Best Song: Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
Elton John at his very best. Both musically and lyrically Elton John and Bernie Taupin have always had two sides: the fun side that borders on lightweight and the serious side that borders on pretentious. And when it comes right down to it there was a serious problem getting those sides to play nice on a single album…except this one.
I mean the two best known songs (and two of the best) show these polar opposite sides and I don’t question them being on the same disc at all. Honky Cat is a great piece of honky-tonk with some very clever lyrics about being a bum. Rocket Man on the other hand doesn’t need an introduction. Elton’s most well known song and…well you all know it anyways.
The absolute best is Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters which is tied for the best lyrics in an Elton John song (with Good Bye Yellow Brick Road). It is an ode to New York, and who knows if it is praising the city or condemning it. The tickling piano and sparse bass serve as an amazing back drop until the mandolin shows up after the first chorus, which takes the song to a whole new level.
The rest of the songs are all great too. Well Amy is almost bad but it is saved by an exquisite Jean Luc-Ponty electric violin solo. Slave is a great country song showing that the problems with that genre lay with the performers not the genre itself. Also make sure you don’t skip I Think I’m Gonna Kill Myself. It features some great juxtaposition between the cheerful music and lines like “I think I’m gonna kill myself/ cause a little suicide” before actually changing to be musically appropriate…for like 20 seconds.
Friday, July 30, 2010
Friday, July 9, 2010
# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American made, world played - Les Paul (and various others)
# 48 Les Paul and Friends: American Made, World Played
Best Song: Fly like an Eagle
Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).
But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.
Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.
Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.
As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.
(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)
Best Song: Fly like an Eagle
Les Paul is the father of modern music. That is a plain and simple fact that everyone needs to know. He invented multi-track recording and overdubbing and many many other things. He is the most important man in rock and roll and he never played it until very late in his life. He was a phenomenal guitarist who went from country to jazz and his best work can be found on his albums with Chet Atkins (which we will talk about at a later date).
But right now I am talking about this little album, released when the man himself was 90 years old and most of the time he gets lost underneath all the classic rock big names showing him what they have done with his techniques. Now I am going to be honest, this is not that great an album in general. It includes some very good covers but very few are essential, and it even contains a butchered version of “How High The Moon”. But the tracks that stand out are worth everything else and hey now a days it is so easy to skip songs why bother focusing on the bad and the few good are so good that they make this album jump from good to great.
Now the song everyone needs to hear is the version of “Fly Like An Eagle”. I can already hear people going “Oh no not that song I am so sick of that song”. Well listen to the original and in can almost tell that Steve Miller knew he was going to be sick of that song too. But here is a fun little fact: Les Paul was Steve Miller’s godfather. The track starts with a clip from some family gathering when Miller was about 5. Steve says singing makes him embarrassed and Les tells him that he should keep doing that and that he is going to go places…and then a Les Paulified version of the intro to the song takes you into a version where you can tell that Miller is actually having fun with the song again, playing with his mentor.
Another essential is the version of the “Caravan” where everyone spends time making guitars not sound like guitars, which of course is what Les Paul was famous for. He would take a guitar and make it an orchestra. The second best track though is “69 Freedom Special”. All the other tracks are labeled as “w/ (insert name here)” but this one is w/ Les Paul and Friends and is shows. This is all the greats coming together to have fun and jam, not just record.
As I said the other tracks are all good (except “How High The Moon” I don’t actually know who is doing it but they are no Mary Ford). If I was to pick one that represented the over all quality it would be “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo”. Really if you want to just get the highlights I would not begrudge you that but if the only way you can locate them is to get the full album don’t hesitate just get it. It really shows how talented Les Paul is even at 90 to be able to just blend in to all these styles.
(It is actually pretty hard for me to find the versions of the songs that are on the CD so I will add them as I find them)
Friday, July 2, 2010
#49 "Weird Al" Yankovic
#49 "Weird Al" Yankovic
Best Song: I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead
Now Weird Al gets a lot of grief. At least he used to until everyone thought that “White and Nerdy” was the best thing since slice bread and for the first time in his over 20 years of recording he had a top 10 hit. But either way his earlier work is still very niche and under exposed. Now Al has always done the parody stick and has always done a good job but with that it is easy to keep following the same tropes and cliches. (great example is the song “Grapefruit Diet” which is where he put all the fat jokes that weren’t good enough for “Fat”)
Which is why his debut is also his best and my personal favorite of his. Some of his later albums have betters songs but this is the most consistent from beginning to end. The parodies don’t ever feel like they were forced and chosen only because that song is popular now. The sense of humor is also much dryer then latter releases. “Ricky” (a parody on Mickey by Toni Basil) is simply about ‘I Love Lucy’ and includes the talented Tress MacNeille. “I Love Rocky Road” is a treat because out of all the parodies it is the one that represents what is to come.
But of all the parodies the best are “My Bolgna’ and “Another One Rides The Bus”. My Sharona and Another One Bites The Dust respectively, both really strip Weird Al to his core basics: accordion, nerdy vocals, and juvenile noises that are used to humorous effect.
But where this album really shines is the original material. While on later albums the originals would be style parodies these are not attempting to mock a style. Happy Birthday is a very chipper driving force as Al tells you to enjoy your birthday before the world goes to shit…kind of morbid but it really makes me chuckle. The closer Mr Frump In The Iron Lung is a delightful shuffle about a man stuck in an Iron Lung that the character of the song treats as a good friend and conversationalist.
But the best is I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead. Now this song would not be out of place on a Frank Zappa record mocking the hippies. Well it is less complex then Zappa but that makes it easier to enjoy. While there are some funny images the song is actually a pretty serious denouncement of hippie/yuppie life style. I actually think this is a great song that doesn’t deserve the obscurity it gets simply because it is done by a “novelty act”
Best Song: I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead
Now Weird Al gets a lot of grief. At least he used to until everyone thought that “White and Nerdy” was the best thing since slice bread and for the first time in his over 20 years of recording he had a top 10 hit. But either way his earlier work is still very niche and under exposed. Now Al has always done the parody stick and has always done a good job but with that it is easy to keep following the same tropes and cliches. (great example is the song “Grapefruit Diet” which is where he put all the fat jokes that weren’t good enough for “Fat”)
Which is why his debut is also his best and my personal favorite of his. Some of his later albums have betters songs but this is the most consistent from beginning to end. The parodies don’t ever feel like they were forced and chosen only because that song is popular now. The sense of humor is also much dryer then latter releases. “Ricky” (a parody on Mickey by Toni Basil) is simply about ‘I Love Lucy’ and includes the talented Tress MacNeille. “I Love Rocky Road” is a treat because out of all the parodies it is the one that represents what is to come.
But of all the parodies the best are “My Bolgna’ and “Another One Rides The Bus”. My Sharona and Another One Bites The Dust respectively, both really strip Weird Al to his core basics: accordion, nerdy vocals, and juvenile noises that are used to humorous effect.
But where this album really shines is the original material. While on later albums the originals would be style parodies these are not attempting to mock a style. Happy Birthday is a very chipper driving force as Al tells you to enjoy your birthday before the world goes to shit…kind of morbid but it really makes me chuckle. The closer Mr Frump In The Iron Lung is a delightful shuffle about a man stuck in an Iron Lung that the character of the song treats as a good friend and conversationalist.
But the best is I’ll Be Mellow When I’m Dead. Now this song would not be out of place on a Frank Zappa record mocking the hippies. Well it is less complex then Zappa but that makes it easier to enjoy. While there are some funny images the song is actually a pretty serious denouncement of hippie/yuppie life style. I actually think this is a great song that doesn’t deserve the obscurity it gets simply because it is done by a “novelty act”
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