| Author | Message | ||
     Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7388 Registered: 05-2005 |
Pete Townshend - White City Fighting | ||
| TROU Member Username: Trou Post Number: 371 Registered: 05-2005 |
Marc Almond - Winter sun | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 990 Registered: 04-2005 |
Damien Saez - Jeunesse lčve-toi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5DpM2na rOU | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7390 Registered: 05-2005 |
Joe Henry - Want Too Much | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1168 Registered: 10-2006 |
Orbweavers - Merri Some cool music required as the thermometers creep up... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7403 Registered: 05-2005 |
East Journey - Bright Lights Big City | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1171 Registered: 10-2006 |
Mina - Se telefonando One of the greatest pop songs ever, Italian or otherwise. Unusual in that instead of verse chorus verse etc it goes verse verse chorus chorus, and man what a chorus, also unusual in that each line builds in a crescendo from the one before. Music by Ennio Morricone, who says that he was influenced for the tune by the police sirens in Marseille. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-cmXvJR wHQ | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3525 Registered: 03-2005 |
A colleague at work turned me onto Mina back in about 1990 or so. As far as I'm concerned, she totally reigned through the golden era of the Italian pop song. Her first dozen years of records include many classics, from the ska-like "Nessuno" (1959) to the rapturous Italo-ballad "Un Tale" (1961) to the mysterious hot Mediterranean samba of "Chihuahua" (1962) to the sophisticated La Dolce Vita 60s pop of "Tu Farai" (1964) to the enormous death pop of "L'immensita" (1967) to the Milano-Carnaby swing of "Se C'e Una Cosa Che Mi Fa Impazzire" (1967) and the sombre soulful "Attimo Per Attimo" (1969) followed by her string of great Battisti songs, starting with the stunning almost mini-operatic "Insieme" (1970) and continuing with the sprawling classic "Amor Mio" (1971). I'm only touching few of the highlights here. And it's not like she stopped making great records in 1972, but for me personally the 1970s arrangement aesthetics started to dilute the pleasure. I agree, Stuart, "Se Telefonando" (1966) is probably the very greatest of all of Mina's records and one of the greatest of the decade by anyone, with its song structure like an Escher drawing and the thick classic mid-60s arrangement and compressed reverbed recorded sound to that glorious fade with the low keys on the piano reinforcing the baritone sax droning the chord progression and the backup dolly birds punctuating their "don, don, don" to the meandering melody. When I want to lure someone into the Mina world I always start with "Se Telefonando." | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 272 Registered: 08-2005 |
Love on your Side - The Thompson Twins (I was mainly listening to late 60s psychedelia in the early 80s - my university years - before getting into more contemporary music, the Teardrop Explodes, the Cure, the Go-Betweens). And I must look up Mina - never heard of her. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7404 Registered: 05-2005 |
I've never heard of Mina, either. I'll check her out. You guys have turned me on to some great non-English language artists I would otherwise never have heard of. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3526 Registered: 03-2005 |
Just remember, Mina isn't our more usual sort of pop music. When you listen to her you step into a vintage movie. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7405 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, is there a decent best of or anthology I could start with to test the waters? | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3527 Registered: 03-2005 |
Padraig, the problem with Mina is that she wasn't with the same label over the relevant years. She finally took control of her recorded content in 1968 but that's after a lot of great records including "Se Telefonando." The other problem is that the Italian record labels are not very--ahem!--audiophile oriented so good remastering is comparatively rare. The way I've dealt with it is by buying a lot more discs than you'll want to get. Let me study the available discs that have not gone super expensive and see what I can recommend, as most of mine were purchased quite a long time ago. Stuart might also have some suggestions, particularly if he's been buying anything recently. In the interim I recommend that you listen to the youtube clips of her stuff so that you can get a sense of whether it's something you want to pursue and, if so, whether there are particular eras you want to focus on. For example, I cannot imagine someone like Kevin ever wanting to be bothered with the likes of Mina. And make no mistake, there's still plenty of recordings that are not particularly special. Perhaps what I should do is just start sending you a trickle of songs via email until you have what I might personally put together if I were asked to create a suitable "best of." | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1172 Registered: 10-2006 |
Her back catalogue is enormous, with a real hodge-podge of collections, and some disagreements over the various remasterings carried out. It's really hard to know where to start - I've never been a big fan of Mina's, and a lot of her stuff is too near to MOR for me, though her voice is always impeccable and she works with top-class arrangers and musicians etc. Italian Mina-fans, meanwhile, are so abjectly devoted that it's hard to get any sense out of their reviews about what might be considered better than what. So I suggest we wait for Mr Adams to compile a suitable list and then see which available compilation comes nearest to it! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3529 Registered: 03-2005 |
I have come up with what I consider to be a suitable "best of" from the discs of hers that I have. I have most of her 1950s/60s recordings but suspect that buried on those 70s albums (yes, I have the 1975 Battisti album but not much else) are some gems that will never appear on the official best of's. I'll post the list later. Right now, the song of the day for me is: The Sound -- Barria Alta From "Thunder Up." Adrian Borland was always hanging on to the edge of emotional survival with the result that some of his songs could be breathtakingly beautiful. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1174 Registered: 10-2006 |
Two for the list… I hope!! Sono come tu mi vuoi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhPCvCA9 nRA Il cielo in una stanza https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11mejVpT 6Yg | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 274 Registered: 08-2005 |
A New England, Kirsty MacColl with Billy Bragg, in honour of England's performance (thus far, of course) in the first Ashes test. Lovely song, with great vocals from Kirsty, dodgy vocals from a distinctly croaky Billy Bragg. Contains one of my favourite lines: I saw two shooting stars last night I wished on them but they were only satellites Is it wrong to wish on space hardware I wish, I wish, I wish you'd care | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3530 Registered: 03-2005 |
Stuart, I wanted to keep the list reasonably compact and to cover some time. I came up with 17 titles, with an 18th I think I'd ultimately include. The songs, along with their vintages: Tintarella di luna (1959) Nessuno (1959) Un Tale (1961) Chihuahua (1962) The song I think I'd add is also from 1962: La Ragazza Dell'Ombrellone Accanto. It's uptempo and quirky. In the long run I think it would do well on a collection. Then we're on to . . . Citta Vuota (1964) Tu Farai (1964) Un Bacio e Troppo Poco (1965) No (1966) Sone Come Tu Me Vuoi (1966) Se Telefonando (1966) L'Immensita (1967) Se C'e Una Cosa Che Mi Fa Impazzire (1967) Attimo per Attimo (1969) Insieme (1970) Amore Mio (1971) 29 Settembre (1975) Magica Follia (1982) Aside from the irritating problem of mastering levels differing from song to song (the true advantage of our old mix tapes--we could equalize the volume), I'm seriously considering just burning these onto a disc and sending one to you and one to Padraig if he wants. You will not find a collection that pulls all of these things together. Incidentally, I had not previously heard "Il cielo in una stanza." It just goes to show how many recordings she did. I have a nagging suspicion that hidden on at least some of her 1970s albums are good tracks but I'd have to accept culling a lot of dross. I have done that for Jacques Dutronc and pulled out a few really nice and surprising numbers from otherwise shockingly dreary albums. Btw, if you want a proposed "best of" for him I'll be happy to do it. He mixed some utterly fantastic records with those annoying French novelty discs that I used to think was all the French had until I learned better. The bad stuff tended to be what got him on the radio and thus his "best of" collections are usually misleading. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3531 Registered: 03-2005 |
Oops, I see a typo. Sone come tu MI vuoi. Stuart, one of the things that escapes me as an ignorant anglophone is capitalizing conventions for both French and Italian song titles. It looks like capitalizing doesn't happen if the title is more than a single subject word maybe following an article. Correct? That would make it much easier to type out the names. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3532 Registered: 03-2005 |
Another post, sorry. I promise it is my last this morning. When I posted my Song of the Day yesterday I was on an old computer lacking a sufficiently current browser to access youtube. Here's the Sound song on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL22_LhN bvA I believe it was Jeff Whiteaker who turned me onto the Sound. Borland's plain understated vocal style (reminiscent for me of another tortured soul: Gun Club's Jeffrey Lee Pierce) and unsweet post-punk musical palette took time to grip me. But sure enough it did. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7407 Registered: 05-2005 |
Randy, thank you for all your work here. I still have not had a chance to play those tracks, but hopefully will do later today. Track of the day: Robert Smith - There's A Girl In The Corner. It's a cover of a song by Scottish band The Twilight Sad. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1175 Registered: 10-2006 |
Randy, the face of Jacques' son Thomas Dutronc (mum, Francois Hardy!) was all over the place for his new album when I was in France; but I've never heard anything by either him or his pa. So if you have the time, yes please! I've never paid much attention to the capitalisation of titles, since so many albums seem to capitalise every single letter in titles: but, yes, in a brief survey, most Italian song names capitalise like a normal sentence. Meanwhile, Il cielo in una stanza is one of those classic covered-by-everyone Italian tunes (including Carla Bruni) but it really needs intimacy, which I'm not convinced Mina can do. But it's a gorgeous song with a sweetly poetic lyric: When you're here with me this room has no walls, just trees, an infinite of trees. When you're here near me this purple ceiling no longer exists ... I see the sky above us and we’re here, abandoned, as if nothing remained, nothing in the world. There’s a harmonica playing that sounds like an organ that shudders for you and me in that immensity of sky – for you, for me, in the sky. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7409 Registered: 05-2005 |
Mina - L'immensita, though the horn-enhanced Se Telefonando runs it close. | ||
| Stuart Wilson Member Username: Stuart Post Number: 1177 Registered: 10-2006 |
Ween - Transdermal Celebration Especially that magical little shift in the guitar solo at around 2.07! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3535 Registered: 03-2005 |
Sternbuschweg -- Meine Liebe Dauert Langer als der Kommunismus. (Sorry, don't know how to get an umlaut.) Deutsch guitar pop! Unfortunately I can only find this live clip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYb1oQ1j rOo | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 830 Registered: 03-2007 |
Randy, Here you go. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-Qpcqyy exc Do you have copies of their 5 track ep and 7 track mini album? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmcAOrK0 164 | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 831 Registered: 03-2007 |
Sternbuschweg - Es Ist In Der Ganzen Welt Zu Sehen Opening track from their mini album ( Die Unvollkommentheit ) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvxgZb8C 83M | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 279 Registered: 08-2005 |
Blimey, it's a musical education here! | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3536 Registered: 03-2005 |
Lovely Hugh. I have only the 2008 Firestation album. Looks like I need to visit discogs. | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 832 Registered: 03-2007 |
Simon, Hopefully a nice one. :-) Randy, Die Unvollkommentheit ( Mini Album ) is currently available from AmazonCo and AmazonDe if you have no luck tracking it down on Discogs. You may have difficulty finding a copy of Glucklich Oder Nicht ( EP.) It was released on a small German label ( Wuwton ) back in 2003 ( five years before the release of the Mini Album and Album ) and I have not seen a copy for sale for some time. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3537 Registered: 03-2005 |
Hugh, eBay served me well on this one unless I get notice of a transaction cancellation. The EP was one of two items on offer for Sternbuschweg and the mini-album was the other! Both were priced very modestly--14 euro including shipping for each, at least until one or both sellers tell me shipping has to be increased for the U.S.. Last night, one of the Amazon sites had a shamefully cheap new copy of the mini-album but when I started to order it the shipping was so outrageous it was suddenly more expensive than many of the more normally priced listings. So I reversed my way out of that transaction. I find these things can be pretty random. It took me a while to find Greene's "Lovers Lingo" but when I did it was no more expensive than their other two albums. Actually you could say that my Sternbuschweg purchases were horribly expensive because they put me on eBay today to discover a significant price reduction on a long-term listing for La Grande Sophie's first small-label album. It's pretty much made of unobtainium. Her subsequent major label records suffer all the faults of such things but nonetheless there are a lot of good ideas on them. Well, at least until the current album which is weak. My thought is that her original low budget music will either be half-baked or, like the Triffids, her best work. It's a pricey gamble. But fun! | ||
| Hugh Nimmo Member Username: Hugh_nimmo Post Number: 833 Registered: 03-2007 |
Randy, Excellent news. I rarely use eBay so I never thought to check out their site. I don't buy from AmazonCom or their MarketPlace Sellers these days due to the crazy shipping charges. Glad to hear you found a copy of 'Lover's Lingo' by Greene. I think Peter H. Olesen has a wonderful voice and both he and Henrik Olesen are very good songwriters. Hard to find fault with songs such as Happy Day and Lovers' Lingo. Check out this track. My song of the day. De Efterladte - En knivspids af din tro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfLzmS0v Jmo | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 280 Registered: 08-2005 |
'Pushin' too Hard', the Seeds. Genius. (As I was typing 'genius'. Neil Warnock was using the term on TV to describe ' God Only Knows'. That's not the football manager Neil Warnock...) | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7416 Registered: 05-2005 |
Bobby Fuller Four - I Fought The Law. Magnificently cheesy video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgtQj8O9 2eI Article on his life and very young death here http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/ju l/16/the-short-life-and-mysterious-death -of-bobby-fuller-rocknroll-king-of-texas | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 993 Registered: 04-2005 |
Duke Ellington - Afrique 1970 meeting between the Duke and Conny Plank (!?) http://aquariumdrunkard.info/upload/Afri que%20%28take%203%20vocal%29.mp3 Cheers to Aquarium Drunkard http://www.aquariumdrunkard.com/2015/07/ 24/gems-from-the-jazz-vault-miles-davis- wes-montgomery-duke-ellington/ | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 7424 Registered: 05-2005 |
The Drays - Queen Of Time | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 281 Registered: 08-2005 |
Bee Bah Bee Bah Bee Boe - the Chills | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 3539 Registered: 03-2005 |
Apartments -- September Skies At last my iPod played something from the new album! This is the sunniest song in the set. It reminds me of Grant. I would love to see PMW and Robert do something together. |