tonygoodson

Definitive Cover Versions of songs

Wanna burn a few hours?  Then read this What are your definitive cover versions? by Alan McGee (founder of Creation Records (Oasis etc)), and then in a separate Tab on your browser, check out some of the recommended songs from the 300+ comments, on YouTube.  Hours of fun and nostalgia.

My favourite one from the comments, bizarrely is Candi Staton singing Stand By Your Man, with an amazing bass hook.

The thing about cover versions is you may know the original song, so it gives you a chance to compare with the original and hear how the song is constructed (or deconstructed!).

So what are my favourite covers?  Mmmm, need to think.  Off the top of my head….

La Vie en Rose – Grace Jones

Perfect Day – Various (with Lou Reed)

Over the Rainbow – Eva Cassidy

My Way – Sid  Vicious

Stand by Me – John Lennon

Hi Ho Silver Lining - Slade

I have a dream - Snookeroo

I woke up this morning humming a tune.  Snookeroo by Ringo Starr, off his Goodnight Vienna album, and the song was written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin.  Why that song?  I haven't heard it in over 15 years!

But it did take me on one of those deep YouTube Magical Mystery tours, which in this case had Ringo Starr and George Harrison as the main attractions.  Check out the cast list on this 1987 Prince's Trust With a Little Help from My Friends

And then on to George Harrison with this version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps, looks like the same 1987 concert, check out the 80s jackets and the all star cast.

But what I found after this, is the George Harrison Tribute Concert in 2002, 1 year after he died.  Some amazing clips and if you want to be spooked out, check out the young George Harrison playing in their midst!      That song had me in tears.  You know, Joe Brown is a deeper connection to my childhood than the Beatles because I think there was limited access to The Beatles on TV than say Joe Brown, who is like your older Bruvva, even then when you're a kid!  Go have a look at the other songs from the concert. 

I love this Billy Preston, My Sweet Lord.

And a few people crop up in these clips. Ray Cooper for followers of Elton John, the weird percussionist with the tambourine!  Mark King from Level 42 and his slap base style, from the '87 clip, and Jeff Lynne (ELO) seems to cut across a lot of musicians, he seems such a nice, modest and talented guy, who George Harrison asked to produce his posthumous album.

You want funny, and touching, and irreverent, then check out Jeff Lynne and George Harrison's son Dhani, who produced George Harrison's album after he died.

Music Reality Check

And having just done a business reality check, it's nice to do a music reality check.  There's a difference between what music is "Cool" and what actually sells!  You'd think the record companies would try selling more of what sells, and encouraging those artists (if still alive!) to make more good music!!

Go check it out. List of Best Selling Music Artists.  Who do you think has sold the most records?   You can probably get most of the Top 5.  But what about the next 13 artists?  Mind you, I wonder how accurate the list is if Chubby Checker is in it!!

And add in the Best Selling Album and Best Selling Singles (which is amazingly UK centric)

One thing I have noticed is that nearly all of the artists record melodic simple music.  You'd think we could have more of that please!

What prompted me to have a look, was a YouTube surf today.  My first vinyl albums were Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over Trouble Water.  And then I progressed(!) to two artists who definitely weren't cool at the time.....Cat Stevens, and Linda Ronstadt.  But if you look at where they sit on the all time selling list, they're well up there.  And both Cat Stevens' and Linda Ronstadt's performances are mostly stunning on the YouTube clips.  We've been badly let down by mainstream media who didn't show much of their performances at the time.

And an underrated album to add to the collection.

Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down the Wind. 

Eurovision - I've sacked Elton John

In my last post, I talked of my dream team of Elton John and Jim Steinman,r composing a Eurovision Song.  Well Elton John is sacked!  He's already written a Song for Europe!
To my amazement, he'd written one of the songs for Lulu in '69, and it came last....to Boom-Bang-a-Bang!
And here it is, with a Sandie Shaw version, followed by the Lulu version!!

Dream On

A spoof on the recent YouTube videos of "Photos every day for a year".
The guy and genre reminds me of one of my favourite sitcoms, the cult, Dream On.
Martin Tupper!

Welcome to Myspace

How good is the editing and design on this video.  Amazing.  Good lyrics as well!

Easy Bike Tricks

I was out on the bike today, but funnily enough none of this happened to me! (via All Men Are Liars  blog)

Google buys YouTube

Google buys YouTube.  This is a disaster.  YouTube works on a number of fronts.  Putting up home-made or amateur clips, no problem.  But what many of us use YouTube for is to watch old clips of TV, Music, and Film.  These are mostly licenced media and putting them on YouTube breaks copyright.
No-one sued, because there was no money in it, and you wouldn't want to be seen as the company that closed YouTube.

Now, it's a different game.  Most corporates won't want to fight Google, but someone will, perhaps backed by a rival search-engine company.
What does it mean for us the end-user? 
Less clips that we want, more crap that we don't want.

I am amazed that the Google share price has been driven up. 
Surely there is great risk in buying YouTube.

Improv and The Meaning of Life

Psssst!  Wanna know the meaning of life and the secret to human nature?
Then read this book, Improvisation and The Theatre. (Just read a few reviews and they'll confirm what I'm saying).
It not just  about Impro and the theatre.  It's about life, order, learning, what's attractive in people, how we play out in life.  It's the worst book cover I've ever seen, but it's a great book.
The book is a great pointer to why some people are compelling on camera, and in real life for that matter.  It's all a game.

I've just started Improv again with ImproMelbourne and Patti Stiles, attending a Narrative Class.
Great fun, working out how to build stories in real time.  And of course all the other bits of Improv.

And if you want to burn an evening up, go search "Whose Line is it Anyway" on YouTube!

I Wanna Hold Your Hand

There's an article in The Age today, You Too Can Be a Star, about the phenomena of bedroom popstars miming on webcams to well known songs.
Good to see that all the old favourites are there, Barbie Girl-Lynne and Tessa and BackDorm Boys, but also a bit disappointing because it means there's not much new coming through.
I like this one, I Wanna Hold Your Hand.
And it begs the question what makes a good webcam (or video) mime.
You can clearly see that the BackDorm Boys,  Lynne and Tessa from Barbie Girl, all have something in common, but what is it?  Partly, they can mime, know the words, and the nuances of the song, but there's something else isn't there?

It's fun to search on YouTube for a single song, and check out some of the versions.  Try "Barbie Girl" as a search on YouTube and see what it throws up.
This version is very very weird, Barbie Girl - Lazytown.

My kids who are nearly 3 and 5, love the YouTube experience of say, Barbie Girl, and they don't/can't distinguish too much between visual versions of the audio.  Similarly, they get used to the visual, and you can play any old crap synched to a recognisable visual.  What the hell am I going on about?
Well check this out, The Wiggles visual synched with Gangsta!!  Jay who is aged 2 loves it, because he thinks it's Toot Toot Chugga Chugga Big Red Car. 
What kind of parent am I!!