Archive for Music - page 7

Here is your feel good story of the day: Entire ISIS Bomb Making Class Blown up by Instructor’s Mistake.  Apparently the Bomb-Teacher had a class of 21 students who suddenly found themselves burning in hell when their instruction took a wrong turn.

Instructor: “So you see our bomb is complete.  To detonate simply turn this swi…BOOM!

Students: “……..”

That’s some Instant Karma right there.

Hat Tip: Ace of Spades HQ

Cross Posted at Men Out of Work Blog

From 1955, “The Great Pretender” by The Platters.  According to wikipedia this song was the namesake for The Pretenders.  Now you know.

In keeping with today’s pretend theme, I will pretend that you would like to know about and hear a few songs from The Pretenders.  The group was formed in London during the late 1970s, though Chrissie Hynde was from Akron, Ohio.  The band has gone through several personnel changes but Hynde has been the constant.  They enjoyed a fair amount of success through the 70s and 80s, into the 90s.  They are still together as of 2012.

The first song in our lineup still receives a ton of airplay on classic rock stations today.  It’s from the very beginning of the 1980s, January 1980 to be exact.  Title:  “Brass in Pocket”

Gonna use my my my ‘magination alright.  OK, next song was their biggest hit in the US, staying at #5 on the charts for three weeks in 1982: “Back on the Chain Gang”

Alrighty then.  The next song is the “B” side to the previous song.  Most people probably couldn’t tell you the title, they just know it as “The Rush Limbaugh Song”.  The actual title is “My City Was Gone”:

I’ll forego the usual three song format so I can add a fourth, their final song to chart in the US.  This song reached #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1990.  The ballad: “I’ll Stand By You”

I’ll will stand by you.  Indeed.  Hope you enjoyed The Pretenders.  Have a great Friday!

Today a man said something:  Obama says ‘After 9-11 we tortured some folks’

Welcome to another edition of Music Friday.  I’m your host, Kasey Kasem.  Jumping of on a tangent from last Music Friday, today we will foray into the New Wave Movement of  the late 1970s and early 1980s.  New Wave Music was an evolution of Punk Rock, tweaked ever so slightly to give it some mainstream appeal and therefore chance of commercial viability.  If you are about my age and have ever listened to a radio, you have probably heard these songs, which I chose to highlight the fact that New Wave did what it set out to do, which was reach an audience.

First up, English group The Fixx.  This song, “One Thing Leads To Another”, is their most successful recording, having reached #4 on the US Billboard Top 100 in 1983:

Loved it.  OK, next here is a band from Scotland called Big Country.  This song, “In a Big Country” was popular at the same time as the previous song, as it reached #17 on the US Billboard Top 100 the same year. Give a listen:

Sounds Scottish, no?  Apparently those are not bagpipes you hear, but heavily engineered electric guitar.  Interesting.  Moving on to our final stop, we have the English group Tears For Fears.  They had many commercial successes, this song being one of them.  “Head Over Heels” reached #3 on the US Billboard Top 100 in 1985:

There you have just a little taste of the late 70s and early 80s.  Have a favorite that I overlooked?  Leave it in the comments.  I take requests!

What is it all about?

“If the highest aim of a captain were to preserve his ship, he would keep it in port forever” – Thomas Aquinas

Today I present to you three songs that all contain references to astronomy in their titles.  Coincidence?  I think…yes.  I see no other corelation, other than the fact that I know and like very well all three songs.  Minimum commentary today, I will include a wikipedia link for each artist if you wish to learn more.  Away we go!

First up is a song from the “New Wave” era of the early 80s’ by an Australian group called The Church

Next is a song by a British artist named Tasmin Archer.  This song was quite popular and received a lot of radio airplay in 1992

The final song is by an artist you may actually have heard of – Bob Seger

I hope you enjoyed the little trip through the cosmos.  If you have any favorite songs with an astonomical reference in them or in the title, leave them in the comments!

Word Crimes is “Weird Al” Yankovic’s latest single.  Even if  “Weird Al” is not your thing, you should watch this – it’s good.  And I don’t just say that as a confessed language snob.

Hell, I probably commit many of those crimes here on a daily basis.  Fortunately for me it seems more like a civil matter rather than criminal.  So sue me!  Or don’t.  By the way the “scare quotes” around “Weird Al”?  Those belong there, apparently that’s the correct spelling.  So – no crime committed!

Well, not 100% Soul Train, but close.  I saw The Spinners perform last night, and it was an excellent show I must say.  Let me back up a little – The Spinners were an R&B group that started in the 1950’s, but had their greatest sucess in the 70’s.  To be honest, the group I saw last night was more of a clone, since there is only one surviving member of the original group.  However, they performed all the group’s hit songs faithfully, and they are all excellent showmen in their own right.  I will try to post some video later if I can figure out how to do it, meanwhile you’ll have to be content with these YouTube videos of the original group.  Most of these are from the 1970s TV show Soul Train, hence the title of this post.  The Soul Train performances were really just lip synching, but I imagine a live performance over the TV using 1970s technology would sound terrible, so at least the songs sound OK.  The show we saw last night was performed 100% LIVE, no lip synching, and it was terriffic.  OK, on to the music.

The Spinners had little success in the 1960s, though they did have steady work under MoTown management.  This song was written for them by Stevie Wonder, charted at #14 that year and got the ball rolling for them:

The group switched record labels in 1972 and released the next song on Atlantic Records and it was their first top 10 single.  Ironically, it was a “B” side:

The next song was the folow up single in 1973 and cemented the band’s reputation:

This song charted for the group in 1980:

I think it’s fair to say that the 1970s were definitely the best of times for The Spinners.  But the music lives on, and is being performed faithfully by a new generation, a well deserved legacy for five guys from Detroit.

In case you’re new here, welcome!  And here are a few ins and outs of how my blog operates.  First off, I’m Mike, the sole proprietor.  Pleased to meet you.  This blog is my peronal communication platform, and posts here reflect only my personal opinions.  I claim no expertise in anything.  In other words, if I write about Law, do not use that as legal advice.  If I write about medicine, do not take that as medical advice.  Get the picture?  OK, good.  Since there is no “official” theme to this blog, you will find posts about many different subjects here which may (or may not) fall loosely into one of several “categories” which you will find listed in the right hand sidebar just under the “recent posts”.  If you want the unfiltered blog, that is to see all posts regardless of category, simply start at the top and keep scrolling down.  Newest posts are at the top, and as you scroll down you go back in time.  If you wish to view only posts in a certain category, then find the category you want in the sidebar and click on it.  Voila!  Only posts in that category will be displayed.  Also in the sidebar are listed “popular posts” and “recent posts”.  Popular posts are those most viewed – not neccessarily the best, but most viewed.  For whatever reason.  And recent posts are just that…the most recent posts.  At any time you can click on the “home” button at the top right to bring you back to the top of the front page.

Within each post I will embed links for additional information – whenever you see red text like this you can click on it, and it will open the link in a new tab.  Try it.  Back? OK, good.  Many of the graphics such as pictures, graphs or cartoons may be enlarged simply by clicking on them.  Some of these graphics are mine, others are not. Embedded youTube videos can bel viewed by clicking on the “play” arrow at the bottom left or in the center of the YouTube frame.  Easy.

Finally – comments.  To the left of the post title, under the red date box you will see a grey box that says “comments” with a number in it (usually a zero, unfortunately).  If you wish to leave a comment on a post, click on that box and a dialogue box will appear – type your comment and click “submit”.  If you don’t want to enter your e-mail adress just use a fake one.  I do not work for the NSA.  Comments can be simple – “I like this” or “you are an idiot”.  My favorite one so far is “ha ha ha this”.  I guess he thought the post was funny.  I think that’s about it.  If you have any other questions, leave them in the comments.  Enjoy.