Posts by Danielle
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Yay. I love 'Got to Give it Up': it's not only a song which makes you dance, it's *about* getting up and dancing and getting over your shyness. It's meta, man.
And while I'm trying to humiliate myself... I own a copy (and not the first) of the Xanadu soundtrack.
Is this where I come out of the closet as an ELO fan?
(And holy 70s explosion, look at this Olivia Newton-John/ABBA/Andy Gibb medley clip!
It has 'Please Mister Please' *and* 'I Just Want to Be Your Everything' in one handy package! All I need is ON-J singing 'A Little More Love' and my life would be complete...)
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Oh, I missed Levon Helm back there! Bless. The Band's version of 'Long Black Veil' is my favourite.
damn straight. that's one of the few songs that get this guy up on the dance floor.
That song is just a never-fail, isn't it? It's *all hooks*. There isn't one part of it that isn't catchy and awesome!
(I was going to post a link to Q-Tip's 'Vivrant Thing', because 'Groove is in the Heart' features Q-Tip, and 'Vivrant Thing' also has an irresistible groove, so I always get reminded of it. But then I rewatched the video and it proves that I am a terrible feminist because it has so much slo-mo booty in it. This also goes for, um, just about every big dumb mainstream hiphop song I like from the last decade. Oh, ODB's 'Got Your Money', how can I love you so much when you are so wrong?)
Here's an awful-yet-also-fantastic minor hit that I have loved since childhood: ex-Monkee Michael Nesmith's 'Cruisin' (Lucy and Ramona and Sunset Sam)'. Nice rollerskates and hot pants, ladies!
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And the only country song ever sung that I've liked. All the rest should be killed with flamethrowers.
This statement is completely wrong. But that's OK. :) Oldschool country, in particular, rules because:
1) It's disturbing. The Louvin Brothers' 'Knoxville Girl' (audio only, but listen to those close harmonies, and the lyrics. Magnificently bleak and horrifying - based on an English murder ballad):
2) The outfits are delightful. Dolly Parton (an underrated songwriter, and I don't care what anyone says) in the early years with Porter Wagoner (the nudie suits! the frock! the fiddle! the harmonies!):
3) Drama and campiness. There's nothing more ridiculously overwroughtly tragic than country music. Listen at George Jones, before the ride-on lawnmower years:
4) Nuttiness and the charm of 'the other'. Country fandom gives you a greater variety of weird and wondrous shit to marvel at. Behold June Carter, cute as a button, square-dancing like she's on amphetamines! See genius Hank Williams doing 'Hey Good Lookin'' in what is possibly The Ultimate Musical Suit!
And slide guitar? Kicks ass.
5) Cross-pollination. In the 70s, country became even more awesome because all the bands were obsessed with being 'groovy'. Listen to the bass and horns on this clip of Tony Joe White doing 'Polk Salad Annie' with Johnny Cash (who appears to be dressed as Hudson from Upstairs Downstairs):
And I didn't even get to Loretta Lynn...
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You might not need to imagine in the not so distant future.
Yikes. Yes. I wonder if I could get my dogs to pull along some kind of charabanc?
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What is it with Kiwis and highway lanes?
My American husband has a theory that New Zealanders are, in general, so laid-back and easygoing in their daily lives that the pent-up aggression has to come out somewhere, and that place is on the roads. The amount of dickery when travelling at high speeds is just unconscionable. I mean, I *do* live in west Auckland, but someone looking daggers at me for 'only' travelling 5kms above the legal speed limit? Is nuts.
My theory: imagine how long your trip would take you if you were in a horse and cart, and chillax.
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She's not saying she *agrees with infanticide*, for goodness' sake.
But since Deborah has poked her head in, I'd love to get a feminist perspective on abortion being used to get rid of 'useless' and unwanted girls.
What are we other feminists in here, chopped liver? ;)
If you're functioning within a society in which women are consistently undervalued, then individual actions like sex-selection abortions do, as B says, end up having a societal cost - and a bias. If you change the 'value' of women, you change the abortion patterns. Easier said than done, of course.
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Ann Peebles [audio]
That song is just insanely good. Anyone only familiar with the Paul Young remake (shudder) owes it to themselves to hear it. Everything about it - vocals, arrangements, horns, strings - is perfect. And those little chimes... sigh.
I went to visit the Hi Records building in Memphis. It was unprepossessing from the outside. Judge, book, cover, etc.
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'I Feel Love'
Fucking. A. That is mightily magnificent.
I'd like to share with all of you one of the most terrifyingly perky dance routines ever put on film, from Nancy Sinatra's TV special Movin' With Nancy (sponsored by RC Cola!). The madness starts at approximately one minute fifty-seven seconds, for those with little patience.
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Now wait just a goddamned minute: 'Don't Dream It's Over' is a beautifully written song. It is. You can't let the overplayed MORness of it all blind you to its greatness. Plus Mitchell Froom ripped off the final organ figure from Elvis Costello's 'I'll Wear It Proudly', so even its stealing is awesome.
That being said, Bennett is my hero for today. I have been utterly obsessed with Aretha's 'Rock Steady' for the last few months, and to have it playing over a clip of Soul Train? Bliss. Complete bliss.
(Later, I will be defending disco. And the Philly Sound. Righto then.)
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Don't worry Grant, we have arranged for a Physic to visit and let some of your overheated blood. He may employ mercury as an emmetic.
I agree, Peter: one of Grant's humours is awry. Perhaps a course of leeches? Or a pilgrimage to an appropriate relic?
Last night, I read a sobering NYT article by a doctor who used to care for women after their botched illegal abortions. Did someone link to it earlier? Anyway. Never again.