Tag: Music

Addicted to Love – Robert Palmer

JOHN TAYLOR: Robert Palmer wasn’t comfortable doing videos. “Addicted to Love” exemplified how he felt about it—it’s a video commenting on itself. He’s making fun of it. He didn’t really step outside of that. He did “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On” and “Simply Irresistible,” and they’re both variations on “Addicted to Love.” He was a bit too old and self-conscious by the time videos became important.

JULIA BOLINO: Robert Palmer was very polite, very professional. His wife was there, so perhaps he had no choice.

MAK GILCHRIST: None of us felt we were being exploited in that video. That was a shock to me, when people said the video was demeaning to women. I thought the opposite; I thought we looked strong and quite scary.

I Want My MTV
Tannenbaum, Rob; Marks, Craig.

Out on the Tiles – Led Zeppelin Song – Idiom Explained

“Out on the Tiles” was mostly written by Bonham, who came up with the idea for the riffs that run through the track. The introduction was used to open live versions of “Black Dog” (from Led Zeppelin IV) and Bonham’s drum solo on the 1977 US tour.

Wikipedia

Meaning of: to enjoy yourself at night by going out to nightclubs, parties, or bars

Origin: British English A to Zed” by Norman W. Schur says: “night on the tiles — Slang. This phrase is derived from the custom among cats of having fun at night on rooftops, which in Britain are often made of tiles.” Similar to “night on the town.

David Bowie – Considerate and Supportive Guy

Bruce Robb:
He was partying, having fun, but then during that period everybody was doing coke. It was unbelievable. He wasn’t close to the worst of the lot. I mean, I worked with Harry Nilsson for thirteen months, and that was tough. He was just doing what everybody else was doing. He was such a gentleman. He’d even pick up the trash after his sessions, which I’ve never seen another artist do, especially one of David Bowie’s stature. He would say it was his session so he should clear it up. He’d send Christmas cards every year, which looked like he’d made them himself.

Paul Smith:
… One time, a friend of mine’s eighteen-year-old son needed a suit, so he brought him into the Floral Street store. The boy tried the suit on, came out of the changing room, and looked into the big mirror we had. At the same time, the door to one of the other changing rooms opened and out walked David. “Wow, you look great!” he said to the kid. “You look really great, man!” And this boy nearly passed out, he went pale white! Nearly fainted! That was just David. He seemed to pop up everywhere.

David Bowie: The Oral History
Dylan Jones

(Excellent book. Highly recommended.)

Bono Picks 15 David Bowie Songs

1. Space Oddity – 1969
We walk onstage to this every night – like four astronauts.

2. The Man Who Sold the World – 1970
America fell in love with that song because of Kurt Cobain – a man who wouldn’t sell the world anything.

3. Changes – 1971
It’s not exaggerating to say, what Elvis meant to America, David Bowie meant to the U.K. and Ireland. It was that radical a shift in consiousness.

4. Five Years – 1972
This sounds likes it’s coming from the chanson tradition. Elsewhere on Ziggy Stardust, he talks about William Burroughs. I bought Naked Lunch, which is a hard read at 15. But Bowie made important introductions, just by talking about what turned him on.

5. Life on Mars – 1971
Bowie’s world was always full of intellectual and artistic static. Where he lived was a long way from where I lived in Dublin.

6. Starman – 1972
The first time I saw him was singing “Starman” on Top of the Pops. It was like a creature falling from the sky. Americans put a man on the moon. We had our own British guy from space — with an Irish mother.

7. Lady Grinning Soul 1973
This is a beguiling and unusual David Bowie song. It’s already there, the black influence that would be on the next album. I’d be interested to hear what Roy Bittan [of the E Street Band] would think of that operatic piano part. Bowie was a big fan of Springsteen.

8. The Jean Genie – 1973
Every so often, Bowie goes up against Jagger. I love his take on blues and R&B — the discipline, that swing beat. The Smiths are born in that song too.

9. John, I’m Only Dancing – 1972
Again, I love the economy, this rockabilly beat. It’s not enough to be a great songwriter. You have to turn that song into a record, and that requires production and arrangement of a high order.

10. Young Americans – 1975
The great moment in this is that beautifully out-of-tune guitar break. I loved that.

11. Fame – 1975
I was fascinated by Bowie’s predicament in this song. This was a precious and precocious talent, wanting not to die stupid.

12. Warzsawa – 1977
I have powerful memories of meeting with my friend Gavin Friday in his living room on Monday nights to play music. We created our own world, listening to this album and trying to find out what it was about.

13. Heros – 1977
It encapsulates the thought that all lovers go through: They’re not alone and can take on the world. And it has Robert Fripp’s furious contribution on guitar.

14. Ashes to Ashes – 1980
The sonic innovation of Low and Heroes is becoming more pop. I remember figuring out how they got that ping-ping-ping piano sound – we ended up using it on “Lemon.”

15. Up the Hill Backwards – 1980
I chose this because it’s like my life.

What I’ve chosen from David Bowie is very strict. It’s my teenage life as a Bowie fan. I am still a Bowie fan. But this was when my heart and mind were very vulnerable to music. And these songs had a real impact. U2 owe him a lot. He introduced us to Berlin and Hansa Studios, to collaborating with Brian Eno. It’s the high singing, beyond your ‘man’ voice into the feminine. And there’s the staging, the attempt to be innovative. It has been pointed out that the Claw [the 360 stage] looks like the Glass Spider. Bowie wasn’t afraid to use scale, to dramatize things. His set list was not just a jukebox he could run through. It was drama.

From Rolling Stone’s The Playlist Issue – December 9, 2010

Let Go or Get Dragged. Embracing Change, David Bowie on

CARLOS ALOMAR: The trilogy—Low, “Heroes,” Lodger—changed my life forever. In adjusting myself to the methodologies that were used, and the new form of freethinking and linear thinking that I was exposed to, it changed me. They taught me that every time I came back to David, I needed to change. He wanted R&B, rock and roll, electronic music, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, romantic music. Stir the pot and out comes the Thin White Duke. He was such a restless person. He didn’t like being comfortable. Comfortable is genre-driven, and be careful, because it will outlive you and it will surpass you. David had a lovely saying, “Let go, or be dragged.” He was David 2.0, 3.0.

David Bowie: A Life
Dylan Jones

2014 – Pazz and Jop Poll – Top 50 Singles

Via Waybackmachine

1. Future Islands, “Seasons (Waiting on You)”
2. FKA Twigs, “Two Weeks”
3. Taylor Swift, “Blank Space”
4. Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
5. Kendrick Lamar, “I”
6. ILoveMakonnen (ft. Drake), “Tuesday”
7. Sia, “Chandelier”
8. Charli XCX, “Boom Clap”
9. Beyoncé (ft. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie), “***Flawless”
10. DJ Snake (ft. Lil Jon), “Turn Down for What”
11. Perfume Genius, “Queen”
12. Flying Lotus (ft. Kendrick Lamar), “Never Catch Me”
13. Pharrell Williams, “Happy”
14. St. Vincent, “Digital Witness”
15. Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
16. Future (ft. Pharrell, Pusha T and Casino), “Move That Dope”
17. Alvvays, “Archie, Marry Me”
18. Run the Jewels (ft. Zack de la Rocha), “Close Your Eyes (and Count to Fuck)”
19. tUnE-yArDs, “Water Fountain”
20. The War on Drugs, “Red Eyes”
21. Caribou, “Can’t Do Without You”
22. Beyoncé (ft. Jay-Z), “Drunk in Love”
23. Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars), “Uptown Funk”
24. Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”
25. Tinashe (ft. Schoolboy Q), “2 On”
26. Courtney Barnett, “Avant Gardener”
27. Rich Gang (ft. Young Thug and Rich Homie Quan), “Lifestyle”
28. Iggy Azalea (ft. Charli XCX), “Fancy”
29. Sturgill Simpson, “Turtles All the Way Down”
30. Drake, “0 to 100/The Catch Up”
31. Ariana Grande (ft. Iggy Azalea), “Problem”
32. Dej Loaf, “Try Me”
33. Spoon, “Do You”
34. Usher, “Good Kisser”
35. Jeremih (ft. YG), “Don’t Tell ‘Em”
36. Jenny Lewis, “Just One of the Guys”
37. Beyoncé (ft. Nicki Minaj), “***Flawless (Remix)”
38. Hozier, “Take Me to Church”
39. Sleater-Kinney, “Bury Our Friends”
40. ILoveMakonnen, “Club Goin’ Up on a Tuesday”
41. Kira Isabella, “Quarterback”
42. Jenny Lewis, “She’s Not Me”
43. Spoon, “Inside Out”
44. Sharon Van Etten, “Your Love Is Killing Me”
45. Rae Sremmurd, “No Type”
46. Maddie & Tae, “Girl in a Country Song”
47. Cloud Nothings, “I’m Not Part of Me”
48. Rae Sremmurd, “No Flex Zone”
49. Lana Del Rey, “West Coast”
50. New Pornographers, “Brill Bruisers”

Titanic as Musical Comedy

They called “Titanique” the show of dreams. Fever dreams. And it was, it really was.

The off-Broadway cuckoo camp-fest at the Asylum in Chelsea is, by a nautical mile, the funniest musical in town right now and is built on an unsinkable idea: It tells the story of the 1997 movie “Titanic” using the songs of French-Canadian chanteuse Celine Dion.

As the captain, hilariously only referred to as Victor Garber, an Irish-inflected Frankie Grande bops through “I Drove All Night” as he pushes the doomed ship to go faster and faster.

The Unsinkable Molly Brown, played by Kathy Deitch, after surviving the tragedy, belts “All By Myself”: “Those days are goooone!”

The situation has become beyond bonkers by the time Jaye Alexander as the Iceberg wails “River Deep, Mountain High” in a neon blue flapper wig and forces the other characters to “Lip Sync For Your Lifeboats.”

‘Titanique’ the musical review: Off-Broadway ‘Titanic’ parody is what your summer needs
Johnny Oleksinski