Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
20 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
17 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: the actor, the moody blues
The Moody Blues: “The Actor” (1968)
Outside the loyal circle of Moody Blues fanatics (the ones who’ve helped them remain an in-demand touring entity to this day despite the lack of a top 40 single since 1988) the band’s reputation is built on but a small handful of songs–songs such as “Tuesday Afternoon”, “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)”, “Your Wildest Dreams” and, most especially, “Night in White Satin”.
But the transcendent grandeur of 1968 album track “The Actor” is surpassed by nothing in their catalogue, not even the aforementioned “Nights”. This is the sound that won them such adulation that they felt the need to remind their legions of American fans that they were “just singers in a rock and roll band”.
If this whets your appetite, the seven albums this band’s classic lineup released between 1967-72 with mellotron ace Mike Pinder and flutist Ray Thomas still in the fold could not come more highly recommended.
Pure ecstasy.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/11/21/songs-you-may-have-missed-253/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2012/09/16/songs-you-may-have-missed-173/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/11/06/songs-you-may-have-missed-500/
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2025/10/22/songs-you-may-have-missed-800/
13 Feb 2015 2 Comments
in Video of the Week Tags: art garfunkel
06 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: i see the rain, marmalade
Marmalade: “I See the Rain” (1967)
Some things just don’t travel across the pond well.
Dan Fogelberg never had a Top 40 single in the UK. John Denver was a one-hit wonder (with “Annie’s Song”) there.
And bands like Madness and Small Faces, who were significant hit makers in England, somehow missed the boat, as it were, when it came to success here.
Cliff Richard was a monster in England: fourteen #1 singles, his first in 1959. In America he was a virtual non-entity until “Devil Woman” went to #6 in 1976, and he never charted any higher here. ABBA had nine #1’s in England to only one in the US (sadly, “Dancing Queen”).
Remember Take That? I didn’t think so. While they topped the British singles chart eleven times, they were a one-hit wonder to us with “Back For Good” in 1995.
Scotland’s Marmalade (called The Marmalade on some record labels) only hit the American Top 40 one time, with their transcendent “Reflections of My Life” in 1970. But both before and after it they produced music that fans of the Kinks, the Zombies, Badfinger and similar bands will surely appreciate.
“I See the Rain” is a great lost psych nugget with some fine harmonies (Graham Nash guested on the session) that sounds like a standout Badfinger album track. Jimi Hendrix called this the best song of 1967–a year that didn’t lack for great songs.
Despite the fact that the single never charted in either the UK or the US, it’s attained a degree of cult status in recent years.
31 Jan 2015 2 Comments
Mark Erelli: “Same For Someone”
Here’s an off the beaten path song suggestion for a wedding reception parent dance. What’s refreshing about it is that it doesn’t give the suspicion that it was cynically written to be a parent dance perennial, unlike many songs which will remain nameless here.
The downside, which is perhaps subtle enough not to matter, is that since it wasn’t written to neatly fit the parent dance constraints there may be a line or two that don’t perfectly jive, i.e. one line in particular sounds like it is being sung by a man to his son. But as I said, it’s fairly subtle and probably would go unnoticed by most guests.
It’s also refreshingly realistic and un-sappy (“oh, it’s a hard world, my child”…”hearts will break, one will be yours”).
Rather than another insipid litany of platitudes this is a song of some actual substance. Bracing. Real. Like the kind of thing a parent would actually say.
See also: https://edcyphers.com/2013/01/14/a-father-daughter-wedding-dance-that-wont-make-everyone-gag/
31 Jan 2015 1 Comment
in General Posts, Wedding related Tags: clem snide, find love
(Reprinted from NPR’s All Songs Considered)
Célèste Brott writes: “I’m trying to pick a father-daughter dance song for my wedding, but most of the suggestions I come across make me gag. They fall mostly into the category of ‘What an angel she is’-type songs, or are too sentimental about ‘What a great dad he was.’ I want it to be something we both love, and that we can dance to. Something that hits the right sentimental note, sure, but isn’t sappy or impersonal. Any ideas?”
Picking any music for a wedding is weirdly fraught, particularly if you’re the sort of person whose taste in love songs — or taste in love, for that matter — runs toward the complex and compromised. Weddings are about absolutes, and love songs that express absolute emotions (permanence, certainty) have a tendency to come off as mawkish or excessively sentimental. Throw in the unconditional love between a parent and a child, and … hoo boy, that narrows down the options. I’ve been taking my daughter to “daddy daughter dances” since she was barely old enough to run around, and have yet to hear anything there that conjures up images of her future wedding day. (THANK GOD.)
That said, since before she was born, I’ve had the exact right song picked out for this very occasion, should it arise — a song that has been laying waste to my defenses since I first heard it almost exactly 10 years ago. I’ve been playing it for my kids since way before they can remember, and my 8-year-old daughter still listens to it as part of our bedtime ritual virtually every night.
“Find Love”
With apologies to those who’ve heard me prattle about this song before, Clem Snide’s “Find Love” is, in all seriousness, perfect; I have listened to it hundreds if not thousands of times, and if anything, it’s only grown on me. Heard in the context of a parent’s love — of deeply humane advice and wishes for a child, regardless of his or her age — it says everything. Take chances. Put yourself out there. Face the world with a generous heart. Live your life. Make the world your own. “Find love, and then give it all away.”
Every Moment Has A Song 