I Heard the Figure 5 in Gold
It's true--I'm the kind of guy who wanders into a party to which he was never invited. I like social awkwardness, as it makes me feel alive. I feel alive a lot.
So, I'm going to jump into a blog infection (meme is too bloggy, virus is too scary, infections can be treated) that's been making the rounds at all kinds of places, most recently at TBogg. You see, when a friend turned me on to High Fidelity (the novel, not the film which was better than it had all rights to be given it moved the setting from England to Chicago and ruined all the site-specific post-punk snootiness), it was a bit scary, as I'm a list-maker extraordinaire, tempting to list the quality of lists. And I do realize the silliness of it, as I never quite finish one list before I recognize my own omissions and forgetfulness and sheer gaping holes of unknowing. Not that that ever stopped me from acting like I'm an expert or anything.
Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart
I'm assuming this doesn't just means songs that make you cry, which is a different list and would have to include things like Iris DeMent's "Our Town" and T-Heads' "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)."
"Levi Stubbs' Tears" Billy Bragg
With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the world kid she mumbled to herself
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
She ran away from home on her mother's best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left anyway
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make everything right that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you
One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the floor
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears...
“Venus (De Milo)” Television (written by Tom Verlaine)
Tight toy night, streets were so bright.
The world looked so thin and between my bones and skin
there stood another person who was a little surprised
to be face to face with a world so alive.
I fell. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
You know it's all like some new kind of drug.
My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves.
Broadway looked so medieval –
it seemed to flap, like little pages:
I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages.
How I felt. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
Suddenly my eyes went so soft and shaky.
I knew there was pain but pain is not aching.
Then Richie, Richie said: "Hey man let's dress up like cops
Think of what we could do!"
But something, something said "you better not."
And I fell. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
“Sylvia Plath” Peter Laughner (no link--I had to transcribe these myself)
Sylvia Plath was never too good at math
But they told me that she finished at the head of her class
And if she lost any virginity
She didn’t lose it too fast
They couldn’t hold any dress rehearsals for Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath came into Manhattan
She had crawled from one cocoon
Where there was absolutely nothing happening
She said, “If I going to be classless and crass,
I’m going to break up some glass,”
But nobody broke anything sharper than Sylvia Plath.
There’s no romance in excuses
Just a dance in the aftermath.
And when you check out of this hotel, Jack,
You’re nothing but an autograph.
The desk clerk wakes up around seven and he tosses it out with the trash,
But he might keep a couple of letters return addressed to Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath woke up and turned on the gas
Then she put her head down and completely forgot about lighting a match
The rest of the details are just too boring to attach
But let’s see you do one thing as graceful as Sylvia Plath.
Aw, let’s see you do one thing as graceful as Sylvia Plath.
Let’s see you do one thing as senselessly cruel as Sylvia Plath.
“Pissed Off 2 AM” Alejandro Escovedo
Sometimes I come home,
I don't expect too much
The lights are off now
It's only two
How I wish my breath
It didn't hurt so much
Then you'd be up babe
It's only two
Why don't you sleep?
You look as though you need it
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me
Now they mean nothing to me
Well all my friends they laughed,
They laughed at all my jokes
I got one more story,
It's only two
How I wish my touch
Could erase the past
They you'd be up babe
It's only two
Why don't you drink
You look as though you need one
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me,
No, they mean nothing to me
If these were different times
Then you'd be up,
And we'd trade stories
It's only two
Why don't we pretend?
It's all we have between us
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me, now
Why don't you sleep?You look as though we need it
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me,
Now they mean nothing to me
Sha-la-la-lalala, Sha-la-la-lalala,
Sha-la-lalalala.
“Divorce Song” Liz Phair
And when I asked for a separate room
It was late at night, and we'd been driving since noon
But if I'd known how that would sound to you
I would have stayed in your bed for the rest of my life
Just to prove I was right
That it's harder to be friends than lovers
And you shouldn't try to mix the two
'Cause if you do it and you're still unhappy
Then you know that the problem is you
And it's true that I stole your lighter
And it's also true that I lost the map
But when you said that I wasn't worth talking to
I had to take your word on that
But if you'd known how that would sound to me
You would have taken it back
And boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Burned it up and thrown it away
You put in my hands a loaded gun
And then told me not to fire it
When you did the things you said were up to me
And then accused me of trying to fuck it up
But you've never been a waste of my time
It's never been a drag
So take a deep breath and count back from ten
And maybe you'll be alright
And the license said you had to stick around until I was dead
But if you're tired of looking at my face, I guess I already am
But you've never been a waste of my time
It's never been a drag
So take a deep breath and count back from ten
And maybe you'll be alright
Top Five Instrumentals
(chronological order)
1. “Warm Valley” from Money Jungle performed by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach. Nuff said.
2. “Hawaii Five-O” performed by The Ventures. TV’s best ever theme song, even better than one for Gilligan’s Island, which sounds better sung to “All Along the Watchtower” anyway. Plus Mookie will sing-along if you hum it.
3. Music for 19 Musicians by Steve Reich. Nobody said the instrumental couldn’t be over 40 minutes long, that the voice didn’t count as an instrument. Plus Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater can dance to it.
4. “Bob the Bob” by The Lounge Lizards. Featuring John Lurie, one of the coolest humans of all time.
5. “I Heard You Looking” by Yo La Tengo. This one truly rocks live.
Top Five Live Musical Experiences
(in actual top-to-bottom order)
1. Lou Reed and John Cale, Songs for Drella, Brooklyn Academy of Music, December 3, 1990. Sure, the Velvets all got back together after this, but I sure didn’t know that was going to happen. I could have left after the first two songs a happy man, but even greater glory was in store, for as an encore Mo Tucker came out and sang “Pale Blue Eyes” while the guys played. I had to look away.
2. Yung Wu / Yo La Tengo / Golden Palominos, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, New Year’s Eve 1985 (I think). The show when I learned that Ira Kaplan plays out of his body live, while Georgia and I think it was Chris Stamey on bass (this is pre-James McNew days) stared on, awed too. That the rest of the bill featured the Feelies plus John Baumgartner of Speed the Plough and Anton Fier and his truly golden pals – Syd Straw, Peter Blegvad, Stamey, Jody Harris, Bernie Worrell – how could things be anything but stellar?
3. Elvis Costello, whatever show it was that he played “Man Out of Time” and “I Want You” back-to-back, my two favorite songs of his. Pittsburgh in 1990? Los Angeles in 2000? And to think the only thing I could ask him the one time I briefly met him backstage was whether he was going to work with Robert Wyatt again. Nervous, the geek gets geekier.
4. Yo La Tengo, VFW Hall, State College, PA, 1990. Ah, the Fakebook tour in what was then my hometown. One friend was charmed to walk into the bathroom pre-gig and see Ira shaving, prettifying himself for the gig. Then the band managed to amp up at the end and I knocked over another friend joke slam dancing to the mad sounds of “The Evil That Men Do.”
5. Giant Sand, McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, 1996. The show opens with Howe Gelb leading the band through three radically different versions of one song, “Trickle-Down System.” Paula Brown on bass stares across the stage in wonderment, clearly thinking, “I was once married to this guy?” Joey Burns grabs guitars off the showroom walls and plugs them in and plays. It all ends when Jon Convertino puts a stick through his snare drum. Now that’s live music.
Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To
Just way too many possibilities here, from the obvious, like Richard Thompson, to the more obscure, like Marc Ribot, to name my two favorite living guitarists (Robert Quine, RIP).
1) Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt is our Cole Porter, but will never be played by Kevin Kline in a movie. I hope.
2) The Mekons. Criminally mistreated, if being ignored is a treatment, by the public and record companies alike, but what would their myth be if they even lucked into a “Tub Thumping”?
3) Amy Rigby. The original Desperate Housewife.
4) Archers of Loaf / Crooked Fingers. Given so many people didn’t know Pavement, it’s no surprise that AoL is the great forgotten 1990s band. And what Eric Bachmann has done since as Crooked Fingers tops anything Stephen Malkmus has done solo, well, except “Jenny and the S-Dog.”
5) Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. One-string cardboard bass, lawn darts, lawyers and truckers, Spanish champagne, the original “Driving on 9,” one writer who publishes in Paris Review, another who writes children’s books, a female vocalist who maybe writes the best tune of the lot ("A Little Thing") – they are sadly missed by everyone who knew them. Most of you don't know what you missed.
Top Five Albums You Have to Hear from Start to Finish
I can’t resist playing DJ, so it’s hard for me not to mix and match, and that partially explains why this list leans to the 1970s. Let’s hear it for artists once again slowly realizing just because CD technology fits 75 minutes, that doesn’t mean they’ve come up with that much good music.
Another Green World, Brian Eno
Siren, Roxy Music
Paris 1919, John Cale
Songs for Swinging Lovers, Frank Sinatra
Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello
Top Five Musical Heroes
Brian Eno
The Mekons
Yo La Tengo
XTC (Not so much these days, but I would be denying too much of a younger me to pretend they didn’t have a huge influence.)
Louis Armstrong (There’d be no 20th century without him.)
So, I'm going to jump into a blog infection (meme is too bloggy, virus is too scary, infections can be treated) that's been making the rounds at all kinds of places, most recently at TBogg. You see, when a friend turned me on to High Fidelity (the novel, not the film which was better than it had all rights to be given it moved the setting from England to Chicago and ruined all the site-specific post-punk snootiness), it was a bit scary, as I'm a list-maker extraordinaire, tempting to list the quality of lists. And I do realize the silliness of it, as I never quite finish one list before I recognize my own omissions and forgetfulness and sheer gaping holes of unknowing. Not that that ever stopped me from acting like I'm an expert or anything.
Top Five Lyrics that Move Your Heart
I'm assuming this doesn't just means songs that make you cry, which is a different list and would have to include things like Iris DeMent's "Our Town" and T-Heads' "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)."
"Levi Stubbs' Tears" Billy Bragg
With the money from her accident
She bought herself a mobile home
So at least she could get some enjoyment
Out of being alone
No one could say that she was left up on the shelf
It's you and me against the world kid she mumbled to herself
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
She ran away from home on her mother's best coat
She was married before she was even entitled to vote
And her husband was one of those blokes
The sort that only laughs at his own jokes
The sort a war takes away
And when there wasn't a war he left anyway
Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong
Are here to make everything right that's wrong
Holland and Holland and Lamont Dozier too
Are here to make it all okay with you
One dark night he came home from the sea
And put a hole in her body where no hole should be
It hurt her more to see him walking out the door
And though they stitched her back together they left her heart in pieces on the floor
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears...
“Venus (De Milo)” Television (written by Tom Verlaine)
Tight toy night, streets were so bright.
The world looked so thin and between my bones and skin
there stood another person who was a little surprised
to be face to face with a world so alive.
I fell. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
You know it's all like some new kind of drug.
My senses are sharp and my hands are like gloves.
Broadway looked so medieval –
it seemed to flap, like little pages:
I fell sideways laughing with a friend from many stages.
How I felt. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
Suddenly my eyes went so soft and shaky.
I knew there was pain but pain is not aching.
Then Richie, Richie said: "Hey man let's dress up like cops
Think of what we could do!"
But something, something said "you better not."
And I fell. DIDJA FEEL LOW? NO, Not at all. HUH???
I fell right into the Arms of Venus de Milo.
I stood up, walked out of the Arms of Venus de Milo.
“Sylvia Plath” Peter Laughner (no link--I had to transcribe these myself)
Sylvia Plath was never too good at math
But they told me that she finished at the head of her class
And if she lost any virginity
She didn’t lose it too fast
They couldn’t hold any dress rehearsals for Sylvia Plath
Sylvia Plath came into Manhattan
She had crawled from one cocoon
Where there was absolutely nothing happening
She said, “If I going to be classless and crass,
I’m going to break up some glass,”
But nobody broke anything sharper than Sylvia Plath.
There’s no romance in excuses
Just a dance in the aftermath.
And when you check out of this hotel, Jack,
You’re nothing but an autograph.
The desk clerk wakes up around seven and he tosses it out with the trash,
But he might keep a couple of letters return addressed to Sylvia Plath.
Sylvia Plath woke up and turned on the gas
Then she put her head down and completely forgot about lighting a match
The rest of the details are just too boring to attach
But let’s see you do one thing as graceful as Sylvia Plath.
Aw, let’s see you do one thing as graceful as Sylvia Plath.
Let’s see you do one thing as senselessly cruel as Sylvia Plath.
“Pissed Off 2 AM” Alejandro Escovedo
Sometimes I come home,
I don't expect too much
The lights are off now
It's only two
How I wish my breath
It didn't hurt so much
Then you'd be up babe
It's only two
Why don't you sleep?
You look as though you need it
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me
Now they mean nothing to me
Well all my friends they laughed,
They laughed at all my jokes
I got one more story,
It's only two
How I wish my touch
Could erase the past
They you'd be up babe
It's only two
Why don't you drink
You look as though you need one
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me,
No, they mean nothing to me
If these were different times
Then you'd be up,
And we'd trade stories
It's only two
Why don't we pretend?
It's all we have between us
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me, now
Why don't you sleep?You look as though we need it
The barricades and reasons
They mean nothing to me,
Now they mean nothing to me
Sha-la-la-lalala, Sha-la-la-lalala,
Sha-la-lalalala.
“Divorce Song” Liz Phair
And when I asked for a separate room
It was late at night, and we'd been driving since noon
But if I'd known how that would sound to you
I would have stayed in your bed for the rest of my life
Just to prove I was right
That it's harder to be friends than lovers
And you shouldn't try to mix the two
'Cause if you do it and you're still unhappy
Then you know that the problem is you
And it's true that I stole your lighter
And it's also true that I lost the map
But when you said that I wasn't worth talking to
I had to take your word on that
But if you'd known how that would sound to me
You would have taken it back
And boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Boxed it up and buried it in the ground
Burned it up and thrown it away
You put in my hands a loaded gun
And then told me not to fire it
When you did the things you said were up to me
And then accused me of trying to fuck it up
But you've never been a waste of my time
It's never been a drag
So take a deep breath and count back from ten
And maybe you'll be alright
And the license said you had to stick around until I was dead
But if you're tired of looking at my face, I guess I already am
But you've never been a waste of my time
It's never been a drag
So take a deep breath and count back from ten
And maybe you'll be alright
Top Five Instrumentals
(chronological order)
1. “Warm Valley” from Money Jungle performed by Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Max Roach. Nuff said.
2. “Hawaii Five-O” performed by The Ventures. TV’s best ever theme song, even better than one for Gilligan’s Island, which sounds better sung to “All Along the Watchtower” anyway. Plus Mookie will sing-along if you hum it.
3. Music for 19 Musicians by Steve Reich. Nobody said the instrumental couldn’t be over 40 minutes long, that the voice didn’t count as an instrument. Plus Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater can dance to it.
4. “Bob the Bob” by The Lounge Lizards. Featuring John Lurie, one of the coolest humans of all time.
5. “I Heard You Looking” by Yo La Tengo. This one truly rocks live.
Top Five Live Musical Experiences
(in actual top-to-bottom order)
1. Lou Reed and John Cale, Songs for Drella, Brooklyn Academy of Music, December 3, 1990. Sure, the Velvets all got back together after this, but I sure didn’t know that was going to happen. I could have left after the first two songs a happy man, but even greater glory was in store, for as an encore Mo Tucker came out and sang “Pale Blue Eyes” while the guys played. I had to look away.
2. Yung Wu / Yo La Tengo / Golden Palominos, Maxwell’s, Hoboken, New Year’s Eve 1985 (I think). The show when I learned that Ira Kaplan plays out of his body live, while Georgia and I think it was Chris Stamey on bass (this is pre-James McNew days) stared on, awed too. That the rest of the bill featured the Feelies plus John Baumgartner of Speed the Plough and Anton Fier and his truly golden pals – Syd Straw, Peter Blegvad, Stamey, Jody Harris, Bernie Worrell – how could things be anything but stellar?
3. Elvis Costello, whatever show it was that he played “Man Out of Time” and “I Want You” back-to-back, my two favorite songs of his. Pittsburgh in 1990? Los Angeles in 2000? And to think the only thing I could ask him the one time I briefly met him backstage was whether he was going to work with Robert Wyatt again. Nervous, the geek gets geekier.
4. Yo La Tengo, VFW Hall, State College, PA, 1990. Ah, the Fakebook tour in what was then my hometown. One friend was charmed to walk into the bathroom pre-gig and see Ira shaving, prettifying himself for the gig. Then the band managed to amp up at the end and I knocked over another friend joke slam dancing to the mad sounds of “The Evil That Men Do.”
5. Giant Sand, McCabe’s Guitar Shop, Santa Monica, 1996. The show opens with Howe Gelb leading the band through three radically different versions of one song, “Trickle-Down System.” Paula Brown on bass stares across the stage in wonderment, clearly thinking, “I was once married to this guy?” Joey Burns grabs guitars off the showroom walls and plugs them in and plays. It all ends when Jon Convertino puts a stick through his snare drum. Now that’s live music.
Top Five Artists You Think More People Should Listen To
Just way too many possibilities here, from the obvious, like Richard Thompson, to the more obscure, like Marc Ribot, to name my two favorite living guitarists (Robert Quine, RIP).
1) Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt is our Cole Porter, but will never be played by Kevin Kline in a movie. I hope.
2) The Mekons. Criminally mistreated, if being ignored is a treatment, by the public and record companies alike, but what would their myth be if they even lucked into a “Tub Thumping”?
3) Amy Rigby. The original Desperate Housewife.
4) Archers of Loaf / Crooked Fingers. Given so many people didn’t know Pavement, it’s no surprise that AoL is the great forgotten 1990s band. And what Eric Bachmann has done since as Crooked Fingers tops anything Stephen Malkmus has done solo, well, except “Jenny and the S-Dog.”
5) Ed’s Redeeming Qualities. One-string cardboard bass, lawn darts, lawyers and truckers, Spanish champagne, the original “Driving on 9,” one writer who publishes in Paris Review, another who writes children’s books, a female vocalist who maybe writes the best tune of the lot ("A Little Thing") – they are sadly missed by everyone who knew them. Most of you don't know what you missed.
Top Five Albums You Have to Hear from Start to Finish
I can’t resist playing DJ, so it’s hard for me not to mix and match, and that partially explains why this list leans to the 1970s. Let’s hear it for artists once again slowly realizing just because CD technology fits 75 minutes, that doesn’t mean they’ve come up with that much good music.
Another Green World, Brian Eno
Siren, Roxy Music
Paris 1919, John Cale
Songs for Swinging Lovers, Frank Sinatra
Imperial Bedroom, Elvis Costello
Top Five Musical Heroes
Brian Eno
The Mekons
Yo La Tengo
XTC (Not so much these days, but I would be denying too much of a younger me to pretend they didn’t have a huge influence.)
Louis Armstrong (There’d be no 20th century without him.)
posted by George at 7:15 PM
1 Comments:
Hey, these are some fine suggestions. I came across this while looking to see if there was a story behind "levi stubbs' tears." This was a good distraction, though, I like lists.
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