2 posts tagged “britpop”
I’ve owned The Smiths’s “The Queen is Dead” since the week it came out in June 1986. But on vinyl.
After finally scoring a digital copy recently (oh how very modern of me), I was astounded to hear just how many guitar parts there are on “Cemetry Gates.” I know this may seem ho-hum to the millions of modernized Smiths fans. But to me, this is like seeing Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel after it was given its careful scrubbing – so many details, so much color. It just adds more guilding to Johnny Marr’s golden guitar-playing.
The clinchers:
- The country-slide lick at the top-right of the aural spectrum at 1:02 and 1:42, just as Morrissey deftly alternates “…you claim these words as your own…” with “…words which could only be your own…”
- The multiple layers of acoustic guitar that together sound like a mandolin, all throughout
- The accordion drifting in at the tail end of the song (1:56), adding another Italian influence.
By the way, does Moz really say “Sure” at the end of the song, like many internet search results state? For the longest time, I thought he said “Shut up.”
I’ve always been big on lists, and the end of the year is always the time for these sorts of things.
Here are some of my "finds" of 2006. They aren’t necessarily new or even things you can buy. More like discoveries.
Vox.
The beautiful people I’ve found on Vox have restored some of my faith in humanity, and reminded me that:
- the world is large (I now keep
in touch with people in the UK, Australia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, for
starters);
- it is full of bright, open, creative, thinking people;
- America is not the world, but California is closer; and
- if you keep your door closed, no one will invite you to lunch.
“Love your enemies.”
Christ, I think, is attributed with this quote. And although this is the basis for world peace, everlasting harmony, blah blah blah, to quote Lenny Kravitz: “What I really want to know is…” what if the enemy is yourself? Well, this saying still fits this ugly shoe.
There’s a wide no-man’s land between self-flagellation and self-acceptance. But you must cross it in order for it to count as progress – even if you must drag yourself across the dirt, and reach one finger over the goal line. If you forgot to make an appointment with your accountant and now have to incur a large late-tax fee, you can certainly ask your neighbor to run you over with his car twice as punishment. Or, you can wrap your arm around your own shoulder and say, “You fvcked up this time, chum. But this is you. You forget things. So how do we not have this happen again? It’s easy. Write it down. When you think of it. Somewhere where you can see it.”
If you’re the teacher, you don’t kick the student into learning. Split yourself in two and try and pick yourself up. (Now, I obviously haven’t mastered this. But at least I have become aware of this idea.)
Ambulance Ltd., Athlete, Magnet, Metric, latest Cardigans,
Graham Coxon, Sloan.
For all the work these two people have put into sharing music with me, I am eternally grateful. Repetition makes the heart grow fonder, and I just can’t get enough of these bands. Most all my Vox friends have schooled me in popular music, and to all of you: Thank you, thank you! Music is what keeps my economy afloat.
He returns with Kafka on the Shore, and thank goodness. Reading comments from other avid fans makes me enjoy his older works all over again.
2046 and Infernal Affairs.
Verbal hooked me up with these uber-cool brilliant movies. Both happen to star super actor Tony Leung. I don’t see many movies nowadays, so I’m lucky that of the few, these two were in the batch, instead of say two Lindsay Lohan movies.
This is what I've remembered so far. The good thing about lists is that you can always add to them.
