Posts Tagged ‘Suzanne Vega’

Basement Songs: “Hey, Hey, Julie!” … A Mixtape

Hey Hey JulieTwo years ago, when I was working on this column’s debut, I wrote about Bruce Springsteen’s “Book of Dreams” and what the song means to Julie and me. During the first month of our courtship I created my first mixtape for her, entitled HEY, HEY, JULIE! On that tape was the Springsteen song, one that’s grown to have profound meaning in our relationship.

We began dating in August of 1992, and soon thereafter, I threw this tape together in a flurry of inspiration, wanting to give Julie something that came from my heart. I don’t recall the actual minutes spent in my parents’ basement picking the songs or laying them down on a Maxell cassette (my brand of choice), but looking back on the list of songs, I’m happy to see they still add up to 90 quailty minutes of music.

Before Nick Hornby wonderfully wrote about what makes a good mixtape in High Fidelity, I assembled exactly the right combination of hip, well known and somewhat obscure songs from my small music collection. Combining big hits like “Learning to Fly,” “What I Am,” and “All This Time” with lesser-known songs by popular artists such as “Until the End of the World,” “Shining Star,” and “Getting to Know You,” while tossing in some hard to find (at the time) songs like “Baby Mine” and “Wild Night” made this tape eclectic, but still enjoyable to listen to and quite accessible. (more…)

Mix Six: “Turn of a Friendly Card”

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I’m a sheep at the card table, just waiting to be fleeced. I’ve got no poker face, for starters — everything comes out in the eyebrows, and in the smirk I simply cannot erase. Add in a general fogginess on the actual rules of most card games, and you can see how I’d spend a rainy afternoon getting fearsomely bluffed by a five-year old in multiple hands of I Doubt It.

But as a writer, I’m in love with the language, with the music of the games, with double down and shoot the moon, with five-card charleys and busted flushes and inside straights, with one-eyed jacks and suicide kings. There’s romance in that language, and it has run like an underground river through folk and popular song for centuries before Lady GaGa was born.

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Soundtrack Saturday: “Pretty in Pink”

I’m going to guess most of you have seen Pretty in Pink (1986), but if you haven’t, I’m sure you have a good reason — like being totally lame.

I kid, I kid. You’re not lame. (Or are you?)

Of all the movies John Hughes wrote, produced, and/or directed, this one just might be my favorite. I had wanted to see it in the theater when it was first released, but I was only eight, so that never happened. I did, however, get to watch it many times on video and cable and could probably recite every line of dialogue by the time I was 12.

Written by Hughes and directed by Howard Deutch — who also directed Hughes’s Some Kind of Wonderful (1987) and The Great Outdoors (1988) — Pretty in Pink is the story of Andie Walsh (Molly Ringwald), a high school senior “from the wrong side of the tracks” with a new-wave fashion sense, an unemployed father, and a best friend, Duckie Dale (Jon Cryer), who’s madly in love with her.

Rich preppy Blane (Andrew McCarthy) makes a visit one day to Trax, the record store where Andie works, and the two do some serious flirting. After a few more flirtatious encounters there and at school, he finally asks her out.  The two attempt to start a romance but encounter judgment and resistance from their friends, including Blane’s best friend, Steff (James Spader), who secretly likes Andie; Steff’s girlfriend, Benny (Kate Vernon); and Duckie.

Things get especially rough after Blane asks Andie to the prom, and once Steff gives him the hard sell, Blane backs out of taking her. Heartbroken, but refusing to let the “richies” get the better of her, Andie decides to go to the prom anyway — by herself. But once they’re both there, she and Blane realize they do love each other and want to be together in spite of their friends’ objections.

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Popdose Flashback: Shawn Colvin, “Steady On”

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By the time Shawn Colvin signed with Columbia Records in 1988, she was a beloved figure at folk-music clubs around the nation – and particularly on the East Coast, from the Birchmere in Alexandria, Va., to Club Passim in Cambridge. She had been kicking around the scene for years, first fronting rock bands during the ’70s and then emerging (along with her friend Suzanne Vega) as perhaps the quintessential Girls With Guitars for the ’80s. She usually (though not always) toured without a band, and she got her piercing songs across with nothing more than her emotive alto and the astounding colorations she coaxed from her acoustic instrument.

Shawn Colvin circa 1988 -- photo by Robert CorwinThe cassette Colvin sold at her gigs while she was still an unsigned artist – which she creatively titled Live Tape – had become something of a sensation, as soundboard recordings sold at folk clubs go. It showcased a fully formed artist with a trove of terrific songs, and it got passed around so much that its audience far surpassed the number of people who had actually seen her perform. (I obtained a copy of it from a friend a couple months before attending my first Colvin concert, an opening slot for k.d. lang at the Birchmere during the summer of ’88.) Her ascension to major-label status was clearly just a matter of time, and the folk community was understandably thrilled when reports surfaced that she had signed a contract and headed into the studio with her boyfriend, John Leventhal, producing.

They weren’t quite prepared for the album that would emerge in October ’89. (more…)

Mix Six: “Songs of Politics, Protest, and War”

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Like almost everyone in the U.S. for the past few months, I’ve been pelted with political calls, commercials, mailers, and e-mails from candidates, “concerned citizens,” and the like to get out and vote and support or oppose a whole host of ballot initiatives. (If you live in California, you know what I’m talking about on the ballot-initiative side of things.) But this year people are getting more creative in their use of the Internets, and I’ve been treated to Saul Williams doing a four-minute impassioned poem about his support for Obama and a one-hour DJ mix that weaves speeches by former presidents and Obama into a pretty good groove. However, politics, like life, is full of contradictions, and that’s why I wanted to do a mix that is kind of all over the place.


“America, Fuck Yeah,” Team America
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I bought this soundtrack before I saw the film and was rolling when I first heard some of the songs. To my surprise, the film wasn’t as funny as the music, so before you put your copy of Team America: Wold Police into your DVD player, take a few moments and savor the genius of “America, Fuck Yeah.” And for an added contrast, enjoy the “Bummer Remix”; after all, bombast can’t last forever. Eventually, what goes up must come down …

“America, Fuck Yeah (Bummer Remix)” (Download)

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Mix Six: “Bloody Hell”

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After hurricane Gustav, I was deluged with a few emails from the American Red Cross asking for donations (both monetary and otherwise) to help out in the relief efforts.  And yes, they were asking for blood donations – which made me start thinking of a certain Pete Townshend song.  Pete’s song dovetailed into searching for other songs that either have blood in the title or mention blood in the lyrics, and here we have today’s “Bloody Hell” mix.


“Give Blood,” Pete Townshend
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Because this is the song that started me thinking about this mix, why not put it first? I did see the film White City when it was released in ‘85, and had a tough time following the storyline, but I’ve always had a fondness for this solo album — even though it feels incomplete. It’s like Pete had these grand plans for a rather lengthy project and then scaled it back to a collection of songs that, while very good at times, seem like they were part of a larger narrative. (more…)

Mix Six: “Drums Take the Melody”

Hiya kids! This week I have a guest DJ mixin’ it up for you. Jack Feerick wrote a great Popdose Guide to Traffic and, unsatisfied with lack of music love drummers usually get, has put together an eclectic Mix Six featuring some very imaginative rhythms. Before we get started, an obligatory drummer joke:

A man walks into a shop and says to the shop assistant: “Excuse me, I’d like to buy a guitar pick, and some strings.”

The shop assistant looks uncomprehendingly at his customer, and says “Pardon?”

“I’d like a guitar pick please, and some strings.”

The shop assistant thinks on this for a while, and then turns to his customer and says “You’re a drummer, aren’t you?”

“Yeah! How did you know, man?”

“This is a fish and chip shop.”

And now, on with the show! Take it away, Jack.

–Py Korry

DOWNLOAD THE FULL MIX HERE

I’ve played with a lot of drummers, and they’ve all had a drum key — but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one actually using it. Good tuning, though, can turn a well-played drum part into not just a hook, but a melodic hook. To wit, here are six tunes where the drums sing.

A note: I’m disqualifying Phil Collins from this list, because (a) everybody hates Phil Collins, and (b) despite his considerable flaws as a songwriter, personality, and human being, he is an absolute ace at making the drums sing. And, truth be told, his hateful earworms would utterly dominate this list if steps are not taken to prevent it. I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise I will be completely successful.

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