We were given three blueberry bushes for Christmas and we’ve decided that it’s now time to plant them out. We’ve put them in the back garden, rather than down at the plot, as it gets better light (and we’re also not entirely committed to keeping the allotment in the long term).
This afternoon we got all crafty and made a calendar-type thing. The plan being that each day we would change the day tag and weather tag as appropriate.
As you can see, this calendar is very spring-themed, with flowers and a butterfly and a bunch of pink feathers which *I think* is a flamingo that’s been run over with a lawnmower.
The weather tags, in case you can’t recognise them, are “Cloudy” (currently on the board) and “Sunny”, “Rainy” and “Windy”.
*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
Spotify playlist. There’s a couple of links to lyrics sites in here. I don’t know what sort of crud the pages will contain, so I suggest that you don’t click through without a thick armour of NoScript and AdBlock.
1. **Feeling Good** from I Put A Spell On You – a magnificent song, proven by the fact that I must have heard it a few hundred times but it’s still great to listen to.
2. **My Baby Just Cares For Me** from Little Girl Blue – I thought that I didn’t like this song. Something about the jaunty rhythm seemed just too hard to listen to. But I’ve learn to relax and embrace it. I wish that I could bottle the piano solo and take it with me everywhere. Glorious lyrics too – the rhymes don’t feel forced, the subject matter doesn’t feel trite.
3. **Mississippi Goddamn** from In Concert – as Nina remarks halfway through, “this is a showtune, but the show hasn’t been written for it yet.” I don’t think much of the music, but you’ve got to respect the lyrics and the sentiment behind them.
4. **I Put A Spell On You** from I Put A Spell On You – lyrically there’s not much substance here, though I’m sure that it will strike a chord with many, and they are well-delivered. The orchestration is utterly perfect.
5. **Strange Fruit** from Pastel Blues – I’ve spent most of the week listening to this song without paying attention to the lyrics, and consequently thinking of it as being slow and morose. The playlist book notes that *Simone found this song so harrowing that she broke down every time she sang it and eventually had to drop it from her repertoire.* I can understand that now.
6. **I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl** from Sings The Blues – this is the good kind of blues. It’s got a short tenor sax solo that makes me absolutely melt with its laziness. The vibe is basically what Norah Jones tried to emulate.
7. **I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free** from Silk & Soul – doesn’t do much for me. It develops at a steady pace, but goes a bit too far, and by the end it’s just all too hectic and busy.
8. **To Be Young Gifted & Black** from Black Gold – no disrespect to the sentiment, but I find this song a bit underwhelming. The lyrics seem cheesy, with uninspired rhymes, and the tune is a bit dull.
9. **Save Me** from Silk & Soul – it’s a really funky disco-pop tune, but it doesn’t do much, and the lyrics don’t seem to serve any purpose other than as a vehicle for Nina’s voice.
10. **Four Women** from Wild Is The Wind – see *Young Gifted & Black* only this one is slower, and thus more likely to send you to sleep.
So, in conclusion: probably my favourite of the seven playlists we’ve had so far, though that’s mainly because there’s some really ferociously good songs in here. I’m really enjoying this Spotify malarkey too.
Random number: 284
Only one playlist on this page – The Pogues / Shane MacGowan. The book says:
> The Pogues didn’t so much creep into the limelight in early 1980s London, but emerged seemingly fully formed with a pint of stout in one hand and an attitude in the other. At the band’s core was the UK-born, but of Limerick stock, singer and lyricist Shane MacGowan who, at his peak and before his love of pints of Martini set in, produced a stream of stupendously poetic songs, all rooted in the Irish tradition. The band still reforms for Xmas and New Year shows, but nothing can ever repeat the sheer brio of their mid-1980s gigs. You really had to be there!
Here’s the spotify URL, if you want to listen to it with me over the course of the week. The playlist lists track 10 as “The Snake At The Gates Of Hell” which I think is a typo. And if anyone out there fancies joining in with the stunt, let me know.
*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
Only seven of these ten songs were available on Spotify but here’s the playlist anyway.
1. **I Need A Beat** LL Cool J – next…
2. **Rhyming & Stealing** The Beastie Boys – You either “get” the Beastie Boys or you don’t. Their appeal can not be explained in words. I know this, because people have tried to explain it to me in the past.
3. **Rock The Bells** LL Cool J – I’m clearly not the target audience here. Expecting me to enjoy listening to LL Cool J is like expecting a tortoise to enjoy a cigarette.
4. **Walk This Way** Run DMC – I kinda half-liked this song until I actually listened to it.
5. **Cross Your Heart** The Red Devils – by comparison to the previous 4 songs, this slow blues number is fantastic. But only by comparison. It contains a moment that is so bad that it is hilarious – the harmonica solo opens with a 20 second long note. That’s one high note, held for 20 seconds. Impressive lung capacity, maybe, but what were they thinking? Why do you want to punish your listeners so badly?
6. **Under The Bridge** Red Hot Chili Peppers – this is the best thing that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have ever done. And it’s fantastic. It’s perfectly paced and not too busy. It’s a great advert for Rick Rubin’s production skills. I never feel the need to skip to the end.
7. **The Beast In Me** Johnny Cash – it’s a nice song, but considering that this playlist is supposed to be all about Rick Rubin (producer), I don’t see the point in including a song that’s just vocals and one acoustic guitar. It’s hard to get that wrong really.
8. **By The Way** Red Hot Chili Peppers – I went through a phase of liking RHCP once, but it has long since worn off. Listening to this song, I feel like it’s crying out for a really delicate acoustic cover version that would blow the socks off of the original. In a moment of curiosity, I searched on YouTube but all I could find were cover versions of people playing it on an acoustic guitar, but in the same style as the original. Maybe I should step up and take the challenge.
9. **Hurt** Johnny Cash – I love this song. Especially how the vocals clip slightly, and not in a warm analog way, but in a harsh digital way. Over the course of the song, the clipping gets more and more noticeable, until the last chorus, when it sounds like the microphone is breaking. It’s so wrong, but it feels so right. The acoustic guitar is double-tracked with the channels panned hard-left and hard-right, but whereas standard doubletracking technique is to get the two takes as close as possible, on this song they are clearly intentionally different. It contributes to this song’s effectiveness.
10. **Oh Mary** Neil Diamond – the acoustic guitar is double-tracked in exactly the same fashion as the previous song. This is quite a beautiful song, as long as you’ve got the time to sit and take it in – it doesn’t go anywhere fast.
So, in conclusion: there’s a few songs in here that I like, and you can’t deny that Rick Rubin has breadth, but this playlist hasn’t had much depth. There’s only four songs that even registered on my adequatometer.
Random number: 336
Two playlists on this page, the randometer then fell on the second one – Nina Simone. The book says:
> She set her heart on being a classical pianist and never wanted to be a singer at all. But, despite her reluctance, she could sing her laundry list and make it sound soulful becoming one of the great vocal stylists of the last fifty years. These ten span jazz, blues, pop, swing and soul.
I love the sound of my Harman Kardon Soundsticks II, but I’ve been planning on getting rid of them for a while now. They have two major flaws.
1. The UI is terrible. There’s a knob on the subwoofer for controlling the level of the bass, which is fine, but the only other controls are two touch-sensitive buttons on the right satellite speaker, labelled + and -. These control the volume, and if you tap them at the same time, it mutes the signal. There’s no off switch, and no visual indication whether they are muted, or what volume they are set to. It’s also quite time-consuming to set your desired volume using + and – buttons, when a good old fashioned knob does the job so much better.
2. Since there’s no off switch, and the subwoofer sits there emanating a glow from its blue LED all night, I felt that I had no choice but to switch everything off at the wall whenever I turn the computer off. It’s a hassle, and I want to be able to switch the speakers properly off when not in use.
I had my eye on the Logitech Z-4 or Z-2300 which are 2.1 speakers with a nifty satellite unit that has a volume control, on-off switch, headphone socket and bass control on it.
Today in town I spotted a set of Logitech LS21 speakers at an attractive price. They have the same satellite unit (except that the bass control is on the subwoofer, but that’s no big loss) so I bought them.
I’ve discovered that this particular model is fairly quiet. I *think* they’re going to be loud enough for my needs, but I’m not completely certain. Also, the volume control on the LS21 is a scroll-wheel, whereas the more expensive models have a knob which gives you a visual cue as to what it is set at.
So maybe I’ll trade up in the future, maybe I won’t.
I’m not sure whether this is a snowman or a snowwoman. The wig is a black and blue bob, so my first guess would be snowwoman. But then I have been known to wear that wig out in public, so perhaps it’s a snowpete.
UPDATE: It’s nearly 7pm, and I just looked out of the window – something didn’t look right. I went down to investigate, and found the remains of the head about 4 feet away from the body. The only possible explanation is vandalism.
*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
It doesn’t make sense to review these songs individually, because I’ve been enjoying this album by dancing around the living room to it, and making Bernard laugh, without knowing exactly what the name of the song that I’m listening to is. Tracks of note, amongst these 10, are:
* **If You Want Me To Stay** from Fresh – very funky, the bass is fantastic, both in terms of the bassline and the tone of the instrument.
* **Family Affair** from There’s A Riot Goin’ On – really stands out in this playlist, as it is more than just a three-minute funkfest. A very finely crafted song.
* **Que Sera Sera** from Fresh – enormously underwhelming cover version. Don’t know why they bothered.
* **Everyday People** from Stand! – I found this song incredibly dull and repetitive, which is strange, because *People Everyday* by Arrested Development (which used this song as a basis) is fantastic. It’s just too conspicuously monochordal. The bassline seems to be just one note (G) played on the off-beat, from start to finish.
* **Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Again)** from Greatest Hits – cute title, but I found it hard to listen to. The bassline is this slap-and-pop type affair which is annoying in its own right, but what makes it worse is that the timing doesn’t seem right to me. As a musician, I’ve got a highly developed sensitivity to poor timing and pitch. Tiny errors make me wince. It’s a curse. This bassline feels slow, like it’s being dragged along by the rest of the song, and not in an intentionally lazy way. It’s as if it’s always racing to catch up.
So, in conclusion: I am going to be getting an envelope filter to get some funkier tones out of my bass. And there’s more evidence of drums hard-panned in the stereo image, which is a problem when you’re listening through headphones. Good strutting music though.
Random number: 323
Two playlists – our random selection gave us Rick Rubin. The book says:
> “Reduced by Rick Rubin” read the original Def Jam production credits and Rubin’s minimalist style has reinvented rap, rock and country. Rubin dropped out of law school to set up Def Jam Records and follow his very individual instincts as a producer. Instantly successful, he’s taken hip-hop into the mainstream, promoted thrash metal, resurrected Johnny Cash and made the Red Hot Chili Peppers superstars. He’s done his share of forgettable money jobs (Mick Jagger, Melanie C, The Cult) yet rarely rests on his laurels…
*This is a companion piece to a similarly-themed article on Karen’s site which, all things being equal, should be published at roughly the same time.*
I’m a little bit torn. Should I be evaluating these songs, or should I just be evaluating Elvis Presley’s contribution to them?
This week, Lady P has helpfully generated a Spotify playlist so that you can listen along. If you use Spotify. Which I don’t.
1. **Lawdy Miss Clawdy** from Elvis Presley – only two minutes long, but after a minute of listening to this song you’ve already absorbed everything that it has to offer. It’s catchy, but shallow. I think that this song must be quite an early Elvis song, as his trademark vocal style is totally absent. It reminds me of the demo version of “Live Forever” where Liam Gallagher’s voice doesn’t sound like a sack of gravel down a blackboard.
2. **Mystery Train** from Elvis At Sun – Probably a bit better than last week’s version, but I still don’t find it terribly interesting.
3. **Long Black Limousine** from From Elvis In Memphis – I love the sentiment behind this song, the story that it tells. Nice gospel choir too. But I hate that the bass and drums have been panned hard right. I know that back then, nobody really thought that anybody would be listening to these songs through headphones, but that doesn’t make it any less uncomfortable to listen to.
4. **His Latest Flame** from No1s – This song has been in my head quite a lot this week, but not in an annoying way. Which is quite a compliment, if you think about it.
5. **Tomorrow Is A Long Time** from Tomorrow Is A Long Time – A rather dull ballad which doesn’t have any kind of development or dynamic.
6. **Good Rocking Tonight** from Elvis At Sun – almost as brain-dead as your average song about cars. If you just wanted something to dance to then it would probably be fine, but it doesn’t bear up to any level of scrutiny.
7. **I’m Leavin’** from Burning Love – I wouldn’t say that it’s my kind of song, but I can appreciate what went into it.
8. **In The Ghetto** from From Elvis In Memphis – I wish I knew how I felt about this song. It’s a “protest” song, of sorts, and they fill me with such conflicting sentiments. On the one hand, I hate being pontificated at by a wealthy pop singer. But on the other hand, if you feel strongly about something, why should you stay silent? Anyway, leaving all that guff aside, good song. Though the bass guitar has been panned hard right again. Stop that shit.
9. **Heartbreak Hotel** from No1s – magnificent song, it’s ever so satisfying to listen to a song that’s barely over two minutes, and justifies every single second of it.
10. **One Night** from No1s – not really fussed about the song, but the vocal performance is exceptional. There’s a non-zero quantity of DaveGrohlishness in there, dare I say it.
So, in conclusion: it’s improving, and I’m grateful of the opportunity to sample some Elvis. I’m wondering if my enjoyment of these playlists is being impaired by the fact that I’m listening to them with an ear to reviewing them later. I’ve always felt that most things are spoiled by over-analysing. What can I do?
Random number: 341
Two options, random selection is the second – Sly Stone. The book says:
> The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Temptations and James Brown may have had more hits, but no-one epitomized the late 1960s/early 70s more than Sly & the Family Stone. While other bands paid lip service to such 1960s ideals as racial integration, sexual equality and fighting the establishment, the erstwhile Sylvester Stewart and his clan of brothers, sisters and ofays put the rhetoric into practice with some of the most radical, perfectly crafted, galvanizing music ever.