Four

Working through my millions of CD's, I came across Blues Traveler's great record Four this week. These three ballads are among my favorites, and all have had the capacity to make me cry for one reason or another over the years.

And if you can't already tell
I am unable to let things go
I'm told I do it very well
But more important you should know

That all the same
You've got no one to blame
But yourself
If you call that a waste

Cause it ain't me
That's been hurting you inside


Dreams we dreamed at night were never meant to come to life
I can't understand the ease she pulled away her hand
This time in my life I was hurt enough to care
I guess from now on I'll be careful what I share

...

A pocket is no place for a smile anyway
Someday I will find love again will blow my mind
Maybe it will be the love that got away from me
Is there a line to write that could make you cry tonight


I ask of you a very simple question
Did you think for one minute that you are alone
And is your suffering a privilege you share only
Or did you think that everybody else feels completely at home

...

If you think I've given up on you you're crazy
And if you think I don't love you well then you're just wrong
In time you just might take to feeling better
Time is the beauty of the road being long

...

Just wait
And it will come

The songs I can't stop listening to (8/25/12)

So this week there are a couple kinds of songs featured. The Lykke Li, the Lonestar and the Louis Armstrong are straight-up love songs. But they're against a backdrop of contemplation, ennui, regret and in the case of the Kristin Hersh at the end, a sort of angry acceptance. I like how both kinds can be meaningful at the same time.

1. The Velvet Underground - "Sunday Morning"
2. Sigur Rós - "Í Gær"
3. Lykke Li - "Little Bit" (Loving Hand remix)
4. Lonestar - "Amazed"
5. Woodpigeon - "Home As A Romanticized Concept Where Everyone Loves You Always And Forever"
6. Louis Armstrong - "La vie en rose" (Edith Piaf cover)
7. Horse Feathers - "Walking & Running"
8. Kristin Hersh - "Your Dirty Answer"

The Lonestar is cheese, but fuck it, I love it.

early dawning
Sunday morning
it's all the wasted years
so close behind



I love how this song starts in such a similar way to the Velvet Underground above, but then all of a sudden violently attacks just under a minute in.


I think I'm a little bit, little bit
a little bit in love with you...



Make fun of me for loving this song all you want. I want to feel like this about somebody, cheese and all.

I can hear your thoughts - I can see your dreams



I don't need this
But I need this to save my face
You complete it
My stupid little search for a place
A place you go into
To be healed and to be free
Somewhere where there's no one
Quite so beautiful as me



The great Edith Piaf song interpreted by Louis Armstrong. La vie en rose literally means "life in pink," but a more meaningful translation might be "life through rose-colored glasses." English words sung by Louis:

Hold me close and hold me fast
That magic spell you cast
This is la vie en rose
When you kiss me heaven sighs
And though I close my eyes
I see la vie en rose

etc.



Walking and running
Sucking and fucking at your will
You won't debate us, nor entertain us
It's your thrill
A bitter pill that you must take
Broken bones and hearts, that's your fate



My fantasies are unlived histories
You know what it's like when mistakes go unmade
It was beautiful
It was you
I'm giving up the ugly
I thought you'd make pretty
I'll be goddamned
This is beautiful
Hold my hand

...

It's not my fault you don't love me...

Play Dead

I have to go through this
I belong to here
Where no one cares
And no one loves
No light, no air to live in
A place called hate
The city of fear

I play dead
It stops the hurting
I play dead
And the hurting stops

Biophilia

may i, should i

or have i too often

craving miracles

we mimic the openness

of the ones we love

...

it's the sparkle you become

when you conquer anxiety

like a virus needs a body

as soft tissue feeds on blood

some day i'll find you -- one day i'm there

...

my sweet adversary

you know i gave it all

trying to match our continents

to change seasonal shift

to form a mutual core

...

this eruption undoes stagnation

you didn't know i had it in me

A couple from Brandi Carlile

I saw Brandi Carlile live for the second time last week. It was at least as good as the first time I saw her, a little over a year ago. She has this thing she does where she and the band unplug everything and come to the front of the stage to perform a song -- she can do this because her voice is that huge. This past week, she chose to do "What Can I Say," one of my all time favorites by her:

Oh Lord what can I say
I'm so sad since you went away
Time time tickin' on me
Alone is the last place I wanted to be
Lord what can I say




Another one I love from that record is "Tragedy."

you know I'll defend
The tragedy that we knew as the end

The songs I can't stop listening to (8/17/12)

Finally getting a breather from seeing and interacting with people all week long by staying in and refusing to talk to people on this Friday night. I need it. These are the songs that are my soundtrack for this evening.

1. Tori Amos - "Ribbons Undone"
2. INXS - "Not Enough Time"
3. The Byrds - "All I Really Want To Do" (Bob Dylan cover)
4. Tori Amos - "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" (Judy Garland cover)
5. Mikal Cronin - "Apathy"
6. Anaïs Mitchell & Rachel Ries - "O My Star"


She runs like a fire does...

 

Not enough time for all 
That I want for you 
Not enough time for every kiss 
And every touch and all the nights 
I wanna be inside you 



All I really want to do,
Is, baby, be friends with you



You know the song. Tori's version is the saddest I've ever heard.



And I run home, lock the door and just zone out 
Open, open a case of my problems 
I'm not stupid, just at the end of my rope, I 
I'm alright here on my own 



My favorite discovery of these songs. It's country, it's twangy, and it's so, so, so, where I am right now. Indeed, I'm reprinting the lyrics in their entirety:

Oh my star don't fail me now
That I have followed you from town to town
What are you rushing towards
I can't keep up with you no more
I can't catch you and I can't slow down
But I can't catch you
Oh my star, don't fail me now

Oh my heart don't fail me now
That I have carried you from town to town
Why are you so heavy for
I can't hold you any more
I can't hold you and I can't put you down
But I can't hold you
Oh my heart, don't fail me

I know where my satisfaction lies
Way beyond the blue horizon

Oh my soul, don't fail me now
That I have searched for you from town to town
Why don't you show yourself
I want to know you well
I don't know you but I won't let you down
But I don't even know you
Oh my soul, don't fail me now

The songs I can't stop listening to (8/14/12)

Big post this time. A bunch of songs have grabbed me this week, all from different genres, but put together, they seem to be telling a little story about the last few months of my life. Here's what I've got:

1. Röyksopp - "You Don't Have A Clue"
2. The Byrds - "Goin' Back" (Carole King cover)
3. Toro y Moi - "Sad Sams"
4. Serge Gainsbourg - "Melody"
5. Fiona Apple - "Werewolf"
6. Christina Aguilera - "The Voice Within"
7. Dirty Projectors - "Cannibal Resource"
8. Nat King Cole - "Too Young"
9. The Morning Benders - "Pleasure Sighs"
10. Christina Aguilera - "Fighter"

You're hiding from yourself / You don't have a clue...



I think I´m going back to the things that I learned so well in my youth 
I think I´m returning to those days when I was young enough to know the truth 

And every day can be a magic carpet ride 
A little bit of courage is all we lack 
So catch me if you can, I´m goin´ back

 

No one will die / No one will cry




Histoire de Melody Nelson is considered by many to be Serge Gainsbourg's greatest record. If you're not familiar with him, please change that.

 

I could liken you to a werewolf the way you left me for dead 
But I admit that I provided a full moon 
 And I could liken you to a shark the way you bit off my head 
But then again I was waving around a bleeding open wound 

 ...Nothing wrong when a song ends in a minor key...

 

Trust the voice within...



We are still counting on cannibal resource...




"Nature Boy" is my favorite Nat King Cole song, but this one is special too.




here I am again 
trying to relearn how to breathe
and how easy it sinks 
and slips away from me 

what has become 
of those simple loves
that came to me once, so naturally


'Cause if it wasn't for all that you tried to do, 
I wouldn't know Just how capable I am to pull through 
 So I want to say thank you 
 Cause it 

 [Chorus] 'Cause it makes me that much stronger 
 Makes me work a little bit harder 
 It makes me that much wiser 
 So thanks for making me a fighter 
 Made me learn a little bit faster 
 Made my skin a little bit thicker 
 Makes me that much smarter 
 So thanks for making me a fighter 

 How could this man I thought I knew 
 Turn out to be unjust so cruel 
 Could only see the good in you 
 Pretended not to know the truth 
 You tried to hide your lies, disguise yourself 
 Through living in denial 
 But in the end you'll see 

You won't stop me

The Dull Flame Of Desire

Björk duets with Antony Hegarty on this one, which uses as lyrics the translated words of a poem by Fyodor Tyutchev:

i love your eyes, my dear
their splendid, sparkling fire
when suddenly you raise them so
to case a swift embracing glance
like lightning flashing in the sky
but there's a charm that is greater still:
when my love's eyes are lowered
when all is fired by passion's kiss
and through the downcast lashes
i see the dull flame of desire

Seven and a half minutes of epic beauty.

 

The songs I can't stop listening to (8/5/12)

This blog is really just for me. You can read it if you'd like, and listen to the songs. I post songs on Facebook all the time while I'm doing other work. Songs that are touching me, songs that I simply love, songs that I can't seem to stop listening to without repeating them fourteen times before moving on. But yeah, it's for me, mostly, as a chronicle of the songs that hit me over the course of the days, weeks, months, years.

Sometimes you'll sense a theme. Sometimes you won't. For this inaugural post, though, here's what I've got:

1. Butterfly Boucher - "Drift On"
2. Fiona Apple - "Regret"
3. Kenny Chesney - "Never Gonna Feel That Way Again" (welcome to my guilty pleasures...)
4. Camera Obscura - "French Navy"

 

'member when we argued o'er the concept of regret
you were an expert even then but not me; not yet
Now, all you gotta do's remind me that we met
And there -- you got me -- that's how you got me -- you taught me to regret

 'member how I asked you why are you so mean
you didn't know how to react to being seen
I tried to be your friend, you made me shamed, now I'm getting e'en
And there - you got me - that's how you got me, you taught me to be mean





I'll be criticized for lending out my art 
I was criticized for letting you break my heart