Wrecking into your ears one song at a time. Listen as we explore the depths of popular music.
On this Musical Memory edition of EarFool, I travel back in time to the late 70's in my town of San Antonio, Tx, to take a look at the city's unassuming introduction to punk rock music, and how a humble taco restaurant shaped a community.
Texas State Historical Association on Taco Land
Kevin & the Blacktears - Taco Land Shuffle
Rumors are all good and fun until someone's feelings get hurt or reputations get tarnished. And when rumors persist, they take on a life of their own, turning into myths and legends. It happens everywhere in life, even in music. In this episode we take a look at songs with urban legends so entangled within them that they must have some kernel of truth, right?
Why not press that play button and find out?
Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight Video
Child In Time Deep Purple Live with gunshot (its at the 9:40ish mark)
These days, we take it for granted when we hear a famous pop star hocking products for corporations. But it wasn't always like that. See how Coke turned a song about soda into a message of world peace and tolerance, and in the process, turned a revolutionary advertising campaign into a standard of the industry.
Some songs are lucky. They get written and played once by the right artist and find their place in history as a benchmark of whatever genre said song encapsulates. And some songs are very lucky. They are written in a burst of sudden inspiration, recorded and released with the utmost expectations, bomb and get thrown out into a dusty bin full of hopeless castaways and bitter also-rans, only to be plucked out of obscurity on a whim, re-recorded by a group of young ramshackled musicians that have it stumble it's way into history as a benchmark of whatever genre said song encapsulates. Guess which path, 'Wild Thing' took.
The human vocal range can be quite impressive. Between, Barry White and Mariah Carey, the notes being hit are startling, not to mention pitch perfect. But perfect notes aside, sometimes one longs for something more in the way of vocals in their music. Say like, a whale or the anguished squeal of a pig...
If you're a fan of the latter camp of crooners, why not hit that play button and enter the sometimes wacky, sometimes haunting world of animals in music.
In this special episode, I take a trip down musical memory lane and hit the highlights of the first shows [read: concerts] I went to as a young portly boy.
On occasion, it is true that good things come in the wake of bad times. But before those good things can come, the decision to pick yourself up and dust yourself off has to be made. Failure only comes when you choose to stay down. And for, Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, staying down was not an option. In this episode we'll look at the massive 1983 worldwide hit that is, Eurythmics, Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This). And perhaps we'll even discover what it is that these sweet dreams are made of. Creativity, reckless abandonment, and good 80's hair? Perhaps....
Thanks for the memories Jay. I'll see you at the next "firepit huddle up" sweetcheeks. And I'll see you guys, my fellow Earfoolians, next week with a new episode of something like Earfool. XOXXXOOX
Do you find that when you're out walking that you tend to "strut your stuff"? Do you have larger than average hands? Maybe use those big ol' mitts to hit that play button and wade through, The Violent Femmes 1983, folk punk, slow-burn of a hit, Blister in the Sun.
What’s in your head? Nothing if you are a zombie. You can’t even breakdance or poop. We’re still alive to do the worm and talk about our troubles. And since you still seem to be alive as well, you may as well find some space on our cardboard floor and listen to us gnaw on The Cranberries biggest hit, 1994’s “Zombie”.
The song: The Cranberries “Zombie”
The Cranberries Saw Us demo “How’s It Going To Bleed”
More cranberry sauce!
Get your buff on!
Recommended song: Grandaddy “Bison on the Plains”
