmalade, reflections of my life
The Marmalade’s 1970 hit “Reflections of My LIfe” rose above typical radio fodder of its time. Infused with wistful longing, the song managed heart-baring emotion without slipping into the maudlin melodrama common to the era.
Forty-four years later Dean Ford found still more layers of beauty in this reflective pop chestnut. Dean was himself “taken back home” four years after this recording.
The classic 1970 version is below.
13 Nov 2020 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: spinal tap
(via 80’s Kids) by Matt M
This Is Spinal Tap is one of the most well-known examples of the “Mockumentary” genre and pretty much started that genre all by itself. The film has gone down in history as a cult classic and is often quoted, especially when anyone wants to crack something up to 11! Let’s take a look back at this classic film with some facts that you may not have known…
30. The Stonehenge scene predates a similar incident involving Black Sabbath
For years, This Is Spinal Tap has been hailed as one of the funniest films ever thanks to its hilarious portrayal of the rock star lifestyle.
What makes the film all the more amusing is the fact that many of its most absurd moments are based on real incidents – although in one notable scene, the film uncannily predicts a rock’n’roll blunder which had yet to occur.
This includes the unforgettable Stonehenge sequence, in which a set designer (Anjelica Huston) builds a replica of the legendary monument based on a sketch from the band.
Unfortunately, the sketch provided gave the proportions in inches rather than feet, hence the band end up playing alongside a miniature Stonehenge on stage.
This scene was originally shot in 1982 for a short film which helped the filmmakers get a green light for the feature – but a year later, a bizarrely similar thing happened in real life to Black Sabbath.
The British rockers commissioned a replica of Stonehenge for their set on their 1983 tour – but as in This Is Spinal Tap, it wound up the wrong size due to an administrative error.
In Black Sabbath’s case, rather than having a model a fraction of the size of the real Stonehenge, theirs was more than twice as big as the real monument…
Read more: https://www.eightieskids.com/things-you-didnt-know-about-this-is-spinal-tap
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/12/05/this-is-spinal-tap-the-complete-script/
06 Nov 2020 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: bad company
(Reprinted from Music Aficionado) by Gene Santoro
Sometimes rock is just rock. The blue-collar kind that doesn’t aspire to be artsy, that just wants to hit and finesse bedrock sounds that give fans a good-time jolt.
Coming at the end of the classic rock era, Bad Company aimed at that mark—and for the first two albums, mostly hit it.
As they steered between overstuffed prog-rock and introspective singer-songwriters, they pared back roots-rock styles to be lean and mean. But they tucked in nuances that, listening today, make the hits you’ve heard so many times pop with subliminal surprises.
For a while. Then they and the arena-rockers who rose in their wake turned their discipline and chops into radio-ready formulas—and helped paved the way for punk’s extreme rock teardown and reboot…
Read more: https://web.musicaficionado.com/main/article/the_good_parts_of_bad_company_by_genesantoro
30 Oct 2020 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: fool's garden, lemon tree
Fool’s Garden: “Lemon Tree” (1995)
Released in 1995, Fool’s Garden’s “Lemon Tree” hit number one not only in the band’s native Germany but in Austria, Ireland, Iceland, Sweden and Norway.
Although it also peaked at #26 in the UK pop charts, it was never a hit in the U.S.
This song is familiar enough around the world to have spawned several cover versions and even a Christmas parody (“Christmas Tree”) but if you’re American you’re likely hearing it for the first time.
And that’s what Songs You May Have Missed is all about.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2022/02/07/songs-you-may-have-missed-723/
28 Oct 2020 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: abba, slipping through my fingers
Abba: “Slipping Through My Fingers” (1981)
When we last featured Abba in this series of posts, we were wiping a tear away as we listened to the tale of marital disintegration “My Love, My Life” from their aptly-named 1977 stateside breakthrough album Arrival.
Despite the bright, poppy, polyester image these Swedes are sadly saddled with, they could serve up heartache like few bands of any era, perhaps because too often the heartache in the writing was of the autobiographical sort.
So here’s a fresh serving of musical misery–a tune about a mother’s regret in watching her daughter grow up too soon, inspired by band members Bjorn and Agnetha’s (at the time) seven-year-old daughter Linda Ulvaeus.
Vocalists Agnetha and Frida’s ability to render a sad song as if they’d written it themselves is key to the listener’s buy-in on songs like “SOS”, “The Winner Takes it All” and “Knowing Me, Knowing You”, as well as “My Love, My Life” and her performance is devastating here.
The song was released as a single only in Japan, as a promo single for the Coca-Cola company. The Visitors, from which it came, was their eighth and–unbeknownst to them at the time–final album.
Schoolbag in hand, she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
I watch her go with a surge of that well-known sadness
And I have to sit down for a while
The feeling that I’m losing her forever
And without really entering her world
I’m glad whenever I can share her laughter
That funny little girl
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sleep in our eyes
Her and me at the breakfast table
Barely awake, I let precious time go by
Then when she’s gone
There’s that odd melancholy feeling
And a sense of guilt I can’t deny
What happened to the wonderful adventures
The places I had planned for us to go
(Slipping through my fingers all the time)
Well, some of that we did but most we didn’t
And why, I just don’t know
Slipping through my fingers all the time
I try to capture every minute
The feeling in it
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Do I really see what’s in her mind
Each time I think I’m close to knowing
She keeps on growing
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Slipping through my fingers
Slipping through my fingers all the time
Schoolbag in hand she leaves home in the early morning
Waving goodbye with an absent-minded smile
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/05/01/songs-you-may-have-missed-94/
See Also: https://edcyphers.com/2021/11/12/songs-you-may-have-missed-717/
Every Moment Has A Song 